Mentally Disabled Texas Teen Murdered — Throat Slashed & Uterus Removed After Reporting Sexual Abuse, Parents Arrested


Earlier this year, just a few days after telling officials at her school that her stepfather had impregnated her, a mentally disabled Texas teenager was found in her family’s partially burned home with her throat slashed and her uterus removed. The grisly details of the girl’s murder were revealed in an arrest warrant carried out on Friday.

The arrest warrant was issued for the mother of the mutilated and deceased 18-year-old girl. Her mental capacity was reportedly that of a 6- or 7-year-old, and her stepfather had been sexually abusing the mentally disabled girl since she was no older than 12-years-old, according to the arrest warrant. The arrest warrant for the girl’s mother, Debi Holland, states that the woman was very aware of the fact that her husband was sexually abusing both of her young daughters and yet did nothing.

According to local paper Everything Lubbock, the teenager’s name was Holli Jeffcoat, and her 39-year-old stepfather is James Holland. He was arrested on March 10 and has already been charged with three counts of continuous aggravated sexual abuse of a child. The teenager was found dead, her uterus removed, in her family’s house in Northeast Lubbock County on February 10 after it had burned. The police investigating the death have expressed their belief that the fire at the Holland’s Idalou, Texas, home was deliberately set in an attempt to cover up Holli’s murder.

A few days before she was murdered, the teenager had told a social worker on January 29 that her stepfather had impregnated her.

The copy of the arrest warrant, which was made public on Monday morning, also outlined that Holland had been sexually abusing the mentally ill young woman’s 15-year-old younger sister since she was at least 9-years-old. When the stepfather was first arrested on March 10, the younger sister told the investigators that the man was sexually abusing her for the last two to three years of her life approximately two to five times a week.

The mother, Debi, had actually known for quite a few years that her eldest and mentally disabled daughter, Holli, was being sexually abused, because back in 2008, the young girl was diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease. However, at the time, Child Protective Services could not provide definitive proof of who committed the abuse against Jeffcoat. As a result, no charges were filed.

Following the January 29 talk with the counselor at her school, Buzzfeed reported that the 18-year-old spoke to an interviewer from the Children’s Advocacy Center on February 2 and stated that both she and her sister told their mother that the stepfather was sexually abusing them. The two were silenced by their mother for reasons the arrest warrant revealed.

“Mom told her not to tell anyone because Mom needed [the stepfather] to pay bills.”

Before she was killed and her uterus removed, the mentally disabled teenager had told the authorities that she did not wish to go where her stepfather was, as “the sex hurt.” After the Children’s Advocacy interview, Debi Holland was told that her husband was to have no contact with her children, but the arrest warrant showed that the man still remained in the house.

“By providing (the husband) access to her daughters after being made aware that (he) was molesting them, (the mother) aided (her husband) in the sexual assaults of her daughters… Debi Holland was aware that Holli was pregnant by James Holland prior to January 29 and instructed Holli not to tell anyone and thus aided James Holland in the continuing molestation of Holli.”

In fact, about two years ago, Debi Holland caught her husband sexually abusing her younger daughter and kicked him out of the house. Two months later, she allowed him back into the house. Debi Holland, after some initial resistance, also revealed that her husband had been intravenously using methamphetamine for a very long time.

The arrest warrant also gave some possible insight into the reason Jeffcoat’s killer had her womb and uterus removed. In her last interview with a social worker she revealed that her parents did not want her to have the baby but could not afford to get her an abortion. Instead, James Holland “was going to take the baby out with a coat hanger.”

There have been no charges filed for the murder of the mentally disabled teenager, but Lubbock County Sheriff’s office said that more charges are expected to be brought against the parents.

Debi Holland remains in the Lubbock County Detention Center, as she could not post the $500,000 bond. James Holland, with a $2 million bond, is also still currently in jail.

[Photo Courtesy of Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office & Jeffcoat’s Obituary]

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