Rebecca Anne Olenchock was a hard-working young waitress, determined to escape homelessness and extreme poverty, and was saving hard for an exciting new life with her boyfriend in a new city. So why did she wake up one morning and brutally bludgeon her sleeping mother before setting her on fire, instead of just leaving?

Location: Bristol Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA
Date: October 17, 2010

Life wasn’t easy for Rebecca Anne Olenchock.

Aged 25 she worked as a waitress at a local pancake house, while living in a homeless camp in the woods with her sick mother, Kimberly Venose, age 44.

Conditions in the homeless camp were grim. The crude shack they lived in was made from plywood and tarpaper behind a supermarket. There was no electricity or running water and mother and daughter washed using bottled water donated by the local supermarket. The camp was over run with insects and rats, and when it rained, the water would pour into the shack depite the plastic tarps draped over the roof, drenching their clothes, bedding and mattresses.

Co-workers said that Rebecca would take home a bag of food for her mum from the Pancake house every day when she left work.

Despite life being tough, Olenchock was working hard for a better future and saving up her earnings and tips towards the deposit for an apartment. Her dream was to move to Tennessee with her boyfriend, who she met online, and she was saving every cent. She’d already managed to save $3000 to buy herself a second-hand car, a 2000 Kia sedan.

Little did she know when she proudly bought this car she would later go on the run in it after murdering her mum.

Tensions started rising when Venose lost spousal support, meaning the pair had less money coming in and forcing Olenchock to work even longer hours.

Venose was also unhappy with Olenchock’s plan to move to Tennessee to be with her boyfriend. Venose refused to go because there was an arrest warrant out for her after a probation violation from a shoplifting conviction. Venose threatened that if Olenchock went to Tennessee she would send members of the Breed outlaw motorcycle club to kill her and her boyfriend.

Olenchock then discovered that her mum had spent the last week frivously spending her hard-earned savings. Venose reportedly spent nearly $700 in a week on fast food and halloween decorations.

On the morning of October 17, 2010, Olenchock got up and beat her sleeping mother over the head with baseball bat, hitting her 10-15 times. She then poured kerosene over her mum’s unconscious body, ignited it and left the shack, pausing to padlock the shack’s door, trapping Venose inside. She then drove away.

Venose woke to find the room ablaze. On fire and with a fractured skull she broke through the wall of the shack and went stumbling towards road, crying for help. She told a paramedic that her daughter had tried to kill her before succumbing to heart failure.

Several days later Olenchock was found in Johnson City, Tennessee with her boyfriend, Mark Kendall. The police had tracked her down via her mobile phone usage.

When questioned Mark claimed to have no knowledge of the murder. He said Olenchock had informed him two weeks previously that her mum had just died of a heart attack.

Olenchock didn’t admit to the murder initially.

When questioned by detectives she first claimed a large African American man had killed Venose. Then, when told about her mother’s dying statement, she changed her story saying the man had held a gun to her head and forced her to club her mother.

After further questioning she admitted the killing, saying she felt trapped.

“I wanted a new life, and I wanted to take her with me, but she wouldn’t go”

Rebecca Anne Olenchock

When the case came to trial, the defence stated the killing had been an outburst caused by the duress of homelessness and pressures mounting on Olenchock over a period of weeks. They attempted to get the charge downgraded to voluntary manslaughter or third-degree murder.

The prosecutor, David Sweeney, countered that because of the presence of the padlock, and the fact that Olenchock locked her mother in, it indicated premeditated murder. They did not seek the death penalty.

“Her actions that day were as violet as they were inexplicable. If she wanted a new life so badly, she could have just left.”

David Sweeney, Chief Deputy District Attorney

The trial lasted 3 days, and on October 12, 2011 Olenchock was found guilty of first-degree murder and arson, but was declared mentally ill. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The caveat about her being mentally ill didn’t change the length of the sentence, but does mean she will receive therapy and treatment while incarcerated.