SALINAS — Monterey County law enforcement officials have announced Thursday that charges are going to be brought against Charles Holifield for the slaying of 13-year-old Christina Williams in 1998.
An imprisoned sex offender, Charles Holifield, had previously been identified as the chief suspect. He is expected to be charged with murder next week said Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo said. He could face the death penalty.
Williams, a Fitch Middle School student, vanished about 7:40 p.m. June 12, 1998, while walking her dog near her home on Fort Ord. Despite massive searches of the area, it was not until seven months later that a plant surveyor stumbled upon her animal-scattered remains on property near Imjin Road. The girl’s body had been placed under an oak tree, completely shrouded by thick brush.
Holifield is serving two consecutive life terms for the attempted kidnapping of a 23-year-old woman. A Defense Language Institute student identified the gray-haired Holifield as the man who ordered her into his truck at gunpoint as she was jogging in Marina. That happened three months after Christina Williams disappeared and four months before the girl’s body was found. The DLI student ran away.
Holifield also was convicted of sexually assaulting or raping two teenage girls, and he was suspected of raping a third, between 1979 and 1983. All the attacks took place on Fort Ord.
