Found Deceased FL - Tammy Alexander, 16, Brooksville, 8 Nov 1979

[Cubby]

I took it to mean he was talking about her killer leaving her there to die, and remain unnamed for 35 years. Hopefully anyone else reading the transcript or watching the video could redirect the negativity towards the jerk who deserves justice for this crime.

Good point. I hadn't thought of that.

 

[Ghostwheel]

You forgot to mention that Wilder also was into auto racing, and might be the source of Tammy's red jacket with the racing stripes on the arms.

The Livingston County Sheriff has said that they don't believe that she was killed by a serial murderer. They think she probably knew her killer, as evidenced by the personal nature of the murder, and her casual interaction with the male with whom she was seen at the diner.

But Tammy possibly knowing her killer and the killer being a serial killer is not necessarily mutually exclusive. There have been serial killers that seemed normal(ish) until such time as they decided to kill (or kill again, as the case may be). It wouldn't make sense to completely rule out a serial killer.

 

[Abigail]

I'm new to this case as of yesterday. Trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together, and this is what I have so far. Next step is to wade through all the stuff on the Caledonia Jane Doe site.
Tammy Jo Alexander
Background information
1. Tammy was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1963 to Barbara Barnes and Marvin Bobby Alexander.
2. Tammy was living in Brooksville, Fl at the time of her disappearance, with her mother and step-father. Tammy’s parents owned a truck stop. In 1980, a few months after Tammy disappeared, her mother (then Barbara Jenkins) moved to Lakeland, FL. Tammy's mother and step-father and her biological father are now all deceased. Tammy’s mother died in 1998 in Lakeland, FL, and her obit listed Tammy as deceased.
3. Tammy has a younger half-sister (same mother, different fathers), Pamela Dyson, whose DNA proved the link to "Cali." Pamela was not living with her mother or Tammy at the time of the murder. Pamela had gone to live with her grandmother at age 12. Pamela reported in a news article that her mother was volatile and abused prescription drugs, which led to Tammy running away.
4. Pamela described her half-sister Tammy as a “very vibrant, independent, strong willed girl. She loved life, she loved excitement and I think her home life was the reason for her wanting to escape, run away and experience life."
5. Tammy has a step-sister named Sharen Nelson (not sure exactly which parent she's related to) who lives in Lakeland, FL. Sharen was a small child at the time of the murder.
6. Tammy and a friend (I think the same one who reported her missing) had run away before in May 1979, about 6 months before Tammy was murdered. They hitched rides with truckers all the way to California. The friend's mother paid for their tickets to come back home (Tammy's mother said "leave her there").
7. Tammy was last seen by her family on November 3, 1979 the day after her 16th birthday. She was found murdered in the tiny town of Caledonia, New York (near Rochester) one week later (Nov. 10), but her body wasn’t identified until January 2015.
The search for Tammy
1. Some controversy as to whether or not the parents reported Tammy missing. Her half-sister Pamela said that Tammy was reported missing, and the family says that deputies even came to their house to collect DNA from a hairbrush (DNA profiling in 1979???), but LE in Brooksville say there is no record of such. It may be that they did report her missing, but because Tammy had just turned 16 and had previously run away, the police may have assumed she was voluntarily missing and not done anything with it. Or the police may have discarded the file later on. The family said when Tammy went missing, they searched the area with Tammy’s boyfriend, and later searched phone books
2. Tammy had a boyfriend named Kevin. Kevin tried to do an online search for her sometime around 2007 on Zabasearch. He thought it was possible she'd gotten involved in prostitution in St. Petersburg.
3. Tammy's best friend from high school, Laurel Nowell, officially reported Tammy missing in June 2014. She last saw Tammy on the last day of the school year (in 1979). Apparently one of them attended a different school in Fall 1979, so they were not in touch as much. Laurel started a FB page for Tammy Alexander at the time she reported her missing. On the first day Tammy was listed on Namus, Carl Koppelman, Websleuth moderator, spotted her photo and BINGO – knew it was her.



Info from sister Pamela
http://www.13wham.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/remembering-tammy-jo-alexander-19618.shtml
FB page run by friend Laurel Nowell
https://www.facebook.com/tammy.alexander.16547?fref=ts
message from former boyfriend Kevin searching for Tammy
http://www.zabasearch.com/messages/zaba_messages_thread.php?fid=800572
mother’s obit listing Tammy as deceased
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...LsJNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qPwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1389,474881
half-sister Pamela and cousin comment to media
http://www.whec.com/article/stories/s3689433.shtml?cat=565
comments from cousin Haley Peat
https://www.facebook.com/News10NBC
deputies came to Tammy’s home to collect DNA sample from her hairbrush; family’s efforts to search
http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/r...ir-family-never-filed-a-missing-person-report
date last seen by family
http://www.tampabay.com/news/public...micide-identified-as-brooksville-girl/2215169

 

[plexibabe]

Very helpful to see it so concisely summarized. Several new links I hadn't seen. I agree the family's account of police taking DNA samples from the hairbrush given the time period in which this occurred, seems far fetched. Also, report of first DNA sample being taken from Tammy's family member was this past fall (2014), not earlier. The periodic updates to the family from law enforcement are inconsistent with the theory that police wrote her off as a run away and shelved the report. I don't doubt the sincerity of the sisters, cousin and remaining family members and my heart breaks for their loss. She
was such a beautiful, bright girl. However, the parents may have not been playing it straight with them.

 

[badhorsie]

Carl, I am so proud of what you have done. Respect, massive respect to you

 

[Shamrocker99]

once again I am amazed by the work that is done here~~I am honored to be a part of this group CarlK... saw the awesome newspaper article...you don't look at all what I pictured in my mind (compliment intended) lol! Great job once again and thank you so much for the time and dedication you give to those without a name!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Mzkity62]

Again, I thank everyone that worked tirelessly to give Cali a name. She deserved at least that. I would just like to address the fact that we, as Americans have become too volatile. We all think that when our feelings get hurt we should either lash out or sue other people. I have come to a place of peace in my life and acknowledge that other people are not the purpose of my being. We may get our feeling hurt by what other people assume and say out loud, but that does not make it true. We know the truth and we must deal with it. I am becoming very tired of people fighting, suing others, calling the NAACP, or anyone else that contributes to the senseless punishment of others when they don't get what they want. We have become a society of two year olds. There are too many temper tantrums being pitched. We need to realize that we cannot control what happens, but we can control how we react to it.

 

[CuriousinNY]

Hello!

I am sorry I dont have time to catch up on the thread. I live about 45 minutes from Caledonia. I dont know if you need anything from there but I willing to pick up any documents you would like scanned in or pictures taken. I will read the thread later this evening. I read up on the unknown Caledonia girl a few years ago. Thank you for your hard work and persistence to give her a name.

 

[Roselvr]

Former Sheriff York might have had a statement taken out of context (or not). I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and interpret his poorly worded statement of "It's hard to imagine that someone could just throw a child away. It's a great day to give her a name." to mean that he didn't believe anyone threw a child away. As in BBM: "It's hard to imagine that someone could just throw a child away. And now we can see that they didn't. It's a great day to give her a name." After all, Mr. York was not the sheriff in Brookesville, FL, where Tammy went missing from. He was the sheriff where an unknown body was found, with no local report to help him ID the body. In the seventies, there was no real connection between states for missing children (or murderers-can we say Ted Bundy, thank you). I can personally attest to the fact that the different states didn't even have databases that would sync with each other.

The former sheriff of the county stated the family blamed Tammy's family for identification taking three decades.

"This case could have been solved long ago, had she had a parent, had she had a family that cared enough to even want to make a missing person report," said John York, former sheriff.

I have to agree; I'm outraged by what York said. He of all people knows that times were way different. LE refused to even take a report saying teens ran away. They said the same thing about adults too. Adults are allowed to just up & walk away. SSA's parents were told her sister ran away too; her parents refused to let LE push them around. They knew Deb didn't run away.

As for the hairbrush; there is a grandmother still alive that is trying to help; we do not know when they asked for a hair brush; could have been the 80's/90's; I'm not sure when DNA 1st started or if they were trying to match hairs from Tammy's brush to a Jane Doe. Wiki DNA profiling


Back when Laurel called LE, they were pretty sure she was 1 of 2 bodies found buried in a back yard in FL. There were many serial killers centralized in FL

Websleuths thread FL- Weeki Wachee, WhtFem UP12589, 20-30, 1 of 2 Buried w/2 ID'd Victims, Mar'81

From this thread 09-30-2014, 12:43 AM post #24

Just adding a bit of info that I learned today.

Tammy is being looked at by the Hernando County Sheriff's as a possible match to the two skeletal Jane Does found in serial murderer Billy Mansfield's property in Weeki Wachee Florida.

One of the two is discussed on this thread:

FL - Weeki Wachee, WhtFem UP12589, 20-30, 1 of 2 Buried w/2 ID'd Victims, Mar'81

 

[Roselvr]

I'm new to this case as of yesterday. Trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together, and this is what I have so far. Next step is to wade through all the stuff on the Caledonia Jane Doe site.
Tammy Jo Alexander
Background information
1. Tammy was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1963 to Barbara Barnes and Marvin Bobby Alexander.
2. Tammy was living in Brooksville, Fl at the time of her disappearance, with her mother and step-father. Tammy’s parents owned a truck stop. In 1980, a few months after Tammy disappeared, her mother (then Barbara Jenkins) moved to Lakeland, FL. Tammy's mother and step-father and her biological father are now all deceased. Tammy’s mother died in 1998 in Lakeland, FL, and her obit listed Tammy as deceased.
3. Tammy has a younger half-sister (same mother, different fathers), Pamela Dyson, whose DNA proved the link to "Cali." Pamela was not living with her mother or Tammy at the time of the murder. Pamela had gone to live with her grandmother at age 12. Pamela reported in a news article that her mother was volatile and abused prescription drugs, which led to Tammy running away.
4. Pamela described her half-sister Tammy as a “very vibrant, independent, strong willed girl. She loved life, she loved excitement and I think her home life was the reason for her wanting to escape, run away and experience life."
5. Tammy has a step-sister named Sharen Nelson (not sure exactly which parent she's related to) who lives in Lakeland, FL. Sharen was a small child at the time of the murder.
6. Tammy and a friend (I think the same one who reported her missing) had run away before in May 1979, about 6 months before Tammy was murdered. They hitched rides with truckers all the way to California. The friend's mother paid for their tickets to come back home (Tammy's mother said "leave her there").
7. Tammy was last seen by her family on November 3, 1979 the day after her 16th birthday. She was found murdered in the tiny town of Caledonia, New York (near Rochester) one week later (Nov. 10), but her body wasn’t identified until January 2015.
The search for Tammy
1. Some controversy as to whether or not the parents reported Tammy missing. Her half-sister Pamela said that Tammy was reported missing, and the family says that deputies even came to their house to collect DNA from a hairbrush (DNA profiling in 1979???), but LE in Brooksville say there is no record of such. It may be that they did report her missing, but because Tammy had just turned 16 and had previously run away, the police may have assumed she was voluntarily missing and not done anything with it. Or the police may have discarded the file later on. The family said when Tammy went missing, they searched the area with Tammy’s boyfriend, and later searched phone books
2. Tammy had a boyfriend named Kevin. Kevin tried to do an online search for her sometime around 2007 on Zabasearch. He thought it was possible she'd gotten involved in prostitution in St. Petersburg.
3. Tammy's best friend from high school, Laurel Nowell, officially reported Tammy missing in June 2014. She last saw Tammy on the last day of the school year (in 1979). Apparently one of them attended a different school in Fall 1979, so they were not in touch as much. Laurel started a FB page for Tammy Alexander at the time she reported her missing. On the first day Tammy was listed on Namus, Carl Koppelman, Websleuth moderator, spotted her photo and BINGO – knew it was her.



Info from sister Pamela
http://www.13wham.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/remembering-tammy-jo-alexander-19618.shtml
FB profile run by friend Laurel Nowell
https://www.facebook.com/tammy.alexander.16547?fref=ts
message from former boyfriend Kevin searching for Tammy
http://www.zabasearch.com/messages/zaba_messages_thread.php?fid=800572
mother’s obit listing Tammy as deceased
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...LsJNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qPwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1389,474881
Pamela and cousin comment to media
http://www.whec.com/article/stories/s3689433.shtml?cat=565
comments from cousin Haley Peat
https://www.facebook.com/News10NBC
deputies came to Tammy’s home to collect DNA sample from her hairbrush; family’s efforts to search
http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/r...ir-family-never-filed-a-missing-person-report
date last seen by family
http://www.tampabay.com/news/public...micide-identified-as-brooksville-girl/2215169

Great run down. Pam says she & Tammy are sisters
comments from cousin Haley Peat

 

[Cubby]

Former Sheriff York should be blaming the LE officials who wouldn't take or follow up on the missing persons report Tammy's family tried to make. Not Tammy's family. I gave consideration to his comment about throwing a child away and I don't believe he meant the killer. Who makes comments about throwing someone away regarding a victims murderer? They comment on how could someone murder a child.

 

[Abigail]

As for the hairbrush; there is a grandmother still alive that is trying to help; we do not know when they asked for a hair brush; could have been the 80's/90's; I'm not sure when DNA 1st started or if they were trying to match hairs from Tammy's brush to a Jane Doe.

Back when Laurel called LE, they were pretty sure she was 1 of 2 bodies found buried in a back yard in FL. There were many serial killers centralized in FL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_profiling

Websleuths thread FL- Weeki Wachee, WhtFem UP12589, 20-30, 1 of 2 Buried w/2 ID'd Victims, Mar'81

From this thread 09-30-2014, 12:43 AM post #24

Just adding a bit of info that I learned today.

Tammy is being looked at by the Hernando County Sheriff's as a possible match to the two skeletal Jane Does found in serial murderer Billy Mansfield's property in Weeki Wachee Florida.

One of the two is discussed on this thread:

FL - Weeki Wachee, WhtFem UP12589, 20-30, 1 of 2 Buried w/2 ID'd Victims, Mar'81

Wow -- if one of Tammy's grandmothers is still alive, she must be quite elderly; Tammy would be 51 if alive, so a grandmother would be probably in her 90's. But she could provide some important information, as an adult that may have been around at the time of Tammy's disappearance.

One of the frustrating things about Tammy's case is that the adults she was living with when she disappeared are now dead, and her half-sister Pamela wasn't living there, and the step-sister Sharen was probably too young to understand much of what was going on (and I'm not sure if she was living in the home at that time). Her friend Laurel was not in touch with her (except maybe by phone) in that time period. I'm interested in the boyfriend Kevin. Were they still dating at that time? Did he know she was going to run away? He seems to think she was somewhere in the local area. I wish we could find somebody that is still alive now that was active in Tammy's life in the Fall of 1979. There seems to be a lot of cousins and aunts and uncles out there, but not sure how much they saw Tammy during that time.

The hair brush is interesting. DNA profiling wasn't used by police until 1986, which would have been 7 years after Tammy disappeared. Would there still have been a hair brush lying around? Barbara Jenkins, Tammy's mother, moved from Brooksville to Lakeland in 1980, just a few months after Tammy disappeared. I wonder what she did with Tammy's stuff when she moved?

I'm also interested in who wrote Barbara Jenkin's obituary. Why was Tammy listed as deceased? Perhaps presumed dead, since nobody had heard from her in 19 years?

 

[hoshizora]

Wow! I read through this thread and just want to say well done to Carl and everyone else here who work on all of these Doe cases. I'm so happy to hear that Tammy has been found, a name has been put to a person, but it's sad that her life ended so tragically and it's now a homicide investigation. She was such a lovely young girl.

 

[CarlK90245]

Here is another photo of Tammy provided by her sister.

 

[CarlK90245]

Two more pics of Tammy (right) next to her sister Pamela.

 

[CarlK90245]

Tammy at about 3 years old.

 

[CarlK90245]

Another pic of Pamela and Tammy

 

[Abigail]

Here is another photo of Tammy provided by her sister.

Wow...in this photo with the darker hair she's a dead ringer for your rendition in your avatar.

 

[Abigail]

Two more pics of Tammy (right) next to her sister Pamela.

If Tammy is the child on the right, that means Pamela is the older sister -- I must have misread the news articles, for some reason I thought she was younger.

 

[Molly's Mom]

This group is amazing and does amazing work! I've been a lurker for years but you all have spurred me on as I have done more and more of my own sleuthing. Congratulations on a job well-done and bringing home a lost child!