Liese Dodd and the timeline behind door four
An apartment camera caught three moments on the night of June 8, 2022. Between them, a young woman weeks from giving birth was killed.
- When
- June 8 to 9, 2022
- Where
- Bolivar Street, Alton, Illinois
- Status
- Convicted
Content note domestic violence, murder of a pregnant woman, violence described in text. No graphic images.
In brief
Liese Dodd, 22, was eight months pregnant when she was killed in her upstairs apartment on Bolivar Street in Alton, Illinois, on the night of June 8, 2022. Surveillance video showed her entering the building with her on-and-off boyfriend, Deundrea Holloway, at 9:11 p.m., and Holloway leaving alone with a white laundry basket at 11:57 p.m. Her mother found her body the next morning. Holloway pleaded guilty and was sentenced in January 2025 to 60 years in prison.
Turning pointSurveillance video placed Holloway walking out of the building alone at 11:57 p.m. with a white laundry basket, which was later found in a dumpster nearby.
- Victim
- Liese Anne Dodd, 22, eight months pregnant with a daughter
- Offender
- Deundrea Holloway, her on-and-off boyfriend, convicted by guilty plea
- Where
- Apartment 4, Bolivar Street, Alton, Illinois
- When
- Night of June 8, 2022; found the morning of June 9
- Key evidence
- Building surveillance video and a laundry basket recovered from a nearby dumpster
- Sentence
- 60 years, handed down January 17, 2025, in Madison County
Timeline
May 2022
Liese and Deundrea Holloway move into an upstairs apartment, number 4, on Bolivar Street in Alton.
June 7, 2022
Holloway leaves without saying anything. Liese texts her mother that she is afraid he is gone for good.
June 8, 2022
Liese contacts his family and the landlord, learns he left with an uncle, and brings him back from the uncle's home.
June 8, 20229:11 p.m.
Building surveillance records Liese and Holloway entering together. It is the last time she is seen alive.
June 8, 2022About 9:45 p.m.
The downstairs neighbor hears muffled yelling, then screams, then four or five heavy thuds. Then silence.
June 8, 202211:57 p.m.
Surveillance records Holloway leaving alone with a white laundry basket, which he puts in a dumpster nearby.
June 9, 2022About 2:30 a.m.
Holloway arrives at his mother's home. He showers, changes, cuts off his dreadlocks, puts a for-sale sign in Liese's car and hands over her keys, ID and debit card.
June 9, 2022Morning
Unable to reach her daughter, Heidi Noel goes to the apartment and finds Liese dead in the bedroom. She runs out and calls 911.
June 9, 2022
Construction workers near the building find the laundry basket in the dumpster. Holloway is detained the same day by police in Gillespie on an unrelated charge.
June 13, 2022
Holloway is charged with first-degree murder, intentional homicide of an unborn child, dismembering a body, concealment of a homicidal death and vehicle offenses. Bond is set at $2 million.
2022 to 2024
He is initially found unfit to stand trial and sent for treatment, and is later ruled fit.
January 17, 2025
Having pleaded guilty, Holloway is sentenced in Madison County Circuit Court in Edwardsville to 60 years in prison.
The full story
What happened
Liese Dodd was 22 and eight months pregnant in June 2022. She had grown up around Alton and Jerseyville in southwest Illinois, worked at a Dairy Queen and a pancake house, and was close to her mother, Heidi Noel, who was planning her baby shower for the end of the month. The baby was a girl, due in late July.
For about two years Liese had been in an on-and-off relationship with Deundrea Holloway, who was also 22. According to reporting on the case, it had been violent before. In May 2022 the couple moved into an upstairs apartment, number 4, on Bolivar Street in Alton.
On June 7, Holloway walked out without a word. Liese told her mother she was scared he was gone for good. The next day she tracked him to an uncle’s home and brought him back.
At 9:11 that night, a camera at the building recorded the two of them walking in together. It was the last time anyone saw Liese alive.
Around 9:45, the neighbor downstairs heard muffled yelling through the ceiling, then screaming, then four or five heavy thuds. The neighbor later compared the sound to someone chopping wood. After that, nothing.
At 11:57, the camera recorded Holloway leaving alone, carrying a white laundry basket. He dropped it in a dumpster nearby and walked away.
The morning after
At about 2:30 a.m. Holloway turned up at his mother’s house. There he showered, changed his clothes and cut off his dreadlocks. He put a for-sale sign in the window of Liese’s car and handed over her keys, her ID and her debit card.
Heidi Noel spent the morning trying to reach her daughter. When she couldn’t, she drove to the apartment, went upstairs and opened the door to number 4. She found Liese on the bedroom floor. Her body had been dismembered. Heidi ran outside and called 911.
Construction workers near the building found the laundry basket in the dumpster. It held bloody clothing, a serrated knife and Liese’s missing remains.
The arrest, the plea and the sentence
The same day, police in Gillespie, Illinois, detained Holloway on an unrelated marijuana charge. He was transferred to Alton police and asked for a lawyer. On June 13, 2022, he was charged with first-degree murder, intentional homicide of an unborn child, dismembering a body, concealment of a homicidal death and vehicle offenses, and held on $2 million bond.
He was first found unfit to stand trial and sent for mental-health treatment. After he was ruled fit, he pleaded guilty. There was no trial. On January 17, 2025, a Madison County judge in Edwardsville sentenced him to 60 years in prison, reported as 30 years for murder, 20 for the homicide of the unborn child and 10 for concealment.
His family said they had known he was capable of violence and had tried to get him help. Liese’s family was left with the invitations that had already gone out.
What the video couldn't include
The baby shower was already planned
Liese's daughter was due in late July. Her mother, Heidi Noel, had mailed the shower invitations for a party at the end of June. The family called the baby Baby Bean because Liese had not picked a name.
Who Liese was
She grew up in the area, graduated from Jersey Community High School in 2017, and worked at a Dairy Queen and at Nick's Pancake House in Jerseyville. For her tenth birthday she asked for donations to a local animal shelter.
There were warning signs
According to reporting on the case, Liese was hospitalized in July 2021 with a broken nose and two black eyes, and in September 2021 she went to stay with her mother. A manager at her job reported seeing Holloway punch her. She went back to him both times.
Her mother's words were caught on camera
When officers arrived that morning, their body cameras recorded Heidi Noel begging them to find what was missing from her daughter's body.
He was picked up on something else
Police in Gillespie, Illinois, detained Holloway on June 9 on an unrelated marijuana charge. He was transferred to Alton police, declined to answer questions and asked for a lawyer.
His family had been worried
Holloway's relatives said they knew he was capable of violence and had tried to get him mental-health care. They said the system failed.
The video and the record
The episode tells this case in about 3 minutes with illustrated recreations. Here is how its key moments line up with what is documented.
They entered the building at exactly 9:11 p.m.
Documented
Time taken from the building's surveillance video, as reported.
Four or five heavy impacts, like someone chopping wood
Documented
The downstairs neighbor's description, as reported. The time is approximate.
Showered, changed, cut off his dreadlocks, put a FOR SALE sign in her car
Documented
Accounts from his family and the case record, as reported.
Please find her head. They did.
Compressed
The plea was captured on body camera. The basket was found in the dumpster by construction workers near the building, not directly by the officers she spoke to.
Stepping into apartment number four, the bedroom, the mother at the door
Reconstruction
Illustrated recreations. The video shows no crime-scene imagery, and no real photographs are used.
What the four marks mean
- Documented
- Shown as it is recorded in court filings, police statements, or consistent reporting.
- Reconstruction
- A reasonable visual recreation of a documented event. The event happened; the image is illustrative.
- Compressed
- Real events shortened, merged, or reordered to fit the runtime.
- Dramatized
- A storytelling choice (framing, wording, emphasis) that the record does not establish.
Sources
- [1]ABC7 Chicago / KSDK“Illinois man accused of decapitating 8-months pregnant ex-girlfriend, police say”Charges, neighbor interviews and the police chief's statement.
- [2]The Telegraph (Alton)“Alton man gets 60 years for decapitation murder of pregnant woman”
- [3]KSDKSentencing coverage
- [4]Advantage News“Holloway sentenced to 60 years in beheading”
- [5]PeopleSentencing coverage
- [6]FOX 2 St. LouisPlea deal coverage
- [7]The Midwest Crime Files“The Unthinkable: The Murder of Liese Dodd”Long-form case writeup; the production research used it as its timeline source. Cross-check details against court reporting.
SourcedFacts in this file come from the reporting listed above. Some details are still waiting on primary records. Last reviewed September 12, 2026. How we check cases
