Naman Shrestha
In the episode titled ‘The Overlook’ of NBC’s ‘Dateline,’ the primary focus is on the chilling murder case of Mollie Olgin and the investigation that ensued. Although David Strickland was convicted of the crime, he was not the initial suspect. In the early stages of the investigation, the detectives zeroed in on Dylan Spellman, who was living near the scene of the crime at the time. As the authorities dug deeper, they found evidence that connected him to the murder.
Dylan Spellman Was Reportedly Involved in a Home Invasion Case
Several years before the attack on Mollie Olgin and Mary Kristene Chapa, Dylan Spellman was one of the five people who broke into the residence of the Nye County public administrator Robert Jones and robbed the family at gunpoint in December 2010. He and his group of robbers tied up Robert with rope and forced the family to get inside a closet while they stole their money and other valuable possessions. A couple of days later, Dylan and another one of the robbers were spotted at a local grocery store trying to cash almost 1,000 silver half-dollars. After the employee tipped the authorities about the same, they tracked down the two suspects and arrested them at Basin Avenue and Kim Court in Pahrump, Nevada.
Dylan and the other robbers faced multiple charges, including battery with intent to commit robbery, robbery with a deadly weapon with injury, three counts of false imprisonment with a deadly weapon, home invasion with a deadly weapon, transfer of stolen property, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, intimidation of a public official, three counts of first-degree kidnapping with a deadly weapon, and more. In January 2011, Dylan was reportedly convicted of the home invasion crime, after which he was awaiting his sentencing date in the Corpus Christi area, where he was staying with a family friend and working at their plumbing business. At the time, he was also known to frequent Violent Andrews Park.
Dylan Spellman’s DNA Was Found at the Crime Scene
Thus, before David Strickland was connected to the murder of Mollie Olgin, the police were suspicious of Dylan Spellman being responsible for the gruesome crime as they found his DNA on a couple of items at the scene of the crime, including cigarette butts and an energy drink can. After the attack, while Mollie tragically lost her life, her girlfriend, Mary Kristene Chapa, managed to recover from her severe wounds. When she described the appearance of the attacker from her sketchy memory, the resultant composite sketch also seemed to resemble Dylan. Moreover, as the police dug deeper into the Nevada home invasion case files, they learned that the robbers referred to one another by numbers. In her interview, Mary also claimed that the attacker referred to her and Mollie as “Girl One” and “Girl Two.”
A few aspects weakened the detectives’ suspicion of Dylan. For instance, Mary had told the detectives that the attacker was only a few inches taller than her, but the suspect was about a foot taller than that, as his height was 6 foot 8 inches. In addition, she was unable to pick him out of a photo line. However, there were also aspects that strengthened their suspicion. According to his ex-girlfriend, Alisha Dickey, she and he were in Violet Andrews Park on the night of the murder. Upon questioning Dylan, who was serving his sentence for the armed robbery at a Nevada prison, directly, he ended up failing a polygraph test. After finding out that the capital murder charge carried a death penalty sentence, he refused to say anything else.
Dylan Spellman Remains a Possible Suspect in the Case
In 2015, Dylan Spellman was reportedly released from prison, but his name was still very much connected to the Mollie Olgin murder case. During the trial of David Strickland, his defense lawyers tried to pin the blame for murdering Mollie on Dylan by calling a couple of witnesses to the stand. One of the witnesses claimed that she saw him at the crime scene on the night of the murder between 2:30 am and 3 am. Even his ex-girlfriend, Alicia Dickey, took the stand and testified against him. However, the prosecution managed to sway the jury by presenting the evidence against David and got him convicted and sentenced.
A couple of years after David’s conviction, in 2018, thanks to a new DNA technology, the authorities were able to identify the strand of hair found on Mollie’s body. It came out as a perfect match to the initial suspect, Dylan Spellman, who was once again under suspicion for the crime. Following this development, David’s attorneys appealed to get his conviction overturned based on the newfound DNA evidence. However, it was denied by the court, and his conviction was upheld. As of today, Dylan has no arrest warrant related to the case, and he continues to maintain a low profile.
