A U.S. Navy officer has been charged with killing his wife, six months after she was found strangled to death inside a hotel room in Japan.
Monroe, NY-native Jessica “Jesse” Arguinzoni Olsen was found dead on Oct. 27 inside a room in the Hotel SOL in Fukuoka — about 80 miles from Sasebo Naval Base, where her husband, Lt. Commander Christopher Olsen, was stationed between November 2022 and December 2023.
Surveillance video from the hotel reportedly showed the couple checking in on Oct. 25, and the sailor leaving alone two days later. At the time of the murder, he was stationed at the Naval Surface Group Southwest in San Diego, reported Stars and Stripes.
Hotel staff found the 37-year-old’s body and called police, and Olsen was immediately questioned but not arrested. It was unclear why so much time had elapsed between the murder and the filing of criminal charges.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service — which handled the investigation, with assistance from police in Fukuoka — have alleged Olsen viciously beat and then strangled his wife in the hotel room.
The couple met at the State University of New York at Oswego, and were married in August 2009.
Jesse’s sister, Dominque Arguinzoni, told Stars and Stripes the couple seemed happy.
“We had no idea they ever had issues,” Arguinzoni said. “None of her friends, even best friend, had an inkling. However, thinking back, my parents and I realized that she pulled away from us by reducing communications from every week to every other month or so.”
In addition to murder, Olsen was charged with obstruction of justice at a preliminary hearing at Naval Base San Diego Wednesday, according to Stars and Stripes.
Olsen enlisted in the Navy in April 2014. He was promoted to surface officer last July.
He faces a possible court martial as well, according to the site, and could face a dishonorable discharge, confinement, or capital punishment.
Naval spokesman Cmdr. Paul Macapagal said the Navy was “committed to ensuring the military justice system is fair and impartial, and the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”
