— Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office
by Tom Chillemi –
The 2017 murder of Margaret “Peggy” Lammers in Deltaville is gaining nationwide attention. The Feb. 21, 2022, issue of People magazine contains a four page story: “Search for a Killer.” People magazine also produced a video that details how the brutal murder has affected the family. It aired on People TV.
The FBI is leading the investigation, said Major M.E. Sampson of the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO).
The FBI produced a video about the case. In the FBI video, text overlays images and at one point states, “While it appeared someone had broken in, investigators believe the scene was staged by whoever killed Peggy.”
Investigators found DNA at the murder scene that was from someone other than Peggy Lammers, who was 61 at the time of her death. She was barefooted and a bloody shoe print was found.
Since 1986, Peggy Lammers and her family lived in Gates Mills, Ohio, near Cleveland. Her parents, Dr. John L. and Marjorie L. Thornton built the family vacation river home in 1970 on Stove Point Road in Deltaville. The river house is on a private road that is the only way in or out of the neighborhood.
Inconsistent
Lammers’ sister, Anne Ferguson, has worked to keep the investigation in the news, so the case will not go “cold.” In the People magazine article, Ferguson notes there is inconsistent evidence at the river house. Ferguson, recalled in an earlier Southside Sentinel story that she and Peggy talked by phone about 7 p.m. on July 10, 2017 and Peggy told her she had thought about leaving that day but decided to stay one more night at the river home and leave the next day.
On July 11, 2017 no one could contact Lammers. About 6 p.m. deputies went to the house and found Lammers lying in a hallway in a pool of blood. The cause of death was later determined to be blunt force trauma.
Investigators never found Lammers’ phone.
Frozen in place
Both the FBI and People TV videos show a murder scene that remains, in some ways, the way it was when Peggy Lammers died of blunt force trauma more than four years ago.
Most family members have not returned to the river home that was once their happy place, the People magazine article notes. The article quotes FBI Special Agent Andrew Mason as saying, “Women who are killed are often killed by people they know.”
Wider search
News journalist Jon Burkett videos and produces the “Crime Insider” for WTVR-CBS Channel 6 in Richmond. He has aired at least two videos on the Lammers murder, including one in July 2021, that focused on the FBI’s request for information. Last week, Burkett told the Sentinel that the CBS affiliate in Cleveland is looking for information on the case.
MCSO Detective Chris Gatling is quoted in the People magazine article saying the murder is not a cold case.
“If you have information, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem, it could be important,” said Major Sampson. “Please contact us on the Crime Line at 1-804-758-5600.”
