A 15-year-old Florida high school student has been arrested for allegedly strangling his mom and burying her body under a church fire pit following a conflict over a bad grade on his report card.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports Gregory Logan Ramos, 15, of DeBary faces a murder charge in Friday’s death of his mother 46-year-old Gail Cleavenger.
The newspaper, citing the Volusia County Sheriff Office, reports that Ramos confessed to killing his mom after they quarreled about him receiving a “D” on a recent report card.
The Sheriff’s Office reportedly told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that two of Ramos’ “close friends” and classmates, Dylan Ceglarek and Brian Porras, both 17, have also been arrested and face numerous charges amid allegations that they helped cover up the alleged crime by staying a fake burglary at Ramos’ home. Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood told WFTV the pair is alleged to have helped dispose of Cleavenger’s body.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood reportedly said that Ramos is believed to have crept into his mom’s room around 12:30 a.m. Friday, woken her up and strangled her until she died, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports.
Ramos then allegedly used a wheelbarrow to place her lifeless body in the family’s van and drove to the River City Church about 1 ½ miles from his home where he buried her underneath a fire pit, the newspaper reported.
Ramos reportedly returned home where he and his two friends allegedly faked a burglary by busting open a door and “removing items and leaving the van running,” sheriff’s officials told the newspaper.
According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Sheriff Chitwood said in an interview that Ramos left school early to make a “Grammy-winning phone call to 9-1-1 to talk about this horrible incident that did not really occur.”
When Cleavenger failed to show up for work Friday, the Sheriff’s Office issued a missing person alert and investigators began to doubt Ramos’ story, Chitwood reportedly told the newspaper.
The Sheriff’s Office was scheduled to remove Cleavenger’s body from the fire pit on Saturday morning, while Ramos was being held in a juvenile detention facility.
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[Feature image: Volusia County Sheriff’s Office]
