Body found in landfill is Powell girl
Powell Police Chief Tim Feathers said he wouldn't release any other information from the autopsy, which officials at the State Crime Lab in Cheyenne completed Friday morning.
Investigators had already focused their investigation on a possible murder shortly after the body was found Wednesday. But Friday's confirmation rules out any other explanation of Christin's death, Feathers said, and allows officials to concentrate on the criminal homicide/abduction investigation.
"She's no longer a missing girl," he said. "It's a homicide with a victim."
Feathers wouldn't comment on possible suspects and wouldn't say if the investigation was focused on someone living in Powell or someone who passed through town and committed the crime.
"We're not discussing any of that," he said.
Most of the FBI agents who came to Powell for the investigation will probably leave by end of the weekend, Feathers said. Investigators from Wyoming's Division of Criminal Investigations, however, will stay on the case until it's completed, Feathers said.
Crews quit searching the Powell landfill Friday at about noon, removing the yellow police tape that had been around a part of the dump since a tip pointed investigators to the dump Monday.
Sifting loads of trash, investigators found parts of the red and white scooter that Christin had at the time of her disappearance earlier in the week. Then, three days after they started their landfill search, a volunteer found Christin's body Wednesday.
Officials from the State Crime Lab drove to Powell on Wednesday to retrieve the body and take it back to the lab in Cheyenne for the autopsy.
The confirmation doesn't change the investigation much, Feathers said. Investigators had considered a homicide from the day Christin disappeared and were already working on the case.
"It was just one of many options," he said. "Now, it's our sole focus."
Both of Christin's parents were in Powell when the officials announced the identification of the body.
The Police Department, with help from the Powell Valley Chamber of Commerce, has arranged for counseling for both the men and women working on the case and the community at large, Feathers said.
By JENNIFER McKEE
Of The Gazette Staff
POWELL, Wyo. -Officials confirmed Friday that the child's body found in the Powell landfill is Christin Lamb, the 8-year-old girl who disappeared almost three weeks ago.
Christin, who was visiting Powell with her family, was last seen July 19 at a garden spot that her grandfather tends a few blocks from his home. Tracker dogs traced her scent to the middle of a road halfway between the garden and her grandfather's house.
EVENTS LEADING TO IDENTIFICATION OF BODYMonday, July 20 - Officers interview every neighbor within sight of the block-and-a-half path that Christin would have traveled to return to her grandfather's Adams Street home. Search crews conduct a second search of the Garland Canal, which runs about three blocks from where she was last seen. They find no trace of the girl or her scooter. Powell Police Chief Tim Feathers calls an abduction "a very real possibility." Tuesday, July 21 - Searchers announce a $1,000 reward for information leading to her discovery. FBI and Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation crews in Powell working on the case now number 13 - almost outweighing Powell's entire regular police force. Wednesday, July 22 - Powell Police receive an anonymous postcard telling officers to look in a one-mile radius around Willwood Corner, south of town. A search turned up nothing. Officers also interview all six registered sex offenders in Powell. Thursday, July 23 - Search leaders reveal that tracking dogs lost Christin's scent on a curb near the garden patch. She may have stepped into a car, they say. Saturday, July 25 - Investigators are looking for a maroon Camaro seen driving slowly in the neighborhood where Christin was last seen. Tuesday, July 28 - Investigators search a home in Powell's Triangle Trailer court and question the home's owner. Feathers denies that the owner is a suspect. Monday, Aug. 3 - Acting on a tip, searchers find parts of a scooter in the Powell landfill that could be Christin's. Wednesday, Aug. 5 - Searchers find a child's body, about the same size as Christin, in the landfill. Investigators from the State Crime Lab in Cheyenne are summoned for identification.
Friday, Aug. 7 - Investigators announce that the body found in the landfill is Christin's. |
By DAVE MOORE
Decatur Herald & Review Staff Writer
TAYLORVILLE, Ill. - News of the brutal abduction and dismemberment of 8-year-old Christin Lamb has stunned family members in Taylorville, Ill., where the child once lived.
"I was just devastated," said Gene Yonker, 61, a lifelong Taylorville resident and a great-uncle of the girl. "It's unreal. You don't expect it in a town that small. You expect it in a big city. We were told if they don't find her in 24 to 48 hours, the chances (of finding her alive) drop rapidly. It had been quite a while (since she disappeared), so we figured the worst had happened."
Though Yonker says he didn't get to know the girl well while she lived in Taylorville, from age 4 to age 5, he would remember her this way: "She was a beautiful child with brilliant red hair. She was very intelligent and she looked just like her dad" Tim Lamb, who is stationed in Germany.
Tim Lamb was 5 years old when he left Taylorville, Yonker said. The community of about 11,000 is in Central Illinois, about 200 miles southwest of Chicago.
Tim Lamb married his wife, Lori, in Wyoming, had children and moved back to Taylorville for a year before returning to Wyoming, Yonker said. The couple divorced shortly after the move west, Yonker said.
Two of Christin's great-grandmothers, Wilma Lamb and Charlotte Clayton, also live in Taylorville. Yonker doubted the two women - who are in their 80s - would be able to make the trip to Wyoming for Christin's funeral on Monday.
Updated: Saturday, August 8, 1998
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.