Identified! AL - Opelika, 'Juvenile Jane Doe', BlkFem, UP9834, 4-7, in woods, abused, Jan'12 *reward* - Amore Joveah Wiggins

[Springrain]

The poor mom. Turned her life around beautifully and still could not get at least visitation rights. While the father with his oh so respectable navy job killed the child and collected child support for a decade.

It literally makes me sick! If Sherry had gotten custody, sure, there might have been some struggles for a while, but today Amore would be the smart, happy, beautiful young lady she was SUPPOSED to grow up into. Sherry worked hard to turn her life around and be a success. She fought to get visitation rights; she loved her daughter a lot, and was very clear that it was clear that she was totally willing to take Amore from the Vickerstaffs if they didn't want her anymore. This child left a loving mother who was by all means doing what was best for her and the Vickerstaffs "repaid" that by abusing, neglecting and murdering her. And then to be lied to, coerced, and robbed over a period of years, while her adorable daughter was an unidentified murder victim six feet underground...it literally makes me see red. From the article, I know that Sherry has no qualms about fighting for justice for Amore. I just wish she didn't have to.
I'm wondering if Amore will be reburied in Maryland...I don't expect anybody to know, just thinking out loud here.

 

[LordMo]

"seeing red" is a good phrase, springrain. I don't want to opine too much but the details of this case make me feel a fury that I barely know how to deal with.

 

[Alleykins]

Norfolk mother of Amore mourns loss of daughter

Amore Wiggins’ body was found more than 10 years ago in Opelika, Alabama, but until last week, she had been known by a different name as investigators worked to find out her identity, what ha…

www.wavy.com

In a statement, the Navy said it “can confirm that Senior Chief Engineman Lamar Vickerstaff, Jr., assigned to Afloat Training Group Mayport, was arrested by Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office pursuant to a warrant issued in Opelika, Alabama, Jan. 17, 2023 charging him with felony murder. We are aware of the arrest and are cooperating fully with local law enforcement.”

I'm glad he's on the Navy's radar.

 

[cvaldez1975]

Reading this article I kept getting madder and madder! Major points from the article:

• Sherry and Lamar met in Virginia when Sherry was 19, he was 35. They lived in the same apartment complex.
• They moved in together when Sherry fell pregnant, his family was bothered by him having a child out of wedlock and the pair knew they would never marry.
• Lamar became physically abusive towards Sherry, and she broke up with Lamar and left their shared apartment.
• Sherry was a single mother to Amore in that timeframe, and Lamar was an absentee father and did not pay child support. In 2009, Sherry went to court to attempt to get child support payments from Lamar, but she was facing charges and decided Amore would be in a more stable household with the Vickerstaffs.
• Sherry had visitation and actively visited Amore until the Vickerstaffs allegedly moved to Hawaii. At that point she attempted contact with Lamar who refused to let her see her daughter. She brought Lamar to court to resume visitations and hopefully get custody of Amore, but her appeals were exhausted as of 2013 (after Amore had died), so Sherry kept paying child support and not seeing Amore.
• Although Sherry did not have a positive relationship with the Vickerstaffs, she hoped that Amore would seek her out when she was 18 and that she would have a good relationship with her daughter.
• This past December, Opelika PD visited her and told her Lamar Vickerstaff was proven to be the father of Opelika Jane Doe. Sherry saw the clay bust of Amore and felt at once it was her. DNA conclusively proved that Jane Doe was Amore.
• Sherry noted that she tried to see her many times and was rebuffed. She wished that she could have gotten her and stated she was a phone call away, and would have taken Amore from the Vickerstaffs.

another thing to note. as long as you make a support payment, you can not be charged w abandonment so maybe she knew that? also if she was young and struggling she really wouldnt have had the means to keep trying to take him to court if he was not local.

 

[Laughing]

Norfolk mother of Amore mourns loss of daughter

Amore Wiggins’ body was found more than 10 years ago in Opelika, Alabama, but until last week, she had been known by a different name as investigators worked to find out her identity, what ha…

www.wavy.com

I'm glad he's on the Navy's radar.

Wonder if he was defrauding the Navy of dependent benefits for little Amore while he was defrauding Ms. Wiggins?

Leavenworth, LW, Leavenworth is in your future imho.

 

[auburnmomof2]

In my opinion, we will see more arrests. The trailer park where she was found is a close knit community. I have a feeling that LV has family that lives within a less than 1 mile radius. I am curious to know what Amore was in Opelika during the time she was killed. Who was she staying with? Was LV on leave prior to a relocation? Was RV with him? So many things I'm curious about that we may not know until the trial. It will be difficult to find a jury in Opelika though. Praying that there will be a pool of people who have not been following this case locally. I am furious that Amore was beaten, taken out in public (bible school) and had no idea how much her mother loved her and wanted the best for her

 

[imstilla.grandma]

It was all the way back in January of 2012 when the skull of Baby Jane Doe was discovered in the backyard of a trailer home in Opelika.

On scene police collected other human bones, a small bundle of hair, and a shirt likely belonging to a little girl between 4 and 7-years old.

An autopsy showed the child suffered blunt force trauma resulting in 15 individual fractures throughout the body.

Part of Venter's work included identifying the child's father, a 50-year-old member of the U.S. Navy named Lamar Vickerstaff Jr.

Last December detectives traveled to Vickerstaff's home base in Jacksonville, Florida to notify him of his daughter’s death.

During their meeting Vickerstaff provided investigators with no information on his daughter's identity. His current wife, Ruth, denied even knowing the child

Maryland mother helps solve cold case murder of estranged young daughter in Alabama

It was all the way back in January of 2012 when the skull of Baby Jane Doe was discovered in the backyard of a trailer home in Opelika, Alabama.

www.wmar2news.com

 

[Mind your biscuits]

It was all the way back in January of 2012 when the skull of Baby Jane Doe was discovered in the backyard of a trailer home in Opelika.

On scene police collected other human bones, a small bundle of hair, and a shirt likely belonging to a little girl between 4 and 7-years old.

An autopsy showed the child suffered blunt force trauma resulting in 15 individual fractures throughout the body.

Part of Venter's work included identifying the child's father, a 50-year-old member of the U.S. Navy named Lamar Vickerstaff Jr.

Last December detectives traveled to Vickerstaff's home base in Jacksonville, Florida to notify him of his daughter’s death.

During their meeting Vickerstaff provided investigators with no information on his daughter's identity. His current wife, Ruth, denied even knowing the child

Maryland mother helps solve cold case murder of estranged young daughter in Alabama

It was all the way back in January of 2012 when the skull of Baby Jane Doe was discovered in the backyard of a trailer home in Opelika, Alabama.

www.wmar2news.com

What was the point of the father denying his daughter existed? The step mother I get, I suppose she could make up all kinds of stories, but him? That's just stupid. Horrible people, I hope he claimed that poor child as a dependent because the military will make him pay for that big time. Moo.

 

[Grungster]

What was the point of the father denying his daughter existed? The step mother I get, I suppose she could make up all kinds of stories, but him? That's just stupid. Horrible people, I hope he claimed that poor child as a dependent because the military will make him pay for that big time. Moo.

"Oh, she must have been from a one night stand I had back in the day"

Could have been that scenario or he could have just been non-cooperative.

 

[Alleykins]

"Oh, she must have been from a one night stand I had back in the day"

Could have been that scenario or he could have just been non-cooperative.

I'm thinking non-cooperative. Or he forgot there'd be a paper trail leading to his door, like the all the court documents and judgments for support and custody.

 

[Mind your biscuits]

I'm thinking non-cooperative. Or he forgot there'd be a paper trail leading to his door, like the all the court documents and judgments for support and custody.

Yeah, I suppose he didn't think about the paper trail or DNA. He thought he had got away with it.
I love that DNA and genealogy are finding these people. Great work from Othram labs on this case.

 

[faithx]

UPDATE: Lamar and Ruth Vickerstaff arrive at Lee County Justice Center

UPDDATE: Both Lamar and Ruth Vickerstaff have arrived at the Lee County Justice Center. Lamar is facing charges of felony murder and failure to report a missing child. Ruth is charged with failure …

www.wrbl.com

Police: Witness puts Vickerstaff in Opelika during daughter’s estimated death

OPELIKA, Ala. (WRBL) – Court documents are revealing new information regarding the Florida man accused of murdering his daughter Amore Wiggins in the decade-old Opelika Baby Jane Doe case. Hi…

www.wrbl.com

 

[Alleykins]

From the article, RBBM for focus:

“Amore Wiggins suffered serious, physical injuries that led to her death, while in the care in the custody of Lamar, Vickerstaff, and her body was discarded in Lamar’s hometown behind a residence where associates of Lamar live,” said a deposition court document.

So, I'm thinking these associates had to have some idea whose remains they were. If they didn't know Amore personally, they had to have an idea who she belonged to. Didn't investigators interview people who lived in that residence? The way this is written, in the present tense, it indicates to me they still live there, so I'd be going back and pounding on these people's door (if they haven't already).

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Officers were unable to identify the remains, but they did make a rendering of the baby, who they referred to as "Baby Jane."

The case eventually went cold, but in January of 2022 DNA testing had advanced enough that they could link the remains to the baby's mother, Sherry Wiggins, who now resides in Baltimore.

Wiggins was able to provide documents that revealed her ex-husband took custody of her daughter in 2009, and she had been paying child support for years.

Baltimore woman helps solve cold-case murder of long-lost daughter

It all began in 2012, when the bones of a toddler were found in a backyard in Opelika, Alabama.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Alleykins]

One article stated Sherry was paying child support up until recently.

 

[TheHighestPriestess]

UPDATE: Lamar and Ruth Vickerstaff arrive at Lee County Justice Center

UPDDATE: Both Lamar and Ruth Vickerstaff have arrived at the Lee County Justice Center. Lamar is facing charges of felony murder and failure to report a missing child. Ruth is charged with failure …

www.wrbl.com

Police: Witness puts Vickerstaff in Opelika during daughter’s estimated death

OPELIKA, Ala. (WRBL) – Court documents are revealing new information regarding the Florida man accused of murdering his daughter Amore Wiggins in the decade-old Opelika Baby Jane Doe case. Hi…

www.wrbl.com

The evidence against LV is reallyyyy piling up. Hopefully this means this will be a pretty solid case for prosecution

 

[bettyboop]

Do you know the person I should message to and run it by them first?

@Mckaub , I believe you can actually just hit report on one of your own posts and one of the moderators will answer. Or I can tag @Sillybilly ; @MadMcGoo; @YaYa_521 ; can one of you help @Mckaub? JMO MOO

 

[Vern]

<modsnip - quoted post was removed>

Opelika Police, FBI search near Baby Jane Doe site, will not confirm connection

OPELIKA, Ala. (WRBL) – The mobile home and woods where the remains of Baby Jane Doe were located in January 2012 is once again surrounded by yellow crime scene tape. Wednesday afternoon, Janu…

www.wrbl.com

The mobile home and woods where the remains of Baby Jane Doe were located in January 2012 is once again surrounded by yellow crime scene tape. Wednesday afternoon, January 18th, Opelika police confirmed they are serving a search warrant at the property along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding an ongoing investigation. However, investigators will not say if the search is related to the Baby Jane Doe case. Agents are standing on the mobile home’s front porch. The area around the residence, along with the front and back yard are blocked off with tape.

 

[Melt71]

What was the point of the father denying his daughter existed? The step mother I get, I suppose she could make up all kinds of stories, but him? That's just stupid. Horrible people, I hope he claimed that poor child as a dependent because the military will make him pay for that big time. Moo.

Did she even know Amore existed? Did biodad gain custody and immediately place Amore with family or acquaintances in Opelika, with his new wife having little, if any, knowledge of the child?

 

[Springrain]

Did she even know Amore existed? Did biodad gain custody and immediately place Amore with family or acquaintances in Opelika, with his new wife having little, if any, knowledge of the child?

She also had custody of Amore, from my understanding. They were married and living together during the period of time when Lamar had custody of Little Amore. There is NO way she didn't know about her. IMO.