VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A criminal complaint filed in Virginia Beach has brought to light new information regarding the homicide investigation of a North Carolina man, who has been missing since July.
On July 15, Martrell Andre Lamar's mother reported the 42-year-old missing from the residence he shared with his girlfriend, 35-year-old Ashley Walton, in Knotts Island, North Carolina.
When Walton spoke to deputies, she told them the last she had seen Lamar was on July 2, when he left following an argument between the two.
However, phone records revealed Walton's original story to detectives did not match up. According to police, Walton and Lamar's cell phones were both traced to the Pungo Ferry Bridge in Virginia Beach at the same time.
Eventually, police say Walton told someone -- referred to as "Source of Information #1" in the complaint -- that she and Lamar were arguing on the boat ramp of the bridge before Walton called a person to shoot Lamar.
Lamar's body was then loaded into the trunk of Walton's Buick and taken to the residence the two shared in Knotts Island, according to a source who claimed to have seen the Buick, a Ford SUV, and a tall man between midnight and 1 a.m.
It wasn't until last week, Wednesday on Nov. 13, that Virginia Beach police were able to seize Walton's Buick in Chesapeake.
A human remains detection K9 then search the vehicle's trunk and trunk liner before a VBPD Forensic Service Specialist used luminol, which revealed remnants of blood.
This led investigators to suspect that Walton was not only present when Lamar was killed, but she also assisted in moving and hiding his body and covering up his homicide.
Virginia Beach police arrested Walton Tuesday, when she was charged with concealment of a dead body and accessory after the fact to homicide. Police are still looking for the person who ultimately shot Lamar.
Although Lamar's disappearance is now being investigated as a homicide, his body has still not been found.