Founding skater of Texas Roller Girls killed in Idaho
A Central Texas woman is the victim of a gruesome murder in Idaho. Investigators believe she, and her unborn child were killed by a man at her cabin near the town of Driggs.
39-year-old Erik Ohlson was charged Tuesday with DUI after crashing into a tree about three miles from the home where 39-year-old Jennifer Nalley's body was found.
According to police, Ohlson admitted to going to her house to "scare" her. When she came to the door he said she rushed at him and may have pushed him, he took a pistol from his pocket and began firing. In an attempt to kill himself, Ohlson said he then drove his vehicle into a power pole.
Jennifer was well known in the Austin community. Many knew her as "Pixie Tourette" in the Texas Roller Girls League. She is credited for being a founding skater for the league and helping revive the sport.
Tami Neumann lives in Austin and has been friends with Jennifer for nearly 15 years. “It was like my whole world just stopped. It was Tuesday and I was at work. It's just so hard, it's almost like it's still not true,” she said in an interview with Fox 7.
Tami said she met Jennifer in Austin, while the pair was trying out for the Texas Roller Girls. Tami said everyone on the league really loved her. “If you met her, then you love her, if you met her and your friends with her, you're always going to be, she's just that kind of person,” Tami said.
Tami says Jennifer was a goofball, loved to laugh, and had a passion for life and people. “She just wanted to help people, especially for something you were passionate about she wanted to help you achieve to get you there,” she said.
Jennifer played Roller Derby in many different states, including here in Texas. “As soon as she made the team, she became a very, very big and important part of the roller derby culture, very quickly,” Tami said,
Along with leaving her mark on the roller derby world, she was also a math and physics teacher in Austin, before moving to Idaho to take care of her grandparents. “The Electromagnetic theory, that's what she was jazzed about. Please don't ask me what it is, because I really don't know,” Tami said laughing.
Despite being an only child, Jennifer’s mom said she was really good with children and she was venturing on her own path of motherhood. Tami said she told her she was pregnant. “I can tell you she was very, very excited to be a mother,”
While both lives were taken too soon, Tami said her spirit will always live on. “She does have a legacy, she absolutely has a legacy.”
Ohlson did not enter a plea and is being held without bond.
He is expected to be back in court in Idaho on July 20th.