DeUndreá S. Holloway Jr., 22, was being held on $2 million bail in the deaths last week of Liese Dodd and her unborn baby, police said.
A 22-year-old Illinois woman who was nearly eight-months pregnant was decapitated by her ex-boyfriend, who threw her head into a dumpster, police said.
The headless body of Liese Dodd was found by her mother, who had gone to her daughter's apartment after not being able to reach her by phone, authorities said.
Police later found Dodd's head in a dumpster outside her home, police said.
“What was observed, what was learned, what was found, is absolutely terrible,” said Alton Police Chief Marcos Pulido in an emotional video posted to social media. “She was decapitated by a freaking savage monster.”
Pulido called Dodd's killing "beyond reprehensible."
"It's abominable," he said. "It is completely terrible what happened to her."
DeUndreá S. Holloway Jr., 22, was being held on $2 million bail in the deaths last week of Liese Dodd and her unborn female baby, authorities said.
He is charged with two counts of murder, two counts of intentional homicide of an unborn child, dismembering a human body, concealing a homicidal death and possession of a stolen vehicle, police said.
Holloway and Dodd had an "on-and-off dating relationship" for the past two years, the police chief said.
The young woman was due to give birth on July 27 and and her family had been planning a baby shower for later this month, according to her online baby registry. Her gift list included a pink princess crib sheet.
Holloway's family said he has experienced severe mental health problems including hearing voices, and that they were unsuccessful in trying to get him help.
"He has three voices who speak to him. One is Ruth, and that one is bad,” Holloway’s stepfather, Christopher J. Hawk, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Thursday. “She tells him who he can and can’t trust. She tells him bad things.”
Hawk posted a nine-minute video on YouTube offering his family's condolences to the victim's relatives.
“I cannot imagine what you must be going through,” Hawk told the Dodd family in the video. “I’m not going to deny that what happened was an extreme act of evil. It was. I don’t know how else to explain it. It was an act of evil.
“Over here, we are ashamed. His mom, his sister. We’re all shocked. We knew he was capable of violence but we never saw this," Hawk said.
Holloway's mother, Carla Hawk, told the paper she had tried for years to institutionalize her son.
“We have been trying to get him help for years, but have been denied because the system says we can’t force a person of (adult) age to get help,” she said.
A GoFundMe account has been established to help Dodd's family with funeral costs.
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