Olympic Hopeful Was Kidnapped on a Training Run and Told She Was Being Taken as a ‘Bride’

An Olympic hopeful and U.S. biathlon standout was abducted during a training run in Montana’s backcountry by two self-described survivalists living off the grid — and told she was being taken as a bride.

Kari Swenson, 22 at the time, was kidnapped in July 1984 by Don Nichols and his 19-year-old son, Dan Nichols, according to reporting by the Associated Press. The pair, who had spent years living in the wilderness of southwestern Montana, seized Swenson on a remote trail and marched her deeper into the mountains, the outlet reported.

Swenson later testified that the men told her they needed a woman to live with them in the wild.

“They said they needed a woman up in the mountains,” she told a Madison County jury during Dan Nichols’ 1985 trial, according to AP trial coverage.

According to the AP and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the Nicholses had lived for more than a decade in the rugged Madison Range, avoiding modern society and surviving by hunting and foraging. Don Nichols later testified that he believed the only way to keep his son in the mountains was to find him a woman to share their isolated life.

“We don’t get many women up in the mountains to talk to,” Swenson recalled the elder Nichols telling her, according to testimony reported by the Chronicle.

Swenson testified that she was grabbed and struck after encountering the men on the trail.

“I was concerned they were going to rape and murder me,” she said, according to the AP.

She told jurors she pleaded repeatedly to be released, but Dan Nichols refused.

“No, I want to keep you. You’re pretty. I want to keep you,” he told her, she testified.

The men moved Swenson through the forest overnight, chaining her as they shifted between camps, according to the AP. Swenson said she tried to discourage them by claiming she was married. Investigators and later reports also said she attempted to leave clues behind for rescuers by dropping personal items along the way.

When Swenson didn’t return from her run, friends and coworkers from Lone Mountain Ranch organized a search, according to the AP. On July 16, two men — Jim Schwalbe and Alan Goldstein, a friend and coworker — came upon the Nicholses’ camp near Jack Creek.

Swenson screamed a warning that her captors were armed as the men approached, according to testimony reported by The New York Times. Don Nichols ordered his son to silence her, the testimony said. Dan Nichols then fired his pistol, striking Swenson in the chest and puncturing her lung, the outlets reported.

“Oh my God. I didn’t mean to shoot her,” Dan Nichols later testified, saying the shooting was accidental, according to The New York Times.

As Schwalbe rushed toward Swenson, Goldstein called out for the Nicholses to surrender. Don Nichols responded by firing a rifle, striking Goldstein in the cheek. Goldstein, 36, died at the scene, authorities told the AP.

The Nicholses fled into the Madison mountains, leaving Swenson wounded and alone at the remote campsite.

Shot through the lung and struggling to breathe, Swenson later testified that she crawled to a sleeping bag and fought to stay alive while waiting for help. She said she heard a helicopter overhead and tried to signal rescuers but wasn’t immediately seen, according to the AP.

“I thought I was probably going to die at any time,” Swenson told the jury, the AP reported.

Several hours later, a ground search party reached her, and she was airlifted to a hospital in Bozeman, authorities told the AP. She underwent emergency surgery and survived, though later reporting said she suffered lasting injuries from the gunshot wound.

Law enforcement then launched a massive manhunt for the Nicholses, who were believed to be heavily armed, authorities told the AP.

Despite an immense search effort, the father and son evaded capture for nearly five months, using hidden supply caches and remote camps to survive the winter, the outlets reported.

They were arrested without incident in December 1984 after Sheriff France tracked them to a snowy campsite near Bear Trap Canyon and surprised them, according to the AP and later reporting by the Chronicle.

Both men were charged with kidnapping. Don Nichols was also charged with deliberate homicide in Goldstein’s death, according to court records reported by The New York Times. At trial, Don Nichols admitted to abducting Swenson, saying he believed she would eventually accept life in the mountains.

“We talked and it seemed on the surface she was the kind that I’ve always thought of,” he testified, according to The New York Times. “So I took her by the wrist.”

Jurors convicted Don Nichols of deliberate homicide, kidnapping and aggravated assault, sentencing him to 85 years in prison. Dan Nichols was convicted of kidnapping and assault but acquitted of homicide, according to trial coverage by The New York Times and the AP. He was released from prison in 1991.

Swenson later returned to competition despite diminished lung capacity and went on to win a medal at the world biathlon championships, the AP reported. She eventually became a veterinarian and returned to Montana, according to later reporting, and declined to comment publicly on the case in later years.

Don Nichols was released on parole in 2017 after serving more than three decades in prison, per the The Guardian.