The 1975 murder of Debbie Gama, which shocked the small town of Erie, Pennsylvania, will be covered in the upcoming Dead Days of Summer episode.
Days after the 16-year-old high school student vanished from her home, her body was discovered floating in Cussewago Creek in Crawford County. Debbie supposedly got into a fight with her mother on the day of her disappearance and stormed away. Her family never saw her alive again.
It was suddenly revealed that Debbie’s favorite high school teacher, Raymond Payne, was responsible for this horrific murder. Despite Raymond’s claims to the contrary, he was finally found guilty of first-degree murder and given a life sentence. He developed problems after contracting COVID-19, and he passed away in detention in 2020.
Whom and why did Debbie Gama’s killer?
At Debbie’s school, Vincent Strong High School in Erie County, Pennsylvania, Raymond Payne was a well-liked instructor. He was one of her favorite professors. Although Debbie’s murder was unsolved by the police, Debbie’s mother allegedly hired a private investigator who found a connection between the slain girl and the high school teacher.
When the police followed up on a tip and discovered copper wires in Raymond’s possession that matched the ones Debbie had been tied with just before she was killed, they made Raymond the subject of an arrest. Raymond Payne quickly acknowledged his role in Debbie’s death but maintained that it was an accident.
Debbie had been assaulted before to being fatally strangled, according to the investigators. Payne asserted that he only intended to take pictures of Debbie and had tied her up with her permission. She supposedly choked on the cables and died in a bizarre accident. He further asserted that Debbie Gama was not the victim of an assault.
He entered a guilty plea to a murder charge in 1977. He was given a life sentence after being found guilty of first-degree murder by a panel of three judges. Later, a former inmate at the Erie County prison is said to have claimed that Payne allegedly informed him Debbie’s death was due to Payne’s long-standing fantasies about sex.
What has become of Raymond Payne?
In 1997, Raymond Payne submitted his initial appeal and asked for DNA testing. His appeal was finally granted in 2014 after multiple failed attempts. Investigation revealed that Payne wasn’t the one who attacked Debbie Gama. Judges, however, ruled him guilty of first-degree murder once more during his retrial in 2020, stating that the severity of the assault or lack thereof did not change what he did to the young girl.
Payne was a prisoner at the State Correctional Institution at Laurel Highlands, where he contracted COVID-19 and passed away in 2020. The coroner’s office determined that pneumonia and COVID-19 caused cardio-respiratory arrest, which was the cause of his death.
Investigation Discovery will broadcast the upcoming Dead Days of Summer episode, titled Twisted Lessons, on August 11, 2022. It will go into great detail on Debbie Gama’s passing and explore Raymond Payne’s post-conviction life. Watch this space for additional developments.