After Victoria Hollingsworth went missing 16 years ago, three people reported it: her brother, her mother and her estranged husband, Adolphus Hollingsworth.
His trial on first-degree murder charges in her stabbing death started Tuesday.
Victoria Hollingsworth disappeared from her parents' Duncan Avenue home in August 1997. Her body was discovered, wrapped in plastic and covered with tires, on Billy Goat Hill in May 1999 after a dog carried her skull to a nearby yard.
The two were married at the time of her death. She has been referred to variously as Victoria Witherspoon Carr and Victoria Carr Hollingsworth.
Adolphus Hollingsworth wasn't arrested until January 2014. It's not clear why it took so long to make the arrest, or what evidence tied him to the death after all the intervening years.
Hollingsworth wore a white shirt and tie in court as jurors heard from family and investigating officers about the day Vicki Hollingsworth went missing. Her son, Wesley Carr, testified he woke early on the morning of Aug. 18 to find his mother gone. Her car and purse were outside, and a call to her cellphone went straight to voicemail.
Her brother, Kennith Witherspoon, said he also tried to call his sister when he found her children alone.
Adolphus Hollingsworth, center, stands with attorneys Manzura Talipova, left, and Steve Brown as the jury returns during the first day of Hollingsworth's trial. He is charged in the 1997 murder of his wife, Victoria Witherspoon Carr."I knew something was wrong because she did not answer," Witherspoon said.
Witherspoon saw his sister's car in the driveway. The Mustang was giving off a strong chemical smell, and something like a bush was stuck in the bumper.
"It looked like you just hit somebody and just run after them," Witherspoon said.
Witherspoon said he saw a chunk of bush missing from Hollingsworth's yard. Later, that bush had been cut down, he said.
Witherspoon went across the street, where he saw Hollingsworth. He asked him if he'd seen Victoria.
"With that little grin he had, he said, 'I don't know, I've been looking for her myself,'" Witherspoon said.
In fact, Hollingsworth reported his wife missing that day. Witherspoon and his mother also filed reports, testified Capt. Corliss Cooper, who worked in the missing persons unit at the time of the crime.
But jurors also heard testimony that painted a picture of Hollingsworth's violent past. Adolphus Mitchell, a neighbor, said he saw the couple argue after Victoria got a tattoo her husband didn't like.
And Carr said that about a month before her disappearance, when the family was living with Hollingsworth, he remembered waking up to his mother's screams and seeing her in the bathroom with her husband.
"I saw him holding her over the sink and pouring gasoline over her face," Carr said.
At a hearing Tuesday out of the presence of the jury, Hollingsworth's attorneys argued that testimony should be excluded because it happened at a date too far removed from the slaying. Prosecutors argued it showed intent, and Judge Rebecca Stern allowed Carr to testify.
On cross-examination, Assistant District Public Defender Steve Brown asked Carr if he'd ever reported that story to police. He didn't until 2010, Carr said, when a detective came to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to question him. The story didn't appear, either, in the family's report just after she went missing.
Contact staff writer Claire Wiseman at cwiseman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow her on Twitter @clairelwiseman.