Chad Ollinger, who has appeared in five seasons of Discovery Channel‘s reality series Mystery At Blind Frog Ranch, is facing a murder charge in connection with the death of his cellmate at a Las Vegas jail.
The 41-year-old son of the owner of Utah’s Blind Frog Ranch has been jailed since October at Las Vegas’ Clark County Detention Center on charges stemming from an alleged contempt of court.
According to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Ollinger has been rebooked on an Open Murder charge (meaning, prosecutors will determine later when the charge is of the first-degree or second-degree).
According to LVMPD’s Sheriff Kevin McMahill, corrections officers at the detention center were conducting routine checks on the night of December 26 when they observed a male inmate lying motionless inside of a cell. “Officers made entry and observed the inmate was suffering from apparent blunt force injuries,” according to the police statement. “The other cellmate who was identified as 41-year-old Chad Ollinger was taken into custody.”
Officers immediately rendered aid to the victim and requested for medical personnel to respond but the inmate was pronounced dead at the scene. LVMPD Homicide detectives were notified and responded. The Clark County Coroner’s Office has identified the deceased cellmate as Christopher Kelly, 42.
According to McMahill’s report, detectives soon learned that a physical altercation had occurred between the victim and Ollinger inside of the cell. Ollinger was then rebooked for Open Murder. The investigation is ongoing and led by the LVMPD Homicide Section.
Over the course of five seasons, the most recent of which concluded this past August, Ollinger appeared in nearly all of the 40 episodes. The docu-series chronicles the efforts of Ollinger and his father, Duane Ollinger, as he hunts for what the father and son believe to be some $3 billion in lost Aztec gold and other treasures hidden in extensive underground caverns on Duane’s Blind Frog Ranch in northeastern Utah.
The Discovery Channel series purports to investigate the mysteries and phenomena connected to the ranch, including ancient, lost civilizations and UFO activity. The ranch takes its name from the hundreds of blind frogs discovered underground in flooded tunnels on the property.
Ollinger has had numerous run-ins with the law in recent years, though nothing as serious as the latest charge. In 2024 he was charged with evading arrest after police in Amarillo, Texas, gave chase to Ollinger’s motorcycle. He was later charged with driving with an invalid license.
This past October 27, he was arrested and taken into custody in Nevada after being identified as a fugitive from another state who was being sought for contempt of court.
He was arrested and taken into custody in Nevada on Oct. 27, according to Clark County Detention Center records. According to Amarillo’s KFDA News Channel 10, Ollinger was sentenced on December 18 in Nevada on the contempt charge, with records indicating he was scheduled for release on January 12, 2026.
Ollinger’s next scheduled hearing is now set for December 30. He is currently being held in Las Vegas without bond.
