Jeremy Tremaine Williams has been executed by lethal injection after being convicted of the rape and murder of five-year-old Kamarie Holland, who was sold to him by her own mother Kristy Siple
An Alabama man has been executed after he raped and murdered a five-year-old who was sold to him by her own mother.
Just two weeks before Christmas in 2021, Jeremy Tremaine Williams, then aged 37, was arrested for the murder of Kamarie Holland. The child’s mother, Kristy Siple, alerted police that she woke up in the morning and couldn’t find her daughter in her bed.
Every available officer at the Columbus Police Department in Georgia joined the search. However, the effort ended in heartbreak after Kamarie’s beaten and strangled body was found discarded outside an abandoned house in Phenix City, Alabama.
In a horrifying twist, it transpired 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 (£960) after some negotiations – Williams never paid Siple the reduced amount.
Five years on, Williams, now 41, was executed by lethal injection today (Thursday) at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.
Speaking after the execution was carried out, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said: “Justice has been served. In addition to molesting and murdering five-year-old Kamarie Holland in 2021, Williams confessed to a series of violent crimes against children. He killed his infant daughter in Alaska, raped at least two other small children, and sexually abused his young cousin.
“At his own request, his execution was set and carried out. This is one of the most atrocious crimes we have seen against an innocent child. This lack of humanity is hard to comprehend.
“For her entire life, little Kamarie was exploited by the people around her who were supposed to keep her safe. First, by a father who refused to follow a court order keeping Kamarie and her brother away from their mother, then by a mother who sold her innocent child, and then by Williams, who assaulted and murdered her.
“At trial, the court wrote that Williams’s actions ‘were so shockingly evil in everything that you did that there’s nothing that I can order to give you what you truly deserve.’
“My office will always stand for victims and fight to ensure that the perpetrators who commit the most violent crimes in Alabama are punished to the maximum extent of the law. It is my sincere hope tonight that survivors of Williams’s crimes know that he can never hurt them, or another innocent child, again.”
Jane Edenfield, a sergeant at the Columbus Police Department’s property crimes unit who took part in the search for Kamarie, hopes the execution will bring some closure.
Siple is serving a 20-year prison sentence after confessing to the human sex trafficking of her daughter, but Edenfield believes “she should probably be right there next to” [Williams]. “It’s just sickening,” the sergeant told USA Today.
On December 13, 2021, Williams kidnapped 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 money 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 remained silent.
The entire department worked relentlessly to find 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 remembered someone telling Dobbins.
The property was owned by Williams’ family, but had been abandoned. However, the house was in another jurisdiction and seemed like a long shot, but Dobbins convinced Edenfield to follow the lead.
“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 duo raced to the property, only to discover the child dumped in an outdoor cellar. Her body was positioned against a wall in such a way that Edenfield initially believed she was a doll.
Edenfield admitted that the sight of Kamarie’s body will eternally torment 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 directed his lawyers to offer no defence for him, according to Edenfield. When he was sentenced to death, the killer ordered his legal team not to appeal. However, Williams never displayed remorse for his actions or offered 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 found Williams guilty of murder, sodomy, sexual abuse of a child, production of obscene material involving a child, human trafficking, and abuse of a corpse.
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