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After losing his partner, Clifford Lambert yearned for love once more, but tragically, this search would ultimately lead to the end of his life.
In December 2008, Lambert, a wealthy art dealer, vanished under mysterious circumstances, leaving his friends desperate for answers.
This puzzling case, highlighted in Oxygen’s A Plan to Kill, took a surprising twist when a man claimed Lambert had transferred ownership of his house to him just before disappearing.
This audacious assertion prompted investigators to unravel a chilling plot that had been carefully crafted over several months. It was the work of a cunning group of criminals determined to rob Lambert of not only his life but all that he cherished.
Originally from Missouri, Lambert harbored grand ambitions and dreamed of attaining celebrity status.
Lambert, a native of Missouri, had bold ambitions and aspired to be a celebrity.
“Cliff is a fascinating individual,” former Riverside County prosecutor Robert Hightower remarked. “You have to think about who he was and the time period he grew up in. By all accounts, he was out for most of his life.”
Lambert got close to the celebrity life he dreamed of after landing a radio job—often rubbing shoulders with Hollywood’s elite—before transitioning to a career as a successful Palm Beach art dealer.
“Cliff Lambert lives a very expensive lifestyle,” Hightower explained. “When you would walk into his house, people described it like walking into Versailles.”
For years, Lambert shared that life with his boyfriend Travis, who tragically drowned in 2007.
“Cliff was just beside himself,” friend Steven Kilcullen recalled. “He was just devastated, and I don’t think he ever really got over it.”
What Happened to Cliff Lambert?
Lambert turned to online dating on Craig’s List when he mysteriously vanished in December 2008.
According to Kilcullen, Lambert failed to show up at the city’s Festival of Lights Christmas parade on Dec. 6, despite it being one of his favorite events.
In the days after, a friend let police into Lambert’s home, but there were no signs of foul play. Although, his Mercedes was missing from the garage.
Still, it was possible that Lambert had just decided to go on an impromptu trip.
Investigators Find Link to Con Man Kaushal Niroula
Then, three weeks later, Palm Springs Police Detective Frank Browning received a call from a real estate agent in San Francisco who had a client claiming to have a power of attorney gifting him Lambert’s home.
“This was essentially the big break,” Browning said, “that led me to believe that there was something more nefarious going on.”
Investigators learned that the power of attorney and deed had been placed under the name Kaushal Niroula, a convicted con man with no known connection to Lambert.
“He would tell people that he was the Prince of Nepal and that he was exiled,” Hightower said. “Kaushal Niroula had undertaken a con scheme where he conned someone out of over $400,000 worth of artwork, he then ended up stealing $300,000 approximately worth of jewelry in order to pay the restitution for his art theft scheme.”
Suspects in Clifford Lambert’s Disappearance Have Disturbing Ties to Fraud
Detectives asked the real estate agent to halt the sale of Lambert’s home as they dug deeper into Niroula’s past. They also learned that Lambert’s bank accounts had been used to make extravagant purchases in San Francisco, including clothes and electronics.
Using an image captured on an ATM during one of the transactions, San Francisco Police identified the man behind the withdrawals as Daniel “Danny” Garcia—a known accomplice of Niroula’s who had also briefly dated Lambert.
According to Browning, the two had parted “on bad terms” a few months before Lambert disappeared.
“Daniel ended up making it clear that he was looking for an investor for a new business he wanted to open, meaning that he wanted his money,” Kilcullen explained. “Cliff told him, that’s it, this is done and he would have to leave.”
On January 7, 2009, the case took another shocking turn when Browning learned that men were at Lambert’s property and loading a U-Haul full of his belongings. Patrol units were quickly dispatched to stop the vehicles, leading to the arrest of Miguel Bustamante, a man who initially claimed he’d been hired as a mover.
“It didn’t look like movers,” Detective Simon Min remarked. “It looked like Miguel Bustamante at Cliff’s home trying to steal all the contents of the residence.”
Within an hour of Bustamante’s arrest for burglary, he requested to talk to detectives and told them he knew Garcia and Niroula and admitted to having Lambert’s car at his apartment complex.
Although traces of blood were found in the vehicle, testing was inconclusive at the time. Crime scene investigators also detected the presence of blood in Lambert’s home, but weren’t able to link it to any specific person.
Operation Craigslist is Revealed in Cliff Lambert Disappearance
Following the paper trial left behind in the case, investigators reached out to mobile notary Gary Hirsh, who received a late-night phone call to notarize the power of attorney document between Lambert and Niroula.
But the thumb print stored in his notary journal wasn’t from Lambert, it was actually linked to an attorney named David Replogle, who had posed as the wealthy art dealer as part of the complicated ruse.
“It appears that the plan was to clear out all of Cliff Lambert’s money as well as transfer the deed of his home into their control,” Hightower explained, “but there was no evidence that these con men definitively killed Cliff Lambert.”
That is, until data retrieved from Garcia’s devices revealed the chilling details behind the large-scale con job they called “Operation Craigslist.”
Detectives learned that after the brief romance ended between Lambert and Garcia, a plan was set in place to kill the wealthy art dealer and take possession of his assets.
Bustamante and his roommate Craig McCarthy were hired as the muscle to kill Lambert on Dec. 5 in his home, then Replogle later posed as Lambert to sign over the legal documents.
As investigative reporter Karen Devine noted, “What these con men put together was a really diabolical plan.”
Was Anyone Convicted in Cliff Lambert’s Death?
All five were charged with murder as well as related financial crimes.
McCarthy ultimately confessed to carrying out the murder in exchange for a reduced sentence, telling detectives in a video taped confession that Niroula had arranged to meet with Lambert while McCarthy and Bustamante lay in wait outside the home.
After getting a signal from Niroula, the pair entered the house and stabbed Lambert to death, then put his body in the trunk of his Mercedes and disposed of it 100 miles away in the desert.
“It was heartbreaking,” Kilcullen said. “The men that did this to Cliff are sociopathic, they’re animalistic.”
Niroula, Garcia, Bustamante and Replogle were convicted of all the charges against them in 2010 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. McCarthy pleaded guilty to lesser charges and received a 25 year sentence.
Niroula, Garcia, Bustamante and Replogle were all granted a new trial in 2020 after it was determined the judge in the case had made recorded comments that showed bias against the men. As the new trials were pending, Lambert’s remains were recovered in the desert, confirming his tragic fate.
Niroula was murdered by his cell mate before he ever faced a new trial.
Garcia, Bustamante and Replogle were all convicted for a second time in 2022 and once again sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.