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While DeKalb County Police are trying to build a case against Derrick Holmes for a 15-month-old murder case, another person important to the investigation has disappeared.

Emma Hope Grant, arrested in September of 2008 and charged with being a party to the murder of 31-year-old Nekeshia Rawls, cut her ankle monitor on Nov. 17 and has fled. On Nov. 30, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office offered a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the re-arrest of Grant.

Rawls was shot in the parking lot of her mother’s apartment complex in Stone Mountain, according to court documents.

“She’s not the shooter,” DeKalb County assistant district attorney Bob Statham said of Grant. “She was a party to it and was being held for aiding and abetting.”

According to the transcript of Grant’s first bond hearing, it was argued by Statham that two men with dreadlocks shot Rawls execution-style while she sat in her car.

“We are trying to build a case strong enough to indict (Holmes),” Statham said.

Judge James Weeks originally heard the bond hearing in 2008, and ordered Grant released on $35,000 bond with an ankle monitor. No monitor was placed on Grant, so the bond order was revoked and Grant was rearrested in April of 2009 and given another bond hearing. She was bonded out May 5 and released with an ankle monitor.

In the original bond hearing, according to the transcript, Statham told the court that they believe Grant provided the getaway car for the shooters.

After she cut the monitor, investigators obtained an order revoking bond on Nov. 18 to be able to legally pursue Grant and arrest her for escape.

Weeks has passed away since the original hearing and Judge Linda Warren Hunter presided over the bond hearing in May.

Under Georgia law, anyone arrested for a crime must have a grand jury hearing within 90 days. If there is no grand jury hearing, then the person arrested must have bail set.

Grant has never appeared before the grand jury for any charge, both Statham and Hunter confirmed.

“This was a consent bond order the DA agreed to,” Hunter said. “At no time has the DA’s office represented to me that Ms. Grant was a murder suspect.”

In Grant’s first bond hearing, according to the transcript, Statham told the court that a car believed to have been rented by Grant’s mother was seen the day of the shooting driving around the apartment complex where the incident happened. Statham told the court that it is the same car that the two men were riding in when they pulled up behind Rawls, got out, went to opposite sides of Rawls’ car and began shooting.