WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT Jeremy Tremaine Williams, convicted of the rape and murder of 5-year-old Kamarie Holland, is scheduled for execution on 13 August after the child was sold to him by her own mother
An Alabama man is set to be executed after he raped and murdered a 5-year-old girl who was sold to him by her own mother.
Two weeks before Christmas in 2021, Jeremy Tremaine Williams, then 37, was arrested for the murder of Kamarie Holland. The child’s mother, Kristy Siple, informed police that she woke up in the morning and couldn’t locate her daughter in her bed. Every available officer at the Columbus Police Department in Georgia joined the search. However, the effort concluded in tragedy after Kamarie’s battered and strangled body was discovered dumped outside an abandoned house in Phenix City, Alabama.
In a chilling twist, it emerged that Kamarie’s own mother had asked Williams to pay her $2,500 in exchange for raping her daughter, but they reduced the payment to $1,300 after some negotiations – Williams never paid Siple the reduced amount. Five years on, Williams is due to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday, August 13.
Jane Edenfield, a sergeant at the Columbus Police Department’s property crimes unit who participated in the search for Kamarie, hopes the execution will bring some closure. Siple is serving a 20-year prison sentence after admitting to the human sex trafficking of her daughter, but Edenfield believes “she should probably be right there next to” [Williams], reports the Mirror US.
“It’s just sickening,” the sergeant told USA Today.
On 13 December 2021, Williams abducted Kamarie from her home in Columbus City, Georgia, after agreeing to pay Siple to abuse the child, police said. It’s believed Siple wanted the cash for drugs.
Authorities say Williams subjected Kamarie to horrific torture, including forcing the child to smoke meth, filming himself raping her, strangling her, and continuing to sexually assault her after she had died. Police arrested Williams before they discovered what had happened to Kamarie, but he refused to speak.
The entire department worked tirelessly to locate the child, praying she was still alive. Edenfield and another property crime detective, Braden Dobbins, questioned people who knew Williams.
“One person made a chilling statement that haunted them for years. If something happened to that little girl, she’s going to be at this house in Phenix City,” Edenfield recalled someone telling Dobbins.
The property was owned by Williams’ family, but had been deserted. However, the house was in another jurisdiction and seemed like a long shot, but Dobbins persuaded Edenfield to pursue the tip.
“Braden looked at me, and he says, ‘Sarge, I tell ya, if you seen the look on this lady’s face,'” Edenfield said. “Everyone else was tied up. His heart felt it, and me knowing and trusting in him, the two of us said, ‘Let’s go.'”
Hoping that Kamarie was still alive, the pair rushed to the home, only to find the child discarded in an outdoor cellar. Her body was propped against a wall in such a manner that Edenfield initially thought she was a doll.. Edenfield confessed that the image of Kamarie’s body will forever haunt her. “For a long time it just ate Braden and I up,” she said. “Could we have done more? Could we have gotten there sooner?
The assistant district attorney told me that by the time we got to the house she had already passed but it’s still in your mind. You ‘What if?’ yourself to death.”
During his 2024 trial, Williams instructed his lawyers to offer no defense for him, according to Edenfield. When he was sentenced to death, the murderer commanded his legal team not to appeal.. However, Williams has never shown remorse for his actions or provided an explanation for the crime, Edenfield stated. “His words were that he was just sick, and that’s it,” she said “He didn’t elaborate.”.
Jurors convicted Williams of murder, sodomy, sexual abuse of a child, production of obscene material involving a child, human trafficking, and abuse of a corpse. If the execution proceeds, he will be the first inmate executed in Alabama this year and the 22nd in the U.S.