COLORADO SPRINGS — A week of discoveries continues in the Kara Nichols case.
KOAA obtained the arrest affidavit for the suspect accused of murdering Nichols, Joel Hollendorfer.
Nichols was last seen on October 9, 2012. Nearly 10 years later, her remains were found on Hollendorfer's mother's property in Black Forest.
The affidavit revealed the El Paso County Sheriff's Office searched the property in 2014. The document says Hollendorfer's mother told law enforcement multiple horses were buried on the property located off of Burgess Road.
None of the property was excavated.
"The cell phone records which were obtained back then, years ago, showed that Kara Nichols did travel up to that area, they did know that she communicated with this individual and they actually obtained a search warrant for the property, and did search the property, and did not find the body back in 2014," said Mark Pfoff, a retired detective with the El Paso County Sheriff's office.
Pfoff retired two days before the search on the property in 2014.
"If someone tells you that there is horses buried on the property in certain locations, would that not be a premium location to dump the body of human remains to intermix with the horse bones and these other remains?"
According to the affidavit, Hollendorfer's ex-wife did not cooperate with the investigation in previous years.
The document says in an interview on February 1, 2022, his ex-wife said Holldendorfer told her he had killed an escort while having sex with her in his car.
"What actually solved this case is someone contacted the suspect's ex-wife and just asked her - Do you have any information on this case and she said - Yeah, he told me that he killed her," said Pfoff.
The affidavit shows the Sheriff's Office believe Nichols was using a fake name to post advertisements as an escort, which is how she and Hollendorf connected.
Her father also told a deputy in 2012 that Nichols had a history of Heroin use.
Nichols' High School English Teacher, Dina Woods, says she believes these factors are part of why the case was not investigated more thoroughly.
"I feel that there was a lot of time that was lost in the beginning."
Hollendorfer's bond was increased from $50,000 to $1 million.
Hollendorfer will be in court again on Thursday, February 17.
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