Murder and Attempted Suicide: As Dispatchers Listen to an Easthampton Woman Plead for Her Life, the Phone Goes Dead . . .

The evidence — gathered from a bloody Easthampton apartment, a witness statement and a chilling E-911 telephone call — led the police and the DA’s office to charge Jessica Ann Pripstein’s boyfriend with her murder. Ryan Welch, who police allege slashed his own throat after the homicide, was arraigned today at Baystate Medical Center. Welch says he didn’t do it.

By DAVID REID and MARY SERREZE

EASTHAMPTON — “My boyfriend is attempting to kill me” are the words State Police dispatchers heard shortly after midnight Monday morning, court documents state.

As Jessica Ann Pripstein gave her address to the dispatcher, she then yelled, “Oh my God!” and then “Oh my God, PLEASE!”

The line went dead and Easthampton police rushed to the address the victim provided, 27 Ward Ave.

In a statement he filed in Northampton District Court today, State Police Trooper Michael Barrett described the grisly scene police found in Apartment C.

Pripstein was dead, face down on her bathroom floor, lying in a pool of her own blood.

In the bedroom, Ryan D. Welch lay unresponsive and dying on the floor, his throat slashed.

When Easthampton Fire Department paramedics arrived, there was nothing they could do for Pripstein.

They worked to save Welch, and rushed him to the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, where his condition was stabilized.

Police now believe that the case is one of domestic homicide, and that Welch, 36, stabbed Pripstein to death and then sliced his own throat.

Police say the two were in a romantic relationship, and that a witness said Pripstein told her the day before her murder that she was concerned about Welch’s behavior.

During a “bedside interview” Tuesday, Welch told Easthampton and State Police detectives that he returned to Pripstein’s apartment that night and, after finding her dead, “decided to slit his own throat,” Barrett wrote.

An autopsy Tuesday by the State Medical Examiner’s Office concluded Pripstein died from “sharp force injury to the neck.” The manner of death was determined to be homicide. Toxicology tests will take a while longer to conplete.

After obtaining a search warrant, police conducted a thorough search of the apartment. They found three “edged weapons,” and discovered the back door dead-bolted and the front door barricaded with a futon couch. Other objects and “personal possessions” were stacked against the rear and cellar doors.

(Click here to read Trooper Barrett’s application for a criminal complaint of “Murder” and his entire supporting statement of probable cause.)

At 5 p.m. today, Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan held a press conference at the Easthampton police headquarters. He asked anyone who has more information on the couple or the murder to contact his office. [Call the DA's office at (413) 586-9225.]

At that press conference, the DA dodged questions about what kind of “edged weapons” were used in the crime and found at the scene. Reporters were left guessing if he was talking about knives, box cutters, hatchets, swords or something else.

The Suspect, a Recent DUI Arrestee, Is Arraigned

Pripstein, a licensed cosmetologist, had worked at Liora Gabrielle European Skin Care and at Adamo’s Pizzeria in Easthampton. Originally from Pennsylvania, she had lived in this area since at least 1994, according to a social media profile she had posted . The DA said she had been living at her Ward Avenue apartment since last year.

Welch, who lives at 75 Oliver St. in Easthampton, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment. Assistant DA Jeremy Bucci, Sullivan’s chief trial counsel, brought the charge; Judge Michael Goggins presided and ordered Welch held without bail.

Welch’s lawyer, Paul Rudof of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, has already filed a discovery motion in district court seeking any and all witness statements, photographic or video evidence, medical records and toxicology reports.

A bindover hearing to Hampshire Superior Court was set for March 16; it is likely, though, that a Hampshire County grand jury will indict Welch for murder before that date.

Welch remains at the hospital, but details of his condition are being withheld. He is now under guard by the Hampshire County Sheriff’s department.

At first, press releases from the Ditrict Attorney’s office made no mention of a possible suspect, or of Welch’s being treated and under guard at the hospital.

But the DA made it clear they knew more than they were telling. “Investigators have reason to believe the assault was not random in nature, and there is no threat to public safety at this time,” one press release stated.

Although media attendance at Welch’s arraignment was at first rejected by hospital officials based on the seriousness of Welch’s wounds, reporters were eventually allowed to attend, but Welch’s face was shielded by a blanket.

Easthampton police, however, released a mug shot of Welch from Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, when he was arrested on a charge of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol. Police said his car struck a utility pole on Oliver Street, near his home; that case is pending.

The address where Welch has been staying is on city-owned land that has an affordable housing restriction; the building has 20 state-subsidized housing units that have served as emergency housing for the poor. The Republican’s Diane Lederman reports that the building, run by the South Middlesex Non-Profit Housing Corporation, provides “supportive sober housing.”

In 2005, the corporation’s annual report described signing a 10-year agreement with the City of Easthampton to operate an emergency shelter in what was described as “the last remainiing town-owned lodging house in the state.” County records show the property, the site of the town’s former poor farm, was acquired by the town in 1890.

Ryan WELCH Court Documents

© 2011 Northampton Media

David Reid can be reached at dreid@northamptonmedia.com

Mary Serreze can be reached at mserreze@northamptonmedia.com