Montague, Ca.- What was a missing persons case has now become a homicide investigation.
Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Deputies have arrested a man accused of killing Katrina Eblen, who was reported missing on October 5th, and then dumping her body in a rural area.
Today NBC5 News spoke with Katrina Eblen’s father who lives in Indianapolis. He says that he is heartbroken and in shock.
Katrina’s father Dave Eblen describes her as, “A caring mom who was special enough to have two sets of twins, and selfless.”
That caring woman, is now gone. Katrina Eblen, known to those close to her as Kat, was found dead Tuesday in a remote area of Siskiyou County that Sheriff’s say made it appear that her killer had tried to hide her body.
Hours after Eblen’s body was found Jere Ramey, Katrina Eblen’s fiance and the father of her two youngest twins, was arrested in connection with her disappearance and death.
Dave Eblen says he just learned of her passing.
“I found out just before midnight last night. Chris (Katrina’s Mother) called me and woke me up and told me they had arrested Jere for murder and that they had found the body.”
According to Dave, Katrina Eblen did have some troubled times. She and her first husband used crack cocaine.
But he says she was turning her life around and climbing the corporate ladder. She had become a shift leader at Carls Jr., an assistant for customer service at Walmart, and she had just taken a new job at KFC. Dave Eblen says his daughter Katrina was also working to establish a solid base for her four kids.
“She was buying a house on her own in Montague.”
According to Dave her relationship with Jere Ramsey wasn’t perfect and friend’s of Jere’s say he had alcohol problems as well.
“She was afraid, you know. She would tell me some stuff and her big issue was she did not want to show him in a negative light to me,” Dave Eblen says.
Now, Eblen’s family and friends are working to grasp just what happened.
Dave says, “I go from heartbreak to anger back to heartbreak back to anger.”
And for Katrina’s father, because of his relationship with Katrina, the difficulty of the loss has hit him hard.
“She turned out to be daddy’s girl,” Dave Eblen says.
Now, following his arrest Jere Ramsey is being held on $1,000,0000 bail. He will be arraigned in the next 48 hours.
As for Katrina’s kids- her eldest twins are with her mother Chris Eblen and the youngest twins are with Ramsey’s parents. Dave Eblen’s sister Rae Pappion is working to get the eldest twins to Disneyland for their birthday.
Dave Eblen has started a go fund me to help pay for Katrina’s funeral costs. You can click here if you would like to contribute.
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