A man who at first appeared to have a solid alibi for his estranged wife’s death has now been charged in the crime after investigators were able to unravel his claims and find physical evidence tying him to her bludgeoning and the beating of her dogs.
Jeffrey Thomas Lamb had set up a movie date with his estranged wife, Cathy Renee Lamb, as part of a plan to kill her so he could collect on her life insurance policy, Palm Beach County sheriff’s officials said Thursday.
Cathy Lamb, 30, of Lake Park, was killed June 15 on the couple’s 11th wedding anniversary while getting ready for the date, officials said. A suspect since the slaying, Jeffrey Lamb was charged Thursday with first-degree murder, insurance fraud and two counts of cruelty to animals.
Jeffrey Lamb, who’s been in jail since July on unrelated charges, told at least two people he stood to inherit between $27,000 and $29,000 from his wife’s life insurance policy, police records show. He also told a friend three years ago he would kill Cathy Lamb rather than divorce her because he would benefit financially, sheriff’s officials said.
“I’m glad the SOB has been caught,” Cathy Lamb’s mother, Benita Rippeon, said of the man she’s known since his teens.
“He took my daughter away from me for money.”
Jeffrey and Cathy Lamb had been separated for four years at the time of the killing, authorities said. He was living with another woman, fiancM-ie Joey Steidel, and was in the middle of moving into their new house in Jupiter when he asked Cathy Lamb to take care of his dog, Bandit, police records show.
Jeffrey Lamb then asked to move into her home to be closer to the dog, sheriff’s officials said. Two weeks later, Cathy Lamb was dead.
Rippeon held out hope that the boy who used to come over and hang out with her daughter in high school could not have killed her.
“In my heart I hoped it wasn’t him, but I knew there was a good possibility,” Rippeon said from her Connecticut home.
Jeffrey Lamb called 911 that night to report Cathy’s death, police said. His dark black jeans were covered with what detectives now know to be Cathy’s blood, but the blood was not visible to the eye, sheriff’s officials said, and his alibi seemed solid. The investigation, though, ultimately led sheriff’s detectives back to Jeffrey Lamb.
Officers had to unravel his alibi after he provided them with a detailed timeline of his day using receipts and other evidence to show where he had been. Interviews with friends and coworkers and a close examination of his cellular phone records subsequently disproved his account. The phone records showed he was near specific cell phone towers, and those locations revealed his account was not accurate.
The fact that her two dogs were beaten, but his was not, also was suspicious.
But the most important piece of evidence, Detective Kim Bradley said, was the blood later found on his jeans and the pattern of the stains.
Detectives asked three outside experts to examine Jeffrey Lamb’s jeans, photographs of the crime scene and other evidence, Sgt. Jeff Andrews said. The experts concluded that Cathy’s blood had been spattered onto the jeans while Jeffrey Lamb was standing within four feet of her as she was brutally beaten. Three days later, Jeffrey Lamb was charged with Cathy Lamb’s murder.
“I gave him the benefit of the doubt,” Rippeon said. “Shame on me.”
Shahien Nasiripour can be reached at or 561-243-6531.
