Mary Ann Lamrock homicide still unsolved
In the years that followed her murder, members of Mary Ann Lamrock’s family held out hope the person responsible would be found. Given that it’s now been 30 years, that hope is long gone.
“I know there’s no hope for it,” says her sister Linda Lloyd. “If there was, they would have found out by now.”
Lamrock was last seen on March 6, 1990, and reported missing the next day. For nearly two years the disappearance of the East Pubnico, Yarmouth County, woman remained a mystery until her skeletal remains were found in a wooded area on Jan. 29, 1992, off Highway 103 on the Oak Park Road. An autopsy determined she had been stabbed repeatedly.
For many years the case has been part of the province’s Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes program with a reward of up to $150,000 available for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for Lamrock’s murder.
Despite the passage of time, the RCMP say they haven’t closed this cold case.
“The investigation into the homicide of Mary Ann Lamrock remains open. The RCMP has not made any arrests or laid charges, but we continue to investigate the file,” says RCMP Cpl. Jennifer Clarke. “Because the file remains open, we cannot disclose whether there are any suspects.”
She says over the past several years the RCMP have received tips from Crime Stoppers and the Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes program.
“The RCMP remain hopeful that someone in the community knows information and with passage of time, may be more willing to come forward,” Clarke says. “We continue to encourage the public to report tips and information about this homicide to the RCMP, to help us solve this case and bring closure for Ms. Lamrock’s family.”
The RCMP say Lamrock was last seen leaving the driveway of her home on March 6, 1990, in East Pubnico. She was known to frequently hitch-hike. In the early years there were stories
Mary Ann Lamrock’s grave site in Birchtown, Shelburne County.
that placed her at certain locations around the time she went missing.
Eight months before her remains were found came the discovery (a short distance on the other side of Highway 103) of what appeared to be a shallow grave. The person who found the grave once told the Vanguard newsroom, “It was very unnerving.”
QUESTIONS, NO ANSWERS
And so there has always been a question mark after Mary Ann Lamrock’s name. In March 1990 the question was: What happened to Mary Ann Lamrock? In the following weeks and months it was: Have you seen Mary Ann Lamrock? And the question that lingers, 30 years later: Who killed Mary Ann Lamrock?
Lamrock was the eldest of six siblings growing up. Her parents’ marriage broke up and she and her siblings were split up into three different foster homes. She and her sister Linda lived in the same foster home in Shelburne County. She is buried in a cemetery in Birchtown. Her mother, who died in the past year, is now buried alongside her.
Brenda Swaine is another sister who doesn’t hold out much hope for a resolution to this case.
“It’s been too long,” she says.
“I don’t think the case will ever get solved.”
But it hasn’t been for lack of trying. Throughout the decades there have been many investigators assigned to the case. However when tips came in they usually treaded over ground the police had already covered.
Some thought a break had come when serial killer Michael Wayne McGray, who is from Yarmouth County, confessed to several killings in Canada – including one in Digby County of a teenaged girl named Elizabeth Gayle Tucker. But the RCMP said he was ruled out as a suspect in the Lamrock case since he was in jail at the time of her death.
Throughout the decades, different investigators have had many thoughts about the case.
“It just seems like we’re going around and around and around,” Cpl. Dana Parsons, then of the South West Nova Major Crime Unit had said on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the case. He said from the beginning there had never been an outright suspect or person of interest. But there had been a lot of individuals who had raised suspicion.
In a 2002 interview, theninvestigator Sgt. Brian Oldford said he believed the killer was someone local. He agreed a problematic aspect to the case was that Lamrock wasn’t someone well known throughout the region. The majority of people had never heard of her until she went missing. Did that impact the case? Cause less information to come to the RCMP? “I think it’s in the equation,” he had said. “Especially in this equation.”
While people have always wanted to see the Lamrock case solved, there has never been outrage that it hasn’t been. Still, interest hasn’t wavered. Even 12 years into the case someone turned over a knife they had found to police wondering if it had a connection to the case.
But 30 years is a long time. Linda Lloyd even questions whether the person responsible is still alive.
She still thinks about her sister. She doesn’t think she’ll ever know who killed her.