On February 28, 2024 Key Biscayne gymnastics coach Oscar Olea was arrested on two counts of sexual battery. He stands accused of sexually assaulting two of his fourteen year old pupils.
The case has gained international attention, but this is not the first time the name Oscar Olea was in the news.
On September 22, 1988 the accused’s father by the same name Oscar Olea was found murdered in his car. Here’s the article that ran in the Miami Herald on September 27, 1988.
When Key Biscayne tennis pro Oscar Olea was found dead in his wrecked Honda last week, police thought it was an accident.
Now, they say it was murder.
Olea, 35, died from a shotgun blast in the head. Detectives say they don’t know who killed him or why, whether it was a random shooting or a deliberate execution.
The slaying happened Wednesday night just south of Sundays on the Bay, a popular Key Biscayne restaurant and club. A county security guard who patrols Crandon Park spotted Olea’s two-door yellow Honda on the median, in the bushes.
“The car was running, the lights were on,” Metro-Dade homicide detective Kevin Conley said. “The front tires were flat, and there was damage to the front end.”
The security guard called police and paramedics. “They initially handled it as a traffic accident,” Conley said.
But an assistant medical examiner and traffic homicide detective who went to the scene of the crash were immediately suspicious.
“The injury to him did not match the damage to the car,” Conley said. “The damage did not appear severe enough to have caused his death.”
An autopsy showed the were shotgun pellets embedded in the left side of his head.
Olea was a $30-an-hour tennis teacher for the Key Biscayne Tennis Association, which runs public tennis courts at Metro- Dade’s Key Biscayne Golf Course.
“He’d been with us for three years,” said Jackie Gallagher, the association’s manager. “He had a big following. He was an excellent, excellent teacher. It’s shocking.”
Olea taught that Wednesday, then left work about 3 p.m. to pick up his 3-year-old son at school, detective Conley said. He took the boy back to work, driving him around in a golf cart and later to the beach before dropping him off at 5:30 p.m. at his estranged wife’s Key Biscayne condominium.
From there, Olea went to the Sand Bar, a restaurant and lounge on the key. The bartender told police that Olea was dressed in tennis togs, that he had two beers and that he left there about 7 p.m.
“I don’t know where he went after that,” Conley said.
But police speculate that Olea went to his Brickell-area apartment to change clothes, because he was wearing jeans and a long-sleeve shirt when he was found.
Olea was apparently headed back out to Key Biscayne when he was killed. Police say the shot was fired at close range and that it shattered the driver’s window. The passenger window was rolled down.
Investigators say they have ruled out robbery, because Olea had about $40 in his billfold.
Olea and his wife split up in December, police said. “It was an amicable separation,” Conley said.
He said he does not know if Olea was dating.
So far, police have found no witnesses to the shooting or the resulting crash. “It’s just funny that no one saw that accident,” said Gallagher, of the tennis association.
She said the folks on Key Biscayne are worried. “Are people going around just shooting at random?” she asked. “Was he in the wrong place at the wrong time? This could make people a heck of a lot nervous.”
“We just don’t know,” Conley said.
Olea, a native of Chile, was buried Monday at Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery in West Dade.
The 1988 Oscar Olea murder case has still not been solved. In 2018 the Miami Dade Police Department put out a tweet asking for information.
Anyone with information on this #ColdCase, is asked to contact @CrimeStopper305 at 305-471-TIPS (8477) or [email protected] pic.twitter.com/r9i5GZb12t
— Miami-Dade Police (@MiamiDadePD) September 23, 2019
Case # 485651-I still sits on the Miami-Dade Cold Case website with the below narrative.
the victim was discovered deceased inside of his yellow 2-door, 1977 Honda Civic which was discovered crashed in a wooded area of the median. It was originally believed the victim died from injuries sustained in the auto crash; however, it became apparent the victim was shot while driving southbound on Crandon Boulevard and crashed into the wooded area of the median as a result of being shot. The victim was employed by the Key Biscayne Tennis Association as a tennis professional who provided tennis lessons.
Anyone with information on the murder are urged to call Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477 or email the homicide bureau at [email protected].
