July 10, 2025
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Camden County prosecutors have charged a man in the 2011 stabbing death of Brian Holden. The case went cold until investigators identified Kenyar Hill as the alleged killer by using DNA evidence collected from Holden's girlfriend on the night of the stabbing.
Fourteen years after Brian Holden was fatally stabbed at an abandoned house in Camden, DNA collected shortly after his death has led to the arrest of a suspect in the cold case, prosecutors said Thursday.
The breakthrough in the 2011 case comes after the accused killer's DNA was found to match evidence collected from a woman who said she witnessed the stabbing after she had sex with the killer. Kenyar Hill, 46, of Camden, was arrested last month and charged with first-degree murder.
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On Oct. 11, 2011, Holden, 42, was found with multiple stab wounds in an abandoned house on the 500 block of Mechanic Street. Police responded to the scene around 10 p.m., and Holden died at Cooper University Hospital a short time later.
Holden's girlfriend told investigators she had met with another man at the property earlier that night and agreed to have sex with him in exchange for money, prosecutors said. When Holden's girlfriend and the other man got into an argument, the man took his money back. The woman then yelled out for Holden's help, and he was stabbed after confronting the suspect.
At the time of the stabbing, Holden's girlfriend was taken to a hospital to take a sexual assault forensic examination. The DNA from her exam was sent to a New Jersey State Police laboratory, but no matches were found in a national DNA database maintained by the FBI.
The case went cold until 2022, when the state police lab notified authorities that Hill allegedly was a match for the DNA profile. Detectives collected DNA from Hill in 2023 and confirmed the match, prosecutors said. Investigators also tracked down witnesses from more than a decade ago to gather additional evidence implicating Hill in the stabbing.
Hill is being held at the Camden County Correctional Facility pending his trial.
