Death Comes to the River House: The Murder of Peggy Thornton Lammers

Murder Sheet

MurderSheet

True Crime, Murder, Unsolved Case, Killing, Murderer, Cold Case

3.8 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the summer of 2017, Margaret "Peggy" Thornton Lammers took some time to relax at her family's "river house," in Deltaville, an idyllic community in Virginia's Middlesex County. The home sat right on the banks of the Piankatank River, and should have been a place of rest for the beloved 61-year-old mother-of-three adult children. After all, she had just spent quite a while traveling between her home in Cleveland, Ohio — where she lived with her husband Anthony Joseph or "Tony" Lammers — and Richmond as she finalized her late parents' estate.

Unfortunately, on July 11, 2017, Peggy's body was found in the river house she so loved. She had been murdered. Her case is still unsolved.

In this episode, we interviewed three investigators in the Lammers case: detectives Chris Gatling and John Graca of the Middlesex County Sherrif's Department and FBI Special Agent Mark Matthews. These men are each determined to close out Peggy's case and secure answers for her family. They will take us through this brutal killing, the staged crime scene, and reveal more details about Peggy's cause of death.

The investigators need the public's help. Somebody out there knows something about what happened to Peggy. If you have information on this case, call the Middlesex Sheriff's Office's dedicated tipline at 804-758-5600 or the FBI’s field office in Richmond, Virginia at 804-261-1044. You can also reach the FBI at the email address: [email protected] or the phone number 1-800-CALLFBI.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Content warning, this episode contains discussion of murder and violence.
0:05.4	Also, if you have information pertinent to Peggy's case, please contact the authorities.
0:11.5	We will discuss how to do so in the conclusion of the episode.
0:16.8	The rivers still flows by the house where Peggy Lammers died. In the sun, the water is blue and
0:23.5	serene. On stormy days, white cap waves splash up against the all but abandoned waterfront property.
0:31.7	The house is mostly empty now. It was once a haven for Peggy's family.
0:37.2	Now, it sits at the confluence of those happy memories and a newer source of devastating pain.
0:44.5	Somebody murdered Peggy at the river house. That killer has gotten away with it for six years.
0:51.5	Many of Peggy's loved ones can't go back to the house, not yet. So the river house sits waiting.
1:00.0	In 1970, Peggy's parents, Dr. John L. and Marjorie Thornton built the summer house.
1:06.7	They bought property in the unincorporated community of Deltaville, Virginia in Middlesex County.
1:11.9	The sliver of land where they made their purchase is known as Stove Point.
1:16.0	Accessible by one single lane, Stove Point juts into the mouth of the Pienke Tank River as it
1:22.4	pours into Virginia's Chesapeake Bay. It's idyllic and attracts vacationers from all around.
1:28.1	Painted a pale, bluish gray. The house where Peggy died was unfussy and primed for summer vacations,
1:35.6	with its wooden deck, pool, and plenty of windows to capture the river view.
1:41.2	For years, her family called it the river house. It was their refuge, a place to get away from
1:47.2	the hustle and bustle of life and enjoy each other's company. Peggy was close with her family.
1:53.0	Her father, John, was a well-established physician in Richmond, Virginia who helped
1:57.4	to found physician's clinical laboratories. That would ultimately get absorbed into a company
2:02.0	now known as LabCore, one of the world's biggest laboratory networks. Peggy's mother Marjorie
2:08.1	was a medical technologist who enjoyed sitting on the deck of the river house,
	...

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