In the autumn of 2005, Treva Terrell Gray, a 35-year-old mother of four sons, was trying to find her footing. Having moved with her family to the relative quiet of Washington, Pennsylvania, for what her mother hoped would be a "safer" life, Treva was navigating a turbulent marriage and personal struggles. She had worked various jobs, including at a factory and as a telemarketer, and was known for her volunteer work with an organization that combated domestic violence.
Her life, however, had become increasingly intertwined with a man whose violent past would soon bring her story to a tragic and brutal end.
Treva’s relationship with Ricky Javon Gray began while he was in prison, a pen-pal correspondence that evolved after his release. In the summer of 2005, they married, just a few months before her death. Treva helped him get settled, and he even enrolled in electrician classes. But the marriage quickly soured. Family members described Ricky as controlling and aggressive; he would track Treva’s whereabouts by calling her cell phone incessantly and screamed at her children. The situation worsened when Ricky's nephew, Ray Joseph Dandridge, also a recently released convict, came to live with the couple in the house owned by Treva's mother, Marna Squires.
By November 1, 2005, Treva had made a decision. After a day of reflection, she confided in her mother that the man she married was "not what I thought he was" and that she intended to ask him for a divorce. It was a conversation she would not have the chance to finish. Just days later, on November 5, a passerby discovered Treva’s body in a wooded area near a steep embankment on Brookside Avenue in Washington. She had been left covered with leaves and twigs, a short distance from her Duncan Avenue home.
Initially, police deemed the death suspicious, but with no immediate signs of trauma, the investigation moved slowly. Treva's mother, Marna Squires, later voiced her frustration, believing police initially assumed her daughter had died of a drug overdose and didn't investigate thoroughly. It wasn't until January 20, 2006, after toxicology reports were completed, that the Washington County coroner officially ruled Treva's death a homicide by strangulation and asphyxiation. By this time, Ricky Gray and his nephew had long since left Pennsylvania.
The truth of what happened to Treva emerged from a horrific, multi-state crime spree. On January 7, 2006, Ricky Gray and Ray Dandridge were arrested in Philadelphia for a series of brutal home-invasion murders in Richmond, Virginia, that had claimed seven lives, including two young children. In custody, Ricky Gray confessed to a Philadelphia detective that he had also murdered his wife. He admitted that on November 5, 2005, he had beaten Treva with a pipe and suffocated her while Dandridge held her down in their bed. His chilling confession, "I'm sorry, and I miss her and wish we could trade places," offered little comfort to her grieving family.
Ricky Javon Gray was one of a pair of serial killers responsible for at least eight murders in late 2005 and early 2006. For his crimes in Virginia, he was convicted on five counts of capital murder and sentenced to death. His nephew, Ray Dandridge, pleaded guilty to three counts of capital murder and received a sentence of life in prison without parole. Ricky Gray was executed by lethal injection in Virginia on January 18, 2017.
For Treva’s family, the legal resolution in another state was a hollow victory. Her mother, Marna, wanted prosecutors in Washington County to hold Gray and Dandridge accountable specifically for her daughter's murder, so her grandchildren could see justice served for their mother. "My daughter was a mother, a friend, a taxpayer, a member of this community," she said. "My daughter was loved. I would like to see justice." The family found solace in holding vigils at a memorial near where Treva’s body was found and cherishing the memory of a woman whose life was stolen far too soon.
