Source: December 26, 2005 - New York Post Online Edition
A Las Vegas "Bonnie and Clyde" bodybuilding duo murdered their personal assistant, burned her body and then went on the run, authorities said — but cops caught up with the dumbbells during a getaway stopover at a Massachusetts nail salon.
Prominent strongman Craig Titus and his weightlifting wife Kelly Ryan, 33, were making their way to Boston after skipping out of Sin City when Ryan, a former Ms. Fitness America, decided she wanted to get her toenails painted, according to a Boston Globe report yesterday.
Thanks to a tipster, a troop of local cops swarmed in on the nail salon in Stoughton — about 25 miles south of Boston — as the champion competitive bodybuilder Ryan was getting a pedicure on Friday.
Titus, who had shaved his head in a failed attempt to change his appearance, was caught while sitting in a truck outside the salon.
The couple spent Christmas day in a jail cell and will be shipped back to Las Vegas next week, where Titus will be hit with murder charges and Ryan will be charged as an accessory, authorities said.
Cops were on to the pair — who have graced the covers of numerous fitness magazines including Flex and Ironman — almost immediately after the charred body of 28-year-old Melissa James was found in Ryan's burned-out red Jaguar on a Vegas interstate on Dec. 14.
The couple was quickly hauled in for questioning and told investigators that they had recently evicted the live-in personal assistant because they suspected her of stealing from them, the report said.
Titus, who weighs in at close to 250 pounds, admitted to cops that he had been having a torrid affair with James, who was found bound and gagged in the trunk of the scorched car.
Having already done a prison stint as the result of a 1995 drug rap, Titus told a pal that he was going to sell off his belongings and flee the country, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Titus, 40, even told cops "that he has been to prison and has no intention of going back," Las Vegas police Lt. Tom Monahan told the paper.
http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/59495.htm