I remember that not long after she was found, I'm thinking the following spring or summer, there was a 60 Minutes show about a Rastafarian cult that showed a bunch of people smoking weed at some kind of ceremony. It was thought that one of the people shown looked like her based on her morgue photo which was the only photo of her at the time. It was investigated and the person shown on the show was found to be still alive. Other than Henry Lee Lucas apparently lying about killing her there was not much info about her because no one knew who she was. It was as cold as a case could get. Except for the occasional story about her in the paper there was not much to go on. Sheriff York did bring it up on the anniversary often in various newspapers but without an ID they had very little to go on or report.
Found Deceased FL - Tammy Alexander, 16, Brooksville, 8 Nov 1979
- Thread starter joeytes
- Start date
I remember that not long after she was found, I'm thinking the following spring or summer, there was a 60 Minutes show about a Rastafarian cult that showed a bunch of people smoking weed at some kind of ceremony. It was thought that one of the people shown looked like her based on her morgue photo which was the only photo of her at the time. It was investigated and the person shown on the show was found to be still alive. Other than Henry Lee Lucas apparently lying about killing her there was not much info about her because no one knew who she was. It was as cold as a case could get. Except for the occasional story about her in the paper there was not much to go on. Sheriff York did bring it up on the anniversary often in various newspapers but without an ID they had very little to go on or report.
upstatelaura
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Here is some things that I've been thinking about lately:
1) Did the police check(or could they check, all these years later) if there were any vehicles registered in the surrounding areas that fit the paneled station wagon description?
2)Was the station wagon borrowed or stolen?
3)If the suspect actually owned the station wagon, was he a family man, or at least living like one when he wasn't murdering innocent victim(s)?
4)I noticed in the old crime scene photo that just beyond where Tammy was found, the road seemed to go up a small incline into a curve, but now looking on google street view, I can't find any place on the road that resembles that at all. Did the road get straightened out and that hump in the road removed since then?
5)If the account about a vehicle racing down Lacey road (after gunshots) is correct, could the killer and Tammy have been playing around with the gun, racing around in the car in a joy ride kind of way before the murder? Maybe Tammy felt she knew this guy enough to feel comfortable that she wasn't in any real danger, maybe she misjudged him thinking he was just a hell raiser, but really he was a nut-job.
6)Could Tammy have rejected an advance made by the suspect, angering a mentally unstable person enough to do this?
7)What things could they have been arguing about? She must have believed he wouldn't really shoot her.
8)Does anyone know anymore information on the bad car accident that was reported that night? Was it any where near where Tammy was found? Could the car fleeing the murder scene at a high rate of speed have caused it?
1) Did the police check(or could they check, all these years later) if there were any vehicles registered in the surrounding areas that fit the paneled station wagon description?
2)Was the station wagon borrowed or stolen?
3)If the suspect actually owned the station wagon, was he a family man, or at least living like one when he wasn't murdering innocent victim(s)?
4)I noticed in the old crime scene photo that just beyond where Tammy was found, the road seemed to go up a small incline into a curve, but now looking on google street view, I can't find any place on the road that resembles that at all. Did the road get straightened out and that hump in the road removed since then?
5)If the account about a vehicle racing down Lacey road (after gunshots) is correct, could the killer and Tammy have been playing around with the gun, racing around in the car in a joy ride kind of way before the murder? Maybe Tammy felt she knew this guy enough to feel comfortable that she wasn't in any real danger, maybe she misjudged him thinking he was just a hell raiser, but really he was a nut-job.
6)Could Tammy have rejected an advance made by the suspect, angering a mentally unstable person enough to do this?
7)What things could they have been arguing about? She must have believed he wouldn't really shoot her.
8)Does anyone know anymore information on the bad car accident that was reported that night? Was it any where near where Tammy was found? Could the car fleeing the murder scene at a high rate of speed have caused it?
I noticed that about the road too. The last time I visited my parents and took that way home I noticed that the road was flat. It had to have been altered. If the car racing away did have something to do with it, perhaps he tried more than just make an advance on her and she fired the gun at him, emptying it but missing him until he grabbed her and fled the scene. I've never shot anyone but I hear it's hard to actually hit someone if you are not experienced with shooting. From what I understand, the car accident was called by dispatch to a police officer as he was responding to the argument at the side of the road and he went to it instead.
Also, I'm sure they probably checked the registrations in the area which makes me think he wasn't from around here or maybe the station wagon wasn't involved. I still think that if he was from around here, he would have said something to someone eventually over thirty something years that would have come back on him. Most times, and especially nowadays, cases don't stay unsolved forever. I just read about the coldest case ever solved and the girl was killed in 1957 if I remember correctly. Criminal investigation has come along way. Now that they know where Tammy Jo is from I think they have a good shot at solving this. I think that whoever did it will be someone she knew from Florida and brought her up here. I think it is also odd that she was killed so close to her birthday. Oftentimes you are with people you know on your birthday.
upstatelaura
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I never thought about that, if it's your birthday your more apt to be with a friend...I (sometimes) also imagine that maybe a trucker she knew brought here up to NY,but then she didn't stay with him (for whatever reason). She then started trying to hitch a ride to Boston, but in the mean time, met Mr.Wrong in the paneled station wagon. Does anyone know for sure what truck stop she was at when she asked the one trucker for a ride to Boston?... Route 20 is sort of NY states backwood version of Route 66. If you take a drive on it now, there's lots of remnants of old, defunct motels and diners. It must have been a lot more popular back then.
sloane7777
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I am so confused I had asked if she had been seen by truck drivers up thread and it was confirmed that no truck driver reported seeing her ....is that wrong again
I am so confused I had asked if she had been seen by truck drivers up thread and it was confirmed that no truck driver reported seeing her ....is that wrong again
In various places the "Verified Information" is presented as follows:
10. TRUCKER RELATED - How many truckers actually remembered seeing her hitching? Where was the truck stop that the trucker saw her at (at 20 and 5 or somewhere else?)? How many thought her destination was Boston Mass Vs NY? How many truckers actually admitted seeing her the night before?
A - We checked every restaurant and truck stop headed east between Hopewell, NY (Ontario County) and Caledonia. We did not locate anyone other than the waitress at the Lima Diner who had any information. I am not aware of any truckers that saw her.
Roselvr
Ask me how to get your loved one in NamUs
1979 Caledonia NY Jane Doe Unidentified Teen - Posted 2 minutes ago
SEEKING INFORMATION! MURDER VICTIM
TAMMY JO ALEXANDER - Caledonia, New York - November 10, 1979
Date(s) of Birth Used: November 2, 1963
Place of Birth: Atlanta, Georgia
Height: 5'3"
Weight: 115 pounds
Hair: Brown with frosted tips
Eyes: Brown
Sex: Female
Race: White
Remarks: Alexander was wearing the following items when she was found: tan corduroy jeans, a multi-colored plaid cotton/polyester shirt, blue knee socks, brown rippled- sole shoes, and a red nylon-lined man's windbreaker with black stripes down the arms and a collar label reading "Auto Sports Products, Inc." She was wearing a silver necklace with three small turquoise stones, one resembling a bird. She also had with her a two-piece locket keychain with one piece in the shape of a heart with a key-shaped slot cut in it and an inscription reading "He who holds the key can open my heart" and the second piece being the key that fits into the slot in the heart.
DETAILS
On November 10, 1979, the body of an unidentified 16-year-old White female was located in a cornfield off of New York State Route 20 in Caledonia, New York. The girl had been murdered with a .38 caliber weapon. She had been shot once in the head, dragged into the cornfield from the road, and then shot again in the back.
On January 26, 2015, law enforcement officials in Livingston County, New York, announced that the female had been identifed, through the use of DNA, as Tammy Jo Alexander of Brookesville, Florida. Alexander had disappeared from her home in Florida in 1979. At the time, Alexander was known to run away from the area, sometimes hitchhiking with truckers, as she lived near a truck stop.
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact the FBI's Toll-Free Tipline at 1-800-CALL- FBI (1-800-225-5324), the Livingston County Sheriff's Office at 1-844-THE-LCSO (1-844-843-5276), your local FBI office, or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.
Direct Link to PDF Flier
SEEKING INFORMATION! MURDER VICTIM
TAMMY JO ALEXANDER - Caledonia, New York - November 10, 1979
Date(s) of Birth Used: November 2, 1963
Place of Birth: Atlanta, Georgia
Height: 5'3"
Weight: 115 pounds
Hair: Brown with frosted tips
Eyes: Brown
Sex: Female
Race: White
Remarks: Alexander was wearing the following items when she was found: tan corduroy jeans, a multi-colored plaid cotton/polyester shirt, blue knee socks, brown rippled- sole shoes, and a red nylon-lined man's windbreaker with black stripes down the arms and a collar label reading "Auto Sports Products, Inc." She was wearing a silver necklace with three small turquoise stones, one resembling a bird. She also had with her a two-piece locket keychain with one piece in the shape of a heart with a key-shaped slot cut in it and an inscription reading "He who holds the key can open my heart" and the second piece being the key that fits into the slot in the heart.
DETAILS
On November 10, 1979, the body of an unidentified 16-year-old White female was located in a cornfield off of New York State Route 20 in Caledonia, New York. The girl had been murdered with a .38 caliber weapon. She had been shot once in the head, dragged into the cornfield from the road, and then shot again in the back.
On January 26, 2015, law enforcement officials in Livingston County, New York, announced that the female had been identifed, through the use of DNA, as Tammy Jo Alexander of Brookesville, Florida. Alexander had disappeared from her home in Florida in 1979. At the time, Alexander was known to run away from the area, sometimes hitchhiking with truckers, as she lived near a truck stop.
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact the FBI's Toll-Free Tipline at 1-800-CALL- FBI (1-800-225-5324), the Livingston County Sheriff's Office at 1-844-THE-LCSO (1-844-843-5276), your local FBI office, or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.
Direct Link to PDF Flier
PrimeSuspect
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I'm a subscriber to Listverse, and this came up on my fb news feed just now. 10 Sudden Developments In Mysteries Weve Been Following
The Caledonia Jane Doe came up as number 7. Congratulations Carl for all your hard work in identifying Tammy Jo and making the list, and Websleuths too!! :clap:
http://listverse.com/2015/02/18/10-sudden-developments-in-mysteries-weve-been-following/
I'm sure there's an old guy 'out there' who got pretty nervous when this news broke.
The Caledonia Jane Doe came up as number 7. Congratulations Carl for all your hard work in identifying Tammy Jo and making the list, and Websleuths too!! :clap:
http://listverse.com/2015/02/18/10-sudden-developments-in-mysteries-weve-been-following/
I'm sure there's an old guy 'out there' who got pretty nervous when this news broke.
upstatelaura
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Sorry, I must have missed that up thread. I Know I have read that information more than once, these past years,that a trucker at a nearby truck stop said she was asking for a ride to Boston. But I guess that was just a rumor and never verified by police? I am just as confused as you, and a bit frustrated.
Backwoods
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I kinda hate to be "that poster" that throws some serial killer (or suspected serial killer) into the mix -- but from time to time, I am...
Just going to throw this out there, for what (if anything) it may be worth:
Many of you will know that in the March 1975 case of the disappearance of the Lyons sisters near Washington, DC, there is a guy who feels he saw the older sister a few weeks later, being held against her will, in the backseat of a 1970 Ford Country Squire (a panelled station wagon). He came to believe that the driver was James Mitchell “Mike” DeBardeleben, later convicted and sentenced to many, many years in prison on counterfeiting and abduction/sexual assault charges -- and also believed by many profilers to have been a serial killer. (DeBardeleben died in prison a few years ago.) For more on this man's experience, see:
http://www.carynews.com/2014/04/21/3799629_a-chance-sighting-haunts-cary.html?rh=1
I do realize that the hunt for a panelled station wagon in the Lyons case has taken some other directions recently -- and, indeed, I don't know that DeBardeleben ever owned or had access to a station wagon. I DO know that among his bag of tricks was using many aliases, registering cars in several states under these aliases, keeping a collection of stolen license plates to use on his vehicles, etc. He was also very enthusiastic about handguns, having multiples of several types, and, according to one of his wives, never being without a handgun.
In his counterfeit passing as "The Mall Passer", he traveled widely over the U.S. In one particular year, as I recall, he visited EVERY state east of the Mississippi and many states west of it. Interestingly, according to the timeline (which is about the best publicly available, though it does have a few errors/typos) at the link below, he passed counterfeit money in Elizabeth, NJ on Nov. 13, 1979 -- near enough in time and place to where Tammy was killed to be interesting, IMO.
http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc 405/serial killers/Debardeleben, Mike _fall 2007_.pdf
I know that Tammy did not appear to have been sexually assaulted when she was found. Though MD is believed to almost certainly be guilty of the murder (for which he was never tried) of at least one female realtor in a scenario that apparently did not involve sexual assault, he often abducted and sexually assaulted and tortured young women, often taking photographs and making recordings. He released some of them -- but he is believed to have murdered some, as well. At the same time, he wooed and won several young women into marrying him -- he was married, I think, five times -- saving sexual abuse and torture and involvement in some of his crimes (kidnapping/bank extortion, mostly) for after the wedding. If MD should happen to be connected to Tammy, there is just no telling WHAT might have been going on. He did all kinds of stuff. And he never confessed to anything and never opened up to authorities about his crimes.
WS thread on James Mitchell "Mike" Debardeleben: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?224445-TX-DeBARDELEBEN-James-Mitchell-quot-Mike-quot
Just going to throw this out there, for what (if anything) it may be worth:
Many of you will know that in the March 1975 case of the disappearance of the Lyons sisters near Washington, DC, there is a guy who feels he saw the older sister a few weeks later, being held against her will, in the backseat of a 1970 Ford Country Squire (a panelled station wagon). He came to believe that the driver was James Mitchell “Mike” DeBardeleben, later convicted and sentenced to many, many years in prison on counterfeiting and abduction/sexual assault charges -- and also believed by many profilers to have been a serial killer. (DeBardeleben died in prison a few years ago.) For more on this man's experience, see:
http://www.carynews.com/2014/04/21/3799629_a-chance-sighting-haunts-cary.html?rh=1
I do realize that the hunt for a panelled station wagon in the Lyons case has taken some other directions recently -- and, indeed, I don't know that DeBardeleben ever owned or had access to a station wagon. I DO know that among his bag of tricks was using many aliases, registering cars in several states under these aliases, keeping a collection of stolen license plates to use on his vehicles, etc. He was also very enthusiastic about handguns, having multiples of several types, and, according to one of his wives, never being without a handgun.
In his counterfeit passing as "The Mall Passer", he traveled widely over the U.S. In one particular year, as I recall, he visited EVERY state east of the Mississippi and many states west of it. Interestingly, according to the timeline (which is about the best publicly available, though it does have a few errors/typos) at the link below, he passed counterfeit money in Elizabeth, NJ on Nov. 13, 1979 -- near enough in time and place to where Tammy was killed to be interesting, IMO.
http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc 405/serial killers/Debardeleben, Mike _fall 2007_.pdf
I know that Tammy did not appear to have been sexually assaulted when she was found. Though MD is believed to almost certainly be guilty of the murder (for which he was never tried) of at least one female realtor in a scenario that apparently did not involve sexual assault, he often abducted and sexually assaulted and tortured young women, often taking photographs and making recordings. He released some of them -- but he is believed to have murdered some, as well. At the same time, he wooed and won several young women into marrying him -- he was married, I think, five times -- saving sexual abuse and torture and involvement in some of his crimes (kidnapping/bank extortion, mostly) for after the wedding. If MD should happen to be connected to Tammy, there is just no telling WHAT might have been going on. He did all kinds of stuff. And he never confessed to anything and never opened up to authorities about his crimes.
WS thread on James Mitchell "Mike" Debardeleben: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?224445-TX-DeBARDELEBEN-James-Mitchell-quot-Mike-quot
Is there (online) video of the press conference?... or a transcript? Was it actually a "press conference" or merely an "announcement"? Thanks in advance for guidance.
Here's a 4 min video of it. It does not include the Q & A session.
Livingston County Sheriff's Office, FBI joint press confere
http://youtu.be/wNURvEThoq0
Tssiemer
Well-Known Member
Driving home from work in Hamilton Ohio just north of Cincinnati I passed a billboard for the FBI asking for any info on her case. I could barely read the print but I recognized her picture.
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Hmmm. Wow. That's quite a bit further west than I had speculated. Very cool!
I wonder if there are any in the metro Buffalo area(?).
Still_Seek_Answers
Hope is our strength......love is our determinatio
Hello everyone. I have been staying off the threads and just kinda reflecting on all the work and togetherness that went in to Tammy getting her name. The LCSO and the FBI need some more help. They need to keep the flyer they made moving all over social media, and I know we are the group who can get it done. 
Please share and keep her moving. You can also find her post on Never Forget Me
Please share and keep her moving. You can also find her post on Never Forget Me
Roselvr
Ask me how to get your loved one in NamUs
I posted it the other day
1979 Caledonia NY Jane Doe Unidentified Teen - Posted 2 minutes ago
SEEKING INFORMATION! MURDER VICTIM
TAMMY JO ALEXANDER - Caledonia, New York - November 10, 1979
Date(s) of Birth Used: November 2, 1963
Place of Birth: Atlanta, Georgia
Height: 5'3"
Weight: 115 pounds
Hair: Brown with frosted tips
Eyes: Brown
Sex: Female
Race: White
Remarks: Alexander was wearing the following items when she was found: tan corduroy jeans, a multi-colored plaid cotton/polyester shirt, blue knee socks, brown rippled- sole shoes, and a red nylon-lined man's windbreaker with black stripes down the arms and a collar label reading "Auto Sports Products, Inc." She was wearing a silver necklace with three small turquoise stones, one resembling a bird. She also had with her a two-piece locket keychain with one piece in the shape of a heart with a key-shaped slot cut in it and an inscription reading "He who holds the key can open my heart" and the second piece being the key that fits into the slot in the heart.
DETAILS
On November 10, 1979, the body of an unidentified 16-year-old White female was located in a cornfield off of New York State Route 20 in Caledonia, New York. The girl had been murdered with a .38 caliber weapon. She had been shot once in the head, dragged into the cornfield from the road, and then shot again in the back.
On January 26, 2015, law enforcement officials in Livingston County, New York, announced that the female had been identifed, through the use of DNA, as Tammy Jo Alexander of Brookesville, Florida. Alexander had disappeared from her home in Florida in 1979. At the time, Alexander was known to run away from the area, sometimes hitchhiking with truckers, as she lived near a truck stop.
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact the FBI's Toll-Free Tipline at 1-800-CALL- FBI (1-800-225-5324), the Livingston County Sheriff's Office at 1-844-THE-LCSO (1-844-843-5276), your local FBI office, or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.
Direct Link to PDF Flier
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Nobody knows (unless the FBI has figured it out and has not said anything) about the jacket.
But the button up plaid shirt was typical for girls from that era. If you look in her high school yearbook, there are several other photos of girls wearing earth shoes and men's button-up plaid shirts.