This 23-Year-Old Was Last Seen On A Gas Station Camera Before Her Killer Took Her Life And Her Clothes
Twenty-three-year-old Nicole Coleman of Austin, Texas, was known by loved ones for her great sense of humor and endless empathy.
Nicole was born on March 3, 1995, and appreciated life’s simplest pleasures– such as ocean waves, fireflies, and naps.
But, before entering teenhood, she also began to struggle with her mental health. Nicole’s parents cited her pre-teen days as being consumed by a “downward spiral” that made her and her family’s life very challenging.
Then, by the time Nicole finished high school, her mental health showed drastic signs of improvement.
She went on to attend Lone Star College while living in Houston and successfully obtained an Associate of Arts degree.
While pursuing higher education, Nicole maintained a 4.0 GPA and had significant future aspirations. She hoped to become a therapist in order to help others who struggled as she had.
So, after being accepted to the University of Texas (UT), Nicole and her family were ecstatic. After this high, though, her mental health plummeted again.
“It all fell apart. Something switched in your head, and it was like when you were a teenager all over again,” Nicole’s father, Mike Colman, later wrote in a letter addressed to his daughter.
Facebook; pictured above is Nicole
If true crime defines your free time, this is for you: join Chip Chick’s True Crime Tribe.
But unfortunately, this valley of mental health struggles quickly became much more severe than during Nicole’s teen years.
Instead of renting an apartment while attending UT as previously planned, she lived with her dad. While there, it was incredibly difficult for Mike to ensure his daughter’s safety and well-being.
Nicole began to self-medicate, disappear for days, and lose countless friendships. Finally, in the fall of 2018, she checked herself into an Austin, Texas, mental health facility.
There, Nicole received treatment for a couple of months before successfully transitioning to living in a women’s group home that December.
Tragically, though, these signs of progress and restored hopes for Nicole’s future were soon ripped away from her family on December 28.
That day, at 5:26 p.m., she was last seen on gas station surveillance footage walking through a parking lot.
Austin Police Department; pictured above is Nicole at the gas station
Then, Nicole was never heard from or seen alive again. Instead, on New Year’s Eve, cyclists discovered her remains in the woods– about a ten-minute walk from the gas station.
Nicole was found without clothes, and detectives later revealed that she had been the victim of “traumatic injuries throughout her body.”
An investigation by the Austin Police Department Homicide Unit was immediately launched, in which officers initially suspected Nicole’s case might have been connected to a nearby aggravated assault that occurred just a few days prior.
Less than one month after Nicole’s death, though, Detective Patrick O’Farrell publicly dismissed the case’s connection during a press conference.
And since losing that possible lead, Nicole’s case has remained cold for nearly four years now.
“I am saddened by how this happened. It wakes me up in the night thinking about it. I am trying to hold it together, but it’s so hard. I haven’t hit the anger yet; I am sure that will come. But for now, I am just grieving at your loss,” Mike wrote in a farewell letter published on Facebook two weeks after Nicole’s death.
Authorities have since asked the Austin community to step in and contribute any relevant knowledge of Nicole’s whereabouts prior to her murder.
If you have any information about the case, you are urged to contact the Austin Police Department Homicide Unit via phone at (512) 477-3588 or email at [email protected].
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
He Served Deer At A Dinner Party Without Telling His Guests, And One Woman Totally Freaked Out
Meet Patrick, A Beer-Drinking Pony Who Also Happens To Be A Mayor In England
More About:True Crime
Read This Next
