Cops: Man Admits Killing Pregnant Girlfriend

May 18, 2009— -- Yuliya Galperina was looking forward to giving birth to her third child next week. Instead, she and her unborn baby are being mourned and her lover has been arrested in connection with their deaths.

Peter Ronchi, 45, of Marblehead, Mass., was arrested after he allegedly walked up to a police officer in a Norwalk, Conn., parking lot Sunday afternoon and told him, "I had a dream and it was a horrible nightmare, I think I killed my 8 1/2 month pregnant girlfriend after she told me I wasn't the father of the child she was carrying."

According to the Norwalk Police Department incident report on Ronchi's arrest, as the officer continued questioning him, Ronchi said the killing had occurred in Salem, Mass., and when the officer asked how he thought he had killed her, Ronchi said, "I used a knife."

Even though there was no blood on the man, the officer said he "began to suspect he might be telling the truth due to his odd behavior," according to the report.

When police searched Ronchi's minivan, which he told them was parked at a nearby Walmart, they found a bloody 6-inch hunting knife.

Under further questioning at the police station, the police report said, Ronchi allegedly confessed to killing Galperina.

"I just got upset, I killed her, I stabbed her with a knife," Ronchi allegedly told police.

At a hearing in Norwalk today, Ronchi agreed to be returned to Salem to face murder charges and he was ordered held on $5 million bond.

Salem Police Capt. Paul Tucker said officers found Galperina, 42, dead inside her Pope Street apartment building, her two children nearby, after a call came in to 911 around 7:40 a.m. Sunday for a woman who was not breathing.

She was due to give birth to her third child next week, but the fetus died also.

Ronchi, who is a licensed massage therapist, and Galperina appear to have had a "romantic relationship," Tucker said, but "we're unsure about his marital status."

The two children, a 3-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy, are not Ronchi's children, Tucker said. "We're not commenting on the unborn child at this time. Some of those questions will be answered later."

Police are also not disclosing how much her children saw. The children, now in state custody, "were in the area at the time," Tucker said.

Ronchi's brother, Emil Ronchi, who also lives in Marblehead, said he did not know Galperina.

"It is awful," he said, declining further comment. "We are deeply saddened by this tragedy."

Though Ronchi faces murder charges only for Galperina's death, Massachusetts law allows for murder charges in the death of an unborn child if the fetus would have been viable outside the womb.

An autopsy on both mother and baby was scheduled for this morning, Tucker said, and could lead to additional charges against Ronchi in the fetus' death. He could be arraigned in Massachusetts as early as Tuesday.

'An Unfortunate Situation'

Salem, a northern Massachusetts town made famous for its 17th century witch trials, is home to about 43,000 people, though its numbers swell from the hundreds of thousands of tourists each year.

Galperina's 12-story apartment building, Tucker said, was located in a middle class residential neighborhood consisting mostly of families and older people.

Galperina's neighbors said they were shocked by the murder, one of them telling ABC Boston affiliate WCBV, "It's too close for comfort. It's not something I want to be around."

Another neighbor, a woman who did not want to be identified, told WCVB that Galperina was quiet.

"She was nice," the neighbor said. "Her kids were beautiful."

In Marblehead, some of Ronchi's neighbors are equally surprised.

Allen Schiller described Ronchi as "a very nice man" and that the murder charges were "hard to believe."

"It's an unfortunate situation," he said, "that no one understands."