Nail-biter still haunts beauty salon

STOUGHTON -- The atmosphere inside Touch Nails is peaceful. Sunlight pours through the large storefront windows onto the salon's gleaming black and white checkered floor. A lone customer relaxes in back, getting her nails done.

The scene is typical for this little beauty salon in Shaw's Plaza on Route 138.

But it wasn't so peaceful on Dec. 23, when a dozen federal agents burst into the salon to arrest Kelly Ryan, who had just walked in for a pedicure, and her husband, Craig Titus, who was in the parking lot.

The two fugitives, both bodybuilding champs, face murder charges in Nevada and are scheduled to appear in a Nevada courtroom on March 29.

Their arrest at Shaw's Plaza garnered media attention across the country, and Touch Nails became a backdrop for local television journalists reporting the story. Security cameras had recorded Ryan's arrest on video, and the footage was televised by news stations.

William Ho, the owner of Touch Nails, believes the sudden whirlwind of publicity hurt his business.

''Most of my customers are not coming back," said Ho, 45, of Randolph.

The bust caught Ho and his employees by surprise.

''When the SWAT team came in," he said, ''it was scary. We didn't know what happened."

Titus, 41, and Ryan, 33, are well known in the world of bodybuilding; both have won regional and national titles and graced the covers of fitness magazines. They are accused of killing their live-in personal assistant, Melissa James, whose body was found in a Nevada desert on Dec. 14. They face charges of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon, accessory to murder, arson, and kidnapping.

Authorities discovered James's body in the trunk of Ryan's red 2003 Jaguar, which was found burning in a desert southwest of Las Vegas. After detectives questioned them, the couple bought a 2006 Dodge pickup on Dec. 17 and drove to Massachusetts.

Defense lawyers say Titus and Ryan planned to spend the holidays with friends on the East Coast; prosecutors allege that Titus and Ryan aimed to liquidate their assets and flee the country. They parked their truck at a gas station on Route 138 and slept there overnight on Dec. 22, according to court documents.

The next day the couple went to Jiffy Lube in Canton to get the truck's oil changed, and Ryan went to get her toes done at Touch Nails in Stoughton.

''Through investigation, we learned that's where they were," said an FBI spokeswoman, Gail Marcinkiewicz, who declined to provide further details.

That Friday afternoon at around 3:45 p.m., Ryan walked into Touch Nails and asked for a pedicure. She browsed through different colors of nail polish, decided on cherry red, walked to the back of the store, and sat down. That was when the FBI SWAT team burst in and arrested Ryan. Titus was arrested outside in the parking lot, where he'd been sitting in the truck.

Titus and Ryan were booked by FBI agents at the Canton Police Department. They were extradited to Nevada in January, where they remain in custody. A preliminary hearing is scheduled on March 29.

Three months have passed since the arrest in Stoughton. Even though the incident lasted only a few moments, Ho says, the impact on business has lingered.

Ho also owns a nail salon in West Roxbury and recently opened one in Easton. Business continues to be slow at his Stoughton shop, he said.

Ho wants to forget about the arrests and move on. ''I don't want to talk about it anymore," he said. He hopes his customers will forget about them, too. He worries that his customers are ''scared or something."

Ho said law enforcement agents were just doing their job, catching the fugitive couple wherever they could. And on Dec. 23, it just happened to be his salon.

''They can catch people anywhere," Ho said.

Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.