Man admits child suitcase murder

Sydney : A man pleaded guilty yesterday to killing a young mother and her toddler, whose skeleton was found in a suitcase on the side of a road, ending a case that baffled police and shocked Australians.

Daniel James Holdom, 43, admitted the double murder in 2008 of Karlie Jade Pearce-Stevenson, then aged 20, and her two-year-old daughter Khandalyce Kiara Pearce, when he appeared in the New South Wales state Supreme Court.

Police were unable to identify her until 2015, when her child’s remains were found by a passerby in a suitcase near a highway close to a small South Australia town some 1,100 kilometres (684 miles) away.

The child’s discovery prompted two calls to a police hotline that eventually helped investigators identify the pair through DNA. Police also alleged he kept photos of Pearce-Stevenson’s body as a “trophy”.