On a summer afternoon in Brockport, New York, 33-year-old Megan Dix was taking her usual lunch break from her job as an assistant manager at Lowe's. On August 25, 2017, she sat in her pickup truck in a quiet parking lot on South Avenue, a spot she often chose for a moment of peace. Tragically, this day would be her last. A woman she had never met, Holly Marie Colino, approached the vehicle and, in a sudden act of violence, shot Megan in the head before fleeing the scene.
When Megan failed to return home after her shift, her husband discovered her body in her truck.
The seemingly random and senseless nature of the crime stunned the community. Investigators quickly launched a search for the person responsible. Three days later, police arrested 31-year-old Holly Colino in connection with the murder. Colino, a former Rochester-area resident who had been living in Arizona, was apprehended after a separate incident in which she menaced a restaurant employee with a gun. Her arrest was not without further incident; Colino briefly escaped from police custody by slipping out of her handcuffs and fleeing a substation before being quickly recaptured.
In court, the case took a complex turn as Holly Colino’s mental state became the central issue. She admitted to killing Megan Dix but entered a plea of not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect. Colino had a history of bizarre behavior, including posting incoherent videos online where she claimed women were trying to steal her identity. She reportedly told police that she believed Dix was mimicking her. Both prosecution and defense experts agreed that Colino was suffering from a schizoaffective disorder with psychotic symptoms at the time of the murder.
Ultimately, the court accepted her plea. After being found competent to stand trial following treatment at a mental health facility, Colino admitted to the charges of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon. Based on the psychiatric evaluations determining she was not criminally responsible for her actions due to her severe mental illness, she was expected to spend the remainder of her life in a secure psychiatric hospital. The tragic case concluded not with a prison sentence, but with a mandate for lifelong psychiatric care for the woman who took Megan Dix's life in a motiveless act of violence.
