Samantha Lambert

Samantha Lambert was a joy to be around, a young woman with a good heart who lit up every room she entered. Remembered by her mother as a genuinely caring and helpful person, 19-year-old Samantha Leigh Lambert loved every aspect of life, from spending time with her family to helping strangers. She volunteered at a food bank in her community of St. Catharines, Ontario, always showing her compassionate nature. Her family and friends loved her deeply, and her mother, Yvonne Lambert, recalls her as "my little girl."

In the months before she vanished, Yvonne noticed troubling changes in her daughter. Samantha began associating with a "different crowd" that consisted mostly of older men. Her behavior shifted dramatically, and she was never allowed to visit her mother without these new companions present. Samantha told her mother they worked for an unofficial, inexpensive taxi service. It soon became apparent to her family that she had developed an addiction to heroin. Within six months of these changes, Samantha was gone. She was last seen by her mother just before she disappeared, accompanied by a couple of men who waited outside the family home. Yvonne reported her daughter missing on September 4, 2018.

For more than five months, her family waited and hoped for her safe return. That hope turned to a nightmare on February 17, 2019, when a person walking their dog discovered human remains in a ditch in a rural area of Welland, near the intersection of Schisler and Moyer Roads. A post-mortem examination was conducted in Toronto, and on February 26, 2019, the remains were positively identified as Samantha Lambert.

The Niagara Regional Police (NRP) launched an investigation into her death. Although a post-mortem examination left her exact cause of death undetermined, the case is being handled by the force's homicide unit. Investigators and Samantha’s family believe she may have been groomed and victimized by human sex traffickers, a growing problem in the Niagara region that police have dedicated more resources to combating. Her mother recognized, in hindsight, that the behavioral changes she witnessed were characteristic of someone being drawn into the world of trafficking.

"It’s been a nightmare for me, I can’t even imagine what it was like for Samantha,” her mother Yvonne has said. “It’s just not having answers, and someone should pay for what they did to my little girl, it hurts my heart.” She urges other parents to be vigilant. “Meet people they say are their friends, trust your gut. If it feels wrong, then it probably is.” The family continues to wait for a breakthrough that will explain what happened to Samantha in the final months of her life.

As of March 2024, more than five years after her body was found, Samantha's case remains an active and unsolved homicide investigation. Niagara Regional Police Inspector Steve Magistrale of the homicide unit confirmed the file is still open and that investigators are working to bring closure to her loved ones. "We know there are people in the community with information to assist us in guiding this investigation to a conclusion," he stated. "We’re one tip away from solving it and there’s people in the community who have that information, and we’re hoping people step forward and assist us."

No reward has been publicly offered in the case. Police are appealing to anyone with information about Samantha Lambert's disappearance or death to contact Crime Stoppers of Niagara anonymously.