I just wanted to join in and congratulate everyone who helped to finally ID this beautiful young woman. This case and the Sumter County Does (aka Mystery Couple from South Carolina) have always been the two cases I have gravitated towards. To see a case this old finally get solved after 35 years gives me a renewed hope that the mystery couple who were lost only 3 years earlier a chance to finally get their names returned to them.
Just a few other things I'd like to say.
1. It's amazing to me that having seen the post mortem photo of Tammy as well as the various renderings done over the years, I never would have guessed based on the only known photo we have of Tammy, that they were the same person. I don't know if I focus on the whole picture and not individual areas of the face where they match, but I am glad there are more observant people out there that notice these things and put the two together. I do believe they are the same person, but I am just terrible at matching up people. I go off details and pretty much ignore pics to an extent. I suppose that in death, a lot of things change in the face and I wonder if others like me who know of missing people really expect to see them as their were in life if they ever come across pictures of the dead that they think might be their lost love ones.
2. I am sorry if this appears to angry at such a joyous time, but part of me hopes the SOB that did this is just alive enough to see this as he is rotting in jail on another charge or in some horrible place and he will have some time to dwell on what he did before he meets his maker. I do not know if Tammy had ID on her, but having read that her pockets were turned inside out suggests that this person made an attempt to make things harder for LE to ID her with. I am thrilled that he failed at this and that good people have prevailed.
3. Having only been on this site a little over a year (lurking before joining) I am amazed at how this case and hopefully the Grateful dead doe may have finally been ID'd. I firmly believe in social media and the internet that we can be the advocates for these unidentified people. I realize this sort of thing only appeals to a small portion of people, but the time and energy we spent talking and researching, I really think we can make more pushes and hope we do so to get these other unidentified people out there because there are still people out there that can help us and know these people, but because they don't know about this and other communities they will never be able to help us. Really hoping that some more computer savvy people out there will try to raise some awareness for these people and I hope these stories get into the news more so that other people will come forward with a lost loved one or friend that may have never gotten the attention they deserve.