TUSCALOOSA COUNTY, AL - A man in his forties has been arrested and charged after authorities discovered the body of a 23-year-old woman who had been missing for more than a week.
The victim's family said she had been involved in a car crash and then disappeared. The alleged suspect, 44-year-old Randall Lendell Dejourney, is accused of abuse of a corpse in connection with the death of Karen Hollis, the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office (TCSO) said in a press release.
Additional charges could be filed pending the results of an autopsy that will determine the cause and manner of death. Deputies said Hollis' family found her remains Saturday afternoon, May 16, while "searching an area identified through recovered electronic evidence."
Hollis was reported missing to the Northport Police Department on May 8, according to Law & Crime. "Early in the investigation, evidence suggested that foul play may have been involved," police said.
Authorities have been keeping the details of the disappearance on the down low, but Hollis' family said that her Life360 app recorded her leaving her Northport apartment in a car at 4:25 a.m. on the day she disappeared. Her phone showed she went south through downtown and ended up on Interstate 20. The app reportedly noted "hard braking" at 4:42 a.m.
Hollis' boyfriend Zachary Slaughter said her neighbor was giving her a rude to the store when the "hard braking" occurred. It is unclear whether Dejourney is the neighbor.
Slaughter said he had been texting Hollis 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 said.
Police have executed multiple search warrants during the investigation and have "gathered extensive physical, witness and electronic evidence," the press release said. Police identified Dejourney as a "person of interest" last week and took him into custody after the discovery of Hollis' remains on Saturday.
Dejourney was booked into the Tuscaloosa County Jail on a $15,000 cash bond. The investigation remains ongoing.
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