What began as a report of a stolen pickup truck ended in a devastating head-on collision, the death of a 70-year-old woman, and a criminal case that would ultimately send the driver to prison for more than two decades.
The events unfolded on September 7, 2024, in Washington state, after deputies responded to a report that a black Chevy Silverado had been taken from a residence. The truck’s owner told investigators that he had been inside his home when a neighbor alerted him that someone appeared to be getting into his vehicle. By the time he went outside, the pickup was gone.
A neighbor provided deputies with another crucial detail. She said she had seen a woman walking around the property before getting into the truck and driving away. Although available surveillance footage did not clearly capture the theft itself, the description of the vehicle gave deputies something to work with.
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For the next several hours, however, the investigation became increasingly serious.
Around 3:40 p.m., another resident reported that a woman had entered his property and appeared to be looking around his garage and vehicles. Shortly afterward, another woman reported an encounter with the same suspect, saying the woman had become agitated and attempted to strike her with the truck before driving away.
The descriptions matched.
Deputies began searching for the stolen pickup, and eventually spotted it.
What followed was no longer simply an investigation into a stolen vehicle.
Police radio traffic shows the truck traveling at high speeds, with deputies reporting speeds around 80 to 90 mph as the driver continued through traffic. Stop sticks were deployed, but they did little to end the pursuit. The pickup continued despite apparent tire damage, sparks and smoke coming from the vehicle.
At one point, deputies reported that the truck went through a red light.
Then everything changed.
The fleeing pickup collided head-on with another vehicle carrying three people: 70-year-old Gina Ma, her sister Barbara, and Barbara’s husband, Bruce Clark. The three had reportedly been in town to celebrate Barbara’s birthday.
Barbara and Bruce survived, but both suffered serious injuries. Barbara sustained broken ribs and vertebrae, while Bruce also suffered a broken vertebra. Gina was critically injured and later died from the injuries she suffered in the collision.
Even as emergency responders concentrated on the victims, the suspect appeared to focus on a different question: why police had continued following her.
“You guys shouldn’t have pursued me,” she told deputies.
From a legal perspective, that argument was unlikely to erase the conduct that allegedly preceded the crash. The investigation was not centered solely on whether police had pursued the vehicle. Prosecutors could examine the alleged theft, the decision to flee, the dangerous manner of driving, the fatal collision and the driver’s condition at the time.
There was also an important evidentiary distinction between the various allegations. A stolen-vehicle case concerns possession or use of property allegedly taken without permission, while fleeing from police can create a separate criminal issue. The fatal collision raises an even more serious question: whether the driver’s conduct and condition satisfied the elements required for a homicide charge.
Investigators later learned that Nicole Renee Romangh had an extensive criminal history, including previous arrests and convictions involving property and driving-related offenses. The investigation also revealed that she had an active escape warrant and a history that included motor-vehicle theft and driving with a suspended license.
Romangh was ultimately arrested and faced charges including vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, felony hit-and-run and possession of a stolen vehicle. During an interview at the hospital, she repeatedly disputed that she was under arrest and declined to give investigators her account of what had happened.
A toxicology report later became another significant piece of the case, with investigators finding substances in her system at the time of the crash. According to the source material, Romangh ultimately pleaded guilty to felony second-degree murder and vehicular assault while under the influence and was sentenced to 23 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised probation.
But a prison sentence can only address the legal consequences. It cannot restore the person who was lost.
Gina Ma had not been involved in the original investigation. She was simply riding in a vehicle with family members on a day that was supposed to be a birthday celebration.
Instead, a stolen pickup, a desperate attempt to escape and a high-speed pursuit brought an unimaginable tragedy into their lives.
For investigators, the case ultimately became about much more than a stolen truck. It became a reminder of how quickly a property crime can escalate when a driver chooses to flee at dangerous speeds—and how the consequences of that decision can reach people who had nothing to do with the crime at all.
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