TRIGGER WARNING: This post contains information about suicide, which may be triggering to some.
Oklahoma authorities suspect a couple of murdering their six children before burning down their family home and finally turning the guns on themselves. Family members claim the couple were suffering financially after the husband and father was injured at his job.
Eight people, including Brian and Brittney Nelson, were found in their home in Broken Arrow, a suburb of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the fall. At the time of our original report on CafeMom, it was unclear whether the family had perished in the fire or had died by some other means.
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The bodies of the Nelson family members were found in their family home in October.
A preliminary autopsy report found that all eight family members had been shot, Express reports. The bodies were first found in October. At the time, police classified the scene as a murder-suicide.
Now, the autopsy report has confirmed that Brian and Brittney had gunshot wounds to the head. Four of the six children were shot multiple times. The eldest child, Brian Nelson II, had the most with at least six.
Each child had burns as well, but the cause of death is listed as homicide due to the gunshot wounds. All six children, including Brian II, 13; Brantley, 9; Vegeta, 7; Ragnar, 5; Kurgan, 2; and Britannica, 1, were found in a bedroom, and Brian and Brittney were in the front of the home.
The couple was reportedly underemployed and struggling.
Family members told Tulsa World that the couple had financial troubles. The Nelsons filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on December 31, 2020. They reportedly had $8,803 in assets but $138,000 in debt — most of which was unpaid student loan debt at $127,081.
Neither Brian nor Brittney was employed at the time of the bankruptcy filing. Their only income included government benefits such as SNAP, utility payment assistance, and funds from the Oklahoma Housing Authority, according to the World. In 2019, Brian reported a gross income of $4,510. Brittney reported no income. They also reported personal property of nine firearms, valued at $1,600.
They were also dealing with health issues, including a severe head injury Brian Nelson had.
Brian’s parents, Danny and Marilyn Nelson, said their son was changed forever when he sustained a head injury years earlier restocking a dairy refrigerator for a large retail chain.
“One night when he got there, the guy who had just gotten off work before him had spilled something and did not mop the floor and Brian fell, and he hit his head really hard. The doctor said that it was a very rare concussion and told Brian that either it would go away or it would stay — and it stayed,” Marilyn Nelson told the World.
“The headaches were horrible, and he never knew when he was going to get them,” she said. A lawyer told Brian that continuing treatment for his head injury would be impossible. Instead, he accepted a settlement.
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Brian's parents were supposed to babysit the day the family was found.
Danny and Marilyn Nelson said their daughter-in-law was stressed from homeschooling the six children. She also suffered from gallstones and had been experiencing seizures, The Independent reported. Brian Nelson told his parents he was taking her to the doctor the day that the family died. He asked his parents to watch the children, claiming he would bring them to his parents’ home.
“Five came and went. Then it was 6. I texted them — no responses,” Danny Nelson told the World. “I turned on the 6 o’clock news, and they said there had been a fire near Hickory and Galveston in Broken Arrow. That’s where my son lives.”
He felt compelled to go to his son’s home. He pushed past the police tape to find the horrifying scene.
Brian Nelson's parents hope the public learns from this tragedy.
“I think the stress was what got to them — trying to figure out how to make it from one month, to one month, to one month,” Danny Nelson said, per the World.
The grieving grandparents want people to learn to take the mental health of themselves and their loved ones seriously. “A lot of people say well, we’ll check into it tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow — and sometimes, tomorrow don’t ever come,” he said.
As for Marilyn Nelson, she wants people to know that her son wasn’t always like this.
“I want people to know that at one time he had all his brain together,” she said, according to the World. “I just don’t understand why they did what they did. I just don’t understand why he ended up in that situation. I talk to God all the time — and I just don’t understand.”
