To put Tammy's passing into context with the rest of the world in 1979- exactly what time- Tehran time- did the US embassay get stormed? And around what time, Eastern Standard or Maritime, did the US start to learn of it? Was it a case of, "We interrupt our normal broadcast to bring you this special report..."?
I'm wondering if people who could have provided information at the time of her passing put her shooting to the back of their mind to focus on the Iranian hostage crisis. (I was 3.5 months when Tammy died.) I know eventually Nightline came about so we could have nightly updates on the hostages.
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.