CRIME: A KILLER ON THE LOOSE?
A mum and daughters found dead
THE CASE WAS INITIALLY RULED A MURDER-SUICIDE; NOW SOME AREN’T SO SURE. COULD THERE BE A KILLER ON THE LOOSE?
To everyone around her, Nichol Olsen seemed like she was living an enviable life. With boundless energy and enthusiasm, the vivacious 37-year-old was always meticulously put together: perfectly coiffed hair, manicured nails and stylish clothes. An exercise enthusiast, she was committed to her daily routine of yoga and Pilates. And as a muchsought-after hairstylist at an upscale San Antonio salon, Olsen happily chatted with clients, sharing stories about her grown son Skylar, 24, and her two daughters, Alexa, 16, and London, 10. She also ran a successful jewellery business on the side. “To meet Nichol was to love her,” says her best friend, Kelly Myrick. “She made new friends everywhere she went.”
One of those friends was former-rodeostar-turned-entrepreneur Charlie Wheeler, now 33, whom Olsen began dating in 2016. After about a year, Olsen and her daughters moved into Wheeler’s sprawling mansion in the gated community of Anaqua Springs Ranch, Texas. “I can’t say that their relationship was perfect, but she was ready to settle down,” says Nichol’s brother Justin Olsen. “She wanted a family with him for sure.”
But something sinister exploded behind that seemingly perfect facade. On the morning of January 10, 2019, a franticsounding Wheeler called 911 to say he had found Olsen and her two girls dead in a pool of blood in an upstairs hallway of his home. Olsen and Alexa had been shot in the head, London in the head and neck. A gun was
recovered near Olsen’s body, and the coroner classified the case as a murdersuicide, theorising that Olsen had killed her children and then herself. But not everyone is so sure. Bexar County sheriff Javier Salazar has refused to close the case, instead calling the FBI for assistance analysing data to determine if this could be a triple homicide. “Calling someone the murderer of their own children is the worst thing you could ever accuse anybody of,” Salazar says. “I’m not ready to do that yet.”
When police responded to his 911 call, Wheeler told them that he had argued with Olsen the night before and had left the house they shared to stay with a relative. When he returned home the next day, Wheeler said, he found his girlfriend and her daughters dead.
While authorities have speculated that the argument with Wheeler may have pushed Olsen to murder her kids before turning the gun on herself, Salazar says every possible lead is being followed. He has not named a suspect in the case, but Wheeler is one of several persons of interest. Wheeler has not been arrested or charged in connection to this case and has maintained his innocence. “Charlie has no responsibility, either criminally or civilly, in this matter,” says his lawyer Therese Huntzinger. “It’s preposterous.”
But many close to Olsen say they believe Wheeler knows more than he has revealed. In January, London’s father, Hector Bribiescas, filed a civil lawsuit against Wheeler, alleging that Wheeler is responsible for the deaths because he knew Olsen was upset, and he left a loaded gun unsecured in the home. Bribiescas is seeking more than $1.3 million in damages. “Aside from God, there are only four people who really know what happened that night,” says Olsen’s pal Myrick. “And unfortunately three of them aren’t around to tell their story.”
“It’s crazy for anyone to think she would kill her daughters” — JUSTIN OLSEN, BROTHER
Olsen first met Wheeler, a former rodeo team roping competitor who had invested his winnings into several successful companies, when he reached out to her after seeing her Instagram page, where she featured before and after snaps of her hairstyling clients. “He messaged her a few times, but she ignored him,” says her friend Susan Khalil. “But he was persistent, and she finally responded.”
Romance bloomed, but the couple began to encounter roadblocks to their happiness. Olsen, six years older than Wheeler, spent most of her free time with her daughters – and friends say that Wheeler loved his more casual lifestyle and wasn’t interested in settling down and becoming a stepfather. “Charlie just didn’t want kids,” says Olsen’s friend Vanessa Turney. Despite their differences, Olsen and Wheeler became increasingly more serious and decided to solidify their relationship by living together.
“When Nichol said she was moving in with him, I asked her, ‘What about the girls?’ And she said, ‘I know, right? He just wants us all to be there.’”
Friends of Olsen’s say that sentiment didn’t last. “I saw him throw an absolute fit because he couldn’t log on to his sound system and said the girls must have done something to it,” says Turney. “He was very certain to make [Olsen] aware that it was his house. He bought it, he had paid for it.” Friends soon began to notice that Olsen’s once bubbly personality was turning more serious and morose. “Things went downhill pretty quickly,” says Turney. “For someone who was always the life of the party and usually had that energy, she just didn’t look happy.” Other friends allege that Wheeler was frequently jealous, checking up on Olsen’s whereabouts. As the relationship became more troubled, those close to Olsen say, she began to cancel important plans with her friends and distance herself from everyone but Wheeler. “She missed a pretty big birthday party to spend more time at home cooking,” says friend Khalil. “She wouldn’t really miss stuff like that before. She had changed.”
The one thing that friends and family insist never changed was Olsen’s devotion to her girls. Like clockwork she would leave work every day at 2.30pm to pick up Alexa and London from school. “She’d sit them down at the kitchen island and go over all their homework,” says Myrick. “She’d take them to extracurricular activities and come up with arts and crafts projects. They’d bake things at home. She loved her girls and just always wanted the absolute best for them.”
Olsen was planning to enrol London in singing lessons to prepare her for a future audition on America’s Got Talent. Those close to Olsen say that they saw no indication that she was a danger to herself or anyone else – and say she was attending church more regularly and went to Bible studies with Wheeler’s mother, sister and friends. “I thought she was in a very good place,” says Myrick.
Now, more than two years after the shootings, authorities say they’re still gathering additional evidence to piece together what really happened. “If this case were cut-and-dried, we’d have been done a long time ago,” says Sheriff Salazar, “but it’s not.” Olsen’s family members say they just want the truth to come out. “We want answers,” says Justin Olsen. “I know my sister is not capable of doing something like that. I know that in my heart.”
“I’m never going to lose faith that we’ll get some answers”
— VANESSA TURNEY, FRIEND