Murder of Kris Olinger and family’s long wait for justice features on ID’s Detective

Tonight’s episode of Detective on Investigation Discovery centers around Kris Olinger, an aspiring photographer who was killed at age 17 — and the eight years that police spent pursuing his killer.

The episode, called Speak No Evil, tracks Olinger as he ventures to the coastline in Monterey, California, to take photos, never to be seen alive again.

The show then looks at how a chance phone call nearly a decade after his death in 1997 unlocked the answer to what happened.

Olinger was killed in a horrific carjacking and stabbing that stunned Monterey.

Authorities and witnesses later revealed Olinger was robbed and stabbed 29 times, before being thrown off a cliff.

He apparently survived long enough to drag himself near a trail, but then died. A jogger later discovered his body.

Olinger was a lighting technician and designer for the Monterey High School drama department, and an avid gamer.

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Additionally, he was a member of the school’s ROTC program and intended to attend the California Maritime Academy in Vallejo.

Brothers Jacobo and Angel Ruelas of Soledad, who were ages 18 and 17 at the time of the murder, were later identified as suspects.

Angel Ruelas pleaded guilty before an April 2012 trial. He is serving a sentence of life without possibility of parole.

His brother received life without parole in November 2013 for his role. However, Jacobo Ruelas always maintained that only Angel stabbed Olinger, and that he stayed silent to protect his brother.

Detective airs Fridays at 10/9c on Investigation Discovery.

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