Hey there, DETECTIVES! DETECTIVE WRITER here to tell you all about an unsolved case that occurred in 1979, the murder of Tammy Jo Alexander. TRIGGER WARNING: I will be discussing the murder of a teenager in a bit of detail, so if anyone is uncomfortable, please feel free to skip ahead, DETECTIVES.
Tammy was a 16 year old teen who was fatally shot two times and left in a field in Caledonia, New York. Earlier in 1979, the same year she was killed, she ran away from home in Brooksville, Florida.
On November 10th, 1979, Tammy’s body was discovered by a farmer who believed he was investigating a trespasser after seeing red clothing in one of his cornfields. She had no signs of sexual assault and was fully clothed. The autopsy indicated that someone had shot Tammy first at the back of her head, dragged her into the cornfield where she was then shot a second time, and left for dead. Her pockets were also empty which also indicated that any kind of identification was removed by the killer(s).
For over three decades, Tammy was known as Cali Doe and Caledonia Jane Doe due to the fact that the night she died, there was a lot of heavy rain which had washed a lot of forensic evidence including DNA traces of the killer(s). However, in 2005, DNA was extracted from her remains as well as a forensic analysis on her clothes. She also had a half sister who was confirmed as a match for her DNA in 2014.
On January 26th, 2015, in Livingston County, NY, over 35 years later after her death, police officially announced her identity as Tammy Jo Alexander.
The facial sketch of the man seen with Tammy before her murder.
In 1984, serial killer Henry Lee Lucas had confessed to murdering Tammy but he did not identify her. Therefore, his statement was not considered credible. However, in 2020, the FBI announced that the male DNA found on Tammy’s clothes was being tested in national databases hoping to find a familial link.
To this day, the killer(s) remains unidentified and Tammy’s case is still unsolved.
I hope you are intrigued by this storytime as much as I am, DETECTIVES! Please let me know in the comments if you want more storytime!
Have a great day, night, afternoon, or evening, DETECTIVES! Stay tuned for a future post; until then, keep on sleuthing, DETECTIVES!
Detective Writer 