Original article no longer available
The Wilmington Star
The Associated Press
Dec 31, 2004
A woman who shot her teenage children and then killed herself was being treated for depression and anxiety, her mother and investigators said.
Caroline Ollison killed herself early Wednesday after shooting her daughter, Nicholle Ollison, 14, and son, Reginald “R.J.” Ollison Jr., 13, both of whom had been visiting from Durham.
Investigators discovered Ollison’s anti-depressant medication in the southern Franklin County home where they found her body, a .22-caliber rifle in one hand, and bullets clutched in the other. The bodies of her children were in two other bedrooms.
Ollison’s mother, Pamela Marine, said her daughter had been under treatment for the past couple of years.
Sheriff Jerry Jones said he wanted to speak to the doctor who prescribed Ollison’s medication, but considered the investigation to be otherwise complete.
Ollison was separated from her husband and living with a friend, Tammy Jackson. Her children stayed with her husband in Durham, but were visiting for the holidays.
Jackson told The News & Observer that the visit was difficult, and Ollison feared her children didn’t love her any more. They spent Tuesday apart and, at night, quarreled over sleeping arrangements, she said.
Marine said her daughter’s children “were her life. She loved R.J. and Nicholle with all her heart.”
“I lived with them. I saw what kind of a mother she was, how she was involved at school with the children, how she taught the children, how she dealt with the children,” she said.
Information from: The News & Observer,