O’Fallon teen was excited about new beginnings before alleged murder, mom says

Seventeen-year-old Cadence Eileen Prince, who went by her middle name at school, was supposed to start her first job Thursday.

The O’Fallon Township High School junior had a lot to be excited about, her mother Victoria Dimmitt said. There was her job at a Cracker Barrel restaurant, new friends and the independence that came with her first car.

Prince was also starting to think about her future. Whereas questions about a career were previously met with a shrug or “I don’t know,” she was honing in on cosmetology and would proudly show off new looks. Recently, Prince pondered over her dream car, either Dimmitt’s Audi or a Toyota Tacoma.

“She really found her stride in the last six months, and it was really beautiful,” said Prince’s stepfather Dustin Dimmitt.

Prince died on Sunday. Authorities allege her boyfriend, 18-year-old Julian G. Holloway, stabbed her in the neck and chest, and he has been charged with murder. His defense attorney argued during a pretrial detention hearing Thursday that Prince died by suicide, which her mother strongly disputes.

“Everytime I see (Holloway’s) mugshot, I think, ‘How did this happen?’” she said. “... The way they looked at each other, the way they put energy into each other, felt very genuine.”

Patrick Holloway, Julian Holloway’s grandfather who he lived with, declined to comment Thursday evening.

Visitation for Prince will be held from 2-6 p.m. on Sunday, May 25, at Wolfersberger Funeral Home in O’Fallon, the funeral home’s website states.

A candlelight vigil is planned for 7:30-9 p.m. on Monday, May 26, at the Goshen Trailhead parking lot on Kyle Road. There, people have created a memorial with flowers, teddy bears and Prince’s favorite things in her honor.

Teen remembered for how ‘fiercely’ she loved

Prince surrounded herself with the people and things she was passionate about, Dimmitt said.

Her bedroom, the teen’s favorite place, was lined with pictures and notes from family and friends, along with some of her artwork and her mother’s. There, she would hang out with her beloved cat. In addition to all animals, Prince loved anime – which is a Japanese style of animation – and gaming.

Prince carried notes from her dad, mom and sister in her wallet as a way to keep those she loved with her at all times, Dimmitt said.

“The biggest thing is how fiercely she loved people,” she said.

That held true for Julian Holloway, too. The couple had been together for over a year, according to a recent anniversary post on Holloway’s Instagram. Dimmitt said the teens would go to movies and walk the trails hand-in-hand at Hesse Park.

Holloway got along with Prince’s family. Dimmitt mused over how the couple would wear matching pajama pants and T-shirts.

“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh that’s ridiculously cute, especially for teenagers,’” Dimmitt said.

Prince told her mother that she thought Holloway was “the one,” and that they’d get married someday.

For a while, Dimmitt believed it too, she said.

‘She just felt very confident and strong lately’

At one point, Prince and Holloway split for a few months, during which time Dimmitt said the teens both dated other people.

Around this time, Dimmitt said, Holloway went missing. An O’Fallon Police Department spokesperson confirmed that his mother filed a missing person’s report on March 14 and he was found shortly after.

On Thursday, the BND filed an open records request with the police department asking for any records involving Holloway. The department has five days to respond, per Illinois law.

Eventually, Prince and Holloway got back together. Dimmitt said she sensed tension in the relationship that wasn’t there before. Prince would still look at Holloway with the same young-love sparkle in her eye, Dimmitt said, but she didn’t seem as excited about the relationship.

Prince started opening up to her mom about her relationship, although Dimmitt said she could tell at times that her daughter wasn’t telling her everything. What Prince told her seemed to be the typical ups-and-downs of teenage love, Dimmitt said, and not anything alarming.

Holloway wished her a Happy Mother’s Day. In the text, he called her “Momma V.” Prince was enjoying driving Holloway and her friends around in her new car.

“She just felt very confident and strong lately,” Dimmitt said.

‘Mom, I’m scared,’ Prince texted

On Sunday evening, Dimmitt’s phone pinged with the last text she’d ever receive from Prince.

“Mom, I’m scared,” it read.

Dimmitt quickly texted back, “Why?”

A few minutes went by.

“???,” Dimmitt followed up, urging Prince to reply.

Figuring her daughter was with Holloway, and that maybe Prince wasn’t texting back because she was driving, Dimmitt started calling Holloway.

“The more I called him, I just had a terrible feeling,” she said.

It couldn’t have been more than an hour before the hospital called, Dimmitt said.

Prince was pronounced dead at 9:51 p.m. Sunday in the emergency room at O’Fallon’s St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr. said.

Later, Dimmitt learned that the couple had been in the parking lot of the Goshen Trailhead, where her daughter had been stabbed in the neck and chest. Holloway was arrested at the scene.

At a pretrial detention hearing on Thursday, Holloway’s defense attorney, Cheryl R. Whitley, said Prince stabbed herself.

Victoria Dimmitt, who attended the hearing in St. Clair County Circuit Court, said her daughter had never been suicidal.

“The defense was just trying to do their job,” Dimmitt said. “I know it’s just because they need to find something to defend him with … she would never do that to herself, to her sister who looks up to her immensely, not to her family.”

St. Clair County Judge Sara Rice ordered Holloway to be held at the county jail until his trial begins.

At one point, law enforcement asked Dimmitt if she wanted to file a no-contact order against Holloway. She refused.

“Even though I know he doesn’t have anything good for me, I just can’t shut down that avenue,” she said.

There are too many “whys?” to do so, she said.

This story was originally published May 23, 2025 at 11:30 AM.