Daniel Holdom’s criminal history revealed: Man who murdered Karlie and Khandalyce had history of terrorising women
THE “body in the suitcase” killer who murdered Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and her young daughter Khandalyce, then dumped their bodies 1100km apart, had a history of terrorising women.
- Guilty: Daniel Holdom admits murdering Karlie and Khandalyce
- DNA match: How two seemingly unrelated murders were linked
- 1267 calls to Crime Stoppers — this one cracked the case
- The dumping ground: Why Belanglo is a forest of nightmares
THE man who murdered Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and her young daughter Khandalyce, then dumped their bodies 1100km apart, had a history of terrorising women — including strangling an ex-girlfriend and stalking his former wife.
In one of Daniel James Holdom’s brutal assaults on an ex-girlfriend, he tried to strangle and smother her with duct tape — the same item he bought shortly before suffocating two-year-old Khandalyce almost a decade later.
The Advertiser can reveal Holdom’s horrific rap sheet after the former drug addict pleaded guilty on Tuesday to killing Ms Pearce-Stevenson, 20, in Belanglo State Forest and later discarding her daughter’s body inside a suitcase dumped by the side of a South Australian highway near the tiny town of Wynarka.
Moments after hearing the news, Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s and Khandalyce’s family reacted to the major development. “We are very happy with the news,” they said.
In the NSW Supreme Court, Strike Force Malaya detectives were heard sighing relief after Holdom pleaded guilty, a week before his lengthy murder trial was due to start.
Outside court, the investigators shook hands and hugged one another, marking a milestone in a case that has crossed several states and territories and dates back to 2008.
Before Holdom, who had been in a brief relationship with Ms Pearce-Stevenson, killed the mother and daughter, he left other women in fear for their lives.
Holdom, who was born and bred in Orange, NSW, assaulted an ex-girlfriend in 1999 after she broke up with him.
The now 43-year-old crept into her room and tried to smother her with a pillow before wrapping his hands around her neck.
He also tried to put duct tape over her mouth to suppress her screams.
After leaving Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s body in Belanglo State Forrest, which gained a notorious reputation as serial killer Ivan Milat’s dumping ground, Holdom picked up Khandalyce from Canberra.
Before Holdom checked into a Narranderra motel with the toddler on December 19, 2008, he stopped at a Woolworths supermarket and purchased duct tape, dish cloths and garbage bags.
The court had previously heard Khandalyce was likely suffocated before her body was shoved in a black suitcase.
Holdom drove to South Australia and threw the suitcase on the side of the Karoonda Highway, two kilometres outside the tiny town of Wynarka.
It was almost seven years before a passing motorist found the skeleton in July, 2015.
Holdom also has a conviction for breaching an apprehended violence order his ex-wife took out against him after their marriage fell apart in 2001.
Court records reveal how Holdom stalked the woman in his car, waiting outside her home and begging her to take him back.
On one occasion when the pair lived in Coffs Harbour, he followed his ex-wife to their children’s day care and school.
He screamed at her as she tried to collect her children before blocking the road so she couldn’t leave.
Over the next decade he led a nomadic existence, travelling from state to state and leaving a record of petty crime and grief in his wake.
In September, 2008, Holdom was behind the wheel of a car when it crashed between Alice Springs and Adelaide, leaving his then-girlfriend wheelchair-bound and her two children dead.
Two months later, Holdom, Ms Pearce-Stevenson and Khandalyce left Alice Springs and were staying in Canberra’s northern suburbs.
After an argument, Holdom murdered Ms Pearce-Stevenson in the Belanglo State Forest on December 14 or 15, 2008.
Holdom later told a friend that he stomped on Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s throat and crushed her windpipe, the court had previously heard.
He took photographs of her body and another woman found those images on a SD card years later.
The court has previously heard Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s identity was stolen and her Centrelink payments used in the years after her death.
Her phone was also used to provide a false sense of security to her worried family, who were desperately trying to find the mother and child interstate.
Holdom’s criminality escalated significantly in April, 2013 when he sexually assaulted an eight-year-old girl at a Central Coast caravan park.
Holdom’s girlfriend had left the park two days earlier to visit her family and Holdom turned his sights on the young girl.
He was serving a maximum four-year jail term for the sexual assault when police charged him in 2015 over the double murder.
After the body in a suitcase was discovered, SA Police appealed for information about items found in the suitcase — and this ultimately led to the case being cracked.
In October, 2015, a witness called Crime Stoppers claiming they had a photograph of a little girl named Khandalyce with the same distinctive quilt that was found in the suitcase.
Detectives retrieved Khandalyce’s medical records from her home town in Alice Springs and were able to match the records to a DNA profile extracted from the bones found in the suitcase.
The focus then turned to the whereabouts of Khandalyce’s mother.
Pulling Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s medical records allowed investigators to match them against the DNA profile from the bones found in Belanglo State Forest years earlier — and further investigations led detectives to Holdom.
He is expected to face a sentencing hearing before Justice Robert Allan Hulme on September 28.