On the morning of July 11, 2017, Anne Ferguson called her sister, Margaret “Peggy” Lammers, who was getting some rest and relaxation at their family’s waterfront cottage in Deltaville, Virginia. A 61-year-old who lived in Cleveland, Ohio, with her husband, Lammers had spent more than a year in her native state taking care of her ill father, and when he died, settling his affairs in nearby Richmond, where she grew up.
Lammers was alone for a weekend getaway in the summer residence her parents built in 1970, Ferguson told The Daily Beast.
“I hadn’t heard from her and I thought it was weird that her phone went straight to voicemail,” Ferguson said. “I tried again about an hour later and she didn’t pick up. I assumed her phone wasn’t charged and was turned off.”
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Lammers and her relatives always kept in close contact, Ferguson said. By 5:30 p.m., Lammers’ husband Tony called her to ask if his wife was with her because he had not been able to get a hold of her, Ferguson said. Lammers’ oldest daughter, AJ, who spoke to her mother every weekday when she got off work, had also been unable to make contact with her.
“Her husband asked if Peggy was with me,” Ferguson said. “I told him no and that I was expecting her any minute. He then called the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office to conduct a welfare check.”
That evening, a detective walked through a slightly open glass door at the vacation home. Lammers’ body was lying in a blood-stained hallway. She died from “blunt-force trauma,” according to a bulletin put out by the FBI, which is assisting the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office in the homicide investigation.
Middlesex Sheriff’s Det. Chris Gatling is the current homicide investigator piecing together the evidence found at the crime scene that could lead to Lammers’ killer.
“It is fair to say we have a theory, but I am not going to divulge that,” Gatling told The Daily Beast. “A suspect has been developed, but it takes time to disprove or prove that. I don’t believe at this point, that [whoever committed the murder] was a stranger.”
Five years after the murder, Ferguson is the only family member who’s walked through the cottage since Lammers was beaten to death. The vicious homicide sent her family reeling. “I have not been back since her murder,” her 39-year-old son Jay Lammers told The Daily Beast. “It’s very tragic for me. I miss her every day. I am so heartbroken that she is gone.”
Lammers, her sister, her oldest brother Jack Thornton, and their parents were a tight-knit family who regularly spent summers and weekends at the cottage, which had panoramic views of the Piankatank River that flows into Chesapeake Bay, Ferguson said. “Peggy loved to go to the river all the time,” Ferguson said. “We would all go to the river together to fish and crab and do that kind of thing.”
Their father, Marine veteran and physician John Thornton, helped found Physician Clinical Laboratories which merged with another company that became LabCorp, according to his obituary.
In 1987, Lammers married and moved to Cleveland with her husband Tony. In addition to Jay and AJ, the couple also have a third child, their daughter Presley. The Lammers also spent plenty of quality time at the cottage house, her son remembers.
Peggy Lammers and her son, Jay.
Photo Illustrations by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty/FBI“We grew up down there, spending our summers fishing, sailing, swimming and riding bikes,” Jay Lammers said. “We just enjoyed each other’s company. My sisters are the same way.”
He credits his mother for giving him an irreverent sense of humor and showing him how to live with empathy and consideration for others. “We shared laughs every time we talked,” Jay Lammers said. “She cared deeply for others, constantly putting their needs above her own, especially her family and her children.”
Ferguson said in 2016, a year after their mother died, Lammers came to Richmond to take care of their then-89-year-old dad, who had an anemic condition and a weakened immune system. Lammers had the time to look after him because all her children were adults living on their own, Ferguson added.
“She was with him 24/7 until he died that November,” she said. “At the time, my kids were 12 and 14. He couldn’t be around animals or children because he was prone to infections. The only people who could go see him were my sister, my brother and I. We wore masks around him. It was like COVID before COVID.”
On Saturday, July 8, 2017, Lammers drove from her sister’s home in Richmond to the family cottage, which sat on Stove Point Road, a single-lane street lined with trees. It’s the only way in and out.
“We spoke several times on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, which was our brother’s birthday,” Ferguson said. “We last spoke at 6 p.m. on July 10. She was coming back to Richmond that day, but she decided to stay another night.”
In 2020, the FBI released a short video that takes viewers on a tour through the crime scene at the cottage, which the family has left untouched since Lammers’ murder. A little over three minutes long, the clip includes a chyron stating, “while it appeared someone had broken in, investigators believe the scene was staged.” The camera pans to a broken telescope sprawled on the floor near the sliding glass door, a knife set perfectly in the middle of the kitchen sink, an unfinished puzzle on a table and a bathroom sink filled with toiletries.
The footage ends with a voiceover by Jay Lammers: “I cannot get away from the fact that I think it was someone that knew my mom.”
Det. Gatling declined to comment about the crime scene: “I have to protect the integrity of the case and the evidence.”
Ferguson and Jay Lammers said authorities have told them that the crime scene was staged to look like a burglary. His mom was very keen on telling him and his sisters to always be aware of their surroundings and not give people a reason to do them harm, Jay Lammers added.
“It’s hard to think it was just some random act,” Jay Lammers said. “Unfortunately, I feel that it was probably someone who knew her and she didn’t blink an eye in letting them into the house until it was too late.”
Ferguson said Gatling has assured her that the sheriff’s office has evidence that he can’t talk about that points to a suspect. “The fact that she was killed in the hallway indicates to me that the person knew her and knew the house,” Ferguson said. “It’s unbelievable that someone could get in and get out with no one seeing anything.”
A half a decade later, Jay Lammers says he is not sure if he, his father and his sisters will ever be able to return to the cottage or find solace. “There is still no closure, still no peace and still no justice,” he said. “Not knowing what happened every single day is a terrible place to be. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone else.”
