MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Alyssa Romine-Olson Part 2

Crime Junkie

The mysterious death of 30-year-old Alyssa Romine-Olson in a Gilbert, Arizona nature preserve in 2016 has been widely reported as a possible suicide, but her family and investigators raise serious doubts. Found naked and face down in shallow water with all personal belongings missing, the scene defies

Key takeaways

• Alyssa's death scene contradicts suicide patterns: missing belongings, undetermined cause of death, and evidence like footprints and a latex glove.
• Police initially considered foul play but shifted focus to her husband Braden Olson despite his verified alibi.

Main topics

• Mysterious death of Alyssa Romine-Olson
• Possible suicide vs. foul play

Notable quotes

"What if finding the missing person didn't answer the mystery? What if it only made it stranger?"

Conclusion

The case of Alyssa Romine-Olson remains unresolved despite strong indicators of foul play and unexplored leads, particularly

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) What if finding the missing person didn't answer the mystery? What if it only made it stranger? In a new Audiochuck limited series, The Truth About Natalie, host Sean Kipe investigates the disappearance and death of 27-year-old Natalie Jones. What starts as a missing person's case uncovers allegations of abuse, hidden secrets, conflicting evidence, and one haunting question. Was Natalie the victim of a tragic accident? Or did someone? Have a reason to silence her. Listen to The Truth Speaker 1 (0:32) About Natalie now, wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 2 (0:37) Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And welcome back. Last episode, I told you about the mysterious death of 30-year-old Alyssa Romine Olson. Her case has all the hallmarks that, to a crime junkie, scream foul play. She was found outdoors in Gilbert, Arizona, in a nature preserve, naked, face down in shallow water. Everything she came to the park with, her clothing, journal, cell phone, keys, it was all missing. And what police did find in the park were some footprints, shoe prints, and a latex glove. But for some reason, this got spun to and through the media like a possible suicide. Now, they couldn't outright say it was a suicide because the ME ruled the manner and cause of death as undetermined. But the insinuation was there, backed by some softly worded statements from the police who told the press that there was no threat to the public. All of this was shocking to Alyssa's family because up to that point, they were very much under the impression that police were considering this foul play. Police had even been asking them for a list of people that they thought police should look into. That is not the direction the investigation took. Alyssa's sister, Michelle, told us it felt like investigators took one look at the lifestyle Alyssa and her husband, Braden Olson, lived, heard about their beliefs, and instantly wrote them off as religious lunatics. And to be fair, Braden did himself no favors each of the three times that he talked to police. But from that point on, Michelle believes the investigation was driven by a simple assumption. Either Alyssa did this to herself, or her husband, Braden, did it to her. And if they found something that didn't fit neatly into that box, they seemed to discount it until the case eventually just ended up cold. And if you're still hung up on her husband, Braden, hearing about the other viable leads in this case might change your mind, or at the very least, present some pretty significant reasonable doubt. So this is the rest of Alyssa Romine Olson's story. Speaker 2 (3:25) I want to break up this episode by theory. The media suggests Alyssa may have died by suicide because she was depressed or had health issues, but her family firmly disputes that. Also, Speaker 1 (3:37) nothing about the scene is giving suicide. Speaker 2 (3:40) No, I don't think she hid her clothes and her journal and keys and phone and walked into a nature preserve and died by some means that an M.E. couldn't even determine. Makes no sense. Plus, the family says that police from the very jump were using terms with them at least like foul play, crime scene. Speaker 1 (3:59) But Speaker 2 (4:00) they seem to focus heavily on Alyssa's husband, who it turned out had a rock solid alibi. He was out of state. So when that didn't pan out, it seems like the investigation slowly Speaker 1 (4:12) tapered off. Which is easy for that to happen when you don't have the media banging down your door. Asking like when you're going to solve this case when it's like just a suicide. It Speaker 2 (4:23) makes the positioning in the public look very strategic, doesn't it? So let's walk through the other theories that I think are worth exploring. The first is actually one that as far as I can tell, police never even looked into. The last reformation theory. Now, this got our attention because of something Alyssa's sister, Chelsea, told police early on. It's in one of their reports. She asked them if Alyssa's death could have been caused by one of the members of her church, specifically someone offering to baptize Alyssa in the water. And that one line made me think back to something else that I read in the file. So early on when police collected the computer that Alyssa used, she had a number of searches on June 6th, this is shortly before her death, related to a religious movement called the Last Reformation or TLR. So last episode when we were talking about Brayden and his like, you know, not really having a motive, I mentioned that he and Alyssa were actually planning a trip together that would have been like a couple of weeks after she died. They had talked about it on their long phone call the night before Alyssa died. Well, that trip was to learn more about TLR. And when police collected the tablet that Braden had been using, they actually found three deleted PDF files seemingly related to TLR. Which, by the way, not only places a strong emphasis on baptism, but reportedly requires new members to be re-baptized and engage in, like, on-the-spot baptisms. And the more we venture down this rabbit hole... the more interesting connections we found. For context, the last reformation is a global Christian revival movement that was launched in Denmark in 2011 by a man named Torben Sondergaard. It teaches that modern Christianity has become too polished, too institutional, too dependent on buildings and pastors and routines. So instead, followers are encouraged to return to what they believe is the raw, supernatural faith of the early disciples in the New Testament. Speaker 1 (6:30) And that means that things can get a Speaker 2 (6:32) little intense and or hit a little too close to home for anyone who grew up like we did and like didn't get out or like did get out as we did. We're talking public healings, speaking in tongues, deliverance sessions, what many people would call exorcisms, and public baptisms in lakes or kiddie pools. Now, followers are taught to cast out demons, heal the sick, and evangelize to strangers. wherever, whenever, even if that happens to be a parking lot. Now, the movement exploded online through YouTube videos showing dramatic healings and emotional conversion stories. But it also raised some major red flags. So the movement has been connected to claims of curing autism by casting out demons from children, as well as freeing people from cancer through prayer. And in 2016, six different Danish government agencies investigated the movement following worrying public claims about Torben's practices and activities. Now, those specific government inquiries found no actionable wrongdoings, but that didn't stop public outcry. So how does Alyssa factor into all of this? Well, we know that Alyssa held religious beliefs that friends and family described as extreme or intense. But admittedly, The Romines didn't know much about Alyssa's faith toward the end of her life because it sort of became a topic of conflict. Alyssa would encourage her family to become more faithful and she would get animated if anyone tried to push back. Chelsea said that much like Brayden, Alyssa would compare those who tried to slow her religious progression to the devil and question why they were keeping her from learning about God. Discussions were likely to end in an argument. So Chelsea knew very little about TLR, but she said that her family had their suspicions about it possibly being a cult. Now, when it comes to this theory, I think there are a few possibilities to tease out. The first one is what Chelsea suggested in her conversation with police, a sort of baptism gone wrong. Now, we did some digging here and found a podcast called The Cult Vault that explored the last Reformation movement in one of their episodes. The host interviews a man who explored the movement himself after one of his family members joined. And some things that he said really stuck out to me. So the man described a TLR meeting that he went to where a member told him that they believe every person in their faith is a disciple. So every person in their faith can make water holy, can do baptism, can cast out demons. According to him, one of the first things that they have new members do is get baptized again. And interestingly, one of the group's practices was to go to Walmart and to try and convert people in the parking lot. Like, according to this man, they would bring a pickup truck with a raised bed in the back that they would fill with water and do baptisms in the parking lot. Now, remember, we don't have any footage of Alyssa or her car parked in the parking lot of the public library where it was found because it was out of view. Could someone from the movement have approached her? And before you question, like, oh, were there even, like, TLR members living in Arizona, I can tell you right now that the answer is yes. And I know that because on the movement's website, there is this interactive map where members can share their locations. And there are multiple plot points in Arizona. Speaker 1 (10:00) Are you thinking that there might have been, like, a planned meetup? Or is this something more like happenstance? I Speaker 2 (10:06) can't say anything for sure. But one thing noted in the police file is that Alyssa's text message log showed exchanges with an unidentified number the day and days before she went missing and died. Speaker 1 (10:19) So this is someone other than Brayden? Speaker 2 (10:22) Well, I mean, the number itself is redacted in the document, so I couldn't look it up. But I know that it's not Brayden's because officers note that when they tried to call this number, there was no answer nor an option to leave a voicemail. And we know that Brayden did receive a voicemail message on the device that he was borrowing from the Phillips. Officers also text the number asking for a call back, but they never got any kind of response. And speaking of the Phillips, their daughter Samantha expressed some concerns to police about the last Reformation movement, saying that it was like very weird and she could see them doing something like that, like just taking somebody. Now, as far as I can tell, though, there was no follow up done with this phone number. That, like, she was in communication with. Which, like, by the way, it would take all of, like, 20 seconds for me right now to track someone to that number. Like, with what I have available to me. I'm not even the police. But I can't because it's redacted. Now, there is another possibility, which is that Alyssa was not the one being baptized, but maybe the one offering baptism. Like, she could have been encouraged by a movement, the movement, whatever, to approach someone to minister to them or to baptize them. Or in Chelsea's words, she might have, quote, bothered the wrong person about God. According to the police file, both Ed and Barbara, her parents, said that Alyssa was very friendly and she liked to talk to strangers, particularly to minister to them, which her dad Ed said was a scary habit. And actually, one of the friends of Alyssa's that we spoke to told us that his top theory is that Alyssa was evangelizing to someone in the park who then pushed her into the water, causing her death. Now, who this person might have been, nobody could say. And that's like where that theory just like falls off. OK, Speaker 1 (12:06) but is she naked when they push her in? Like, otherwise, that would make no sense. Speaker 2 (12:10) It also makes no sense to me because like we there's no water in her lungs. She didn't drown. So I agree that that theory doesn't necessarily like or that piece of the theory doesn't make sense to me. Now, maybe if the police had alerted the public about the possibility of this being a homicide back in 2016, if they had. tried harder to track down that unidentified number or done a neighborhood canvas, they might have gotten some leads. But that didn't happen. And now we can't go back in time. So with that, on to our next theory. The man in the green forerunner. It was Chelsea and her sister Tammy who first encountered this man on September 30th, 2016. Chelsea told us that they were at the riparian dropping off flowers for Alyssa when a strange man just like emerged from the bushes near where they were standing. And they're just like they're sharing memories of Alyssa, but it seemed like this guy was like listening. to them. And according to Chelsea, he was acting very weird and sort of like scoping the place out. So the two decided to just like keep an eye on this guy. Except it sort of seemed like he was watching them back, which like creeped them out enough that they were like, we just need to get out of here. But that's not where the story ends. So once Chelsea and Tammy got to their parents' house, they were outside in the front like discussing whether they should like tell their mom or maybe even tell the cops about this. But before they could do anything, something they saw on the road made their heart stop. It was this like forest green Toyota 4Runner, like slow rolling down their street. And when it passed their house, the vehicle's window rolled down. And Chelsea could see, clear as day, that the driver was the same man from the riparian. Like as though he followed them the five miles home. And it's not like this is just like a straight shot on like some main street or something. Like this isn't a coincidence. The fastest route involves at least six turns to get to their parents' place. Now, Chelsea and Tammy did bring this information to police. Per the file, four days after the encounter, they went down to the station and relayed this whole story. Police asked Chelsea to rate her certainty on a scale from 1 to 10 that both the man at the riparian and the man who drove by their house were the same person. At the time, Chelsea said 7. But she told us that she was 100 % sure of it. So sure, in fact, that her