Family accused of helping, covering up an alleged NC woman’s murder appear in court

GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — Three people who are accused of helping their family cover up an alleged murder faced a judge this morning.

Jonathan Lam, Vinchen Lam, and Van Ly Lam now face a long list of felony charges that police say are connected to the death of Nancy Bunly.

Bunly’s boyfriend, Ricky Lam is accused of killing her.

All three Lams appeared this morning and indicated that they have private attorneys. They are all charged with the same felony charges, just with different counts of each charge. Davy Song-Koy is Bunly’s cousin. Song-Koy wants you to remember Nancy’s name and promises Nancy’s young daughter will be remembered for the loving mother she was, not just as a victim.

Song-Koy came to the courthouse with her boyfriend.

While she didn’t want to show her face on camera, she knew she had to show her face in court, even though this is a very hard day.

“A lot of sadness, a lot of frustration and a new type of rage that is brewing in my heart that is difficult to explain to someone,” Song-Koy said. 

She says every day, she misses her cousin, Nancy Bunly.

“We actually had a cousins group chat and there are so many moments and pictures in that. I do go through that group chat very often rereading out texts,” Song-Koy said. 

Song-Koy wants you to remember Nancy’s name, but another name too.

Amber Schimmelpfenning.

Ricky Lam is also accused of killing her.

“For both Amber and Nancy, I would like people to keep spreading awareness for both of their cases and at the end of the day when this is all done, I don’t want her to be known as the girl that went missing from Lexington, I want her to be known as Nancy Bunly,” Song-Koy said.

The puzzling thing about this case is that Bunly hasn’t been found. Police are getting some help from a search and rescue specialist, Vernon Shurtz, who has been volunteering his time to look for nancy for the past 10 months.

“I’ve been looking at probably well over 50 miles of lake shoreline, sonar mapped dozens of retention ponds, rivers, creeks, to see if I can find Nancy and the Honda Pilot where she went missing from,” Shurtz said. 

He says while these new charges are a step in the right direction, he will not stop until he brings Bunly home.

“Hopefully one of the three will step forward and finally say hey, this is what happened so this is where she is. I would love nothing more than a phone call saying she has been found and i can stop looking,” Shurtz said. 

According to Captain Luke Davis with the Lexington police, Ricky Lam was brought to the Lexington police department to discuss his charges and is now being held at the Davidson County jail.

We are still working to learn Ricky Lam’s first court appearance date. We will stay on top of those updates.