10 Years After Her Brother's Murder, a Sister Still Looks for Answers

Photo 1: Paul Lambert and his sister Amy. Photo 2: Paul Lambert poses for a photo with one of his children. Photos courtesy of Amy Lambert Barnes.

Ten years ago Joliet resident Paul Lambert was shot and killed while he was walking home from a bar. Aug. 27 marked the 10-year anniversary. Since then, no arrests have been made and his sister is still hoping someone with information will come forward.

“Everyone’s afraid to talk,” said Amy Lambert Barnes, Paul’s sister. “People are scared. They refuse to say anything.”

Lambert left four kids behind. At the time of his death, they were ages 1, 4, 6 and 12. The youngest ones don’t remember him. They need to rely on stories to know their father. He also left behind a girlfriend who was for all intents and purposes his wife, but they were never legally married.

The night of his murder, Paul was at a Crest Hill bar called Gippers. He had a few drinks and decided to walk home. A car pulled up to him and shot him, according to Amy. He was shot at around 4 a.m. The last phone call he had made was to Amy, according to his sister.

A cop doing his rounds found him around 6 a.m. unconscious on the side of the road, according to Amy. He was taken to Provena St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet where he was pronounced dead.

Paul wasn’t perfect, Amy said. Everyone makes mistakes in their life. But Amy remembers him as the kind of person who would always help someone out, citing a story where he assisted an old man whose car had broken down in a turning lane. Paul had helped the man move his car and waited with him until help arrived.

“My brother pulled into a parking lot, ran across the street and told the old guy, ‘You steer and I’ll push.’ He would have done anything for anybody,” Amy said

The fact that 10 years have passed and there’s still no answer to who killed Paul Lambert has made Amy sympathetic to other cold cases and she wishes more could be done to help those families get closure.

“There are so many cases that are just sitting in a box with families that are just sitting at home wondering if they’ll ever know,” she said. “It would be nice if there was a little bit of focus. They hit a dead end for reasons but 10 years later, 20 years later, maybe somebody forgot. Maybe it will kick up a memory. Maybe they moved away and they don’t feel threatened that somebody will find out who they are.”

Crest Hill Deputy Chief Ed Clarke has kept in touch with Amy over the years and updated her on any developments, of which there have been few.

Clarke said there haven’t been any suspects in the shooting death of Paul Lambert, but there have been a few people of interest, but nothing’s evolved beyond that.

“Somebody knows something,” Clarke said, and he’s hoping that after a decade someone will come forward with what they know. “They know something. Somebody told something to someone. I’m just hoping that somebody has the courage to come out and say ‘Hey, I have some information and this is what I was told’ and maybe something will spring this case into being solved.”

The following Bible quote has been included at the request of Amy Lambert Barnes:

“There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.”

-Luke, Chapter 12, verses 2-3