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Originally Daily Voice was told and reported that Lourdes Ramos Baez, 67, was found dead by her daughter, Johana Ramos, inside under a pile of clothes in her bedroom in the first block of South Main Street in Dover Borough around 2:19 p.m., Tuesday, June 6, 2023, according to the York County Coroner's office.
It is now known that Ramos didn't just find her mother, but was possibly one of her two killers.
The 31-year-old first confessed to a friend over dinner on June 16, according to the affidavit.
The friend reported this to the police the following day and they brought Ramos in for an interview on Friday, June 23.
Ramos Baez was "the victim of traumatic injuries" and scissors were found stabbed into her back, authorities in York County said.
Ramos Baez's official cause of death was "blunt force head and neck injuries with strangulation" and the manner was "homicide" per the results of the autopsy, according to authorities in York County.
William Emilio Torres-Gautier, 42, Ramos Baez's son-in-law, was found at the scene, according to Northern York County Regional Police.
The mother-in-law was found under some clothes in a room smelling of bleach, bound with duct tape, and tortured in an upstairs bedroom according to NYCRPD Chief David Lash.
The duct tape is believed to have been handed to Torres-Gautier by Ramos, according to the affidavit. During the interview she said she found the body when she came to the bedroom to help her husband with something, and when the police inquired about what sort of help she said "tape," as said in the court documents.
She then confessed to walking to the bedroom and finding her mom laying on her stomach, with her husband using one hand to pull her hair and the other to hold her hands behind her back, as detailed by police in court documents.
At some point he turned to his wife and said "she just won't die" and he needed help finding the duct tape, according to the affidavit.
Ramos found the tape on a shelf in the bedroom and wrapped her mother's face and head with it, but had trouble getting it on so her husband asked her to leave, she told the police according to the affidavit.
When the officers arrived at what had been reported as "a disturbance" Johana Ramos and her two small children were waiting at the rear of her mother, Ramos Baez's home with her husband, Torres-Gautier, according to the initial police release.
While he spoke with the police, she was "observed to be signaling for help. As officers attempted to speak to the (Ramos), (Torres-Gautier) intervened and pushed a section of wooden fence at officers, striking one of them. The officers took (Torres-Gautier) into custody after a brief struggle," the police stated in a release.
It is now known that during dinner with her friend, Ramos was asked what she would tell the police if they questioned her about helping, and she said she "would just tell them (I am) afraid of (my husband)," as stated in the affidavit.
The daughter, Johana Ramos, told police her husband talked of killing her mother and stealing all her money the day before, according to court documents.
Torres-Gautier has been charged with the following:
- Criminal Homicide.
- Aggravated Assault on Law Enforcement Officers.
- Terroristic Threats.
- Abuse of Corpse.
- Resisting Arrest.
- Criminal Mischief.
On the day of the killing, Torres-Gautier was also charged with Institutional Vandalism of an Educational Facility, Disorderly Conduct Hazardous/Physical, Offense, and Criminal Mischief-Tamper With Property, court records show.
He was previously sentenced to time served for harassment in 2021, according to a previous court docket. Torres-Gautier remains in the York County Prison after being denied bail per the judge's order and state law on the nature of the charges.
Johana Ramos was arrested on Saturday, June 24, 2023, for the charges of felony Criminal Homicide, and felony Conspiracy - Criminal Homicide, according to her court docket.
This is her first ever criminal offense, but she has been denied bail and remanded to the county prison per state law for charges of this nature.
Her preliminary hearing has been set before Magisterial District Judge David C. Eshbach at 9 a.m. on July 7, 2023, according to her court docket.
Anyone with information is asked to the Northern York County Regional Police tip line at 717-467-TELL (8355) or email tips@nycrpd.org referencing case number: 2023-024254.
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