In affidavits supporting the arrest warrant for Ronchi, Norwalk police reported that a distressed Ronchi confessed to stabbing his girlfriend while her children slept nearby. He “wasn’t a bad guy,” he urged, but suggested he had been driven to the act when Galperina told him he was not the father of the child to whom she was about to give birth. In his affidavit, Norwalk patrolman Russell Ouellette said a crying Ronchi approached him Sunday afternoon shortly before 4 p.m., as Ouellette was putting away some gear in his cruiser in the police parking area. “Can you help me?” Ouellette said Ronchi asked. The officer added that he initially had to calm Ronchi down to understand what he was saying. According to Ouellette, Ronchi went on say that he “had a dream and that it was a horrible nightmare." Ronchi is reported as saying, "I think I killed my eight-and-a-half-months pregnant girlfriend after she told me I wasn’t the father of the child she was carrying.”
Costa Rica RPCV Peter S. Ronchi accused of killing pregnant lover
Man accused of killing pregnant lover headed back to state; $5 million cash bail set
By Kris Olson and Nikki Gamer / marblehead@cnc.com
Tue May 19, 2009, 12:53 PM EDT
Salem -
A 45-year-old Marblehead man is set to be returned to the North Shore to face charges he murdered his lover, a 9-months-pregnant mother of two living in Salem.
Peter S. Ronchi, 45, whose last known address was 10 Taft St., Marblehead, turned himself in to Norwalk, Conn., police Sunday after being declared a “person of interest” in the death of Yuliya Galperina. Salem Police found Galperina, 42, dead in her apartment at 12 Oak St. Sunday morning after responding to a 911 call. Galperina's unborn child also did not survive.
In affidavits supporting the arrest warrant for Ronchi, Norwalk police reported that a distressed Ronchi confessed to stabbing his girlfriend while her children slept nearby. He “wasn’t a bad guy,” he urged, but suggested he had been driven to the act when Galperina told him he was not the father of the child to whom she was about to give birth.
In his affidavit, Norwalk patrolman Russell Ouellette said a crying Ronchi approached him Sunday afternoon shortly before 4 p.m., as Ouellette was putting away some gear in his cruiser in the police parking area.
“Can you help me?” Ouellette said Ronchi asked. The officer added that he initially had to calm Ronchi down to understand what he was saying.
According to Ouellette, Ronchi went on say that he “had a dream and that it was a horrible nightmare." Ronchi is reported as saying, "I think I killed my eight-and-a-half-months pregnant girlfriend after she told me I wasn’t the father of the child she was carrying.”
Ouellette then called other police officers in for assistance. According to the affidavits, Ronchi continued to tell police who he was, where he lived and that he killed his girlfriend in her Salem Heights apartment.
“Ronchi would start to cry and then stop all of a sudden. Tears running down his face, he again stated to me, ‘I think I killed my girlfriend.’ I asked him how he thought he had killed her, he responded, ‘I used a knife,” Ouellette’s affidavit states.
Ronchi reportedly told police he had driven to Norwalk from Massachusetts in his green Mazda minivan but had left it at a nearby Wal-Mart, where he had bought a bike. Police soon found Ronchi’s minivan, and upon searching it, found a bloody 6-inch hunting knife, which investigators believe to be the murder weapon. According to the police report, Ronchi also tested positive for the presence of blood after being taken into custody.
The affidavits indicate that Galperina’s children were sleeping when their mother was killed.
According to patrolman Thomas Kalamaras’ statement, Ronchi volunteered, “I didn’t want [the children] to wake up and see her, so I placed a blanket over her.”
Those children, a 3-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son, are currently in the custody of the state’s Department of Children and Families, according to Essex County District Attorney spokesman Steve O’Connell.
At his arraignment Monday in Stamford (Conn.) Superior Court on fugitive-from-justice charges, Ronchi waived his right to rendition, according to O'Connell. State troopers and Salem police will transfer him back to Massachusetts Tuesday, and he will be arraigned in Salem District Court Wednesday. He is being held on $5 million cash bail.
The Salem Police Department and police detectives assigned to the Essex County District Attorney’s Office are investigating the case.
Peter’s brother, Emil Ronchi, also of Marblehead, said the family is “in a state of shock.”
He said Monday morning that he had yet to speak to his brother but was planning to do so. Emil Ronchi said he did not know his brother’s alleged victim.
Beyond saying that the family “loves and supports” his brother, Ronchi added the family would have no further comment.
Galperina’s son is a second-grader at Cohen Hillel Academy in Marblehead. Head of School Ken Schulman said the school community quickly rallied around the boy and his sister after Schulman shared the news with parents Sunday night.
“Several families have stepped up to offer housing and financial support [for the children] during this transition period,” Schulman said, noting that extended family, including a half-sister from New York and the boy’s father from California, had arrived in Salem by Monday.
One of the first people with whom the boy asked to speak, Schulman noted, was his second-grade teacher, Sara Maurno, and Maurno and Schulman met with the boy Monday morning in the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families’ Salem offices. Schulman said the boy understandably still was in shock and initially “a little weepy” but also was anxious to talk to people he trusted about the “horrific trauma” he had experienced, in Schulman’s words.
Schulman said the boy expressed a desire to return to school Tuesday, which Schulman said the school community would welcome. But he added that he was unsure what the boy’s family members and the Department of Children and Families would decide was in the child’s best interest.
Schulman said he also had met Monday with the boy’s classmates, who in their anxiety and sadness, could be heard focusing on the details of the incident.
“That’s something we’re trying to move them off of and get them talking about how it makes them feel and how they can support each other,” he said, adding that he had also spoken to a number of parents to advise them on how to deal with their children’s questions and how best to support the young boy and his sister.
Peter Ronchi served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica from 1988 to 1990, the organization’s press office confirmed. He apparently remained in Costa Rica until moving to Marblehead in 2003. That is when Emil Ronchi contacted Priscilla Hall, owner of the house at 10 Taft St., and signed the lease on behalf of his brother and family.
According to neighbors, Peter Ronchi arrived on Taft Street from Costa Rica with a wife and two children. Doris Slattery, who lives directly across the street, said she would invite the family to pool parties and barbecues.
“They seemed like lovely people,” Slattery said. “For all outward appearances, they were wonderful.”
Ronchi’s wife and children had moved out “some time ago,” according to Slattery. However, neighbors recently had begun seeing his new girlfriend, presumably Galperina, and her children in the area, she added.
Fellow Taft Street resident Tanya DeGenova said she once saw Ronchi jogging on the street. She described him as looking like a clean-cut FBI agent.
“You just never know (what's going to happen),” she said, describing the neighborhood as “tight knit.” “It’s very scary…. I’m totally stunned — this is a very quiet street.”
Agreed Slattery, “We’re all in a state of shock. Nothing ever happens on this street.”
Hall called Peter Ronchi the “perfect tenant,” one who always paid the rent on time, took care of the property and never complained. She described him alternately as a “gentle soul,” “calm” and a “quiet, gentle, unassuming, nice person.”
“You just can’t believe this is happening,” she said. “You just never thought that something like this would happen to anyone you knew. It’s mind boggling.”
Peter Ronchi had been a Lynn-based massage therapist. His services are advertised in the November 2008 newsletter of the Cape Ann Waldorf School in Beverly Farms. Efforts to contact school officials Monday afternoon were unsuccessful.
