SAN ANTONIO — A civil lawsuit has been filed in connection to the tragic 2019 Anaqua Springs case, alleging that a victim's ex-boyfriend is to blame for her and her two daughters' deaths.
Two years ago, Nichol Olsen and her daughters, 10-year-old London Bribiescas and 16-year-old Alexa Montez, were found shot to death in their Anaqua Springs Ranch subdivision home, near Leon Springs. The medical examiner’s office ruled the mother's death a suicide and the girl's deaths as homicides.
The new lawsuit filed by London’s father alleges that Olsen’s boyfriend, Charlie Wheeler, is to blame for their deaths. The lawsuit alleges that Wheeler had a loaded handgun beside his bed in the bedroom and he taught Olsen how to use it. It states that the couple got into lengthy arguments, where Olsen exhibited “increasingly erratic behavior.”
It also states he decided to leave the home knowing she had access to the weapon. According to the suit, on the day of the shooting, Olsen took Wheeler’s gun and used it to kill her daughters, and then herself.
Wheeler’s attorney, Therese Huntzinger, is representing him for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office investigation, but not the civil suit. She said the recently filed lawsuit is filled with falsehoods.
“I feel like I was reading some chapter out of some made-up fiction crime story,” Huntzinger said. “You can say whatever you need to say in a civil lawsuit and none of that has to be true. There’s no proof of anything that’s in there.”
In November, Salazar announced his intention for the case to close by the end of 2020. However, it was eventually sent back to investigators.
Salazar said he lacked confidence in how the case was initially investigated and deputies would be held accountable. The case was reassigned to a cold case detective.
The Bribiescas family's attorney, Joseph Hoelscher, sent KENS 5 a lengthy statement about BCSO’s handling of the case and the recently filed suit. He said, in part:
“We cannot rely on BCSO for answers into why this tragedy happened. We have no choice but to believe Salazar when he says multiple people have failed to properly investigate and that BCSO is treating their investigation as a cold case. We have called upon Salazar to involve independent investigators from the FBI without response.
"So, due to his delays and failed oversight, there is no other legal option for an investigation outside the office that already botched their investigation than for us to do it ourselves. As a result, after much difficult discussion, even most of today, London's family decided to file suit before their ability to ask important questions and find answers would be lost forever.”
Huntzinger says Salazar needs to share all of the details with all families involved in the case and, especially, clear Wheeler’s name. BCSO named Wheeler as a person of interest in the case, but no one has been charged in the victims' deaths.
“Charlie Wheeler has been quiet and his family has been quiet and followed our advice on that. You know, you get to a point where enough is enough,” Huntzinger said. “He’s trying to move on and, as anyone would, (he's experiencing) a little bit of righteous anger about having to continue to live through this tragedy when he was no responsibility for it.”