Just as the name suggests, Crime Junkies hosts Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat are obsessed with anything and everything related to true crime. Each week, they look into some of the most compelling and chilling cases from the 1940s and beyond to more recent convictions. The podcast was named as one of the best true crime podcasts by Vogue and Rolling Stones.
Flowers detailed the Anaqua Springs shooting to her best friend and co-host Prawat, revealing what most of San Antonians know and have read about the case. She cited several sources from the San Antonio Express-News and TV stations. Here’s what we know:
San Antonio hairstylist Nichol Olsen, 37, and her boyfriend, Charles Edward Wheeler, lived together at Wheeler’s $1 million home in the Anaqua Springs Ranch subdivision near Leon Springs. Wheeler has since sold the house and moved to Austin.
Courtesy photo /Crane Creatives for KeVa Col
Anaqua Springs shooting deaths
On January 10, 2019, San Antonio hairstylist Nichol Olsen, 37, and her two daughters, London Bribiescas, 10, and Alexa Montez, 16, were found shot to death in their $1 million home in the wealthy subdivision near Leon Springs on the Far Northwest Side of Bexar County. The three were found by Olsen’s boyfriend, Charles Edward Wheeler, who owned the residence the four lived in.
Wheeler, now 35 and living in Austin, reported that he had argued with Olsen and left the home to stay at a relative’s house before the shootings. He called 911 after he returned the next morning and discovered the bodies, according to a report from the San Antonio Express-News.
Flowers noted that Wheeler, a rodeo rider turned businessman, was labeled a “person of interest” but not a suspect in the case. No charges were ever filed against Wheeler, who has said he had nothing to do with the deaths.
Nichol Olsen and her two daughters, Alexa Montez, 16, and London Bribiescas, 10, were found shot to death in this home in the Anaqua Springs Ranch subdivision two years ago. They lived there with Olsen’s boyfriend, Charles Edward Wheeler, now 33, who owned the home. He has since sold the property and moved to Austin.
William Luther /San Antonio Express-News
The ruling of the deaths
During the investigation, the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s office ruled Olsen’s death a suicide and both children’s deaths as homicides. A handgun was found near Olsen’s body, according to the Express-News.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar had hoped to close the case at the end of 2020, but it was eventually sent back to investigators. In September 2022, the sheriff’s office told the Express-News that it’s continuing to work on the case.
A statement said the assigned investigator “will continue to devote his efforts until every facet of this investigation has been completed, in order to provide closure for the families of Nichol Olsen, Alexa Montez and London Bribiescas.”
Carlos Montez Jr., left, the father of 16-year-old Alexa Montez, stands with Hector Bribiescas, the father of London Bribiescas, 10, at a San Antonio park last November. Both have sued Charles Edward Wheeler for their daughters’ shooting deaths. The girls were found dead with their mother at Wheeler’s home in Anaqua Springs Ranch two years ago.
Lisa Krantz /Staff photographer
Where is the case now?
Salazar said the case was turned over to an investigator in the cold case unit who will use that team’s resources to see if he can turn up new information in the investigation. Since then, few details have been disclosed. The sheriff’s office has not released the autopsy reports for Olsen and her daughters, nor the 911 recordings made by Wheeler the morning he found the bodies.
The fathers of both slain children, Hector Bribiescas and Carlos Montez Jr., sued Wheeler, accusing him of negligence. Each father seeks monetary damages of more than $1 million. Both civil suits are pending, according to a September 2022 report from the Express-News.
The families of the two daughters also sent a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asking him to intervene in the case and to let the Texas Rangers conduct their own investigation into the deaths. Paxton confirmed his office received the family’s letter and said it has been referred to its investigators for appropriate review and consideration.
“Alexa and London’s families are continuing to ask for answers, for communication,” Flowers said in the podcast. “…but really it’s still unknown who actually pulled the trigger that night or why or what led up to it or what could have prevented it.”
You can find the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcast.