Hungry Horse man accused of threatening wife with electric saw

Flathead County Sheriff's Office arrested a Hungry Horse man Wednesday for allegedly menacing his estranged wife with a running electric saw.

Ronald Millward, 35, is charged with aggravated assault. The woman was not hurt.

Undersheriff Mike Meehan said the woman told authorities she went to the man's girlfriend's house to return some property to him. He was there. They had a disagreement. Millward followed his estranged wife to her house when she left, Meehan said.

There, he choked her and held a running Skil saw to her face, the woman told officers.

She didn't require medical attention, Meehan said.

It is the second report this week of a violent domestic incident.

The holidays are the time of the year when domestic disturbances increase, Meehan said, but these two incidents were extreme.

"It seems to be escalating," he said. "It's so much more violent."

On Monday, Christopher Dyer, 51, was arrested on suspicion of attempted deliberate homicide for allegedly choking and beating his girlfriend Monday at her home near Columbia Falls.

In court documents filed Wednesday, Dyer also was charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, obstructing justice, and tampering with evidence.

According to the complaint filed by Deputy County Attorney Dan Guzynski, the woman asked Dyer to leave her house. He became angry and attacked her, punching her all over her body and saying he was going to kill her. He wrapped a belt from a bathrobe around her neck and strangled her until she lost consciousness and she suffered minute hemorrhaging, the document says.

Dyer allegedly then put the woman, naked, in an unheated room and took her cell phone and land phone, and loaded a gun in her presence.

Dyer also allegedly washed sheets and clothing that were covered with blood.

He eventually left, and she drove herself to the hospital.

Court documents say she suffered multiple facial fractures, and she is unable to open one eye.

Dyer told officials he was acting in self-defense. He reportedly tried to kill himself by overdosing on medication. He was hospitalized before going to jail.

If convicted on all charges, he could be sentenced to as many as 170 years in prison.