John Mark Verdier House is a 2023 Blue Star Museum

HBF offers free admission to active military personnel and their families this summer

From staff reports

The Historic Beaufort Foundation’s John Mark Verdier House, built circa 1804, joins museums nationwide in the Blue Star Museums initiative, a program that provides free admission to currently serving U.S. military personnel and their families this summer.

“As a military community, es-

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Before that Friday, Tom knew nothing of his wife’s past.

A marriage built on lies

Tom and Cindy met through a dating app in late 2018. They were together for roughly six months before the two packed up their lives and moved to Beaufort, S.C. from Wisconsin.

In June 2019 they got married in a private ceremony at the Old Sheldon Church Ruins in Yemassee. Both had been married previously and they each had adult children.

At the time, Cindy told Tom that she had only been married once before meeting him.

“She said she wanted to get married because we were living together and she said that due to her Christian upbringing she didn’t want to live in sin any longer,” Tom said.

She claimed to have been married to her high school sweetheart for more than 30 years, which we know through marriage licenses to be false.

“She told me he was 400 lbs., disgusting and obese and that he beat her all the time,” Tom said of Cindy’s account of her ex-husband. “She gave me a hundred examples of how he would shove her down the basement stairs, broke her ankle, locking her in rooms and leaving her.”

According to Tom, Cindy told him that she fled from her home in Ohio to Wisconsin to live with her cousin to escape the abusive relationship.

Cindy even put on her marriage license to Tom that her marriage to him was her second marriage, so imagine Tom’s surprise when he discovered more than three years later that it was all a lie.

By Tom’s own account, their marriage was overall a very happy one.

“I won’t take that away from her,” Tom said about their marriage. “She treated me like gold.”

Tom said what others have voiced about Cindy, that you would not meet a kinder more charismatic person.

That is why in March 2020, Tom helped Cindy to build a chalkboard to put up in their front yard.

“I don’t think that she started this with bad intentions, I truly believe that she started the Beaufort Chalkboard to help people, and it actually did help a lot of people,” said Tom.

He recounted many times when members of the community came up to pecially the Marine Corps, we find this initiative is especially important,” Historic Beaufort Foundation Executive Director Cynthia Jenkins said in a news release. “As a Blue Star Museum, the John Mark Verdier House is open free of charge for all active military and their families during the summer.” their house to tell him and Cindy about how seeing the message of the day on the Beaufort Chalkboard made a difference in their day.

The 2023 program began on Armed Forces Day, Saturday, May 20, and ends on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 4. Find the list of participating museums at arts.gov/bluestarmuseums. Active-duty military receive free admission year-round to the Verdier House, Jenkins said.

Tom said that he was never really involved with the chalkboard, despite Cindy calling him Mr. Chalkboard publicly.

“The chalkboard was her thing,” Tom said. “I did what I could to support her by taking photos with her and dressing up as Santa, but I didn’t know much about what she was doing other than that.”

Tom did recall her mentioning that she was collecting donations to buy baby formula in May 2022 but he never knew what came from it.

While Tom never saw the baby formula that she claimed to have purchased from a contact in Ohio with the donations that she collected, he did spend nearly every day after work going from store to store looking for formula to purchase as a way to help his wife with what he thought was her charitable work.

The not so ex-husband at least four separate accounts that Cindy allegedly opened in his name without him knowing.

The Island News previously reported that Cindy Lamprecht, born Cindy Linn Lambert, had been married five times, but family members and former friends have shared during interviews with The Island News that she has been married six times including her marriage to Tom.

Blue Star Museums is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts and Blue Star Families, in collaboration with the Department of Defense and participating museums across America.

“We thank the 2023 Blue Star Museums who invite military personnel and their families to experience the many wonders they have to offer, whether it’s a glimpse into the past, an encounter with awe-inspiring art, or a moment of discovery,” said Maria Rosario Jackson, Ph.D., chair of the National Endowment for the Arts.

“The John Mark Verdier House Museum is helping to enrich the lives of military families and build meaningful connections between our nation’s military and their local community,” she said.

Blue Star Museums include children’s museums, art, science, and history museums, zoos, gardens, lighthouses, and more, and hail from all 50 states, District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The current list of participating museums will continue to develop over the summer as organizations are welcome to register to be a Blue Star Museum throughout the summer.

The free admission program is available for those currently serving in the United States Military — Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy, and Space Force, members of the Reserves, National Guard, U.S. Public Health Commissioned Corps, NOAA Commissioned Corps, and up to five family members. Qualified members must show a Geneva Convention common access card (CAC), DD Form 1173 ID card (dependent ID), DD Form 1173-1 ID card or the Next Generation Uniformed Services (Real) ID card for entrance into a participating Blue Star Museum.

Tom has not seen his wife since June 2.

The only brief interaction that he has had with her was by e-mail two days after she left.

In the e-mails she told him she is safe, and he responded by telling her that she needs to turn herself in to answer for the crimes that she has committed. (As of press time, Cindy Lamprecht faces no criminal charges) had gone to high school together and reconnected years later.

Tom has filed a report with BCSO against her on behalf of himself and a close family member in hopes of recovering the almost $40,000 that she took from them.

By the time they reconnected, Cindy had been married four times, according to court documents and statements from her family.

The two got married upon her suggestion, according to Jones.

“She just kept saying that we weren’t getting any younger,” Jones said. “So eventually I said why not?”

The Island News had very little problem tracking down Cindy’s marriage license to Jones, but divorce decrees have not been so easily located.

“When I asked her if she planned to divorce Mike, she just said that she doesn’t need to get a divorce when she can just get remarried,” a sister, who wishes to remain unnamed in the article, said.

While this revelation was very difficult for Tom to learn, it may end up working out legally in his favor.

Beginning of the end

On Thursday, June 1, Tom Lamprecht got a phone call from his landlord saying that they were at least two months behind in rent.

Tom had no idea they were late on their rent at all, so he decided to act.

He called his wife, Cindy, and asked her why their rent had not been paid and she replied that she was on her way to the bank to get the money to pay it.

He told her to stay at home and he would go.

It was at this point that she said that there was no need to go to the bank because they were broke.

According to Tom, she said that she hadn’t worked for several months after losing her job and they had been living off his savings to survive.

“I had no idea we were financially ruined,” Tom said. “I will sometimes glace at the bank account, but I don’t track every dollar that gets spent.” since they first met.

“I didn’t know what to do, I felt like my world was turned upside down,” Tom said. “How is someone supposed to react to finding out that your wife has been lying since she met you.”

Following this meeting, Tom first went to get his mother from her house and then called the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) to escort him to his home on Parris Island Gateway to confront his wife.

Tom said he requested the escort because he frankly didn’t know how the woman he married in 2019 was going to react to him knowing the truth about her past.

“I was scared that she would hurt herself and then try to say I had abused her,” Tom said, “Thankfully she didn’t, but I’m glad I had a witness.”

With his mother and BCSO, Tom confronted Cindy on their front porch.

“I told her that I knew everything and gave her the option, either I would gather my important things and leave, or she could.”

It was at this point that Cindy made the decision that she was going to leave.

Tom said that after she left, he didn’t know what to do or where to go, so he went to talk to the only person that might understand what he was going through, her best friend in Beaufort, Amber Hewitt.

“I know we will likely never see that money again,” Tom said. “At this point it isn’t as much about the money, I want her to pay for what she has done.”

He also mentioned wanting to start the process of seeking a restraining order against her and that he sat down with a BCSO investigator to tell his side of the story.

“I’m a fixer, I can’t stand just sitting around and waiting for things to happen,” said Tom.

The mornings are the hardest, but each day gets a little easier said Tom.

He spent much of the weekend moving her stuff out of the house and into his garage or donating it.

“I just can’t stand to look at her things,” said Tom.

Members of the community have reached out to him to check on him, and some have even stopped by with food hoping to help him get through this rough time.

“I don’t know many people in Beaufort, but they know me because of Cindy and The Beaufort Chalkboard,” said Tom.

Tom says he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to her, but he wants her to be held accountable for any crimes she has committed.

He encourages anyone who donated to The Beaufort Chalkboard to make a report to the BCSO, even if you think that your donation does not matter because it was small.

While Cindy was telling Tom the truth about fleeing from Ohio to Wisconsin in mid-2018, sources have alleged that she was not fleeing from an abusive husband but instead was fleeing from an open bench warrant that was issued for her arrest due to her failure to appear in court.

According to a marriage license obtained from Marion County, Ohio, Cindy married Michael Edwin Jones in September 2011. Jones said that they

Jones confirmed to The Island News that as far as he knows he is still married to Cindy Lamprecht, even though she married Tom Lamprecht in 2019.

This information has since been repeated by eight members of her family and friends and despite extensive searching, The Island News was not able to find a divorce decree confirming the dissolution of her marriage to Jones before she sought to marry Tom.

The following day, Tom got up and went to his job working with the Department of Transportation in S.C. and it was while he was at work that he received a call from a friend asking to meet him after work without Cindy.

After work, Tom met with his friend, and it was during this meeting that he was made aware of his wife’s true past – her many marriages, her felony convictions, the allegations against her and the litany of lies that she had told him

“I was running on autopilot,” Tom said about that evening. “Most of the night is just a blur, I just know that I ended up on [Amber’s] porch because I didn’t know where else to go.”

The long road forward

Tom has spent the past week contacting all his financial institutions to make sure that Cindy Lamprecht no longer has access to them, but since she left their home Tom has received notifications in the mail of

Reports can be made to Lt. Angela Crumpton in person at the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, by email to acrumpton@bcgov.net, or by phone at 843-255-3409.

Delayna Earley lives in Beaufort with her husband, two children and Jack Russell. She spent six years as a videographer and photographer for The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette before leaving the Lowcountry in 2018. After freelancing in Myrtle Beach and Virginia, she joined The Island News when she moved back to Beaufort in 2022. She can be reached at delayna. theislandnews@gmail.com