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Thread: Zachary Holly (28) kidnapped, raped and murdered his 6-year old neighbor

  1. #1
    Senior Member rachy's Avatar
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    Zachary Holly (28) kidnapped, raped and murdered his 6-year old neighbor

    http://mydeathspace.com/article/2012...r_old_neighbor

    Ark. girl chained to dresser last year now dead

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Authorities on Wednesday were investigating the death of a 6-year-old girl whose father is in prison for chaining her to a dresser last year in northwest Arkansas.

    Jersey Bridgeman's body was found in a nearby vacant house about 10 minutes after she was reported missing Tuesday morning, Bentonville Police Chief Jon Simpson said.

    Police in the city about 215 miles northwest of Little Rock are treating her death as a homicide, but they have not said how the girl died or released the names of any suspects. Simpson said autopsy results are pending.

    It's not clear who the girl was living with or who reported her missing.

    More than 100 people gathered to mourn the child at a candlelight vigil Tuesday at the Children's Advocacy Center of Benton County near Bentonville, the center's executive director, Beverly Engle, said.

    "There was a unique quality about Jersey," she said. "A little old soul, but such a delight."

    Engle said Jersey was interviewed last year at the center when the abuse allegations were reported to police in nearby Rogers. According to a court document, the girl told officers she slept on the floor in the same room as her father, David Bridgeman, and her stepmother, Jana Bridgeman.

    "She said that Jana and David chain her to the dresser because she had gotten up and eaten some pies, cereal, and bread," Rogers Police Detective Larry Taylor wrote in the court affidavit.

    He added that the girl "stated that they put a belt around her waist so that she could not get up and get any food."

    Both the father and stepmother pleaded guilty in June to false imprisonment, permitting abuse of a minor and endangering the welfare of a minor.

    Jana Bridgeman, also identified as Jana Slinkard in court records, is serving a 12-year prison sentence, plus three years for a probation revocation, according to online Department of Correction records.

    David Bridgeman is serving an 18-year prison sentence. Prison records show he has a tattoo that says "Jersey."

    He admitted to chaining his daughter to a dresser with a belt last year after a woman who was staying with the couple contacted police about possible child abuse, according to court records. That woman said she found the girl chained to a dresser with a silver chain and what appeared to be a dog collar.

    David Bridgeman told an investigator that his daughter got into medication and other things around the house, so he and his wife decided to chain her to the dresser at night so she couldn't wander off, according to court records.

    "He said that he thinks she may be sleepwalking and that they discussed buying a child gate, but since he does not have a job, they could not afford to buy one at that time," Taylor, the detective, wrote in the court affidavit.

    The father said he cut a belt to make it fit around his daughter's ankle and added a lock on the chain after she pulled it off, according to court records.

    At some point, his daughter complained that the collar hurt her leg, so he chained her by the waist instead, court records indicate.

    "It should be noted that the chain that David used was approximately one to two feet in length and appeared to be a dog choke collar," Taylor wrote in the affidavit.

    Jana Bridgeman's attorney, Billy Bob Webb, declined to comment Wednesday. David Bridgeman's attorney, Sarah Ashley, didn't return a phone message seeking comment.

    The FBI has dispatched agents to assist in the homicide investigation, spokeswoman Kimberly Brunell said.

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...11-21-20-29-03
    Last edited by Olivia; 12-01-2012 at 11:51 PM.

  2. #2
    Senior Member rachy's Avatar
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    Police Search Houses; No One In Custody In Bentonville Girl’s Murder Case

    Bentonville police have nobody in custody in the murder case of Jersey Bridgeman, a six-year-old girl who was found dead Tuesday morning.

    Police Chief Jon Simpson held a press conference Wednesday afternoon with local media, in which he said police could not discuss whether they have any suspects or persons of interest in the case.

    Officers executed search warrants on three homes, including the girl’s home, the house a few doors down where she was found killed and a trailer residence between the houses. Police collected about 50 pieces of evidence during the searches, Simpson said.

    Police questioned the man living in the trailer Tuesday.

    The department received a call at 6:43 a.m of a child missing from her home at 608 S.E. A St., according to the release from Police Chief Jon Simpson said.

    A neighborhood search resulted in the body being discovered, the release states. The girl’s body was located within 15 minutes, according to police.

    The Benton County coroner arrived at the house where the child was reported missing at about 10 a.m. and was later seen bringing a body out of a house two doors down at 704 S.E. A St.

    Police said Jersey was inside the abandoned house at the time of her death.

    Simpson said no one is in the family’s home, and would not discuss the mom’s whereabouts.

    The investigation into the suspected killing of 6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman entered a second day Wednesday, as police continued waiting outside the Bentonville house where she lived and another house two doors down where her body was discovered.

    Bentonville school administrators are discussing how to help students grieve from the loss of a classmate when the school district resumes classes Monday. They hope to have a plan finalized by Saturday, said Mary Ley, a spokesperson for the district.

    Jersey was a kindergarten student at Sugar Creek Elementary, Ley said.

    Just before midnight Tuesday, police said they would stay and patrol the area. At times, four police vehicles patrolled the lit up Southeast A Street near the Bentonville Library. Authorities were at the site early Wednesday, including FBI agents who arrived shortly before noon to offer assistance.

    Jersey, found dead Tuesday in Bentonville, is the same child whose father and stepmother were imprisoned for chaining her to a dresser earlier this year, a source told 5NEWS.

    Bentonville police launched a homicide investigation early Tuesday after Jersey’s body was found just blocks from where she went missing hours earlier, according to a police department news release.

    A man identifying himself as Jersey’s grandfather said in the comments section of the 5NEWS website that Jersey lived with her mother, DesaRae Bridgeman. On her Facebook page, DesaRae says she is in a relationship with a man named Brandon Thomas. His Facebook page contains references to Jersey. He mentions on his page that Jersey’s birthday was Nov. 14. Neighbors told 5NEWS Jersey had a birthday party on Sunday.

    DesaRae is shown in a photograph with this story holding a child identified by neighbor Dariel Eubanks as Jersey. The photo is from Thomas’ Facebook page. Another photo on this page, also from Thomas’ Facebook page, shows him holding the child. He says on his Facebook page he works at an E-Z Mart.

    Police on Tuesday were in an E-Z Mart near Jersey’s house, interviewing employees.

    Police estimate Jersey’s death took place between midnight and about 6:45 a.m. Thomas worked at the convenience store from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., an E-Z Mart employee told 5NEWS.

    David Bridgeman, Jersey’s father, was sentenced to 18 years in prison in June after he pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, permitting the abuse of a minor and endangering the welfare of a minor.

    Jana Suzanne Slinkard, the girl’s stepmother, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on the same charges. She received an additional three years for violating her probation on a previous drug offense.

    The home, valued at $46,049, is owned by William Wallace and Supha Xayprasith of Brooklyn, N.Y., records show. Wallace has been listed as the home’s owner since 2006. County property records do not indicate the names of people who might be renting a residence from the homeowner. Wallace is listed as property owner on at least five other residences in Benton County, including one in Bella Vista.

    The house at 704 S.E. A St., near where Jersey’s body was found, is also owned by Wallace and Xayprasith, but the property is apparently abandoned, officials said.

    “We’re working on either search warrants or other measures to be able to thoroughly inspect those residences,” Simpson said.

    Investigators went door-to-door interviewing people who live in the neighborhood.

    “We do have several residents of interest on SE A Street,” the chief said.

    http://5newsonline.com/2012/11/20/po...-childs-death/

    here's the mom's facebook http://www.facebook.com/desarae.bridgeman

    and the boyfriend's http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004631203602

    in case they had something to do with it.

  3. #3
    Riotous Defective snowfallsoon's Avatar
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    Poor kid..

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    Senior Member Rhythmisasadist's Avatar
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    RIP Jersey.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Crazy Lady's Avatar
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    I'm having a hard time with this case. She was abused by her father, chained like a dog because she was hungry. I can't wrap my head around that. She took food because she was hungry and you chain her up like a dog? What is wrong with people? Jersey is removed, they go to prison and she ends up murdered. A six year old is supposed to be looking forward to Christmas and playing with dolls, not abused and murdered. Rest in peace, Jersey.
    "When it comes time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived." ~ Henry David Thoreau

    "Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall. ~ Confucius

  6. #6
    Senior Member rachy's Avatar
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    Funeral services scheduled for 6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman
    Services to be held in Rogers; open to public



    BENTONVILLE, Ark. —

    Benton County Coroner Daniel Oxford said the visitation and funeral services for 6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman will be held at Rollins Funeral Home in Rogers.

    Oxford said the girl's body has been released from the state crime lab in Little Rock.

    The services are open to the public, he said.
    Visitation: Monday 5-7 p.m.
    Funeral: Tuesday 1 p.m.

    Her body will be buried at Bentonville Cemetery.

    He said the preliminary cause of death report will released from the state crime lab in a few days. The full autopsy results will take 3 to 4 months, Oxford said.

    Officials with the Arkansas state crime lab did not provide any information.

    Jersey Bridgeman endured a lot in her young life, including abuse at the hands of her father and stepmother, but school officials say she was still a happy little girl.

    Now, with the couple away in prison for chaining her to a dresser last year, authorities are trying to figure out who killed the 6-year-old. Her body was found in a vacant house this week in Bentonville.

    "To find out that the girl had been abused before, to me it was like: 'You've got to be kidding me,'" said Mike Poore, school superintendent in Bentonville, where Jersey attended kindergarten at Sugar Creek Elementary. "How can someone that young go through so much?"

    Bentonville Police said they are investigating Jersey's death as a homicide, but they won't disclose how she died. The FBI has been called to assist with the investigation.

    In a statement Friday, they said the girl's family members have been cooperating with detectives but do not want to speak to the media "during this time of grieving" and "ask that their privacy be respected."

    Authorities haven't arrested anyone in connection with Jersey's death or publicly identified any suspects or persons of interest.

    Jersey's body was found in a vacant house two doors down from the home where she lived with her mother, said Capt. Justin Thompson with the Bentonville Police Department.

    Chief Jon Simpson said the girl died sometime between midnight and 6:45 a.m. Tuesday, when her body was found about 10 minutes after someone called police to report her missing.

    Authorities have searched the home where Jersey lived, the house where her body was found and the home in between the two. police have not released information on the evidence they collected.

    Jersey's death comes almost a year after her father and stepmother chained her to a dresser in nearby Rogers.

    According to court records, David Bridgeman told an investigator he cut a belt to fit around his daughter's ankle and chained her to the dresser because she got into medication and other things around the house. He and Jersey's stepmother, Jana Bridgeman, both pleaded guilty in June to false imprisonment, permitting abuse of a minor and endangering the welfare of a minor.

    Jana Bridgeman is serving a 12-year prison sentence, plus three years for a probation revocation. David Bridgeman is serving an 18-year prison sentence.

    http://www.4029tv.com/news/arkansas/...z/-/index.html

    rip jersey

  7. #7
    Moderator bowieluva's Avatar
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    Jesus fucking christ, this kid's life sucked.

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    what a life this baby had to endure :( rest in peace baby girl

  9. #9
    Senior Member rachy's Avatar
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    Neighbor charged with murder of tragic six-year-old Jersey whose body was found yards from her home - a year after her father was jailed for abusing her
    Zachary Holly, 28, was arrested in killing of six-year-old Jersey Bridgeman
    Jersey was in the care of her mother DesaRae Bridgeman when she died
    Her body was found in a vacant house close to where she lived with her mom and mom's boyfriend
    Father and stepmother both serving prison sentences for child abuse


    Arkansas police have arrested a neighbor in the killing of a six-year-old girl whose body was found two days before Thanksgiving.

    Zachary Dewayne Holly, 28, of Bentonville, Arkansas, is being charged with capital murder, kidnapping and residential burglary and is being held in the local county jail.

    Little Jersey Bridgeman was reported missing the morning of November 20, and her body was found minutes after a search began in an abandoned house two doors from her home.

    Jersey, whose father and stepmother were jailed last year for chaining her to a dresser, disappeared from her bedroom at her home in Bentonville on Monday night.

    ‘Many questions related to this investigation and arrest will be answered by the affidavit of probable cause, which will be released on Wednesday,’ said Police Chief Jon Simpson.

    Simpson said work by the State Crime Lab helped speed the arrest, but he did not reveal how Jersey was killed or release other details about her death or what led police to Holly.

    Simpson said Holly will have a bail and probable cause hearing Wednesday, during which a probable cause affidavit will be released. He said the girl's family had been notified about the arrest.

    Holly lives next door to the six-year-old victim, in between her house and the vacant house where her body was found.

    Holly, 26, states on his Facebook page that he lives with his wife Amanda Jo Holly and her four-year-old son and that he graduated from Huntsville High School in Texas in 2004.

    Amanda Jo Holly is Facebook friends with Jersey’s biological mother, DesaRae Bridgeman.

    Bridgeman said she last saw her daughter around midnight, before reporting her missing around 6.30am. Authorities found her body approximately 10 minutes later.

    After Jersey's body was found, investigators searched the home where she lived and the house where her body was found, as well as the homes in between.

    The FBI was brought in to assist in the investigation.

    Meanwhile, it is still unclear where DesaRae Bridgeman was at the time of the missing persons call.

    Bentonville police said on Friday that certain details of the case were being withheld 'to maintain the integrity of the investigation'.

    After the arrest of her father and stepmother, Jersey was put under the care of her biological mother.

    According to police reports, she died between midnight and 6.43 am, when police received the call that the girl had gone missing.

    Police said the six-year-old had been living with a 'relative' when she went missing.

    Stepmother Jana Bridgeman, also identified as Jana Slinkard in court records, is serving a 12-year prison sentence, plus three years for a probation revocation, according to online Department of Correction records.

    David Bridgeman is serving an 18-year prison sentence. Prison records show he has a tattoo that says 'Jersey'.

    Jersey made headlines last year when her father and stepmother chained her to a dresser as part of a punishment. In conversations with childcare specialists, the six-year-old said that she slept on the floor of her parents' room and that she was tied up for misbehaving.

    'She said that Jana and David chain her to the dresser because she had gotten up and eaten some pies, cereal, and bread,' Rogers Police Detective Larry Taylor wrote in the court affidavit.

    He added that the girl 'stated that they put a belt around her waist so that she could not get up and get any food.'

    The woman who first contacted the police about possible child endangerment said she saw Jersey tied up to the dresser with a silver chain, which appeared to be a dog collar.

    Jersey's father David admitted in court that he did tie up his daughter with a belt but defended his actions by saying that this was to prevent her from getting into medication and other dangerous materials around the house.

    'He said that he thinks she may be sleepwalking and that they discussed buying a child gate, but since he does not have a job, they could not afford to buy one at that time,' Taylor wrote in the court affidavit.

    The father added that he had first cut a belt to fit around his daughter's ankle and added a lock on it after she had broken free. Then after she complained about the pain in her leg, he chained her by the waist instead.

    'It should be noted that the chain that David used was approximately one to two feet in length and appeared to be a dog choke collar,' Taylor added.

    Both Bridgeman's father and stepmother pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, permitting abuse of a minor and endangering the welfare of a minor. For their crime, the father is serving an 18-year prison sentence, while the stepmother was sentenced to 12 years.

    Jersey's death has left her community shaken.

    The local school district is currently working on ways to address the death and help students cope with the loss. Administrators said they hope to have finalized plan ready by the time classes resume on Monday.

    On Tuesday more than 100 people gathered at the Children's Advocacy Center to hold a candlelight vigil in honor of the girl. Members of the event were visible distraught by the girl's death, and to many, she was well-loved.

    'There was a unique quality about Jersey,' Beverly Engle, the center's executive director, said. 'A little old soul, but such a delight.'

    A funeral for Jersey is set for 1 p.m. Tuesday at Rogers Funeral Home in Rogers.

    Zachary and his wife amanda.



    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ARDS-home.html

    the wife's facebook https://www.facebook.com/amanda.j.watkins

    i guess zach's facebook is already deleted.

  10. #10
    Senior Member morbidT's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rachy View Post
    Who is Amanda Bordersen? I thought the wife's name is Jana?

    Here is the mother's FB
    https://www.facebook.com/desarae.bridgeman

  11. #11
    Senior Member rachy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by morbidT View Post
    Who is Amanda Bordersen? I thought the wife's name is Jana?

    Here is the mother's FB
    https://www.facebook.com/desarae.bridgeman
    amanda is zach's wife the guy they arrested for jersey's murder.

    jersey's step mom is jana.

    Amanda Jo Holly is Facebook friends with Jersey?s biological mother, DesaRae Bridgeman.

    amanda and zach's wedding picture's on facebook
    https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...2075486&type=1

    ETA it now says amanda is divorced.

    screen shot in case amanda deletes the pictures.



    Last edited by rachy; 11-27-2012 at 08:26 AM. Reason: added ss

  12. #12
    Senior Member rachy's Avatar
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    Neighbor Faces Capital Murder, Kidnapping Charges in Jersey Bridgeman’s Death

    Zachary Holly, 28, was arrested Monday in connection with the murder investigation of 6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman, according to police.

    He faces charges of capital murder, kidnapping and residential burglary, according to Chief Jon Simpson.

    Holly lives next door to Jersey, in a trailer at 702 SE A St. Holly’s home lies between Jersey’s house and the vacant house where the girl’s body was found.

    Simpson made the announcement during a news conference at the Bentonville Police Department Monday night.

    Holly is being held in the Benton County Jail, where he will receive a bond hearing Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. Holly was booked into the jail at 8:53 p.m.

    Jersey was found dead in an abandoned house near her home on S.E. A Street on Nov. 20 after she was reported missing around 6:43 a.m.

    Authorities collected about 50 pieces of evidence Wednesday after executing search warrants for three properties, including the trailer next door where Holly lived. Police also collected evidence from Jersey’s home and the vacant house next to the trailer and sent the evidence to the Arkansas Crime Lab, said Bentonville Police Chief Jon Simpson.

    A neighbor told 5NEWS Holly’s wife was Jersey’s babysitter.

    On his Facebook page, Holly states he lives with his girlfriend and her four-year-old son. He says he is 26 years old and graduated from Huntsville High School in Texas in 2004.

    Holly’s girlfriend says the couple got married in March, on her Facebook page. She is Facebook friends with Jersey’s mother.

    Holly states one of his favorite movie quotes as the Silence of the Lambs line, “It puts the lotion on its skin…or else it gets the hose again,” a quote said in the film by a serial killer.

    Jersey’s funeral is set for 1 p.m. on Tuesday (Nov. 27) at the Rollins Funeral Chapel in Rogers, with burial to follow at Bentonville Cemetery. Visitation will be held Monday (Nov. 26) from 5 to 7 p.m. at the funeral home.

    Jersey is the same child whose father and stepmother were imprisoned for chaining her to a dresser earlier this year.

    David Bridgeman was sentenced to 18 years in prison in June after he pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, permitting the abuse of a minor and endangering the welfare of a minor.

    Jana Suzanne Slinkard, the girl’s stepmother, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on the same charges. She received an additional three years for violating her probation on a previous drug offense.

    Shortly after police announced Holly’s arrest, Jersey’s mom posted on a Facebook support group for Jersey, “This is Jersey Bridgeman’s mom, Thanks to the hard working detectives that put a lot of time and effort to catching the killer of my daughter. She will be in my thoughts, prayers, and memories always. My daughter is one of the lights in my life. Though her spirit may have passed and moved on her light will always burn brightly in my soul and in her sisters actions and features. Her killer was caught today (Zachary Holly) and I found out at her viewing. Hold your children tight tonight knowing that there is another evil person in this crappy world caught. Loving and missing you always Jersey Dianne,
    DesaRae”


    http://5newsonline.com/2012/11/26/ne...dgemans-death/

  13. #13
    Senior Member Crazy Lady's Avatar
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    The picture of Jersey holding the apple is so sweet. I hope this POS never gets out of jail.
    "When it comes time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived." ~ Henry David Thoreau

    "Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall. ~ Confucius

  14. #14
    Senior Member rachy's Avatar
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  15. #15
    Senior Member morbidT's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rachy View Post
    amanda is zach's wife the guy they arrested for jersey's murder.
    Oh, ok

  16. #16
    Senior Member rachy's Avatar
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    people were blaming the mother because zach's wife babysat her daughter.

  17. #17
    Senior Member Just Me's Avatar
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    Someone couldn't get Zach a shirt that fit on his wonderful wedding day

  18. #18
    Senior Member Just Me's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rachy View Post
    people were blaming the mother because zach's wife babysat her daughter.
    Wow how was she to know this would happen? Some people are so stupid

  19. #19
    Senior Member morbidT's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Just Me View Post
    Someone couldn't get Zach a shirt that fit on his wonderful wedding day
    Or britches

  20. #20
    Senior Member rachy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Just Me View Post
    Wow how was she to know this would happen? Some people are so stupid
    exactly people are stupid.

  21. #21
    Moderator bowieluva's Avatar
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    Holy shades of Jack Sprat.

  22. #22
    Senior Member AZPistonsGirl's Avatar
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    I so hate to say this but I think Mom might have something to do with this. No evidentiary foundation for that thought, aside from them collecting evidence from her home and her post so soon after Jersey's death. I hope I am eating my words and apologizing soon enough.

  23. #23
    Moderator bowieluva's Avatar
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    I'm sure she had a fucking horrible mother but the articles make it sound like she's had limited to no involvement in her daughter's life for a while. Just probably sucked and led to all the terrible things that happened to her, but isn't directly involved.

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    http://www.katv.com/story/20206146/i...f-killing-girl

    BENTONVILLE (AP) - Authorities in northwest Arkansas say a fellow inmate attacked a man accused of killing a 6-year-old girl whose body was found in a vacant home days before Thanksgiving.

    Benton County Jail Capt. Chris Sparks said Wednesday that a jail trustee was helping a deputy who was passing out fresh clothes and towels when the trustee slipped into Zachary Holly's cell on Tuesday and started a fight with him.

    Sparks says Holly wasn't seriously injured.

    Holly is due in court Wednesday after he was arrested Monday in the death of 6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman who lived next door. Police say Jersey's body was found Nov. 20 in a nearby vacant house.

    Sparks says the trustee is in jail on a parole violation and could face additional charges in the jail attack

  25. #25
    Senior Member rachy's Avatar
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    Neighbor charged with murder, rape of Jersey Bridgeman, 6



    Zachary Holly, the Arkansas man charged Wednesday with the rape and murder of 6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman, had been babysitting the little girl the night before her disappearance, as he had many times before, according to a court document released after his first hearing Wednesday.

    Jersey's death came just months after a high-profile child abuse case in which her father and stepmother, David Bridgeman and Jana Bridgeman, convicted of chaining the girl to a dresser at night. Jana Bridgeman is serving a 12-year prison sentence, plus three years for a probation revocation. David Bridgeman is serving an 18-year prison sentence.

    Jersey had since moved in with her mother, DesaRae Bridgeman, and began kindergarten this fall in Bentonville, about 215 miles northwest of Little Rock. They lived next door to Zachary Holly, 28, and his wife Amanda, friends of the family who frequently babysat Jersey and her 2-year-old sister, as they did on Nov. 19, according to interviews described in the affidavit of probable cause released Wednesday.

    When DesaRae came home from work at about 11 that night, she went to get the girls, and after she chatted with the Hollys for a few minutes, Zachary carried Jersey to her home, while DesaRae carried the younger sister — and they placed them in the same bed, the document says.


    Jersey was reported missing the morning of Nov. 20. Minutes after a search for her began, Jersey's body was discovered in an abandoned house two doors away.

    The probable cause document released to the public is heavily redacted, but it reveals that the crime lab in Bentonville worked through the Thanksgiving holiday to develop a DNA profile from sperm cells found on Jersey's body.

    Holly called Bentonville police on Nov. 23, according to the affidavit, and later showed up at a station, gave a statement — the details of which are entirely blacked out in the document — and then was booked on charges of capital murder, kidnapping, rape and residential burglary.

    In Wednesday's hearing at the First Circuit Court in Bentonville, Ark., he was denied bond, NBC affiliate KARK-TV reported.

    One neighbor, Julie Pickard, told The Associated Press Tuesday that Holly wept the day Jersey's body was found.

    "He was crying for a long time," said Pickard.

    The fact that Jersey was abused by parental figures and a neighbor is suspected in her death fits into an unfortunate pattern, according to Beverly Engle executive director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Benton County in Arkansas.

    "Ninety-six percent of people who offend on children are people that the child knows. We all have been so trained in the stranger-danger aspect, which certainly does happen, but I think the reality is that’s about 4 percent," said Engle, who interviewed Jersey last year when allegations of abuse against her father and stepmother surfaced.

    "Jersey was a precious, adorable child and it is very grieving to know even in the moments before her death what she may have experienced, knowing this person or trusting this person,” Engle said.

    Holly is being held in Benton County Jail, and on Tuesday was attacked by another inmate, jail Capt. Chris Sparks told The AP Wednesday. He said Holly wasn't seriously injured, and that the other inmate, who was in jail on a parole violation, could face charges.

    "Obviously this case has gotten a lot of exposure in the media and all the inmates know what he's in for ..." Sparks said. "We're going to do our best to try and keep him safe, just like we do every other inmate."

    Holly was not required to speak at the hearing, and KARK reported that he remained silent as his lawyers, including public defender Jay Saxton, asked to review the decision to deny bond.


    http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012...idgeman-6?lite

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