Co-workers charged with murder of missing Gloversville woman

PHOTOGRAPHER: Photo Provided

Heavy NYS Police presence at Exit 13 in Malta during the search for Allyzibeth A. Lamont (inset photo) on Friday, Nov 1, 2019.

Share on Facebook

Save

Two men have been charged with murder in the death of a woman who worked for them at a Johnstown sandwich shop.

Allyzibeth A. Lamont, 22, was found dead Thursday in a swampy marshland in the Saratoga County town of Malta. “We found her in a shallow grave,” Troop G Commander Capt. Robert Patnaude said.

Lamont was last seen alive Monday evening at about 8 p.m. on Townsend Avenue near North Comrie Avenue in Johnstown, near where she worked at the Local Substation No. 9 sandwich shop in the Adirondack Plaza.

State police said the autopsy of Lamont’s body Friday afternoon showed multiple blunt force trauma to the head.

James Duffy, 34, of Johnstown, and Georgios N. Kakavelos, 51, of Ballston Spa, were arrested by state police Friday and each faces one count of second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse.

Both suspects were arraigned in Malta Town Court and sent to Saratoga County Jail without bail.

Officials did not provide any additional details or a motive for the homicide at a press conference on Friday. State police said the killing remains under investigation.

Gloversville police were notified Monday after Lamont failed to return home from work. The victim worked with both Kakavelos and Duffy.

The men served as manager and co-owner, although the authorities did not specify which man held which position.

The Johnstown Police Department, along with the state police and the Gloversville Police Department tapped off a section of the Adirondack Plaza parking lot Thursday night and conducted what appeared to be a search of the rear of the building as well as the dumpster behind it.

State police said they were tipped off to the possibility Lamont’s body could be in the marshlands near the Exit 13S ramp from Route 9 to Interstate 87. State police said the tip indicated she had been murdered.

The Saratoga County District Attorney’s Office will prosecute the case.

“It’s certainly not a happy ending by any means, but from a law enforcement perspective, it is successful,” Patnaude said during the news conference Friday. “We were able to bring closure to the family of Ms. Lamont, who will now receive a proper burial, and we have the people responsible for her death in custody.”

A preliminary hearing for Duffy and Kakavelos is scheduled for Tuesday in Malta Town Court at 2 p.m.

Gary Locatelli, a resident of Johnstown, said he saw Lamont deliver a sandwich to a worker a at liquor store in the Adirondack Plaza while Locatelli was buying beer.

“She was so nice to that guy, she was cheerful, she was smiling, seemed like a nice person,” he said.

“It was shocking,” he said of Lamont’s disappearance. “I was hoping she was at somebody’s house or something, not murdered.”

Carolyn Peck said she attended Gloversville High School and Middle School with Lamont. Peck said she graduated in 2015, but she’s not sure when Lamont officially graduated.

“Nobody deserves that,” Peck said of the murder. “I was never close with her, but one thing I did know about her was that she was tough,” Peck said.

“She was not the type of person to mess with. She would stick up for herself.”