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The evil killer responsible for murdering 20-year-old Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and her two-year-old daughter Khandalyce took over his victim’s identity for more than seven years, allowing him to access her bank account and steal more than $70,000.
Speaking for the first time, friends and family of Ms Pearce-Stevenson and Khandalyce have revealed to 60 Minutes how Holdom duped the family into thinking the mother and daughter were still alive to cover up his crime.
“What sort of a person does that?” Ms Pearce-Stevenson's family friend Tanya Webber said.
Single mother Karlie Pearce-Stevenson raised her young daughter with the help of her loving family in Alice Springs - the town she grew up in.
It came as a shock when, in 2008, after introducing her friends and family to her new, much older boyfriend, Daniel Holdom, Ms Pearce-Stevenson made the decision to leave Alice Springs with Khandalyce.
The mother and daughter left on a road trip with Holdom, promising to stay in close contact.
But as the weeks turned to months, Ms Pearce-Stevenson became a stranger to those she left behind. Calls to her phone went unanswered and the family grew increasingly worried.
At the end of 2009, a year after Ms Pearce-Stevenson and Khandalyce had set off with Daniel Holdom – and the last time they’d been seen – close friend Ms Webber and Karlie’s mum Colleen went to the police and filed a missing person’s report.
Holdom was contacted by police, who informed them the mother and daughter had moved to Queensland and he was no longer in contact with them.
Detectives also noticed Ms Pearce-Stevenson's bank account was still being accessed. Days after the family contacted police, Ms Pearce-Stevenson's mother suddenly received a text message from her phone number saying she was okay.
It was enough for police to close the missing person’s report, a decision which, to this day, still angers family and friends.
“It shouldn't have been pulled,” Ms Webber told 60 Minutes.
As reporter Sarah Abo revealed, police couldn’t have seen Ms Pearce-Stevenson or Khandalyce because just weeks into their road trip, Holdom had murdered them both.
He’d taken Ms Pearce-Stevenson to the Belanglo State Forest where he sexually abused and killed her – taking photos after he dumped her body, keeping them on his camera for years.
A few days later, he murdered Khandalyce and put her tiny body in a suitcase, eventually leaving it by the side of an outback road.
To cover up his crime, Holdom took over Ms Pearce-Stevenson's identity to make her family and friends believe she was still alive.
“There was this assumption that well, she’s alive and obviously choosing not to have any contact with family,” Ms Pearce-Stevenson's aunt, Sharon said.
Ms Pearce-Stevenson's remains were discovered in 2010, but with police unable to identify her body, she remained in a Sydney morgue for five years and became known only as ‘The Angel of Belanglo’.
In July 2015, a passing motorist found an abandoned suitcase on the Karoonda highway near the tiny town of Wynarka. Inside, he found a child’s skeleton.
Like the body in the Belanglo forest, Detectives had no idea who the little girl was, so they appealed to the public for information.
The reports caught the attention of Ms Pearce-Stevenson's friend Ms Webber.
“I just had a feeling about it. I can't really explain what that was,” she told 60 Minutes.
Ms Webber called Crime Stoppers to report that Ms Pearce-Stevenson and Khandalyce had been missing for seven years. it was the breakthrough the police so desperately needed to crack the case.
Police were able to gain access to Khandalyce's medical records and matched a previous blood sample with DNA from the bones found in the suitcase.
Investigators contacted homicide detectives in New South Wales and, on a complete hunch, turned the focus to the case of a young woman whose bones were discovered in the Belanglo State Forest in 2010.
DNA from those bones were cross-matched to the bones found in the suitcase.
By October 21, 2015, police had confirmed the 'Angel of Belanglo' was in fact Karlie Pearce-Stevenson, Khandalyce's mother.
When police were finally able to identify the victims, it was easy for them to also identify Daniel Holdom – and easier still to find him.
He was already in jail serving time for sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl.
A week before his trial for the murder of Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and Khandalyce, Daniel Holdom pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two terms of life in prison.
For Ms Pearce-Stevenson and Khandalyce’s family, no sentence can ever repair their shattered lives.
In another heartbreaking blow, Ms Pearce-Stevenson's mum and Khandalyce’s grandmother, Colleen, died of cancer in 2012, never knowing what really happened.
“She died thinking that Karlie didn’t love her and didn’t want to see her,” Ms Webber told 60 Minutes.
News came in November that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development had released $1.28 million to fund housing vouchers that will lead to the relocation of the nearly 350 people residing at the troubled Thames River Apartments. And while it is likely to take several months before residents of the federally ...
The Housing Authority started the year with an interim executive director following termination of a contract with Director Sue Shontell in 2016. The authority hired Roy Boling and later terminated his contract as it moved to consider hiring a management firm for the authority’s holdings.
Robert Reardon, the attorney who has worked for more than a decade representing the residents of Thames River Apartments, had threatened to re-open a suit because of the lack of action. The authority since has hired an outside firm to aid with the relocation of the Thames River Apartment residents.
When I wrote this blog blasting the massive bulk of XML, our own John Carroll responded with a defense of XML for some situations. John and I both agree that XML should not be used to handle large amounts of data because of increased storage and processing requirements, we only disagree where the cut-off should be.
When I wrote this blog blasting the massive bulk of XML, our own John Carroll responded with a defense of XML for some situations. John and I both agree that XML should not be used to handle large amounts of data because of increased storage and processing requirements, we only disagree where the cut-off should be. Som...
I quoted 1000% bloat in reference to spreadsheets and databases but one of our regular readers "Yagotta B. Kidding" pressed me to present some hard evidence. Reader Patrick Jones responded by offering a spreadsheet that was stored as an 11 Megabyte XML file and as a 3 Megabyte XLS file. Jones noted that the XML file wa...
When I ran my tests, I noticed that the time it takes to open the 11 MB XML file was substantially longer than the time it took to open the 3 MB XLS native Microsoft Excel binary format. But to get a more accurate measurement of the time difference, I decided to make the sample larger by making duplicate copies of the ...
Some of you will note that this particular XML file is only 3.78 times bigger than the XLS file, but this particular sample doesn't have that many fields which reduces the number of XML tags. In this second sample, the XML version is 10.6 times bigger than the CSV file and 7.7 times bigger than the XLS version. So the ...
The bottom line is that the large sample XML file was excruciatingly slow and took more than 20 times longer to read and 6 times longer to write. It doesn't matter if computers are faster today, the problem is that these are huge multiplier factors that greatly reduce the speed and capacity of any system no matter how ...
One of the largest publicly funded construction projects in the region — the $29 million Route 110 interchange at the Long Island Expressway — has been plunged into limbo by Gov. Paterson’s decision to cut off the cash flow.
The massive project in Huntington, LI — where some 60 hardhats are employed — was kicked off less than a year ago in a politician-studded groundbreaking amid promises of more jobs, less traffic congestion and an economic boost for the area.
But yesterday, those plans were up in the air when Paterson announced that the state will halt construction on all projects not funded by the federal stimulus, until he and lawmakers have agreed on a new state budget.
“At this point, it’s hard to say what’s going to happen,” said Mark Herbst, executive director of the Long Island Contractors’ Association, who was speaking on behalf of the project’s contractor, Posillico Civil.
Even if the state can’t pay up, Herbst pointed out that the site — which is teeming with trucks, heavy-duty construction equipment and piles of rubble — can’t just be deserted.
“You can’t just walk away. You’ve got to protect the site and you’ve got to continue all your coverages” like insurance, he said.
Since the construction industry has already been hard hit by the economic downturn, Herbst said he couldn’t understand why Paterson would kick workers when they’re down.
“There is no rational decision making that we can discern by this administration,” he said.
The construction was slated to reconstruct the Route 110 bridge over the LIE to improve clearance for trucks, add three lanes of traffic and reconfigure entrance and exit ramps for safer driving.
Rep. Steve Israel (D-LI) said the future of the project is unclear, but he is hoping that it will continue thanks to partial federal funding.
“I understand that New York state is in a fiscal crisis, but Route 110 construction is partially funded by the Recovery Act and important for economic development and employment,” he said.
An alleged Hells Angels associate has faced court in Queensland on drug trafficking offences over an ice haul estimated to be worth $1.44 million.
An alleged Hells Angels associate has faced court after police allegedly found 12 kilograms of drugs when they intercepted his car on the Gold Coast.
The quantity is so large, police say it's likely to cause a spike in the price of ice on Queensland's streets.
Varsity Lakes man, Wayne Holland, 68, was charged with drug offences after police found the stash of methylamphetamine, estimated to be worth $1.44 million, on April 11.
He appeared in Southport Magistrates Court on Wednesday, where his case was adjourned for a bail application on April 24.
Acting Detective Superintendent Bruno Asnicar says it's a "significant interception" of imported drugs.
"The method of concealment was quite sophisticated," he told reporters.
"It defines the fact that the organised criminal activity surrounding the movement of drugs throughout the state of Queensland and Australian is becoming sophisticated."
Detectives stopped the vehicle at Reedy Creek and suspect the drugs were being transported north from Sydney.
Following the seizure, police raided a Gold Coast home linked to Holland and seized computer equipment.
"We are examining the transfer of funds through various accounts - crypto-currencies," Acting Det Supt Asnicar said.
Police also allegedly found more drugs, a stash of firearms, ammunition, a distraction grenade, drug-making equipment and Hells Angels paraphernalia.
"We are investigating further to identify the whole of that syndicate ... we won't stop our investigation until we have identified everybody that is possible to identify," Acting Det Supt Asnicar said.
Kevin Costner in the 1991 film "JFK."
Thousands of documents relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy are scheduled for release on Thursday.
They were originally due to be released in 2029, but Congress was pressured in 1992 to move the date up several years.
We can thank the 1991 conspiracy film "JFK" for renewing public interest in the assassination and forcing the government to release the files sooner.
The long-awaited release of 3,000 previously-classified documents relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy may not have happened for years were it not for a blockbuster 1991 film.
The documents, collectively known as the "JFK files," are slated to be released on Thursday, as mandated by a federal law in 1992. They were originally supposed to stay sealed until 2029, but under public pressure, Congress moved the release date up to October 26, 2017, 25 years after the enactment of the law.
We can attribute that public pressure largely to Oliver Stone's "JFK," a star-studded 1991 film about the Kennedy assassination and the New Orleans businessman who some believe was involved in the murder. While historians argued the film was far from historically accurate — The Washington Post calls it "barely factual"...
In the film, Kevin Costner plays New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison, who is depicted as leading an effort to prove that local businessman Clay Shaw conspired with Lee Harvey Oswald and the CIA to kill Kennedy. Garrison targets key witnesses who seem to confirm the government conspiracy, but the jury comes just ...
In real life, such a trial did take place, but Shaw was acquitted after less than an hour of deliberation. It turns out Stone greatly exaggerated details of the trials, and even invented one of the key witnesses out of whole cloth. Years later, the New Orleans Times-Picayune said the trial "left a lasting stain on the ...
Stone defended the film upon its release, but admitted its factual shortcomings.
"It is not a true story per se," he told the New York Times in 1991. "It explores all the possible scenarios of why Kennedy was killed, who killed him and why."
Still, the possibility of a government conspiracy resonated with Americans. In 1992, Congress passed the JFK Records Act, expediting the release of the classified JFK files. It also established the Assassination Records Review Board, which in 1998 acknowledged the influence of Stone's film in the decision to release th...
"Stone suggested at the end of JFK that Americans could not trust official public conclusions when those conclusions had been made in secret," a report from the review board said. "The American public lost faith when it could not see the very documents whose contents led to these conclusions."
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Pharrell Williams is interested in growing Virginia’s film and media industry.
The 45-year-old singer and producer, who is a native of Virginia, recently hosted more than 70 state and regional leaders to discuss Virginia’s opportunities to capitalize on the expanding global demand for content and media technology, WTKR reports.
According to officials in a press release from the City of Virginia Beach, Williams also met with Governor Northam and delivered a letter from several major studios and media companies expressing interest in Virginia opportunities. Companies included Netflix, Illumination Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Endeavor and...
The musician, producer and entrepreneur recently brought attention to Virginia when he helped produce the Oscar-nominated film, “Hidden Figures,” which tells the true story of three female mathematicians from Virginia whose work enabled NASA and John Glenn to orbit the earth and return safely.
“When I visited the set, I could sense the energy…As I stood on set among all of this positivity and productive energy, I asked myself: Why were we telling a Hampton Roads’ story in Atlanta,” added Williams.
While the film industry in Virginia is still growing, it does have some notable history as of late.
In 2016, Virginia’s production industry had a total economic impact of $696.8 million, provided 4,287 high-paying, full-time equivalent jobs to Virginians and contributed $27.1 million in state tax revenue.
Virginia lawmakers introduced a film tax credit in 2011. Every $1 Virginia has invested in content incentives has returned $11 to Virginia’s economy, enhancing added-value deliverables on tourism.
Kyvetos has more in store for 2019, including the launch of his own sneaker line, Athletics Footwear, which will land in-store in May, and the creation of a footwear studio in Guangzhou, in southern China.
Footwear obsessive Chris Kyvetos spotted the star power of the sneaker early, and for decades he’s used them as his creative compass — and retail inspiration. A serial entrepreneur, he is the founder and creative director of Sneakerboy, the Australian chain of concept showrooms selling high-end and mass market sneakers...
Of late, Sneakerboy has given over floor space to resellers, with 30 percent of the store now made up of “kids selling the shoes to each other,” Kyvetos said. “Reselling is an economy, it’s a hobby, and it’s a passion for these kids, and we wanted to embrace what they do,” he said in an interview earlier this year, not...
Sirens wailed through the city before dawn Tuesday as residents marked the moment 100 years earlier when the Great Quake shattered the city, killing thousands as it leveled buildings and touched off fires that burned for days.
A handful of centenarians who survived that devastation joined hundreds of residents for a moment of silence and a memorial ceremony to remember one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history.
"What an extraordinary example, the pioneering spirit that defines our past, I would argue defines our present, and gives me optimism of the future," said Mayor Gavin Newsom. "San Francisco, a city of dreamers. And San Francisco, a city of doers."
Most of the city's 400,000 residents were still in bed when the magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck at 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906.
The foreshock sent people scrambling, and the main shock arrived with such fury that it flattened crowded rooming houses. The epicenter was a few miles offshore of the city, but it was felt as far away as Oregon and Nevada. In 28 seconds, it brought down City Hall.
From cracked chimneys, broken gas lines and toppled chemical tanks, fires broke out and swept across the city, burning for days. Ruptured water pipes left firefighters helpless, while families carrying what they could fled to parks that had become makeshift morgues.
Historians say city officials, eager to bring people and commerce back to the city, radically underestimated the death toll. Researchers are still trying to settle on a number, but reliable estimates put the loss above 3,000, and possibly as high as 6,000.
In any case, it ranks as one of the costliest disasters in U.S. history, a benchmark to which later calamities are compared.
"It doesn't really feel like a party to me," said Bob McMillan, 37, who walked to the memorial event early Tuesday with his wife and 2-year-old daughter. "There is a sense of the tragedy, but there is also that San Francisco optimism. It's kind of like, 'We're still standing.'"
Linda Cain, 52, joined the crowd to honor her late grandmother, Loretta O'Connor, who lived through the quake.

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