A man accused of killing his mother in Palm Springs and driving to South Dakota, where he was arrested following a New Year’s Day police chase that led to the recovery of her body, has been returned to Riverside County to await arraignment on a murder charge.
Tosten David Walsh-Lommen, 30, is accused of strangling 58-year-old Michelle Nanette Walsh, whose body was found wrapped in a blanket in the rear of the suspect’s SUV following a 50-mile high-speed pursuit.
Walsh-Lommen was held in a Pennington County, South Dakota, jail until he was brought back to Southern California. He was booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center on Saturday, where he’s being held on $1.1 million bail and is expected to be arraigned on Wednesday, jail records show.
An arrest warrant declaration alleges that Walsh-Lommen admitted strangling his mother, then “freaked out and attempted to clean up the crime scene with bleach.”
Prior to his arrest, Walsh-Lommen had been staying in Palm Springs with his mother at a home on Icon Way, where Palm Springs investigators found bleach and blood stains on the carpet, the declaration states.
Investigators believe Walsh-Lommen killed his mother either late in the evening of Dec. 30 or in the early morning hours of Dec. 31.
The South Dakota chase began around noon Jan. 1 when a Highway Patrol trooper saw Walsh-Lommen driving on Interstate 90 at more than 100 mph, triggering a pursuit that ended when officers put down a spike strip that disabled the SUV, according to South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley’s office. Walsh-Lommen then allegedly made an unsuccessful attempt to flee on foot.
Autopsy results revealed Walsh died of “blunt trauma to her head and hemorrhage anterior neck musculature,” according to South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley’s office.
Riverside County prosecutors charged him with murder on Jan. 8.