Delaware’s Joe and Olga Connell case: Wealthy newlyweds slain on condo steps

joe and olga were a handsome wealthy couple who had been husband and wife for a little more than three months they went to the caribbean and got married like on a beach and honeymoon there it was wonderful never imagining that when they promised to love each other till death do them part that they were destined to share just 107 days of wedded bliss together he was so happy with her and she was happy with him the attraction had been instant after joe and olga both in their 30s met at an online dating site it really hit it off it was a real love affair right from the start from everybody's accounts they said they were completely in love it was apparent the two were well matched and similar in many ways both of them well liked for their friendly vibrant personalities and lust for life the rest of joe's family also highly approved a volga he took her over to his house introduced her to his mother and she could see just how happy both of them were joe a confirmed bachelor knew olga was the woman he never thought he'd meet and he worshipped the elegant russian-born blonde who'd been briefly married once before that was legitimately the love of his life his world revolved around her if you were disrespectful to her you were no longer part of his life and during their short time together joe and olga enjoyed a dream life indulging their love of boating deep sea fishing and lavish vacations in exotic locations they traveled a lot they loved fine dining buying caviar whatever russian delicacies she really liked joe lavishing every luxury his money could buy on his new brine including a 100 000 mercedes it was a really beautiful convertible so they went in style but joe could afford it as the co-owner of a booming upscale auto repair business it did like a million dollars a year and it would only been around for a couple years olga a one-time stocks trader could take a great deal of credit for the success of the operation olga was a part of the shop she worked there she was a big part so when people walked into that shop they were greeted by this very attractive blonde russian woman with an accent who was super nice super friendly super personable joe and olga had good reason to be excited about their future together they were planning to start a family but olga and joe wouldn't get the chance to be mom and pop both their lives about to be suddenly snuffed out on the very night they're celebrating olga's 39th birthday at a local night spot where the love struck couple share what will turn out to be literally their last dance they had stayed to dance some more and have another drink then head home to a date with fate according to investigators the couple parked in this area they retrieved their mail from this spot and then they walked right down this sidewalk to their building and ultimately their death newcastle county 9-1-1 at 1 43 a.m the county police department is getting multiple calls from neighbors shaken from their sleep by the sound of gunfire i just heard arguments and the last thing i heard was what that and then three gunshots another tenant in their paladin club condo complex can see olga lying on the ground outside her door obviously she's hurt okay a lot all over her face and a third neighbor calls from her side i think she's cautious but she's pretty weak okay is she able to talk at all she might she might i'm not sure now other residents have also come to olga's aid is she still breathing i think she's bleeding but she's in trouble okay we're almost there just i just want you to keep her comfortable and just make sure she's still breathing okay she's laying on the ground she has blood all over her body and comps arrive at the newlyweds condo to find a critically wounded ogre lying motionless in a pool of blood but still alive when i arrived the medics were on scene and they were down here working on olga corporal kelly richards was the first police officer at the crime scene she was breathing but she was struggling what maybe would be described as agonal type breaths she was fighting for her life from a bullet to the head she had a gunshot wound to the cheek and would appear to be possibly exit wound out the back of the head and while medics are trying to keep olga alive police make another shocking discovery we have a second victim in the bushes here a white male multiple gunshot wounds finding olga's new husband joe lying dead in a remote corner of the front garden his body was lying face down on the ground he was positioned approximately right here he had several gunshot wounds to the torso area one apparent gunshot wound to the back of the head his head was actually laying in his hand and he had his hand out holding a cell phone corporal richards was hoping olga would survive to tell her who did this to her and joe did she say anything could she even verbalize any any words at all no she um she didn't say anything tragically a short time later olga's declared dead in the er just the way that they had died was very tragic joe's sister kelly says she was so shocked when she learned about the killings she called her mother to see if it was true and i said mom has joey been shot and she was crying she's like she got out the words joey and olga are dead evidence that the crime scene suggests joe and olga had been ambushed by a gunman or possibly two gunmen lying and wait for them to return home we found several pieces of the evidence that led us to believe that the shooters were right actually uh next to the front door and there were shell casings all over this yes there was there was several shirt casings of two different types of calibers and there was also a few live rounds but without olga police have no eyewitnesses and very little other evidence to go on any surveillance on this building at all no robbery would immediately be discounted as a motive when police learn nothing had been taken from joe or olga he had his wallet with in excess of a hundred dollars in cash her purse was there her phone was there she had a pretty large diamond ring that was on her finger all that stuff is still there police chief for the new castle county said this was not a botched robbery we know that for a fact this was a deliberate hit you believed early on that joe and olga were targeted yes and the way that they were killed the ambush at their front door i mean the keys were still in the door and as the mystery deepens wild rumors would begin to swirl around town among them that joe a bodybuilder known to have used steroids may have had a run-in with a drug-dealing russian crime syndicate one of the theories was maybe the russians were involved in the underworld steroid business maybe he had a bad deal with somebody but detectives don't buy it we were never able to find anything more to that theory they would also take a look at olga's former husband wondering if jealousy could have been the motive for the murder of the newlyweds we had to then investigate but olga's x is cleared after he provides police with a verified alibi leaving investigators literally without a clue we didn't know what was going on it was really a puzzle i guess to try to figure out and then detectives get what appears to be their first solid lead shockingly pointing to one of joe's own family members as the possible killer his little sister and olga's new sister-in-law kelly it was something that we couldn't just shove to the side we either had to determine if it was credible or rule it out friends of the family and even kelly's own mother had told police they were suspicious of kelly because she'd been locked in a bitter feud with joe over a twenty thousand dollar diamond ring kelly sat down with crime watch daily to set the record straight his ring was given to me by my father and my mom on my wedding day ten years prior but her mother had taken the ring and re-gifted it to joe's new bride as a wedding present joe's mother wanted joe to have a beautiful ring for olga and kelly is infuriated with her brother for even accepting it and leading olga to believe he'd bought it on joe's honeymoon she texted him about it and said some pretty nasty things kelly would only become more angry when joe finally returns the ring and she discovers the diamonds have been replaced with cubic zirconia i confronted joe and he was really angry at me for just confronting him he was afraid olga was going to find out where the ring came from and when the newlyweds condo just happens to be burglarized a short time later kelly is joe's prime suspect joe accused you of breaking into his home he did was anything taken during that robbery all their jewelry including kelly's diamonds which joe had mounted on a new ring for olga so you could understand why joe thought you did that yes kelly can also understand why detectives are suspicious of her when joe and ogar murdered just a little more than a month after the burglary at what point did investigators begin to focus in and question you more i felt the heat immediately circumstance had forced detectives to consider the unthinkable that joe connell's young sister kelly may have murdered her own brother and his new wife olga it's pretty shocking i think initially they were covering all their bases you know here's here's someone who had a feud with her brother at the end of his life who wasn't talking to him after joe had taken 20 000 worth of diamonds off a ring given to kelly by their parents and had them mounted on the ring he slipped on olga's finger at the time of their wedding a number of us were looking into the family issue these two have three have really because olga's involved in it too but kelly is not the only one showing up on detectives radar as police began to investigate joe and his wife olga's murders the spotlight would soon turn on joe's business partner and best friend chris rivers there's another group that's looking into who joe's business partner was where his business was what type of business it was how long have you known joe i've known him for probably about 10 years what'd you guys mean just being in the same business mechanic business detectives have not informed him that joe is dead and oddly rivers doesn't even ask why he's being questioned about him he never asked like is everything okay with him no but they realize rivers may have simply assumed joe was in trouble with the law his response initially was what did he do now rivers is also behaving as if joe really was still alive anytime he wanted to tell me about something joe was involved in he made me promise him that i wouldn't tell him promise me he won't repeat it promise me you won't tell joe what i'm getting ready to tell you and then hardly sounding like a best friend rivers reveals that like joe's sister kelly he too had been locked in a nasty ongoing dispute with him i guess the last six or eight months i noticed he stopped working stop coming to work he'd leave early people start so much uh he buys 100 000 he tells detectives it came to an ugly showdown after he learned that bodybuilder joe was not only using steroids but also dealing them from their business premises the other guy that works for me comes up to me and goes joe's on drugs out of the back of the shop and i was like what so i searched the shop found him and said to him get him out i don't want it here i'm not losing the freaking place over this and detectives would later learn the allegation was apparently true what we can determine if he picks up this steroid addiction and then he sees there's money in it so he starts selling sergeant leonard says rivers would go on to reveal other dark secrets about joe including the fact that he had served more than seven years in prison for pointing a shotgun at a police officer during a bar brawl and now he has this opportunity to talk in detail about you know joe's criminal history joe's steroid sales joe's problems with his family and detective leonard asks rivers about joe's feud with sister kelly as part of their simultaneous investigation of her you know any more about this thing this beef within his family what that's all about i mean just over the jewelry is really all i know about no details about it i mean every day there's something dramatic going on with this that family every time they like that yeah they're always arguing over money they're always arguing over something i mean it's every day there's drama still not telling you that joe and olga are dead detectives ask rivers about his whereabouts the night they were murdered the last you talked to him was with time he said 11ish okay 10 30 11 when joe was out with olga celebrating her 39th birthday i was supposed to go down there and i ended up working at the shop until about 10 30 11 then i went home got in the shower and then by the time i was gonna go down there i wasn't worth going down rivers tells detectives he stayed in the rest of the night with his girlfriend who would corroborate his alibi and he would also turn out to have a clean record there was nothing that popped out on his background at its initial stages that would think wow this is the right guy investigators even explore the possibility rivers may have had a partnering crime he was looked at rather closely as well he was police spent a lot of time investigating him and looking into that nor did rivers seem like their killer when detectives finally told him that joe and olga had been murdered what was his reaction he was upset those of them were killed at the same time rivers is being questioned detectives also continue to interview joe's sister kelly about the murders was she cooperative absolutely and with rivers also cooperating investigators still don't have any clear suspect or new leads there wasn't dna there wasn't surveillance there were no eyewitnesses but then a bizarre and stunning break in the case one of his good friends said the guy had custom made bathing suits and joe connell's business partner and so-called best friend chris rivers had told detectives that the luxury loving newlyweds were living beyond their means how much money would you say he's getting out of the business as opposed to not that much not enough to do that lifestyle no way investigators consider the possibility joe and his new bride olga could have been killed by an angry creditor it was one of the possible theories out there of what could have happened but without any other leads the focus of the investigation remains on chris rivers and joe's sister kelly who'd been locked in a bitter family feud with him at the time of the killings and she would also come under the close scrutiny of a national tv news program talking about the possible theory that kelly connell had committed the murder but police ultimately verify kelly's alibi for the night of the murders she tells crime watch daily despite their feud she truly loved her brother and his bride i've never seen two people in love like that that's the happiest i've ever seen my brother she's beautiful sweetheart sophisticated and she treated my brother wonderful and detectives become convinced she had nothing to do with their murders she had had a medical procedure done not a week or two before this that would have rendered her more or less not capable of killing her brother and his wife now that leaves just chris rivers who it already aroused the suspicion of investigators by ratting out joe for using steroids and accusing him of selling them at their auto shop and i went in there i mean i ripped the whole place apart and i found it back there and it was a lot rivers didn't realize he had just snitched on himself too did you secure a search warrant for the business we did what did you find when you went in various records computers and the steroids that chris told us right where they were and surprise surprise rivers is arrested what was he charged with possession of steroids and was a felony and now rivers out on bail refuses to talk any more to detectives once he was charged he retained legal counsel so from that point on we couldn't interview bring it back in but to their astonishment he starts talking to someone else he said here's the deal we found drugs in your building joe's dead you're responsible chris rivers gives a video recorded interview to a local newspaper reporter chris barish how smart was that i think in retrospect it proved to be quite problematic for him in some of the responses that he gave investigators couldn't believe it was the same man who had spoken so ill of his dearly departed business partner just days earlier ever since he started doing this whole drug thing i kind of distanced myself from him but now rivers is telling bearish of the wilmington news journal just the opposite how's your relationship up to the day died figures you see somebody every day 12 hours a day more than you see your wife so we're pretty much best friends and the police wanted our copies of the interview because they wanted to match it to their and they really wanted to pick it apart to look for inconsistencies and it's joe's my best friend and how broken up he was and how close they were and how much you know they got along investigators know that rivers is either lined to bearish or lying to them did it not add up to what he told you initially it just didn't seem genuine throughout it like when rivers calls detectives telling him joe and olga had been murdered i just didn't believe it i still don't believe it and investigators didn't believe rivers you could just watch it and say he's lying he's lying so now they dig a little deeper into his life and make a shocking discovery you're looking at a guy who's using massive amounts of opioid-based painkillers not to mention cocaine who is complete financial mess and allegedly flipping out under the pressure of massive debt during this time i was getting reports about rivers unraveling that his drug use was out of control and that he was paranoid and that he was telling people that he was had done the murder rivers would also be arrested twice more for robbery and criminal mischief linked to his drug abuse he was really just falling apart and then the investigators find the proverbial smoking gun the biggest break and the most compelling evidence we had in the case were the phones uncovering records of deleted text and calls showing that chris rivers had kept in contact with a career criminal named joshua bay the night joe and olga were murdered there was this whole flurry of texts and phone calls chris is contacting joe but he's also contacting bay and bay's contacting two other people and bay would eventually cut a plea deal in return for spilling the beans he's the linchpin of this entire investigation the only way out of this is is eternal chris telling investigators rivers had promised him 60 thousand dollars to arrange the murders which bay says were committed by a pair hitman he hired aaron thompson and dominique benson but why did rivers want his partner and man he called best friend dead cops always say follow the money and when they do it leads to a one million dollar life insurance policy a policy taken out when joe and rivers went in business together he's greedy he has debts he decided joe has to go but if he's going to collect the insurance policy joe's married so his wife would probably get his share of it so he's got to get rid of her too rivers would be arrested at his auto shop what was his reaction it didn't seem surprised i believe he knew what's coming he would ultimately be convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life plus 50 years in prison for plotting the murders of joe and olga connell rivers middleman joshua bay pleaded guilty to first-degree conspiracy and got five years behind bars aaron thompson was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy for being the trigger man and sentenced to life and dominique benson was sentenced to five years for conspiracy after being acquitted of being the second trigger man what the case was all about was a young couple that were just starting their lives together and had to come to this end for no reason but christopher rivers greed joe's sister kelly says nothing will ever heal her heartbreak over the loss of her brother and his bride the horror of initially being suspected of killing them and the agony of seeing what the murders have done to their loved ones as she revealed in a victim impact letter read to the jury the hardest part has been seeing how much pain christopher rivers has caused to my father my brother my mom and my children i want to take their pain away but i can't it never goes away we lost the heart of our family

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 526,132

Rating: 4.7661204 out of 5

Keywords: Wilmington Delaware, Crime Watch Daily, True Crime Daily, Joe Connell Olga Connell, reporter Chris Barrish, Paladin Club condo complex, New Castle County Police, Chris Rivers, Joshua Bey, Aaron Thompson, Christopher Rivers

Id: 9wH9DGPlGnY

Length: 23min 21sec (1401 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 02 2020