In this episode of Crime Watch Daily Updates: A picture is worth a thousand words, but it also might be exactly what killed 19-year-old Kara Nichols.
Kara, an aspiring model, lived in Colorado Springs and had the beauty to make it big. On October 9, 2012, Kara called her brother Terry to inform him about a modeling gig she booked in Denver. He never heard from her again, which worried him because the siblings talked every day.
Terry called Kara October 10, but her phone went straight to voicemail. When he went to Kara’s home on October 11, he noticed she left her laptop, cell phone charger, and other personal items behind. Her roommates hadn’t seen her since October 9, either.
Her family became concerned and reported her missing to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office on October 14.
The detective assigned to the case learned that in addition to modeling, Kara also worked as an escort and advertised her services online. When looking through her phone records, investigators found Kara communicated with a man named Joel Hollendorfer eight times on October 9, 2012, between 9:58 p.m. and 11:08 p.m. Joel told a detective working the case that he spoke with Kara that night, but claimed he never met up with her.
Cell phone tower records, however, place Kara near Joel’s home, where he lived with his parents.
On October 2, 2014, El Paso County detectives conducted a search at Joel’s home with cadaver dogs and found several locations where the ground had been disturbed. Joel’s mom told detectives they buried their horses and other animals on their property and had been doing so for 30 years.
Joel allegedly told investigators during another interview in 2014 that he never met Kara. He reportedly said he met with escorts several times, which contributed to the end of his marriage. Joel’s estranged wife did not speak with investigators at the time.
The case broke open in February 2022 when Joel’s ex-wife, Kristina Palmer Hollendorfer agreed to sit down with investigators. She allegedly told FBI agents that Joel admitted he accidentally killed an escort by strangling her during sex. Kristina reportedly said Joel told her he moved her body to his parents’ property and buried her on a horse grave. He allegedly believed his parents knew he killed Kara, and they were protecting him.
Joel was arrested February 7, 2022, on an unrelated warrant, and again told detectives he never met Kara. Detectives reportedly pinpointed a potential burial area on Joel’s family property and executed a search warrant. About three feet down, they found human remains wrapped inside three trash bags that had been wrapped in duct tape.
The remains were positively identified as Kara, and the coroner confirmed the teen died of asphyxia due to strangulation and said her manner of death was homicide. Kara, who had a history of heroin use, also had the drug in her system.
Joel has been charged with first-degree murder and is in custody without bond.
Let’s look back at the tragic case of a teen who remained missing until a crack in the mystery emerged nearly 10 years later.
They should look DEEPER into this case.
RIP Kara. Disgusting ex wife only comes fwd 10years later. She should be in prison with the parents covering his shit. Sincere condolences to Karas family and friends. Rih Joel.
A man over 40 yrs. old living with mama and daddy, what a pathetic monster!!!! They all knew what he did, how could they live with knowing that he murdered
someone and not go to the police???!!! 😠 Sorry for her friend's & family. 💔
Rest peacefully kara 💞💗🕊️💗💞🕊️💗💞
Prostitutes and drug users that go missing are usually not the top priority for detectives. People like this go missing way too often.
Don’t sell your body ladies, you are worth more than paper
"Grave" danger…very ominous phrasing, considering the location of her remains…
She is a teen hooked on Hearoin and having sex with men and where the he'll is the family and friends and above all the justice system she is a so called teenager modle …. really idiots…..that's clearly pedophilia what's wrong with society and what's wrong with the police why don't they try and make and effort to stop all this
Ex wife doesn’t tell police that her ex-husband committed murder??????? What the absolute f????
May all of these email men rot. (Posting again because of the evil men in the comments of MY last comment.)
Taking 10 years to disclose information that help will help solve a murder case is obstruction of justice on steroids, imo.
All that time wasted for that poor family to have peace.
Hello, Anna! I love your show! God Bless!
She looked more like a prostitute or escort… Not a model.
Never heard of this case. Just learning of new cases. Love the updates you guys are going.
This should show that such naive ignorant people shouldnt have children. These parents look obvlivious especially that mother
Think they assumed she was a girl on model mayhem bc she was.. a girl on model mayhem . Usually just end up d list porn stars she could just be THAT girl and willingly gone
Aw if she only knew she was not pretty enough and she's 5'8" you could never model, then anyone that offered would obviously just be a weirdo. They don't actually believe you could ever model. Her imagined self esteem about her looks killed her. Naive. Sad. Poor girl
how did they find crack in her system 10 years later and dude should have buried her with a horse but
i feel for kara, i moved from chicago to denver in 14y ago…Colorado Springs police are absolutely effective at arresting minorities….not to great at real police work though.
“Turning her life around” working as an escort with a heroin addiction? Kara had taken the wrong path and would only have made things worse for herself.
CELL PHONE TRACKING plus DOG INDICATION is enough EVIDENCE to DIG!!!! CADAVER DOGS are trained to detect HUMAN remains.. excuse of dead horses was 'RED HERRING'.. 😵😥🥺🥴SPEECHLESS!!!!!!!!!
Escort means hooker, right?
How about discussing who is actually behind the world wide Opium Trade? A clue is in the history of BRITISH Opium Wars!
A gold digging heroin addict who uses men then killed wow that's a new one ?,,,she was already dead from heroin ,sad Biden let's those drugs in here
19 year old HOOKER and JUNKIE not model
She was very beautiful!
Hi again AnnaGarcia
Modeling and be prostitute is so different.. I have friends and family that are models but they are not prostitute.. I am not saying that bcs you are prostitute you can be killed but you unfortunately expose yourself to bad people
Is so sad that more women choose the easy way ..instead of choosing an education they choose to be hookers.. is so sad
My 1st cousin was murdered and its obvious who did it but because he was on heroin the cops never even gave it a second look. Sad
the heading is misleading
I don’t understand anyone holding on to a secret about the killing of another person for 10 years. The ex-wife knew that he had killed this woman, whether accidentally or not – and said nothing? These people are sick! This includes the police, who didn’t look into the fresh grave on the property of the person who had last seen the victim. Why the inaction? Probably because she was an escort.
The title says that she was found in a horse grave. The end of the video acts like her body can't be found. Which is it?
Wooooow fuck the police. They really fucking bungled this. Poor Kara, and her poor parents…porter can pop that apology right up his ass. He made it MUCH easier for these traffickers to take her away to God knows fucking where…
Cops doing a half assed job. Thank God that’s unusual (insert sarcasm) 🙄
I accidentally killed during sex? Yikes! What a Lie, parents Lied and desecrated a corps and tampered with evidence and the wife unit knew for years… Murdering Shit Stains one and all!
What's a escort ?
The title doesn’t match the video! Where’s the part where they found the body at Joel’s parents house “three feet down”?!?
Always a dangerous game to play, pretty woman and men after them
My heart truly aches for Cara's parents and all that loved. I truly believe cara wa misled and manipulated. I know from personal experience when were young we can be very trusting…
Makes me so angry how the police handled it too its absolutely despicable
Good lord every woman should always take someone with them because men can not be trusted these men are sick , SO NEVER GO ALONE!!!!!
this always sounds rude but do you ever think young women falling for this shit because theyre attention whores with extreme irrational insecurities is……. natural selection ? i mean it happens so often the exact same way. some insecure girl goes "durr da durr da durrrrrr fuck you mommy and daddy i know everything , oh no im being raped and killed !" i feel like , her parents really let her die. they both have mouth breather face
The Police were useless for not digging up the graves 🤬🤬🤬
I don't know who I'm more disgusted by… Hollendorfer's family who knew about the murder & said nothing, or the cops who weren't interested in actually doing their job to locate a missing woman.
That psychologist’s last name uhhhh really? 😂
She could have been in the adult film industry. So sad, what a beautiful young lady.
The timing of her cooperation is suspicious. Why wait until years later? She more than likely used it a leverage for something or post revenge. I'd say she knew about and stayed silent. I say that because she knew the case wasn't solved after all these years.
Thank you Anna, for the respect you showed Kara. As a 19 year old, I also, was a Sex Worker. As a now mature 52year old. I am working with the government to keep Sex Workers Safe.
Thank you so much🇦🇺🧡