The Murders of Joseph and Olga Connell

While when it comes to murder we generally do not know when it will be someone's last day but we also do not know that any arguments you have with someone could make you a suspect in their murder. We all know that when someone is murdered the first people looked at are those closest to the victim and out of that group they will look at those who have had disagreements with the victim. Even the smallest of disagreements could look like a motive to an investigator. Then there becomes the fact that other people also know that investigators will look at these issues first and may try to take advantage of the timing, such was the case here.

In the early morning hours of September 23, 2013 a multitude of gunshots rang out in the Paladin Club area of Wilmington Delaware. When all was said and done authorities would find the bodies of Joe and Olga Connell outside their condo in the bushes of their home. Although in fairness while Joe was pronounced dead at the scene, Olga would not be pronounced dead at the hospital. Authorities would say that “close” to 25 shots had been fired at the couple who had only been married three months. Neighbors had heard the shots and had called 9-1-1. As is common the investigators went to their family and friends. They quickly learned that Joe was in a dispute with his sister, Kelly, over the fact that that their mother had given Joe a diamond ring to give to Olga for their engagement that Kelly stated had been promised to her. In fact, on July 31^st Joe and Olga's condo had been broken into and Olga was convinced that it was Kelly had been involved. The front door had been damaged and jewelry and laptops had been taken. Kelly would deny involvement and no one was ever charge.

Joe Connell came from maybe not a necessarily “wealthy” family but one that did not “suffer” financially. They were also fairly prominent in the Wilmington area. He was always interested in working on cars and being a mechanic. But, things went sideways for Joe in 2003. He was living with a girlfriend and her two children and had gotten into a bar fight. It was said that he stabbed when several men jumped him and he went out into the parking lot to obtain a 12-gauge shotgun. A police officer found him and Joe pointed the gun at the officer. In return the police officer pulled his weapon and ordered Joe to put his down. Instead Joe went back to his car and drove away. When he was caught and arrested he resisted. He would be charged with two counts of aggravated “menacing,” possession of a firearm during a felony and resisting arrest. Prosecutors offered him a deal that would have had him serve no more than two years behind bars but Joe rejected that offer and took his case to trial. He ended up serving six years and was released in early 2010. While in prison he participated in anger management classes as well as other programs that promoted life skills. He had also gotten into taking care of his body and doing body building.

Joe and Olga would meet on an online dating service in October of 2010. Olga was a native of Russia. She had basically been a mail order bride when she had married a man from Delaware in 2006 and she moved to America. The couple divorced on good terms in 2010. Together the couple had bought a condo in the Paladin Club area and Olga received the condo in the divorce. Prior to their first date Joe had felt it was important that he informed Olga of his time in prison but it did not deter her and the two hit it off fairly fast.

In the meantime another man, Christopher Rivers, from a prosperous family owned his own auto repair shop, C&S, with another man named Sean Terranova. Their partnership would only last a few years however as Terranova would say that Rivers' drug and alcohol use had hindered their relationship and he decided to end the partnership. At some point after his release from prison Joe began working with Rivers and became his partner. At some point Olga became the receptionist at the shop. In December of 2012 the two men decided to buy a new building for their business in an area in which would bring in more business. They also decided to get insurance polices on each other to protect the business if something were to happen to either of them. This is a fairly common practice, especially in small businesses. Something else that is fairly common happened... the relationship between Joe and Rivers was starting to sour although it is unclear whether everyone knew it.

Rivers continued to have a huge drug habit despite the fact that he was in a relationship and even had a baby on the way in 2013. For his part it was speculated that Joe was selling steroids out of the shop but while evidence apparently was found that he used them, nothing was found to indicate he was dealing in any way. To add to this it appears that both Joe and Rivers were living outlandish lifestyles that while the business could have and should have been successful neither apparently managed money or their time well. Rivers had his own financial issues with his drug habit as well as his lifestyle and it seems of the two he was the most vocal about his distaste of Joe's lifestyle. But of all people Rivers was in the least position to talk about someone living beyond their means. That being said however, even Joe's family apparently thought he was living more lavishly than he should have. While Olga “owned” the condo I can only presume that they still paid on it. In addition to that in June of 2013 Joe and Olga planned a wedding, vacation and honeymoon in the Virgin Islands. Joe had also bought Olga a “$100,000 Mercedes” and she was known to wear quite a bit of “expensive jewelry.”

But, again, the investigators first looked into the issues between Joe and his sister, Kelly. Kelly was very upfront about the “feud” and was cooperative with investigators. She shared with them text messages, not all flattering at all, that had been passed between her and the couple. Kelly was also able to show that she had been recovering from breast cancer treatment at the time of the murder. Her finance, Garrett Catalano, told investigators his theory and this is where the idea that Joe may have been selling steroids came into play but as I stated earlier there was no evidence of this. Investigators did look into it and the next step it seems was to talk to Chris Rivers and see what he knew about Joe possibly selling drugs. Rivers allegedly told the investigators that Catalano had been correct about Joe selling the drugs but that conversation led investigators to another man, an ex-convict and drug dealer named Harry Cook.

It is unclear if investigators found Cook because Rivers sent them to him or not. It is possible that Rivers may have implicated Cook or maybe Rivers thought Cook would collaborate his story about Joe. At any rate it was Cook who turned investigators attention to Rivers and put the investigation in the right direction. Cook told them that Rivers had constantly complained about Joe and his excessive spending and even accused Joe of embezzling from the business. It appears that they went back to talk to Rivers who would appear to cooperate to show that he was at home the night of the murders by providing surveillance footage of himself to them. The problem was that while it showed Rivers was home, his behavior seemed odd to them. It showed that he was “glued to his cell phone and constantly pacing up and down the hallways of his home” during the evening and at the time of the murders.

Police obtained Rivers' phone records and apparently also his phone and discovered that he had deleted a lot of information surrounding the time of the murders. While they were doing this they also discovered that Rivers was in what they called “significant debt” in his personal life not related to the business and learned of the life insurance policies the two business partners had obtained. They also discovered that it was Rivers who had a tendency to not pay the bills related to the business and it was speculated that this was due to his drug habit. In fact, just a month before the murders a credit union had sued Rivers for $28,000 from a personal loan that he had defaulted on. Then they learned that on the night of the murders Rivers was texting a man by the name of Joshua Bey, a convicted felon. They were then able to connect Bey, to a man named Dominique Benson and Benson to a man named Aaron Thompson. By obtaining records of all four men they were able to track movements of them on the night and around the time of the murders. It is not clear when investigators decided that these men, Rivers, Bey, Benson and Thompson were responsible for the murders of Joe and Olga or when they arrested the men. But, by August of 2014, nearly a year after the murders, Bey agreed to tell investigators what he knew for a deal.

According to Bey, he had met Rivers at the repair shop in the summer of 2011, prior to the shop moving to the new location and before the insurance policies were obtained. Bey admitted that he had sold Rivers cocaine and prescription drugs over the years. At some point Bey claimed that Rivers offered him money to find someone to kill apparently both Joe and Olga so as he could collect on the one million dollar insurance policy. Obviously Olga would not have had to die for Rivers to obtain the money so it would appear her murder may have just been wanted because of his distaste for her. Bey says he then contacted Benson and Thompson. Bey would tell investigators that Rivers knew that Joe and his sister Kelly were having a dispute over the engagement ring and believed that would be a good cover for them to use. I found nothing that ever indicated that the group of men may have been involved in the robbery at Joe and Olga's a few weeks prior, but that does not mean that they were not.

Bey would plead guilty to first degree conspiracy to murder and for violating probation. He would receive a five year sentence. According to the Delaware Department of Corrections he is now in “supervised custody” which likely means out on parole and will be officially released in June of 2021.

In 2016 Chris Rivers and Dominique Benson would go on trial together. They were both charged with two counts of first degree murder, two counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, first degree conspiracy to commit murder. In addition Rivers was charged with criminal solicitation of murder. The theory was that both Benson and Aaron Thompson had been the actual shooters. The trial would last three weeks. Bey would testify that he had told Rivers that he could “have it done for $60,000” but that Rivers would also have to pay him “an additional $2,000 for life” and he said Rivers agreed although ultimately he had only paid about $15,000 of the $60,000 by the time they were arrested. It is unclear their reasons but while Rivers would be convicted of all counts the jury was only able to to agree on the conspiracy charge when it came to Benson. They hung on the murder and weapon charges. It was said that the state announced that they would be re-trying Benson on those charges and apparently they did so in November of 2017. The jury acquitted him on all of the remaining charges. Benson would receive a five year sentence on the conspiracy charge and is no longer in the Delaware Department of Corrections system. Rivers would be given a sentence that consisted of two life terms plus fifty years. Aaron Thompson would go on trial in 2017. He would be convicted of all charges, murder, conspiracy, possession of a firearm. He would be given a sentence of two life terms plus forty-five years. Currently it appears that both Thompson and Rivers are being housed at the same facility. It appears that a life sentence in Delaware actually means “natural life” meaning that neither will be eligible for parole.

Both Thompson and Rivers have appealed their convictions and sentences. The courts upheld both convictions and sentences despite arguments made. In Rivers' appeal he argued against “unfair evidence” being presented at court and that the news coverage of the case had significantly influenced the trial. I am unsure what “unfair evidence” they referred to but I am going to guess that it may have had something to do with his drug use at the very least. But, again the courts disagreed. Similarly, Thompson's appeal stated that the prosecutor had “misrepresented evidence and tried to improperly get jurors to sympathize with co-defendant and prosecution witness, Joshua Bey.” They failed.