Tanya Marie Petro

Tanya Marie Petro was born to Lora (Young) Jacques and had a sister named Tracy who was 9 years older than her, as well as a brother Greg eight years older. The siblings were very close and Tracy and Greg took care of their baby sister while growing up. In her 30s, Tanya had two children, a family dog, a steady job and lived in an apartment complex around Lake Elsinore California. Tanya had recently broken up with her boyfriend Ronald Wayne "Paulett" Paoletto when discovering his drug addiction, and disappeared while recovering from wrist surgery to repair a workplace injury. Her sister Tracy knew something was wrong when on January 6th 2011 during a girl's day out with her friend she called Tanya and didn't get a call back. Tracy called their mother Lora and found out that she was having difficulties reaching her as well. In fact, when Lora called Tanya's apartment she found it odd that her ex boyfriend Ron answered the phone. After learning about this, Tracy immediately contacted law enforcement to file a missing person's report. Soon after, relatives who were watching Tanya's children called Tracy to find out why Tanya hadn't come to pick them up. By January 9th a search of Tanya's car and apartment had been performed by police. They found it strange that her car was found in the apartment lot complex, and her purse and dog were in the apartment. Tracy, feeling scared and not appreciating the urgency of the police, began investigating her sister's disappearance on her own. She broke into Tanya's car and found an address book with contact details for someone she didn't recognize. When Tracy's friends contacted the number a meth-addicted individual answered and said that Tanya had been there previously. The police were provided this information but did not follow up. Tracy and a group of friends drove to this address where they discovered Tanya had been there along with Ron and one of his friends. One of the people at this address led the caravan to a one-room shack in an isolated area in the Mojave desert where it looked as though blood was on the floor. The man who led the caravan to the shack left without word and headed back to the address where they had all met. By this time Tracy and her friends had called the police who arrived and investigated the scene. It turned out that the people at this home had rather colored pasts, including Ronald who had a criminal history as a child sex offender. At this time police began digging deeper and treating this case as a homicide. On Tuesday January 11th 2011 law enforcement found the body of Tanya Marie Petro in a shallow grave. The police did not immediately contact Tracy or any of Tanya's relatives, so the family discovered her death via the local evening news. See How Did Tanya Petro Die? Who Killed Her? Is Ron Paoletto Still Alive? to read about the murder of Tanya and what happened to the man arrested for her death - updated March 2021. See her obituary at Tanya Marie Petro: Obituary