Twenty-Four Years After This Girl Vanished on Thanksgiving, Her Brother Made a Disturbing Confession
Having a child go missing is one of the worst things that could possibly happen to a family. There’s something about not knowing if your kid is okay or not that makes it all the more agonizing. It’s this uncertainty that causes you to imagine all of the worst possible scenarios, which makes the situation torturous in an entirely different way than having a child pass away before your eyes. This is the kind of agony that the Lambert family had to undergo for years as their daughter disappeared one Thanksgiving day.
In most missing children cases, the kid turns up somewhere nearby, having run away from home in a youthful act of rebellion. This was not one of those cases, however. Martha Jean Lambert left without a trace in a way the kept investigators guessing for years to come. Read on to discover the details of this horrifying disappearance.
A Long Awaited Confession
In a police interview room in Florida, a young man labors over a confession. His brow sweats as he faces the police, ready to come forward with what he’s done. His sister disappeared more than 24-years-ago in circumstances that shocked the public. The case remains open, and he is finally willing to talk. Despite sufficient evidence, officers are still trying to close the case because of the new information that this young man brought forward in a shocking revelation.
Does David Lambert know more about the mystery surrounding his sister’s disappearance than he’s been letting on? Is he hiding something else that could throw a wrench in this unsolved case? Why would he take so many years to come forward? What changed? As investigators edge closer to the truth, a disturbing secret is revealed.
Peaceful Childhood Near the Coast of Florida
The story begins on November 27th, 1985, when David and his sister Martha Jean are living with their parents Howard and Margaret Lambert in St. Augustine, a city on the northeast coast of Florida. St. Augustine is known for being one of the oldest cities in America, with European explorers arriving there from Spain in 1565. Now it brings in tourists from arround the country, and even the world, to soak up the history as well as the sun.
Like many of their neighbors, the Lambert’s live in a trailer home in a semi-rural area a few miles away from the area’s popular beaches. They weren’t a wealthy family, but they loved each other and were happy with their lives in the trailer park. They had a strong community full of people who supported one another.
Marthe Jean Was Tiny But Surprisingly Strong
At the time, David was 14 and Martha Jean was 12, a seventh-grader at the city’s Keter Linus Junior High School. She was of small stature, weighing only 70 pounds. However, according to David, she had a combative nature that made her a force to be reckoned with despite her slender frame.
She was a tough cookie for such a little girl, and earned a reputation as someone not to be picked on. She wasn’t mean, but she was certainly tough and wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself even from a young age.
Escaping Their Family
That day, the Lambert’s were getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, the most important uniquely American holiday of the year. Unfortunately, they burned the turkey and Howard reacted with anger. Eager to escape their father shouting, David and Martha Jean left the trailer and as they wandered around the neighborhood. Howard didn’t always have a bad temper, but when it emerged it was wise to get out of his way. David and Martha Jean knew this well.
As they walked around, David gave his little sister some money to spend in a local store. Eventually, David and Martha Jean arrived at the defunct Florida Memorial College. The empty campus was foreboding, seeming to suggest a darkness inside. They went inside to explore, their childlike curiosity peaked by the sinister abandoned building.
Walking Around The Hidden Area of St. Augustine
By then, the building had already been abandoned for several years and even though it was scattered with rubble and shards of glass it was a popular place for the local youngsters to play. In fact, in a 2010 interview with the St. Augustine record, one detective described it as “a poor kids Disneyworld”, evoking the movie The Florida Project, in which poor young children play around in the shadow of the Disney theme park, making their own fun despite bleak circumstances.
Sadly, despite David and Martha Jene’s fun adventure, thing were about to take a tragic turn. They had no idea what was awaiting them after leaving the abandoned building. No matter how creepy the place seemed, it was during the day not at night, so they weren’t expecting it to be as dangerous as it turned out to be.
Martha Jean’s Disappearance
According to David, his sister had decided to leave the abandoned college and go somewhere else to play. After that, she simply vanished. Like evaporating into thin air, one second he said he saw her, and the next second she was gone. David couldn’t believe his sister would just disappear like that. Soon the police launched an investigation, but despite massive search efforts, still no trace of the girl could be found.
Over the years following, several attempts were made to get to the bottom of Martha Jean’s disappearance. It didn’t make sense that one second she would be with her brother, enjoying some time outdoors on a holiday, and the next second she would be gone. Right from the start, detectives had suspected that David may have known more than he was letting on, as he was the only true witness to the final moments before Martha Jean disappeared.
Without Any Clear Evidence, They Were Unable to Take Action
Since the only evidence so far in the case was in fact a complete lack of evidence, the police were at a total loss as to what to do. Martha Jean left without a trace, and David showed no signs of having hurt her, and had no helpful information to share. When searching her home and the area of her disappearance was fruitless, they had to try another approach.
Investigators had no choice but to start at square one. They interviewed locals and looked through the family’s past, but to no avail. There didn’t seem to be any clues in the case, until years later Martha Jean’s brother decided to come forward with new evidence that would crack the case wide open again, or would it?
As Time Went on, Investigators Went to Great Lengths to Find More Clues
Years passed with the case unsolved. With little else to go on, detectives used technology to age-progress her photographs, estimating what she would look like as a teenager. They knew they could no longer continue looking for a little girl, because if Martha Jean was still alive she wouldn’t be a kid anymore.
Investigators spread the age-progressed photograph to other law enforcement agencies, in the hope that someone would contact them if they came across a girl who fit Martha Jean’s new description. The relatively new technology wasn’t perfect, but it was all they had.
The Disappearance Made The Family Fall Apart
While Martha Jean was missing, life in St. Augustine moved on one day at a time. Devastated by their daughter’s disappearance, Margaret and Howard’s marriage began to all apart. They fought more, and it became difficult for them to see each other, as they served as painful reminders to one another of what happened to their daughter.
Then, in 2000, David found himself in trouble with the police, after allegedly attempting to write a bad check. When the cops picked him up, he reportedly made a bizarre confession. In a 2010 interview with a news website, a county detective, Shawn Tyson, revealed that David had claimed to know what happened to Martha Jean.
David Begins to Have a Break Down
Over the years, what happened to his sister started to wear on David. He felt so much responsibility for what happened to his younger sibling, as she was in his care when she suddenly left without a trace. David felt paranoid that people thought that he was responsible for Martha Jean’s disappearance, as he was the last one to see her.
A storm was brewing inside him, and he had to let it out. He knew something that investigators didn’t, and he finally decided to come forward after years of letting it destroy him from the inside.
David’s Confession Left The Investigators Speechless.
David went to the police, turning himself in, ready to confess. He began with the simple-but-shocking statement,
“I need to get this off my chest, I’m responsible for my sister’s death.”
Apparently, he went on to confess that he had buried Martha Jean at a local mine, Coquina Mine. It seemed like this case would be open-and-shut after all. However, when police arrived to investigate they could find no trace of Martha Jean’s corpse. If what he said was true, her remains would be at the mine. In the absence of this vital evidence, they could bring no charges against David. But why would he lie? Did he lie?
The Plot Thickens Once More
Then in June 2010 Tyson and another detective, Howard, made a final attempt to solve the most lengthy missing-persons case that the county had ever seen. The detectives knew that this case had to have a logical solution, and they had all ready invested so many years into solving it. They couldn’t live with themselves if they gave up now.
They had to know what happened to the little girl, and with her brother’s confession so many years later, they knew this case still had life to it. The detectives had to give it one more shot, but where could they search that hadn’t all ready been searched over and over again?
Getting Closer to The Truth
They began their investigations once more by interviewing friends, family members, and neighbors who had lived near the Lambert’s at the time of Martha Jean’s disappearance. They spent more time carefully crafting their questions this time, so that they wouldn’t miss anything.
Interestingly, a significant number of those interviewed suggested that the officers should take a closer look at David’s story. Finally, in August 2010, Tyson brought David into the interview room once again. Over the course of three sessions, he gradually confessed to his role in his sister’s disappearance.
What Happened to Martha?
Apparently, on that fateful day in 1985, Martha Jean had asked David for more money when they arrived at Florida Memorial College, after he gave her some change to buy something at a kiosk. David had refused to give her more though. According to David, the belligerent young Martha had lashed out and hit her brother. She wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Retaliating, David pushed her away. The little girl fell over backwards, hitting her head hard on a piece of metal that was jutting out from the ground. He didn’t mean to push her so hard, it was just horseplay between siblings. But she was much more frail than her personality let on, and she hit the ground hard.
It Gets Even Worse…
Apparently, the metal pierced her skull, causing a fatal brain injury almost immediately. However, indirectly David believed that he had been the cause of his sister’s death. Sure he may have been, but it wasn’t on purpose, or so he claimed. According to Tyson’s report, David said that he had tried to help the girl get up at first, before realizing it was too late to intervene.
Lambert stated that when he lifted Martha up there was a large hole in the back of her head, and blood was gushing out. He wrote that Lambert stated he initially called for help, hoping that someone would be walking by and hear his desperate cries, but when no one came he was left with the brutal reality that he had a hand in his younger sister’s untimely death.
Which Kind of Monster Would Do This?
David took matters into his own hands. Terrified by what he had done and thinking quickly and irrationally, he allegedly used a broken road sign as a shovel to dig a makeshift grave for his sister. When the detectives asked him why he had not told his parents the truth, he told them that he had been scared of their reaction. This made sense at the time, as no boy would want to give his parents the news that he had killed his sibling unintentionally. Especially not out of the blue on Thanksgiving day.
In fact, Tyson believes that David was living in fear of the truth, too scared to admit what happened because of overwhelming guilt. Admitting to someone else would mean David would have to admit it to himself. “He was terrified of his mama”, Tyson wrote. Tyson placed a photograph of a young Martha Jean on the table, and it was enough to bring David to confess. David wrote and signed a statement in which he finally admitted to his real role in his sister’s death.
David Even Gave Evidence to The Police, But Nothing Was Found
Alongside the written statement, David also drew a map for investigators identifying the plot where he buried his sister, upon which the Florida Memorial College stood. It allegedly showed where Martha Jean was buried. If his story was true, her remains would be there still, right?
A team was sent out to investigate the spot immediately. They sent out a K-9 unit as well, to increase their chances of finding her. Even though trained police dogs reacted to a spot, giving them false hope, the entire crew was unable to locate a body.
Can We Believe David’s Story?
However, the mother of the family has not been as easy to convince. According to her, David has been known to invent stories in order to get attention. If Martha Jean’s mother didn’t believe her own son, should the cops be taking his word for what happened? With no other witnesses to the apparent crime, it was difficult for investigators to decide what to do next and who to believe.
Instead of believing her son’s heartfelt confession, Martha Jean’s mother believes that her daughter was kidnapped. Adding to the confusion even more, David himself later withdrew his statement, claiming he had only told the officers what they wanted to hear. With David’s statement withdrawn, things got even more complicated. Would this harrowing story ever get the closure the family so desperately longed for?
Surprising Ending to The Story
Despite the mother’s many protests, the investigation into Martha Jean’s disappearance has been officially closed after years of active searching. Even though police believe David to be guilty, they don’t have enough evidence to do anything about their hunch, and even less so after he withdrew his confession.
David will not be facing any charges. A 2010 press release from the St. Augustine’s County Sheriff’s Office states changes in the law since 1985 statute of limitations: the suspects age at the time and other mitigating circumstances would preclude charges from being filed. While Martha Jean’s case was the longest active missing persons case in American history, and remains so till this day, it is offically closed with no satisfying ending to the mysterious case.