A man who terrorized his family with physical violence has gone to the ultimate end, killing them and then himself in the family’s Amarillo, Texas home.
Jose Olmos, 42, an electrician, shot and killed his wife Jessica, 33, and their children Jazele and Daniel. Earlier in March police arrested Olmos for assaulting a family member, but he went back to the home when he was released on a $500 bond.
The killings took place on September 8. A family member who went to the home found their bodies, and police who arrived at the house on NE 14th Avenue found all four dead. Jose and Jessica Olmos had passed their tenth wedding anniversary on July 4, and have lived at the house for the entirety of their marriage.
Devastated friends posted on social media, saying the two children were “amazing.” Clara Nunez wrote that she was “so sorry I couldn’t help you out of this.”
Jessica Olmos was an office manager at a State Farm insurance office in town, and daughter Jazele was a 7th grader on the wrestling team.
Appearances are often deceiving in families beset by domestic violence. A smiling and neat facade can hide depravity and violence behind closed doors. Photographer Anna Vega said she was shocked to hear about the murder suicide as she had taken what appeared to be happy photos of the family posed in some meadows near their home earlier this year. She reposted the photos she took on Facebook and wrote that she was “devastated by the news.” Daniel and Jazele were “so sweet,” the photographer wrote, and she remembers them horsing around and jumping on each other’s backs.
Vega said she shared the photos because the “world is so morbid,” but the photos show the “shining light” of the children so that people would remember something more than just their sad end.
Jessica Olmos was grieving the death of her younger sister who died in February of this year. Less than a week before Jose Olmos was arrested for domestic violence the couple had celebrated Mother’s Day with Jessica’s mother Blanca Menendez.
