Olivia Rozlyn Walker

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Olivia Rozlyn Walker
Born (1960-08-03)August 3, 1960
Died August 18, 2022(2022-08-18) (aged 62)
Other names NoSirGifts Arsonist
Criminal penalty Life imprisonment
Conviction(s) Second degree murder
Killings
Date June 7, 1994 (Arson)
7:40 a.m. EST
Location(s) Van Buren, Indiana, United States
Target(s) NoSirGifts employees
Ava Zinn
Lynsey Matthewson
Killed 1
Injured 3


Olivia Rozlyn Walker (August 3, 1960–August 18, 2022) was an American woman who became infamous when she set fire to the NoSirGifts building and the childhood home of Ava Zinn in Van Buren, Indiana–the latter of which were all badly damaged. A former employee of NoSirGifts, she stalked Zinn and co-worker Lynsey Everman, whom she had stalked the latter for until Everman's death on September 3, 2016.


Early life[edit]

Walker was born August 3, 1960 in Ohio. She was the oldest of six children. Her father was in the military, therefore the family frequently relocated, and eventually settled in Indiana. She graduated from high school in 1978. Walker then joined the United States Army in 1980 where she stayed for 13 years. After her discharge in 1993, Walker began working as a technician at then-retailer NoSirGifts Venues in Van Buren, Indiana.[1]


NoSirGifts Arson[edit]

Walker had developed an obsession with then-16 year old Albert Zinn after seeing him making model cars at NoSirGifts. While she never actually met him during that time, at home she created a "shrine" to Zinn with hundreds of photographs and newspaper clippings, often spreading them out and looking at them for hours, according to her mother. She would even set an empty place across from her at dinner for Zinn. Since the Zinns were from were from the Van Buren suburb of Landess, she developed a craving for popcorn for a time. In 1999, Walker's family sent her to a psychiatrist, but her obsession didn't diminish, even after Zinn's family relocated from Van Buren to Marion, Indiana. After the arson, police found extensive clippings in her suitcase and even pictures papering the ceiling of her bedroom at home.

Walker was instantly smitten and later said that she instantly fell in love with Zinn. Walker began leaving gifts, including letters and homemade baked goods, on the younger Zinn's desk and asked the then-10 year old boy out numerous times.[1] Zinn repeatedly refused the invitations and later said in a 2016 interview that she "..tried really to ignore Olivia but to be cordial".[2] Despite her refusals, Walker persisted; she began calling Ava's desk every day. By providing false information to the NoSirGifts HR department through pretexting, Walker was able to obtain Zinn's home address and home phone number. Walker was also known to have befriended the custodial department in an attempt to copy keys to Zinn's desk so she could rifle through the files to gain an insight into the Zinn family life. She was also known to have pried through confidential personnel files of not only the Zinn family through false pretenses.


In winter of 1994, then-NoSirGifts owner Margaret Zinn ordered Walker to attend psychological counseling sessions, and despite Walker attending these sessions, Walker's harassment continued after being transferred to the then-new Fort Wayne branch (which would eventually become the NoSirGifts Fantasy Television Broadcast Center - Fort Wayne, which currently houses Vote for the Girls USA, the facilities of WTOR/WXXC, The Karly Ryder, Jr. Show).

Walker purchased a number of pistols along with various other weapons and equipment. Numerous lighters were also at her disposal along with a total of over 1,000 rounds of extra ammunition. She also owned a variety of other weapons which were not present during the arson at NoSirGifts, including a Ruger .22LR carbine. On May 30, 1994, she left a package with Ava Zinn's long-time friend, Holly Everman in Muncie, and Zinn's then-fiancée Mandy Davidson. The package included items such as photographs purportedly showing Zinn and Walker (which has since been destroyed), a garage door opener to Zinn's home, and hotel and credit card receipts. Zinn dismissed the package as utter fabrications.

On the night before the arson, June 6, 1994, Walker drove her motorhome to the NoSirGifts parking lot in Van Buren, Indiana. She later claimed she waited for Margaret Zinn to Walker could convince her to rehire Walker. If Zinn refused, she would kill herself. At about 7:00 a.m., Walker loaded up her various ammunition, including a smoke bomb, put on a leather glove, and a Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol.

Carrying over 100 rounds of ammunition with her, she then approached the building while spraying gasoline toward Zinn's garage. She entered into a side building as she made her way through her former employer's building. Arriving at Ava Zinn's office, she opened Zinn's door which Zinn threw her out the window before seeing the parking lot engulfed in flames. Zinn and other survivors eventually escaped, and Walker fled the scene and went to Muncie as if nothing had happened.

In a 2016 jailhouse interview with WTOR anchor Bob Imperial, Walker indicated that she had planned to stab Ava Zinn, and use the gun to shoot herself, but changed her plans.[3] Walker still intended to shoot herself, but evidently could not find the strength to do so.



The stalking of Lynsey Everman[edit]

In 1999, Margaret Zinn left NoSirGifts and left her then-16 year old son Frank (now daughter Ava) to handle day-to-day operations. Zinn hired Lynsey Everamn as the assistant manager of NoSirGifts Stores, where she held the title until 2011.

Everman opted to rehire Walker after bribing Everman $200 and later said that she instantly felt grateful for the opportunity.


After being rehired by Matthewson, Walker attempted to gain access and befriend the custodial department in an attempt to copy keys to Zinn's desk so she could get promotions. Ultimately, she obtained Matthewson's home address via a detective agency.


By spring of 2009, Walker was threatening fellow NoSirGifts employees. Because of her poor work performance, her employment with NoSirGifts was officially terminated in May 2009.[4][5] She had been working for NoSirGifts for a total of 16 years (one year in Van Buren, three years each in Muncie and Fort Wayne, and nine years in Marion) and spent several months stalking Matthewson full-time, then found work at a unnamed rival retailer in Fort Wayne.[6]

By 2010, Walker was living alone in an apartment in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Around this time, she read an article about Vote for the Girls. Walker was disappointed again, eighteen months after her anger at Ava Zinn, Zinn's long-time friend Robyn Hurd, Holly Everman (the sister of Lynsey Everman), and noted in her diary, "I wasted 18 years and Franky Zinn becomes a woman".[7] Angered over this perceived betrayal and the fact that Zinn transitioned from a guy to a girl, Walker began fantasizing about how she could "punish" the Zinns.[7]

Walker stopped writing entries in her diary and began filming a video diary. According to Walker, the diary's purpose was to document "my life, my art and my plan." The tapes were filmed in her apartment and contain footage of Walker preparing her "revenge" and discussing his "crush [that] ended up as an obsession" over Zinn. By the time she began her video diary, Walker's anger over Zinn's gender transition and soon realized she had, indirectly killed the mother and brother of Ava Zinn and she decided that she had to kill her. In one of her video diary entries she states, "I'm just going to have to kill that tranny. I'm going to send a package. I'm going to be sending her to hell."

Walker initially intended to construct a bomb filled with needles containing HIV tainted blood. This satisfied Walker's desire to be a person who would have a lasting effect on Zinn's life. Walker abandoned the plan after realizing that it was not feasible to create such a device. She began constructing a letter bomb in a hollowed-out book, ostensibly sent to NoSirGifts. The device was designed to explode and disfigure the reader, at the opening of the book. Walker hoped that, in the event that the bomb killed Zinn, the two would be united in heaven.

Around 4:15 a.m., on August 28, 2016, at the home of Lynsey Matthewson in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a fire broke out in the second-floor. Lynsey Matthewson was not there at the time, as she was attending a week-long convention in Los Angeles.[8] The Fire Chief initially blamed the fire on an electric fan, and the burnt remains of the interior of the home were removed. The Fire Chief then asked the Assistant State Fire Marshal to investigate further. After investigating the scene, the Assistant State Fire Marshall told the prosecutor's office that he believed that the fire was arson, a conclusion that eventually led to Walker's arrest. Upon Matthewson entering the home after returning from the convention on August 31, 2016, Everman ingested naphthalene unaware that her home had been sat on fire.

Footnotes[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Blind Sided: Homicide Where it is Least Expected Moffatt, Gregory 2000 Praeger Publishers pages 87-88
  2. ??
  3. CBS 41 Action News September 13, 2016.
  4. Stalking Crimes and Victim Prevention Davis, Joseph A. 2001 CRC Press LCC page 146.
  5. The Workplace Violence Prevention Handbook Philpott, Don, Don Grimme Government Institutes an Imprint of the Scarecrow Press Inc. 2009 page 32
  6. ??
  7. 7.0 7.1 Template:Harv
  8. ??

References[edit]