Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Missing Woman's Body Found Hidden in Bag

Episode Date: May 19, 2026

When 23-year-old Karen Deann Hollis vanished from Northport, Alabama after sending a late-night text message, her family made a gruesome discovery eight days later. Police have arrested a suspect, Randall Lendell Dejourney, but the current charge against him isn't murder, leaving investigators searching for answers as they await crucial autopsy results. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy breaks down the critical electronic evidence and what lies ahead for this ongoing investigation in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Will Svilar https://www.youtube.com/@BigCityDanCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A young woman vanishes after a late-night text message and days later. Family friends make a gruesome discovery. Now a man is behind bars, but here's the twist. He isn't charged with murder. And police say this case is far from over. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and this is crime fix. Eight painstaking days. That's how long a young woman was missing before friends of her family found her.

Not police, not search dogs. her own family's friends. According to police, Karen Deanne Hollis vanished from Northport, Alabama in the middle of the night, and now a man is sitting in jail. But here's what we don't know. What actually happened to her? And how is this guy even connected to her? Those are the questions that keep this case from making any sense at this point, because the charge against him, it's not murder. It's something else entirely. But according to the Tuscaloosa violent crimes unit, this investigation, it's still ongoing. And they say additional charges could be filed or even upgraded. And we've got the details to go over that could impact this investigation.

Her last text message. We've got what her boyfriend says happened. And most importantly, how Karen's body was found. I'll tell you about the key electronic evidence that led them to that discovery. But let's back up because this one, it's a lot. This is Karen Hollis. This is Karen Hollis. she was 23 years old, blue eyes, blonde hair, five feet six, about 100 pounds. According to the Alabama law enforcement agency, she was last seen May 8th around midnight in Northport, Alabama. That's about 60 miles from Birmingham. Now here's something police release that matters. They say Hollis had a medical condition, one that could impair her judgment. So when she didn't come home, her family quickly became worried. Her sister was the one who reported her missing telling local media, quote,

I have not felt good. I haven't eaten. I haven't been able to sleep. I haven't been able to do anything because I'm worried about her safety. According to the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit, evidence early on suggested foul play may have been involved. So the violent crimes unit teamed up with Northport Police. During the investigation, authorities say they executed multiple search warrants and they gathered physical evidence, witness information, and what they call, quote, electronic evidence. A person of interest was identified, but at that point, Karen had not been located, so they had a suspect, but no body. Now, during all of this, we've learned more about what happened leading up to Karen's disappearance. Her boyfriend, Zachary Slaughter, told CBS 42 that

Karen actually texted him around 11 p.m. and said she was going to the store to get a Reese's peanut butter cup and that she didn't feel good. And that's the last thing. He says she ever texted him. Zachary told CBS 42 he tried to call Karen at 4 in the morning when he woke up, but she didn't answer. Then at 5 a.m. detectives were knocking on his door. Slaughter told the New York Post that cops showed up and considered him a suspect. He also told CBS 42 that a bail bondsman had instructed him not to contact Karen Hollis because of a previous domestic violence charge, though we could not verify that previous history ourselves. But Slaughter says they had actually reconciled. He told the outlet, I was one phone call away and she never got the opportunity, and I wasn't there. So that's where

things stood. Police had a person of interest, but no body and no answers for the family. Until May 16th, eight days after Karen disappeared. According to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency in Northport Police, it wasn't officers who found her. It was friends of Karen's family. They were searching an area in Green County, an area that according to the violent crimes unit was identified through electronic evidence. A friend of Karen Hollis's family told six news that her family got a cell phone ping from her phone in Green County, so they went to search for Karen there on Sunday. Jesse Dixon told six news he could only see Karen's feet, and the rest of her body was covered in a large black garbage bag. A person of interest was detained immediately. That's this man,

Randall, Lendell DeGerney. He's 44 years old, and right now he's sitting in the Tuscaloosa County Jail, on a $15,000 cash bond, but the charge, abuse of a corpse. A.L.com reports that surveillance footage showed DeJurney walking away from the apartment with Karen the night that she vanished. So the question remains, what happened to Karen Hollis after the trip to get the Recy Cup? How did she die? And will more charges eventually be filed in her death? According to the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit, additional charges could be filed or upgraded pending the autopsy results from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, so that autopsy could change everything.

Following the grim discovery of Karen's body, her sister took to Facebook, writing, Oh, I miss you, my heart is hurting. We was planning on hanging out again and going fishing. Please tell our brother that I miss him and love him, you forever, 23, just like him. And in another post, she wrote, I want her back so bad, a piece of me left with her. A GoFundMe has also been set up to raise money for Karen's sister and her parents to help bury her and give her the funeral that she deserves. That GoFundMe reads, she was a beautiful, wonderful, wonderful angel ripped away from her family way too soon in life.

She was everyone's beacon of light and joy, and her laughter was always contagious, and she always found ways to laugh through tough situations. She was always the free spirit, wild child that everyone always loved and enjoyed being around. So the question everyone once answered, what actually happened to Karen Hollis? We don't know yet, and authorities aren't saying, but we're going to talk to a retired detective commander. He's going to help us understand what this all means and where things could possibly go from here. So there is a lot, and I mean a lot to unpack with this case. And to help me do that, I want to bring in Will Svilar. He is a retired Chicago PD homicide. detective. He has been down this road many, many, many times before. Will, this is a tragic, tragic case.

Thanks so much for coming on to talk with me about it. Yeah, awful, awful case. But everything I've read about it, it sounds like, you know, that they pretty much have the right guy. It's just a matter of waiting for a cause and manner of death before they amplify the charges of abuse of a corpse. And let's talk about that. I mean, this is, this to me, the abuse of a corpse charge seems like something that they just are using to hold this guy on. They're saying, okay, we got him for this. Now we just have to do the autopsy, wait maybe for some toxicology to come back. You know, thank goodness they made quick work of finding her body. So decomposition, you know, obviously was taking place, but they found her rather quickly. So she isn't so decomposed

that they shouldn't be able to find out cause and manner of death? Which is 100% what they're looking for, cause and manner. You're absolutely right about the abuse of a corpse charge. Obviously, there is a ton of information. There's a ton of evidence. I was reading that there's physical evidence. There's interviews. There is electronic evidence, which kind of pinpoint the area,

tracks the movements of the offender and also of our victim here. So I think that as far as they were easily able to establish probable cause that that she was with him and that he moved her. And you don't have probable cause for a murder charge until you have a cause of manner of death. You're absolutely right. That's what they're waiting on. What's so striking to me about this,

and maybe we'll learn more about this as the case moves forward, her family knew right away that something was very, very wrong. And that always, you know, there are a lot of cases where some time might pass before somebody has reported missing, but not in this case. they said she had some type of medical condition that could impair her judgment. What do you think was going on with Karen? Do you think maybe there's like maybe a mental health concern or maybe a developmental disability?

What do you think is going on there where they knew immediately, oh my gosh, this is not right? Well, it very well could be a mental health thing or a cognitive thing. But what strikes me when I when I reviewed these reports is her last. text to her ex-boyfriend was, I'm going to get a peanut butter cup. That tells me, or it suggests to me that possibly she's diabetic and she's having low blood sugar. That's a good point. That could definitely alter the way you're thinking. I know this because my daughter, who's 25 now, she's been the type 1 diabetic since she's been seven years old and we keep candy or whatever, glucose tabs everywhere in all of our cars just in case she starts to go low because they can,

you know, it can absolutely alter the way that you think. That's what struck me as, I'm leaning towards diabetic in this. I could be wrong, but that's what I, you know, it's what it looks like to me. So let's try to connect the dots here. We're playing connect the dots because there's a lot we don't know at this point. Could this be that she, Karen, goes out to get a peanut butter cup because she's got the low glucose. And you and I, I mean, we're piecing this together and doing a little bit of speculating here.

But could it be she just runs out to get this peanut butter cup as she texts the boyfriend. And then somehow this DeJurney guy, Randall DeJurney, meets up with her and sees somebody vulnerable and abducts her. I mean, is that possibly what happened here? It's absolutely possibly what happened. Like you said, we're speculating. But my understanding is they lived in the same complex, apartment complex. Maybe there was a social aspect of it before. And I just mean, you're casually passing.

I don't mean anything other than that. You see it's your neighbor. You say hello or whatever. Maybe she's not feeling. And I know the symptoms of low blood sugar. Again, we're speculating on that. But you're very confused. You'll get in the car with anybody.

Wow. That's really, really terrifying. So they know right away something is wrong. And, you know, because they were able to identify a suspect so quickly in this case. And because these days, cameras are everywhere. are we going to maybe see that there is surveillance footage that plays a huge role in this case, in your view, Will? You are absolutely going to see that.

You're going to see, and again, like you said, they were very quick to identify this guy as a person of interest. And the good thing about this is, and what drives me nuts in a lot of these missing person cases is the way they're initially handled. You know, there was a thing in Chicago Police Department for years that said, if someone of an adult person is not gone 24 hours, you can't really do a missing person's report. I think that's ridiculous. People are starting to come around with the idea of if there's an adult person who doesn't have other factors or there's not other things present, then maybe you wait. But in this case, and in cases like it, I just think you start from the time that they're reported.

And if they show up 15 hours later or 10 hours or 20 minutes later, then you just get rid of the case. but you can't lose the time. You can't lose valuable time on a front end of the investigation. And I don't think they did on this. And I think there's a ton of evidence against this guy. She has found she's been missing eight days and they're able to find her.

How do you think they did that? Do you think it was piecing together movements with cell phones, a video, you know, trail? What is your thought as a former detective, a retired detective, about how they were able to find poor Karen's remains? I think this is going to be electronic.

I think they pinged her phone. They picked up a phone. I know her phone was found on the side of the road. After it got in, there was like an alert on someone else's phone saying that there was a crash. I think that's on some people's cell phones or some sort of, you know, some sort of a warning that says that there was a crash. They found the phone in that area. Now you have that area to serve. And my understanding is there was a search team of civilians who got involved and ended up finding her.

So I think this is going to be electronic. They traced her movements. They traced the bad guys movements. And it brought them to that location and then just a good old-fashioned search. You know, her sibling, her Karen's sister has written on Facebook, you know, oh, I miss you. My heart is hurting. We was planning on hanging out and going fishing. shame. Please tell our brother that I miss and love him. You forever, 23, just like him. This family,

apparently this sounds like her brother, their brother, also died at 23. Karen was 23. This family is now enduring a second tragedy losing a sibling and a child at the age of 23. I can't imagine what this family is going through. So talk to me about dealing with families, these victims who've lost loved ones, especially children will. That has got to be just absolutely emotionally horrific for the families and for the detectives working the cases. It's absolutely the hardest thing to do on this job is making a notification that someone's dead. You can't, you don't, you're really in your heart, you don't want to put yourself in the position that you understand how that feels because you don't want to feel that way,

which you absolutely you have to listen and people's in the range of emotion is is all over the place it's anger it's it's usually anger initially and then it's you know profound sadness and then as as you know it goes on the investigation goes on it's very important to continue to talk to the family and you know you just have to I don't want to say be a sounding board but you do have to be a sounding board if they if they're angry with the way things went on you got to let them say that people deal with things in different ways, but it is absolutely the hardest thing to do is to tell somebody, to look somebody in their face and say, I'm sorry that they're gone. So Karen's remains are recovered. They're able to find, the police are able to find her remains. Now the work of finding how she died and why she died is underway. As I mentioned earlier, She was gone. She was missing for eight days. So depending on the weather conditions and depending on the conditions in which her remains were found, a lot of evidence could still exist on her remains. So tell me what you expect to find or what you could expect to find at autopsy on her body.

Like you said, the elements play a big part in this. You're talking about Alabama mid-May. So you know it's going to be warm. And without being too graphic about it, heat accelerates decomposition and you can lose evidence that way. But in this case, I think a lot of her remains were in a garbage bag, which could preserve things that you may have lost if she was just out in the field, completely exposed. So you're looking for any kind of forensic evidence. You're looking for DNA. You're looking for cause and manner of death. So you're looking for penetrating injuries. You're looking for gunshot wounds.

you're looking for broken high owing bones to suggest strangulation, all that should still be present when they do the post on her. You know, I hate to bring this up because we just don't know what happened. We really don't. But does anything about the circumstances surrounding this? I mean, there's a 20-year age difference between Randall DeJarney and Karen. And she appears, we don't know this because there are no charges for this, but she vanished.

It appears she was taken away. Does anything about the circumstances surrounding this and the fact that she was dead in a garbage bag in the woods suggest to you that she was sexually assaulted? There's always that element. When you talk about it again, I don't know the background of the person they arrested. I don't know if there's any violence or anything like that in his background,

but there's always that element that you worry about in a case like this or someone's found missing and then murdered, I would not be the least bit surprised if there was the sexual assault in this. Again, it's always there. In my experience, in cases like this, it's almost always there. They're holding him on the abuse of a corpse charge. The autopsy, you know, a preliminary result could be in within a couple of days, depending on the stage of decomposition. How long do you think it'll take for them to potentially, upgrade charges? If there's a definitive finding on the post, like you see evidence of a gunshot wound, you see the evidence of the strangulation or stabbing like we talked about, pretty quick,

because then you're going to get your cause and manner. What you're not going to get back anytime soon could be weeks is toxicology. So that takes a lot longer. But if on post, there's obvious signs that this is a death and it's a death at the hands of another, a homicide, they can charge them as early as hours after the post comes back. Well, it is a heartbreaking case. This family is just absolutely grieving right now. This is a 23-year-old woman, a tiny thing, too, five feet, six inches tall, 100 pounds. I mean, so she's little.

She's not somebody who probably could fight back. Especially if she's altered, if her state of mind is altered, especially then. Yeah, just a really horrible case. So, Willis Villar, we will keep an eye on it. I really appreciate your time and your expertise as always. And we'll have you back again. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

So again, Randall DeJerney is being held on that abuse of a corpse charge on a $15,000 bond. We'll let you know if anything changes with the charges in this case. And please pray for Karen Hollis's family. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time. Thank you.