UNCA graduate Brian Santana investigated the 1973 murder of former UNCA student Virginia Olson to publish the case’s first book under the working title A Murder on Campus.
“We want to write Virginia Olson back into the story. We don’t want her to just be someone defined entirely by this tragic incident that occurred, as a victim of this murder, but by understanding the people who loved her and she was close to,” Santana said.
Brian Santana is an assistant professor of English at Shepherd University, a small public liberal arts college in Shepherdstown, Virginia. Before graduating from UNCA in 2003, Santana connected with the story of Virginia Olson, whose murder in the Asheville-Biltmore Botanical Gardens was left unsolved.
“I saw a lot of myself in her,” Santana said. “The idea that someone who was 19 years old and was trying to figure out their life and was studying drama, like I was, had lost her life before she had been able to realize these different hopes and aspirations she had was something that really resonated with me.”
Santana’s investigation into the case began initially as a way to collaborate with his co-author and brother, law enforcement officer Cameron Santana, over a shared interest. The two began their research with public records. This included a medical examiner’s report and other documents attached to the case’s initial investigations.
“As we learned more about the specifics of the Asheville Police Department’s investigation and the North Carolina State Bureau’s investigations in 1974 and beyond, well into the 1980s, it really changed the way I thought about her and about this case,” Santana said.
Like Virginia Olson, Santana studied drama at UNC Asheville, where he first encountered Olson’s story from a fellow student while examining a portrait of her in Carol Belke Theatre.
“She would occasionally pop up in discussion, but it was always framed as this very sad and tragic thing that was part of the drama department’s history, at the same time it was also this story that no one really seemed to know anything about,” Santana said.
When Olson first entered UNCA as a student in 1971, drama was tied to literature and other departments. Former living members of the department remain connected to Olson, including Arnold Wengrow, former chair of drama at UNCA.
“It’s interesting that this person is so tied to Olson that helped found the original drama major and department. As we’re finishing up this book now, the drama department itself is being phased out,” Santana said. “I don’t know what happens to Olson’s story or memory. Does it resonate with the campus community in a different way? Does it feel like more of a relic of the past?”
One of the focuses of Santana’s upcoming book is understanding the complications associated with Olson’s case, including multiple people thought responsible and a widespread expectation the case would close within a short period of time.
“We have a few fairly big revelations that come out of our book about this case including discussions of individuals that have never been talked about publicly as potentially responsible, ” Santana said. “While at times there has been a lot of media coverage of the case, we think it’s also one of Western North Carolina’s most misunderstood cases.”
The book is currently scheduled for a Jan 20th publication date and is making its way through legal departments. Santana said he hopes for its inaugural event to take place in Asheville.
“In order for cold cases to get solved you need a lot of public support and visibility,” Santana said. “I’m hoping there could at least be a renewed dialogue and I hope other people get interested in writing about it as a result of this.”
