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Police bring Salem man back to Mass. to face murder charge

E-mail|Link|Comments () May 19, 2009 04:17 PM

By David Abel, Globe Staff

Salem police are bringing Peter Ronchi from Connecticut back to Salem today after the 45-year-old massage therapist allegedly admitted to killing his pregnant girlfriend and waived his rights to fight extradition.

Ronchi, who will be arraigned in Salem District Court Wednesday on a murder charge, turned himself in to police in Norwalk, Conn., on Sunday and told them he stabbed Yuliya Galperina to death because “she told me I wasn’t the father of the child she was carrying,” according to a police report.

Galperina, the 42-year-old mother of two young children, was 8 ½ months pregnant.

Ronchi allegedly killed Galperina at about 7:30 a.m., while her 3-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son were in their two-bedroom apartment in the Salem Heights apartment building, police said.

Alison Goodwin, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, told the Globe earlier this week that the agency took custody of the children after the slaying.

Police said neither Ronchi nor Galperina had a criminal record.