Michael Nicholaou

Case record: Michael Nicholaou

Parties and identities

• Michael Nicholaou (56) was Aileen Nicholaou’s husband.
• Aileen Nicholaou (47) was Michael Nicholaou’s wife.
• Audrey Leon (30) was Aileen Nicholaou’s sister.
• Taryn Bowman (22) was Aileen Nicholaou’s daughter and was critically wounded.
• Rene Toranzo (72) was Aileen Nicholaou’s uncle and had gone to Georgia to bring her to Audrey Leon’s home.
• Oscar Rodriguez (32) lived about a block away from the address where the shooting occurred.
• Michelle Nicholaou was Michael Nicholaou’s previous wife.
• Lynn-Marie Carty was a private investigator contacted in 2001.
• John Philpin was a criminal profiler who assisted with the Connecticut River Valley cases.
• Delbert C. Tallman confessed to a murder and was later acquitted after recanting.
• Heidi Martin (16) was raped and stabbed to death.
• Bernice Courtemanche was a nurse’s aide who was last seen by her boyfriend’s mother.
• Ellen Fried was a supervising nurse at Valley Regional Hospital.
• Eva Morse was a single mother.
• Lynda Moore was a housewife.
• Jane Boroski (22, six months pregnant) survived an attack.
• Mary Elizabeth Critchley (36) disappeared while hitchhiking.
• Barbara Agnew (38) was a nurse.
• Gary Westover (46) provided a deathbed confession.
• Howard Minnon was a retired Grafton sheriff's deputy.
• William McGee was identified as a New Hampshire State Police officer.
• Howard Hagen was a Vermont State Police detective.
• Anne Agnew was sister of victim Barbara Agnew.
• Carla Hawkins was quoted in connection with the Connecticut River Valley killer investigation.
• Carp? (Not named; no additional details beyond “a detective asked”)—no additional identifiers were provided for the detective who asked about the victim’s jewelry in the narrative.
• Gary Westover’s cousin was Cindy Fysh.
• Lois Minnon (78) was Gary Westover’s aunt.
• Howard Minnon’s wife was mentioned, but not named.
• Stuart/other named family members: Arnaldo Toranzo, Shawn Lhota (21), and Lorena Bledsoe were mentioned; no additional roles were provided beyond family and acquaintance descriptions.

Background

Aileen Nicholaou had fled their home in Georgia for her sister’s house in West Tampa after Michael Nicholaou broke her shoulder in a fight four weeks earlier.

The violence in Tampa occurred after Michael Nicholaou followed Aileen to Tampa. Police characterized Michael Nicholaou’s actions as “hunting” her.

The case narrative also included extensive discussion of the Connecticut River Valley killer, including multiple unsolved homicides in the 1980s, the lack of arrests, and subsequent investigative attention to whether Michael Nicholaou could be linked to those crimes.

The offence (Tampa shooting and related deaths)

After Aileen Nicholaou and her sister Audrey Leon were inside Leon’s home at 3321 W Walnut St, Leon called police at 12:20 p.m. on Saturday after hearing yelling and fearing for her sister’s safety.

When officers met Leon in her driveway and went inside, an officer attempted to enter a partly opened bedroom door and was met by Michael Nicholaou, who pointed a long-barreled weapon at the officers. Then the door slammed shut. Officers retreated and called for help after hearing at least two gunshots inside the bedroom.

Police tactical responders arrived and attempted to telephone Michael Nicholaou; when that failed, they entered the bedroom and found:

• two bodies (Michael Nicholaou and Aileen Nicholaou), and
• a wounded daughter, Taryn Bowman, who had been shot.

Aileen Nicholaou was shot dead. Police said Michael Nicholaou killed himself by his own hand. Police described that he took Aileen and Taryn and himself.

Taryn Bowman was taken to Tampa General Hospital and remained in critical condition late Saturday.

Investigation and police statements

Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin stated:

• “He apparently armed himself and drove down here ... to Tampa, in effect hunting her,”

Durkin also stated that Aileen Nicholaou had been staying at Audrey Leon’s home for three weeks.

Arrest and custody

No arrest was described. Police found the two bodies and the wounded daughter at the scene after tactical entry attempts and response.

People’s movements and prior encounters mentioned

Prior law-enforcement encounter involving Michael Nicholaou and Michelle Nicholaou (Massachusetts)

A report referenced from 1988 in Holyoke, Mass. described that Michael Nicholaou’s previous wife Michelle disappeared.

Police were described as suspicious of the circumstances but never charged Nicholaou. Michael Nicholaou allegedly told Holyoke police that his wife ran off with another man.

In 2001, a missing-persons agency located Michael Nicholaou in Tampa and called him. Nicholaou denied ever knowing Michelle Nicholaou, but later told the agency he heard she was doing drugs with a drug dealer.

Background in the Connecticut River Valley narrative (as included in the record)

The record described multiple disappearance and homicide cases in the Claremont, New Hampshire area, including victims such as:

• Cathy Millican (26) with “at least 29 stab wounds” found near where she was last seen after being photographed at Chandler Brook Wetland Preserve.
• Mary Elizabeth Critchley (25) who disappeared while hitchhiking and later had remains found.
• Bernice Courtemanche (16) nurse’s aide who was last seen in Claremont and later recovered after hitchhiking was suspected.
• Ellen Fried (27) supervising nurse whose car was found abandoned and whose remains later reflected multiple stab wounds.
• Eva Morse (28) single mother whose remains later showed evidence of knife wounds.
• Lynda Moore (36) whose husband found her dead with multiple stab wounds, with witness descriptions of a man near her home prior to the killing.
• Barbara Agnew (38) whose body was found after a snowstorm; a snowplow driver found evidence at a rest stop.
• Jane Boroski (22, six months pregnant) whose stabbing attack occurred after a convenience store stop in West Swanzey; she survived and provided a composite sketch and characters from an attacker’s license plate.

The record stated that after the attack on Boroski, the killings ceased and no arrests were made, and that a cold case grew cold despite sketches, a task force, assistance from John Philpin, and an Unsolved Mysteries segment aired April 10, 1991.

Other details related to Michael Nicholaou in the included narrative

Lynn-Marie Carty’s involvement (2001 and later)

The record stated that in 2001 private investigator Lynn-Marie Carty was contacted by the mother of Michelle Marie Ashley, a Vermont woman missing since December 1988, along with her two children.

Carty was hired to gather information regarding the possible whereabouts of Michelle Marie Ashley and her two grandchildren believed to be in the company of Michael Andrew Nicholaou.

Michael Nicholaou was described as a Vietnam veteran who served as a helicopter pilot in the Army and who had earned two Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars, and two Bronze Stars. He was described as having been charged in 1970, along with seven comrades, with strafing civilians while on a reconnaissance mission in the Mekong Delta. The record also described that murder and attempted murder charges were ultimately dropped, and that Nicholaou returned home disgraced and bitter, and filed suit against the U.S. Army.

The record stated that Nicholaou received treatment from the Veterans Administration for posttraumatic stress disorder.

While living in Virginia, the record stated Nicholaou opened and operated a sex shop called The Pleasure Chest. It said the store was raided twice and he and his business partner were charged with selling obscene materials; one instance ended with conviction and the other with a mistrial.

At the time, Nicholaou was quoted as remarking to The Progress:

• “Evidently the police don't have enough serious robberies, murders and rapes to occupy their time.”

Carty’s conversation with Nicholaou in Georgia was described. The record stated that Nicholaou initially asked how Carty had found him and denied knowing anything about Michelle’s family’s whereabouts. It stated he later said Michelle was a “slut” who had been doing drugs and ran off, abandoning the children, and that the children were fine. It also stated Carty confirmed by reaching Nick the following day, who tearfully described life with his combat-traumatized father and that the father had since remarried.

The lead into the Tampa events and the “December 31” account

The record asserted that by 2005 Nicholaou’s second wife Aileen sought to escape him after he'd attacked her. It stated that on December 31 Nicholaou tracked down Aileen to her sister’s home in Tampa, Florida, and that he arrived wearing a black suit and tie and carrying a guitar case filled with guns. It stated he led Aileen and stepdaughter Taryn Bowman into a bedroom while his sister-in-law fled to summon police.

It stated that while awaiting arrival of the SWAT team, Nicholaou shot Aileen, Taryn, and himself; it stated Aileen and Michael died at the scene; and that Taryn died at the hospital a short time later.

Claims about survivor’s identification and later investigative steps

The record stated that after Carty read about the tragedy and investigated Nicholaou’s past, she suspected he could have been the perpetrator of the Connecticut River Valley killings.

It stated that Carty shared her findings about Nicholaou with Jane Boroski and that Boroski was shown pictures of Michael Nicholaou and expressed there was “some resemblance” between him and the man that attacked her.

It stated that in 2007 New Hampshire cold case detectives stated they were examining surviving physical evidence and possible connection to the case, and that no conclusions had been publicly announced.

The record also stated that Nicholaou had not been conclusively linked to the crimes of the Connecticut River Valley killer.

Gary Westover’s deathbed confession (October 1997 onward)

The record described that in October 1997 Gary Westover told his uncle, retired Grafton sheriff’s deputy Howard Minnon, that he had a confession.

It stated that Westover related that in 1987 three buddies picked him up for what was described as a night of partying. Allegedly, they loaded Westover and his wheelchair into their van and set out to Vermont, where they abducted, murdered, and dumped 38-year old Barbara Agnew.

The record stated that Westover provided the names of the three friends and Minnon recorded them on a piece of scrap paper, and then shared the information with his wife, daughter, and law enforcement. It stated Minnon felt authorities were not interested.

The record stated that Westover died in March 1998 and Minnon died in 2006.

The record further stated that Minnon, before he died, saw a story in a New Hampshire hospital reading the newspaper and became upset after reading about Michael Nicholaou being named as a suspect and reading about information brought to authorities by Carty and what Jane Boroski had to say. It included quoted statements by Minnon:

• “See this, this is Gary's story, this is what I tried to tell the state police Gary told me when I called them to the house, but they treated me like a fool. I have wasted my whole life in law enforcement, they did nothing about what I told them and he killed more people.”

It stated that Minnon said to contact Carty only if “we find that piece of paper with the names on it for proof.”

The record stated that Sheriff Minnon mentioned that New Hampshire State Police Officer William McGee was one of the officers in his living room when Westover gave the list of the three names in October 1997.

It stated that in August of 2006 one of Westover’s aunts wrote Anne Agnew with the information originally given by Westover, and Anne forwarded the letter to Carty, who ran the name of Michael Nicholaou by Westover’s aunt. It stated that the named “sounded familiar.”

The record stated that Westover’s family members in 2007 provided the information and that a “defining key piece of information that ONLY the killer/killers would know” had been communicated.

Possible other crimes mentioned in the record (Connecticut River Valley narrative content)

The record named additional possible victims:

• Joanne Dunham, 14, sexually assaulted and strangled on June 11, 1968, in Charlestown, New Hampshire.
• Sylvia Gray, 76, found bludgeoned and stabbed to death on October 5th, 1982, near her Plainfield, New Hampshire home, after being reported missing.
• Sarah Hunter, 36, a golf pro in Manchester Center, Vermont; her car was discovered on September 19, 1986, and her remains were found two months later; she had been strangled.
• Steven Hill, 38, last seen June 20, 1986 retrieving his paycheck from his Lebanon, New Hampshire employer; his body was found on July 15, 1986 in Hartland, Vermont.
• Carrie Moss, 14, disappeared on July 25, 1989 and had skeletal remains founded on July 24, 1991 in New Boston; cause of death could not be determined and she was thought to be a homicide.

Timeline (only dated events explicitly provided)

• 1987 — Gary Westover related three buddies abducted, murdered, and dumped 38-year-old Barbara Agnew in Vermont.
• March 1998 — Gary Westover died.
• 2001 — A missing-persons agency located Michael Nicholaou in Tampa and called him regarding Michelle; Carty was also contacted in 2001 and later contacted Nicholaou.
• December 1988 — Michelle’s relatives entered the Nicholaou apartment in Holyoke and found it deserted; no trace of Michelle or the two children was found.
• April 10, 1991 — An Unsolved Mysteries segment concerning the Connecticut River Valley murders aired.
• 2005 — By this time, Nicholaou’s second wife Aileen sought to escape him after an attack.
• December 31 (year stated as 2005) — Nicholaou tracked down Aileen to her sister’s home in Tampa, Florida; the record described his arrival and the shootings.
• January 1, 2006 — Narrative statements placed the Tampa killings as having occurred Saturday and the story as January 1, 2006.
• January 8, 2006 — Another narrative entry described the Tampa shooting as having occurred “a week ago in Tampa.”
• January 27, 2008 — A St. Petersburg Times article entry discussed detectives’ continued investigation in the Connecticut River Valley case.
• February (year stated as ongoing investigative steps in the record) — Carty called New Hampshire State Police and spoke with Detective Steve Rowland.
• June 12, 2006 — “New interest in 6 murders” entry described renewed interest due to a Florida murder-suicide.
• June 15, 2006 — “Decades-Old Homicides Might Soon Be Solved” entry stated DNA tests were expected to be complete by the end of the summer.
• 2007 — New Hampshire cold case detectives stated they were examining surviving physical evidence and Nicholaou’s possible connection to the case.
• August (year stated as 2006) — Westover’s aunt wrote Anne Agnew with the information.

Appeals

No appeal information was described for Michael Nicholaou because he died by suicide the same day.

Outcome

Michael Nicholaou died by suicide the same day of the shooting in Tampa. Police found Aileen Nicholaou dead at the scene and found Taryn Bowman wounded. Taryn Bowman was taken to Tampa General Hospital and remained in critical condition late Saturday; later parts of the record asserted Taryn died the next day.

The record also asserted that, in the Connecticut River Valley narrative, investigations had not resulted in arrests and that Nicholaou had not been conclusively linked to the crimes of the Connecticut River Valley killer.

Aftermath and community response as included

Oscar Rodriguez described the event as a shock for a quiet neighborhood and stated it left him “speechless.”

The record included broader discussion of renewed interest in the Connecticut River Valley cases and investigative steps that included DNA matching, involvement of John Philpin, and involvement of New Hampshire State Police detective Steve Rowland and Vermont State Police detective John Hagen, along with quotes from Philpin and Hagen:

• Philpin said: “Given the point that this guy was at in his life, I can't see why he would be telling anything other than the truth,”
• Philpin said: “What does he have to lose? What does he have to gain?”
• Philpin said: “It's totally inadequate,”
• Philpin said: “I'm very dismayed by it.”
• Detective John Hagen said: “We're looking at that as a possibility,”
• Detective John Hagen said: “We're investigating whether he has any connection to Barbara Agnew and some of the other killings in the area.”
• Detective John Hagen said he couldn’t go into specifics but was investing “as much time as we can.”

The record also referenced forensic testing timing as being expected by the end of the summer.