Khandalyce Pearce

The Murders of Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and Khandalyce Pearce were initially treated as unrelated.

Karlie Jade Pearce-Stevenson was born in 1988 in Alice Springs and attended Braitling Primary School and Alice Springs High School.

She was a keen netballer.

Media reports at first linked the killing to serial killer Ivan Milat and the backpacker murders, but later forensic examination found the remains had been left there many years after Milat was sent to jail in 1996 for the seven murders in the forest.

She was born in 2006 in Alice Springs.

The mother and daughter were last seen by family in 2008 in Alice Springs, Northern Territory and reported missing in 2009; however, the report was withdrawn.

It was discovered Pearce-Stevenson's mobile phone was used for years following her death to send false "proof of life" messages to family and friends.

The mother and child's identities were exploited by third parties to commit social security and other types of identity fraud.

The last confirmed sightings of the mother and daughter before their deaths were on 8 November 2008, when they were stopped by police on the Stuart Highway near Coober Pedy in the far north of South Australia, and in Charnwood, a suburb of Canberra, in December 2008.

NSW and SA police conducted a joint investigation, including collaboration with ACT and NT police.

Pearce-Stevenson is believed to have left Alice Springs with Pearce in 2008 to look for work.

Police believe they travelled to Darwin, Adelaide, the Murray and Riverland districts, Victoria and Canberra, and appealed to owners of motels, hotels and caravan parks to check their records in case the pair had stayed at their premises.

Police also believe Pearce-Stevenson was killed in Belanglo Forest on 14 or 15 December 2008, and her daughter was killed sometime later in a different location.

Originally, investigators did not reveal details of injuries, or how the pair were killed; however, police said the child died a "violent death under terrible circumstances".

A missing person report was raised with the Northern Territory Police by Pearce-Stevenson's mother on 4 September 2009.

The report was closed on 9 October 2009 after "she was reassured Pearce-Stevenson was safe and well, but did not want family contact at that time."

The skeletal remains of Pearce-Stevenson were found in Belanglo State Forest, New South Wales, Australia in 2010.

Her daughter Khandalyce Pearce's remains were found near Wynarka, South Australia (1100 km from Belanglo) in July 2015.

On 29 August 2010, trail bike riders discovered skeletal human remains in the Belanglo State Forest in New South Wales.

In a 2010 appeal for information, police called the woman "Angel" after the motif on a T-shirt she was wearing.

After more than 1,200 calls to Crime Stoppers, one caller was able to identify the quilt as one made by the child's grandmother, who had died in 2012 believing her daughter and granddaughter were living interstate.

Positive identification was achieved by comparing DNA extracted from the child's skeletal remains with DNA retained from a neonatal heel prick test.

A national DNA search then linked the child's remains with the profile of her mother, the previously unidentified remains found in the Belanglo State Forest.

Her mother died in 2012.

Pearce-Stevenson's step-father and step-brother still live in Alice Springs.

Khandalyce Kiara Pearce was Pearce-Stevenson's daughter.

The two cases were not linked until positive identification was confirmed by DNA testing in October 2015.

On 28 October 2015, Daniel James Holdom, reported to be Pearce-Stevenson's former partner, was arrested in Cessnock, New South Wales, and charged with her murder.

On 15 December, he was also charged with the murder of her daughter.

On 21 October 2015, the bones were identified as the body of Pearce-Stevenson, aged 20, from Alice Springs.

On 15 July 2015, the remains of a young child surrounded by girl's clothing were discovered by a passing motorist who examined an abandoned suitcase at the side of the Karoonda Highway near Wynarka in the Murray Mallee region of South Australia.

From the beginning, investigators believed the child had suffered a violent death several years before the remains had been dumped in the suitcase.

It was not until October 2015 that the victim was identified as Pearce, aged two, who, with her mother, had been reported missing from Alice Springs more than five years earlier, in 2009.

Soon after the discovery of the child's remains, police made a public appeal for information that could help identify her, based on items that were found with the suitcase including children's clothing and a distinctive hand-made quilt.

On 30 November 2018, he was sentenced to two life sentences for the murders.

However, on September 28, 2018, the NSW Supreme Court lifted suppression orders on the evidence in Karlie and Khandalyce murders.

Those documents revealed the cruelty of their deaths.

Karlie's autopsy shows Holdom had stood or kneeled on her chest, causing her death, and had delighted in his callous acts, taking numerous pictures of Karlie after her death.

Khandalyce's fate was even more cruel.

She was found with a disposable diaper wrapped around her head and dishcloths stuffed down her throat.