Law enforcement considered the possibility J.Z. Knight, who purportedly channels Ramtha, requested the 1992 murder of a Washington man, according to a cold case update written in 2014 by a detective of the Thurston County Sheriff's Office. The document was recently obtained by Expanding Frontiers Research as part of a now-year-long ongoing release of records responsive to Ramtha's School of Enlightenment.
Joe Sumrall was beaten and strangled to death in 1992 at his trailer in Thurston County, Washington. The still-unsolved crime was undeniably enmeshed with Knight and her Ramtha group. Sumrall was a follower of Knight, who leads the Ramtha school, described in police records as a cult-like organization that espouses a philosophy of spiritual channeling. Police determined Sumrall was bound and forced to tell one or more perpetrators where approximately $20,000 in Canadian one-ounce maple leaf coins were hidden.
The scene of the Joe Sumrall murder
Sumrall's wife discovered his lifeless body in their trailer about 11pm the night of April 3, 1992. She had just returned from the Ramtha property. Their two-year-old son was sitting outside in their truck, strapped in a child restraint seat and unharmed, according to a 1993 case synopsis. Officers suspected Sumrall interrupted a burglary or that the child was placed in the car seat rather than left alone unattended. After years of the crime remaining unsolved, police got a new lead in 2013.
That's when news surfaced that a former Ramtha student, Virginia Coverdale, made a social media post about a potential suspect. The circumstances implicated Knight and the case was again actively under investigation. Coverdale, however, refused to disclose the name of the individual and other details to Knight's attorneys. More doubt was cast upon the Ramtha camp when Coverdale leveled concerning accusations of abuse taking place inside the 80-acre Ramtha compound. The Thurston County Sheriff's Office reportedly informed the media in 2013 that, while Knight's name certainly came up during investigation of the Sumrall murder case, she was not a person of interest.
A February 2014 cold case update suggested otherwise.
“I received a tip that Sumrall was murdered at the request of JZ Knight,” a detective wrote. “I was given the name of a former RSE member that reportedly killed Sumrall.”
The possible suspect reportedly fled the United States after the crime but may have returned. They apparently used multiple social security numbers to remain difficult to track. From the cold case update:
Ramtha School of Enlightenment was emailed and offered an opportunity for Ms. Knight or a spokesperson to comment for potential inclusion in this article. It did not immediately respond.
In the 1993 case synopsis cited above, challenges to law enforcement created by the Ramtha school were addressed. Knight “caters to individuals with too much money and not enough brains,” a detective wrote. “The followers are generally well-educated and affluent. This has created the problem for us of handling well-to-do folks living in close proximity to those who are not.”:
Records previously obtained from the Thurston County Sheriff's Office document many more crime reports responsive to Ramtha and Knight's followers. These involve murders, burglaries and a variety of violent crimes observable through hundreds of law enforcement reports, memos, digital images, digital audio recordings, and similar files. Several cases involve followers returning from Ramtha activities to discover their dwellings had become crime scenes.
Multiple emails were sent over the previous year in an effort to provide personnel from Ramtha's School of Enlightenment opportunities to comment. No responses were received.
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