U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Olsen and his wife, Jessica Olsen, pose together in this undated photo. (Arguinzoni family)
A U.S. Navy officer could face a court-martial on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of his wife at a Japanese hotel last year, the service said Thursday.
Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Olsen was also charged with obstruction of justice following a preliminary hearing Wednesday at Naval Base San Diego, according to an email from Cmdr. Paul Macapagal, a spokesman for Naval Forces Japan.
The charges stem from the October death of Jessica “Jesse” Arguinzoni Olsen, who was found dead in a hotel room in Fukuoka, about 80 miles northeast of Sasebo Naval Base.
“We are unable to comment further at this time due to the ongoing litigation,” Macapagal wrote. “The Navy is committed to ensuring the military justice system is fair and impartial, and the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”
A preliminary hearing — known as an Article 32 hearing under the Uniform Code of Military Justice — determines whether there is probable cause to believe the accused committed the alleged offenses. The hearing officer makes a recommendation to the Navy’s Office of Special Trial Counsel, which decides whether to refer the case to trial.
A spokesperson for Olsen could not be reached Thursday.
U.S. Navy spouse Jessica Olsen poses in this undated photo. (Arguinzoni family)
Fukuoka Prefectural Police discovered Jesse Olsen, 37, on the morning of Oct. 28 inside a hotel room in the city’s Chuo district after receiving a report from the hotel, a police spokesman said at the time. The location matches the address of Hotel SOL.
Police said she was found lying and bleeding and indicated she may have been involved in a crime, Kyodo News reported Oct. 29.
Jesse Olsen’s body was returned to her family on Nov. 16, her sister, Dominque Arguinzoni, told Stars and Stripes by email Wednesday. She said the family was informed Jesse had suffered injuries to her head, including her face, and that her jaw and hyoid bones were broken.
A funeral was held Nov. 25 in Monroe, N.Y.
Christopher Olsen enlisted in the Navy in April 2014 and became a surface warfare officer that July, according to his service record. He was stationed at Sasebo from November 2022 until December 2023, serving on the USS Chief and later the USS New Orleans. He is now assigned to Naval Surface Group Southwest in San Diego.
The couple met at the State University of New York at Oswego and were married in August 2009, Arguinzoni said.
She said her sister worked as a substitute teacher at Ernest J. King Middle High School, a Department of Defense Education Activity facility on Sasebo.
“We had no idea they ever had issues,” Arguinzoni said. “None of her friends, even best friend, had an inkling. However, thinking back, my parents and I realized that she pulled away from us by reducing communications from every week to every other month or so.”
The Navy notified Jesse Olsen’s parents of her death by phone shortly after midnight on Oct. 28, Arguinzoni said during an April 22 phone interview.
“There was no in-person visit, no support team, no effort to ensure they were physically or emotionally able to process the news,” she wrote in a statement emailed on April 12. “We were simply told that Jesse was dead — and that her husband, LCDR Christopher Olsen, was a person of interest.”
The family has not yet received Jesse’s personal belongings, Arguinzoni added.
“We want to grieve,” she said in the phone interview. “We can’t even wrap up her stuff, and it’s been very frustrating because the little bit of information we get, it throws us back into when they first called us and told us she was gone.”
