Man Charged With Murder In East Wenatchee After Arrest In Ohio

The man accused of killing a 28-year-old East Wenatchee woman last week is now charged with 2nd Degree Murder in Douglas County. 

Twenty-two-year-old Ashton Bunting Jr. is in the Woods County Jail in Ohio after being arrested during a traffic stop for speeding Tuesday morning. 

He's accused of killing Synthia Ring and leaving notes expressing regret for the action in the apartment they shared with her four-year-old son. 

Bunting Jr. was documented driving through South Dakota and Minnesota before being stopped near Toledo, Ohio. 

According to an affidavit of probable cause, a welfare check on Ring was first attempted last Tuesday when the assistant manager at the store Ring worked at contacted 911 dispatch at about 5:36 p.m. and said Ring did not show up for work and had not called in. The manager said Ring left work the previous day upset about issues with her boyfriend. 

Police then met up with a relative of Ring for the welfare check, but the address turned out to be a residence where Ring previously lived. 

At about 9:30 pm, officers were called to the correct address, an apartment complex where Ring and Bunting Jr. lived, after it was located by the relative.  At the scene, the relative said they'd noticed a four-year-old boy inside crying but did not have a key to the door. 

The boy unlocked the front door once police arrived and let them in. Officers then forced their way into a locked bedroom where they found Ring lifeless. 

The affidavit says a handwritten note in the bedroom where Ring was discovered read, "after I killed her ... I miss her so much, I kept shaking and wishing she'd come back. Crying I can't stop crying"  

Officers say there was another message on a whiteboard in the room which read, "I can't take it back. I want to..I want her back I'm sorry."  

Video footage from the apartment complex verified the couple's vehicle, a Toyota RAV4, had left the parking lot by 5:49 am on Monday, Jun 10 and had not returned.  

Bunting Jr. had already traveled to South Dakota when Ring’s body was discovered Tuesday. Police say he hit a deer while driving and was given a ride by a deputy to another location, with the accident occurring three hours before the welfare check at the apartment. 

Police in South Dakota informed East Wenatchee Police of their encounter with Bunting Jr. after receiving the nationwide alert days later.  

Bunting Jr. was also recorded on surveillance video entering a bicycle shop in Marshall, Minnesota last Wednesday. 

He was arrested Tuesday after being stopped for driving 87 mph in a 70-mph zone in Ohio. 

Bunting will be extradited back to Douglas County to be arraigned on the 2nd Degree Murder charge. 

Ring's family has started a GoFundMe page to raise money to take care of her 4-year-old son.