One Of The Youngest Girls On Death Row Buried Her Victims Alive

In July 2005, a 22-year-old woman named Tiffany Cole stood by and watched as two people who had loved her like a daughter were buried alive in a pre-dug grave in rural Georgia. Reggie and Carol Sumner, a married couple in their late 50s who had given Tiffany a car, let her stay in their home, and treated her as family, died hugging each other at the bottom of a six-foot hole. Tiffany Cole would become one of the youngest women ever sentenced to death row in America.

The Unlikely Bond

Tiffany Cole's childhood was marked by instability. Born in 1981 to a 16-year-old mother and an incarcerated father, she was bounced between homes and used as a free babysitter for her younger siblings. Her stepfather was violently abusive—she once witnessed him throw a puppy against a wall so hard it broke the puppy's neck. At 16, Tiffany claimed her biological father began sexually assaulting her. When her mother didn't believe her, she ran away from home.

But when her father was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Tiffany moved back in to care for him. It was during this time that Reggie and Carol Sumner, the neighbors next door, noticed this young girl putting her life on hold for a dying parent. They didn't know about the abuse, but they saw something noble in her and took her in as their own.