Murder in Massachusetts

The Cover-up

On January 11, 2005, the Office of the State Medical Examiner in Holyoke, Massachusetts, released its findings regarding Neil Olsen's death. As the shell casings found near Neil's body had suggested, it was confirmed he had been killed by gunshot wounds to the head—a total of seven, as far as the medical examiner could tell. More than that, however, the M.E. also found that Neil had been beaten in the head with a blunt object, likely the metal pipe troopers found outside the barn. The likely scenario seemed to be that whoever had murdered Neil Olsen with the shotgun, then tried to cover it up by bludgeoning his head into a mess of tissue to make it appear as though he had been trampled to death by his horse.

With that information in hand, detectives headed back over to the Olsen house to give Patricia the bad news: someone had murdered her husband.

Detective Lieutenant Richard Smith, a 27-year veteran of the Massachusetts State Police, was first to tell Patricia they had changed the focus of their investigation. "We no longer believe Neil's horse killed him," Smith said.

"I'm in shock," Patricia said at some point. "I don't want to accept that Neil is gone."

Considering the circumstances, detectives had an entire new set of questions for Patricia. Number one, who might have wanted Neil dead? On the surface, the guy had no enemies. Why would someone kill him? The person responsible for his death had obviously hated Neil with a passion—that much was clear from the viciousness of the attack. It was no random murder. Nothing was missing from the barn or house. Neil's pockets had been turned inside out and it was thought his killer had taken any cash he had on him. But other than that, nothing appeared to be out of place. No tools were missing. No one had broken into the house. Patricia was even home, upstairs, sleeping off three Tylenol PMs, when seven shots interrupted an otherwise peaceful Berkshire night.

Speaking of the gunshots, Patricia said she never heard any of them. In looking at the house, a family member later suggested to me, Patricia and Neil's bedroom was upstairs on the south side, almost as far away from the barn as it could be. It was late. There was no way she could have heard the shots, this source insisted. In fact, Patricia told detectives she fell asleep after playing a video game with Neil and having sex while Desperate Housewives and the beginning of Boston Legal were on in the background. Neil must have gone out to the barn after Patricia fell asleep. On top of that, Patricia had a bad habit of falling asleep with the television on and claimed she needed to have the television on all night while she slept. Besides the Tylenol, she'd had "three or four" glasses of white wine.

Patricia Olsen

But cops wanted to know more. They asked Patricia if she was willing to head down to the L.P.D. to give a statement.

She thought about it momentarily. "Sure," she said.

Why not.

At 12:35 p.m., after cops read Patricia her rights as a procedure, she began talking about her last day with Neil. She had no attorney with her and freely offered all the information she could.