The Madness and the Light

On June 18, 2021, the Oregon coast was shattered by a spree of violence that felt both random and surgical. Four lives were taken in a single morning. One woman was kidnapped and forced to drive a killer across the country. In the center of it all, two names stood out for me: Oen Evans Nicholson, the man unraveling, and Jennifer Lynn Davidson, a woman whose light was extinguished in the very place she brought warmth, wisdom, peace, and light to everyone who walked through the door.

Timeline of Terror

June 18, 2021, began like any other fog-draped morning on the Oregon coast. But by midday, Coos County was gripped by a spree of violence that would leave four people dead, one woman kidnapped, and a community permanently altered.

1. The First Murder: Charles Nicholson

At approximately 8:00 a.m., Oen Evans Nicholson murdered his father, Charles Nicholson, inside their trailer at the Mill Casino RV Park in North Bend. Charles, 83, was shot in the head with a stolen handgun. The weapon had reportedly been taken from a friend days earlier. Investigators later found Charles’s body inside the trailer, covered with a blanket, an eerie detail suggesting either remorse or ritual.

Charles was a retired dentist and a longtime resident of the area. He had been trying to support his son through mental health struggles, but those efforts had failed. The murder was personal, deliberate, and the beginning of a calculated unraveling.

2. Vehicular Homicide: Anthony and Linda Oyster

After killing his father, Nicholson stole Charles’s pickup truck and drove it through the streets of North Bend. Around 8:15 a.m., he deliberately struck Anthony and Linda Oyster, a married couple walking near the RV park. Anthony, 74, died at the scene. Linda, 73, was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and died days later.

Witnesses described the impact as “violent and intentional.” Surveillance footage confirmed Nicholson accelerated toward the couple without hesitation. The randomness of the act—targeting pedestrians with no known connection—shattered any illusion that this was a family dispute. It was chaos unleashed.

3. The Dispensary Shooting: Jennifer Lynn Davidson

At 8:30 a.m., Nicholson entered Herbal Choices, a cannabis dispensary located on Sherman Avenue in North Bend. Inside was Jennifer Lynn Davidson, 47, working her regular shift. She was known for her warmth, humor, and encyclopedic knowledge of cannabis strains. Customers trusted her. Coworkers adored her. She was the soul of the shop.

Nicholson shot Jennifer without warning. No argument. No motive. Just a single, fatal shot. Surveillance footage captured the moment, but it couldn’t capture the loss. Jennifer died instantly. The dispensary, still open today, became the site of a rupture that would echo through the community for years.

4. The Flight and Abduction

After the murders, Nicholson fled north toward Springfield, Oregon. By midday, he arrived at a parking lot near a Target store, where he abducted a woman at gunpoint. He forced her into her own vehicle and demanded she drive him across the country.

Over the next 48 hours, they traveled more than 2,000 miles, passing through multiple states. The woman, whose identity remains protected, showed extraordinary composure. She spoke calmly, built rapport, and ultimately convinced Nicholson to surrender.

On June 20, Nicholson turned himself in to authorities in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, ending a multi-state manhunt. He was arrested without incident.

Who Is Oen Nicholson?

Oen Evans Nicholson was not a career criminal. He wasn’t known to law enforcement. He didn’t have a violent record. But beneath the surface, he was unraveling...slowly, quietly, and dangerously.

Born in Oregon in the late 1980s, Nicholson grew up in a household marked by tension and isolation. His father, Charles Nicholson, was a retired dentist and longtime Coos County resident. Friends described Charles as quiet, intelligent, and deeply committed to helping his son. But Oen’s mental health had been deteriorating for years, and the support wasn’t enough.

The Descent

Court records and psychiatric evaluations revealed that Nicholson suffered from schizophrenia with paranoid delusions. He believed he was being watched, that his father was part of a government conspiracy, and that he was the target of shadowy forces. These weren’t fleeting thoughts; they were fixed, immersive, and untreated.

Nicholson’s behavior had grown increasingly erratic in the months leading up to the murders. He withdrew from social contact. He became obsessed with surveillance and control. He reportedly stole a handgun from a friend days before the spree, an act that would later become the catalyst for the violence.

Despite these warning signs, there was no intervention. No psychiatric hold. No forced evaluation. The system failed to catch him before he snapped.

The Spree

On June 18, 2021, Nicholson murdered his father in their trailer at the Mill Casino RV Park. He then stole the truck and used it as a weapon, killing Anthony and Linda Oyster. Minutes later, he entered Herbal Choices and shot Jennifer Lynn Davidson, his motive unknown. Her murder was the most senseless of all.

After the killings, Nicholson fled north to Springfield, Oregon, where he abducted a woman and forced her to drive him across the country. Over 2,000 miles later, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he surrendered peacefully. The woman he kidnapped had convinced him to turn himself in—a testament to her composure and courage.

The Trial

In April 2025, Nicholson was found guilty except for insanity on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree kidnapping, and two counts of reckless endangerment. He waived his right to a jury trial. The judge ruled that his mental illness rendered him incapable of understanding the criminality of his actions.

He was sentenced to life under the jurisdiction of the Psychiatric Security Review Board and committed to the Oregon State Hospital. He will remain there indefinitely, subject to periodic review—but unlikely to ever be released.

The Systemic Failure

Nicholson’s case is a textbook example of what happens when mental illness goes untreated and unmonitored. He wasn’t evil. He was sick. But sickness doesn’t absolve the system that let him slip through the cracks.

There were signs. There were opportunities. But no one acted. And because of that silence, four people died—including Jennifer Lynn Davidson, whose life was the antithesis of Nicholson’s chaos.

Jennifer Lynn Davidson: The Soul of Herbal Choices, the Heart of a Community

Jennifer Lynn George Davidson was born on May 18, 1974, in Pasadena, California. She grew up in Piedmont after her family relocated there in 1978, and from an early age, she carried a spark...curious, sharp, and quietly radiant. She studied English across multiple institutions, including Chico State, Diablo Valley College, and the University of Puget Sound, where she completed her degree. Her writing was published. Her voice mattered.

But Jennifer’s brilliance wasn’t confined to the page. She grew orchids with the kind of patience that only comes from understanding fragility. She earned a beekeeper verification, drawn to the quiet order and resilience of the hive. And she helped 24 women earn their GEDs. Not for recognition, but because she believed in second chances and the power of education to rewrite futures.

She was a woman of fierce compassion and unapologetic clarity. She didn’t just show up; she transformed the space around her with love and light. At Herbal Choices in North Bend, Oregon, she became more than a budtender. She was the soul of the shop. Customers came for cannabis, but they stayed for Jennifer. She remembered their names, their stories, their pain. She helped veterans manage PTSD, calmed anxious mothers, and made first-time users feel safe. She turned a dispensary into a sanctuary.

Her coworkers described her as “the glue,” “the light,” “the one who made the place feel like home.” She brought laughter into the break room, calm into chaos, and a sense of purpose into every shift. She made healing feel personal.

Jennifer was also a mother. Her son, Michael Davidson, was her world. She raised him with humor, honesty, and a kind of radical presence that made him feel safe even when the world wasn’t. His loss is immeasurable, and so is the legacy she left behind.

On June 18, 2021, Jennifer was murdered during a spree of violence that shook Coos County. She was working her regular shift when Oen Nicholson walked through the door and shot her without warning. She died instantly.

Herbal Choices remains open today, still serving the community she loved, still standing in the place where her light once shone. But her absence is felt in every corner. Her name is spoken with reverence. Her memory is etched into the walls.

Jennifer Lynn Davidson was not just taken. She was stolen from a community that needed her, from a son who loved her, and from a world that was better because she was in it.

She was a light. A bright one. Though her flame was extinguished, the warmth her light brought to everyone who was blessed enough to have known Jennifer still lingers.

The System That Failed

Oen Nicholson didn’t erupt out of nowhere. His descent was slow, visible, and documented. He had a history of untreated schizophrenia, paranoid delusions, and erratic behavior. He believed his father was part of a government conspiracy. He believed he was being watched. He believed violence was the only way out, and yet no psychiatric hold. No forced evaluation. No intervention.

Nicholson had reportedly stolen the handgun used in the murders days before the spree. He was unraveling in plain sight. The system...fragmented, underfunded, and reactive...did nothing. Mental health care in rural Oregon is a patchwork of waitlists, overworked clinicians, and bureaucratic dead ends. By the time Nicholson snapped, it was too late. Four people died. One woman was kidnapped. And Jennifer Lynn Davidson, a woman who brought light into every room she entered, was stolen from her community in a moment that could have been prevented. The Psychiatric Security Review Board later ruled Nicholson “guilty except for insanity.” He was sentenced to life at the Oregon State Hospital. But the ruling didn’t answer the deeper question: Why wasn’t he already there?

This wasn’t just a failure of one man’s mind. It was a failure of every safeguard meant to catch him before he broke. The warning signs were there. The descent was visible. But the system blinked.

Jennifer’s murder wasn’t just tragic. It was systemic. And until mental health care is treated as urgent, not optional, the silence will keep costing lives.

What Remains

What remains is the silence in the doorway where she used to stand. There is a pause in the conversation when someone mentions her name. The shift in energy at Herbal Choices...still open, still serving, but no longer whole.

What remains is the ache in her son’s life, not just for the mother he lost, but for the future she was shaping with him. Her voice isn’t there to guide, but her fire is. It’s in his spine. It’s in his memory.

What remains is the community she held together...veterans, patients, coworkers, strangers who walked in broken and left feeling seen. They still talk about her. Still ask for her. Still carry her in the way they show up for each other.

What remains is the failure. The system that saw the signs and did nothing. The untreated illness. The stolen gun. The missed chances. And the cost...measured not in headlines, but in the absence of Jennifer Lynn Davidson.

What remains is the demand. To remember her not as a victim, but as a force. To speak her name not with pity, but with purpose. To make sure her murder is never reduced to a footnote in someone else’s descent.

What remains is the light she gave...and the fire we owe her.

*Information gathered using KEZI News, KVAL, KLCC, Law & Crime, CNN, ABC News, NBC16, The World Newspaper, Coos Bay Chapel Obituaries, Gun Violence Memorial, Find a Grave, and Oregon State Court Records.

**AI contribution where indicated.