Pregnant Woman Set to Give Birth Was Beheaded Weeks Before Due Date, Ex Sentenced for Murder

An Illinois man has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for the 2022 murder and decapitation of a pregnant suburban St. Louis woman.

Deundrea Holloway was sentenced last Friday, Jan. 17, for first-degree murder in the killing of Liese Dodd and the intentional homicide of her unborn child, the Madison County State’s Attorney said according to The Alton Telegraph, First Alert 4, and EdGlen Today news.

Holloway, 25, pleaded guilty last month to the charges, according to First Alert 4.

Holloway killed Dodd, 22, at her apartment on June 9, 2022, according to the outlet, and decapitated her afterwards, leaving her head in a nearby dumpster.

“On that night I received a life sentence,” Dodd’s mother Heidi Noel reportedly said at the sentencing hearing last week, according to First Alert 4. “To live the remainder of my life without my beautiful, loving, sassy daughter. A life without knowing the joy of watching Liese raise my granddaughter.”

Dodd was eight months pregnant at the time of the murder, according to the outlet. The child was not Holloway’s, who had an “on-and-off relationship” with Dodd, the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office said in a news release Monday.

Dodd’s mother “became concerned after she couldn’t get ahold of Dodd” the night of her killing and later found her daughter’s decapitated body after going to her apartment to check on her, according to the state’s attorney’s office.

“She was just a bright light that cared for everyone,” Noel, Dodd’s mother, told First Alert 4 back in 2022, remembering her daughter as someone who “had a big heart.”

“She’d do anything for anyone,” the mother said. “She’d go out of her way to help people.”

A GoFundMe for Dodd’s family has raised nearly $16,000 since her murder.

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Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine said at a press conference following Holloway’s sentencing that he hopes the courtroom result will grant the Dodd family some closure following their daughter’s killing.

“For the family and loved ones of Liese, these types of issues have caused continued angst and uncertainty. The guilty conviction ends that,” Haine said in a statement. “Our hope is that this conviction and sentence provide the family and loved ones some assurance and will be a step towards healing.”

Haine said Holloway’s guilty plea last month “spared” the Dodd family “additional trauma” that would come with a murder trial. “My heart goes out to the family, whose strength, courage and resiliency during this process have been truly remarkable,” the state’s attorney said.