|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Murder-suicide case linked to depression
by Lindsay Varner, Wake Weekly Staff Writer
A woman who killed her teenage children and herself last week in Franklin County was emotionally troubled, Franklin County Sheriff Jerry Jones said.
Jones said an argument with one of the children combined with Caroline Ollison's distressed mental state probably led to the three deaths. Investigators determined from the medications they found in the mobile home where Ollison was staying that she was suffering from depression and anxiety. Ollison, 36, was living with a friend at 33 Whites Lane in Royal when she shot her children, Reginald "R.J." Ollison Jr., 13, and Nicholle Ollison, 14, with a .22-caliber rifle while they slept Dec. 29 around 3 a.m. She then turned the gun on herself. Investigators searched for a motive during the last week. Jones said Ollison's mother confirmed investigators' suspicions that her daughter was suffering from a mental illness. Ollison's doctor who prescribed the medications declined to speak with investigators, Jones said. He said the doctor told them there was nothing she could add to or take away from the situation. "I don't think we need the doctor's opinion (to determine Ollison was mentally ill)," Jones said. "I just hate to think someone perfectly normal walking around would just shoot her children." Ollison's roommate, Tammy Jackson, also revealed Ollison and her daughter, Nicholle, had a fight over sleeping arrangements the night of the shooting. Jones said the daughter had refused to sleep with her mother, instead choosing to sleep on a pallet on the floor in another room. "The argument with her kid appears to have sparked (the murders)," he said. "She just snapped." Ollison had been living with Jackson for several months after separating from the children's father, Reginald Ollison of Durham. The children lived with their father and were visiting with their mother for the first time since their parents' separation, Jones said. The children had arrived at the mobile home Dec. 27. Jackson awoke early Dec. 29 to a loud thump and called police when she found Ollison dead on the floor. Franklin County Deputy Ralph D. Almkuist found R.J. dead in the guest bedroom from gunshots to the head and neck and Nicholle lying dead in front of the TV in the living room, also from a gunshot to the head. Jackson's 12-year-old son was still asleep on the living room couch.
Last Updated On: January 6, 2005
Copyright 2005 The Wake Weekly