A 65-year-old man will be arraigned on a murder charge on Friday in connection with the fatal stabbing of a woman in Roxbury in 1988, prosecutors announced.
James Holloman, of Dorchester, is charged with killing Karen Taylor, 25, in 1988, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office. Holloman was arrested Thursday after being indicted by a grand jury earlier in the day.
His arraignment is slated for Friday morning in Suffolk Superior Court.
On May 27, 1988, Taylor’s mother called to speak to her daughter. Taylor’s 3-year-old daughter answered the phone and said her mother could not be woken up.
Taylor’s mother went to her apartment at 37 Williams St. in Roxbury but could not get into the building. She eventually crawled through the window of her daughter’s bedroom at the back of the building. Inside the bedroom, she found Taylor lying face-down in a pool of blood, Hayden’s office said in a statement.
Taylor had been stabbed 15 times in her chest, head and neck area, according to the statement. Forensic testing from fingernail scrapings on Taylor’s right hand produced a DNA profile of an unknown man.
In 2023, Boston police obtained a sample of Holloman’s DNA, which matched the profile found under Taylor’s fingernails.
”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 the statement.
More details are expected to be released at Holloman’s arraignment.
