O'FALLON, Ill. — Months after an O'Fallon family awoke to bricks being thrown through their windows and motor oil poured into their pool, police have arrested a man who they believe is responsible.
St. Clair County prosecutors on Tuesday charged Ryan D. Martin in relation to the July 16 incident on Longfellow Drive.
Martin, 36, is facing two counts of felony stalking and one count of felony property damage. He was also charged with a misdemeanor count of property damage after police say he slashed a tire on one of the family's cars in a Fairview Heights parking lot on Aug. 1.
On Wednesday, O'Fallon police announced that during their investigation they learned of a related incident in mid-October and charged Martin with robbery and an additional count of stalking. Police said the victim in that incident was an acquaintance of the family targeted in the previous incidents.
"We are confident these acts were not random," the police department said.
On July 16, just two hours before the Gibson family was supposed to leave for vacation, they got a terrifying 4:30 a.m. wake-up call.
“My husband and I were woken by the sound of bricks crashing through our front windows," Suzanne Gibson said in a July interview with 5 On Your Side. "Pretty traumatizing. We right away either thought someone was in the house or threw something through the window. So he kind of dashed out of the room to go make sure the children were okay."
Gibson said the living nightmare didn't stop there.
“He came outside, actually, and thought he saw blood on the concrete. It wasn't lit up. So when we turn on the lights, that's when he saw that there was used motor oil all over the pool deck in the pool, everything was completely black out here,” Gibson said.
Tens of thousands of dollars in damage happened in a matter of minutes.
“It's hit every single piece of concrete that surrounds the pool,” Gibson said.
The family had to have a HAZMAT team clean the pool, and an external EPA pump removed the remaining oil.
But Gibson said the worst part was the fear their children went through.
“The bricks through the windows in the middle of the night when your children are sleeping, into the bedrooms where they're sleeping, that that's what steals your peace. Now, the kids are in tears when it's time to go to bed. They're completely traumatized as well,” Gibson said.
More than four months later, Gibson told 5 On Your Side the family is relieved to have charges filed in their case.
Martin was being held in St. Louis County awaiting extradition to Illinois. Police have not given details on how they identified him as a suspect.