I wanna give a shout out to my friend Joseph Schmidt who runs the facebook page for this case as well as runs The Resource Center For Cold Case Missing Children's Cases for suggesting this case to me. He also helps me run my private facebook group. Joseph co-wrote this entry. Since this was a collaboration and Joseph and I didn't agree on who the guilty party was. There is no case analysis in this entry. Enjoy.
Shurlock
"We were not only mother and daughter, we were best friends," said her mother, Margaret Pichon
St. Johns County Sheriff's Office 904-824-8304
Personal Information
Date of Birth:
03/26/1973 to Howard and Margaret Lambert
(Howard was 73 at the time Martha went missing. Margaret was 33. Howard has since passed away.)
Missing Since:
11/27/1985 (12 at the time)
Missing From:
Elkton, Florida (Presumably last seen walking down Kerri Lynn Rd.)
Height and Weight:
4'5, 70 pounds
Hair and Eyes:
Blond & Blue
Wearing:
Short Sleeved Summer Dress sometimes described as a 2 Piece Bathing Suit
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Birthmarks on the front of her Right Thigh and on her Chest. (Left side) 2 Front Teeth protrude. Mole on Left Collar Bone.
Agencies
St. Johns County Sheriff's Office:
904-824-8304
Case Number:
271329
NamUs:
#MP6278
NCIC:
M-293192969
NCMEC:
601793
Links
Background on Martha
Martha Jean Lambert was born on March 26th 1973 to Howard and Martha Lambert. Martha had a troubled home life. Her father was an alcoholic and she was in and out of several foster homes due to being neglected and abused. (She was often described as dirty in appearance) There was constant fighting in the home. Lots of screaming and arguments. Her two brothers had run away from their home prior to Martha disappearing. Martha was a 7th Grader at Ketterlinus Jr. High and living off Kerri Lynn Rd in Elkton, Florida at the time she vanished. She was described as a normal kid her age. She had few friends but was described as a friendly young girl. Her case , Like many others of that time was initially investigated as a runaway. However Law Enforcement believes Martha did not leave willingly. At the time she went missing the case was being investigated as a non familiar abduction case. It has since been considered closed.
Another neighbor said it wasn't unusual to hear Howard Lambert yelling inside the trailer, adding there was "lots of anger in that family."
Details of Disappearance
Note: There are many different versions as to what occurred the day Martha disappeared. When I initially looked into this case the newspaper clippings available were virtually useless regarding the day in question. Most just gave Martha's physical description and where she was last seen. Most of the details come from the articles written after her brother David confessed in 2000 to killing her. More on that a little later.
November 27th 1985
Prior on the day of her disappearance Martha left school and visited with friends at a neighbors home for an undisclosed amount of time. Some articles I read say she stayed until around 7:30 pm. After that she walked to her home off Kerri Lynn Rd. where she and her family lived in a mobile home. She had a small dinner and then left her residence. According to one account she was walking down Kerri Lynn Rd. and was never heard from again. In one of several stories told by her brother David. She left and would not disclose where she was going. David also stated she entered a black vehicle the night she disappeared. In one story told by her mom, Martha said she was going over to a neighbors house and she would be back in 5 minutes. Once Margaret realized that Martha was gone longer than she should have been. She went looking for her. She was reported missing that night. The immediate area was searched. Neighbors and local residents were questioned. In one sighting a neighbor stated they saw her walking down Kerri Lynn Rd. Some neighbors also reported seeing a Green Van in the area that was acting suspiciously. The residents in the neighborhood did not know of anyone who owned, Nor did they recognize the Van as being from around the area. Law Enforcement initially investigated the case as a runaway. However, Margaret has always believed her daughter was abducted by a non family member.
Additional Articles
Saint Augustine Record
Missing: 19 years later, cold case baffles detectives
Published Sunday, November 28, 2004
The mother is convinced her 12-year-old daughter, Martha Jean Lambert, was abducted from the street outside her St. Augustine house 19 years and one day ago. An investigator who has studied the case is almost as sure that the little girl is dead, possibly killed on the day she disappeared.
Both want to know what happened to Martha, a happy little girl who, on the day she disappeared, was looking forward to visiting relatives, her family remembers.
"We were not only mother and daughter, we were best friends," said her mother, Margaret Pichon.
People who knew her also said Martha was a girl who was friendly but always dirty, a victim of screaming abuse at home, a little girl with an odd family. A neighbor said her brothers "were kind of strange." Her father, an alcoholic, was 74 at the time of her disappearance. Her mother was 33. Since she has been missing, her father has died, her mother has had two nervous breakdowns and one of her brothers now goes by the name Cynthia Jean Lambert.
Investigator Chuck West, a major at the St. John's County Sheriff's Office, is searching for clues to solve the mystery of what happened to Martha, who would be 31 today. The cold case doesn't get daily attention, but does get scrutiny every few years.
"There is a strong possibility she was the victim of a homicide at the hands of someone close to her," West said last week.
To this day, missing persons posters of Martha hang at highway rest areas and on bulletin boards throughout the region. Her dental records and description are registered in national databases. Martha Jean Lambert, a 12-year-old Ketterlinus Junior High School seventh-grader, disappeared 19 years ago from her mobile home on Kerri Lynn Road.
Martha disappeared from her home on Kerri Lynn Road off Holmes Boulevard the day before Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, 1985. It is the oldest missing persons case in the county. The blond, blue-eyed girl was last seen at dusk walking from her family's trailer wearing a two-piece bathing suit. It was an average November day, not rainy, not cold.
Martha was 4-foot, 8-inches and weighed 70 pounds.Those involved don't agree on much of the rest of the story. The family members each have different ideas. The detectives also have varying theories.
"In this case, witness statements aren't reliable," West said. The dysfunctional family relationships hurt the investigation, he added.
Abuse played a role in the Lambert's family life, West said.After 19 years, some of the details are fuzzy for the family, but the feelings remain the same. Martha's mother, grandmother and aunt all spoke last week on the eve of 19th anniversary of Martha's disappearance about the girl they loved so dearly.
After Martha disappeared, the family was torn apart. Pichon, recently remarried and formerly Margaret Lambert, said after Martha was gone, fighting increased between her and her husband, Martha's father, Howard Lambert.
"It broke her dad and I up," Pichon said Friday. "He was too much into alcohol."
Pichon's two sons, both older than Martha, have been in trouble with the law. The extended family was devastated. The father died while still living on Kerri Lynn Road some years after the disappearance. Pichon couldn't remember exactly what year he died. She now lives in Danville, Ill. She left her husband before he died.
Martha's older brothers, David Lambert and Raymond Lambert, are in Florida. David was last known to be in East Palatka and Raymond in Orlando. In 2002, the Sheriff's Office received a tip that Martha's body may be buried by State Road 207. They used radar equipment to search the area, but found nothing. Construction may have covered the grave, if there is one.
Pichon, now 52, didn't understand why the deputies searched the family's backwoods for Martha. She was sure her daughter was taken from the area.
"The only thing they found back there was dead dogs," Pichon said.
Martha's mother is upset about the way the Sheriff's Office handled the case.
"I still remember her last words, 'Mom, I'm going over, I'll be back in five minutes,' " Pichon said late last week in a telephone interview.
Pichon was at a neighbor's house with her daughter for a social gathering shortly before the girl disappeared. She would not have run away, Pichon said, and she would never even get in a friend's car without permission. When Martha didn't return to the social, her mother went looking for her. When she walked up to the family trailer, her son walked out laughing, she said.
"It bothers me that my youngest boy wouldn't tell me what he was laughing about," Pichon said.
She said both the boys were devastated when Martha didn't come back.
"Raymond kept saying, 'I hope Martha comes home soon. I hope they find her,' " Pichon said.
West interviewed Martha's brother, David Lambert, the night she disappeared. He was 14 at the time.
First the teenager told the Sheriff's Office that he saw Martha get into a black vehicle. The story didn't hold, West said. He then said he last saw her walking down the street to go to the Lil' Champ on State Road 207.
"He was covering or protecting something," West said.
Pichon agrees her son may know something he has never been able to say. She fears he may have been threatened by the people who abducted her daughter. Alan Godby, 46, lives two trailers down from the Lambert's old home. He helped scour the thick brush behind the mobile homes that extended to S.R. 207 for four days. He remembers Martha spent lots of time at friend's houses in the neighborhood.
"She was friendly," he paused. "Her brothers were kind of strange."
The neighbors in the area all knew each other. If someone was trying to take her, she could have run to any of the homes, Godby said. Godby is the only neighbor from 1985 still living on Kerri Lynn Road.
"She wasn't really happy at home and she never had clean clothes to wear," he said as he looked to where the old trailer used to be. A different mobile home sits at the bend in the road in its place. Godby didn't know Martha's mother, but remembers being able to hear her father yelling inside the house. "Lots of anger in that family," he said.
Sgt. Mike Quintieri interviewed Martha's brother about four years ago. "Until she is no longer a missing person, no one can put it behind themselves," he said. David Lambert, 33, of East Palatka, called the Sheriff's Office in 2000 wanting to talk about Martha.
"I seen her walk off into the dark," David Lambert said in the interview with the Sheriff's Office. He was the last person to see her that day and she still lingers vividly in his mind. The two were close, he said.
He was on probation for drug charges at the time of the interview.
"I was just partying every night, trying not to think about it," David Lambert said.
Their mother said, "David was just so protective over her. I don't know why he couldn't have kept her from being kidnapped." Raymond Lambert, 34, is the oldest of the three siblings. His now signs his name Cynthia Jean Lambert. Where he was on the day Martha disappeared is not clear. His mother said he was at church, his brother told detectives in 2000 that he doesn't remember.
Martha has extended family living in St. Johns County. Her grandmother, Anna Jones, and her aunt, Cheryl Elliot, both said they think about her every day. Martha was shy, loved church, always wore a smile and was a good student, they both said. She wouldn't have run off, they agreed.
"Martha Jean was happy being home," Elliot said. "She never had no problems."
Elliot remembers Martha being excited about Thanksgiving. The family was going to spend the day at Jones' house.
"I even dream about that child," Elliot said. "Deep in my heart I'm hoping she's still alive."
After Martha disappeared, Pichon said she got a call with a girl's voice, saying "Mom, I'm O.K.," but it didn't sound like Martha. Pichon dreams of her daughter. Visions of Martha in a warehouse yelling for help appeared shortly after the disappearance. Her more recent dreams of Martha show her living in California near lakes.
Pichon went through stages of wondering what she did wrong, remembering her daughter and blaming others. She moved from St. Johns County in 1990 to start over. She wanted to be able to think of her daughter as staying with a relative. She also left so her sons would be more independent, Pichon said.
Three times since she moved she has come back to the area. Her sons still call to check in, but she hasn't heard from them in about five months.
"They were sort of lost without her," Pichon said. "She was a peacekeeper between the two of them."
Pichon keeps a picture of her daughter around a favorite mug. Anther cup has the age progressed photo of Martha. Soccer, singing, country music, fried potatoes, spaghetti are reminders of her daughter's favorite things. The Sheriff's Office gets reports of a few hundred missing persons each year, West said.
"We've spent hundreds and hundreds of man hours on this case," West said. "It has been worked on by at least half a dozen detectives."
Most missing persons cases are resolved with in a few hours or at least a few weeks. Martha is one of three that remains open.
"The case is bizarre," West said.
Today, Martha may be a mom herself, or she may be buried beneath the dirt still in St. Johns County.
Quintieri said, "The sad part is she is still somewhere."
