Boston

Man accused of killing woman in Roxbury in brutal 1988 stabbing arrested

Karen Taylor, 25, was found face down in her bedroom by her mother, having been stabbed 15 times

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James Holloman, 65, was arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court Friday morning on a first-degree murder charge after he was indicted and arrested Thursday in connection with the 1988 stabbing death of 25-year-old Karen Taylor in Roxbury, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden. 

A Dorchester man accused of killing a woman in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood over 35 years ago is expected to appear in court Friday.

James Holloman, 65, will be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court Friday morning on a first-degree murder charge after he was indicted and arrested Thursday in connection with the 1988 stabbing death of 25-year-old Karen Taylor in Roxbury, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden.

In the late afternoon of May 27, 1988, Taylor's mother called to speak with her daughter, prosecutors said. Taylor's 3-year-old daughter answered the phone and told her grandmother that her mother was sleeping and she couldn't wake her up.

The mother went to Taylor's apartment on Williams Street in Roxbury. When she was unable to get into the building, she went around the back and crawled through the window of her daughter's first-floor bedroom, where she found her daughter lying face-down in a pool of blood.

Taylor had been stabbed 15 times in her chest, head and neck area.

Prosecutors said forensic testing on the fingernail scrapings from Taylor's right hand produced a full profile of an unknown male. In 2023, Boston police detectives obtained a sample of Holloman's DNA, and it was determined to be a match to the unknown profile found underneath Taylor's fingernails.

Additional details are expected to be released at Friday's arraignment, prosecutors said.

"This is an example of superb investigative work by detectives and prosecutors using modern criminology science, but most of all it's an opportunity for Karen Taylor's loved ones to see someone answer for her death after so many years of unanswered questions," Hayden said in a statement.

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