The Times West Virginian

Local News

July 3, 2009

Complaint: Murderer waited on victim

Idamay resident Vanfossen shot in shoulder and back, beaten in the head

By Mallory Panuska

FAIRMONT — Twenty-one year-old Samuel Ramsey III, according to court reports, apparently wanted 44-year-old Lyndon Vanfossen dead.

And on Wednesday afternoon, the young Idamay resident made sure that happened.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Marion County Magistrate Court, Ramsey waited in the garage of a residence at 143 High St, in Idamay with a loaded 12-gauge shotgun. When Vanfossen entered the garage, Ramsey shot him in the shoulder. When the shot did not kill Vanfossen, he took off running toward the residence, which sits high on top of a grassy knoll in the small Idamay neighborhood.

Ramsey did not give up, though. As he reloaded the weapon, he chased the victim up the yard and shot him again in the back, causing him to fall to the ground.

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