Motorcycle crash may have been intentional
A young woman died in a motorcycle crash early Friday morning in Andover. The body was identified as 28-year-old Natasha Waalen of Anoka and according to the Pioneer Press, the motorcycle was registered in her name.
Friday night Waalen’s boyfriend and father of her 4-year-old daughter, Ryan Boland, 33, was arrested on suspicion of killing her.
The Star Tribune reported that Waalen’s body seemed to have injuries not congruent with a motorcycle crash that led them to believe it was more than a motorcycle accident. Investigators didn’t yet describe these injuries.
“It's hard to accept is about the only thing I can say," said Natasha Waalen's father, Jeff, according to the Star Tribune. "It would be easier for me to believe something else than thinking it was the guy she had known for 10 years."
Star Tribune also reported that Jeff Waalen thought a man who had recently threatened to kill his daughter over a potential lawsuit was a much more likely suspect.
The Pioneer Press reported that the neighborhood that Boland and Waalen called home was a bit shaken up.
“They were both very quiet," their neighbor Valorie Burke said. "I think the thing most neighbors had observed in the last year, if one was home, the other one wasn't. You just didn't see them together."
Despite that, "I knew they loved that little girl of theirs," she said.
A charging decision is expected early next week.