Man charged with killing parents and housekeeper in Newport Beach feared psychiatric commitment, police say

A man charged with murdering his parents and their housekeeper in a Newport Beach home last month feared being sent to a psychiatric hospital, according to police documents.

Camden Nicholson, 28, is to be arraigned Friday on three counts of murder in the deaths of Kim and Richard Nicholson and Maria Morse. Their bodies were found Feb. 13 in the family’s home in the gated Bonita Canyon community.

Son accused of killing parents, housekeeper in Newport Beach gated community »

Camden Nicholson had disappeared last year but sent his parents disturbing text messages and they learned he had placed a 911 call. Fearing he might have died, they hired a private investigator in early February to track him down.

Days later, he called police after going to a hospital and confessed to the killings, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press. He said he killed his parents because he didn’t want them to send him to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation, Newport Beach police Det. Richard Henry wrote in an affidavit for a warrant to search the family’s cars and home.

Camden Nicholson’s attorney, Jessica Ann Watts, did not return messages seeking comment.

Police documents and a lawsuit filed by Morse’s husband and adult children describe Camden Nicholson as a disturbed man apparently fueled by drugs.

When he was arrested, Nicholson had cuts on his fingers and was sweating, police said. His speech was incoherent and he shook randomly at times, leading police to believe he may have taken narcotics, Henry wrote, adding that officers later found at least 200 loose pills in a bedroom at the family’s home, with several crushed into powder.

Police said they found the victims had been killed by blunt force or stabbing. Richard Nicholson appeared to have been hidden in a closet after he was killed, and his wife was killed in the garage, Det. Michael Fletcher wrote in a separate court filing.

Police found a barbecue fork lying by one victim and blood smeared on the floor. One of the women’s eyes appeared gouged.

Officers found food in several rooms, including a tray of ribs on the kitchen counter and cookies in the master bedroom, Henry wrote, adding that it appeared the victims had been dead for hours before they were found around 9:30 p.m.

The case shocked the affluent community where the Nicholsons lived and volunteered at a nearby Mormon temple. Some who knew the couple said they were unaware of their son’s troubles.

Camden Nicholson went missing in December and his mother filed a missing-person report saying he had Asperger syndrome, depression and anger issues, Henry wrote. Police found Nicholson at a nearby hotel and determined there weren’t grounds to place him on a psychiatric hold.

Nicholson did not return home, and in January his parents canceled a credit card after he used it to leave a $1,000 tip. They also received disturbing text messages and on a cellphone call log saw that in early February he had dialed 911, said Michael Youssef, the private investigator the couple hired.

Slain Newport Beach parents were concerned about behavior of son now accused of killing them, investigator they hired says »

Youssef said Kim Nicholson told him her son had been healthy until he went on a Mormon mission to Florida in 2010. Before that, he played golf at the University of Utah.

Kim Nicholson said her son had been using steroids and marijuana and that the couple wanted to seek a conservatorship to get him treatment, Youssef said.

“What I understood is he’s not physically dangerous — he could get mad and angry, but not to a physical point,” Youssef said.

But the Nicholsons had been threatened by their son, and Kim Nicholson left home for some time in 2018 fearing for her safety, according to Edward Susolik, an attorney representing Morse’s family in a wrongful-death lawsuit.

Family of housekeeper killed in Newport Beach triple homicide sues dead couple’s estate »

According to the lawsuit, Camden Nicholson had been injecting steroids at the family’s home and told his mother he wanted to kill his father and made violent threats toward his mother. But the family continued to have Morse, who worked for them for 12 years, clean their home on a weekly basis, the lawsuit said.

Richard Nicholson had a long history in the clinical laboratory industry and had served as president of the California Clinical Laboratory Assn. He also was on the board of Orange County Coastkeeper, a Costa Mesa-based environmental group, and had a knack for marketing, said Garry Brown, Coastkeeper’s executive director.

“The tragedy of this whole thing is he was such a great, positive force,” Brown said. “He was always, always extremely positive, always had a smile.”

Daily Pilot staff contributed to this report.