“The Killer Beside Me”: The Deadly Obsession That Led To The Murder Of Caroline Nosal

MADISON, WI — In the summer of 2015, 24-year-old Caroline Nosal was working in the produce section of a supermarket in Madison, Wisconsin. But her world was about to be shattered by an new coworker with a disturbing obsession that would eventually lead to murder.

Nosal’s story is the subject of a new episode of Investigation Discovery’s The Killer Beside Me entitled “Target On Her Back.”

Chris O’Krowley [Madison Police Department]

“Caroline was just really bubbly and really friendly, just someone that I instantly wanted to get to know more,” Nosal’s friend Kelsey Brooks said.

Brooks worked with Nosal at the store, and said that Nosal made her feel instantly welcome.

A new employee named Chris O’Kroley started working at the store, and began joining Nosal, Brooks, and some other work colleagues for social nights out.

According to Brooks, O’Kroley seemed “quiet and somewhat secluded,” and Nosal encouraged him to come out of his shell.

Nosal’s father, Jim Nosal, said that his daughter loved life and was making plans for her future. He learned that she had been accepted to the University of Wisconsin, and hoped to start classes in the fall of 2016.

O’Kroley told Nosal that he had suffered several recent hardships, including a recent breakup and time spent on the streets.

Friends say that she sympathized with O’Kroley’s shyness, and reached out in an attempt to include him. But soon, employees began to notice that, according to Brooks, there was something a bit “off” about Chris.

Kelly Brooks [Investigation Discovery]

Brooks became concerned when she heard a rumor that O’Kroley had hit on a 16-year-old girl. But she said that they gave him the benefit of the doubt, and thought that perhaps he was simply socially awkward.

In the fall of 2015, O’Kroley, Nosal, and group of coworkers went out for drinks and, according to Nosal’s friend Loretta Richard, Nosal had too much to drink and asked to be taken home. But because O’Kroley didn’t know where she lived, he took her to his place.

“She woke up the next day not feeling right, not feeling comfortable, and thinking that maybe he had gotten a little too friendly with her when she was not in the right state,” Richard said. “Caroline never had romantic interest in Christopher.”

Caroline Nosal with her mother, Jane Nosal [Investigation Discovery]

After that, Nosal began to steer clear of O’Kroley. But he continued to text her — and the messaging intensified and began to make her uncomfortable.

He persisted in continuing to try to talk to her and, Richards said, became “obsessive.”

Nosal tried to avoid O’Kroley, but since they worked in the same place, this proved impossible.

In November 2015, Brooks said that O’Kroley began making inappropriate comments to other female staff members. “We were uncovering a darker, startling side of him that we didn’t even know existed,” she said.

Nosal’s mother, Jane Nosal, said that, at this point, she completely supported her daughter’s decision to cut O’Kroley off. “I was always wary of a man hurting one of my girls. I just wanted my girls to be safe,” she said.

At the office Christmas party, O’Kroley started showing explicit photos of a teenager to Nosal — and she recognized the girl as a high schooler who worked at the supermarket bakery.

Image from security camera footage of Chris O’Kroley [Investigation Discovery]

Friends say that Nosal got angry and told him, bluntly, to stay away from her. And she also became concerned about the young woman — and she and Brooks discussed going to the police to report O’Kroley.

But Nosal decided to hold off — since, Brook said, she did not feel that she was in danger. But O’Kroley’s creepy behavior continued to intensify, until one day in January 2016 when the police showed up and took O’Kroley away in handcuffs.

They arrested hime for the alleged sexual assault of a young woman. “The girl had had one sip of a mixed drink, lost consciousness, and woke up with her clothes removed,” Brooks said.

So Nosal was shocked when O’Kroley actually came back to work. Apparently, management had allowed him to come back until the investigation was complete.

Brooks said that she and Nosal were terrified, and started leaving the store together at night.

On January 22, Nosal began to receive graphic, harassing text messages from O’Kroley. After she met with the store managers and showed them the text messages, they suspended him while they investigated further.

On February 2, 2016, Nosal learned that O’Kroley had been fired. Brooks said that she was elated, but that she was concerned that O’Kroley would blame Nosal. And she was right: The day before, after getting fired, O’Kroley had visited a sporting goods store and bought a 9mm pistol and ammunition. In security-camera footage later viewed by investigators, he can be seen calmly walking out of the store.

After Nosal’s shift ended that day, he confronted her in the parking lot and fatally shot her in the chest and the head. O’Kroley then went on the run, and police launched a massive manhunt for him. Seventeen hours after the murder, police found him outside a local store and were able to apprehend him after a shootout.

Chris O’Kroley [Madison Police Department]

After he was arrested, O’Kroley told police that he would have actually shot Nosal the day before, but he waited so he would have time to practice using the gun. He was convicted of homicide and sentenced to life in prison.

Afterward, Nosal’s father learned that store management had read O’Kroley a message over the phone, and in their decision to fire him, they read out the exact wording of his text message to Nosal. Jim Nosal said that he was “tremendously disappointed” in the store, since he felt that this would have made O’Kroley aware that it was his daughter’s complaint that had led to his dismissal. He added: “Management basically put a target on her back.”

Nosal’s family says that their world has forever changed since her murder. But still, Jane Nosal had compassionate words for O’Kroley’s family:

“I do want to say something, because I know that there’s another family that’s embroiled in this mess. I’m sorry if they’re hurting just as much as we are. I wouldn’t want to wish that on anybody. I don’t know his family. I don’t know anything about them, but as a mom, I want to tell his mom I’m so sorry. You never raise a kid thinking that they’re going to be doing that.”

On May 1, 2017, Chris O’Kroley committed suicide on what would have been Caroline Nosal’s 25th birthday.

For more on Caroline Nosal, watch the “Target on Her Back” episode of Investigation Discovery’s The Killer Beside Me on ID GO now!

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DailyMail.com

Wisconsin State Journal

Fox6Now.com

Main photo: Caroline Nosal [Investigation Discovery]

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