Police arrest estranged husband in 1997 slaying

By Associated Press - Saturday, January 25, 2014

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) - Police have arrested a Chattanooga woman’s estranged husband in her 1997 stabbing death.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports (https://bit.ly/1e4ZDvI) police long suspected Adolphus Hollingsworth might be responsible Victoria Witherspoon Carr’s death. The couple had a history of domestic violence that included an incident in May 1996 when Hollingsworth was charged with assault and possession of an unlawful weapon after he allegedly choked Carr. In another incident, Carr filed a police report saying Hollingsworth had dragged her by the hair and punched her in the face.

At the time Carr disappeared, Hollingsworth also was facing bigamy charges out of Alabama. Carr’s family said she did not know Hollingsworth was already married when she wed him in November 1996.

Carr’s 9- and 4-year-old children were the last people to see her. She put them to bed, and when they woke up, she was gone. Her pager was on the floor and the phone was off the hook.

Her car was found in her mother’s driveway with brush trapped underneath it and a strong odor of gasoline in the interior. Her keys were found in the grass nearby.

Her body was found more than a year later after a dog carried her skull into a yard.

Police won’t say what new evidence has allowed them to arrest Hollingsworth now, but the break came after Carr’s case appeared on the television show “Cold Justice.”