The family of a mentally ill Illinois man who killed his pregnant ex-girlfriend claims he is not a monster and was motivated to kill by “severe paranoia.”
Liese Dodd, who was eight months pregnant with her first child, was slain by Deundrea Holloway, 22, last week.
Her decapitated head was discovered in a garbage outside her Illinois apartment complex.
Deundrea’s family does not believe he is the father of the unborn kid Liese was carrying, thus it’s unclear when the couple split up.
He has been charged with murder and is currently incarcerated.
Chris Hawk, his stepfather, said the family was “ashamed” of what he had done in a YouTube video posted last week, but argued he was not a “monster.”
He claimed that they had tried for three years to get him mental health care, but that nothing had been done because he hadn’t committed a crime.
‘I’m not going to deny that what occurred was a heinous crime… We’re embarrassed. His mother and sister. We’re all taken aback.
‘We knew he could be violent, but we’d never seen anything like this.’ We tried for at least three years to get him help. We were constantly told that they couldn’t hold him in long-term mental care until he did something.
‘Now he’s being held because he did something,’ says the narrator.
‘Our system fails people with mental illnesses,’ Hawk continued. People are left to their own devices. It’s a horrible circumstance.’
He then turned his camera to photographs of Deundrea as a high school football player, who appeared to be having a good time.
‘This is Dee, the Dee we knew.’ There is a person present. He is not a monster, but his actions were heinous. He did something awful, yet he isn’t a monster.
‘Everyone was out to get him,’ he thought to himself. ‘Even his own family,’ he said.
Carla, his mother, had pleaded with him to end his relationship with Liese, he previously told The Sun.
‘Carla was suggesting something along the lines of “you guys need to part up.” ‘It was a highly poisonous situation,’ he explained.
Her beheaded skull was discovered in a bin outside the building in a ‘abominable’ murder, according to authorities.
Dodd was described by her relatives as a ‘bright light who cared for everyone,’ and she dubbed her unborn child’my little bean.’
Two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of deliberate homicide of an unborn child, dismembering a human body, motor vehicle violations, and concealment of a homicide death have been filed against the suspect.
Holloway is being held on a $2 million bond in jail.
Dodd had recently moved to Alton after growing up and attending school in Jerseyville, Illinois.
Because of the ‘nature’ of Dodd’s relationship with Holloway, Noel said she would check in with her daughter every day. She decided to check on her when she hadn’t responded in a while.
Noel ‘looked so shattered’ after seeing her daughter’s body, according to a neighbor who spoke to local news site 5 On Your Side.
‘She turned around and looked at my boyfriend and me as we stood in the doorway, and she stated, ‘He [expletive] killed her,” the neighbor recalled.
‘I have a 3-year-old daughter, and I could not picture somebody putting their hands on her in any way, or having to find my kid like that,’ Dodd’s next-door neighbor April Wooten said.
‘I’m also praying for her mother and her family, hoping that one day they might find some peace.’
Noel expressed her relief at learning that Holloway had been charged.
‘I’m delighted he’s off the streets, and my biggest wish is that he won’t be able to harm anyone else,’ she said.
Noel paid tribute to her daughter by describing her as having a “beautiful grin.”
Noel continued, ‘She was such a beautiful light who cared about everyone.’ ‘She had a large heart,’ she said. She’d go to great lengths for anyone. She would go out of her way to assist others.’
In an emotional video, Alton Police Chief Marcos Pulido described Dodd’s murder as “abominable,” adding that she was “decapitated by a crazy terrible monster.”
‘This daughter, this soon-to-be mother, and her family were in the midst of preparing a baby shower for the end of June,’ he continued.
‘Instead, because of what a monster did, the family is arranging a funeral.’ Irreprehensible. What a vicious creature had done to her.
‘Her mother had to endure something that no one should ever have to endure. To begin with, no parent should ever be forced to bury their child.
‘However, her mother had not heard from her in a while and wanted to go check on her to see if she was okay, and she was found in an unimaginable condition.’
The suspect was taken to the Macoupin County Jail, where he was later identified by the Alton Police Department as a person wanted for interrogation.
‘We believe the evidence will prove that the defendant’s horrible conduct here murdered both a young woman and the child she carried in her womb,’ said Madison County State Attorney Thomas Haine.
‘Both of these killings are equal in the eyes of the law, and he will now face justice for both.’
Dodd’s family is being prayed for by his neighbors, according to KMOV.
A memorial for Noel’s daughter is being planned by some of her classmates.
‘I appreciate the support, and I just wish she’d realized how much she was loved,’ Noel added. ‘That she would never have been alone,’ says the author, ‘and that she might have gotten out of this situation and lived a full life.’