[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
A pregnant woman in southern Illinois was found beheaded, and her ex-boyfriend has been arrested for her murder in a case that has shocked the region.
Liese Dodd (pictured above, inset) was preparing for her baby shower along with excited family members ahead of her July due date when she went missing earlier this month. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the 22-year-old woman’s dead body was found in her home in the city of Alton by her mother, and her head was located “in a dumpster outside her apartment” last Thursday. Unimaginable…
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After the grisly discovery, police in the riverside town arrested her ex-boyfriend, Deundrea Holloway. According to court documents, the 22-year-old man (pictured in the mugshot, above) has since been charged with first-degree murder and homicide of an unborn child. The paper reports he was also charged with dismemberment of a human body, concealment of a homicide, and several motor vehicle offenses after reportedly being arrested in the nearby city of Gillespie.
According to KMOV, Dodd and Holloway “had been in a tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship” for around two years before splitting recently. Dodd’s mother, Heidi Noel, told the local TV news outlet that Holloway was not the father of the deceased woman’s unborn child. Still, the tense relationship prompted the concerned mom to consistently check in on her now-deceased daughter.
Noel explained to the outlet:
“Because of the nature of the relationship, I made contact with her every day to check-in, so there was quite a time span that she hadn’t responded to me. So, that’s what prompted me to go check on her.”
So awful…
The chief of the Alton PD, Marcos Pulido, spoke out in a video released by the department this week about the pregnant woman being “savagely killed.” The angered chief called the awful crime “beyond reprehensible,” and added:
“This daughter, this mother-to-be, and her family were in the planning stages of a baby shower that was supposed to be at the end of June but now instead the family is planning a funeral because of what a monster did.”
Madison County State’s Attorney Thomas Haine added more about the beginnings of the legal battle in this case:
“We believe the evidence will show that the defendant’s gruesome actions here killed both a young woman and the child she carried in her womb. In the eyes of the law, both these killings are equal and he will now face justice for both.”
Now, Holloway is being held in jail on a $2 million bond pending his next court hearing. In the meantime, Dodd’s family is left to deal with the unimaginable — burying their daughter and her unborn child instead of preparing for what would have been a July addition to the family.
Noel told KMOV about going from such a high of pregnancy to the lowest of lows with her daughter’s death:
“We were just excited and gathering the items you need to have a baby. She wasn’t set on a name yet. [She] said ‘my little bean.’ So, we essentially were calling the baby ‘baby bean.’ … It’s not something I wish on anybody.”
Just a crushing story all around. Here is more on the tragic killing and the investigation (below):
We send our condolences to Dodd’s family, friends, and loved ones.
R.I.P.
[Image via KMOV St. Louis/YouTube/Gillespie PD/Alton PD/Facebook]
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