US Navy Officer Charged With Murder After Wife Found Dead In Hotel Room

A US Navy officer charged with murder is facing death penalty, six months after his wife's body was found in a Japanese hotel room.

Lieutenant Commander Christopher Olsen was charged on Wednesday during a preliminary hearing at Naval Base San Diego. His wife, 37-year-old Jessica "Jesse" Arguinzoni Olsen, was found strangled to death on October 27, 2023, inside a room at Hotel SOL in Fukuoka. The hotel is about 130 km from the naval base where Olsen had been stationed from November 2022 to December 2023.

Ms Jesse suffered blunt force injuries to the head, and damage to her jaw and hyoid bones (tongue bone) evidence consistent with strangulation. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) has alleged that Olsen brutally beat and strangled his wife inside the hotel room.

Hotel surveillance footage captured the couple checking into the hotel on October 25, as per Stars and Stripes. Olsen was seen leaving alone two days later. Hotel staff discovered Jesse's body and alerted authorities. The NCIS, working alongside Fukuoka police, launched an investigation, though Olsen was initially only questioned and not arrested.

Olsen has now been formally charged with murder and obstruction of justice of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. A court martial is on the table, and if convicted, he could face confinement, dishonourable discharge, or even the death penalty.

Ms Jesse's family, still reeling from her death, has voiced frustration over the delay in justice. "LCDR Christopher Olsen has finally been charged-five months later. And still, we wait. No timeline. No answers to our questions about the next legal steps. No clear communication. No respect," Ms Jesse's sister Dominique Arguinzoni told Newsweek.

In a separate statement to Stars and Stripes, Ms Arguinzoni added, "We had no idea they ever had issues. None of her friends, even best friend, had an inkling. However, thinking back, my parents and I realised that she pulled away from us by reducing communications from every week to every other month or so."

Ms Jesse and Christopher Olsen met at the State University of New York at Oswego and were married in August 2009. Olsen joined the Navy in 2014 and was promoted to surface warfare officer in July 2023.