Margaret Douglas, 98, was murdered by Gavon Ramsay in 2018. Ramsay, 17, broke into Margaret’s home in Wadsworth. He found her sleeping on her couch and took video of her. Ramsay proceeded to strangle Margaret to death. The brutality didn’t end there.
After murdering Margaret, Ramsay undressed her and sexually assaulted her dead body for over two hours. He placed her in sexual positions for pictures and videos. And he used her dead hand to masturbate. Finally, Ramsay shoved Margaret’s dead body into a 1.5ft by 2.5ft closet and hid her under a vacuum cleaner and clothes.
“It really didn’t feel like anything had happened. I really didn’t feel anything. I just continued to break into cars and drink and smoke dope.”
Gavon Ramsay
Ramsay’s murder of Margaret was part of an escalating series of violence. The killer often hooked up with gay men and robbed them. Ramsay’s notebook allows a glimpse into his dark mind–it contained serial killer biographies, fantasies of raping, strangling, and murdering people, and plans to kill people he knew. The diagnosed sexual sadist had a desire to kill people to see how it would feel.
In addition to his notebook, more evidence of Ramsay’s depravity was found in his phone. There, Ramsay organized the videos and pictures of the post-mortem sexual assault of Margaret. He placed them in a secret file called “Dark.” The password for this hidden file?– “Murder.” This disturbing file allowed Ramsay to view the graphic videos and pictures for pleasure. Ramsay also memorialized the murder by taking Margaret’s wallet as a trophy.
Ramsay’s post-mortem sexual assault of Margaret resulted from his necrophile tendencies. In fact, the year before the murder, he sought employment at a funeral home. There is of course nothing wrong with working in a funeral home in and of itself. But it appears that Ramsay sought funeral home employment, not out of a desire to help grieving families by providing funeral services, but to further his disturbing interests.
Ramsay has no remorse for this evil crime. He even stated: “It really didn’t feel like anything had happened. I really didn’t feel anything. I just continued to break into cars and drink and smoke dope.” The necrophile murderer admitted that had he not been caught, he would have killed again.
Learn more about Ramsay here. See a memorial for Margaret here.
From Margaret’s Great-Niece
I am the great-niece of Margaret Douglas, who was murdered by 17-year-old Gavon Ramsay. In 2018 Gavon Ramsay broke into my 98-year-old Aunt’s home in Wadsworth and killed her by manually strangling her. This method of murder was chosen because he wanted to kill someone not with a weapon of any kind, but with his own hands. After her murder, he disrobed and sexually assaulted her, taking pictures and videos of these acts. This included using her dead hand to pleasure himself. He was in her house for over 2 hours sexually abusing her body. Afterwards, he contorted her body to fit inside a 1.5 by 2.5 ft closet.
These acts were all planned out ahead of time and documented in Ramsay’s journal. It was not a sudden impulse or desire or a hormonal decision. These acts were carried out with precision–if not for his cell phone being obtained in relation to a separate case, or his accidental dropping of a glove in Aunt Margaret’s backyard, he may never have been caught. He was controlled enough during these crimes that, despite everything that took place in my Aunt’s house, no DNA evidence was found inside. Ramsay was not pressured or led into his acts by a peer or older adult–he himself planned and committed these acts on his own accord. His crimes are not things a 17-year-old can be unsure of the morality of.He fully comprehended the consequences of these crimes. And these were not his first crimes. He had a criminal history already, which led to previous attempts at reformation. Despite efforts to reform him, his crimes continued escalating. His arrest for my Aunt’s murder was the only thing that stopped him from escalating further.
Ramsay also had previous behavior consistent with cases of necrophilia. The year before my Aunt’s murder, he was seeking employment at a funeral home. This is a common form of employment necrophiles seek as it gives them easy access to corpses. The fact that Ramsay’s necrophilia escalated to the point where he killed someone in order to sexually assault their body puts him in the same category of killers as Gary Ridgway and Jeffrey Dahmer. This caliber of killer is not only one of the most demented and criminally dangerous, but also one of the rarest types of murderers.
After viewing all the testimony, hearing witnesses and arguments from both sides, and observing Ramsay in court, the judge sentenced him to life without parole for Aunt Margaret’s murder, plus 23 years for the other crimes committed that night. We were given a promise by the criminal justice system that this man would live out the rest of his life safely behind bars. The 133rd GA broke that promise.
I and several family members chose to give victim impact statements at his sentencing. We knew that if we put our true thoughts in our statements, Ramsay would be able to read and hear them. We discussed the risk of giving him fuel for the rage he carries inside him, knowing that at some point he may be released from prison while my siblings and I are still alive and he is relatively young, and knowing he may come after us. We all decided to move forward with our statements and trusted that the criminal justice system would ensure that justice as well as our safety and the community’s safety would be prioritized when sentencing. This did indeed happen. The amount of relief we felt after the sentencing is immeasurable. That relief is now gone because of SB 256. We now spend every day worrying about Ramsay’s release. His release may happen not only when my siblings and I are still alive, but when my parents are still alive.
I still have nights where I need to check closets and under the bed out of paranoia. I still have nights where I wake suddenly and have to put my gun next to me on the bed in order to feel safe. I still check the door and window locks three times every single night before I fall asleep. If Gavon Ramsay is ever released, this fear will only increase. I cannot imagine going out into the world knowing that he is somewhere out there on the streets, especially when he is of an age where he is capable of causing incredible harm.
Due to these fears, I will be speaking at every parole hearing. I will do everything in my power to keep this man behind bars, despite the personal ramifications I will face of having to relive the details of my Aunt’s murder every five years. Gavon Ramsay took my Aunt Margaret’s life from her in the most disturbing and evil way, and his new sentence may allow him to live the majority of his natural life free. This sentence is in no way justice for what he did to her.
The way this Bill is written, it only takes two factors into account: Ramsay’s age and the fact that someone’s life was ended. It does not allow the courts to take into account the premediation, the number of offenses that happened in the course of that night, the necrophilia, Ramsay’s psychological testing, Ramsay’s criminal history, or my family’s impact statements. This Bill takes a sadistic criminal like Ramsay and tries to fit them in the same box as a kid that got in over their head and made a mistake. There was no impulsive nature in his crimes. There was no peer pressure. There was no misunderstanding the wrong in his acts, or the impact his acts would have on others. There was no remorse. He was proud of what he did that night.
I have been in correspondence with one of the primary sponsors of this Bill, Senator Manning’s team. They directly asked me to send any questions I had regarding the Bill. I sent 4 questions asking for justification and reasoning of giving a criminal with Gavon Ramsay’s psychological state and criminal history the opportunity for release. I sent these questions a couple times, the last of which garnered a reply that they would answer them shortly. Months later, Senator Manning is still unable to answer my questions and justify the passing of this Bill when dealing with a criminal like Gavon Ramsay. There are criminals who cannot be reformed. Gavon Ramsay is one of them. The law needs to be amended to consider individuals like Gavon Ramsay, who have demonstrated the evil that lies within them, a kind of evil that cannot be reformed or rehabilitated, and allows appropriate justice to be carried out in accordance with the current US Supreme Court ruling on juvenile life without parole.
Read another statement here.