DES MOINES – It has been one year since a family in Bondurant was killed inside their own home.
Mark, Charla and Tawni Nicholson were shot and killed in April 2017. Chase Nicholson, Mark and Charla’s son and Tawni’s brother, is charged with their murders. He is currently in jail awaiting his plea hearing.
It has been an extremely tough year for the Nicholson family. They say Chase Nicholson struggled with mental illness, but they still never expected something like this would happen. Now, one year later, they just want Mark, Charla, and Tawni to be remembered as the bright lights they were.
“I thought it was a dream and it still feels like a dream, I still can’t believe that they’re gone,” said Kellie Nicholson, Charla and Mark’s niece and Tawni’s cousin.
Over the past year, Kellie says her whole family has been struggling to heal — especially because of how close they all were.
“They would be at our house until like midnight just talking and laughing and playing games, and it was so much fun and now it’s over,” Kellie said.
Chase Nicholson is accused of shooting his sister and parents to death in April 2017. Records shoe he drove away from their home in Bondurant, but later turned himself in to the police in southern Missouri. He was brought back to Iowa and has been in jail ever since. Family members say he suffers from mental illness.
But Kellie does not want to think about that day. She is focused on moving past all this.
“I definitely hope there’s healing and that we can all forget about it, but that we don’t remember the bad, but that we remember the good,” Kellie said.
One way the family is doing that is with a plaque that was just drilled on a rock near Lake Petocka in Bondurant.
“That was kind of their spot that they would always walk around at night in the summer,” Kellie said.
Kellie hopes by seeing the faces of Tawni, Mark and Charla, people will never forget to be kind to one another.
“I want them to think about the love that the family had,” Kellie said. “I just want people to see how they go through it, how they were so strong through everything.”
Family and friends gathered at the plaque site Friday evening to remember their loved ones and to shar memories. Chase Nicholson is set to appear in court at the end of the month.
