The case
Karlie Jade Pearce-Stevenson was a young mother from Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. In 2008 she left town with her two-year-old daughter, Khandalyce Kiara Pearce, and Daniel Holdom, a man she was involved with. Holdom was also in a relationship with Hazel Passmore. By the end of 2008, both Karlie and her daughter were dead, yet for years her phone kept sending texts that convinced family and friends she was fine, and more than $90,000 moved through her bank account.
In August 2010, trail bike riders found Karlie’s skeletal remains in Belanglo State Forest in New South Wales. No one could identify her, and police called her “Angel” after the design on her T-shirt. In July 2015, a motorist found a child’s remains in a suitcase beside the Karoonda Highway near Wynarka, South Australia. A caller recognized a handmade quilt found with them, and DNA from Khandalyce’s newborn heel-prick test confirmed who she was. A national database search then matched Karlie to the Belanglo remains.
Holdom was arrested in October 2015. He pleaded guilty to both murders in July 2018, and on November 30, 2018, Justice Robert Hulme sentenced him to two terms of life imprisonment. The court found that both victims had also been sexually assaulted.
Case photographs
Where it happened
Belanglo State Forest, where Karlie’s remains were found in 2010