The Chanda Turner Reform Act (SB250) has been signed into law, and will go into effect Nov. 1, 2011! Families can now appeal their loved-ones' death certificates!

(Submitted by Andrea Holliday, Carissa's mother) 

Carissa Natalie Holliday died on February 21, 2009 at the tender age of 17.  She had been shot in her left temple with Glock 9 mm hollowpoint gun.  The bullet exited her right temple.  

Only four months before her death, Carissa Natalie and her family moved from Pryor, Ok. to Tulsa Ok. for better jobs and nearby schools.  Carissa became friends with a girl named "Jessica" (names are changed for privacy). This friend, Jessica, met a guy named Tim the week of Valentine's Day. Tim was a reserve cop.  Jessica did not know at the time that Tim had another girlfriend that he had just broken up with the end of Valenitne's week.  Nor did she know of the emergency call to his home regarding that girlfriend's supposed attemted suicide only a few week before Carissa's suspicious death. 

The week after Valentine's, Tim invited Jessica to stay with him at his home in Claremore, and in turn Jessica invited Carissa to stay with them as well.  On Friday, February 20, 2009 around 5:00 p.m., Tim left to go to the store.  Jessica and Carissa went through his things to find something about his ex-girlfriend.  She and Carissa found something of Tim's that was horrible, and Tim was angry.

Carissa borrowed Jessica's phone to call her boyfriend, who was at work in Texas.  (Carissa had a prepaid phone with only texting).  She did not tell her boyfriend what she found, because she was afraid if she revealed what she found, Tim would hurt her.  But she did tell her boyfriend she had found something of Tim's that he was very angry about, and she was worried.  Carissa called and asked another friend to come get her, but he couldn't.  So, Carissa stayed.

The next day, on Saturday, February 21, 2009, in the early morning hours, Carissa was shot in the head in the master bedroom of Tim's trailer.  The Investigator who went to the crime scene took a few pictures, looked through Carissa's purse, and examined the room for cleanliness.  Tim and Jessica were asked questions, and later at the Sheriff's office asked a few more questions.  Carissa's blood was taken at the crime scene and her mother later learned instead of being transported to the M.E.'s Office, she was taken to a funeral home.  The crime scene was cleaned up by Tim and Jessica's step father less than 24 hours after her murder.  There were no fingerprints taken, no more questions asked.  The Investigator kept contact with Jessica and Tim - the suspects (remember Tim was a reserve cop himself) for the entire year before the case was closed.  The Investigator only contacted Carissa's mother three times that year, only to return her annoying calls.  No autopsy was ever performed on Carissa.

The Investigator told Tim and Jessica the case was closed on suicide, which Carissa's mother had to learn from them since no one bothered to call her. Carissa's mother went to the Investigator to demand answers, why she was not notified the case was closed, and with all the facts, leads and witnesses, asked the Investigator if she actually believed this was a case of suicide.  The Investigator said she did not, but that she personally believed it was an accident. 

Carissa's mother stayed in contact with Jessica and Tim, only so she could learn their mistakes, mixed and changed stories and lies. Carissa's mom maintains there is no possible way her daughter's death was either an accident or a suicide. With all the leads, witnesses, clues, and facts Carissa's mother got from investigating her own daughter's death, since law enfocement obviously wasn't interested in pursuing one of their own, she is convinced her daughter was murdered.  

When Carissa's mother finally got to see the Investigator's file, she was shocked to see a page with a diagram of a person.  It had labels on parts of the body, which show what happened to Carissa.  This diagram indicates her right leg had a fracture.  Carissa's mother made repeated attempts to call the medical examiner to find out what part of her daughters leg was fractured, but the M.E. would not return her calls, and was always out of the office when she called. 

When Carissa's mother found out that horrible morning that her daughter was dead, the Sheriff and Coroner both told her she could not view Carissa's body as she requested.  They said Carissa was taken to the morgue in Tulsa and there were guards all around where she could not go in if she tried.  That was a lie.  Carissa was taken straight to the Funeral home, and upon her mothers requests for her daughter to be examined, her daughter was untouched until she was embalmed before her funeral. No pathologist at the M.E.'s Office ever examined her. 

The morning Carissa died, thirty minutes before her death, she tried to call home, asking Tim to let her use his phone. He wouldn't let her. There are leads, facts, witnesses, clues that one of these two friends shot her.  The evidence points more to Tim, although the evidence also shows Jessica was a part of it. 

Today, Carissa's case is UNJUSTLY closed as a suicide. Her mother, sisters, and friends know she was not suicidal.  But we also have proof she didn't kill herself, nor was her death an accident.  Today Tim and Jessica live in that same trailer and sleep in the same room where Carissa died.  Tim got his Glock back, and he and Jessica are living life to the fullest, while Carissa lays in a coffin forever. 

Her mother has written a book about Carissa's life and death.  This book tells what happened to Carissa with investigative facts that back up every lead.  This book will serve as Justice for Carissa, since Justice was denied her by the authorities, and their "investigation" rubber stamped by the M.E.'s Office.  

The book is called "NEVER FORGOTTEN" by Andrea Holliday, and is available at www.publishamerica.com today (Nov 2, 2010), and will also be available in bookstores on November 15. 

JUSTICE

Poem by Andrea Holliday in loving memory of her daughter, Carissa

I’m seachin’ for answers that will free some thoughts of mine
I’m searching for someone that took a treasure of mine~
I want to feel what you felt through all the tragedy
I want to see what you saw and let the mirror be me~
I want to feel all your pain with your last images engraved in my mind
So when I find the one who hurt you, freedom is last on his mind~
Haunted by the memory of you being gone
Takes my breath away~
Visions of you follow me
Breaking me into many pieces, to small to put me back together ~
I want my baby to come home
There is so much pain inside~
Many tears I’ve cried
My heart is breaking more inside~
My mind doesn’t want to go on
I pray god will release me and let my spirit move on~

(written by Author Andrea L. Holliday)