By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
Despite the passage of time you can still hear the sorrow in Linda Lloyd’s voice as she talks about her sister Mary Ann Lamrock.
While over time some of the memories of her sister may fade, what remains strong is Lloyd’s hope that eventually her sister’s murder will be solved.
She’s certainly been waiting long enough.
It was 23 years ago this week that Mary Ann Lamrock went missing. She was last seen leaving the driveway of her East Pubnico residence on March 6, 1990.
Her disappearance remained a missing person investigation until just under two years later when, on Jan. 29, 1992, her skeletal remains were stumbled upon by rabbit hunters in woods near the intersection of the Scott Road and Oak Park Road, just off Highway 103. From there the status of the investigation went from finding a missing person to finding a killer.
Over the years many investigators have been involved in the case, during which they’ve followed up on new leads or reinvestigated old ones. From time to time anonymous tips come in, although often the tips pertain to theories that have already been examined and people who have been ruled out as suspects.
Still, one never knows what information the next call may yield.
What has eluded investigators has been the break in the case they’ve needed to determine who was responsible for Lamrock’s death.
“We are still actively investigating it. We follow up on every bit of investigation that we get. That’s why it’s so important that people call us with new information,” says Constable Tim Cole of the Southwest Nova Major Crime Unit. Because while this is a cold case, he says, it’s not a neglected one.
“As recently as a couple of months ago we had leads that we were working on,” says Cst. Cole. “I wouldn’t say it was a totally new direction, but every bit of information we get we try to take it as far as we can.”
Over the past two decades the investigation has gone in many directions, but the message coming from investigators has always been a consistent one – if there are members of the public with information about this murder
they need to share this info with police.
This is what Lamrock’s sister is hoping will happen. Every year, particularly around the anniversary of Lamrock’s death, she calls this newspaper to see if we’ve heard of new developments in the case and she’s frequently in contact with the RCMP.
“I don’t know if it will ever be solved,” she said from her home in Halifax last week.
Lamrock came from a large family, however her upbringing was anything but traditional. She was the eldest of six siblings but her parents’ marriage broke up when the children were young. The four sisters and two brothers were divided up in pairs and placed in foster homes. Ann and Linda, who were very close in age, lived in the same foster home in Lower Sandy Point, Shelburne County.
“We always shared clothes. We always shared things. We were just very close,” recalls Lloyd, who is now 47.
Lamrock was one month shy of her 26th birthday when she went missing. Her remains were sent to a forensic pathology lab in Newfoundland. Tests revealed she had been stabbed repeatedly.
Over the years, and now the decades, people have wondered about this case and would like to see it solved. But from the beginning there was never any real public uprising in demanding that justice be served on Mary Ann Lamrock’s behalf.
Still, justice is being sought.
Lamrock is one of 70 people whose case is included in the Nova Scotia Department of Justice’s Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes Program. A reward of up to $150,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for her murder.
Before she died Lamrock worked in a fish plant and was known to hitchhike frequently. Although she lived in East Pubnico she was from the Birchtown-Shelburne area. Eight months before her remains were found, a hole measuring six feet long and two feet wide was found not far from where Lamrock’s remains were eventually discovered. At the time the RCMP speculated about whether it may have been a shallow grave. But even to the this day there is no known connection between that discovery and the Lamrock case.
At the time of Lamrock’s disappearance there was another unsolved homicide in the region, that of Dartmouth teen Elizabeth Gale Tucker, whose remains were found in the Clare area. Serial killer Michael Wayne McGray, who was from the Argyle area, confessed to having killed Tucker, and is in prison serving life sentences for other murders he’s committed. It left many to wonder if he was involved in the Lamrock homicide, but when investigators pursued that theory it was discovered that McGray was in jail at the time of Lamrock’s death.
As another anniversary of Lamrock’s murder rolls around, investigators, and those who knew and cared for her, still hope this case will one day be solved.
“Personally I believe there is a person out there that has the information that will lead us to the person responsible,” says Cst. Cole.
Such news would be a welcome relief to Lamrock’s sister.
“I think about Ann everyday,” says Lloyd, who says she misses her sister terribly. “One day we’ll be together again.”
DO YOU HAVE INFO?
Anyone with information on the Ann Lamrock case can contact:
• the Southwest Nova Major Crime Unit at 902-742-6839
• Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477
• The Nova Scotia Department of Justice’s Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes Program
• or any RCMP/police detachment
