ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, October 17, 1996             TAG: 9610170054
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: B-5  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
HARRISONBURG 

SLAIN COED HAD FILED CHARGES

SHE WAS ATTACKED and her boyfriend threatened, the James Madison student said. Police aren't saying whether the man she accused is a suspect in their slayings.

A slain James Madison University student filed assault charges last summer against a former student she is believed to have dated, but police would not say whether the man is a suspect in her death.

The bodies of Ann Margret Olson, 25, of Lake Bluff, Ill., and her boyfriend, Keith J. O'Connell, 23, of St. James, N.Y., were found Saturday in O'Connell's apartment. Both had been shot in the head.

In July, Olson filed assault charges against Brent K. Simmons of Carlisle, Pa., according to Rockingham County General District Court files.

In her court statement, Olson said the 23-year-old Simmons came to the house of a friend of hers July 3 and asked to speak to her.

``He yelled at me and then threw me down twice,'' she said. Simmons also ``threatened Keith that he better `watch his back,''' the statement said.

Simmons failed to appear for a July 31 court date. But the charges were dismissed at Olson's request after Simmons agreed to stay away from her.

Police would not say whether Simmons had been questioned in the slayings.

Simmons graduated in July with a bachelor's degree in biology, said James Madison spokesman Fred Hilton.

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