Missing Person Brenda Lambert billboard goes up in Brushfork
Sep. 26—BLUEFIELD — People traveling down Route 52 toward Bluefield Monday started seeing the face of a woman who has been missing for 31 years, a woman who deserves justice and peace.
Brenda Lambert was last seen in Bluewell on July 26, 1992 after her son's first birthday party. Christy Kennedy, who was 14 when Brenda disappeared, said her sister had two children, her 1-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter, when she went missing. Brenda lived on Windmill Hill off Lorton Lick Road.
Brenda and her husband were estranged at the time of her disappearance, Kennedy said previously. About five and a half months after Brenda Lambert disappeared, her friend Mark Anthony Cook disappeared after leaving a Brushfork bar called Pedro's at the Airport Square Shopping Center.
The late Darrell Bailey, who was chief deputy of the Mercer County Sheriff's Department, told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph in 2006 that he believed the two disappearances were connected and that foul play was suspected. Lambert and Cook's bodies have never been found. Both cases remain under investigation.
With the help of the AWARE Foundation, Inc., the face of Brenda Lambert is looking down at the people living in and passing through her community. The billboard featuring her photograph asks anyone with information to contact the Mercer County Sheriff's Department at 304-487-8364.
"This is our ninth billboard; again, we've put billboards all over the state of Virginia," Kenny Jarels of the AWARE Foundation said as traffic passed the reminder of Brenda Lambert. "This is our first one in West Virginia, but we want to make it so visible if someone — let's just be brutally honest — there's an individual or individuals who know what happened to Brenda Lambert 31 years ago; and we're hoping that someone will have a conscience and do the right thing and come forth with the information that will at least allow this family to bring their loved one home and give her a proper burial."
Brenda Lambert was legally declared deceased last year, he added. He looked up at the new billboard with Kennedy.
"Our hope is someone will see this, it will touch someone's heart and they'll say,' You know what. I've got some information that I think will be helpful to Mercer County.' No matter what the information is," Jarels stated. "No matter how small you may think it is. If you know something, say something. Let's get this finished."
The foundation is funding the billboard. It will stay in Brushfork for about a month, but then it can be transferred to other location.
"The great thing about the way we did this is the type of material for this billboard," Jarels said. "It's good for about 90 days, the material itself; so after this billboard is finished — it's about 30 days it will be up in this particular location — if we find another location, we can take this material and have it installed on other billboard. We can circulate it around if we want to."
Kennedy said that she hopes someone seeing the billboard will give investigators the information they need for Brenda's case and for the case of Mark Anthony Cook. An AWARE Foundation event was held at a nearby Grant's Supermarket for them.
"I'm hoping that someone will come forward with what the Mercer County Sheriff's Office needs to go and retrieve her remains from where they're at," she said, speaking over the sounds of passing vehicles. "I'm hoping, because I'm not going to quit until I get my sister back."
The AWARE Foundation's efforts is also bringing attention to another issue.
"And to speak out about domestic violence which is not only running rampant here, but all over the country," Kennedy said. "And Brenda was a victim of domestic violence. I just want to say I'm really grateful to Kenny and the AWARE Foundation. "They're, God's honest, some of the best people on Earth and they would be here to help anyone, anyone with a missing or murdered loved one."
Jarels said he has been working with the AWARE Foundation since 2009.
"I had a family member who went missing and was found deceased," he said. "And so I make it a point I want to try help these families the best way I possibly do, and we've been blessed. We've had a lot of national media coverage and so anytime I have a missing person, it's never that difficult for me to get some kind of coverage for that family. We do that in various forms: social media, print media and TV. We have been doing this quite a while. We want to bring this case to a close."
Kennedy said she wants her sister to have a proper burial.
"She deserves to be laid beside our parents," she said. "I know what happened to her and I know where she's at. That's what I want. I'm not seeking for anybody to go to prison for the rest of their lives or it to cost the state all of this money. It's a simple as going and getting her up out of the dirt and, I know the process after that, then letting us bury her properly. The way she needed to be."
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
