Parents That Killed Their Six Kids Faced Crushing debts & Dad’s Injury

An Oklahoma couple in last week’s murder-suicide that left their six children dead, faced crippling money woes and the husband’s constant traumatic pain from a head injury.

Two adults and six children were found dead Oct. 27 inside a burning home in the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow.

The family was identified as Brian Nelson, 34, and Brittney Nelson, 32, but provided no information on whether both adults took part in the killings of their children, who ranged in age from 1 to 13.

Brian Nelson’s parents, Danny and Marilyn said, “Our son had asked if we could come over at 3 p.m. on Thursday to babysit our grandchildren. We asked him to bring the kids to our house instead and he agreed to drop them off at 5 p.m.”

“Five came and went. Then it was 6. I texted them, no responses,” Danny Nelson said. “I turned on the 6 o’clock news, and they said there had been a fire near Hickory and Galveston in Broken Arrow. That’s where my son lives.”

Police have not released the names of the children who died but the Nelsons identified them as grandson Brian II, age 13; granddaughter Brantley, 9; grandsons Vegeta, 7, Ragnar, 5, and Kurgan, 2; and granddaughter Britannica, 1.

The grandparents said the younger children were named after some of their son’s favorite TV characters.

All six children were found dead in a burning back bedroom, while the two adults were found in the front of the home on South Hickory Avenue. Authorities said causes of death were still pending but they don’t believe anyone died from the fire.

Brian and Brittney Nelson had filed for bankruptcy in 2020, listing $8,803 in assets versus nearly $138,000 in debts, most of which was unpaid student loans. The bankruptcy filing also listed nine guns as assets.

The couple had both been unemployed and living off of federal and state benefits.

Marilyn Nelson recalled that her son always had a pistol in his pocket, for which she said he had a permit.

Marilyn said, “My son had suffered a severe concussion several years ago while stocking dairy refrigerators at a large retail chain. Since then he has suffered from frequent and sometimes debilitating headaches. I want people to know that at one time he had all his brain together.”

“I just don’t understand why they did what they did. I just don’t understand why he ended up in that situation. I talk to God all the time and I just don’t understand,” Marilyn added.

Bryan’s parents said that Brittney was always so stressed with looking after six kids, including homeschooling and she struggled with her own mental health issues.

The couple were high school sweethearts who welcomed their first child shortly after graduation and got married in 2008. Brian previously aspired to become an actor and spent his time taking college courses instead of holding down a full-time job, while his wife was a homemaker.

“I think the stress was what got to them,” Danny Nelson said, “Trying to figure out how to make it from one month, to one month, to the next month.”

39-year-old Shawna Chiles, a mother who lives in the next neighborhood, said, “I saw smoke billowing from the house shortly after 4 p.m. and I drove to the residence to see what was going on. I got there before the firetrucks did and I saw two men. One had already ran inside the home and the other was pulling the woman outside.She was face down. So she’s laying there, and I was trying to see if she was alive. You could see her back moving, she was breathing.”

“Then I see the guy drag the father out. He had blood all over his shirt. The guy said the man was dead, but the woman wasn’t going to make it,” she recalled, adding that the woman had been shot in the head.

Chiles said other neighbors told her they heard a loud boom before the fire that sounded “like a transformer” but no gunshots. The Nelsons’ immediate neighbors were baffled by the events, Chiles said, adding that no one had noticed any arguments or disturbances at the home.