IL IL - Tammy Zywicki, 21, La Salle, 23 Aug 1992

[trisha_mc]

I manage a restaurant, and one rule we have is that chefs cannot wear wristwatches. This is a health code violation because of all the nooks and crannies on a watch, which cannot be properly cleaned, therefore bacteria can live there and causes a risk of cross-contamination.

Seemingly OT, but the point is, it seems to me that a watch would be a great potential source of DNA. If LE could have gotten a warrant for this wife's watch at the time they were investigating the suspect, they might have been able to find the victim's DNA in the watch, either through shed skin cells or sweat stuck in the watch/ band/ fastener.

Not an expert's opinion, just MOO.

 

[sgrump]

There is a cold case in WI being investigated that may be linked to Tammy's murder. Berit Beck was also driving alone and she was found murdered in 1990, two years before Tammy. The prime suspect is a truck driver from Kenosha named Dennis Brantner. I hope they investigate who he was driving for in 1992. He is now 60. WI authorites are sure he murdered Berit but can't connect all the dots. Maybe they can link the cases together. Fingers crossed for both families.

http://www.wisn.com/news/officials-to-discuss-possible-break-in-berit-beck-murder-case/25354972

There's another cold case in WI too that was opened this past weekend. A 14 girl from IL found dead in Burlington WI.

 

[Kell1]

I manage a restaurant, and one rule we have is that chefs cannot wear wristwatches. This is a health code violation because of all the nooks and crannies on a watch, which cannot be properly cleaned, therefore bacteria can live there and causes a risk of cross-contamination.

Seemingly OT, but the point is, it seems to me that a watch would be a great potential source of DNA. If LE could have gotten a warrant for this wife's watch at the time they were investigating the suspect, they might have been able to find the victim's DNA in the watch, either through shed skin cells or sweat stuck in the watch/ band/ fastener.

Not an expert's opinion, just MOO.

And an excellent one,

unfortunately, I believe they were never able to recover the watch .

 

[Cubby]

I was unaware police never recovered the watch. If police believe Bierbodt is responsible but never had enough to bring the case to trial, why wouldn't they say so now that Bierbodt is deceased and call the case solved?


I would love to know what LE has stated about Bierbodt to Tammy's mother, and I would love to know why it was believed their wasn't enough to bring this to trial.

Bierbodt seems like a slam dunk in this case......


http://thesouthern.com/news/local/m...cle_68a6dcd0-d8fa-11e1-aaef-0019bb2963f4.html

 

[scriptgirl]

I thought Mendenhall was the suspect?

 

[Kell1]

I thought Mendenhall was the suspect?

Lonny Bierbodt was the primary suspect, they had some circumstantial evidence linking him to Tammy


http://iowacoldcases.org/case-summaries/tammy-zywicki/"

"News Facts Released on 10-Year Anniversary

The FBI marked the case’s 10-year anniversary with a renewed public plea for any information, and announced a $50,000 reward — which joined a standing $100,000 reward from an anonymous private source in Zywicki’s New Jersey hometown — for any information leading to an arrest. FBI officials also confirmed for the first time that it had DNA evidence, collected from Zywicki’s body 10 years earlier, in relation to the murder.

Along with the FBI’s newly released information, former task force member McCarthy came forward with allegations that Lonnie Bierbodt should have been arrested but was never formally held as a suspect. McCarthy also presented several previously unreleased facts, which he believed pointed to Bierbodt as a suspect. Those facts included


◾Bierbodt lived close to the Missouri area where Tammy’s body was discovered.
◾Bierbodt had been visiting family who lived only a few minutes from where Tammy first disappeared.
◾The blanket in which Zywicki’s body was found bore a Kenworth logo — the same type of truck Bierbodt drove.

Bierbodt also had a criminal record. He committed two armed robberies in the 1980s and was considered a “violent felon.” Before his parole release in 1990, he’d been serving three concurrent 20-year terms."
Bruce Mendenhall came up later as a possible suspect, however Mendenhall's victims, were mostly prostitutes

I know he was looked at for a connection to the case, however if they indeed have DNA now Im sure Mendenhall would've been charged already, they also took hair and blood fro, Bierbodt so im not sure if he was cleared, or the investigation was botched at some point

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/investigations/readers-watchdog/2014/06/02/tammy-zywicki-mother-asks-suspect-ruled/9857183/

The mother of murdered Grinnell College student Tammy Jo Zywicki said last week that she believes state and federal authorities have a duty to disclose why they ruled out a key suspect in the 21-year-old's 1992 disappearance.

Joann Zywicki was on vacation last month when I tried to contact her for a May 10 column about the cold case. Former Illinois State Police investigator Marty McCarthy had written to the Reader's Watchdog, saying the Illinois state police and FBI appeared to give up on that suspect, Lonnie Bierbrodt, after the 20th anniversary of Zwyicki's death in 2012.

Joann Zywicki said she has not heard anything from the FBI about the case since the 20th anniversary, even though FBI spokeswoman Joan Hyde said solving Zywicki's murder remains a priority. But Joann Zywicki said she's hopeful that a new Illinois State Police cold case team will renew interest.

 

[scorpionsting]

Recently, Dennis J. Brantner, of Kenosha, was named by the Fond du Lac County, WI Sheriff's Department as a suspect in the 1990 cold case disappearance of 20 year old Berit Beck. He is an over-the-road trailer-truck driver who has lived in Illinois and Wisconsin. He took items from Berit Beck's vehicle and items were taken from Zywicki's vehicle.

http://www.wisn.com/news/suspect-in-berit-beck-case-previously-convicted-of-kidnapping/25402984#!T18lC

Previous addresses in Illinois were Lincolnshire, IL, Russell, IL, Kincaid, IL & Owaneco, IL. This is in the area where Tammy Zywicki disappeared.

When I did a previous address search on him, awhile back, seven previous street addresses came up for Kenosha, WI, two for Pleasant Prairie, WI and one for Racine, WI. Interestingly, seven Post Office boxes came up for Owaneco, IL, Kincaid, IL, Russell, IL, Lincolnshire, IL, Pleasant Prairie, WI, Green Lake, WI, Ripon, WI. One PO box is in Green Lake, WI, where authorities said he lived at the time of Beck's disappearance and murder.

Why would anyone have so many post office boxes?

The below October 3, 1973 Winona Daily News article shows Brantner charged with four felonies for taking items from vehicles as far back as 1973. Mondovi is in Buffalo County, WI and Durand is in Pepin County, WI. There is a Brantner Trucking, LLC in Mondovi, WI and probably no relationship to Dennis Brantner, who, incidentally, posted a 2012 comment on their Facebook page.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h337/tangledweb55/brantner.jpg

Another news article shows him as having worked at the Jupiter Discount Store in Racine in 1974.

According to WCCA, on 06-05-2014, Dennis J. Brantner goes to court in Kenosha, WI for being a felon in possession of a firearm. 04-11-2014 was the offense date.

http://wcca.wicourts.gov/simpleCaseSearch.xsl;jsessionid=BDF9EDF997495FB4259EF150BB11D37B.render6

 

[Cubby]

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...my-zywicki-mother-asks-suspect-ruled/9857183/

Between both articles, the one you linked - and the May 10 article linked in the above article, it doesn't appear Bierbrodt has been ruled out as a suspect.


McCarthy said he doesn't know whether police ever compared Bierbrodt's DNA with that evidence, which he said was semen. FBI Special Agent Thomas Kneir, who was in charge of the agency's Chicago office, said in 2004 that the sample was tested again that year, and the DNA collected was of too poor of quality and too small. It wasn't enough to solve the case simply through science, he said.

Kneir also told a Chicago Tribune columnist then that a circle of evidence pointed to one suspect, but he couldn't get the "circle into a noose."

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...ct-truck-driver-dna-readers-watchdog/8959307/


Does this mean the ISP never got a viable DNA sample from the perp? If so, has additional evidence been gone over to see if today's technology could produce a viable sample? Has the evidence been tested since 2004? A lot has changed over the last decade with regards to forensic science.


"It wasn't enough to solve the case simply through science". Does that apply to having enough to bring the case to trial or resolving it? We all know what is necessary to convict a case and what is needed to solve the case isn't always equal.


Tammy's mother and family deserve answers, regardless of whether the case is prosecutable - or not-.

 

[Cubby]

Is there anything tying Brantner to Missouri, where Tammy was found?

 

[STANDREID]

I keep hearing that her car broke down but that was never proven was it?

 

[scorpionsting]

Investigators also are looking at whether Brantner — who was an over-the-road trucker — is connected to the murder of Tammy Zywicki in 1992. Zywicki disappeared after her car broke down on Interstate 80 in Illinois while on her way to college in Iowa. Witnesses saw her near her car and a man with a semi-tractor trailer stopped nearby. Her body was discovered in Missouri. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed.

(She was wrapped in a blanket and stabbed seven times)

Tammy's body turned up nine days later hundreds of miles away along an interstate highway in southwest Missouri, shrouded in a red blanket sealed with duct tape. The young woman, who once wrote in a high school journal she didn't want to suffer when she died, had been stabbed repeatedly in the chest. She bled to death.

http://fonddulachub.fdlreporter.com/article/20140523/FON0101/305250105/Man-linked-Beck-murder-case-charged-Kenosha

Is there anything tying Brantner to Missouri, where Tammy was found?

Cubby,

No evidence I'm aware of that links Dennis J. Brantner to Missouri, other than he possibly drove there as a trucker. Depending on what trucking firm he drove for at the time and whether the company still has records for the day Zywicki was murdered, that might place Brantner in Missouri at the time of the crime.


More photos of Brantner...

 

[Winward1]

I wondering if the FBI is sharing info with the IL State PD. They certainly didn't in the old days.

 

[Cubby]

AFAIK ISP currently has jurisdiction over this case. IDK how much involvement the FBI still has in this case.

 

[PhoebeG]

Wrapping the victim that you've just murdered in a blanket from your own truck seems like a strange (and stupid) thing to do. Even putting aside the potential DNA evidence left on a blanket you've been carrying around and using in your truck for who knows how long, it's still a piece of evidence that could easily draw suspicion back to you. Particularly if the blanket in question happens to have the logo of the type of truck you drive on it. I guess I'm not really going anywhere with this point...just think you'd have to pretty stupid to do that.

It's so disappointing that the DNA sample isn't enough to rule out or confirm Bierbrodt. Tammy's family deserve closure and Tammy herself deserves some form of justice.

This is another case which makes me think 'there but for the grace of God.' I think how I would have reacted in Tammy's situation and I probably would have been grateful to somebody for stopping to help.

 

[scorpionsting]

Between both articles, the one you linked - and the May 10 article linked in the above article, it doesn't appear Bierbrodt has been ruled out as a suspect.

I read several articles with evidence linking Lonnie Bierbrodt to Zywicki's murder. Pretty compelling.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/investigations/readers-watchdog/2014/05/11/tammy-jo-zywicki-murder-iowa-investigation-grinnell-college-student-retired-detective-focuses-suspect-truck-driver-dna-readers-watchdog/8959307/

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/05/23/the-unsolved-tammy-zywicki-case-murder-is-forever-says-former-investigator/

Below is a map showing two towns where Dennis J. Brandtner, another suspect, lived; Owaneco, IL, and Kincaid, IL. On the map is Crystal City, MO and Pierce City, MO, two places where Bierbrodt had once lived. Those towns are connected by Interstate 44, the highway where Zywicki's body was found.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Owaneco,+IL/Kincaid,+IL/LaSalle,+IL/Crystal+City,+MO/Pierce+City,+MO/@39.19084,-91.1441026,7z/data=!4m32!4m31!1m5!1m1!1s0x8874f1d8cf37f1d5:0xb13456bd61941538!2m2!1d-89.1936975!2d39.4822664!1m5!1m1!1s0x88751e153b26b9db:0x641ecffb4bed51dc!2m2!1d-89.4145363!2d39.5886601!1m5!1m1!1s0x88095dd8817a9c21:0x2f80c080549870da!2m2!1d-89.0908333!2d41.3411111!1m5!1m1!1s0x87d8eea0ec5c9cf5:0x82517c8c0065d274!2m2!1d-90.3790094!2d38.2211656!1m5!1m1!1s0x87c8bebf19b1ba77:0xd602427856bc0677!2m2!1d-94.0002099!2d36.9458952!3e0

Two years after Beck's killing, Zywicki was driving to college in Iowa when her car broke down on Interstate 80 in Illinois. Witnesses saw her near her car. A man and a big rig stopped nearby. Zywicki's body was found later along Interstate 44 in rural Missouri; she had been sexually assaulted and stabbed.

 

[Backwoods]

Many of the articles linked and "memories" posters have say it was a distinctively-marked semi truck seen parked behind Tammy's car -- but one of the articles (an anniversary one, I think) says a Datsun pickup truck...? Big difference! So... if it was a semi ... how did the pickup get "in the picture" in the article? Was another vehicle seen as well as the semi?

 

[Cubby]

:bump:

I wonder if the authorities will retest the dna which was previously insufficient. With current technology what was once insufficient may be enough to retest/multiply.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.radioiowa.com/2014/12/18...n-on-1992-murder-of-grinnell-college-student/

The kidnapping and murder of a Grinnell College student 22 years ago remains an unsolved case and a new group aims to refocus attention on the crime. The Task Force for Tammy, directed by two Grinnell College graduates who were friends of the victim, wants to jump-start the investigation...

The Task Force for Tammy aims to gather 10,000 signatures supporting the petition, which is addressed to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. The petition urges them to instruct the Illinois State Police to release more information that could help solve the 22-year-old case.

 

[FeistyCat76]

With the appointment of new Illinois governor, Rauner, the case is being escalated to his attention in hopes of reopening the investigation, according to a news report I watched today.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/tammy-zywicki-homicide-investigation-289144411.html