“It’s hard, and the thought that I can’t see her on her birthday and stuff, she’s not going to be here,” Holli Jeffcoat’s Grandmother Sherrie Ray said. “I know where she’s at, she’s fine. But I’m not fine.”
Wednesday, May 10, would have been Holli Jeffcoat’s 20th birthday, a little over the one year anniversary of her death.
“She loved birthdays, she loved Christmas, she loved anything that had just the slightest excitement,” Ray said. “That just how she was.”
Holli’s body was found brutally slain in her home in early February 2016. Officials soon found out she was also pregnant at the time of her death.
“I like to think Holli didn’t understand all of that, or what was going on,” Ray said.
Her family members told EverythingLubbock.com, Holli told her school of the abuse in their home leading up to her death. Child Protective Services also conducted different investigations looking into possible child abuse with her parents.
A few months after her death, her mother, Debi Holland, and her stepfather, James Holland, were both indicted for capital murder in July 2016.
Court records showed the grand jury also believed James sexually abused Holli and her sister, and Debi did not do anything about it.
“I don’t know how this could have happened,” Ray said.
Holli’s family asked those to light a candle in her honor and celebrate her life, rather than think about the loss.
“Truely in the end, family is what you have,” Ray said. “It’s what you should have.”