Managing Editor     10/29/2002

Members of the Tracy Holloway family and Searcy police detectives mingle
Monday at a press conference to hear Betty Williams, executive assistant of
the Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation announce a $5,000
reward for information leading to a conviction in the Holloway murder. Shown
are (frol left) David Altom, Holloway's uncle; Williams; Sergeant Stephanie
Inman, Searcy Police Department; Lois Lawson, Holloway's great-aunt; and
Donna May, Holloway's mother, (Citizen photo by Dale Ellis)

A former Searcy resident, the Internet, and a triple-homicide in a national park have all combined to bring new life into an investigation of a five-year-old homicide that has kept Searcy detectives searching for a killer.

In a press conference Monday morning at the  Searcy Police Department,  Sergeant Stephaine Inman introduced Betty Williams, formerly of Searcy, who now works for the Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation. Williams then announced that the foundation has posted a $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer of Tracy Altom Holloway on June 27, 1997.

Williams, an executive assistant for the foundation, said that she looks over the website of The Daily Citizen every morning to keep up with news from home, and that resulted in her notice of a recent two-part story on the Holloway case.

"This is one that really touched my heart, because it was so close to home" said Williams. "Anyone who has killed once can kill again. We had to do something."

She then asked her supervisor at the foundation, Executive Director Kim Petersen to read the story. The reaction, she said, was immediate.

"She got about half-way through and said, 'Call the sergeant and see if they want our help,'" Williams said. "I called Stephaine, obtained a report from the police department, turned it in to our review committee, and it was approved."

The foundation was established following the murders in 1999 of Carole Sund, her daughter Juli, and Silvina Pelosso (a friend of the family) during a trip to Yosemite National Park. Carole Sund's parents, Francis and Carole Carrington started the foundation with $200,000 in seed money to assist families without economic means to offer rewards to help law enforcement officials locate missing loved ones.

Money is added to the foundation's coffers through fundraisers and private donations. Currently, the foundation has $209,500 in rewards posted.

"The Carringtons felt that the posting of that reward and the media attention that resulted led to the first break in that case," Williams said. A recently concluded trial resulted in the conviction a former handyman at the hotel the trio was staying at in the park.

Williams came out of retirement a year-and-a-half ago to work for the foundation.

"We know that rewards work because we have 18 suspects in custody," she said. "So far we have seen seven murder convictions, three missing persons have been located, and one child molester has been convicted."

She noted that $55,000 in reward money has been paid out to date around the nation and that two more payments will be made within the next two weeks. The Holloway reward is the first reward posted by the foundation in Arkansas.

Donna May, Holloway's mother, said the news of the reward is like the answer to a prayer.

"I have thought this whole time that a reward fund may help to bring somebody out," she said. "We're hoping that will be the case here."

Her initial reaction to the news, she said, was shock and disbelief.

"I was relieved, but I was also disbelieving," she said, noting that she will continue monitoring the case and hoping for a break, just like she has done since the day she discovered her daughter's body.

"I'll just keep on doing what I've been doing," May said. "I'm just kind of numb. I don't know how I've gotten from that day to this one, but I know God has carried me. It's all been a blur and that's a blessing."

"I think we are fortunate that Betty Williams read the article in The Daily Citizen," said Inman. "She is a Searcy native and had it not been for that we would not be here today for this. A lot of people have worked hard on this case and this could be what we need to finally break it."

Inman said that she can be reached 24-hours-a-day through the Searcy Police Department switchboard at 268-3531. She said she is hopeful the reward will yield results.

"Somebody out there knows what happened to Tracy Holloway," said the detective. "Somebody knows, and this may be just the incentive that person needs to break this case wide open."

Williams said the efforts of the foundation are intended to help bring some measure of peace to devastated families but acknowleged that the tragedies affecting loved ones would never cease to be tragedies.

"We can talk about closure but there will never be closure for these families," she said. "The families get answers but that is all they can get. There will never really be closure for them.