Lebanon -- A 32-year-old Ohio woman who grew up here was stabbed to death early Wednesday evening by a former boyfriend in front of her 8-year-old son.

Upper Valley family members say Shena (Fitzgerald) Nolan had been stalked by her ex-boyfriend, Troy Wolverton, 28, who authorities say killed himself with the same knife he used to attack Nolan.

Nolan's son Freddy, the younger of her two boys, attempted to fend off her attacker, hitting him with a mop handle, but was not physically harmed by Wolverton, police say. Nolan's older son, Cody, 10, was not home at the time of the attack.

Yesterday, relatives and friends were trying to come to terms with Nolan's violent death and its aftermath for her children.

“I keep thinking I'm going to wake up from this nightmare,” said Jodie Stebbins Lang, of Quechee, who graduated from Lebanon High School with Nolan in 1996.

Nolan's mother, Brenda Fitzgerald, and her partner, Michal Lurvey, yesterday sat in their Lebanon living room, beneath photos of a young, smiling Shena and her little sister, Sandra, talking about Nolan.

“She became a fabulous mother,” said Fitzgerald. “I was so proud of her. I still am.”

Fitzgerald said she talked with her grandson yesterday.

“Poor little Freddy. We tried to reassure him he did nothing wrong,” she said.

“The Lord was on our side in one way, he didn't take Freddy,” said Rachel Van Guilder, of Claremont, Nolan's maternal grandmother.

The boys are staying with a relative in Ohio for now. Lurvey, who Nolan regarded as her stepmother, said relatives have agreed to talk soon about sharing the boys' care.

In January, Nolan began dating Bob Balabuch, a friend and co-worker at Siemens IT Solutions and Services Inc., in Mason, Ohio. Balabuch was on the phone with her Wednesday when Wolverton arrived at the apartment in Lebanon, Ohio, where Nolan lived.

In a phone interview yesterday, Balabuch said he heard Wolverton tell Nolan, “I love you. I want to be with you.”

Then, Balabuch said, he heard “tussling.” He had been talking to Nolan on his cell phone and immediately called 911 on his home phone.

As emergency workers patched Balabuch through to officials near Nolan's home, Balabuch's cell phone call to the apartment terminated but he received an immediate call back on the cell. He said he thinks Freddy picked up the phone and hit the redial button.

Freddy kept repeating “911,” and Balabuch said he tried to keep the boy on the phone.

“I kept saying ‘I'm on the phone, it's going to be OK,’ ” Balabuch said.

Balabuch said he then went to Atrium Medical Center in Middletown, Ohio, where Nolan had been declared dead on arrival. Wolverton stabbed Nolan more than 40 times, primarily in the chest and abdomen, Warren County Coroner Dr. Russell Uptegrove told the Journal-News of Hamilton, Ohio.

Fitzgerald said Wolverton had sent Nolan a letter a few weeks ago, asking her to take him back.

“He said ‘If you don't, this is going to be the biggest regret you ever made,' ” Fitzgerald said.

Wolverton abruptly left Nolan in October after a more than two-year relationship, moving out of the apartment they shared.

Van Guilder said her granddaughter eventually got over Wolverton and had decided not to respond to his overtures months later. “She figured if he was going to leave her once, he'd leave her again.”

Fitzgerald said she had spoken to Nolan about Wolverton, who had also called Fitzgerald several times, asking her to persuade Nolan to reconcile with him. She told her daughter, “Something scares me about Troy.”

But Nolan reassured her, Fitzgerald recalled yesterday, her eyes brimming with tears. “Shena said, ‘Troy's not going to bother me.' ”

In addition to Balabuch's call to police, several of Nolan's neighbors called 911 after hearing commotion and seeing Wolverton flee the apartment, police said.

Police spotted Wolverton's Chevrolet Camaro, and he led them on a 15-mile chase that reached speeds of 130 mph, said Lebanon, Ohio, Assistant Police Chief Bob Hawley. The pursuit ended after authorities in the neighboring community of Franklin used tire spikes to stop the car.

Police found that Wolverton had stabbed himself. He was pronounced dead at a Dayton, Ohio, hospital, where he was flown by medical helicopter, according to the Journal-News.

Hawley said the deaths have shocked Lebanon, Ohio, a community of 20,000. He said it's the first murder-suicide in his 35 years with the department.

Fitzgerald said the family plans to bring Nolan's body home for burial in East Randolph, where Van Guilder's husband and infant daughter are buried.

As word of Nolan's death spread at Lebanon High School yesterday, teachers remembered Shena Fitzgerald as a quiet, studious girl. “She was definitely a gentle, private and very conscientious student,” recalled biology teacher Mary Maxfield. “There was an earnestness and a work ethic that was always there.”

Nolan moved to Lebanon with her mother and sister from California at age 9 and enrolled at Hanover Street School. Fitzgerald had separated from her girls' father, Mike Fitzgerald, who later died.

School pal Lang said Nolan “was always there” for friends having difficulties. The girls met at age 13, at Lebanon Junior High.

After high school, Nolan enlisted in the Air Force, and then married a fellow enlistee, whom she later divorced.

“She was a really, really sweet kid, looking out for everyone else around her,” said Beach.

Maxfield has bus duty in the schoolyard and often sees Brenda Fitzgerald, who drives a Lebanon school bus.

Yesterday, Maxfield noticed that Fitzgerald wasn't behind the wheel. For a fleeting second, the science teacher said she wondered if all was well with the well-known bus driver.

Susan J. Boutwell can be reached at sboutwell@vnews.com or at (603) 727-3248.

A memorial fund has been set up to pay for Shena Fitzgerald Nolan's funeral expenses and to help provide for her children. Donations may be sent to: Shena Fitzgerald Nolan Memorial Fund, Lebanon Citizens National Bank, P.O. Box 59, Lebanon, Ohio, 45036.