WORCESTER—It’s been 50 years since Vicke Lee Lamberton called her estranged husband, Lowell, to talk about getting back together. The couple had been separated for about six weeks, in early February of 1974. They agreed to meet for dinner when Lamberton, then 24, returned from a weekend in Maine with her girlfriends. The weekend came and went, but the date never happened.
“Her husband became concerned and called one of her friends, who told him that there was no trip to Maine,” Worcester Police Department’s Public Information Officer Lt. Sean Murtha said. “Some people have speculated that she traveled to Colorado, but this has never been confirmed.”
Vicke Lee Lamberton has not been seen since.
Lamberton grew up in the small city of Harper, Kansas, about an hour southwest of Wichita. However, Lowell Lamberton believed his wife was ashamed of her background; she routinely told people she was actually from Colorado. They met at Union College in Nebraska, where Lowell Lamberton was Vicke’s professor. They moved to Worcester in 1968 and married in 1969. Vicke Lamberton held an undergraduate degree from Clark University, and was close to getting her master’s degree in psychology from Assumption University (then Assumption College) when she disappeared.
Lowell Lamberton did not suspect foul play; in subsequent interviews over the last five decades, he told reporters that Vicke Lamberton said she wanted to go “someplace where nobody knows who I am.” He also said Vicke told him she was considering changing her skin tone to look black. Pictures of Vicke Lamberton from the early 1970’s show different appearances: a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead with glasses.
Consequently, it took nearly 35 years for a missing persons report to be filed, mostly because Lowell Lamberton thought his wife had left of her own volition. As late as 2012, he stated he thought she might still be alive.
He did wonder, however, if Vicke Lamberton had begun another relationship. When Lamberton moved out of the apartment she shared with her husband and brother, she asked her psychology professor, Roger Barker, if she could store some things in his garage. Barker agreed. It appeared that Barker and Lamberton were close; Barker not only helped with her move, but he also gave her a ride from Worcester to Columbia University in New York when Lamberton applied for their doctorate program.
Lowell Lamberton reportedly went to Assumption to ask if Barker knew anything but was told Barker was in Colorado. Barker had been on vacation, but his return to Worcester was delayed because he became ill in Vail. Though Lowell Lamberton suspected the two were having an affair and had gone to Colorado together, neither of these has been substantiated.
In 1975, a year after her disappearance, Vicke Lamberton’s brothers collected her belongings from Barker’s garage.
In 1980, according to published reports, one of Lamberton’s brothers found a friend of his sister’s, who said that she had spoken to Vicke Lamberton the same night her husband had. Vicke Lamberton, the friend said, told her she was going to Colorado with Barker, and said she’d be in touch when she returned. That friend, like Lowell Lamberton, never heard from her again.
Though there have been reports of sightings over the last several decades, the case remains open. There have been no new leads. Lamberton’s social security number has not been used, nor has her license been renewed, since 1974.
Lowell Lamberton moved to Oregon and remarried in 1991. He was a textbook author and professor at Central Oregon Community College. He died in 2021 without knowing what happened to his first wife.
Vicke Lee Lamberton would be 74 years old today. If you have information about this case, please send an anonymous text to 274637 (TIPWPD) or an anonymous web-based message at worcesterma.gov/police. Calls can also be made to the Worcester Police Detective Bureau at 508-799-8651.
Information from the following sources was used in this story: www.namus.gov, The Charley Project, The Doe Network, Unsolved Worcester podcast with Dan Yeager, and Telegram & Gazette archives.
This is the latest in The Worcester Guardian’s series about cold cases – unsolved incidents still under investigation by the Worcester Police Department. According to the WPD’s public information officer, Lt. Sean Murtha, the department has 75 unresolved homicides and 10 missing or endangered persons. The Worcester Guardian’s “Unsolved Chronicles” delves into these cold cases and mysteries in Worcester, Massachusetts. Stay tuned for more in this series.
Christine M. Quirk is the former editor of MotherTown and has written for the Telegram & Gazette, Bay State Parent and Times & Courier. She is a novelist and educator and lives with her family in West Boylston. She can be reached at cmqwriter@gmail.com
