On Tuesday, 24-year-old Caroline E. Nosal has the misfortune of becoming Madison, Wisconsin’s first homicide in 2016. Nosal was murdered by co-worker Christopher O’Kroley, 26, because she turned down his romantic advances.
O’Kroley was fired from his job at the Metro Market grocery store in Madison on Monday. According to the complaint, O’Kroley had already been suspended from the grocery store after Nosal complained to their supervisor about his frequent harassment. The Wisconsin State Journal reports:
Co-workers described a relationship between the two that soured after O’Kroley “wanted more,” according to the complaint. Two weeks before the shooting, Nosal had complained to store management that she was being harassed by O’Kroley, who was then suspended.
After O’Kroley was fired via phone, he immediately—and legally—bought a gun. NYDN reports:
The killer would have carried out his [...] plot that night but confessed to cops that he wanted to practice using the firearm first since he had never fired one before.
O’Kroley sent texts to co-workers the day of the murder to find out when Nosal would be leaving work under the guise that he was going to return to the grocery store to get his belongings, according to the criminal complaint.
Instead, O’Kroley waited for Nosal in the parking lot and shot her twice, first in the stomach and then in the head. “I killed Caroline and I’m about to kill myself. So don’t be surprised when I don’t respond anymore,” he texted a friend immediately after the murder. According to reports, O’Kroley never attempted the suicide but did attempt to kill the police officer who came to arrest him.
During his confession, O’Kroley told the police “it was easy to kill” Nosal because “she had ruined my life.”
Nosal’s friends described her as a “free-spirited” book lover who “will be missed.” Her friends and co-workers have started a GoFundMe page to defray her funeral costs.
Photo of Caroline Nosal via GoFundMe.