Lawyer: Casey Parsons in hospital for medical issue, hearing...

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. — A hearing that was scheduled for Thursday morning to determine if the parents of a missing Rowan County teen would lose all rights to two of their children has been continued.

ARTICLE: Jury convicts Sandy Parsons for embezzlement, mail fraud

Casey and Sandy Parsons were supposed to face a judge in juvenile court Thursday morning in Salisbury, but Casey's lawyer told Channel 9 that she was at Baptist Hospital dealing with a medical issue and the hearing had to be continued.

Special Section: Erica Parsons Case

An attorney for the Department of Social Services was expected to ask the judge to permanently revoke all custody rights to the couple's two youngest children.

The Parsons have been seeing the children each week during supervised visits since they were removed from the Parsons' home last year.

In October, Sandy Parsons was found guilty of 43 counts of federal fraud, conspiracy and identity theft.

Prosecutors said Sandy and his wife Casey Parsons used their adopted daughter's name and social security number to steal thousands of dollars in state and federal benefits, even though she was no longer living with them.

Casey Parsons pleaded guilty to more than a dozen crimes.

They will be sentenced nearly a week apart in February.

The couple's adopted daughter, Erica Parsons, disappeared in November 2011 but no one reported her missing until last year.

The Parsons said they thought she was living with a grandmother in Asheville.

Investigators said that grandmother doesn't exist.

Prosecutors were not allowed to bring up her disappearance during the federal court cases.