Murder in Massachusetts

Pieces Fit Together

State Trooper Jean Thibodeau later testified that Patricia's "initial account of her activities the night before" Neil's murder "did not check out." Patricia had told Thibodeau, for example, that she went to bed after watching Desperate Housewives and a very brief portion of the show Boston Legal. But Thibodeau soon discovered that Patricia recovered two voicemail messages on her cell phone on the night of January 9: the first at 11:56 p.m.; the second at 11:58 p.m. How could she be awake to retrieve those messages if she had been sleeping? And who would be calling at that time of night, anyway?

It all pointed to Christopher.

As detectives interviewed other sources connected to Amanda and Christopher, people who could back up what they were saying, a rather sobering account of the last days of Neil Olsen's life revealed itself.

"Every time we [my mother and I] would talk," Amanda told police, "even after I moved to New York, I would talk to my mother and try to have a normal conversation with her about something going on with me, and she would turn it around into something negative about her life, and if Neil were gone we could be together."

Over the months leading up to Neil's murder, prosecutors and detectives later claimed, Patricia racked up a litany of bills she couldn't pay. There was even word that, at one time, a foreclosure notice for Neil's house was going to appear in the local newspaper.

Amanda further stated that she started looking for a hired killer through her drug dealer, but realized after a time that her drug dealer wasn't as "connected" as he said he was, and the offer was subsequently taken off the table.

But even after that, Patricia never let up, Amanda claimed.

"I told my mother that I talked to a person about finding someone to kill Neil," Amanda told detectives. "She said she didn't want to know his name, but when I told her, she would say, 'Really!'" as if she were excited the plan was moving forward again.

Amanda's boyfriend later backed up her claims. When detectives found him, however, there was that one little problem with his credibility: he was serving time in a Watertown, New York, prison. Still, they took a statement, which further implicated Patricia.

Amanda's boyfriend was adamant about Patricia's role in Neil's murder. He explained how he had met Amanda and she soon moved with him and his father.

"It's funny," he explained to detectives in his prison interview, "she came down [to New York] and never left ..."

He had met Neil only once, when he and Amanda had driven back to Lanesborough to pick up Amanda's things.

"He seemed nice. Not like the horrific stories they [Amanda and Christopher] were always saying about him. Amanda was always saying, 'Neil is such an ass,' stuff her mom was filling her head with."

Next, he explained how he had come know Christopher through Amanda. Christopher had even lived with them for a time, but Amanda's boyfriend ended up kicking him out of the house.

Christopher had left the house in New York one day to go talk to Patricia. Christopher needed tires for his car. He had no money. Refused to hold down a job. And Patricia was always flipping him cash.

When Christopher returned to New York later that afternoon, Amanda's boyfriend claimed he saw a box for a .22 caliber rifle in the backseat of his car. "No gun, just the box."

So he asked Christopher were he got the money for the gun.

"My mother gave me some money for new tires. I bought a gun and radar detector instead."

Amanda's boyfriend was on probation at the time. He went to Christopher and told him, "Get rid of the gun, or get out of the house."

"I'll put it in my trunk," Christopher said. Amanda's boyfriend asked him why he bought a gun to begin with.

"I am going to take target practice."

"That was his only explanation for owning the gun," Amanda's boyfriend recalled.

Before Christopher was finally asked to leave Amanda's boyfriend's father's house, he and Amanda's boyfriend had several discussions about Neil. Like Amanda, Christopher hated Neil. It was clear, Amanda's boyfriend told detectives, from how he viewed the relationship. But it seemed to him that Christopher was confused about his association with his mother.

"I love my mom," Amanda's boyfriend said Christopher told him one night. Then, in another breath, he would snap and say, "She is a manipulative bitch."

But Amanda's boyfriend had also told police something that would not perhaps bode too well for the D.A.'s office when they presented a case against Patricia in court: "You could not believe half the stuff out of [Christopher's] mouth."