Suicide Details Surface On Man Charged In Local Mom’s Murder

Ronald Wayne Paoletto, 41, who had been , hung himself in his jail cell, it was confirmed today. ( to read about reactions to the suicide.)

Deputies found Paoletto dead in his cell at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga shortly before 7 a.m. Monday, confirmed San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Cindy Bachman.

“He was found to have hung himself from his bunk,” Bachman said. “He was found dead and there were no life-saving measures.”

Paoletto was in a cell by himself, although that cell was a two-person, Bachman confirmed.

Bachman could not say whether Paoletto was ever on suicide watch while in custody since his Jan. 10 arrest in connection with Petro’s murder.

Paoletto was a registered sex offender who on Jan. 14 in Joshua Tree Superior Court to murdering Petro.

The Lake Elsinore mother of two young children was 33 at the time of her death.

buried in a remote area of San Bernardino County known as Pipes Canyon Wash in Landers.

"Her jaw was broken, her throat was slit with the shovel, and the back of her head … It was horrible. There can be no justice. He got off because now there can be no conviction," said Petro's older brother, Greg Jacques, in reaction to the suicide news.

Petro, a mother of two young children, was last seen Jan. 4 leaving her Lake Elsinore apartment complex with Paoletto, who police and friends described as her boyfriend.

The single mom lived at the Mountain Ridge apartment building on Morro Way at Grand Avenue in Lake Elsinore with her children.

According to a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department report, Paoletto and Petro planned to travel to Yucca Valley that first week in January to pick up his children, but Paoletto arrived alone, telling his family he argued with Petro along the way and dropped her off at an unknown location.

Also according to the report,