Fla. victim Mary Ann Lambert 21, identified decades after her killing

[MuffyBee]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FLORIDA_VICTIM_IDENTIFIED?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
Aug 3, 1:10 PM EDT

Fla. victim identified decades after her killing


FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- A woman found slain a quarter century ago in Florida has been identified after relatives read about her case on a sheriff's web site for unidentified victims.

Officials in the Broward Sheriff's Office said Monday that the brother and sisters of Mary Ann Lambert led them to a positive identification of the woman's remains through the "Found and Forgotten" program. Lambert's body was found in a field in Pompano Beach in September 1983. She was 21 and police won't say how she died.

Authorities say a key clue was a front tooth that Lambert chipped as a child growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y. Partial fingerprints that were resubmitted to a state lab in 2008 were also important. Detectives hope the break could help them solve the killing.

[Nut44x4]

Body Found: Sep 19, 1983
Crime Scene: A vacant field near the Pompano Airfield in the 1800 block of N.E. 5th Ave., Pompano Beach.
Description: White female with a homemade Playboy Bunny tattoo on her left abdomen and bright red nail polish. She was wearing a three-leaf clover earring in her right ear and horseshoe-mushroom earrings in her left ear. She had been dead for about three days when she was found.
Approx. Age: 21
Investigation: In July 2008, the victim was identified as Tina Moore after her partial fingerprints were resubmitted to Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Investigators are still looking for Tina’s family and her killer.
Clues: She used an alias of Mary Ann Lambert
She may have been born in Brooklyn, N.Y.
She had been arrested for prostitution and may have worked as an adult dancer 

http://sheriff.org/apps/unidentified_victims/index.cfm

[Nut44x4]

South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Family learns of sister's death in Pompano 25 years ago
Broward sheriff's website helped family identify murder victim
By Robert Nolin

South Florida Sun Sentinel

August 3, 2009

The last time Agnes Zeda saw her sister was in Long Island during Christmas 1982.

So she was stunned about two weeks ago to see photos of her sister Mary Ann Lambert, with her pixie-ish haircut and blue eyes, on a police website for long-ago murder victims.

"I spent like two or three hours crying when I found it," Zeda said Monday.

"I thought maybe she had started a new life somewhere and didn't want to contact us for some reason or another," Zeda said.

The fate of Mary Ann Lambert was unknown to her mother, three sisters and brother since she disappeared in Broward County in 1983.

Police, however, knew her as Tina Moore, 22, an exotic dancer who in September 1983 was found raped and murdered in a field near an airport in the 1800 block of Northeast Fifth Avenue in Pompano Beach. Police knew she sometimes went by Mary Ann Lambert, but thought the name was fake.

The case lay dormant for decades.

Detectives didn't even know the Brooklyn-born victim's true identity until Lambert's brother, John, of California, recently contacted them.

Family members had found Lambert on a Broward Sheriff's Office website page, Found & Forgotten, dedicated to unsolved deaths in Broward since 1967.

"It opened up a whole slew of things for us," Sheriff's Detective Scott Champagne said of the family's information. "It added a heartbeat to the case versus it being cold for 25 years."

Lambert's mother Catherine moved with her from New York to Pompano Beach in the early '80s after Lambert's father died.

The mother hoped the move would help the unmanageable young woman settle down, Zeda said. "She was the wild child of the family," Zeda recalled.

But Lambert, blonde and pretty, continued on a reckless path, traveling between Florida and New York. She was arrested for burglary in Hillsborough County and for prostitution in Broward. The 5-foot-7, 130-pound woman danced at the Cheetah III club in Pompano Beach.

When police found her body, she had been dead for three days. Investigators would not release the cause of death. All they had to go on was her three silver earrings -- a three-leaf clover, mushroom and horseshoe -- and the tattoo of a Playboy bunny on her abdomen.

Family members, thinking Lambert was off on her own and eventually would reappear, never reported her missing.

Last summer, using enhanced fingerprints, police identified her as Tina Moore, but hearing from the family brought new impetus to the investigation.

"Just interviewing family assisted us in getting some names that were connected to her," Champagne said.

Two of those people are dancers from that era who went by the names Snow and Dawn. "We'd like to talk to them," Champagne said.

He asks that anyone with information call him at 954-321-4210.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/pompano-beach/sfl-25-year-old-murder-b080309,0,3180247,print.story

[MuffyBee]

Thanks for finding more and posting it, Nut.  I hope there can be justice for Mary Ann Lambert even after all these years, and that her family and those that knew her live to see it.  Someone thinks they've gotten away with murder.

[MuffyBee]

Should we move Mary Ann Lambert's case to "Unsolved", Nut?  I debated that when I first saw the news article.  I would like to see it eventually moved to "solved".

[Nut44x4]

Should we move Mary Ann Lambert's case to "Unsolved", Nut?  I debated that when I first saw the news article.  I would like to see it eventually moved to "solved".

YES!!! LET's DO IT!! I was thinking the same thing.
I have been reading about this for days on end all over the news and boards and places. It is a 'Wow' kind of thing...after all this time. It just goes to show that maybe 'missing' does not mean forever. I came across her face so many times while searching in the FL uid page for other things...it just amazes me.

[Nut44x4]

I found the clay bust at Porchlight. Good thing there were other clues....
http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/index.php?showtopic=27117&st=0&#last

[MuffyBee]

I found the clay bust at Porchlight. Good thing there were other clues....
http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/index.php?showtopic=27117&st=0&#last

I totally see where you're coming from, Nut. 

[MuffyBee]

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2009/08/tina_moore_mary_ann_lambert_body_pompano.php
Family Claims Body of 1983 Murder Victim
By Thomas Francis in Broward, Crime
Monday, Aug. 3 2009 @ 11:57AM

Photo: Broward Sheriff's Office
Mary Ann Lambert

In 1983, a female body was found in a vacant field in Pompano Beach. But no family had reported the woman missing. It wasn't till 2008 that the fingerprints were matched to those of a young woman who had multiple arrests in Broward County: Tina Moore. Or at least that was the name she had given police, who also documented an alias, Mary Ann Lambert. And that turned out to be her actual name, according to a release by the Broward Sheriff's Office.

Lambert's surviving brother, a California resident, identified Mary Ann Lambert from a photo on BSO's Found and Forgotten page. The BSO release describes how Lambert was raised in Brooklyn but became adventurous as a young woman in Florida.

    As she got older, it was common for her to go off on her own, roving between New York and Florida. So when her family didn't hear from her for a few months, they just waited, never reported her missing, and hoped she'd reappear.

More from the release, and a family photo after the jump.

Photo: Broward Sheriff's Office
A photo provided by Lambert's family

"This is exactly why we created 'Found & Forgotten' - to bring solace to families who are missing loved ones," Sheriff Al Lamberti said. "I send my condolences to the family of Mary Ann Lambert, and I'm looking forward to my detectives finding the person responsible for her death."

Detectives now know Lambert lived at 1811 N.W. 2nd Terr., Pompano Beach, seven blocks away from where her body was found, and that she also associated with two adult dancers at a gentlemen's club called Cheetah III in Pompano Beach. One had a stage name of "Snow" and the other was "Dawn." Mary Lambert and Dawn may have shared an apartment in Lighthouse Point. Anyone with information about "Mary Ann Lambert", these two women or the case can call Det. Scott Champagne at (954) 321-4210 or report it to Crime Stoppers at (954) 493-TIPS or online at browardcrimestoppers.org.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/sfl-pompano-woman-identified-bn080309,0,1806490.story
Relatives finally learn about woman found dead in Pompano Beach in 1983

Mary Ann Lambert (1982) (BSO / August 3, 2009)

The Associated Press and Staff Reports

POMPANO BEACH - The Broward Sheriff's Office says a woman found slain a quarter century ago in Pompano Beach has been identified after relatives read about her case on the agency's website for unidentified victims.

The Sheriff's Office said today that the brother and sisters of Mary Ann Lambert led them to a positive identification of the woman's remains through its "Found and Forgotten" program. Detectives hope the break could help them solve her killing.

Lambert's body was found in a field in September 1983. She was 21, and police won't say how she died.

Her body had a three-leaf clover earring in the left ear and a homemade Playboy Bunny tattoo on her abdomen, the Sheriff's Office says.

But the advanced decomposition of the body made identification impossible until 2008, when detectives resubmitted four partial fingerprints to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which identified her as Tina Moore.

Moore had arrests in Broward County in the early 1980s.

Even though detectives had her name and an alias of Mary Ann Lambert, she never divulged next-of-kin information during her arrests, nor was she reported as a missing person.

The Sheriff's Office posted her photograph on its "Found and Forgotten" website, which was started in December.

This month, a man in California came across the site and called his sisters in Virginia and New York. They all recognized the face of the woman as their sister.

Authorities say a key clue was a front tooth that Lambert chipped as a child growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Detectives now know Lambert lived in the 1800 block of Northwest 2nd Terrace, seven blocks away from where her body was found, the Sheriff's Office says.

She also associated with two adult dancers at a gentlemen's club called Cheetah III in Pompano Beach. One had a stage name of "Snow" and the other was "Dawn."

Lambert and Dawn may have shared an apartment in Lighthouse Point.

Anyone with information about Lambert, these two women or the case can call Detective Scott Champagne at (954) 321-4210 or report it to Crime Stoppers at (954) 493-TIPS or online at www.browardcrimestoppers.org.

The Sheriff's Office created its Operation Found & Forgotten web page to put names to the unidentified bodies found in the county since 1967.