East Texas teenager charged with murder in killings of parents and siblings
May 25, 2023, 6:13 AM | Updated: 9:50 am
NASH, Texas (AP) — Authorities in east Texas have jailed an 18-year-old man on capital murder charges in the shootings of his parents, sister and brother.
Police in the small town of Nash, Texas, say officers responding to a report that a man had harmed his family and was threatening to kill himself on Tuesday found Cesar Olalde barricaded inside a home. They were told that multiple people were dead inside.
Olalde later called police, saying “he had pulled the trigger, and shot his family,” according to a probable cause affidavit by Nash Police officer Craig Buster.
The officers persuaded Olalde to surrender and then found the bodies of his parents, Reuben Olalde and Aida Garcia, older sister Lisbet Olalde and younger brother Oliver Olalde in a bathroom.
“It appeared as if the victims had been shot at various places in the residence and drug to the bathroom,” according to the affidavit. “Multiple spent cartridge casings” were found on the floor of the home, and “blood spatter on multiple surfaces.”
The affidavit said a co-worker of Lisbet Olalde had gone to the home because the woman had failed to arrive at work and, with a family member, forced his way inside where he was confronted by Cesar Olalde, who pointed a firearm at him.
The co-worker told police that Olalde said “he had killed his family because they were cannibals, and they were going to eat him,” the affidavit states.
Bowie County court records show Olalde was ordered held on $10 million bond. His listed defense attorney did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
Nash is a town of about 3,800 on the western edge of Texarkana near the Arkansas state line.
Mass killings are continuing across the United States at an unprecedented pace this year. A database maintained by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University counts killings involving four or more fatalities, not including the perpetrator, the same standard as the FBI, and tracks a number of variables for each.
