The search for a missing metro Atlanta native ended late Tuesday in Miami, where police confirmed a body found hours earlier was the 26-year-old woman.
Remains found in Biscayne Bay near Matheson Hammock Marina belonged to Lauren Jenee Lamar, Miami-Dade police Detective Alvaro Zabaleto said Tuesday night. A cause of death had not been determined.
Lamar was reported missing Sunday in Miami, where she moved a few years ago. About 6:40 a.m. Tuesday, helicopters searching for Lamar spotted the body of a black female and “everything’s leaning toward” them belonging to Lamar, Zabaleto said early Tuesday.
Lamar’s mother, Rebecca Lamar, who lives in Decatur, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution her ex-husband had been asked to come ID the remains.
According to investigators, Lauren Lamar had been out on a 30-foot boat Sunday with two other people. Those people said they didn’t notice Lamar was missing until about 11 p.m., when they returned to shore and docked at Matheson Hammock Marina.
The driver of the vessel — 45-year-old Russell Bruce, a local nightclub owner — contacted security personnel who then called police. Search and rescue teams from Miami-Dade, Coral Gables, Key Biscayne, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Florida Wildlife Commission searched a three-mile radius around the dock before suspending their efforts due to darkness Monday night.
The search resumed just after sunrise Tuesday, and Coast Guard helicopters quickly spotted the floating body, Zabaleto said.
Zabaleto said that Bruce and the other passenger on the boat, Nicole Bartolota, 28, were “questioned in length” Monday. No charges had been filed in the case, which remained merely a “death investigation” pending the medical examiner’s autopsy, Zabaleto said.
“We don’t know what we have just yet,” the detective said.
Lamar's LinkedIn page listed her as a server at the JW Marriott hotel in Miami, as well as a team lead for an event staffing company and a sales representative for two other companies. The page said she attended Clayton State University.
Atlanta resident Sheena Knight said she grew up going to church with Lamar in Bankhead. She said she kept in touch with Lamar via Facebook but wasn’t sure why she moved to Florida.
“She was very independent,” Knight said. “Whatever she set her mind to, she went for it. Fearless. … She was very bubbly, the light in the room. And she was a little loud so you knew she was there.”
— Staff reporter Alexis Stevens contributed to this report.
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