11 years later, man indicted in family’s slaying
COLUMBUS — More than a decade has passed since Peter Romans escaped the fire that destroyed his rural Madison County home and killed his wife and their two children. And now, 11 years later, he is charged with killing them.
A specially called Madison County grand jury met for several days last week and indicted Romans, 59, on four counts of aggravated murder, three counts of murder, and four counts of aggravated arson. The indictment was unsealed Monday. Investigators say he intentionally set the fire on April 5, 2008, that killed his wife of 24 years, Billi; their son, Caleb, a 12-year-old athlete at Grove City Christian School; and 16-year-old Ami, a teen who loved her steady boyfriend and her 4-H horse named Buster.
Romans was arrested by Franklin County SWAT officers about 9:30 a.m. at his home in Orient.
Columbus attorney Sam Shamansky, who is representing Romans, said he was made aware last week that an indictment could be coming.
He said the timing of it is curious — coming just weeks before Romans’ lawsuit filed against Ford for what he still claims was a faulty part on the truck that started the fire is scheduled for trial in federal court.
“Why now?” Shamansky said. “What evidence has changed after 11 years?”
He said he called Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office twice last week in hopes of discussing Romans’ arrest if one was to be made. He said no one called him back.
Then on Monday morning, he said, a deputy sheriff called him and said SWAT was at Romans’ home in rural Orient and would Shamansky call him and tell him to come out.
“I did. My client surrendered immediately and without incident,” he said. “We remain completely cooperative and no flight risk and I expect to have him released on a recognizance bond.”
Romans’ arraignment is set for Friday.
It is unclear if Madison County Common Pleas Judge Eamon Costello will hear the case or step aside since he worked on the investigation as an assistant prosecutor.
Billi Romans had been the receptionist at the school where her children attended and the family was an integral part of the congregation at Grove City Nazarene Church. Their deaths rocked the entire community, a pain that even after all these years friends say hasn’t faded.
Both Ami and Billi Romans called 911 just after midnight on April 6, 2008, to report the fire, with Billi saying that the family’s SUV parked in the carport right next to the house in southeastern Madison County was ablaze. But something happened, and the fire spread rapidly. By the end of the 45-second call, Ami screamed that flames were already in the house and Billi could be heard coughing, but could no longer answer a dispatcher’s questions as she frantically tried to usher her family from the house.
All three of them died inside as they tried to escape.
Peter Romans told detectives that after his wife woke him up by yelling that their Ford Expedition was on fire, he ran outside to move his pickup that was parked close by and to move a kerosene can away from the house. He claimed he could not get back in. He ran about 100 yards to a neighbor’s home to get help.
Investigators were immediately suspicious of the fire, but because of the poor condition of the fire-ruined evidence and the experts it took to evaluate it, it wasn’t officially ruled arson until August 2009. By then, Romans had a girlfriend (to whom he is now married) and had filed lawsuits against Ford, Texas Instruments and Bridgestone, saying that a faulty cruise-control switch in the Romans’ 2001 Ford Expedition, which was under recall at the time, sparked the fire. In 2011, the Madison County coroner finally ruled the deaths as homicides.
But lab testing later showed the switch on the Explorer burned from the outside in, not the other way around. And there was evidence that a “significant quantity” of an accelerant had been poured inside the truck.
The lawsuits dragged on for years.
The criminal investigation also dragged on. In 2010, Madison County Prosecutor Steve Pronai asked Gregg Costas, who was then a special agent with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office’s Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, to work with detective Eric Semler at the Madison County Sheriff’s Office (he is now chief deputy there) to take a fresh look at it. The case, with many previously undisclosed details, was featured in The Dispatch’s cold-case homicide series, “Killers Among Us” series in April 2011. It generated fresh leads and new information for Costas and Semler to follow. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office never stopped investigating the cold case, and Dan Kasaris, of that office, presented the case to the grand jury last week.
Madison County Sheriff John Swaney credited the hard work of BCI and the Ohio attorney general’s office — Costas in particular — for never giving up on the case.
He said the news of an indictment has been a long time coming.
“That fire in 2008 impacted our entire community, with the loss of Billi and Ami and Caleb,” he said. “I think I speak on behalf of Madison County citizens to say we’re thankful, regardless of how much time has passed that justice will be served.”