Year later, NLR killing still fresh in mind of kin

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Ashley Nerbovig
Samantha Olson's sister April Welshhons, 26, stands with her daughter on the corner of the intersection where a year earlier Olson was shot and killed while driving with her 11- month daughter. Welshhon said she and Olson had planned to raise their daughters together.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Ashley Nerbovig Samantha Olson's sister April Welshhons, 26, stands with her daughter on the corner of the intersection where a year earlier Olson was shot and killed while driving with her 11- month daughter. Welshhon said she and Olson had planned to raise their daughters together.

Stan Doucet stood at the intersection of McCain and JFK boulevards Thursday and visualized the last moments of his child's life.

It had been one year since his 31-year-old daughter, Samantha Olson, was shot to death, seemingly at random, while driving through the North Little Rock intersection. Olson's infant daughter was in the back seat.

Doucet, 69, hasn't been able to escape the image.

"I just keep seeing this picture of her in my mind going through this intersection. And that just hurts. And the baby crying. It's hard to live with that picture in your mind. I just wanted to be with her. I wanted to hold her hand, but I didn't get that chance," he said, trembling.

Doucet and about a dozen other relatives, friends and co-workers of Olson gathered at the corner of the intersection at 7:30 p.m. Thursday to remember her. They stood in a circle and shared memories of her, tears streaming down their faces. They prayed. And they looked into television news cameras and pleaded for anyone with even a shred of information on Olson's killing to contact police.

"If there's anything I can say to people out there is that there's a killer out there," Doucet said. "And he or she may never have done this before and may never do it again. But if you don't want to go through what we're going through, any information you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

"We've got to get this person off the streets."

Olson was shot Aug. 14, 2013, while driving east on McCain approaching JFK. A gunman driving west on McCain in a maroon Ford F-150 fired three to six shots into her vehicle about 7:15 p.m., police reported. Olson's 11-month-old daughter, Linnea, was in the backseat. She wasn't injured.

Olson was taken to UAMS Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

Sgt. Brian Dedrick, North Little Rock police spokesman, said Thursday that one year after the slaying, an investigation has yielded few clues. There was no known motive in the killing and no information on a suspect, he said.

Surveillance cameras at the intersection recorded the gunman's vehicle passing Olson and continuing west on McCain before turning onto Camp Robinson Road. In the weeks after Olson's killing, police received numerous calls from people who claimed to have seen the pickup or a vehicle similar in description, Dedrick said.

But none of the tips panned out, and Dedrick said the chances of the killer still possessing the truck were "pretty slim" considering the publicity of the case. He said the truck may have been sold, modified, or both, and that detectives were seeking any information on sales or alterations of the vehicle.

Olson's sister, April Welshhons, and cousin Dustin Shinn said Thursday that they expected the investigation would be difficult.

"I think we kind of knew from the beginning that it was going to be a hard case to possibly solve because there's so little to go on," Welshhons said. "We kind of went to [the police] and we have hoped that it will be solved at some point, but that's highly unlikely and we've known that."

Doucet, however, said he thought his daughter's killer would be caught quickly. But weeks turned into months, and he felt the case chill with each call to police that yielded no new information.

Welshhons said that on her cellphone, her "sissy" is still on speed dial. Sometimes she calls Samantha by mistake and has to remind herself that no one will answer.

Doucet said he misses the thoughtfulness and generosity of his daughter, who was an accountant studying to become a certified public accountant. He recalled a snowstorm in Little Rock several years ago that left his home without power for six days. In freezing temperatures, Doucet had only a small propane heater to keep him warm. He was awoken one of those nights by his daughter, who had gone to Wal-Mart and bought him a bag of hand warmers.

"I just don't really know what the future is going to be, but without her it's a bland future," Doucet said. "She was such a shining light in everybody's life."

Information for this article was contributed by Spencer Willems of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Metro on 08/15/2014

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