Found Deceased FL - Lauren Lamar, 26, Coral Gables, 24 May 2015 *Arrests*

Lauren Jenee Lamar, who is from Jacksonville, was with two other people on a 30-foot go fast boat late Sunday. They were partying near Stiltsville when they decided to head back around 10 p.m.

When they arrived at Matheson Hammock Park they realized that Lamar, 26, was missing. The driver of the boat, 45-year old Russell Bruce, said he thought she was asleep inside the cabin as they made their way back. When they docked at the park he realized she wasn’t on board. He said the conditions were windy and the water was a little rough, so Lamar may have fallen overboard.

No one on board the boat was wearing a life vest.

Pino [of the Florida Wildlife Commission] said the couple who were on the boat are being questioned.

“We don’t know why this happened. It’s very unusual circumstances that we are working under. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of somebody falling off a boat, especially when there were only three people on board, and the two people who were left on board not realize that it had happened,” said Pino.

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CluelessWonder said:

On second thought, ...

Her FB says she works at World Crawl Miami, which is some kind of bar/nightclub/party company.

I'm wondering if she was with a work friend.

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Lamar was reported missing early Monday morning when a 29-foot boat returned to a marina area, and the man and woman on board said they realized she wasn't on the boat. The man is 45-year-old Russell Bruce, and the woman is 28-year-old Alisha Nicole Bartolota.

Bruce owns a nightclub, which is where he met Lamar. It's unclear how long the two knew each other.

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For [Lauren's mother], Rebecca Lamar, the hours were passing like torture. And the questions kept coming.

“It’s not that big of a boat. How did they not know she was missing until they came in?” she said. “Maybe she was on another boat?”

She said the names of the other passengers were not familiar to her.

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The two people that reported the woman missing are currently being questioned by police. Crews have not ruled out alcohol or violence. "We're interviewing the two people who were left on the boat to get a better understanding of what happened there, and we'll get to the bottom of it at some point," Pino said.

Nicholas Field, Lamar's employer at Miami Club Crawl, said, "She was a promotional and sales representative for us. She worked really hard. She had a bright future. She was very business-minded. I'm really hoping that we find her as soon as possible."

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Scott Snay is a boat captain who also docks at Matheson Hammock. “The bay’s very choppy. There’s just not a lot of visibility in the water right now. Once it settles down it would be fairly easy to see but even when you have clear waters, it’s a needle in a haystack and it’s a big haystack and you have boats zipping around,” he said.

Snay said he’s baffled by the situation. “How do you not accommodate for all your people?” he wondered. “If somebody’s going to move around.. If someone doesn’t pop back in a few minutes, you might want to turn around and look.”

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CBS4 News videographer Brian Shanahan, just before 7 AM, was shooting video of the search operation for 26-year-old Lauren Jenee Lamar when he saw something in his camera lens—the body of a black female partially submerged in the water just feet from the shore. He immediately notified the coast guard’s search and rescue team.

On Tuesday evening, police confirmed that the body found in the bay area by the marina is that of Lamar who was in town from Jacksonville for Memorial Day Weekend.

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Nightclub owner, 45-year-old Bruce Russell of Miami, and 28-year-old Alicia Bartolota of Winter Gardens have been charged with manslaughter in the death of 26-year-old Lauren Jenee Lamar.

The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office had ruled Lamar's death undetermined, not a drowning. However, officials are still unsure as to what exactly happened on that fateful night, though prosecutors said the pair left Lamar in the water to die without rendering any help.

According to investigators, the tiny cabin where Lamar was reportedly in was in the front of the boat, easily in the line of sight of the boat captain.

Bruce and Bartolotta had informed authorities that they noticed Lamar was missing after docking their boat. The boat's GPS revealed they docked at 11:09 p.m. However, they waited until 11:48 p.m. to report the disappearance, not to 911, but to a security guard at the marina.

Investigators said Bruce informed them that he was nervous upon realizing Lamar had gone missing and made himself a drink.

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When he discovered that a passenger on his small boat was missing, Miami nightclub owner Russell Bruce waited 39 minutes to report her missing. The resulting charge: manslaughter, for failing to call authorities quickly enough.

But prosecutors, in the end, could not prove that even if Bruce had called 911, rescue crews would have found Lauren Jenee Lamar in time to save her.

For that reason, Bruce was spared jail time on Friday, agreeing to serve four years of probation after pleading no contest to manslaughter. The case also won’t show as a felony conviction on his record.

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Alicia Bartolotta, also was charged with manslaughter. She has rejected a plea offer and the case remains ongoing.

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While turned towards the judge, Bruce apologized to Lamar's family Friday. The family approved the plea deal because of the lack of evidence.

Lamar's father, Anthony Lama, rejected the seemingly half-hearted apology saying: 'If you really was sorry, you would've did that two years ago. Be a man.'

Lamar's family is suing Bruce for wrongful death. Friday, her mother Rebecca Lamar told reporters Bruce 'discarded her [daughter] like garbage.'

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