Remains identified as missing Ohio mom and son, 5
Authorities say decomposed remains found in the woods behind a northeast Ohio home have been identified as a missing woman and her 5-year-old son, who lived at the home.
Tallmadge police Lt. Ron Williams says the woman's mother contacted police Saturday after she visited the home and discovered the remains behind it.
The medical examiner's office said Tuesday that it could take weeks to determine how and when 31-year-old Wendy Ralston and her son, Peyton, died. The deaths are being investigated as homicides.
Williams says police don't have a suspect. Police have talked to Ralston's boyfriend, who is the boy's father and lives at the home in Tallmadge, about 25 miles south of Cleveland.
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
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