Missing model found buried in horse grave a decade after sudden disappearance

An aspiring model, who had suddenly disappeared nearly a decade ago, has been found buried in a horse grave.

Kara Nichols had vanished back in 2012 when she was 19 years old. She was last seen by roommates on October 9, 2012, and was reported missing five days later. Her remains were finally discovered on Monday in a garbage bag that had been buried atop a horse grave on a farm.

A 46-year-old man, named Joel Hollendorfer, has finally been arrested in the case after 10 years. The farm where Nichols' remains were found belonged to Hollendorfer's parents.

The police announced the arrest of Hollendorfer on Tuesday. The accused has been charged for the second-degree murder of the model and also faces an evidence tampering charge.

An arrest affidavit obtained by People magazine revealed that Nichols had been working as an escort at the time of her disappearance. Phone records reveal that the accused was a potential client and had several text conversations with her about meeting up for sex. The tracking of the phone also confirmed that she had travelled to the area where Hollendorfer and his parents lived.

Hollendorfer allegedly admitted talking to Nichols via text but claimed that he never met her. A search of his property was conducted by cadaver dogs in 2014, and marked a number of spots that were never excavated. His mother, Betty Hollendorfer insisted to the police that the areas marked by the dogs were where pets and animals had been buried.

A breakthrough in the case was reached last month when detectives interviewed the ex-wife of Hollendorfer. She told investigators that in 2014, after her then-husband lost his father, he allegedly confessed to her that he had "hired an escort and during sex with her in his car, he accidentally strangled her until she died."

She also informed the police that Hollendorfer admitted to taking Nichols' body to his parents' land and burying her on "an old horse grave with plastic bags and lime." She added that Hollendorfer had also confessed his crime to his parents who helped him cover it up.

Authorities went back to their farm and excavated an area of the property where Hollendorfer's mother said her favorite horse had been buried — a spot marked by the cadaver dogs a decade earlier. They found black plastic containing Nichols' remains about three feet down, and also found a hand and the rest of her remains in the grave.

Hollendorfer remains in custody on a $1 million bond and will appear in court next week.