SerpApi.Org
An unassuming Midwest mother whose contented life was turned upside down after she was charged with a 2011 murder may be the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Kristin Ramsey, 53, was charged in March with the cold case killing of realtor Ashley Okland in a bizarre shooting at a model home which rocked the state of Iowa. She pleaded not guilty.
Ramsey's defense has now filed a motion to dismiss the case. It accuses the only eyewitness, an unnamed woman living next door to the crime scene, of substantially changing her story during her third police interview in a way that made Ramsey look culpable.
During an initial interview on the day of the April 8, 2011 killing, the witness, identified only as a female neighbor, described hearing gunshots. She said she saw Ramsey's car pull up outside the crime scene three minutes later, Ramsey's lawyers say.
The witness gave the same version of events during two subsequent interviews carried out on April 9 and April 11 2011, according to a motion to dismiss Ramsey's case filed last week.
Defense Alleges Witness Changed Story
But on April 14, 2011, after detectives said the eyewitness was 'the prime suspect' in Okland's death, the witness allegedly 'changed her story' and significantly altered the timings of what she claimed to have seen, the filing said.
She now claimed to have 'heard the gunshots, looked outside, and saw Ms Ramsey in the driveway of the townhome,' according to the document.
'In the most self-serving way, the neighbor omitted the material detail where she saw Ms Ramsey drive up several minutes after the shots were fired, and instead of seeing her in the vehicle at all, she saw Ms Ramsey acting panicked and frantic outside of her vehicle,' the defense wrote.
Investigators pressed the witness about the 'inconsistencies' in her statement, but the witness attributed the differences to an alleged brain condition, the filing said.
'I had a concussion from a fractured skull, I do have some memory problems... I spend a lot of time, on things, like, I see trying to remember things,' she told investigators, the motion said.
The defense have not named the female eyewitness.
The Daily Mail previously reported on an April court filing from the prosecution that identified Wanda Fowler as the only witness to the crime.
Fowler lived next door to the show home where Okland was killed. She allegedly told cops that she saw Ramsey outside the front of the crime scene shortly after hearing 'thuds' later identified as gunshots, the filing said.
Defense Points to Black SUV
The allegation was made in a response filed to Ramsey's petition to lower bail.
Fowler claimed to have seen Ramsey reverse her car at a 'high rate of speed in an erratic manner' after the shooting and leave, before returning shortly afterwards, according to an earlier filing.
Fowler dialed 911 in the wake of the shooting. She tried to kill herself two weeks after Okland's murder, The Des Moines Register previously reported.
It is unclear if that was in any way connected to Okland's murder and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing on Fowler's part.
The Daily Mail has contacted Ramsey's attorneys to determine if Fowler is the same eyewitness as the one mentioned in their newly-filed motion to dismiss.
Two months after Okland's murder, one of her co-workers called Joseph Kruse shot himself dead in his black SUV.
It is also unclear if his [self-murder] was in any way linked to Okland's killing.
Ramsey's lawyers previously accused prosecutors of failing to highlight that a black SUV had allegedly been seen in the area around the time of Okland's murder.
Witness Interviewed Again After Case Reopened
Okland was a realtor with Iowa Realty Co. and was showing prospective buyers at a new development built by Rottlund Homes.
Ramsey was a sales manager at Rottlund. Okland was shot twice inside the show home and rushed to Iowa Methodist Medical Center, where doctors were unable to save her life.
There is no suggestion that the two women knew each other and prosecutors have yet to share a possible motive, or detail any animosity between Ramsey and Okland.
After the April 14, 2011 interview where she allegedly changed her story, the eyewitness relocated to Florida and did not speak to investigators again until summer 2025, after the Okland case was reopened.
Investigator Chad Lovig was recorded chatting with the female eyewitness in July 2025 telling her 'We believe everything you told us, and you already told me everything you told me was accurate,' according to the motion to dismiss.
The woman said she would 'do her best to help,' then noted how she had a 'concussion last year,' Ramsey's defense alleges.
Defense Questions Witness Interview Process
Lovig went on to discuss the eyewitness's 'brain atrophy,' according to the new filing. He spoke to the witness from June 2025 to January 2026, but the July 2025 phone call was the only one that was recorded, it is claimed.
Then in January 2026, state investigators sent a four-person team to Florida to meet with the witness, the filing said.
The team, however, failed to record their sit-down with the woman and instead only produced a three-page investigative report, Ramsey's defense said.
'Rather than "gauge her recollection" by asking open-ended, non leading questions, the report says that the investigation team literally handed the neighbor evidence from the case and asked her to review it,' the defense's motion said.
The female eyewitness was called to testify before a grand jury in March 2026. Ramsey's team say jurors were not shown the contradictory statements she made in April 2011.
A hearing on the motion to dismiss has not yet been scheduled.
Attorneys for Ramsey were contacted for comment by the Daily Mail.
Meanwhile, Ashley Okland's brother Josh Okland wrote on Facebook that his family is standing by the prosecution case and that they are desperate for 'justice.'
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