True Crime Chronicles: Scott County man who murdered his wife in 2008 has been parole eligible for almost 13 years
In a quiet farmstead off a winding Scott County road, a small pond once reflected nothing more ominous than pine trees and sky. But on the morning of July 23, 2008, that pond became the centerpiece of a failed murder cover-up that exposed decades of domestic strain in a 40-year marriage.
Erma Holloway, 60, a homemaker from nearby Waldron, was found dead in the water. Her estranged husband, Phillip Wayne Holloway, then 58, was cradling her body at the pond’s edge when deputies arrived. He and a friend, Jim Smittle, had just “discovered” her. What followed was a textbook staging gone wrong — one that a Scott County jury ultimately saw through.
Phillip and Erma Holloway had been married for four decades and raised two children. By 2008, however, they were living apart. Erma stayed in town; Phillip remained on the family farm near Parks.
They still saw each other occasionally --she cooked for him, spent the night, and the couple had even discussed reconciliation. Yet tensions lingered. Phillip had a girlfriend of five years. Erma struggled with pain-pill addiction. And there was a documented history of violence: in 2005, Phillip was convicted of domestic battery after beating Erma with a belt.
On the evening of July 22, around 9 p.m., the couple argued about their relationship while drinking several pitchers of gin mixed with lemon-flavored Kool-Aid. Erma said she was leaving. Phillip took her car keys so she wouldn’t drive intoxicated. According to his own statements to investigators, he grabbed her, slung her backward into a recliner (which tipped over), and kicked her on the hips and side.
While he was on the phone granting a neighbor permission to fish in the pond, Erma found a spare set of keys and drove off. Phillip later told police he saw her car’s taillights stop near the pond, searched the area in his Gator all-terrain vehicle, found nothing, and went home. He called her residence repeatedly with no answer.
The next morning, Smittle called 911 at 9:34 a.m. to report that he and Holloway had found Erma’s body in the pond on Holloway’s property. When Sergeant Josh Mourton and Chief Deputy Terry Staggs arrived, they found Phillip sitting at the water’s edge, holding his wife’s lifeless body. Divers later located her submerged car — windows and doors closed, gear shift in neutral, key in the ignition but the engine not running. Underwater tire tracks suggested it had been pushed in from behind.
Investigators quickly spotted inconsistencies. Erma had dried blood under her nose and above her lip. A search warrant executed at the residence turned up a bleach odor, blood droplets under the recliner, a red substance on the rug, and bleached rags with rust-colored stains. Forensic testing later confirmed Erma’s blood on the furniture, rug, and a pair of Phillip’s blue coveralls.
Dr. Frank Peretti, the state medical examiner, performed the autopsy and delivered devastating testimony at trial. Erma suffered a broken nose, two black eyes, multiple broken ribs, neck injuries, and extensive bruising over her entire body. Her extremity injuries were defensive in nature, consistent with “physical combat” and a “violent struggle.” Cause of death: blunt-force trauma. Manner of death: homicide.
Crucially, Peretti ruled out drowning. There were no classic signs — no heavy, water-filled lungs, no froth or edema. Erma was already dead before her body entered the pond. The car’s closed windows and doors made any scenario of her driving in and escaping underwater virtually impossible.
An accident-reconstruction expert and automotive technician corroborated that the vehicle had been pushed into the pond (consistent with damage from Holloway’s Gator) and that the engine was off at the time of submersion.
In June 2009, a Scott County Circuit Court jury of eight men and four women deliberated nearly six hours before convicting Phillip Holloway of second-degree murder — a lesser-included offense to the original first-degree murder charge. Circuit Judge Jerry Don Ramey sentenced him to 30 years in prison on June 24, 2009.
Holloway appealed, arguing insufficient evidence of homicide, errors in jury instructions, and issues with expert testimony. The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction in November 2010. A subsequent Rule 37 petition claiming ineffective assistance of counsel was denied by the circuit court in 2011 and upheld by the Arkansas Supreme Court in 2013.
Phillip W. Holloway became parole-eligible on August 3, 2016. As of the most recent available Arkansas Department of Correction records, he remains incarcerated. No public announcements, news reports, or court filings indicate a granted parole or release.
Erma Holloway was laid to rest as a longtime Waldron resident and homemaker. Her obituary noted only that she passed on July 23, 2008, survived by her husband at the time.
The two children she and Phillip raised have remained largely out of the public eye.
In the tight-knit communities of Scott County, the case remains a somber reminder of how domestic discord can erupt in rural isolation and how forensic science and local law enforcement can unravel even a carefully staged scene.
The pond on the old Holloway farm still sits quietly, but the story it holds continues to echo through court records and local memory more than 17 years later.
