A woman charged with murder in the November stabbing death of a Marion man is in custody after turning herself in to state investigators Aug. 19, nine months after a warrant was issued in the case, according to Perry County court records and the Perry County Sheriff’s Office.
Anastassja Mia Cooper, 33, is charged with intentional murder, a Class A felony. A sworn complaint alleges Cooper stabbed Jeffery W. Holifield multiple times with a large kitchen knife on the night of Nov. 7, 2025, resulting in his death.
Holifield, 68, was found dead in the 2000 block of Onrow Tubbs Road in Marion. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s State Bureau of Investigation opened the case Nov. 12, 2025, at the request of the sheriff’s office and asked the public’s help locating Cooper, whom the agency identified at the time as a person of interest by the nickname “Anya.”
Cooper was living in Marion when the investigation began, and ALEA said she might be traveling with a mixed-breed dog named “Banana.”
The murder complaint was sworn Nov. 19, 2025, by an SBI special agent. In January, ALEA said Cooper had recently been tracked to San Mateo, California, and had potential family ties in Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania.
Cooper turned herself in to ALEA SBI on Aug. 19, the sheriff’s office said in a release that evening. Court records now list her address in Irondale, and the agent who swore the complaint is listed as the arresting officer.
She was charged and transported to the Marengo County Jail, the sheriff’s office said. No bond had been set as of a court record dated Aug. 19, and a hearing under Aniah’s Law, the 2022 constitutional amendment that allows judges to deny bail to defendants charged with murder and other serious violent offenses, is set for Sept. 9.
Holifield, a 1975 graduate of Homewood High School, owned Cahaba Woodworks in Helena.
The sheriff’s office thanked ALEA SBI and the public for their assistance and said the investigation remains ongoing.
