Nichol Olsen worked hard to have a beautiful life. The 37-year-old was working hard to build her own businesses. She worked as a hairdresser in the San Antonio area where she lived. She was building a businesses selling jewelry and watches with a friend.
Nichol was most passionate about being a mom of three: son Skylar and daughters Alexa and London. All of Nichol's dreams for herself and her kids came crashing to a halt when tragedy struck the family.
On January 10, Nichol's boyfriend, Charlie Wheeler, called 911. He frantically reported that he'd found Nichol, Alexa, and London dead inside his Anaqua Springs Ranch, Texas, home, where they'd moved in. While their deaths have been regarded as a murder-suicide, those closest to Nichol believe in their hearts that she and her girls were murdered.
Nichol Olsen was a hardworking woman looking to do work she was proud of that could provide for her family. The 36-year-old mom of three worked as a hairdresser and also partnered with a friend to build a business selling watches and jewelry. She loved being active and spending time with her kids.
Though her son, Skylar, was grown up and out of the house, Nichol spent a lot of time with her two daughters, 16-year-old Alexa Montez and 10-year-old London Bribiescas. Like Nichol, her girls were charismatic and joyful wherever they went.
Nichol met Charlie Wheeler in 2017. The two got to know each other after he noticed her on Instagram. They took their friendship real life and eventually started dating. Nichol moved herself and the girls into Charlie's home in a gated community after a few years together.
Charlie called 911 on the morning of January 10, 2019, and said he'd come home to find Nichol, Alexa, and London dead. He later explained to investigators that he and Nichol had gotten into a bad fight the night before and he'd left to sleep at a friend's place. Based on this information, an autopsy was performed.
The autopsy determined the girls died before Nichol. Some authorities felt the best determination was a murder-suicide. Sheriff Javier Salazar of the Bexar County Sheriff's Office felt differently. He kept that ruling from closing the case, noting he was "not ready to label Nichol Olson as a murderer, a double murderer of her own children," according to Crime Online.
Those closest to Nichol thought it was preposterous that anyone would think Nichol would harm her children or herself.
"It's crazy for anyone to think she would kill her daughters," her brother, Justin, told People.
Sources close to the case say that Nichol placed five calls in the time before the murders. There was a call to Charlie Wheeler's mother, which went unanswered. There were also four 911 calls, only one of which connected. Sadly, the connection wasn't sustained long enough to determine a location.
Both Alexa's and London's fathers have filed wrongful death suits against Charlie Wheeler. They believe that if his story is true regarding his fight with Nichol, he was negligent in leaving a loaded firearm unsecured in his home when he allegedly left that night.
Sheriff Salazar is determined to see justice served and feels there's still work to do.
"There's a lot of folks that wish I had just closed this investigation a long time ago," the sheriff said in an interview Monday with the San Antonio Express-News.
"But there's a lot of folks that don't have the power over me to make me do that."
"And so I'm going to keep this investigation open," he continued.
"And as long as the FBI keeps asking me for evidence so that they can keep digging, I'm going to keep giving it to them."
Ahead of the second anniversary of the tragedy, the sheriff sent the case back to his criminal investigation division for further investigation. They're currently using special technology to analyze the GPS of one or more vehicles belonging to persons of interest to determine their location at the time Nichol and her girls died.
"What I can tell you in the Anaqua Springs case is that it has been able to help us establish a timeline of where persons of interest were, in relation to of what we believe to be in the time of death," the sheriff told KENS5.
"So, if we can show that at around 9:29 pm a cell phone made a phone call, and at 9:29 this car was here as opposed to here that could yield some good information," he explained.
"That could either clear somebody or cement them even more as a suspect in a case."
