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Death Row inmate was asked what it felt like knowing he would be killed tomorrow

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Published 16:11 15 Feb 2025 GMT

Death Row inmate was asked what it felt like knowing he would be killed tomorrow

Oscar Ray Bolin was sentenced to death for the kidnap and murder of three women

Brenna Cooper

Brenna Cooper

A death row inmate who claimed to be innocent was asked how it felt to know he'd die a day before his execution.

Oscar Ray Bolin received three death sentences in 1991 for abducting and murdering three women across 1986 in Florida.

He would go on to maintain his innocence all the way up until his death on January 7, 2016, via lethal injection, even giving an interview to the media on the day before his execution took place.

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Terri Lynn Matthews, one of the three women killed by Bolin (Police Handout)
Terri Lynn Matthews, one of the three women killed by Bolin (Police Handout)

Who were Oscar Ray Bolin's victims?

On January 25, 1986, Bolin attacked and killed his first victim, a 25-year-old restaurant manager named Natalie Blanche Holley, after she had finished a night shift and stabbed her to death.

Holley's body was discovered the morning by jogger running through a local woodland.

His second victim was 17-year-old student Stephanie Collins, who vanished in November after finishing a late shift at her job. Collins would remain missing for another month before it was found by authorities.

She had also been stabbed to death and suffered blunt force head injuries.

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On the same day that Collins' body was recovered, police were also alerted to the disappearance of 26-year-old Teri Lynn Matthews, who had vanished from her car outside a post office. Her body was found beaten and stabbed later that day, also wrapped in a white sheet.

Despite obvious connections between the three killings, it would take four years before authorities were able to link Bolin to the deaths of the three woman - thanks to an anonymous tip off from his ex-wife.

Bolin was interviewed the day before his death (Fox)
Bolin was interviewed the day before his death (Fox)

By the time Bolin's ex-wife made the call, he was already in police custody, serving a separate sentence for the 1987 kidnap, rape and attempted murder of a woman in Ohio.

The tip would lead Bolin's younger half-brother Philip to speak out against him, revealing that he'd witnessed his sibling attacking a woman wrapped in a sheet back in 1986. This was later confirmed to be Matthews. Bolin's cousin would also testify that he'd assisted the killer with abducting a woman in Texas in 1987.

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He added that Bolin had ultimately raped and strangled the woman, however, authorities in Texas declined to pursue the case due to his other charges.

Bolin would spend the 28 years between his initial imprisonment and death maintaining that he was innocent and had been framed.

In a final interview with Fox the day before his execution, Bolin stated that he was at 'peace' with death as it meant being 'released' from prison.

"[I feel] a little numb," he said with a laugh, when reporters when asked how he was doing.

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"We all die, but knowing your exact date and time, that's hard to deal with.

"But I'm at peace with myself... my punishment's over."

Featured Image Credit: Fox 13

Topics: Community, Crime

Brenna Cooper
Brenna Cooper

Brenna Cooper is a journalist at LADbible. She graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in History, followed by an NCTJ accredited masters in Journalism. She began her career as a freelance writer for Digital Spy, where she wrote about all things TV, film and showbiz. Her favourite topics to cover are music, travel and any bizarre pop culture.

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@_brencoco

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