A young woman found slain in a partially burned West Texas home after telling a school counselor her stepfather had impregnated her was found with her uterus cut out, according to multiple reports.
Two weeks before authorities found the 18-year-old dead in Idalou, a town about 300 miles west of Dallas, on Feb. 10, she told a school counselor she had been impregnated by her stepfather, 39-year-old James Holland, KCBD reported, citing recently released court records.
Authorities believe the abuse started at least 8 years ago, when the victim was 10 years old.
Holland has since been charged with three counts of continued child sex abuse related to allegations he abused his stepdaughter and her younger sister, who is 15 years old, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported.
Authorities believe her mother, 38-year-old Debi Bryant Holland, knew about the abuse. She was arrested last month on one count of aggravated sexual assault of an elderly or disabled person. The slain teenager was a special needs student with the mental age of a 6- or 7-year-old.
“With her being mentally handicapped, she couldn’t even give consent at 45,” Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Bryan Taylor told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
According to the warrant for Debi Holland's arrest, she knew as early as 2008 that her husband was sexually abusing her older daughter.
“Mom told her not to tell anyone because Mom needed (the stepfather) to pay bills,” authorities wrote in the warrant.
On Feb. 2, the 18-year-old told an interviewer with the Children's Advocacy Center that her stepfather had been touching her inappropriately since she was 12. After that, the girls' mother was told to have no contact with her husband, but he remained at their home, the arrest warrant says.
The mother later told investigators that her husband had been “intravenously using methamphetamines inside the home over an extended period of time,” according to the warrant.
Authorities launched a homicide investigation in February after the 18-year-old's younger sister found her body. Her throat had been slashed and her internal organs were exposed, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported.
No charges have been filed in her death, although Taylor told the newspaper more charges are expected soon.
“This investigation is not over by any stretch of the imagination,” he said.
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