Teenager strangulates mother for scolding him over 'poor grades'

Son buries mother in church fire pit, stages home to look like there was break in

A 15-year-old boy in Florida on Sunday was charged with the murder of his mother, burying her body under a church fire pit and then trying to stage his home to look like there was a break in, Mail Online reported.

Gregory Logan Ramos, the alleged culprit, had confessed to strangling his architect mother Gail Cleavenger, 46, at their home after they exchanged hot words about him getting a D grade at school, authorities say.

Ramos then teamed up with his close friends from University High School, Dylan Ceglarek and Brian Porras, both 17, to make it seem as though Cleavenger was killed during a break-in.

Ramos and his mother had an argument about his D grade at around 11pm on November 1, then he woke her up at around 12.30am in the early hours of the next day and cut off her air supply.

"He went into her room and woke her up and began strangling her and strangled her till he killed her,' Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood said, added that the motive was "rage".

In between the argument the mother had called father Danny Cleavenger - who was away on a business trip in Seattle - to tell him about the grade.

He found out about her death when he returned home Friday night.

During his confession he said he used a wheelbarrow to move her body into the family van and then he drove to River City Church 1.5 miles away where he buried her in a fire pit.

At first he drove to Daytona's Holly Hill area to dump her corpses but headed back him to find a shovel before he went to his alternative plan.'

Meanwhile, his friends kicked the door in, took items from the house and left the van's engine running in an effort to make it appear as though there had been a break-in.

"Then got home and made in his words a call to 911 to talk about this horrible incident that did not really occur," Chitwood added.

Chitwood said Ramos told them what really happened after he initially tried to say his mother dropped him off to school Friday morning.

However the details did not add up after Cleavenger's architect firm said she didn't show up to work that morning.

Law enforcement were suspicious of the boy – who returned home from school early on the day of the crime and made the call at 3.52pm - almost immediately.

He reported his mother missing and noted the van left running in the driveway.

The article originally appeared in Mail Online