Anthony Holland Jr., West Monroe, Louisiana man arrested in murder and dismembering of Sheryl M. Turner, New Iberia woman who had agreed to meet man after text romance.
A Louisiana man was arrested on Wednesday for murdering and dismembering a woman who had agreed to meet with him after fostering an online romance with her would be killer.
Sheryl M. Turner, 19, and Anthony Holland Jr., 29, had ‘engaged in a romantic relationship over text message’ before Turner fled her home in New Iberia, Louisiana, to meet who she believed to be a budding new love interest.
Turner left her New Iberia home on December 31 only for her family to become concerned after receiving ‘disturbing’ information form one of Turner’s friends.
Victim packed and left home without telling anyone where she was going
Turner’s twin sister Sherry said the last time she spoke to her was before she ‘packed up and left without telling anybody where she was going.’
Notice of the missing teen came on January 24 when a boater navigating the Ouachita River came across the ‘dismembered’ torso of the missing 19 year old, the Catahoula Parish Sheriff’s Office previously stated.
DNA testing confirmed that the body belonged to the missing 19-year-old, the Kansas City Star reported.
It wasn’t until 3 months later, on April 23 that Holland who authorities believed was connected to the woman’s initial disappearance and subsequent murder and dismembering was arrested and booked on a second-degree murder charge, according to a release by the Catahoula Parish Sheriff’s Department.
The arrest came after investigators searched Holland’s West Monroe home and found ‘forensic evidence of a crime of violence,’ according to police.
Holland confessed to the killing, admitting that he killed Turner at his home and dismembered her body before dumping her remains in the river, police said.
Victim remembered
Noted an arrest affidavit cited by KATC: ‘Holland told investigators that he started a relationship with Turner online, and after he brought her to his home, he killed her during a sex act. After realizing she was dead, he dismembered her body, but it in bags and dumped the bags in a tributary of the Ouachita River, along with the knives he used and all her possessions that she had with her.’
Turner’s twin sister, who was vocal about her sister’s disappearance and the aftermath of her discovery, said ‘I’ll never understand why someone could do that to a person’ on February 25.
The sibling wished her twin a happy birthday on April 12. She would have turned 20. ‘Until we meet again love you forever and always,’ Sherry wrote.
When Holland’s arrest was announced – Sherry said that justice had been served.
In Turner’s obituary, family described her as ‘a shining light to all who knew her, with a kind and loving personality that radiated through her beautiful smile and touched the hearts of those around her.’
