An Alabama man has been charged with murdering a 23-year-old woman whose body was found over the weekend on the side of an interstate highway, Tuscaloosa County authorities reported.

The suspect was identified as Randall Lendell Dejourney, 44, who faces a murder charge in the death of Karen Hollis.

Initially, the man had been charged only with abuse of a corpse, but an autopsy concluded that the victim died of asphyxiation and determined that the death was a homicide, the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office said.

Investigators believe the victim was murdered in his apartment

Capt. Jack Kennedy of the Tuscaloosa County Violent Crimes Unit said investigators believe Randall Lendell Dejourney strangled the victim inside his apartment before disposing of the body.

The authorities indicated that both knew each other previously and that the accused was a friend of one of the victim's neighbors.

To this day, investigators continue working to establish the motive for the crime.

According to the investigation, relatives of Karen Hollis located her remains on Saturday afternoon on the side of Interstate 20, in Greene County.

The relatives were searching in an area identified thanks to electronic evidence recovered during the investigation.

The authorities explained that they had previously found the young woman's cell phone several kilometers away, in a location that initially appeared to correspond to a car accident.

Hollis' disappearance had been reported on May 8 to the Northport Police Department.

Tracking application showed the victim's last movements

Relatives of the victim told local media that the Life360 application recorded that the young woman left her apartment in Northport at 4:25 in the morning on the day of her disappearance.

According to the location data, the vehicle traveled towards the center of the city and later reached Interstate 20.

The application also recorded a sudden stop at 4:42 in the morning.

The victim's boyfriend, Zackary Slaughter, testified that he was exchanging text messages with her before she disappeared.

“The last thing he texted me was that he was going to the store to buy a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup,” she said.

During the investigation, authorities executed multiple search warrants and collected physical evidence, testimonies and electronic data.

Police identified Randall Lendell Dejourney as a person of interest last week and subsequently arrested him after the body was found.

The defendant remains detained in the Tuscaloosa County Jail without bail while the judicial process continues.