Joel Hollendorfer and Kara Nichols (El Paso Sheriff’s Office)
A 47-year-old man in Colorado will spend more than two decades behind bars for killing a 19-year-old aspiring model, strangling her to death and burying her body in an old horse grave on his family’s property more than a decade ago. Fourth Judicial District Court Judge William Bain on Thursday ordered Joel Hollendorfer to serve the maximum sentence of 24 years in a state correctional facility after being convicted of manslaughter in the slaying of Kara Nichols, authorities announced.
Judge Bain also credited Hollendorfer with 571 days of time already served.
Hollendorfer was originally charged with second-degree murder, but a jury in El Paso, Colorado, in June 2023 found him guilty on the lesser charge of manslaughter.
“This violent, senseless crime deserves a more severe punishment than what the law can provide,” District Attorney Michael Allen said in a statement following the sentencing hearing. “We urge the Department of Corrections to uphold the entirety of the defendant’s sentence.”
Nichols, an aspiring model, told her family she was traveling to Denver for a job on Oct. 9, 2012, and was never seen again. The authorities said her last known whereabouts were in the 6700 block of Mission Road in an unincorporated section of El Paso County. Her family called the authorities to report her missing on Oct. 14, 2012.
Public records show that Hollendorfer previously lived at 9665 Burgess Road in Colorado Springs, 15 miles from where the victim was last definitively seen alive. The defendant had recently split from his wife and the mother of his two children at the time of Nichols’ disappearance, according to his social media posts.
A break in the case came after police interviewed a new witness during a standard cold case review early last year. The witness, Hollendorfer’s ex-wife, told FBI agents that Hollendorfer had confessed to her that he accidentally killed an escort and buried the body on his family’s property in an old horse grave.
Authorities obtained a search warrant and found human remains in what Hollendorfer’s mother identified as the grave of Milo, her favorite horse, Pueblo, Colorado, NBC affiliate KOAA-TV reported. The coroner tentatively identified the remains as those of Nichols, at which point police arrested Hollendorfer.
“You knew [Nichols] was addicted to heroin and you gave it to her, used her body in a vile way, put hands around her neck, and rendered her unconscious,” Judge Bain said in describing how Hollendorfer killed Nichols.
Nichols’ father, Paul Nichols, was visibly unhappy that Hollendorfer was not convicted for murder in his daughter’s slaying, calling the outcome a “miscarriage of justice” in a victim impact statement read to the court, KOAA reported. He reportedly asserted that even if Hollendorfer accidentally killed Nichols during sex, he should have sought medical attention rather than try to get rid of her body.
The victim’s mother, Julia Nichols, told KOAA that Hollendorfer did not appear to show remorse during the hearing.
“I declined to watch him, but from what others told me, he looked remorseless and he smiled at times,” Julia Nichols said.
“Having been told about the way his demeanor was throughout this whole year and a half process, both in the jail and in the courtroom, I didn’t think I wanted to hear any excuses or any more victim blaming,” Julia Nichols said, per Colorado Springs CBS affiliate KKTV. “I heard quite enough of that throughout the trial.”
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
