Dad-of-two who ‘told wife he killed escort & buried body on his parents’ farm’ is arrested 10 years after crime
A MAN told his dying father in 2014 that he “accidentally killed an escort” two years earlier and buried her body in their yard, a recently released FBI affidavit said.
Joel Hollendorfer’s father took his son’s confession to the grave, but his then-wife Kristina Palmer knew about it and opened up to the FBI earlier this year, according to the affidavit obtained by The Sun.
About a decade ago – in October 2012 – Kara Nichols, 19, vanished, and her case went cold.
In January, the case heated up when FBI agents tracked Hollendorfer’s ex-wife to Virginia, and she told them what happened.
“She related Joel told her he hired an escort and during sex in her car he accidentally strangled her until she died,” police wrote in the probable cause affidavit.
“Joel then transported her to his parents’ property (in El Paso County, Colorado) where he buried her in an old horse grave with plastic bags and lime. Kristina had no knowledge of Joel ever moving the body.”
On February 7, Hollendorfer, 46, was arrested on an unrelated warrant, questioned about Nichols’ death and denied any involvement, according to the affidavit.
During the interrogation, police asked about specific horse graves in his parents’ backyard.
Most read in The Sun
Law enforcement executed a search warrant on February 3 and found a garbage bag about three feet under the ground with a human hand and remains believed to be Nichols, according to the affidavit.
Hollendorfer was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence.
“BOTCHED INVESTIGATION”
During the initial investigation into Nichols’ disappearance, none of the horse graves were dug up, according to the affidavit.
There were no reasons why that never happened, but it feeds into Nichols’ family’s claim that the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department in Colorado botched the initial investigation.
“When my daughter went missing, the department was in what appears to be complete disarray,” Julia Nichols told The Denver Channel in 2016. “It leads us to think very little was done in her case, even though they gave lip service to working hard to solve my daughter’s disappearance.”
The sheriff at the time – Terry Maketa – left the office in 2014 after he was charged with official misconduct.
We pay for your stories!
Do you have a story for The US Sun team?
Email us at exclusive@the-sun.com or call 212 416 4552.
Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheSunUS and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSunUS