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

need to know

• Kari Swenson was kidnapped during a training session near Big Sky, Montana, in July 1984

• Don Nichols and his 19-year-old son Dan Nichols spent the night holding her in the wilderness after taking her as the young man’s “bride”

• Svensson survived and escaped after being shot in the lung, leaving the wounded man alone in the wilderness

An Olympic hopeful and biathlon star was kidnapped while training in the mountains of Montana by a pair of survivalists living off the grid who told her she was being taken as a bride.

Kari Swenson was bound hand and foot to her captors and held captive overnight until the ordeal turned deadly.

According to the Associated Press, Swenson was kidnapped in July 1984 by Don Nichols and his 19-year-old son, Dan. According to reports at the time, the father and son, who had lived in the wilderness of southwestern Montana for years, caught Swenson on a remote trail and took her deeper into the mountains.

Swenson, then 22 and a member of the U.S. biathlon team, later testified that the men told her they needed a woman to live with them in the wild.

“They said they needed a woman on the mountain,” she told a Madison County jury during the 1985 trial of Dan Nichols, according to The Associated Press Trial.

The Nichols family lived in the rugged Madison Mountains for more than a decade, eschewing modern society and surviving by hunting and foraging, the Associated Press and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported. Don Nichols later testified that he believed the only way to keep his son in the mountains was to find him a woman with whom to share their secluded life.

According to testimony reported by The Chronicle, Swenson recalled the elder Nichols telling her, “We didn’t find a lot of women on the mountain to talk to.”

Svenson testified that she was grabbed and beaten after encountering the men on the road.

“I was afraid they were going to rape me and murder me,” she said, according to the Associated Press.

She told jurors she asked for release multiple times but Dan Nichols refused.

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

The men moved Swenson through the forest overnight and chained her while moving between camps, the Associated Press reported. Svensson said she tried to prevent them from keeping her by claiming she was married and tried to leave clues for rescuers by dropping personal items along the way, according to media reports.

When Swenson’s run failed, friends and colleagues at Lone Mountain Ranch organized a search, the Associated Press reported. On July 16, two men – Jim Schwalbe and Alan Goldstein, friends and colleagues – arrived at the Nicholses’ camp near Jack Creek.

As the men approached, Swenson screamed and warned the kidnappers to be armed. Don Nichols ordered his son to shut her up, The New York Times reported. Dan Nichols then opened fire, striking Swenson in the chest and puncturing her lung, according to media reports.

Dan Nichols later reportedly testified: “Oh my God. I didn’t mean to shoot her.” He said the shooting was accidental. New York Times.

As Schwalbe rushed toward Swenson, Goldstein shouted for the Nichols family to surrender. Don Nichols responded with a rifle, hitting Goldstein in the cheek. Goldstein, 36, died at the scene, authorities told The Associated Press.

The Nichols family fled into the Madison mountains, leaving an injured Swenson alone at a remote campsite.

Svenson was shot in the lung and had difficulty breathing, and she later testified that she climbed onto her sleeping bag and tried to hold on to her life while waiting for help. She said she heard a helicopter overhead and tried to signal rescuers, but was not immediately spotted, the Associated Press reported.

“I thought I was going to die at any moment,” Swenson told the jury, according to the Associated Press.

Ground search and rescue teams found her hours later and she was airlifted to a hospital in Bozeman, authorities told The Associated Press. It was later reported that she underwent emergency surgery and survived, but she suffered lasting injuries from the gunshot wounds.

Law enforcement launched a massive manhunt for the Nichols, who were believed to be heavily armed, authorities told The Associated Press.

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Despite extensive search efforts, the father and son evaded capture for nearly five months, using hidden supply caches and remote campsites to survive the winter, according to media reports.

In December 1984, they were arrested without incident after French sheriffs tracked them to a snowy campsite near Bear Trap Canyon and surprised them, the Associated Press and later the Chronicle reported.

Both men were charged with kidnapping. Don Nichols was also charged with voluntary manslaughter in Goldstein’s death, according to court records reported by The New York Times. At trial, Don Nichols admitted to kidnapping Swenson and said he believed she would eventually accept mountain life.

“We talked, and on the face of it, she was the kind of person I’d always thought of,” he reportedly testified. new york times. “So I grabbed her wrist.”

A jury found Don Nichols guilty of voluntary manslaughter, kidnapping and aggravated assault and sentenced him to 85 years in prison. Dan Nichols was found guilty of kidnapping and assault but was acquitted, according to trial reports. new york times and the Associated Press. He was released from prison in 1991.

Despite his reduced lung capacity, Svensson later returned to competition and won a medal at the biathlon world championships, according to the Associated Press. It was later reported that she eventually became a veterinarian and returned to Montana. She declined to comment publicly on the case in the years that followed.

Don Nichols was paroled in 2017 after serving more than three decades in prison. The Guardian.

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