PEYTON RALSTON - 5 yo - / Accused: Ronald Williams, boyfriend of mother - Tallmadge, OH

Tallmadge: Police identify boyfriend as suspect in mother, son murders


Posted: Sep 26, 2013 9:37 PM CDT



TALLMADGE, OH (WOIO) -

Tallmadge police have identified a suspect in the murders of Wendy Ralston, 31, and her son Peyton Ralston, 5.

19 Action News spoke with Tallmadge Lt. Ronald Williams who said the department has evidence that suggests Wendy's live-in boyfriend is the person of interest.  

Williams  says police questioned the suspect at length on the night the bodies were discovered, and detectives have now proved that most of what he told them was untrue.

Williams also says the case will go to the Summit County grand jury in the next two weeks.

The suspect is currently not charged, and has not been arrested.

Police did not give details on the events that led up to the murders, but they did mention that the couple had a volatile relationship with past domestic violence incidents.

On Saturday, August 10, Wendy's mother discovered the bodies of her daughter and grandson in the woods behind Wendy's home.

http://www.19actionnews.com/story/23543760/tallmadge-police-name-suspect-in-mother-son-murders

I read about this some time ago but they had not determined they were murdered.  Just they have now.  Sure took them long enough.  William

Police were called to Tallmadge home of Wendy Ralston before she was reported missing

Authorities said the remains of missing 31-year-old Wendy Ralston and her 5-year-old son, Peyton, were found Saturday in the wooded area, shown here on the right, just steps behind Ralston's Tallmadge home. (Cory Shaffer, Northeast Ohio Media

August 13, 2013 at 4:39 PM, updated August 13, 2013 at 7:38 PM
Authorities have identified the remains found in Tallmadge as Wendy Ralston and her son, Peyton, shown here in a picture taken from Ralston's Facebook page. The case is being investigated as a double homicide.



TALLMADGE, Ohio – When authorities responded Saturday to the Stone Creek Drive home where human remains were discovered, it wasn't the first – or second – time they had been notified of the missing mother and son who lived there.

According to service call records obtained from the Tallmadge Police Department, slain mother Wendy Ralston and her 5-year-old son Peyton were reported missing twice on Aug. 7 – once by Ralston's mother, and once by her boyfriend who is considered a "person of interest" but not a suspect in the case, about a minute apart.

They were also called by a concerned neighbor July 31, records show.

Marie Ralston showed up to the police station and filed a missing persons report for Wendy Ralston and Peyton at 7:14 p.m. Aug. 7, after last hearing from her daughter the morning of July 23 via Facebook.

One minute later, at 7:15 p.m., records show Ralston's boyfriend and Peyton's father, Daniel Tighe, called the non-emergency number to report his girlfriend and 5-year-old son missing.

Tighe said Ralston and Peyton were going on vacation to an unknown place, and hadn't seen them for two weeks, according to records. Tallmadge Police records department officials could not release any more details about the call, saying because it was not a 911 call, it is not considered public record during an investigation.

A voicemail seeking comment was left with a number listed for Tighe on the call report. Tuesday. But records indicate police were called to the home before the pair was reported missing, at 1:55 p.m. July 31, when a neighbor said she had not seen Peyton or Ralston for 10 days. Two officers responded within six minutes and cleared the call at 2:29 p.m., the records show.

The neighbor did not return a call seeking a comment.

Lt. Ronald Williams, public information officer for Tallmadge Police Department, said officers found Tighe in the backyard when they responded on July 31, and noted that he was very calm and nothing was unusual.

"Everything was in order," he said. "He had just ordered a pizza and the pizza was still warm, the house was very tidy. Nothing was unusual about him."

Williams said Tighe simply said Ralston and Peyton were not at the residence, and officers cleared the call. While authorities have identified the remains, they have yet to identify any suspects in the case, Williams said at a press conference Tuesday.

"There are many persons of interest," Williams said. "We're talking to a lot of people."

Tighe is one of those people, Williams confirmed, but said he is cooperating with authorities and has been named as a person of interest only because he lives in the home.

"He's not a suspect, he's uncharged," Williams said. "He's free to roam."
Authorities had been called to the home numerous times since 2010, records show.

On July 4, Ralston called police to report "problems with unwanted guest menacing," and on June 14, she told police her ex-boyfriend moved in and "won't let daughter sleep," according to police reports.

Police also reported a domestic violence call May 31, when Ralston called police after a man she lived with and had a child with allegedly pushed her down when she attempted to stop him from spanking one of their children.

It was not clear if the report referred to Tighe, but Williams confirmed he moved into the home with Ralston around the end of April.

Officers made no arrest after they could not determine a "primary physical aggressor," and advised both Ralston and the man of domestic violence laws.
Court records show Ralston was the plaintiff in a 2011 protection order case listing Tighe as the defendant, according to an evidence officer at the Summit County Clerk of Courts office.

Williams said authorities were wrapping up their investigation at the home Tuesday and are working to identify suspects and analyze a "massive amount of evidence."

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/08/police_were_called_to_tallmadg.html