Lucien Lambert
Montréal, QC / January 10, 1979
On the night of January 9/10 a cafe manager asked Lucien Lambert to escort her home at the end of her shift as she was carrying hundreds of dollars in restaurant receipts. Lambert, a longtime friend and regular customer, happened to be in the cafe on a break with another driver. He was 52 years old and the father of two young boys.
As they stepped off the elevator on the 13th floor of her apartment block, shortly before 1:30 a.m., they were accosted by two gunmen. Attracted by her screams a neighbour came to the manager's assistance and was immediately shot to death. The manager escaped in the confusion but Lambert was taken hostage.
Two hours later a truck driver dumping snow at the foot of Cartier Avenue in Pointe Claire found Lambert's body. Two shotgun shells were on the ground nearby. Police surmised that both Lambert and the neighbour (a research scientist employed by Hydro Québec) were killed to prevent them from identifying the gunmen.
Two brothers were convicted of the murders and sentenced to life in prison. In 1992 one of them, then 39, escaped from a minimum security prison in Laval. He had been transferred there in preparation for his release on parole. Police warned the public that he was dangerous and probably armed.
| 