Sleuths solve decades-long murder mystery case after uncovering key mistake
It would be 36 years before the surviving family members of Tammy Jo Alexander would learn what had happened to her.
Born on 2 November, 1963, Tammy Jo had lived with her family in Atlanta, Georgia, before relocating to Florida during her teenage years.
In 1979, Tammy Jo ran away from her home. This would be the last time she was ever seen by her family.
A troubled teenager, Tammy Jo was known to run away from home several times, often hitchhiking with truckers from a stop near her house, meaning that no missing persons report was filed at the time.
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"I thought she just wanted to go away and start all over," Tammy's half-sister, Pamela Dyson, previously said of her disappearance.
November 1979: Teenage girl's body found in Caledonia, New York
On 10 November, months after Tammy had disappeared from home, the body of a teenage girl was recovered in a farmer's field near Caledonia, New York.
The girl had been fatally shot twice the day before, once in the back and once in the head, before being dumped in the cornfield.
An autopsy later confirmed that she'd been shot in the head while next to the nearby road before being dragged into the cornfield and shot again. It had also rained heavily on the night of Tammy's murder, meaning that DNA evidence had been washed away from the scene.
The girl was wearing corduroy jeans, a multi-coloured plaid cotton/polyester shirt, blue knee socks, brown rippled-sole shoes, and a red men's windbreaker, which had black stripes down the arms.
She was also wearing a necklace and carrying a heart keychain which featured the text 'He who holds the key can open my heart', as well as the key which opened the locket.
But with no ID found with the body, police were not able to identify Tammy, instead naming the body 'Cali Jane Doe'.
Back in Florida, Tammy's family had no idea of her fate.
2015: A breakthrough in the case
For years, the whereabouts of Tammy and the identity of the body remained unconnected, despite the efforts of detectives such as former Livingston County Sheriff John York, who ensured the case remained active until his retirement in 2013.
By this time, advancements in forensic science meant that investigators were able to determine that their 'Jane Doe' had spent time in California, Florida and Arizona, due to a combination of tan lines and traces of pollen found on her clothes.
The information, as well as a facial reconstruction, was uploaded to a public database in 2010, allowing amateur sleuths to try their hand at cracking the case.
However, the missing piece wouldn't fall into place until 2015, when a friend of Tammy's attempted to track her down online. After having no luck finding Tammy, Laurel Nowell reached out to Pamela, and the pair soon became concerned that something had happened to Tammy.
A missing persons report was finally filed, allowing Carl Koppelman - the man who'd created the photo of the Caledonia Jane Doe - to come across the case and realise the two girls were the same person.
Pamela was then asked to provide a DNA sample, which confirmed that the Jane Doe was indeed Tammy, allowing the case to be solved on 26 January 2015.
React
The news came as a blow to Pamela, who had hoped for years that her sister would eventually come home. "We never give up hope," she told local ABC outlet WHAM in 2024. "We always hope that someday, somewhere, somebody will place something on a detective's desk and that will be the key to the case."
Meanwhile, Tammy's cousin Julie Norris added that she'd spent her career at a local school board hoping she'd cross paths with Tammy's children.
"I always used to think one of these kids are going to come up and they are going to look like Tammy and then it's going to just be Tammy and her children," she said.
A killer still unknown
Although Tammy has since been identified, the person who killed her remains at large.
According to witness testimony, Tammy had last been seen with an adult male, described as being white, roughly 5'8" to 5'9" tall and wearing glasses. The pair were believed to be riding in a tan station wagon and stopped for food at a nearby diner, with components of the meal found in Tammy's system during autopsy.
Police are still seeking information regarding Tammy's killer, with a submission page still being active on the FBI website.
Do we know this person?" Pamella added. "I don’t think he’s a part of our life, but you never know it, maybe someone we know personally."
Topics: True Crime, Crime, History
Brenna Cooper