By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
A former Hays resident and her husband were murdered in their Rhinelander, Wis., home last week.
The woman’s daughter, Ashlee Martinson, who attended school in Hays, has been has been charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the killings of her mother, Jennifer Ayers, 40, and her stepfather, Thomas Ayers, 37, whose bodies were found at their Rhinelander-area home March 8.
Oneida County, Wis., sheriff’s officials said Thomas Ayers was fatally shot and Jennifer Ayers died of knife wounds.
Martinson, 17, is also charged with three counts of false imprisonment of her three younger sisters, ages 2, 8 and 9.
According to a funeral notice posted by Varner-Peeler Mortuary of Russell, Jennifer Ayers grew up in Hays and graduated from Hays High School in 1992. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Fort Hays State University and worked as a certified nurse’s assistant.
She also worked for Lou Ann Kibbee, the Independent Living Program Manager at the Hays office (SKIL of Western Kansas) of the Southeast Kansas Independent Living Resource.
“I have been in emotional shock since I read the article,” Kibbee said. “I had not had contact with Jennifer since she moved to North Dakota four years ago. But prior to that, she worked for me for four years, both at the office and in my home and traveling with me for work.
“Ashlee traveled with us on numerous trips during the summers,” she added. “She and Ashlee actually stayed with us for a month when waiting for the purchase of their home to be closed. I am just in shock.”
“I don’t know what went wrong, but this was not the little girl Ashlee that we knew. Ashlee was Jennifer’s world when they lived here.”–Lou Ann Kibbee, Hays
Kibbee has assisted another former SKIL employee, Brad Rohr who now lives in California, to start a memorial fund for Jennifer and her husband.
“I knew Jennifer starting in grade school at (the former) St. Joseph’s Elementary School in Hays. … I reconnected with her when she began working at SKIL,” Rohr said. “I did know Ashlee. She was a very sweet girl when I knew her 6 or 7 years ago. Jennifer loved her very much and was a great mom to her, and Ashlee was a typical 10-year-old.
“I started the donation site because I am sure that those three girls (Jennifer’s three other daughters) will need help in the future. … I never met Thomas or the younger girls, but I know that Jennifer would have opened her heart to them as if they were her own,” he said.
Jennifer Ayers’ parents, Dennis and Rosemary Gallagher, her brother Dennis Gallagher Jr., and her sister Karen Mitchell, all live in Russell, according to the obituary.
The family has chosen to have a private gathering at a later date and cremation has been selected by the family. Cards may be sent in care of the mortuary. Pohlman-Varner-Peeler Mortuary, Russell, is in charge of the arrangements.
Ashlee Martinson and her boyfriend, Ryan Sisco, were apprehended by authorities in Indiana the day after the alleged murders. Sisco is not a suspect.
Martinson remains in custody in Indiana. She has an extradition hearing scheduled for April 8.