North Carolina Couple Accused Of Murdering Woman Who Refused Threesome With Them

A couple in North Carolina allegedly kidnapped and killed a woman with a rare genetic condition that affects her cognitive abilities after she refused to participate in a threesome with them, authorities claim.

Police in Charlotte alleged that on March 28, 2020, Kelly Lavery, 24, and Lavi Pham, 23, arranged an Uber for Mary Santina Collins, who once briefly dated Pham, to come to an apartment where the couple lived.

“She thought she was going to hang out with friends, and they took her whole life away,” Collins’ aunt, Kara Williams, told WCNC.

Citing prosecutors, The Charlotte Observer reported text messages Lavery and Pham exchanged allegedly showed they intended to kill Collins because she had previously rebuffed the couple’s request for a sexual tryst.

Collins was born with 22q deletion syndrome. Also known as DiGeorge syndrome, those with the rare genetic condition may exhibit medical symptoms that can include heart defects and poor immune system function, among others, as well as delayed development with behavioral and emotional problems, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“She actually really had the mentality of a 14-, 15-year-old, and she had a severe speech impediment” that made daily tasks difficult, Williams told WCNC of her “loving and silly” niece.

“She was just such a sweet person that she expected everybody was like that, and so she was very vulnerable and very easily manipulated,” Williams said.

Collins’ grandmother, Mia Alderman, later explained in court her granddaughter was also vulnerable because “she was so self-conscious about herself” and “she wanted friends.”

Prosecutors alleged Lavery and Pham drugged Collins with Xanax in her drink and then put her in the bathtub, where they cut and stabbed her. An autopsy determined Collins suffered over 133 stab wounds during the attack, according to officials.

Police believe a third man, the couple’s friend James “Jimmy” Salerno, 22, was present during the murder, and prosecutors alleged phone records place him in the apartment within the timeframe of Collins’ slaying, The Charlotte Observer reported.

After the deadly stabbing, police contend Salerno called America Diehl, a then-18-year-old woman he had met on the dating app Tinder, and asked her to help him clean up the bloody crime scene, according to WCNC.

Search warrants obtained by the station show Salerno, Diehl, Lavery, and Pham allegedly attempted to mask the odor from Collins’ body with Cascade dish detergent and pumpkin spice shower gel. They then, police claimed, used Saran Wrap and duct tape to wrap the body, which they allegedly hid inside a mattress.

“They tortured her and let her bleed to death and die and put her in the mattress and were hoping to dispose of the mattress with her body in there,” claimed Collins’ aunt, Williams.

On March 31, 2020, a day after family reported Collins missing, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police detective went to Lavery and Pham’s apartment, but the couple denied knowing anything about Collins’ whereabouts.

Police issued a missing persons bulletin on April 3, 2020, and Collins' loved ones continued their own search. The following day, police searched the apartment where Collins was last believed to have gone before she disappeared and they found her body inside the mattress.

Over two years later, in June 2022, Lavery pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, kidnapping and concealment of a body, according to The Charlotte Observer.

A judge sentenced her to 240 to 300 months behind bars on the murder and kidnapping charges and an additional 60 to 84 months on the concealment charge, the publication reported.

Lavery’s boyfriend, Pham, has pleaded not guilty to the same charges and is awaiting trial.

Salerno, the friend accused of helping the couple, has also pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, concealing a death, and kidnapping. He was previously being held without bond since his arrest nearly three years ago, but on Jan. 13, 2023, a judge set Salerno’s bond at $250,000. In June 2023, he was released on bond.

“They bled her out in a bathtub like an animal in a slaughterhouse,” Collin’s grandmother, Alderman, told the court at Salerno’s bond hearing. “What he has done ... is possibly one of the most depraved cases Charlotte has seen.”

Salerno’s acquaintance, Diehl, was charged with accessory after the fact and concealing a death, and she was released on a $100,000 bond, The Charlotte Observer reported.

The victim’s mother, Kasei Del Pezzo, told the outlet after Lavery’s arraignment that it was “painful to think that somebody would be so brutal and torturous to somebody who had a disability and was so sweet and loving.”

She added, “There’s no way to wrap my mind around it to make any sense.”

Collins' family now tries to help others through Mary’s Voice, an advocacy group they started that aims to be a voice for the voiceless and works to improve public safety for those with disabilities.