ST. MARYS, Ga. – News4JAX has obtained records detailing the kidnapping and brutal murder of a man whose body was found in a waterway in an area of St. Marys, Georgia known as “Gilligan’s Island” last Thursday.
The victim, John “Scooter” Mamph, 29, was a father and the youngest of five children.
Five people were charged in Mamph’s murder not long after his body was found by a jet skier more. According to affidavits, the five suspects worked together to tie him up and leave him for dead.
Related: 5 arrested, accused in connection to murder of man on Gilligan’s Island in Georgia
According to the St. Marys Police Department, John “Scooter” Mamph’s body was found in the water, gagged by a rope tied around his neck and head and his hands bound behind his back. He had to be cut free because the rope was attached to what looked like a roll of aluminum roofing and a black bag full of rocks.
“He was someone’s son, someone’s nephew,” Tikeisha Parrish, a longtime family friend, said. “He was a little boy’s dad. He didn’t deserve this.”
Parrish said she’s known Mamph since he was a young child. She said he was the youngest of five children born to a single mother.
“That was her baby. He was just so mellow and happy-go-lucky,” Parrish said.
He grew up in the Tampa area. When he was in his early ‘20s, his mom died suddenly of cancer. Parrish said he struggled after that and moved to Georgia with family.
“I think he just kind of felt like, you know, his world was kind of over,” she said. “So he just kind of took off.”
Five people are now charged with Mamph’s murder: Anthony Mistretta, 27, Debra Doughtery, 36, Frank Kennedy III, 55, Megan Robison, 33, and Bernice McGuire, 25. Police said all of them are homeles, and the GBI said they were all known to frequent the area known as Gilligan’s Island.
According to affidavits, Mamph was sleeping with Robison in her tent at Gilligan’s Island on the morning of July 5 when Mistretta, Doughtery, Kennedy, and Mcguire started heading toward it. The affidavit suggests Mamph and Mistretta had been fighting with each other about women they were dating, but people in the area told News4JAX the two had been in conflict over a tent.
According to records, Mistretta hit Mamph in the face. He was then hogtied and thrown into Mcguire’s SUV, where Kennedy continued to beat him and choke him with a seatbelt.
The affidavit said Mcguire and Doughtery drove Mamph to the water, and Mistretta and Kennedy took him out on a boat, tied him to a weighted object and dropped him in the water.
Parrish said just months before his death, Mamph was upbeat and talking about going back to school and making plans with his son.
“He was just a young man, trying to figure out life after losing his mother who was his entire world,” she said. “That’s who he was.”
The GBI said they interviewed all five suspects, as well as other witnesses. All of the suspects are being held in the Camden County jail without bond.
“We are very grateful for all parties involved getting my brother justice as fast as they did,” said Mamph’s sister, Janet Miller.
“John, aka ‘Scooter’ was loved so much,” she said. “He always had a smile on his face [and] was very loving...he loved being a father and was the world’s best uncle. He didn’t deserve this at all. No family should ever have to go through this.”