On the night of 12 December 2021, five-year-old Kamarie Holland was staying at the Columbus, Georgia, home of her mother, Kristy Siple. Court proceedings later established that Siple had agreed to give Jeremy Williams access to her daughter in exchange for money. By the following night, Kamarie had been found dead, while Siple had told police that she had simply awakened to discover her daughter missing.
Read the memorial entry connected to this case, with focus on the child behind the story.
A concise overview of Kamarie Holland's case as it was publicly known in 2022. It predates the 2024 pleas, convictions and sentences, as well as the 2026 execution order; this article supplies those later developments.
Nearly five years later, Williams is scheduled to be executed by the State of Alabama on 13 August 2026. He chose to waive nearly all of the appeals available to him and asked the courts to move his case forward rather than follow the decades-long path common in capital cases.
Williams entered guilty pleas to capital murder and related offences in March 2024. Because Alabama law still required the state to prove the capital charges to a jury, a trial followed. The jury convicted him on four counts of capital murder in April 2024, and Circuit Judge David Johnson imposed four death sentences. Siple pleaded guilty separately to first-degree human trafficking. The murder and kidnapping charges against her were dropped as part of her plea agreement, and she is serving a twenty-year sentence.
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| Kamarie Holland, photographed before her death in 2021. |
Who Kamarie Holland Was
Kamarie La'Nell Holland was born on 23 November 2016 in Columbus, Georgia. She lived in Phenix City, Alabama, with her father, Corey Holland Sr., who had custody of her, and her younger brother, Corey II. She was visiting her mother in Columbus when she was reported missing.
Her obituary described a child who was almost always smiling and loved talking, singing, dancing and recording videos. She had started preschool only a few months earlier and loved school, learning and being around other children. Her father called her intelligent and full of love, and remembered how carefully she looked after her younger brother.
To her family, she was Princess Kamarie. A private celebration of her life was held on 22 December 2021 at Taylor Funeral Home, followed by her burial at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Phenix City.
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| Mourners release doves at Kamarie’s funeral, held in Phenix City in December 2021. |
A Missing Persons Report That Was a Lie
On the morning of 13 December 2021, Siple called police to report that Kamarie was missing. She said she had awakened at around 5:50 a.m., found the front door open and discovered that her daughter was gone.
Two days later, while donating Kamarie's toys during a local television station's holiday drive, Siple repeated her denial publicly. “I'm a mommy,” she told WTVM. “I did not have nothing to do with this.”
The account concealed her own role. In March 2024, Siple admitted in court that she had agreed to exchange access to her five-year-old daughter for money. Courtroom reporting placed the initially discussed amount at $2,500. Other trial reporting said Williams countered with $1,300 and later claimed that no payment was actually made. Whatever money changed hands, Siple's guilty plea established the trafficking agreement itself.
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| Kamarie with her mother, Kristy Siple, in a photo aired by WTVM. |
What Happened
According to the evidence presented in court, Williams took Kamarie across the state line to a vacant house on 15th Avenue in Phenix City, a property where he had once lived. Prosecutors proved that he kidnapped and sexually assaulted her before killing her by ligature strangulation. Recordings recovered from his phone became central evidence in the case.
The autopsy also found methamphetamine and amphetamine in Kamarie's blood. Police located her body at the vacant house later on 13 December, within hours of the missing-person report. The Russell County coroner pronounced her dead at 11:15 p.m.
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| Jeremy Williams, booking photo following his December 2021 arrest. |
A History That Should Have Raised Alarms
Police focused on Williams quickly, in part because he had previously lived in the house where Kamarie was found. Investigators then uncovered a broader history of allegations involving children.
Authorities in Alaska had examined the unexplained 2005 death of Williams' infant daughter, although he was not charged in that case. He had also faced an earlier child-abuse prosecution in Alabama and was acquitted in 2012. The proceedings surrounding Kamarie's death included separate offences involving another child, to which Williams also entered guilty pleas.
Siple likewise had a separate record involving child welfare. When she pleaded guilty in Kamarie's case, WTVM reported that she was also facing chemical-endangerment charges in another matter. Those allegations were separate from the trafficking conviction and should not be treated as convictions unless established by their own court record.
Two Guilty Pleas, Two Very Different Outcomes
Williams was arrested immediately after Kamarie's body was found. Siple was arrested on 28 December 2021, after investigators established her role. Both eventually entered guilty pleas, but the charges and consequences were very different.
On 13 March 2024, Siple pleaded guilty to first-degree human trafficking. Under the agreement, the murder and kidnapping charges she originally faced were dropped, and she agreed to testify if called. In July, she was sentenced to twenty years in the Alabama Department of Corrections, with credit for time served, as well as a $10,000 fine and other costs. She must register as a sex offender.
Williams entered a blind guilty plea that same day, meaning prosecutors offered him no sentencing agreement. Alabama law required a jury to determine whether the state had proved the capital charges beyond a reasonable doubt. On 12 April 2024, the jury convicted him of four counts of capital murder: killing a child under fourteen, and murder committed during kidnapping, rape and first-degree sodomy. On 15 April, Judge Johnson imposed a death sentence for each capital count, together with additional prison sentences for the related offences.
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| Jeremy Tremaine Williams is escorted by sheriff’s deputies during court proceedings in the Kamarie Holland case. |
An Execution Nobody Expected So Soon
Capital cases in Alabama commonly remain under appeal for many years. WTVM reported in June 2026 that the state had 154 people on death row, some of whom had been awaiting execution for almost three decades. Williams chose a different course. He dismissed his attorneys, said he understood the rights he was surrendering and asked to waive every appeal except the review required by law. After questioning him, a judge found him competent to make that decision.
On 27 March 2026, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed all four capital-murder convictions and the death sentences during the mandatory review. The Alabama Supreme Court authorized the execution on 16 June, and Governor Kay Ivey set a thirty-hour window beginning at 12:00 a.m. on 13 August and ending at 6:00 a.m. on 14 August 2026. If the execution proceeds, just over two years will have passed between sentencing and execution.
Kamarie, Remembered
At Williams' sentencing, members of Kamarie's family described the future that had been taken from her. Her grandmother's message asked what kind of “demonic creature” could have done this to a child. The anger was understandable, but it was not the only thing the family wanted the public to remember.
Their memories were of a five-year-old who sang and danced, loved preschool, watched over her little brother and introduced herself as a princess. Whatever happens in Alabama on 13 August, Kamarie Holland should be remembered for the life she lived, not only for the evidence later described in a courtroom.
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| A memorial garden flag for ‘Princess Kamarie La’Nell Holland,’ left at a tribute site. |
Explore the archive profile connected to this case.
Taylor Funeral Home: Princess Kamarie La'Nell Holland obituary
Law&Crime: Siple and Williams indicted in Kamarie Holland's case
WTVM: Siple and Williams enter guilty pleas
Associated Press: Jeremy Williams receives four death sentences