Idaho social media influencer changes plea in teacher’s hit-and-run death on ID-55
Published at
Sally Krutzig, Idaho Statesman
BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — Boise social media influencer Natalie Hodson made her last Facebook post to her half a million followers on Aug. 8, 2022 — the same day she hit and killed a woman on the side of the road after drinking.
Hodson, 38, pleaded guilty Thursday at the Ada County Courthouse to a charge of vehicular manslaughter in the death of a Cascade teacher. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped a charge of leaving the scene of an injury accident. A jury trial in the case was scheduled to begin Feb. 20; now 4th District Court Judge Lynn Norton has scheduled Hodson’s sentencing for 2:30 p.m. March 7.
Hodson was driving a minivan just after 9 p.m. that summer night north of Eagle on Idaho Highway 55 when she struck Kristina Rowley, 39, who had pulled over to check on the trailer she was hauling behind her pickup truck, according to a news release from the Ada County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies said Hodson fled the scene and kept driving north while a witness followed her vehicle until it pulled over on Suttle Lake Drive.
Rowley’s 16-year-old son was in the pickup truck at the time of the incident, the Idaho Statesman previously reported. He wasn’t injured, authorities said.
Paramedics transported Rowley to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, where she was pronounced dead the following morning, according to the Ada County coroner’s report.
Hodson also admitted in court that her blood alcohol content was 0.098 at the time of the accident. The legal limit is 0.08. Her attorney told the judge that Hodson has “been actively engaged in alcohol treatment” since the incident.
The prosecution said at an earlier hearing that Hodson at first denied drinking or hitting anything. Then, during an interview with deputies, she said she drank four alcoholic seltzers and thought she hit a mailbox, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.
Before the incident, Hodson was a social media lifestyle influencer who began blogging about her fitness journey post-partum by sharing easy recipes and at-home workout routines, according to her website. As her following grew, she transitioned to online business coaching and helping others with marketing. She has more than 460,000 followers on Facebook, but has not posted anything since hitting Rowley.
Hodson did not respond to the Statesman’s request for comment.
When she died, Rowley was about to begin her second year as a K-12 art and yearbook teacher in the Cascade School District.
Joni Stevenson, district superintendent, previously told the Statesman in an email that Rowley was a “natural teacher” who was “engaging, kind, intuitive, intelligent and attuned to her students.”
“My wife Kristina was the most selfless, loving person I have ever known,” Chris Rowley, her husband, told the Statesman in a message. “She loved everybody and gave all of herself.”