Mother of 5-year-old Kamarie Holland faces human trafficking charge along with murder
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
Kamarie Holland's mother Kristy Siple, also known as Kristy Hoskins, was arrested Dec. 28, 2021. She's charged with sex trafficking along with 3 counts of felony murder based on rape, sodomy and first-degree kidnapping, authorities said Wednesday.
Arrested Tuesday in Columbus, the mother of slain 5-year-old Kamarie Holland now is charged with sex trafficking along with three counts of felony murder based on rape, sodomy and first-degree kidnapping, authorities said Wednesday. Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor said Kristy Siple, 35, also known as Kristy Hoskins, had a hearing before Judge Walter Gray on Wednesday morning, and was ordered held without bond.
U.S. Marshals tracked Siple down and arrested her around 1 p.m. Tuesday at a Circle K store on Victory Drive in Columbus, Taylor said. She waived extradition to face charges in Russell County.
The warrant for Siple’s sex trafficking charge alleges she “did agree with another person to pay her for having sexual intercourse and sodomy with her minor child.”
Taylor said Siple faces an unrelated charge of failing to appear for a court hearing. That dates back to a 2018 charge of chemical endangerment of a child, alleging her newborn baby tested positive for methamphetamine, the sheriff said. That child was not Kamarie.
Siple reported Kamarie missing Dec. 13 from her home at 1607 Bowman Street in Columbus. Kamarie’s body was found that night in a vacant house on 15th Avenue in Phenix City, Taylor said. The girl had been sexually assaulted and asphyxiated.
U.S. Marshals tracked Siple down and arrested her around 1 p.m. Tuesday at a Circle K store on Victory Drive in Columbus, Taylor said. She waived extradition to face charges in Russell County.
The warrant for Siple’s sex trafficking charge alleges she “did agree with another person to pay her for having sexual intercourse and sodomy with her minor child.”
Taylor said Siple faces an unrelated charge of failing to appear for a court hearing. That dates back to a 2018 charge of chemical endangerment of a child, alleging her newborn baby tested positive for methamphetamine, the sheriff said. That child was not Kamarie.
Siple reported Kamarie missing Dec. 13 from her home at 1607 Bowman Street in Columbus. Kamarie’s body was found that night in a vacant house on 15th Avenue in Phenix City, Taylor said. The girl had been sexually assaulted and asphyxiated.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT JEREMY WILLIAMS
Investigators captured the first suspect in Kamarie’s homicide, Jeremy Tremaine Williams, that same night at Phenix City’s Bamboo Motel, 3104 Opelika Road. Williams used to live in the house where Kamarie’s body was found, Taylor said.
Williams, 37, is charged with capital murder, but more charges are expected to bring his allegations in line with the mother’s, said Taylor and Russell County Chief Assistant District Attorney Rick Chancey.
Taylor said Williams likely will be charged with additional counts of capital murder based on kidnapping, rape and sodomy. Williams also will be charged with producing child pornography, he said.
Chancey said that when additional charges are filed against Williams, he will be brought back to court for another hearing.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
In Williams’ first hearing before Judge David Johnson on Dec. 14, the judge issued a gag order that prohibits authorities’ discussing details of the investigation. Taylor said Judge Gray used the same verbiage in a gag order on Siple’s case, restricting what he could tell reporters Wednesday.
Chancey said the next step in the case, after Williams’ next hearing on new charges, will be a preliminary hearing for both suspects, when investigators expect to reveal more of that they know in court.
After that, the evidence will go to a grand jury for indictment, and then to a trial, he said.
Chancey called Kamarie’s homicide “a case that tugs at everyone’s heart strings,” and urged parents to keep an eye on their children and the company they keep.
Also present at a news conference Wednesday were Columbus Police Chief Freddie Blackmon and Deputy Police Chief Joyce Dent-Fitzpatrick, who reiterated Chancey’s advice about children. Columbus police and the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office are working with Russell County on the investigation.
Chancey said this may be the first human trafficking case to go to trial in Russell County. “That statute is not very old,” he said.
THE FIRST REPORT
According to a Columbus police report, an officer dispatched to Siple’s Bowman St. home met with her around 6:45 a.m. Dec. 13. Identifying the mother as Kristy Hoskins, the officer wrote that she reported Kamarie “slept with her in bed and woke her up” at 3 a.m.
When the mother awoke again at 6 a.m., Kamarie was gone, she told police: “Miss Hoskins stated that she searched the house, but could not find her, so she called police. Miss Hoskins then stated that she lives at the home alone, but gets visitation ... allowed by the father Corey Holland.”
