When 30-year-old Alyssa Romine-Olson is found floating naked and face down in the pond of a Gilbert, Arizona nature preserve in 2016, online coverage makes the case sound like a suicide. But her missing belongings, an undetermined cause of death, and key evidence found at the scene tell a different story. And all roads seem to lead back to one man. But when his alibi is verified, the case takes some shocking turns.
Duration
1h 2m
Broadcast on
31 Aug 2026
Audio Format
other
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When 30-year-old Alyssa Romine-Olson is found floating naked and face down in the pond of a Gilbert, Arizona nature preserve in 2016, online coverage makes the case sound like a suicide. But her missing belongings, an undetermined cause of death, and key evidence found at the scene tell a different story. And all roads seem to lead back to one man. But when his alibi is verified, the case takes some shocking turns.
If you know anything about the 2016 death of Alyssa Romine-Olson at the Riparian Preserve in Gilbert, Arizona, you can contact the Gilbert Police Department by submitting a tip at GilbertAZ.gov/SubmitATip, in reference to case #16-9745.
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Hi, Crime Junkies, I'm your host Ashley Flowers, and I'm Brit. And welcome back. Last episode I told you about the mysterious death of 30-year-old Alyssa Romine Olson. Her case has all the hallmarks that to a crime junkie, scream foul play. She was found outdoors in Gilbert, Arizona, in a nature preserve, naked, face down, in shallow water. Everything she came to the park with, her clothing, journal, cell phone keys, it was all missing. And what police did find in the park were some footprints, shoe prints, and a latex glove. But for some reason, this got spun to and through the media like a possible suicide. Now they couldn't outright say it was a suicide, because the Emmy ruled the manner and cause of death as undetermined. But the insinuation was there, backed by some softly worded statements from the police, who told the press that there was no threat to the public. All of this was shocking to Alyssa's family, because up to that point, they were very much under the impression that police were considering this foul play. Police had even been asking them for a list of people that they thought police should look into. That is not the direction the investigation took. Alyssa's sister Michelle told us it felt like investigators took one look at the lifestyle Alyssa and her husband, Brayden Olson, lived, heard about their beliefs, and instantly wrote them off as religious lunatics. And to be fair, Brayden did himself no favors each of the three times he talked to police. But from that point on, Michelle believes the investigation was driven by a simple assumption. Either Alyssa did this to herself, or her husband Brayden did it to her. And if they found something that didn't fit neatly into that box, they seemed to discount it until the case eventually just ended up cold. And if you're still hung up on her husband Brayden, hearing about the other viable leads in this case might change your mind, or at the very least, present some pretty significant reasonable doubt. So this is the rest of Alyssa Romine Olson's story. I want to break up this episode by theory. The media suggests Alyssa may have died by suicide because she was depressed or had health issues, but her family firmly disputes that. Also, nothing about the scene is giving suicide. No, I don't think she hid her clothes and her journal and keys and phone and walked into a nature preserve and died by some means that an Emmy couldn't even determine. Makes no sense. Plus, the family says that police from the very jump were using terms with them at least, like foul play, crime scene. But they seemed to focus heavily on Alyssa's husband, who it turned out had a rock solid alibi. He was out of state. So when that didn't pan out, it seems like the investigation slowly tapered off, which is easy for that to happen when you don't have the media banging down your door, asking when you're going to solve this case, when it's just as fast as suicide. It makes the positioning in the public look very strategic, doesn't it? So let's walk through the other theories that I think are worth exploring. The first is actually one that, as far as I can tell, police never even looked into.
Transcription truncated.
When 30-year-old Alyssa Romine-Olson is found floating naked and face down in the pond of a Gilbert, Arizona nature preserve in 2016, online coverage makes the case sound like a suicide. But her missing belongings, an undetermined cause of death, and key evidence found at the scene tell a different story. And all roads seem to lead back to one man. But when his alibi is verified, the case takes some shocking turns.
