Going West: True Crime - The Anaqua Springs Murders // 167

Episode Date: January 19, 2022

In January of 2019, a mother and her two daughters were found dead inside their home in San Antonio, Texas. They all appeared to be shot, and an autopsy revealed that a murder-suicide had occurred. But with the local Sheriff putting the mothers autopsy into question, an investigation into what could have really happened began. This is the story of the Anaqua Springs Murders and the deaths of Nichol Olsen, Alexa Montez, and London Bribiescas. This episode is sponsored by: Eaze Click the following link and use our PROMO code for 30% off your order. https://fanlink.to/eazegw PROMO code GOINGWEST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Teeeth and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Thank you so much everybody for tuning in today. Hope you're all having a wonderful day thus far. Today's case is insane and it happened recently, so please share this one. I know we say that a lot, but sharing really helps cases, so please do that here.

This case was actually recommended to us by a few different people, but I failed to get those names. I'm so sorry. God damn it, he totally fucked up. But for those of you who did suggest this case, thank you so much for suggesting it. Diving into it, it was a very, very devastating story.

Yes, I actually had not heard of this, so thank you so much for everybody who did recommend it again. You know, so sorry, we don't have your names, but feel free to reach out to us and we will thank you personally. Also, we do have a brand new episode on our Patreon, it's the first of 2022. It's insane, we now have 57 bonus episodes on there for you guys to binge, they're ad free, they're full length. This one takes place in Scotland, it's a disappearance that happened in the 70s and

is recently getting some resolution and it's wild. Yes, so definitely go check that out over on patreon.com slash going west podcast. Alright guys, this is episode 167 of Going West, so let's get into it. The investigation into the deaths of a mother and her two daughters will soon be finalized. Nearly two years after the trio was found dead. Retired FBI agents are now looking into the deaths of Nicole Olson and her two daughters. There's also new information that May show Nicole was getting ready for new life with her girls right before their tragic deaths. The family of 10-year-old London Bribescaz hasn't celebrated the holidays since she was

found fatally shot, along with her mother Nicole Olson and sister Alexa Montex back in January of 2019. The medical examiner ruined it a double murder suicide, but the sheer opting to keep the case open. We can't just say, well, this is what the medical examiner says case closed. We've still got two murder investigations at least at this point on these two young ladies

that we have to find out who it is. Nicole Olson was born on May 27, 1981 to, Carl, and Mick Cheryl Denise Olson in California, but we couldn't find out exactly where. But we do know that she had two brothers, Justin Ryan and Rick Allen, and at some point her parents moved the family to San Antonio, Texas. Nicole's father worked for H.B. Zachary Company, which is a construction company based in Texas, but tragically her father passed away due to a heroin overdose at the age of 33 in 1988 just two days before

Christmas. So, Nicole was just seven years old at the time, and of course, I mean her entire family was devastated. Nicole was described as a beautiful soul who had an infectious personality and wonderful smile. She had long brown hair with beautiful brown eyes, and everyone loved the way she would like tilt her head and crinkle her nose as she laughed. Nicol attended James Madison High School, which is in the Northeast Independent School District, and she made a ton of friends, but she dropped out of school her junior

year and later obtained her GED. Also while Nicole was a junior in high school at the age of 15, she had her first child, a boy named Skyler, and this was in 1996. And Nicole was actually still with Skyler's father, so two years later she married him, his name is James Noble, in 1998, but they did divorce just a year later when she was 17. But right around Christmas of 2001, actually two days after, to be exact, tragedy would strike again when her mother passed away unexpectedly from heart disease.

Which is really sad because, I mean, Nicole is so young, she's a child, she's divorced, her father's dead, her mother's dead, like, that's a lot to go through so young. Yeah, she's just 20 years old and she's lost both of her parents. Right, so, you know, she had to grow up really fast and kind of become this parental figure for her younger brother, who was only 13. So, also, a lot for him to go through at such a young age. And this was Justin. Yeah, so Justin a lot for him to go through at such a young age. And this was Justin. Yeah, so Justin, her brother Justin.

So Nicole later stated that her mother was, quote, a functional alcoholic who drank to quell her grief over her husband's death. After Nicole's first divorce, she began working low-paying jobs, including Los Palapas, which is a Mexican restaurant in San Antonio, but I guess it's a chain restaurant as well. But in the same year that her mother passed away, she met a man named Carlos Montez Jr., who was a US Marine, and they married that year. The couple had a daughter together named Alexa in 2002, and they lived in Hawaii, which

is where Carlos was stationed at the time. But in 2006, Nicole and Carlos divorced, and she ended up back in San Antonio, Texas, where she met a man named Hector Birbiascus. Hector worked for his father's 18-wheeler dealership, and in 2008, Nicole had her third child, a girl who she and Hector named London. And although Hector and Nicole were engaged at this time, they never actually did get married and they broke up shortly after their daughter was born and they both shared custody of London. In 2006, so a few years before she met Hector and just after she and Carlos divorced, Nicole decided that she wanted to become a hair stylist, so she went to a Cosmetology

school to learn the trade. She also explained that she wasn't the greatest mother to Skylar early on in his life, because she was young and immature herself, but that quote, she's now a good mother, and that the children are all she has in the world, and that she cannot imagine not having them in her life. She worked at many salons over the years, but more recently she worked for salons by JC near her home in San Antonio, and I guess this is also a chain salon. On March 10, 2014, Nicole had been dating a man

whose name has not been disclosed and they lived together in an upscale home near the Dominion. So the Dominion is basically just a very wealthy neighborhood on the northwest side of San Antonio and looking at photos, it looks like a very stunning place to live. So anyway, that day Nicole said she arrived home and saw on her boyfriend's phone that he had been talking to another woman. So she ended up slapping him in the face and then an altercation ensued where she was taken to the ground

and dragged out of the house. She had previously tried to get in touch with him to ask for a ride home, but he never answered and she claims it's because he was preoccupied with another woman. So when police showed up, they said that Nicole appeared to be intoxicated, but that she was very polite with officers and spoke softly.

Now because of this whole ordeal, Nicole was charged with a misdemeanor assault. But a year later, those charges were apparently dropped due to the boyfriend's lack of cooperation. Nicole and her boyfriend split up, and she took this time after the breakup to work on her career and just kind of do the best to provide for her children. She was working extremely hard, you know, doing double and sometimes triple hair appointments in a day while also being able to pick up her kids from school every day. But in 2016, Nekole received an Instagram private message from a young, good-looking man, Charles Edward Wheeler. He explained to her how gorgeous she was, and that he would really like to

get to know her. So in the summer of 2016, Nicole and Charles finally met for the first time at the Locke and Terra Resort in San Antonio. Nicole was actually there for a meeting for a client along with her business partner and friend Vanessa Turner, but Nicole invited Charles to the resort as well that day. I'm assuming she was just like, hey, I'm here at this resort, you know, come by and get a drink with me. By the way, at this time, Charles was 31 and six years younger than Nicole. Vanessa, who again is the business partner, described Charles as very respectful and self-assured, and that Charles definitely chased her

down from the start, and it was very clear that he was extremely interested in Nicole. The two hit it off very quickly, and in fact within a few weeks, they appeared in a promotional video together for Nicole and Vanessa's wristwatch business, that they started together called Kiva Cole. And these wristwatches are actually very beautiful. Daphne and I looked up that company. Yeah, they're gorgeous. They're these very sleek, simple, like very classy, classic looking watches.

So very good eye, these two women. Yeah, but it appears that that company, as of today, is no longer in business. So they were seen on camera in this promotional video as being very giddy, you know, gazing into each other's eyes while they were cuddling. Now, before we go any further, we want to give you guys a little background info on Charles Wheeler.

So Charles was born to parents, Forrest Wheeler, and Cynthia Stein Wheeler in Texas and he grew up with his younger brother Justin. Both of Charles' parents were involved in rodeo. His father was a team-roper, and his mother Cynthia was a barrel racer. So from an early age, Charles was very much involved in the sport. He attended Frederick Spurg High School for about two years before his mother decided to homeschool him. And after he finished his high school education, Charles went on to attend Shreiner University in Curville, Texas.

But he dropped out after a year. From 2005, when he was 18 to 2008, so three years later, Charles competed professionally in the National Rodeo Circuit, and he was a team roper just like his father. And for those who don't know what team roping is, it's a competition where two partnered writers work together to rope a steer, one being the header and the other being the healer. I don't know rodeo myself,

but that's just what we found online. So there you go. So on October 12th, 2008, Charles was actually arrested for public intoxication at a Western nightclub near Angleton, Texas during a county fair, and he actually pled guilty to the charge and he was fined just about $300. Then just a year later, on December 27, 2009, he was arrested again at 2.20am for a DWI after police found him intoxicated in the driver's seat of a Chevy Silverado that was parked in a restaurant parking lot.

An officer walked up to the vehicle with a flashlight just shining it through the window and Charles made like an obscene gesture towards the officer before driving away. Yeah, I'm assuming he just like flipped him off or something. Yeah, I'm assuming that too. And then, you know, obviously the officer yelled at him to stop and eventually Charles pulled over. And then he was asked to complete, you know, a field sobriety test where he was instructed to count backwards from 31 to 10. But Charles counted backwards from 31 to 0 and told the officer that he did so kind of just to prove a point.

But this charge was later dismissed and we're really not sure why. So Charles was also known by police as a habitual speeder and acquired four speeding tickets between July of 2015 and August of 2016. So that's four in like a year. Obviously none of this may have to do with this case at all, but it was just what was reported. So we wanted to add it in the episode to kind of tell you just a little bit more about his history. And just for warning, we are not trying to defame Charlie Wheeler's character, Adal. We just want to mention this because this is the information that was reported in the news. And so we want to include as much information as we possibly can. But anyway, let's get back to Charles Wheeler.

So because Charles was so successful with his career in the rodeo circuit, he made quite a bit of money and he used that money to start a security gate business called On the Go. Now this company did very well and Charles eventually sold this business in 2011 at the age of 24 for an undisclosed amount of money. After selling his gate business, Charles then purchased an oil field services company called OTG Services, which is based out of Fort Stockton, Texas. And by May of 2014, he had acquired over 140 employees. So this was, you know, a relatively big business, and it was pretty booming. On April 13, 2013, so a year before his oil business really took off, Charles was arrested yet again for public intoxication after he was cut off at a

downtown San Antonio Hotel Bar. He was placed in a detoxification facility for the night, but no charges were filed. And actually, an off-duty police officer was the one to arrest him for being intoxicated this time, so this officer was there at the hotel bar. Then, on November 27, 2013, Charles filed a report that his truck had been stolen, but he was extremely intoxicated when this occurred. And police later found his truck in the parking lot of a shopping mall, but Charles had called police from a gentleman's club called Perfect 10 located in San Antonio. So now you guys know a little history about Charles. So let's get back into the timeline with he and Nicole. And before I do that, I just wanna kind of paint

a little bit of a picture of who Nicole was. So at this time, she had this beautiful watch company, she was a hair stylist. She very much, I mean, she was in her 30s, but she very much looks like this. Like, it kind of like, it mom, I wanna say, like, she would have, like, a social media following that maybe that sounds really weird, but she looked, you know, she was beautiful.

Yeah. Her kids were gorgeous. They looked very happy. Yeah, I mean, she Nicole was a beautiful person, so I could definitely see her being some sort of like social media influencer or something like that. Right. So and if you guys want to see just kind of get a visual of everybody, you know, go check out our social medias. We have Twitter, Facebook and Instagram just look up going west. So Charles and Nicole had been dating for nearly a year, but they were living in separate households. But in April of 2017, Charles purchased a million dollar home in the innocuous Springs Ranch neighborhood of San Antonio. And a short time after

this, Nicole and her two daughters who again are Alexa and London moved into the home as well. So the two girls live there on the weekdays, but on the weekends, they stayed with their respective fathers, Hector and Carlos. And I also wanted to mention in 2016, the oil prices in Texas kind of bottomed out. And Charles' company, OTG Services, had to shut down their operations. Yeah, but at this point, Charles had made so much money that it didn't really matter. Yeah, he was still good on that front, but he no longer had this business. So at this point, Nicole was looking for something more stable, like a long-term relationship, you know, between her and Charles, something that she had not found up until meeting him.

So Nicole's daughter Alexa, her eldest daughter, was now a sophomore at Clark High School, where she was a part of the cheerleading team, and she planned to enroll at Texas NM University in college station. This is my redeeming part. Yes, college station for all you Texas listeners. I hope I got that right this time. We messed it up a couple times before, and we got so many messages about how it was wrong. So things for pointing it out.

We know here is the correction there. So Alexa's goal was to become an obstetrician. And for those who don't know, an obstetrician is a doctor who specializes in pregnancy, as well as women's reproductive systems. So Alexa also volunteered at the church that she attended, which was the Kingsborough Ridge Baptist Church, and she helped out in the nursery and also the puppet ministry. So if it's not obvious, she was overall just a great kid. Her younger sister, London, who was 8 in 2017, loved to paint, sing, act, and theater, and her favorite animal

was a monkey. At this time, she was attending Leon Springs Elementary School, and she had a lot of friends. So this house that Charles purchased is situated on a three-acre lot, and the square footage is 4,500, so it's a very big house. And I mean, this neighborhood is amazing. Yeah so it's a very big house. And I mean this neighborhood is amazing. Yeah, it's like a stunning neighborhood. There's a lot of really nice houses in this neighborhood. So this house also included five bedrooms, four and a half baths,

it included a wine cellar, a hot tub, and also a pool. The neighborhood as we mentioned, you know, is pretty upscale and it's in a secured gated community that offered 24 hour surveillance, so it seemed fairly safe. Things seem to be going pretty well for the couple. Nicole was still working as a hairstylist, and her daughters were even warming up to Charles and would occasionally spend time with his family. But in May of 2017, Nicole showed up to work for another video shoot for her company,

Kiva Cole, and her coworker Vanessa noticed something pretty odd. Nicole was applying makeup to her face and trying to conceal a bruise to her eye. So Vanessa asked Nicole about this injury, and she stated that she and Charles had gotten into a fight, but she insisted that everything was fine. Then months later, in January of 2018, Nicole and Vanessa decided to attend a San Antonio Spurs basketball game, but on the way to the arena, Charles called Nicole and asked to speak to Vanessa, so he's like wanting to talk to her friend and business partner.

So according to Vanessa, Charles told her, You're really lucky that I'm letting her go with you. I would trust you." So of course, Vanessa thought this was incredibly odd, and I'm sure quite controlling of Charles, but she just kind of played along as to not make this situation more awkward, but Nicole was embarrassed by his comments. So after the game, the girls headed over to a music club in the area called Jazz Texas, where they had some drinks and just enjoyed hanging out together.

But Charles began to call Nicole's phone repeatedly, and according to Vanessa, the more Charles called Nicole, the more upset she became. So apparently, Charles noticed that Nicole's location had changed, you know, she was no longer at this basketball game, and he demanded that she come home immediately. That night, Vanessa relayed her concerns that Nicole may be suffering from emotional abuse, but Nicole just kind of brushed it off. But this wasn't the first time that Vanessa noticed this type of behavior. So the previous summer, Nicole and Vanessa were outside in the hot tub at the house that Charles and Nicole shared,

when Charles rushed outside, visibly upset, that a piece of pepperoni was dropped on the kitchen floor. Nicole explained that one of her daughters may have dropped it, but Charles ordered Nicole to get out of the hot tub and pick it up herself. Like dude, it's not that hard to just go inside and grab a napkin and pick it up off the floor and put it in the trash. Well also like if you saw it before, why I don't know, it seems like he makes a big deal

out of things that really don't matter. That's what I got from this. So that same night, Charles became upset again when his sound system had briefly stopped working, and he blamed Nicole's daughters, but Nicole insisted that it was not their fault. And this created so much tension that Vanessa insisted she leave the home. So this is what Vanessa is saying. So she saw this all happen. Yeah, and she actually told Nicole she was like, I don't like him.

Now again, this information is not coming from Daphne and I personally. This is what Vanessa had to say about Nicole and Charles' relationship. Quote, her core group saw much less of her. For someone who was as social as Nicole, it's a little odd, you know. It's not normal for her to be shut in like that. But Vanessa wasn't the only friend of Nicole's to notice things about her relationship. A friend named Monica Patel, who works as a cardiologist for a hospital in Houston, Texas, explained that Nicole arrived at her house in July of 2017, very upset.

Nicole told Monica that she and Charles were celebrating their dating anniversary at a hotel in Galveston, Texas when an argument occurred between them and we don't know what was said or what the circumstances were But Charles became so irate that he was asked by hotel staff to leave the hotel But when he refused he had to be escorted out of the building by security officers but when he refused, he had to be escorted out of the building by security officers. So obviously this is a very big deal. Charles did eventually leave, but he took all of the couples belongings with him, including Nicole's cell phone, and left her stranded at the hotel. Which is so fucked up, why would you do that?

Yeah, like why would you leave your girlfriend at a hotel like hundreds of miles away from where you guys live. Not just that, but also to take her phone like, you know, and we don't know. I mean, did he take her phone on purpose? Did it happen to be in his possession? I don't know, but still. Yeah. So because of this, Nicole actually had to call Monica from, you know, a phone at the hotel who was living again in Houston.

And she took a taxi to her friend's house that day. Here's a statement from Monica about this event. She told me that they've had a lot of fights, and this time that she was done because he was really embarrassing, and he left her in a whole different city. He left her stranded. She was shaking, she was crying, she was terrified about everything. It was supposed to be a good moment for them. They were supposed to be celebrating their anniversary.

We went over it all and she's like, no you're right, you're right, I'm leaving. We just stayed up the whole night talking about this. And you can't help but feel like you just wasted your time, like you were speaking to a wall or something. And I hate to say it like that, but I was drained. I was emotionally drained with her. I stayed up the whole night, I was crying. I was horrified with her for 17 hours.

On the morning of Thursday, January 10th, 2019, at 9 a.m., Charles Wheeler made a frantic call to 911, explaining that he had found his girlfriend of two years, 37-year-old Nicole, and her daughters, 16-year-old Alexa, and 10-year-old London, dead inside of his home. And by the way, this was like a year and a half later from this incident in Galveston. So Charles told police that he found all three of them with bullet holes on the second floor of his home, bunched together

in a hallway. Blood was virtually everywhere, including all over the walls. A single handgun was found near Nicole's body, and there was also a pool of blood in the bathroom doorway, and when police and medical professionals arrived, they stated that the bodies were cold and rigid to the touch. When police arrived at the scene, they found Charles on his knees in the front yard sobbing, but one investigator noted that he did not see any tears on Charles' face. And obviously we will note that everyone grieves and shows emotions

differently. But moving on, so Charles was then placed into a squad car and his phone and wallet were seized by police. And you may be wondering, well, where was Charles when these deaths occurred? Well, he told police while in this squad car that he and Nicole had gotten into an argument the night before and that he had left the property to spend the night at a relative's house to cool off. I just want to say, you know, I'm not implicating anybody here, but I just want to say, I feel like every single case like this that we have discussed, the one that's coming to mind

is Janet March that we covered a couple months ago. Every case like this is, oh, I don't know what happened to her. I did see her last night and we got into a fight, but then I left. That is literally like, by the book, what everybody says. Yeah, I was going to say that seems kind of textbook. It is textbook, absolutely. So of course, right off the bat, you know, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar stated that Charles Wheeler was a person of interest, but not a suspect

in the case at that time. It would take another few days for a medical examiner to complete an autopsy, but on January 14, so four days later, it was determined that Alexa and London were murdered, and that Nicole Olson had committed suicide. So Nicole's family and friends were in complete shock and disbelief regarding the rulings here. Nicole's brother Justin stated, it's crazy for anyone to think that she would kill her daughters. Nicole was supposed to take London to an audition actually for the show America's Got Talent,

and she also had plans to visit her son Skylar that weekend, as well as watch her brother's daughter for him that weekend, so she had plans. And what's also very strange is that Nicole booked two hair appointments the day before her body was discovered with separate clients for Thursday the 19th, which again was the day that Charles allegedly found the bodies in his home.

So Sheriff Salas are stated, even after the autopsy came out, quote, calling someone the murderer of their own children is the worst thing you could ever accuse somebody of. I'm not ready to do that yet. So let's just stop for a second and talk about the fact that, you know, Nicole had all these plans, you know, she had things that were coming up that weekend. Honestly, too much, much respect to share of Salazar for not just saying, oh, this is what,

because so many police officers, I feel like, will just go by what the autopsy says, and he's like, no, I'm not, I'm not gonna say that yet, because I don't think that's true quite yet. Yeah, and, you know, there's a lot of speculation going around and a lot of rumors on the internet that this autopsy was kind of rushed.

So I don't know if that has any indication, but yeah, it is good that Salazar is trying to seek the truth in this case. Absolutely. And here's where things get really strange. So the night Nicole and her daughters are presumed to have been murdered. Four calls to 911 were placed from Nicole's phone within a two-minute span of time. And we know this according to Nicole's cell phone records obtained by police, but apparently each one of these calls

was too short for the dispatcher to acquire a location of the calls, therefore emergency officials were unable to respond. But the dispatcher did try to call the number back, we were talking about those four calls that were made to 911 from Nicole's cell phone, but those calls, there was no speaking in those calls. They were just like, call and then hang up. Which, I mean to me, this says so much, like four calls to 911 and nothing was said.

Like that just makes me so, it just gives me such a bad feeling about what was going on in that house. And if Nicole was the one to place the calls, I mean, what does that say about what really happened to her? Exactly. And we don't know if Nicole was actually the person to place those calls. Very true. We're assuming that, you know, it's possible that it could have been Alexa or London,

but you know, we're just going to assume for now that it was Nicole. So on the 15th of January, a GoFundMe page was created to honor London by a family member. The proceeds were ordered to be handed over to the Austin Zoo, which is a place that London absolutely loved. The next day on the 16th, a vigil was held for Nicole, Alexa, and London at the Ablaiit Mission Grotto in San Antonio. But another GoFundMe page was created just a few days later under the name Search for Truth, and it raised over $50,000 in a single day. Police felt so confident that this case wasn't just a cut and dry murder suicide that they

even brought in the FBI to work this case. On January 26, 2019, an official funeral service was held for Nicole and her daughters at the Place for Life Church at 11am, but the burial was strictly private. London's casket sadly was lined with purple trim and inscribed on the inside was the word princess, along three pink hearts. Six months later, on June 26, 2019, Charlie Wheeler listed his anocust springs home for sale. And a month after that, it sold for $975,000. I gotta say, that surprises me a lot.

That somebody bought it so quickly after three people died inside of it so brutally. Right and Charles took a loss on this home because it was originally over a million dollars and he sold it for less than a million Right, but I mean it's still that's that's not a huge loss You know for 975,000 dollars. That's not too big of a difference. That just surprises me But anyway now I know there are a lot of people out there who are supporting Nicole Olsen You know and and believe that she could have never committed such a terrible crime against her own children, you know, just as her family believes. But there are also many Charles

Wheeler supporters. And actually, the most vocal, you know, not surprisingly, is his own mother, Cynthia Wheeler. She stated, quote, I just know that Charlie could never do anything like that. I just know because he loved those girls and he loved Nicole. Did they have problems? Absolutely. Who doesn't? That doesn't mean that you go out there and you shoot yourself and shoot your girls. That's a pretty bold statement by Cynthia, by the way. I mean, that's really messed up thing to say, especially since the sheriff is like, hold on.

I- we don't know what really happened for her to say, oh yeah, like, why would she go kill herself and kill her girls? Like Jesus lady. I think it's more so the town like yeah, hey like I know you had problems in the relationship but that doesn't you know give you an excuse to like kill your daughters in yourself like it's cold. It feels cold Yeah, absolutely. So she also said that her son is a good-hearted man, and that she was aware that Charles and Nicole quarreled at times, but that it was typical in relationships. The wheelers have been accused by the public of protecting their son, and not expressing condolences for Nicole, Alexa, and London.

And actually, Cynthia later said, he still has a life that he's got to try to put back together. But as we mentioned earlier, police were not willing to call it a day, and Sheriff Salazar wanted to reassure the public that he will remain diligent on the case. He stated, quote, I want to point out that the medical examiner's findings are independent of what we may eventually find

as we continue to conduct the investigation. R's is a separate, but concurrent the investigation. R's is a separate but concurrent investigation. In February of 2020, investigators stated that they were looking into video surveillance footage captured by neighbors, as well as social media posts, text messages, cell towers, and GPS technology that would help track where specific vehicles

were on the night of the murders. In a turn of events, London's father Hector filed a million-dollar lawsuit against Charles Wheeler on the basis of negligence, claiming that the weapon used to kill his daughter was in an unsecured location in the bedroom. Now, we don't know exactly what happened that night, but the lawsuit states that Nicole was exhibiting increasingly erratic behavior during a lengthy argument at the innocuous springs home, and that Charles Wheeler was likely present when Nicole accessed the loaded firearm. If that's even what happened.

Yeah, we don't even know if this is true. It also states that Nicole obtained the gun in the defendant's bedside table in the bedroom that they shared, and used it to kill herself, London, and another child, which of course is Alexa, and that Charles knew the children were present, and was aware that they were exposed to Nicole while she was in an inflamed and erratic emotional state, and actually or potentially armed with Charles' firearm. The lawsuit also states that Charles knew that London and the other child again, Alexa,

could not protect themselves from Nicole. Charles took no reasonable measures to protect the children from Nicole who was armed with his gun. But then it goes on to state that Nicole would have not posed a risk to the children if it wasn't for Charles' behavior towards her, but it doesn't really go into detail about this.

So it's really interesting here, because first off, you have this sheriff who kind of wants to see this investigation through and doesn't really believe the medical examiner's autopsy. And then you have a father of one of the victims saying that Nicole was most likely the person to pull the trigger, but that Charles was responsible for pushing Nicole to kill slash also keeping the gun in the house unscured. But then you also have Alexis father who is Carlos Montez saying that he knows in his heart that Nicole would never do anything to hurt her children or take her own life. Which you know kind of makes me wonder if London's father, I'm not saying this as a concrete thing.

I'm just wondering if he's just trying to, obviously, he suffered a great loss. But I can't help but kind of wonder if he's just trying to get away with this lawsuit by saying this so concretely about Nicole since it's what the autopsy said anyway, maybe he's like, oh well, I can get away with this million dollar lawsuit

if I just say this. Maybe it's not really what he believes. Yeah, and I don't really know. But the thing that we do know is that nobody knows what happened that night. Right. This, what I mean is like, this could just be his way of getting money

from a lawsuit for the murder of his daughter. Right, but again, you know, this lawsuit is filled with things that, you know, could potentially not be true. Absolutely, and that's what I mean, is that's why I'm kind of surprised that he's kind of going out there saying all this, but, you know, I don't know his motive behind it.

So, but of course, it's interesting that her other ex, Carlos Montez, thinks that she would never do this and so does her entire family. So there's weight behind that for sure. So Sheriff Salazar said that a family lawyer of one of the victims had been sending him menacing emails about a lawsuit. But this was the sheriff's reply.

Quote, while I'm sure his civil suit in monetary damages, whatever it is that he's hoping to recover, is very important to him. To me, justice on the criminal side is even more important. So I won't let that be compromised and I certainly won't be bullied into rushing an investigation because a civil attorney feels that I need to rush it." End quote. And this was in November of 2020, by the way. But then, last January of 2021, a detail came to light that one of the girl's fathers,

and we don't know who, had been texting with Nicole regarding paternity that was brought into question. So on top of this, one of the fathers, who I can only assume is Hector since he was the one filing the civil suit, said that he was going to hold a vigil for his daughter in front of Sheriff Salazar's home if the sheriff did not close the case. And I guess the thought process here is that the statute of limitation regarding the civil suit would expire if the case was not closed by a certain date. Which again could mean, you know, the whole reasoning behind this is because he wants to win

this lawsuit. Another really interesting point that came to light later on is the fact that police obtained an email that Nicole had received from the grand at the Dominion apartments located about six miles from Charles's home. And this email asked how the apartment search was going, and it also states that the complex had a three bedroom floor plan that was available for her. It was also known by Nicole's family that she had toured an apartment at this location on December 31, 2018, a little over a week before she was found dead. So it's interesting because it seems like she was trying to move out of Charles' home

before her death. I just feel like that information does make a really big difference because, again, just with so many other cases like this, the threat of divorce or separation seems to really make a difference and then things like this happen. Like it might be like a motivating factor. Absolutely. So again, I'm not going out there and saying that he is responsible, but I am saying that that is really good to know. We've also talked about the nonprofit organization called Project Epsynthesis and Previous Episodes, but for those who don't know, it's an organization put together by retired federal agents who assist in investigations such as this one.

To let a Copeland, who has been working on this case, explained that, in his professional opinion, based on the interviews that he's conducted himself, he's not going to tell you Nicole's a murderer because he doesn't believe that she is. We've also talked about the fact that Geofencing has been used by Project Absentis to help pinpoint where specific cell phones were located during a crime. And this would help tell us if any other person was inside the house at the time of the murders other than Nicole and her daughters.

After the tragic event that occurred in January of 2019, Charles Wheeler moved to Austin, Texas. And again, this is no accusation of guilt, but it was reported in the news that Charles was arrested in November of 2020 for a traffic collision in which he was driving intoxicated. He was booked into a Travis County jail and released the next day on a $3,500 bond. So apparently, Charles had rear-ended another vehicle at a stoplight, but luckily no one was seriously injured. The driver of the other vehicle is seeking between $100,000 to $200,000 in damages. And it was also known that Charles tried

to leave the scene of the crash before police could arrive. And he'd also yelled at the victims stating that he was so wealthy that he could buy multiple versions of their car. That's just kind of messed up to say. A sister-root thing to say when you hit somebody's car. True, yeah. Like you're the one in the wrong here. So anyway, for some reason,

the charge was reduced to following too close, which is a class C misdemeanor, and Charles pled no contest. And as a result of this, he was not ordered to face any jail time. As of now, the case is still an ongoing investigation, and Sheriff Salazar reassigned the case to a cold case detective stating the investigative work is insufficient and incomplete. He said he believes that there were some stones that were left unturned. London's aunt said, after we heard the investigation was botched, we haven't been given an update on the process. It is left the family wondering how far away are we from closing it, and why is it being

kept open? There are currently two separate lawsuits filed by the fathers of both Alexa and London against Charles Wheeler. With so much strange information out there regarding this case, it's hard not to ponder all the possibilities and the persons of interest in this case. So was this a tragic murder suicide by a mother as some speculate and as the autopsy suggest? Or was there something more to this story and was someone else responsible for the murders of Nicole Olsen and her children? One thing that I think may give some folks some hope is that this investigation is not over,

and hopefully one day we will all know the truth. If you have any information about this case, please call the Bexar County Sheriff's Office at 2-1-0-335-60-70 Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. This is such a tough case, because not only did a 10-year-old and a 16-year-old get brutally murdered, but the fact that there's no resolution for the family as far as not only who did it,

but the fact is like, did this woman murder them or is she a victim too? Like, those are such opposite sides of the spectrum, like victim versus killer, and the fact that the family doesn't have justice for such a huge thing like that is really sad. But I will say that I'm very glad that there is an investigation and that they didn't just say, oh well, the autopsy said she killed herself, so we're going to go with that. Because as we know in a lot of other cases, people can stage a suicide. And that's maybe what happened here. Yeah, it's not always what meets the eye, you know, so.

Yeah, and I do want to say too that it's interesting that this happened in a gated community where there is 24-hour surveillance, because obviously, if somebody suspicious had come into the neighborhood, maybe they could have tied someone else to it, but it really doesn't seem like there's an outside person involved like that. Yeah, and, you know, I'm really surprised that you and I had not heard of this case before, because it seems like, you know, because it's so recent, recent, and because it's so tragic, I would have assumed that we would have heard about it. I agree. I don't know how it's been three years and neither of us have heard of this.

It's so crazy. Yeah, so I'm really glad that we got the opportunity to cover this case and please let us know what your opinions are, you know, what you think happened, and we can talk about this case. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, really, really hoping for some resolution here, because it seems like there is a story that could definitely be investigated, and of course, it is being investigated,

but the fact that an arrest hasn't been made to me, I'm like, in my personal opinion, I am very surprised by this. Well, yeah, and it's so weird, because we typically don't see cases like this where the medical kazaminer states one thing, and then the detective says, hey, I don't believe that result. No, I don't think I've ever seen that. Yeah, so that's why I think this case is so interesting.

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