24 Year Mystery of Missing Martha Jean Lambert Solved … Brother David Lambert Confessed to Accidently Killing Her

Martha Jean Lambert has been missing since November 27, 1985. Martha Jean Lambert was just 12 years old when she went missing in St. Augustine, Florida. It was thought that Lambert was kidnapped and murdered; however, she was never located. Her disappearance remained an unsolved mystery until today.

Martha Jean Lambert

FLASH FORWARD 24 YEARS … the case has now been solved according to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office. The case has finally been closed.

The brother of missing Martha Jean Lambert,  David Lambert, has confessed to accidentally killing his sister during an argument. David Lambert would have been 15 years old at the time.

However, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office said Friday that Pichon’s son David Lambert has confessed to accidentally killing his sister in an argument.

Sgt. Chuck Mulligan said Lambert told police that he panicked and buried the girl in a shallow grave. Lambert was 15 at the time.

The State Attorney’s Office decided not charge Lambert with manslaughter after prosecutors considered his age at the time, the statute of limitations manslaughter charges had in 1985 and “other mitigating circumstances,” Mulligan said.

The story that David Lambert told investigators is as follows:

When Tice and Cole interviewed him again last summer, Lambert told them he and Martha Jean were arguing near the old Florida Memorial College site over $20 he refused to give her, the detectives said. The girl punched him in the face, and Lambert said he shoved her backward. Her head landed on a piece of metal sticking out of the ground, he told the detectives.

“D. Lambert stated when he lifted Martha up there was a large hole in the back of her head and blood was pouring out,” Tice wrote in the offense report. “D. Lambert stated he initially called out for help, hoping that someone would be walking by and hear his cries.”

Lambert told the detectives that he dug a hole 3 feet deep and laid Martha Jean in it.

“He was terrified,” Tice told The St. Augustine Record. “He was terrified of his Mama. Still is.”

David Lambert lead investigators with extensive excavations and K-9 searches failed to turn up Martha’s remains.