DATELINE ‘The Outlook’ The tragic attack of girlfriends Mollie Olgin and Kristene Chapa

Girlfriends Mollie Olgin and Kristene Chapa were found brutally injured on June 23, 2012, at Violet Andrews Park in Corpus Christi, TX. The girls had had plans at the park that night, and one of their friends, Brittany Selby, was supposed to join them. That decision to not spend time at the park that night saved her life. Because Kristene and Mollie had been dating, the community wondered if it had been a hate crime.

When their bodies were found, they were both bound in duct tape and had been shot in the back of the head. Their driver’s licenses were at the scene, but their bodies had been so badly mutilated, it was difficult to tell which girl was which. One of the girls was shockingly still alive.

Kristene survived, but she was in a coma and needed brain surgery. Everyone worried that she may never wake up, but eventually, she did. Police wanted her to be coherent enough to help them find the attacker. Kristene could only write out yes or no at first, but police were still eager to interview her. She said she didn’t know her shooter and said he smelled like cigarettes. She had also seen Under Armour gloves on the man.

Now, Kristene is now doing well after a tough recovery period, and she can recall exactly what happened on the night she lost her girlfriend Mollie. She said Mollie had wanted to take her to the overlook where she had been baptized. The girls had not been there for five minutes before they were approached by a man with a gun. He forced them down a steep embankment and called them “Girl #1” and “Girl #2.”

Kristene says the man raped her and then made her duct tape both herself and Mollie’s mouth. The next thing she remembers is the gun going off, and then everything went blank.

They tested DNA on cigarette butts and a drink can at the crime scene which came back positive for a man named Dylan Spellman. He was the initial suspect, but he was a lot taller than the man Kristene remembered.

They were finally given a crack in the case when the young women’s attacker after Kristene Chapa’s father received an anonymous letter with details about the crime that only the attacker would know. He claimed to be a “hitman” hired by Mollie’s murderer to “finish the job” and kill Kristene.

The letter accused a man named Cristobal Melchner from Layton, Utah, of the crime, but Cristobal man had a solid alibi as he was in military training at the time. Cristobal did, however, help lead police to the true culprit. His house had been burglarized by his former roommate, David Strickland.

When police investigated the burglary, they had found a number of suspicious items in David’s car including two guns, ammunition, a suppressor, gloves, and a backpack containing condoms, flex handcuffs, bolt cutters, a knife, and more. They turned over this evidence to the police investigating Mollie and Kristene’s attacker. The gun and the gloves were linked to the shooting attack.

GPS showed that David Strickland had hand-delivered the letter to Kristene’s father, and later a draft of the letter was found on David’s computer. He thought he had been deleted, but because he had used spellcheck, there were remnants of the letter on his device. David Strickland’s defense argued that he may have written the letter, but it was only to get back at his ex-friend.

David Strickland had actually provided information to the police a few days after the shootings. He claimed he had seen a white car near the park on the night of the attack.

In 2016, David Strickland was sentenced to life in prison. He was charged with aggravated assault, aggravated sexual assault, and capital murder.