The Murder of Lyda Jameson (Vermont)

Lyda Jameson was 73-years old when her son found her lying in bed without a pulse one morning in March of 1976. First responders at the scene believed she died of natural causes…Until they noticed signs of a possible homicide. Decades later, DNA evidence led to an arrest, and yet someone has still gotten away with murder.

The Discovery

It was snowing on the morning of Tuesday, March 2, 1976 as Wayne Jameson began his work day. He was the owner of Blanch & Jameson Insurance Agency and a real estate agent in the small border town of Alburgh, Vermont, so Wayne was gearing up for the busy season when tourists from Canada began scoping out potential vacation homes on the shores of Lake Champlain.

Almost every week, Wayne’s name was printed in the Burlington Free Press and other local papers below ads for secluded cottages and rustic lakeside retreats. He was well-known in Alburgh and greater Vermont for his real estate endeavors and also for his earlier political career in the Vermont House of Representatives. Even without his political titles and business though, it was hard to remain anonymous in a town of less than 1300 people…And with his mother being a steadfast figure of local education, well, the Jameson legacy ran deep in Alburgh and Grand Isle county.

Wayne’s office on North Main Street in Alburgh was actually just across the street from the home of his mother, Lyda Jameson. According to reporting by Mike Donoghue for the Burlington Free Press, Lyda had made a forty-year career as a school teacher. She was known to be pretty strict but at the end of the day, she really just expected a lot out of her pupils and knew they were capable of it. She’d taught at least two generations of Alburgh residents in the public school system over those four decades, but even after retirement in 1970 she couldn’t stay away from education altogether. Lyda went on to teach religious education classes at St. Amadeus Church right next door to her home on North Main Street.

Lyda was independent, involved in her community, and some said appeared much younger than her 73 years. But even an independent young-for-her-age septuagenarian needs help once in a while, and her son Wayne was there for her. According to Wayne, Lyda had recently broken her wrist and so he was planning to bring his mom some groceries and make sure she was getting along alright. He had tried calling Lyda several times over the course of that Tuesday morning, but each of his calls went unanswered. At 1 o’clock that afternoon, Wayne decided to walk across the street to check in.

The house was quiet as he entered. Finding no sign of his mother on the first floor, Wayne made his way upstairs to her bedroom and stepped inside. There she was, laying in her bed, the blankets pulled up to her chin. Wayne called out to her but she didn’t respond or stir at the sound of his voice. When Wayne checked for a pulse, he found none. Wayne reached for his mother’s phone, which was inexplicably off the hook, and picked up the receiver.

Leslie Koren reports for the Burlington Free Press that Wayne didn’t call 9-1-1 or any other local emergency line. Instead, he dialed his office across the street and spoke with one of his employees. He asked her to call Lyda’s doctor and told her he believed his mother was dead. The employee tried the physician’s number a few times to no avail, so she decided to call an ambulance instead.

When first responders arrived at Lyda’s home, they confirmed she was deceased and so Wayne asked that his mother be transported to a hospital or funeral home, but there was protocol to follow before that would happen. This was an unattended death and no matter how innocuous it at first seemed, Vermont State Police was called to the scene.

As reported by Eloise Hedbor for the Burlington Free Press, the assumption was that Lyda died of natural causes. There wasn’t anything obvious to raise concern that this was anything other than an elderly woman who passed peacefully while asleep in her own bed. However, that assumption was proven false when State Police began a closer examination of the bedroom and of Lyda’s remains. They realized that beneath the blankets, her night clothes were partially ripped from her body. Not only that, she had bruises all around her neck. It appeared Lyda’s death may have been caused by something decidedly unnatural.

County’s First Homicide

By the time the State Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Grand Isle County State’s Attorney Michael Cain arrived at Lyda’s home, more than a dozen people had filtered through the scene. People had even been making calls using the phone that Wayne found off the hook when he first got there, the same one he used to call his office after he found his mother.

When asked about the concerning bruising on Lyda’s neck, Wayne told investigators that it was from a recent fall on the ice but still, an autopsy was ordered to determine her cause and manner of death. When the findings from the State Medical Examiner came back, they made clear that Lyda’s bruises could not have been simply from a fall. The autopsy determined that Lyda’s cause of death was manual strangulation. This was a homicide. Someone killed her with their own two hands. The medical examiner concluded that there were no clinical signs of sexual assault.

The bruising wasn’t the only clue the ME found during the autopsy. Liz Anderson reports for the Rutland Herald that clutched in Lyda’s hands and under her fingernails, as well as near her neck, armpit and hip were several strands of hair. The hairs were 15 to 16-inches long and reddish-brown in color. At least some of the strands of hair had the follicle intact. Though DNA analysis was a long way off in 1976, an intact hair follicle meant that the strands of hair could go beyond microscopic examination and potentially be processed for clues like blood type,and even race and sex of the person who left those hairs at the scene.

Investigators learned Lyda was last seen alive by a neighbor who delivered her newspaper around 5 p.m. the night before her body was discovered. So, with that and the condition of her remains, the medical examiner estimated Lyda’s time of death to be sometime between midnight and 9 a.m. on March 2. Later, the time frame was narrowed to a two to three hour window between 5 a.m. and 7 or 8 a.m. on March 2.

Lyda Jameson’s murder was believed to be the first homicide in Alburgh’s recorded history, perhaps even in the history of greater Grand Isle County. The tragedy of her violent death sent the otherwise quiet community into a spiral of fear.

Investigation

Vermont State Police set up a temporary investigation headquarters in the town clerk’s office as they began to scour Lyda’s house and the town for clues. The trouble was, Lyda’s house and any evidence that might have been there had already been disturbed before anyone realized they were dealing with a homicide. With so many people traipsing through the house before the Bureau of Criminal Investigation arrived, any fingerprints or evidence was likely already contaminated.

The only fingerprints police identified at the scene belonged to Lyda herself and her son Wayne. With the exception of her telephone being off the hook, nothing seemed out of place in Lyda’s house or bedroom. There were no signs of a struggle, and no broken windows or doors forced open. Lyda kept a spare key hidden, but only a few people other than Lyda and her son Wayne would’ve known where it was. But even though Lyda kept her house locked up tight, according to reporting in the Times Argus, there was a door lock that didn’t always latch properly and it could have been jiggled loose without detection, so it was possible that the door with the faulty lock was a point of entry.

The theory among investigators after their assessment of the scene was that whoever killed Lyda could have entered and escaped through the back door, crossing through her backyard and into a field that stretched out behind the house. If this was the true point of entry, then it meant to police that the killer was familiar with the house and its surroundings.

Meanwhile, interviews with family, friends and neighbors were underway to develop any leads. Investigators learned that Lyda had recently witnessed a break-in and burglary at the St. Amadeus Church next door. The suspects made off with a $150 PA system and Lyda had given details to police about the getaway car. Although it was something to consider – maybe the thieves came back to silence the witness – police told reporters for the Times Argus it one of the “least promising” of all the potential motives they were investigating.

Another lead had Vermont officials looking into a separate but similar homicide case across state borders in New Hampshire. The victim was 74-year old Madlyn Crouse, also a school teacher like Lyda, and she was also strangled to death in her Nashua apartment either February 27 or 28, just a few days before Lyda’s murder. The parallels were worth some scrutiny, but police were saying they had no evidence of a connection.

However, within the first days of the investigation, police had discovered a lead that was much more promising. There had been a party in town on the night of the murder and one of the partygoers was allegedly unaccounted for during a critical window of time that night.

Lyda Jameson’s case continues on Dark Downeast. Press play to hear the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.