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we’re going to take a look at another
horrible case with you Monday September
14th 2015 was remembered by 16-year-old
Nolan Buchanan as the best day of his
life the day before he had spent Sunday
with his girlfriend a traditional
morning Mass with his girlfriend’s
family followed by a get together with
friends and a wonderfully romantic
evening waking up on Monday morning next
to his favorite girl the teenager felt
like a free successful and influential
businessman before whom the whole world
is open after all he was now the owner
of Buchanan construction the young man
was going to inherit cars a house land
monetary assets and made plans how he
would manage the family business alone
and certainly do it better than his
father who brought the company to
bankruptcy it would seem that what could
go
wrong already on October 1st 2015 Nolan
Keith Buchanan was arrested at Bonita
high school in Bonita California by the
El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office Nolan
was incarcerated at the juvenal
treatment center JTC in South Lake Tahoe
until June 13th 2018 when an El Dorado
County jury of seven men and five women
found Buchanan guilty of three
charges the jury took just 2 hours to
reach a verdict the young man was
sentenced to 150 years in prison with
the possibility of parole from the 25th
year of his
sentence this is how his plan to take
over the family business ended neighbors
and classmates spoke of Nolan as a model
kid and a good student as far as I know
he was a good kid Bene a high school
student camp Campell ruon would later
say in an interview he always cared
about school he seemed very kind he was
very nice I’m even surprised he was
arrested but what really happened in the
Buchanan family let’s break down this
horrific case in
detail Molly first met Adam Buchanan
when she came to apply for a job at his
firm as an office manager by the time
they met Adam was already divorced and
raising his son Nolan from a previous
marriage on his own cheerful sociable
and cheerful blonde immediately
attracted the attention of the owner of
the company the interest was Mutual
Molly fell in love started a romance
that turned into a serious relationship
and her move to Adam Molly dreamed of a
real loving friendly family and tried to
build a wonderful relationship with her
stepson soon she became pregnant Gavin
was born people who knew the buchanans
claimed that they were a fairly
close-knit family of four the head of
the family who owned a constru
Construction Company earned enough to
ensure a comfortable life and the family
even purchased vacation property in El
Dorado County California a small cabin
sat on 19 acres in Greenwood a rustic
cabin with no electricity water sewer or
gas Adam who worked in construction took
an active role in remodeling the house
and the family began to visit there
often on September 13th 2015 at 10:00
a.m. members of The Garden Valley Fire
Department responded to a wild fire in
Greenwood Township in Western El Dorado
County on Highway 193 between Co and
Georgetown upon arrival they found the
fire had destroyed 10 acres of the
property a cabin located on the property
was still smoldering but had burned to
the ground the fire department personnel
observed charred remains in the ashes
the scene of the fire was not touched
and at 11 am firefighters called the El
Dorado County Sheriff’s Office no one
had yet realized what was at the the
scene firefighters were almost certain
that the victim of the Wildfire was a
pet trapped in the house the arriving
coroner was faced with a daunting task
the remains of the house were still
smoldering and there was no way to
examine the inside of the house they had
to wait for the Flames to finally die
down and for the temperature to drop
slightly as the coroner examined the
house he smelled the sweet odor of burnt
flesh and later discovered a human skull
and a burned chest it appeared that the
tragedy had claimed someone’s life the
officer requested backup officers from
the Sheriff’s Office arrived and
conducted a thorough examination of the
scene the conclusion was obvious the
small secluded and remote cabin was not
the primary residence of its owners
rather it was most likely a Country
Cabin where people came to Vacation a
Dodge truck and trailer were found on
the property adjacent to the cabin it
was possible to run the license plates
and find out who the car belonged to the
owner may have been the victim of the
wildfire
it didn’t take long to find out that the
vehicle and trailer belonged to Buchanan
construction a company owned by a man
named Adam bucanan the man in question
lived 160 mi from the scene of the
accident about 3 hours away in Bonita
California this information confirmed
the Assumption of the police who decided
that the house was just a country
residence for those who vacation here
from the hustle and bustle of the city
it remained to be seen who was inside Mr
Buchanan himself or someone
else the name of the owner of the
company gave the detectives their first
clue with which they began their
investigation the Bonita police officers
were tasked with checking to see if all
of Buchanan’s family members were well
and at home they went to the correct
address and were soon in the Buchanan’s
driveway where they noticed a white Ford
pickup truck at a knock on the door
Adam’s 16-year-old son from his first
marriage came out he greeted the
uniformed officers with surprise and
asked asked what brought them to him the
officers decided to First find out who
was in the house so as not to frighten
the household perhaps the company car
had been taken by someone from the
company and not the owner himself Nolan
Buchanan said his father Adam had gone
away for the weekend to his country
estate 160 Mi away with Molly and their
8-year-old son Gavin and they were due
back in the evening according to him his
father had left him to look after the
house investigators did not yet have
sufficient reason to believe the remains
in the cabin were those of the buchanans
but the information received and the
discovery of the remains believed to be
those of two people by the evening of
September 13th was enough to report the
family missing in the El Dorado County
Fire the next day September 14th
Eldorado County Police went to Nolan’s
home to talk to him more thoroughly and
try to figure out who lives the fire had
claimed officers were met by Adam’s
parents Howard and Susan Buchanan they
said that their son the owner of the
burned out cabin does his own home
repairs and therefore travels there very
often the parents were very concerned as
they had not been able to contact their
son or daughter-in-law until now from
the story The officers learned that the
house is connected to generators but at
the time of the tragedy it had no
electricity there were however gas
cylinders inside this gave two theories
the fire could have been either
accidental or intent
by September 15th the fire scene had
cooled down and investigators were
finally able to collect evidence
including debris from a nearby fire pit
according to Deton James Peterson of the
El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office New
remains were discovered that changed the
direction of the case police found a
piece of skull with a bullet hole at
that point we all realized that there
was actually a homicide this was not an
accidental fire reported the sheriff the
remains were collected and sent for
forensic DNA testing in the first set of
remains the bullet was lodged in the
victim’s thigh the skull with the Bullet
Hole judging by its size belonged to a
child the version of fatal accident
dropped by itself the version of murder
came to the Forefront no one now doubted
that the fire was a means of destroying
the traces of the crime it remained to
find out under what circumstances the
crime had taken place was it a burglary
that had gone wrong or had the family
Tak in their lives deliberately but then
by whom and why or could the crime be
related to Buchanan construction a
company where Adam Buchanan was
president and Chief Operating Officer
and someone harbored a grudge against
him due to a working relationship
initially investigators focused
specifically on the latter Theory they
also looked into Molly’s life to
determine if she had any enemies capable
of the crime once those lines of inquiry
stalled officers turned their attention
to problems in Molly and Adam’s marriage
there proved to be plenty of them
investigators learned that over time
Molly and Adam’s relationship began to
deteriorate and at the time of the crime
they had been sleeping apart for quite
some
time a diary was found in which Molly
described abuse from Adam Witnesses
interviewed described rough treatment
and abuse according to them Adam was
rude not only to Molly but also to the
children Molly’s mother Susie Slanker
admitted to investigators there were
were times when I was afraid they would
kill each other in one of their
arguments Molly did not sever her
relationship with Adam but would
periodically take her son and leave to
go to her parents house and return a few
days later until the next fight it also
turned out that the couple liked to hunt
in the area where their country house
was located since everyone was armed the
investigators assumed that during
another quarrel one of the spouses
grabbed a gun and shot and when he
realized what he had done he took his
own life however there was an
inconsistency if the tragedy happened
because of a conflict between husband
and wife it means that near the remains
of one of them must necessarily be the
instrument of crime which however was
not investigators speculated that the
weapon may have been damaged in the fire
and may not have looked as obvious as
expected over the course of 5 days
forensic team members took turns
removing ashes from the home the search
was conducted with surgical thoroughness
but but did not yield the expected
result no weapons were found in the
house by this time came the data of
forensic examination the examination
confirmed that the DNA of the bodies
belonged to Adam Buchanan Molly McAfee
and their 8-year-old son all three
victims had suffered gunshot wounds
before the fire and the angle of the
bullet wounds ruled out the version that
someone took their own life the lack of
firearms meant that someone else was in
the house a fourth person who shot the
buchanans and the investigation had to
start over police had no choice but to
turn to the 16-year-old son of the
deceased Nolan told officers that the
family drove away in an old Dodge truck
according to the son his father decided
to use the company vehicle rather than
his personal Ford which was parked in
the driveway because he had loaded the
truck and trailer with rocks that he was
going to decorate the area near his
Country Cabin it was this truck that
police found near the burned structure
when asked why Nolan did not go on
vacation with his relatives the young
man as in the first interview said that
he had a duty to look after the house
and garden during the absence of his
father and stepmother Nolan also said
that they had a neighbor growing
forbidden grass on the edge of the
Buchanan property which caused his
father to have frequent arguments with
this neighbor demanding that he stop
planting the grass and threatening to go
to the
police talking about the family business
Nolan told of the company’s financial
difficulties things were not going well
the company was undergoing downsizing
and the number of employees was down to
five from what his father said the debts
associated with the business were
increasing rapidly so now the
investigation had a lot of useful
information and the detectives had a
suspect a neighbor especially since in
that area violent crime was often linked
to the cultivation of illegal herbs
detectives felt that the threat of going
to the police could have led to the
murder of Buchanan and his family the
problem was no one had any idea which
neighbor they were talking about
investigators canvased the neighborhood
interviewing all the homeowners in a row
the tactic was successful they found a
man who confirmed the story of a quarrel
with Adam over growing a forbidden crop
but according to him after a sharp
conversation the conflict was over the
neighbor had an alibi and another
version turned out to be
untenable what remained to be dealt with
was the financial crisis that had hit
the family’s business on September 18th
the police visited Adam’s company and
interviewed the employees Nolan’s words
were true the company was in a sorry
state it was threatened with bankruptcy
as the amount of debts exceeded
$30,000 because of this some employees
were fired it turned out that some of
the former employees were extremely
dissatisfied with the reduction and
therefore could be involved in the crime
crime and that’s where investigators got
lucky over the weekend the local high
school organized a community cleanup day
the students were clearing debris from a
business park just a mile from Adams
Construction Company it was there on
September 19th that a small purse with a
wallet and identification cards
belonging to Molly McAfee and Adam
Buchanan was found under one of the
bushes a22 caliber rifle was lying
nearby detectives immediately went to
the scene of the discovery the County
Sheriff’s Office made a new assumption
the perpetrator had massacred the
Buchanan family with the found rifle and
covering his tracks had taken their
documents from the crime scene the
discovery was important because it meant
that someone had traveled all the way to
Greenwood to kill the family and then
returned to Bonita to dispose of the bag
and murder weapon it appeared to be a
Bonita resident the proximity of the
evidence found to the location of
Buchanan construction strengthened the
theory that the boss was massacred by by
one of the disgruntled
employees detectives sent the firearm
and the bag of documents for examination
requesting a warrant to inspect the
company’s records and premises here the
investigators got lucky a second time
during the search they gained access to
a video surveillance camera installed on
the firm’s premises by happy coincidence
the lens of the camera was directed not
at the company’s territory but at the
center of the parking lot after this
discovery the case was just days away
from being solved since it was already
known that the family had gone out of
town on Friday investigators reviewed
Friday’s footage and were surprised to
find that Adam had attached a trailer
filled with rocks to a Ford F-150 not a
Dodge truck as Nolan had told them
detectives realized that the young man
had deliberately manipulated the
investigation if the white Ford had
towed The Rock trailer to the cabin then
someone must have driven it back and
parked it in the driveway of the
Buchanan family home
investigators reinterviewed Nolan trying
to keep him safe while getting as many
details as possible Nolan again
recounted his weekend where he had been
and who he had seen only this time they
asked him what movie they had seen at
the cinema how he had paid for the
shopping at the mall and how he had paid
for dessert on a date the unsuspecting
Nolan answered with his father’s credit
card the officers then applied for a
warrant to search Buchanan’s home in
Bonita search the vehicles and check
Financial records the Ford automobile
was still parked in the driveway it was
closely inspected and they noticed
reddish soil sticking to the wheels
similar to that in Greenwood if the Ford
had been used for a trip last weekend or
earlier traces of soil might have
remained but they would not have been as
obvious unfortunately the fire had
destroyed the wheel tread marks near the
country house but the dirt buildup
indicated that the car had probably been
to Greenwood recently Detectives Tred
the bank card payments and found that
Adam Buchanan had used his credit card
on Friday September 11th at fast food
chain Taco Bell on his way to Greenwood
Nolan on the other hand claimed he
stayed home did not go with his parents
and had the credit card in his
possession detectives went to the diner
and checked the security cameras they
saw exactly what they expected a white
Ford instead of a truck when detectives
searched the Ford they found a Taco Bell
receipt dated September 11th that
included not three but four drinks
evidence collected at the scene of the
fire similarly pointed to four drink
cups so Nolan was in the car the next
credit card transaction took place on
Saturday September 12th at the Valencia
club bar in penin about 30 minutes away
from the cabin Adam’s parents had
previously told detectives about the bar
they said their son and daughter-in-law
likeed to drop in there after
renovations to the cabin security
cameras recorded the time the couple
left the bar and traffic cameras on the
highway helped track the couple’s route
a Ford F150 headed toward the Buchanan
cabin around 2:30 a.m. on the day of the
fire and at 3:30 a.m. drove in the
opposite direction in the first instance
the camera captured Adam and Molly in
the vehicle and in the second only Nolan
a few hours later on Sunday morning
September 13th Adam’s credit card was
used to pay at three of Bonita’s
establishments Starbucks McDonald’s and
a gas station the bank confirmed to
investigators that Buchanan had only one
bank card the facts contradicted Nolan’s
stories by this time forensic results
had come back Nolan’s fingerprints were
found on the gun he was arrested right
in the middle of a high school class
Nolan Buchanan pleaded not guilty to the
charges against him he attempted to
distort the story and claimed that it
was his father who shot the family after
which he pointed a rifle at him and he
defending himself took the weapon away
accidentally shooting his father Nolan
insisted it was self-defense attributing
the fire and subsequent lie to a state
of panic and extreme fright that’s why
he took gasoline and set the house on
fire to make it look like nothing had
happened there the defense continually
focused the jury’s attention on Adam’s
abuse of his own son and other family
members the medical examiner questioned
the verdict because the bullet wound
mark on a piece of Gavin’s skull was
consistent with a shot fired at nearly a
90° angle Nolan on the other hand
claimed that his and his brother’s beds
were next to each other and they were
simultaneously awakened by the noise and
screaming it was at the moment of
Awakening that Nolan allegedly saw
someone enter the bedroom and shoot
Gavin the shooter then pointed the rifle
at him and Nolan miraculously managed to
push the attacker away under this
scenario the shot would have been fired
at about a 45° angle which was
inconsistent with forensic evidence the
prosecution came to believe that Nolan
shot his brother when they were alone in
the house while their parents spent time
at a bar after waiting for his father
and stepmother to return Nolan shot them
as well judging by where the bodies were
found Adam was killed first followed by
Molly Nolan then took the rifle his
parents papers doused the bodies with
gasoline and set the house on fire then
he went home met his girlfriend and
spent the day with her creating an alibi
for himself on July 13th 2018 a jury
found Nolan guilty of three counts of
first-degree murder as a result he was
sentenced to 150 years in prison with
the possibility of parole after 25 years
judge Kingsbury in announcing the
sentence reflected on the verbal and
physical abuse Nolan faced on the
testimony that Nolan massacred his
brother because he didn’t want him to go
through the same horror or be forced to
live with what his father had already
managed to do to him but as she did she
also listed facts about the
premeditation of the crime and
subsequent arson the creation of aliis
and the plans to run the family business
that Nolan had voiced to family members
the judge cited a failure to follow
rules and deviant Behavior noted by
staff at the South Lake Tahoe juvenile
Treatment Center where Nolan went after
his arrest everyone has the opportunity
to change judge Kingsbury told Nolan I
hope you will do everything in your
power to do so
if you behave well you will have a
chance to get out on parole in 25 years
under the Senate bill and Supreme Court
rulings it’s up to you whether you take
that chance or not Nolan continues to
insist he is innocent if he ever gets
out on parole he will have to pay a huge
compensation to the victims the amount
of the payout is unknown at this time
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