Police: Duluth man suspected of killing family, himself got gun permit in September

DULUTH – A man who police say killed his family before shooting himself last week was approved for a gun permit in September, two months after he was hospitalized following an incident where he had held a knife to his wife’s throat.

Anthony Nephew, 46, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound alongside his wife, Kathryn Ramsland, 45, and son Oliver Nephew, 7, at the family’s house at 4401 W. Sixth St., across from Denfeld High School. He is suspected of first killing his ex-wife, Erin Abramson, 47, and their son Jacob Nephew, 15, who were found dead at their home on Tacony Street, less than a mile away.

Nephew applied for and received a gun permit on Sept. 9, according to a search warrant filed in St. Louis County. The filing, alongside incident reports, indicate Nephew had mounting concerns about the country’s political future.

Ramsland called local authorities on July 3 to report that Anthony Nephew had attacked her and was suicidal. He was cooperative when officers arrived and admitted to holding a knife to his wife’s neck. He told a police officer that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in the past five years and had been going downhill. “He had a med change a few days ago and since then voices have been telling him [President-elect Donald] Trump is going to take over the world and he needs to kill his family to protect them,” according to an incident report.

Nephew said at the time that he believed Russians had control of his mind since he was 6 years old. He said that if Trump took over control, to “put a bullet in his head and the head of his families.” Nephew spent the night at Aspirus St. Luke’s hospital, according to the search warrant.

Nephew had spoken openly, both on Facebook and in a column in the Duluth News Tribune, about mental health struggles.

On Nov. 7, Duluth police responded to a welfare check at Abramson’s home after she didn’t show up for work. A co-worker with the city of Superior said that this was out of character and that Abramson had recently said her ex-husband had been “going off the deep end,” according to the search warrant. Officers found her and their son dead.

Anthony Nephew was found dead alongside Ramsland and their son Oliver in the home’s primary bedroom.

The tragedies have had a broad reach in this community, where about 500 people turned out for a quiet candlelight memorial walk this week in honor of the victims.

According to the search warrant, a gun, shell casings and bullet fragments were found at Anthony Nephew’s home. Electronics were also taken from the scene, including an iPad and a laptop computer. At a news conference last week, Police Chief Mike Ceynowa said they were investigating a timeline of events using cellphone data. Two phones were retrieved from Nephew’s 2007 Honda Civic.

Police were called to Nephew’s house in February 2021 because he was “having a mental breakdown,” according to another incident report. He was not suicidal or violent at the time and had no weapons. He told officers that he had been having paranoid thoughts for the past month and agreed to be seen at Essentia Health.