UPDATE: Dec. 9 at 7 p.m.
A Scott County woman walked free from prison early Tuesday morning after serving more than 20 years for her role in her mother's 2002 stabbing death in Georgetown.
Stephanie Olsen, now 41, was released from the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Shelby County. She served more than 20 years of a 25-year sentence after a jury convicted her of complicity to commit murder in 2005.
Olsen was 21 years old when the jury found her guilty of plotting her mother's murder. She is now the same age her mother, Diane Snellen, was when she died.
"It's hard to believe it has been 23 years," said retired Georgetown Police Detective Tom Bell.
Bell was at Snellen's home in June 2002 when the single mother was found stabbed 27 times in an upstairs bedroom.
"Any murder is horrific, this one seemed like a more personal crime - the amount of stab wounds, the injuries that she sustained," Bell said.
Prosecutors said the crime was carried out by Olsen, her boyfriend David Dressman, and another man, Tim Crabtree. Dressman was convicted of conspiracy to murder and received 20 years. Crabtree entered an Alford plea to conspiracy as part of a plea deal and served 7 years.
"I think she was the facilitator - I think she brought help bring these people together - it was her mother. I have to think she came up with it on her own or she and David concocted this and enlisted Tim Crabtree's help to facilitate," Bell said.
Olsen has always denied being involved and was emotional during her trial testimony.
"I want to know who did that to my mom," Olsen said on the stand.
Bell believes the mystery was solved.
"We feel like the people who murdered her mother were caught and sentenced and if she wants to go looking for somebody else - she only has to look in the mirror," Bell said.
Despite his getting a conviction in the case, Bell believes Olsen has served her time.
"She will go on and live her life - and Diane can't, her life was ended 23 years ago. But again Stephanie did her time, now she's out in the world, best of luck to her," Bell said.
Original Story:
Stephanie Olsen was released from prison on Tuesday after serving 20 years for her role in the murder of her mother, Diane Snellen, in Scott County.
Snellen was found stabbed to death in her Georgetown home in June 2002. Olsen's boyfriend, David Dressman, who stabbed the mother 27 times, entered an Alford plea to conspiracy to murder.
A third person involved in the murder, Timothy Crabtree, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and became a witness for the prosecution in Olsen's trial. Crabtree was sentenced to six years.
Olsen was convicted in May 2005 of complicity to murder and sentenced to 25 years.
