They say time heals all wounds, but ten years has done little to ease the pain for the family of Renee Eldridge. About a half a dozen family members filled the gallery for a pretrial hearing for her accused killer Stacey Gray. Their despair was on full display as the mother and sister of Eldridge took the stand.
Judge Carolyn “Tippi” Burch listened to a flurry of pretrial motions ranging from the rape shield law to expert witnesses allowed at the upcoming murder trial November 17, 2025. Gray was indicted for rape, malice murder, felony murder, murder, aggravated assault and kidnapping.
Eldridge was abducted from her home in Columbus during the early morning hours of July 4th, 2015. Her body was found in a Valley, Alabama creek three days later. She suffered from blunt force trauma to the head according to an autopsy report. Asphyxiation was also a contributing factor to her death according to court testimony today.
The family was called to testify about the first time Eldridge was sexually assaulted six months prior to her murder. Nicole Hawk, sister of the victim gave emotional testimony recounting how Eldridge was terrified after the rape saying “he’s gonna come and kill me she was adamant she was going to die”, Hawk testified. Eldridge misidentified her attacker as a man who has a striking resemblance to Stacey Gray said the assistant district attorney Anthony Pickett who showed the Judge a side-by-side photo of both men. Pickett said Eldridge was tied up the same way when her body was found in a creek.
Grays public defender Angela Dillon noted there were three mattress cuttings which yielded three different DNA profiles. One belonged to Eldridge’s ex-boyfriend, one profile belonged to Stacey Gray, and the third profile was from an unknown individual. Dillon told the court “We’re not here to talk about her sexual practices, that other DNA puts other people in the room.” District Attorney Don Kelly told Now Network News only one person’s DNA was found inside Renee Eldridge and that was Stacey Gray’s DNA.
