The disappearances of Lisa Lambert and Jasmine Calloway Host

This week I planned to only cover one case. I was going to cover the story of a woman, well a young girl who went missing in 1979. Upon researching her case, I found that there was little to no evidence, or coverage, on her disappearance. In fact, there was such little material to work with that this story would have been short, maybe at max a five minute recording. So, I had to add a second woman’s case, which  at first seemed to have a little more information, maybe because it was more recent, but ultimately was also brief.

It is devastating to me that these two young people went missing and there is barely any information. I don't know the detectives name who covered their cases, I don't know much about their families, everything is brief it's like the news media can cover the same Jon Bennett Ramsey murder in depth decades upon decades later, but two women go missing, their bodies not even discovered or if they are alive, no evidence of that either. Yet the media does not bat an eye. How does that happen? I think I have a slight feeling, both of these young women were of color, one from an inner city in Maryland, the other question in a smaller city in Alabama. Their disappearances were at least 20 years apart, but one thing to notice about both of them is that they were black girls. And their stories deserve to be told, because another thing that they have in common is that somewhere out there someone knows something.

This is the story of Lisa Lambert and Jasmine Callaway Host.

Lisa Monique Lambert was born on December 2nd 1964. It's interesting because she is around my mother's age, without giving away too much about how old my mom is LOL. She was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore in the 60s and 70s, was an interesting place. Maryland, is weird in general because it's like the North and the South at the same time. In 1966 Baltimore schools and neighborhoods remained overwhelmingly segregated. The Baltimore riots occurred a year before Lisa was born. The inner city, was harsh. Baltimore's reputation now is pretty split. People either think it's this dangerous area, or they know it for a budding rebirth. Baltimore now has restaurants, bars and clubs. It's home to a famous baseball team. And colleges. Around the time Lisa was growing up Baltimore was enormous. Race relations were still tight, which couldn't have been easy for her growing up as a biracial girl to her parents. Marlene Digs, who then married her husband William Lambert, and became Marlene Lambert in 1963. A few short years later Lisa was born she also had a sister named Ronna, and the family Live together in Baltimore, until Lisa's father passed. This had to have happened at some time when Lisa was a young girl, because Marlene ends up marrying another William. William Chestnut, a black man who was also from Baltimore. We're going to get back to them later.

Lisa  had warm brown eyes, and full curly dark hair. She stood at about 5 foot 9 inches, and was 145 pounds. She had a sweet smile. There isn't much about what her personality was like unfortunately, this happened so long ago and her entire family is deceased at this point. But from what I could find, I would imagine that Lisa was friendly. She had an interest in school, and dance. Which is where our case begins. On October 17th 1979 Lisa was 14 years old. Of course her height and weight may have made her presumably seem older physically, but she was just a child. And she was into young girl things, including dance. That night she had a dance class and her parents allowed her to go. Her mother Marlene was actually out of town at the time attending a funeral. Even though Lisa's mom wasn't home, she had begged her mother and now stepfather William Chestnut to allow her to head to this dance class at a local church. There are two records, one that showed that she never returned from the dance class, and another that says that she called, on some sort of pay phone and was told by William that it was time to come home. A few hours went by, and when William hadn't heard from Lisa he began to get worried. Marlene, who was away Returned and called the police citing that Lisa had not been seen in days. There were no friends or family that had heard from Lisa, and the scariest part about it is that I don't have enough information to know about the dance class at all. I don't know if Lisa had decided to walk home with a couple other girls, and it isn't clear from the investigation if anyone had been interviewed from that nearby church, or even what the church was called. Several days passed and police were running into dead ends, and suddenly the story took a turn when William’s step son said that he had seen Lisa. To give a little bit of history William had nine children. Marlene never had any other children of her own outside of Lisa and Ronna, but William did which meant that the family was large and blended to say the least. It isn't clear how old this son was or which one he was,  but it is assumed that he was a teenager at the time of the allegation that he eventually made to police. See according to the report, he ended up seeing Lisa somewhere in the city. In fact he claimed to have seen her get into a Mark 7 Lincoln automobile. And that would be the last time anyone allegedly saw Lisa.

Here's where things get sticky, it isn't clear which son made the allegation of seeing Lisa, and on top of that why didn't he go and run after her, why not yell for her, why not confront her and say where are you going our family has been looking for you for days? It also isn't clear whether that even was Lisa getting into the car. We don't know the vicinity or of how far or close this sighting was. So what if it wasn't Lisa? What if it truly was another young girl who just resembled Lisa? And the final concern is what Lisa was wearing. Most of my research states that was wearing blue jeans, a burgundy shirt and brown shoes. But here's the thing, if this is what William Chestnut's son described Lisa is wearing then either 1. it was Lisa and she was in this outfit getting into this car, or it wasn't, and the last description we have clothing wise is incorrect. Also, if it was Lisa, and this was the last thing that she had on, what did she wear to the dance class? Was it the same outfit?  Why would you wear something like that to dance class? Why would you wear jeans? Why not some sweatpants or something comfortable that you can move around in. It just doesn't make any sense.

This was the last sighting of Lisa, that was anywhere close to concrete. And the truth is, once police caught word that she'd gotten into this car on her own accord, they changed the declaration from Lisa being missing, to being a runaway. Which meant that because she had decided to leave there wasn't much that they could do. Which is also insane because let's just say she was getting into that car there's nothing to prove that she wasn't being coerced or forced in there. We have no idea. For a very long time in the missing persons system, Lisa did not show up because she left by herself. Over the years there had been sightings and rumors of Lisa, but nothing to ever stick. Marlene Chestnut put the investigation into her own hands, even going on WBAL news in 2009 to shed light on her daughter story. It is clear of course that Lisa did make it to that dance class. So someone saw her from her walk to the dance class, but after the dance class and her phone call to her stepfather it is not clear what happened to her. It's been years since Lisa disappeared, and up until 2013 Marlene held true to the fact that Lisa is still alive out there, that maybe she ran off to have a different life for herself. Being in a household with that many kids, losing your father at a young age it could not have been easy. When Marlene passed away, her obituary didn't speak much about Lisa’s story, but it did note that she considered Lisa to still be alive. William Chestnut was interesting. He actually passed away in 2004, but there was something to note in 2011. William’s son Tony chestnut found himself in a lot of trouble. He was arrested on charges of possessing child *********** and sexual abuse. At the time of Lisa’s disappearance he would have been older, in his 20s. It isn't a stretch to wonder, was he the person that could have reported seeing Lisa in that car? Especially if years later he ends up dealing with misconduct with children. His younger step sister was just a teenager. There is no evidence that anyone had to report an alibi of sorts the day that Lisa went missing.

Over the years there have been speculation, on what could have happened to Lisa. There have been arrests of women with the same name, same birthday, some have even gone to literally being the same height and around the same weight but none have fully been confirmed as Lisa. In fact if she were to run away it's highly likely that she would have changed her name. At one point she was tied to an ‘orange socks Jane Doe.’ A murder victim in Texas. Other than that there hasn't been much. There really only is more questions than answers, there is a chance that Lisa could have ran away to start a new life, and there's also a chance that something more sinister could have occurred. It isn't clear how her sister passed away, but all we do know is that she died before her mother, Marlene. It also wasn't clear about the whereabouts of any of William Chestnut's children. But Lisa is still on missing person websites, age progression shows Lisa with the same warm eyes, you can see photos on my website. if you happen to know anything please contact the Baltimore Police Department missing persons unit at 443-984-7395.

The next case, though occurring over 30 years later has even less information than the first. Actually, in all honesty this case confuses me probably more than any case I have covered. And that's since doing this podcast, and the true crime cases I've covered on my website. This case is pretty vague but I'm going to start with the basics. Jasmine Calloway Host is a young black woman from Alabama. She weighs about 145 pounds, and is 5 foot 6 inches. At one point Jasmine had a shaved head and was wearing a wig with long black hair, other times she would be seen with small braids. She was born in 1988 On August 30th, making her a Virgo. There isn't much about Jasmine’s past. I don't really know much about her personality either, outside of the fact that she seemed to keep to herself, I'd imagine from her Zodiac sign alone that she was probably someone who was very grounded, she could have possibly been more reserved, and an introvert. I also gathered this, because there is simply not much that I can find about her at all. When researching her case there are news articles, but there aren't any quotes from her friends, I don't know anything about her family, what I do know is that in 2017 she was living in Gadsden AL. To give a little background Gadsden was known for its role in the civil war, I think you can guess what side they were on. It's a small city with a population of 130,391 people. Now let me tell you about the location, Gadsden AL is surrounded by woods and water. It's located on the Coosa river and its nearest big city of Chattanooga TN is about 90 miles away. You can visit the north Cholula falls park where there's a 90 foot waterfall, caves, and botanical gardens. Or you can walk down Neely Henry lake. There's just a lot of wildlife, a lot of space, a lot of woods.

Jasmine, at this time was 29 years old and living with her husband Mark Host. They also were living with a roommate Rachel Sears. News reports don't necessarily explain much about Rachel or Mark. Other than the fact that Mark and Jasmine allegedly had a volatile relationship. There were also several children living in the home with the three adults, however it did not report that any of the children were necessarily jasmines’. There were a couple changes happening with the family, including the fact that they were planning on moving. Mark and Rachel had been doing more of the planning it seemed, but the goal was to move from Gadsden AL to Dawson Springs Kentucky, about four hours away. Apparently Jasmine had spent the last week or so packing the house and preparing for the big move. It is unclear whether she was working or what loose end she had to tie up, but she hadn't at least reported that she had any discomfort about the move. Jasmine reportedly disappeared on September 15th 2017 the night before their final move, at least that was the last time that Rachel or Mark had seen Jasmine. The three were in the house at 801 Noccalula drive and decided to get rest and sleep before the big drive the next morning. When Rachel and Mark woke up they called for the kids and began to get them ready, and then they called for Jasmine. Mark did not see Jasmine in the bedroom, and no one found her in the house. They began to figure that maybe she'd gone to take a walk, this was their last time in the neighborhood, so she might have gone to get some fresh air. However a few hours went by and there was no sign of Jazmin. It is not clear who called the police to report Jasmine officially missing, and the Gadsden Police Department have not made many details public.

I looked up the house, because I just needed to get a feel for where exactly Jasmine was, if it was believed that she left on her own accord, then how? There was no reports of her calling a cab, or even Uber which did exist back then. However I've spent most of my summers in Natchez Ms it's a town that has neighborhood areas, and also areas that are more rural. It is really hard to call an Uber and get someone to come pick you up, especially if it's not during a peak time. Looking at the location of this house, it would have been nearly impossible. See the house sits behind a bunch of trees. It looks like the neighbors are a little bit of a walk away, and the main street, Lay springs Rd is long. There are no sidewalks. You can make a right on Rebecca Way but again all you'll get is more roads trees and few houses in between. It's one of those places where the mailbox sits in front by the road and the houses are farther back. Where could Jasmine have gone? If she walked she would have been walking on this street, to be frank this is just really creepy. It's literally like there's a few houses and then you've just got road and trees if something happened to Jasmine this would be the perfect place.

It seems as though the house is abandoned, there aren't any pictures of it anywhere and actually as of today it's on the market for about $103,000. Granted it has been about five years, it looks like Rachel, Mark, and the kids left. 

Mark and Rachel have never been officially named suspects. In fact there have been zero suspects named. It's like Jasmine left one day and completely disappeared. Now here's where this case gets frankly******* weird. See, I couldn't find much on Jasmine, so I headed to Facebook. And that's when I found something very eerie. Jasmine host has a Facebook page, and it says that she's from Stevenson Alabama, and currently still lives in Gadsden AL. Not only that but it says that she's divorced and that her divorce it was in August 2017. Exactly a month before she went missing. Here's the next thing, her photos… I could never find a picture of Mark or Rachel, and honestly they've got pretty common names so that didn't really surprise me. However the banner on her Facebook has a picture of an older white man and a younger white woman and the three of them together look like a group, in fact in my opinion, and I strongly suggest you take a look at this source pictures from this case on my website, they almost looked like a family. I would go as far as almost saying a throuple. An interracial throuple living in the backwoods of Alabama. Good Grief. I started to wonder if maybe there was a chance that Rachel could be more than a roommate. And then there was something else strange, see the pictures of this Jasmine on Facebook and the ones that I've found through research, are exactly alike, there is no denying that this is her, and remember how I mentioned earlier that she had a shaved head and would wear a long black wig? Yeah that photo was on this Facebook account. But the weirdest thing of all is that these updates were made in July of 2018. And not just in July, I'm talking from July 4th to July 9th and then they just stop. Not only that but she only has about six friends, and of them it's pretty random people, and then she's also following the Norfolk Police Department. And I'm going to do you one even better her statuses are strange, on July 5th of 2018 she says “someone hacked my old Facebook I no longer can get in so be careful talking to them...” And I can't find her old account anywhere. Then the next day on July 6th she says “ex just called me woke me up over some stupid ass shit GRRRR.” In that same day she makes her last and final Facebook status of “people are so stupid now days!” Who is this EX? Who could have possibly hacked Jasmine? if Jasmine has been missing in this town, why not say hey, I'm here I'm around. And my biggest question is,  is this even Jasmine? If this person is posting underneath Jasmine’s account do the police know about it, there are 0 updates to her case, any article that is reporting about Jasmine has not included that she has been found. And I've been researching cases for awhile, usually when a person is found there's a very small and crypton at the bottom of all articles, or police Facebook page that makes any note of Jasmine being found.

So here's the scariest part, if this isn't Jasmine posting on this Facebook page, then who is it?

I called the Gadsden Police Department and I wasn't able to get through to anyone until Monday regarding the official missing persons, to be honest by the time you are hearing this I'm not even sure if I'll have like the access to ask if someone is missing. Alabama Crime Stoppers is still offering a $5000 reward for any information in Jasmine's case. As of now though, it seems as if Jasmine is still missing, her husband, or ex husband, it isn't clear, has seemed to keep a low profile as has the roommate Rachel. It's been five years since Jazmin was reported missing. The most recent news reports were in late February still considering her missing, as well as the Alabama cold case and missing persons Facebook that posted about Jasmine this year, in fact she was a missing person as of December 8th 2021, which was four years after her last Facebook status.

I just hope she knows, that people do care, and they are looking, and they did inquire.

The same thing goes for Lisa Lambert. In Lisa's case she went missing, and the next time you hear about Lisa Lambert, is in one of the most salacious cases of the 90s, a young teen with the same name murders her best friend due to a love triangle. But that is a case for another week. Both of the missing persons I've covered today were black females. I encourage you to share their stories, because someone knows something we know that already, but what's more important is that their names become familiarized, I am going to become a broken record as the months go by, with the same statements. But honestly this just really matters because every time I cover a case of a person who looks like me I wonder to myself what if it was me, what if it was my sister, what if it was one of my friends, I would want anyone and everyone to care.