The parents of an Illinois man who is charged with decapitating his pregnant girlfriend said their son “heard voices” for “four or five years”.

As we reported, 22 year old Liese Dodd was gruesomely murdered by her “tumultuous, on again, off again” boyfriend Deundrea Holloway. The pregnant woman’s body was found in her home by her mother, and her head was found “in a dumpster outside of her apartment”.

What a gut-wrenching discovery for a mother to make, truly an unimaginable case…

Related: Mother Charged With Murder 36 Years After Newborn Was Found!

According to Deundrea’s mother Carla in a news release, he was acting “strange” the night the murder took place. Carla heard her son talking to himself as he cleaned the floor of their home with bleach. In an interview with The Sun, stepfather Chris Hawk recounted what she had said:

“She said, ‘Why are you cleaning the floor of bleach? And I guess he said, ‘That’s not bleach, that’s dish soap.’ And she said, ‘No, it’s not. It’s bleach Clorox.’ It was just kind of a conversation that couldn’t go anywhere, so she just thought he was being silly, and she took off to work.”

The parents, however, didn’t suspect at the time that their son had committed such a unthinkable act. But they did recall his odd behavior:

“He threw his clothes in the trash can outside of the house.”

Hawk revealed that this behavior wasn’t uncommon for their son, citing that the 22-year-old struggled with his mental health for years:

“He would start talking to himself, acting weird and rocking back and forth on the couch. And he kept saying, ‘No, no shut up, Ruth. No.’”

These instances are referred to as Deundrea’s “moments”. Hawk stated that Ruth was a “dark voice” his stepson often heard speaking to him. According to Holloway’s mother, her son began hearing these voices after a fight that sent his life in a “downward spiral”. He allegedly went on to have violent tendencies and at one point threatened to kill her and his sister over text message. How scary…

It got so scary, in fact, Carla had to get a restraining order on her own son! She eventually let the order expire, hoping that her son was getting better. Chris and his wife had tried for a long time to get their son help, but he wouldn’t cooperate. It’s reported that a year before his arrest, he walked out of a mental health clinic and refused to accept treatment.

In a tearful moment, Hawk apologized over and over to the Dodd family, saying that he was “ashamed” of what his stepson had done:

“I don’t want to minimize their loss at all. I am sorry. It is our son who’s responsible for it. I’m not blaming everything on the system. I’m just saying that we can prevent this kind of thing. If we can figure out how to do it, you know? But I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. He’s like, I don’t have the words. I’m ashamed. And I wish I could go back and try other tactics that we didn’t try.”

Such a tragic situation that could have potentially been prevented…

It’s also reported that his mother had “begged” him to end their “toxic” romance prior to the tragedy. Clearly there were a lot of stressors going on here, but the main takeaway from this is about mental health treatment.

Research suggests patients with mental illness may be more prone to violence if they do not receive adequate treatment. And modern mental health treatment has a high success rate — between 70 and 90 percent of individuals have a significant reduction of symptoms and improved quality of life.

Our hearts go out to the Dodd family during this time of grievance.

[Image via KSDK News/YouTube/Alton PD/Facebook]