Woman, 19, goes to meet man, 29, after striking up romance online – only for him to ‘murder her and chop up her body before throwing in river’

The body of a 19-year-old girl was found in a Louisiana river after she went to stay with a 29-year-old man she met online. 

Sheryl Turner, 19, and Anthony Holland Jr., 29, had ‘engaged in a romantic relationship over test message’  before Turner fled her home in New Iberia, Louisiana, to meet him. 

The 19-year-old left home on December 31 and her family grew worried about her after receiving ‘disturbing’ information form one of Turner’s friends.

Turner’s twin sister Sherry said the last time she spoke to her was before she ‘packed up and left without telling anybody where she was going.’

Back on January 24, the torso of Turner was discovered in the Ouachita River after a a boater called the Catahoula Parish Sheriff’s Office to report a body floating in the water. 

DNA testing confirmed that the body belonged to the missing 19-year-old, the Kansas City Star reported. 

Then on April 23 – three months after Turner’s body was found – Holland was arrested and booking in jail on a second-degree murder charge.

The arrest came after investigators searched Holland’s home and found ‘forensic evidence of a crime of violence,’ according to police. 

Holland confessed the grisly killing, admitting that he killed Turner at his home and dismembered her body before dumping her remains in the river, police said. 

Turner’s twin sister, who was vocal about her sister’s disappearance and the aftermath of her discovery, said ‘I’ll never understand why someone could do that to a person’ on February 25. 

The heartbroken sister wished her twin a happy birthday on April 12. She would have turned 20. ‘Until we meet again love you forever and always,’ Sherry wrote.

When Holland’s arrest was announced – Sherry said that justice had been served.  

In Turner’s obituary, family described her as ‘a shining light to all who knew her, with a kind and loving personality that radiated through her beautiful smile and touched the hearts of those around her.’