DEUNDREA Holloway’s mother begged him to end his toxic relationship with ex-girlfriend Liese Dodd before he allegedly decapitated the pregnant 22-year-old, The Sun has been told.
Holloway’s stepfather, Chris Hawk, spoke exclusively with The Sun about the warning signs in the relationship before it came to a grim end.
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Hawk recalls multiple instances where Holloway had violent tendencies towards his mother, Carla, and sister, Latrece, threatening to kill them in a text message.
“They had to get a restraining order on him,” said Hawk, adding that Holloway’s mother let the order expire because she thought he was getting better.
However, Hawk recalled another moment where Holloway, 22, was “in one of his moments” where he got into an argument with his mother over his relationship with Liese Dodd.
“I never met them or anything, but I know that Carla was kind of saying ‘you guys need to split up,’ it was a very toxic thing.
“But he didn’t want to hear it.”
Holloway had struggled for at least three to four years with severe mental issues, including hearing “dark voices” – one of which he named “Ruth” – Hawk said.
“He started talking to himself acting weird and rocking back and forth on the couch,” Hawk said.
The stepfather recounted one instance when Holloway was having one of the strange episodes in the living room.
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“And he kept saying, ‘No, no shut up, Ruth. No,'” Hawk said.
The suspected killer was being very loud during one of his “moments,” which caused Holloway’s mother to raise her voice to break through his yelling and tell him Ruth isn’t real.
‘BEYOND REPREHENSIBLE’
Holloway was arrested on suspicion of murder after Dodd’s remains were found in her Alton, Illinois, home on June 9, 2022.
The woman’s head was found in a dumpster outside her apartment, court documents obtained by the St Louis Dispatch revealed.
Dodd, who was eight months pregnant, was due to give birth in July and her family was planning her baby shower which was due to take place this month.
Her family said the baby would have been her first child.
Dodd’s mom Heidi Noel told KMOV: “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.'”
Alton Police Chief Marcos Pulido told reporters that Noel went to check on her when she found her remains.
He said she was “savagely killed,” adding it was “beyond reprehensible.”
Pulido said: “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.”
Holloway and Dodd dated on and off for about two years, said police.
H has been charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and intentional homicide of an unborn child.
He’s also been charged with the dismemberment of a human body, concealment of homicide death, and motor vehicle offenses.
Madison County State Attorney Thomas Haine said: “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.”
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