Sheriff Lamar

Pierce's escape occurred on the same day that Macy Lamar, 17 and the daughter of Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff Charles "Chuck" Lamar, disappeared from an Oxford shopping mall.

While sheriff's deputies and federal agents originally suspected that Macy Lamar was with Phelps, Pierce, and Symons, reality proved to be even more strange - and more fatal.

Macy Lamar's disappearance September 20, 1997 came as her father faced a serious challenge in his bid for re-election as the county's sheriff. Contender Harold Mazza, a prosecuting attorney, charged that Oxford's recent blood-soaked record of violence was due to negligence on the part of Lamar and his deputies.

With Pierce dead in Las Vegas and Macy Lamar nowhere to be found, Lamar's popularity dipped considerably when his estranged wife, Caroline Blanchard, revealed that the sheriff was having an affair with Aimee Harberson, a clerk in the county assessor's office.

But Lamar prevailed, winning the election by a scant 200 votes - the slimmest margin in the county's history, and one that had Mazza calling for justice.

But there was no time for a recall vote. On Saturday, November 8, Lamar was killed when his car swerved off the road, flipped, and ignited. A note found at Lamar's Oxford residence, combined with the high alcohol content in Lamar's blood, led investigators to rule the death a suicide.

Macy Lamar, abducted

But further forensics testing proved the note was a fake, and paint scratches suggested a truck had hit Lamar's car before the fatal conflagration - possibly the result of another motorist ramming Lamar to his death.

Deputies' investigations of illegal gambling operations and environmental reports documenting illegal dumping on a property slated for development dovetailed with suspicion increasingly being focussed on local real estate developer Reed Chambeau, the owner of the dumping site as well as one of the gambling properties.

Private detective David Anderson, formerly of the sheriff's department, provided the missing link in the puzzle when he followed Harberson from the dumping site to a Biloxi residence on December 12 and spotted Macy Lamar inside. He immediately called for assistance, and federal agents arrested the occupants of the house without incident.

Based on confessions of several bodyguards in the safehouse, Chambeau was arrested the next day, and confessed to conspiring to murder Sheriff Lamar and kidnap his daughter, in hopes of guaranteeing that a lucrative toxic waste dumping scheme would never be uncovered.

Chambeau said he had asked Harberson to help him "do away" with Sheriff Lamar because Lamar was close to uncovering the dumping scheme, which brought Chambeau an estimated $1.6 million.

Although he made a taped confession, Chambeau and his attorney pleaded "not guilty" at a pre-trial hearing December 22 and were preparing to face a long trial when Chambeau, who was being held without bail, committed suicide in his prison cell December 25. His nude body was found hanging from a bedsheet lashed through a window frame in the Yoknapatawpha County Detention Center.

Harberson also pleaded "not guilty," but was convicted on conspiracy charges and was sentenced to five years. Her brother, Hal Harberson, owner of several local gambling operations, pleaded guilty and was convicted on several gambling-related charges, and is serving a seven-year sentence. He was not convicted in relation to the Lamar murder.

At least one figure escaped apparently unscathed from the sordid web of crime. Macy Lamar will finished her final semester of high school in 1998, and enrolled at the University of Mississippi with plans to major in criminal justice and specialize as a hostage negotiator. But Fate had another path in mind for Macy Lamar.

This wasn't the last time the specter of illegal gambling would raise its ugly head in Oxford nor was it the last time young Miss Lamar would be involved in local crime intrigue. [ Continued --> ]