Police in Texas are asking for help tracking down a suspect who killed a woman with a history of mental health issues last seen wandering near a gas station in late December.
Nicole Diane Coleman, a 23-year-old woman who moved to Austin from Houston several months ago, was last seen on surveillance footage at a gas station near her home on Dec. 28. Three days later, on New Year’s Eve, Coleman’s naked body was found by a passerby in a wooded area less than a mile away, Austin police Detective Patrick O’Farrell told reporters during a press conference Wednesday.
“So we’re asking for the public’s assistance and help,” O’Farrell said, adding that investigators want to hear from anyone who may have seen Coleman in the days before she was found dead or if they recognized the distinctive pink-reddish shirt she wore while at the gas station.
O’Farrell declined to reveal how Coleman was killed, aside to indicate that her death had been ruled a homicide and that she suffered trauma to her body.
“That’s all we’re going to say at this time,” O’Farrell said.
Nicole Diane ColemanAustin Police DepartmentSome “items of evidence” were also recovered by investigators, but O’Farrell did not elaborate on them. It’s also unclear whether Coleman’s killer knew her or if she was a random target, O’Farrell said.
“At this time, we don’t know,” he told reporters. “With the mental health problems that she had, she was a high-risk victim. Plus, with her being new to the area, we don’t know who she would’ve been hanging out with at this time, so that’s why we’re asking the public’s help.”
Coleman — who regularly hung out at the Kool Corner gas station and lived nearby — appeared to be there alone when she was spotted on a surveillance camera.
“She would just kind of loiter in the area, and then kind of walk around,” the detective said.
Coleman had been receiving treatment for mental health issues at several facilities in the area, O’Farrell said. Her relatives, meanwhile, told the Austin American-Statesman that she had struggled with her mental health since she was a teenager and had spent time in psychiatric hospitals.
Lisa Cortinas, an Austin police spokeswoman, told The Post that no arrests had been made in the case as of early Thursday. Anyone with information about Coleman is being asked to call homicide investigators at (512) 477-3588.



