The search for a missing 23-year-old Alabama woman has ended in tragedy, with her family and friends finding her dead on Saturday as a man was charged with abuse of a corpse.
Karen Deann Hollis vanished from the the Georgetown Apartments in Northport on May 8, after her sister Brandy contacted authorities after she became concerned when she didn’t hear from her, WIAT reports.
‘I have not felt good,’ Brandy said as authorities continued to search for her sister last week.
‘I haven’t eaten, I haven’t been able to sleep. I haven’t been able to do anything, because I’m worried about her safety.’
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency issued a missing persons alert, saying Hollis was believed to be living with a condition that could impair her judgment.
Northport police later determined that foul play may have been involved and brought in the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit to assist in the investigation, which led them to name 44-year-old Randall Lendell Dejourney as a person of interest in the case, according to WBRC.
Then on Saturday, Hollis’s friends and family members decided to scour an area in Greene County that authorities determined to be of interest based on information received from an electronic device – where they found her remains.
Dejourney was then promptly taken into custody and charged with abuse of a corpse.
Karen Deann Hollis, 23, was found dead on Saturday after going missing on May 8
Randall Lendell Dejourney, 44, has been charged with abuse of a corpse
‘The investigation has been a priority for both agencies,’ Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Captain Jack Kennedy said of the unit and Northport police.
‘Multiple search warrants were executed and a great deal of physical, witness and electronic information was obtained.’
Hollis’s boyfriend, Zackary Slaughter, has previously said he was half an hour away at home when she went missing.
He said they were exchanging text messages in the hours leading up to her disappearance.
‘The last thing she texted me was saying she was going to the store to get a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup,’ Slaughter recounted.
‘She texted me at 11pm saying she didn’t feel good. I tried calling her at 4 that morning when I woke up and then at 5am, detectives were knocking on my door.’
He said the police were questioning him about Hollis’s disappearance at the time, as he was previously ordered by a bail bondsman not to contact Hollis over a prior domestic violence charge.
But, Slaughter said, the two reconciled and go back together.
Karen’s sister, Brandy, said she began to worry when she did not contact her heading into the weekend
He then said police should instead be looking into the man he said gave Hollis a ride to the store, whom he said was a neighbor at the apartment complex.
It is unclear whether Dejourney is that neighbor.
But he has been booked into Tuscaloosa County Jail with bond set at $15,000, as Hollis’s remains are sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for an autopsy to determine the case and manner of death.
The investigation is now ongoing, with authorities saying Dejourney may face more charges pending the results of the autopsy.
In the meantime, Hollis’s family has been left reeling from the devastating news.
‘My heart is hurting,’ her sister, Brandy Hollis, posted on Facebook as she shared an online fundraiser for her sister’s funeral.
She wrote that the two sisters had plans to go fishing, and asked her sister’s spirit to ‘Please tell our brother that I miss ‘n’ love him.’
Brandy and Karen spoke regularly, and it was Brandy who first worried something may be wrong when she didn’t hear from her sister going into the weekend, WIAT reports.
‘I have not felt good,’ she said last week. ‘I haven’t eaten, I haven’t been able to sleep. I haven’t been able to do anything, because I’m worried about her safety.’
Slaughter also previously told WIAT he ‘never thought I’d be the guy that just lost somebody.’
‘To know that I should have been there, like I could have been there, I was one phone call away, and she never got the opportunity, and I wasn’t there,’ he said.
