The Solved Rape & Murder of Ollie Jeanne Elizabeth George, February 1976
At the time of her death, Ollie George, 19, was a student at American River College. Her father, Rev. C.D. George, was the minister of the Church of God in Christ. She had two younger sisters and an older brother.
Ollie left her home at 75 Butterworth Ave in North Sacramento at about 4:00pm on Monday, February 23, 1976 to buy some nylons at a shopping center in Sacramento. She was then seen by two clerks at the Safeway Store she had driven to.
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| Photo from FindAGrave. |
At about 6:00pm, Ollie's 17-year-old sister, Laurenda, and her brother's girlfriend, Beata, went to go help Ollie, but when they arrived she wasn't there. The car was unlocked and the keys were in the ignition. Inside the vehicle were grocery items, nylons, her purse, and a partially eaten McDonald's burger.
The car was found abandoned in the parking lot outside of a Safeway Market and a Pay-n-Save at Del Paso Blvd and El Camino Ave. The McDonald's was a block away from that location.
At the time of her disappearance Ollie was described as a 19-year-old Black female who was 5'2 and 125 lbs, with brown eyes and "black, natural hair pulled back into a bun." She was last seen wearing a sleeveless maroon "jumper dress," a beige knit sweater, knee-length gold socks, and black high-heeled laced oxfords.
One police officer interviewed while Ollie was still missing said of her and the situation, "This doesn't look good. She is a very dependable girl. She never goes anywhere without telling her family, and she is always home by 10 o'clock at night. She has never been missing before."
An intensive search both by land and by air followed Ollie's disappearance. Witnesses reported seeing Ollie in the driver's seat of a blue car with the hood open, and a Black man working on the engine. One witness reported that they initially thought the man was white, but then realized that he was Black.
Discovery
At approximately 4:30pm on February 25th, Ollie's body was found in a slough off of Straugh Rd, adjacent to East Levee Rd, in Rio Linda, Sacramento County by a teen boy out walking his dog. The nearest house was more than 100 yards away, at 916 Straugh Rd. One clipping described the area as follows:
"[...] the young woman's body [was found] in the tules at the slough water's edge. It's a remote area, shielded by the levee on the west, the slough on the south, a knoll on the north, and fenced, but vacant, private property on the east."
Ollie's body was found lying face-down near the edge of the water. Her dress was disheveled and her underwear had been removed, but she was otherwise fully clothed. She had been brutally raped before being drowned in mud at the location. Despite coverage by the press and an intense investigation by police, Ollie's murder went unsolved for more than 25 years.
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| From the February 26, 1976 edition of The Sacramento Bee. |
In July 2002, DNA from the scene was matched to a man named Dennis Louis Nelson. Nelson was a convicted rapist who was scheduled to be released from Folsom State Prison in August of that year. Nelson was charged and convicted of Ollie's murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Nelson had been questioned in connection to the murder shortly after it occurred because a witness who had seen Ollie at the shopping center reported that Nelson's car matched one seen at the scene. He was twenty years old when he committed the crime.
Note: While this write-up was originally posted on July 15, 2025, I often revisit cases, receive updates from contacts, and/or find new sources, and then edit my write-ups accordingly. This post was last edited on August 19, 2025.
Sources
The Sacramento Bee 2/24/76, 2/25/76, 2/26/76 pt.s 1 & 2, 2/27/76, 5/11/77
Note: I found out about this case from a Zodiac forum or something similar, but I cannot find it now. However, this post is still tagged as "Link."
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