August 25, 2003
Deadly fall still unsolved in police eyes
By Jessica Gardner
Times Herald-Record
jgardner@th-record.com
Goshen – A 9-year-old boy clad only in his pajama bottoms walks barefoot up to the third-story roof of the Salesian School in the middle of the night. He somehow manages to get over a nearly 4-foot-high parapet to plunge 36 feet to his death.
No one hears a scream.
A local coroner rules the incident a tragic accident.
Cops aren't so sure.
It's been 39 years since someone found little Paul Ramos Jr. face-down on the pavement behind the school dormitory. Even so, questions linger about what happened that summer night so long ago.
Why was the boy on the roof? How did he get over the parapet? What would a motive be if the fall wasn't accidental?
Paul, a New York City boy, was spending the summer of 1964 at a camp held at the Salesian School in Goshen. He was one of 120 boys there, all between the ages of 9 and 14.
The kids slept in a three-story dormitory, with each floor supervised by a camp counselor.
On the top floor of the brick building was an unsecured door that led to the roof. It was the perfect place for the boys to test their model airplanes.
Paul was a big fan of model planes. Maybe that's what he was doing on the roof on Aug. 9, 1964, the night he died. Maybe he got too close to the edge. Maybe he slipped.
It's a theory the cops aren't buying.
Former Village of Goshen police Chief Frederick Walker said at the time that the only way the boy could have fallen was if he was walking on top of the parapet around the roof. The parapet was 65 inches high in some spots, 44 inches in others.
Some suggested the boy might have fallen off the roof while he was asleep. But his father said Paul had no history of sleepwalking.
Suicide was ruled out.
Dr. Michael Baden is a renowned forensic pathologist who recently reviewed the 1964 autopsy report at the request of Village of Goshen police. He said the boy's body was too far from the wall for him simply to have fallen.
And there's a dispute surrounding Paul's time of death. The coroner involved in the original investigation ruled that Paul died between 6 and 7 a.m. Baden said it was more likely around midnight.
So how did this little boy's life come to an end?
Village of Goshen police are digging into the past in search of answers. It hasn't been easy.
The old police records aren't very helpful. Some camp employees were uncooperative in speaking with police, while others refused to be interviewed at all.
There were notes about one boy at the camp whom Paul's father said often picked on his son. The boy supposedly stole a silver belt buckle from Paul and refused to give it back. The buckle, which was not among Paul's possessions turned over to police, was found in his dormitory bed the day after he died of a fractured skull.
So far, Goshen police haven't been able to track down the other boy.
The Salesian School, a junior seminary for Roman Catholic boys, has long been shut down. Any records about who was at the school at the time burned in a fire during the 1970s.
But police keep searching for clues and conducting interviews, probing into memories that have been dormant for decades.
Cops are still hoping for a break in the case that has haunted Paul's parents for what seems like forever.
Editor's note:This story was compiled from information obtained through the Village of Goshen police and news reports.
Anyone with information regarding Paul's death or who knows the names of counselors or campers who may have been at the school at that time is asked to contact Village of Goshen police at 294-7988.
