Laurie Show was a 16-year-old sophomore at Conestoga Valley High School who was stalked by her classmates and murdered on December 20, 1991, in the United States.
[2] Her classmates Lisa Michelle Lambert, Tabitha Buck, and Lawrence "Butch" Yunkin were subsequently charged with her murder.
Another attack occurred at their high school, and yet another incident happened at a fireman's ball when Buck jumped out of a moving vehicle and ran towards Laurie, intending to fight her.
[8] Police arrested Lisa Michelle Lambert, Lawrence Yunkin, and Tabitha Buck at a local bowling alley later that day for the murder of Laurie Show.
[9] Additionally, found in Tabitha Buck’s purse were Laurie's makeup items, including a powder compact and blue mascara, which she had stolen while fleeing the crime scene.
Yunkin stated that he had not participated in the murder, and while he was aware that Lambert and Buck planned to cut Show's hair with the knife as a prank, he provided them with an alibi and helped dispose of evidence.
However, while Buck’s lawyer was making his closing statement, he held up her starter jacket to show the jury, unaware that inside the pocket was the missing piece of the knife that had broken off during the homicide.
The prosecutor, Jack Kenneff, who also prosecuted Lambert, hired an FBI handwriting expert to verify the letter's authenticity, leading to the revocation of Yunkin's deal.
[17] During the hearing, the defense presented several pieces of evidence, including the sweatpants previously introduced in the 1992 trial, which actually belonged to Lawrence Yunkin.
However, a set of clothing that belonged to Lambert, which the defense claimed she had worn on the night of the murder, was submitted during the retrial and showed no traces of blood or evidence linking her to the crime.
[18] According to the Los Angeles Times, the police and prosecutors repeatedly contradicted themselves and their story, presenting evidence that U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell felt had been tampered with and edited by the state to secure a conviction against Lambert.
[18] On April 16, 1997, Hazel Show approached Judge Stewart Dalzell in his chambers, informing him that she had seen Lawrence Yunkin at the crime scene on the morning of the murder and had reported this to the police and prosecutor multiple times.
The neighbor’s statement, which described seeing Yunkin and his car fleeing the crime scene, had been withheld from Lambert's original trial lawyers.
Additionally, Judge Stengel placed a gag order on all involved after the press began asking numerous questions about the apparent abuse of power by the state.
Lambert's lawyers criticized the situation, stating that imprisoning an innocent woman to save the county money was unconscionable and raised the level of misconduct to an unprecedented high.
[26] He also testified that he had seen a police officer, who matched one of the descriptions Lambert had given of her alleged rapists, give her a "threatening glare" at a local festival.
Yunkin was ordered to hold the sweatpants against his body, and they were shown to be too short for him and made of a different fabric from the garment entered into evidence in the 1992 trial.
Lambert attempted to appeal the 1998 decision in 2003 and to bring the case to the Supreme Court of the United States, but was rejected both times.
[35] An hour-long special episode of 20/20 aired in February 1999, featuring interviews with several former classmates who claimed that Lambert had made death threats against Show.
The film received poor critical reviews, with one journalist commenting that its depiction of both Laurie Show and Lambert distorted the true story.
[38] In 2001, writer and journalist Lyn Riddle published Overkill, a true-crime book about Show's murder and the resulting trials of Lambert and her accomplices.