Okland's Life Celebrated at Monday Memorial Service

Friends and colleagues of Ashley Okland were encouraged today to celebrate the homicide victim’s life by carrying on her spirit of service, reports the Des Moines Register.

To mark the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of the Realtor, a service was held at in West Des Moines.

 recently said the reward for information leading an arrest of the person responsible has increased to $150,000.

Okland, an agent with Iowa Realty, was fatally shot twice on April 8, 2011, at a model home in West Des Moines. Investigators have followed up on more than 700 leads, have sifted through 550 names in its database and have executed a number of search warrants, which remain sealed.

But they’re no closer to solving the mid-day murder than they were a year ago, so authorities increased the reward Wednesday.

“Though her life was taken, it really hasn’t (been) if you take up her mantle,” Iowa Realty Sales Trainer Tim Meline told a crowd of 120 at the memorial service, reported the Register. “…Ashley’s life challenges us to do our very best and to do it with great passion.”

In addition to her career with Iowa Realty, Okland was active in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, as well as the Young Professionals Connection, an initiative of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, the newspaper reported. She was a member of Lutheran Church of Hope and also served on the Young Variety board, a group that supports under-privileged, at-risk and special needs children throughout Iowa.

“She touched a lot of lives,” said Abi Fangman, a friend of Okland’s said in the Register story. “I think everyone who knew her was thinking about her yesterday. It just seemed like the right time to come and pay our respects.”