View the New England Unsolved WFXT Fox 25 News report.
At midnight, Tammy Marie Lynds informed her 10-year-old sister that she was going out, and that she would be back at 3:00 a.m. As she made her way to the front door, she nudged her father, who had nodded off in a living room chair while watching television.
“She told me to get to bed,” he remembered her saying. As he roused himself and headed to his bedroom, the 15-year-old girl went out the front door, left it open, slipped out the side gate of their yard to avoid tripping the motion sensor attached to spotlights, and vanished into the night. She never returned.
It was the evening of July 21, 1994, when Allison last saw her sister alive. She looked out the window, watched Tammy quietly unlock their fence gate, and wished she could have said more to convince her not to go out. Tammy was supposed to meet a friend, possibly a boyfriend, but she told her sister she was not looking forward to this rendezvous.
Tammy was reported missing the next day, and the police classified her as a runaway. Typically, when YOUNG children go missing, the cases are immediately treated as possible abductions and homicides. But not so with teenagers. Springfield Police received as many as 20 reports of missing youths every summer in the early- and mid-1990s, and most teens returned home within three days. However, Tammy hadn’t taken anything with her, and she inexplicably didn’t come back. She had left an open door and reassurances to her sister that she’d return.
Flyers were taped to walls of area businesses with a description of the freckle-faced Tammy Lynds: 5-foot-three, 106 pounds, and sandy blond hair.
Her father, Richard Lynds, feared the worst, searching the woods near her family’s house, combing the areas of Grayson Drive and Boston Road. He talked to Tammy’s friends. There were rumors that she was alive and possibly out of the state—maybe in Florida—but no substantial leads. Just talk. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and the Lynds’ lives were turned upside down.
On November 4, 1994, David Schmidt and his eight-year-old son were riding bikes in the woods off Fox Road in the late morning when he spied a hubcap that he thought he could use. Then, in the brush near a stream, he saw what appeared to be red sneakers attached to sticks. Upon closer inspection he discovered a skeleton partially covered with rags that were once jeans—and for a split second he thought it was a fake skeleton left over from Halloween. A better look soon convinced him otherwise.
Police searched the area for clues. A week later, a comparison of dental records confirmed the body was Tammy’s. At the time, the medical examiner had yet to come up “with all the answers,” but considered it “not to be a homicide.”
Tammy’s body was found in the woods several feet from the east side of Fox Road, north of the guard rail that leads to the bridge over the Mill River’s North Branch, which divides the Pine Point and Sixteen Acres neighborhoods. The location was three-quarters of a mile from her home at 51 Lamont Street. The forensic pathologist believed the corpse had been at the site since Tammy’s disappearance.
According to a Springfield Union News article on November 14, 1994, an anthropological exam of her remains had not yet revealed the cause of death. It also included the fact that an entry in her diary said she snuck out of the house around midnight a week before she died to meet a boy who lived east of Lamont Street along Boston Road. She had also written that she had been accosted by bar patrons on Boston Road as she walked east on that road. Which bars(s)? John Joe’s? Bonnie and Clydes? Or the Sports Page or Mattie’s Café, both on the other (north) side of the road? The story didn’t say. The word “accosted,” used by the newspaper reporter, didn’t specify what made her feel uncomfortable.
The next and last newspaper article about Tammy Marie Lynds notified readers of her funeral on November 18, 1994 at Sampson's Chapel of the Acres Funeral Home and St. Catherine of Siena Church. The cause of death was “under investigation.”
For nearly 18 years Tammy Lynds’ death remained in media limbo: confined to the newspaper archives. It’s unclear what became of the Springfield Police investigation, but the primary officers involved in the case, veteran homicide detectives Dennis M. O’Connor and Noberto Garcia, eventually retired.
However, the cold case started to heat up earlier this year, when Richard Lynds approached Bob Ward, a reporter/anchor for Fox 25 News in Boston. New evidence in the infamous 1993 Holly Piirainen abduction and murder put that case back in the spotlight last January, so he reached out to Ward about his daughter’s cold case—one that seemed to be forgotten by everyone accept Tammy’s family and friends. View Ward’s report.
On April 2, 2012, Hampden County District Attorney Mark Mastroianni, who was elected in 2010, announced the creation of the office’s first website, which includes a section on unsolved Hampden County homicides dating back to 1991. Surprisingly, the Tammy Marie Lynds case was listed, even though the cause of death was never determined—as far as we know.
In all the homicides on the DA’s website, the cause of death has been established—even the 1992 case of a “John Doe,” whose skull and bones were found in a wooded area in Southwick. Officials at the time stated that foul play was not suspected (the same medical examiner later said the same thing about Lynds), but Mastroianni’s website now notes that the unknown victim in Southwick “sustained trauma to the face.”
Is there new forensic evidence in the Lynds case? Mastroianni doesn’t mention anything in the Fox 25 interview. “We’re committed to re-evaluating the evidence,” he said, noting that the diary is “important. I certainly think it’s a piece of significant evidence. It’s a fair conclusion to reach that if she’s leaving her house at that point in the morning hours, it’s likely to be spending some time with someone or people” referenced in her personal diary.
Ward’s story, which aired on May 6, contains a number of startling new revelations. “I know she had some guy issues that were going on,” said Allison, (pictured below at the right of Tammy). Ward says in the broadcast that Tammy snuck out to meet her boyfriend at his house, and then a week later left her home “to meet some friends” on the night she disappeared, but in the text version of his story, Allison said to him that her sister “was going to sneak out again after their parents fell asleep. Only this time, Allison told me, Tammy wasn’t going to her boyfriend’s home. Instead, she was going to meet with him in some nearby woods.” Was she supposed to be getting together with ONE person or several?
Allison said that on the night her sister vanished, “she was very scared, nervous. She wasn’t acting like herself.” But she was determined to go out. “She said she had to go,” according to Allison, “and she said, ‘I promise you I will be back.’” Tammy insisted that she had to leave—but at the same time she was reluctant. “She didn’t want to go,” said Allison, who replied, “You don’t have to go.” Ward asked her, “Did she say what would happen to her if she didn’t go? Allison answered, “All she had said was that she was threatened.”
Richard Lynds (pictured above) was a Pine Point Neighborhood Council president who, ironically, spoke about an upsurge in crime in Pine Point at a Springfield Community Policing Implementation Steering Committee meeting five months before Tammy’s disappearance. In his interview with Ward, Richard said that during the initial investigation, investigators took a hard look at him as a possible suspect. He was given a lie detector test, which was “inconclusive,” he says. Needless to say, it is highly unlikely that a guilty Richard Lynds would initiate a new investigative focus on his daughter’s death eighteen years later.
A week after Tammy was found, Richard told the Union News he was upset with the way police were handling the case. “In my opinion,” he said, “the way [the] Youth Aid [Bureau] responded to us, there was too much of a delay. I know they checked with some of the kids we told them about, but we did most of the legwork.”
Pictured above is the Fox Road Bridge, and below is the guard rail on the north side. The body was found feet from the road beyond the guard rail.
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“THIS IS TUFF TURF” was spray-painted on the Fox Road bridge in 1985 after the laughably horrible gang movie Tuff Turf came out. Back than we scoffed at the graffiti on our multitude of Taco Bell runs to Boston Road. “Bunch of suburban gangsta-wanna-be’s,” we said. Little did we know how bad the neighborhood would get in the 1990s, when the criminal element infiltrated the nearby Colonial Estates apartments, along with the Boston Road neighborhood, and especially Pine Point. It certainly got tough for Tammy Marie Lynds. Who killed her? A friend? A stranger? The former seems more likely, although a pathway leading to the woods at the end of the guardrail provides the perfect cover for a predator. For decades the woods in this vicinity have had an aura of dangerousness about them, with sex attacks dating back to the 1970s (a 10-year-old girl in 1975 and a five-year-old boy in 1977), and in a one-month period in 1982: five assaults (three of them rapes).
Tammy’s diary, according to Ward, referred to her walking past a few bars the night she snuck out a week before she disappeared, and “some men who were leaving the bar made her feel uncomfortable.” In the diary entry pictured above, there is an excerpt that reads, “but when I was going past the first bar, I had a man start following me, I booked.”
How intimate was she with the person she met with that night? The next sentence in the diary reads: “When I got to his house he let me in and I lad [sic] on his bed he closed the window. Then he turn [sic] off the lights and then unbuttoned my shirt and lad [sic] down with me, kissing me also. Then he asked me if I wanted to do the…” That is the way the page ends. The ellipsis points at the conclusion are mine. What is on the next page? What else in the diary is of significance?
Fox Road, lined by woods on each side, is a popular illegal dumping spot for people getting rid of appliances, tires—you name it. There are no houses within sight—except one, on the corner of Grayson Drive and Methuen Street. Was the owner asked if he saw anything? The residents of Methuen Street have always been keenly aware of the illegal dumping problem on their street and on Fox Road, and they are known to be vigilant in trying to catch violators in the act. Did anyone spy anything suspicious going on?
Because of the site’s relative remoteness (not exactly city, but certainly not “country”), it is possible that someone removed her body from a car and dropped it a few feet into the woods for a quick getaway. But there is also a pathway in the woods near the body: could Tammy have been murdered in these woods? If so, wouldn’t the killer drag her body further away from the road to hide it? Maybe not if the perpetrator wanted to leave the scene in a hurry.
The above footage is of the Fox Road bridge heading north and ending with the site where the body was found. There are a couple of paper bags filled with leaves dumped there—indicative of the way Fox Road is used by area slobs. Below is the end of the path from Grayson Drive to the site where Tammy’s remains were left. Which route was taken by the killer?
Fox Road also serves as a short cut for motorists driving between Parker Street, Boston Road, Breckwood Boulevard and Wilbraham Road. Did someone, after going out to a bar on a Thursday night in the summer, see something unusual on Fox Road? A parked car? Two or more teenagers—or adults—hanging out? An argument? Someone running?
According to Ward, the crime scene was NOT the same wooded area where Tammy planned to visit the night she went missing. His news segment didn’t mention her desired destination, leaving open a realm of possibilities, because the neighborhood was—and is—filled with woods that are youth gathering spots. Some of these areas don’t exist any more, such as the forested subdivision at the end of her street (known by some as “Strawberry Fields”), along with the “pit” and the “log cabin” party fort on the site of what is now Pheasant Drive. Within a mile from her house are Putnam’s Puddle, Five Mile Pond, Pine Point’s “Snake” woods off Seymour Avenue, “The Rail” that separates Blanche Street and the North Branch Parkway, and the sandy desertscape off Grayson Drive on the lower left of the satellite photo on this blog post. Heck, there are even pathways in the woods on the other side of Fox Road (pictured below) that connected to the old trails behind the old Camp Husky.
At this point, there are many questions and no answers. According to her 1994 “missing” posters, she was last seen on the night she left at 1:00 a.m. on the “South side of the Boston Road corridor.” So, did someone see her an hour after her sister did? Also, even though the medical examiner believed that Tammy had been at that Fox Road site since her disappearance, he also originally said that that the body, which had yet to be determined as Tammy’s, appeared to have been in the woods “for at least up to six months,” according to the Union News. Tammy, as it turned out, was gone for less than four months. Since forensic pathology is not an exact science, does the report even consider the possibility that her body might had been moved to the site she was discovered, or that she might have been killed after she had been missing for several days or longer?
If Tammy’s friends and acquaintances were too young to drive, did any of them have a young relative or friend who had access to a car that night or in the days afterward? After all, it is not easy to move a 106-pound body. If she were killed by a stranger, were known sex offenders from the area questioned at the time (including two men who were convicted of rapes in the woods off North Branch Parkway in 1980 and 1982 respectively)? Have Tammy’s friends and other persons of interest been re-interviewed? Have alibis been fully scrutinized? Who mentioned that she had been in Florida after she disappeared?
Arguably the most infamous unsolved murder in the area is the 40-year-old murder case of Danny Croteau, a 13-year-old from Sixteen Acres whose bludgeoned body was found under the I-291 bridge that spans the Chicopee River. I used to run into his father, Carl, from time to time, in Sixteen Acres, and we talked about his frustrations with the investigation. He is pictured below on Maebeth Street in 2009.
In 2010, Hampden County District Attorney candidate Michael Kogut vowed to reopen the Danny Croteau murder case if elected to office, and Carl Croteau, of course, was very excited by his promise to conduct an inquest. But Mastroianni was elected in November of 2010. Back then I meant to eventually run a post on the Croteau murder on this blog, but Carl died 10 days after Mastroianni’s election, going to his grave without closure.
Fortunately, Mastroianni has created a new unit dedicated to solving cold cases. Unfortunately, for the Croteau family, the investigations only go back to homicides committed after 1990. On April 17, 2012, exactly four decades after the Croteau murder, the anniversary of the heinous act went strangely unnoticed by the media after thousands upon thousands of words were written about the case in the last 20 years. If the curtain has truly closed on the Croteau investigation without the hope of an indictment—and it certainly seems that way—maybe the death of Tammy Lynds can be solved more easily. District Attorneys have come and gone since Danny was killed and no one has been charged, but perhaps a “younger” cold case now stands a better chance to be resolved.
“Wouldn’t it be great if, after all these years, Tammy’s family could get justice?” wrote Ward in the news story accompanying his broadcast. It is uncertain whether or not this news segment, which is part of the New England Unsolved series on Fox 25 in Boston, will ever air in Springfield. Even though there is now a Fox affiliate (Fox 6) in Springfield, its 10:00 p.m. news show is the work of WGGB abc 40. Wouldn’t it be great if this story is aired on a local news channel—and it leads to a break in the case? This blog has very limited exposure—so please forward the Fox 25 news story link to your friends. Does anyone in The Acres or Pine Point know anything about this murder that hasn’t been looked into?
When Tammy was 11, her father got a call that every parent dreads: that his daughter was in an accident and in the hospital. But Tammy was okay—after a pickup truck hit her school bus she was treated and released. Then, four years later he received a call that no parent should ever receive: his daughter’s remains were found discarded like a bag of leaves off Fox Road. How did she end up there and how did she die?
When Tammy was 11, her father got a call that every parent dreads: that his daughter was in an accident and in the hospital. But Tammy was okay—after a pickup truck hit her school bus she was treated and released. Then, four years later he received a call that no parent should ever receive: his daughter’s remains were found discarded like a bag of leaves off Fox Road. How did she end up there and how did she die?
Even though the cause of death of Tammy Lynds wasn’t determined, a girl who was nervous about going out the last night of her life ended up dead in the woods. It was the middle of the summer—she sure didn’t freeze to death. If she had a hidden heart ailment or another lethal condition lurking inside her body, it picked a strange time to kill her—in the wee hours of the morning, after she snuck out to get in a situation she was dreading. I daresay it was unlikely she died of natural causes, and apparently the DA’s office doesn’t think so either. Her family is certain she was murdered. “She was just plopped there like garbage,” said Allison.
Those with any information about the disappearance and murder of Tammy Marie Lynds can contact Massachusetts State Police at 413-505-5993 or the Springfield Police at 413-787-6355.
You can anonymously text a tip to: 274637 or CRIMES and in the message, type SOLVE, and then your message. This is the notice on the district attorney's web page on unsolved homicides, which was provided to Hell's Acres by her sister Allison:
I hope they find the murderer and solve Tammy's case.I used to live in Colonial Estates, and frequently go down to the North Branch by myself as a 7 and 8 year old kid.Never knew the dangers were that deep, though I always tried to be alert.
ReplyDeleteSomeday I'll tell the story of my friend walking home from Lucerne down the North Branch Parkway at 1:00 a.m. during the summer of the rapes--1982--and he heard someone following along in the woods as he walked on the sidewalk in front of Colonial Estates.
DeleteThis continued as he walked--and then ran--past Mary Lynch School. The guy who was following had evidently crossed Fox Road and kept stalking.
This was before the rapes were publicized. Freaky stuff. In one rape, the guy sprang out wearing nothing but a pair of underwear on his face!
This is crazy, my mom just told me about a guy wearing a trench coat and flashing us around this same time period. We lived in colonial estates and were walking to my grandparents house on Moss rd. She said she didn’t think my brother and I saw him, but she got freaked out and we got to their house in record time.
DeletePlease do! i lived on Slater Ave at that time and i used to cut through the woods from end of slater top grayson and cross the stream at night! Just to visit a chick in colonial estates! I always heard about the guy with underwear on his head. This also was the time period where cable was just coming to the neighborhood so it was mention that it may have been a cable guy doing these rapes.
ReplyDeleteHi, Slater Ave. guy.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know there was a short cut path in thosse woods across from Slater. When I checked out those woods, pathways come to an end, but I have the feeling they probably ran all the way to the woods beyond Walmart and possibly all the way to where that other, cut-off portion of Grayson ends on the east side of that road, near the east end North Branch Parkway. Did they?
Not much more to tell about my friend's incident i guess. The strange thing is all the sex offenders in the neighborhood. The "underwear on the head" rapist, a Pidgeon Drive guy, was convicted of several rapes, including one in The Pit. His father was also convicted of statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl, along with molesting an eight-year-old girl (his granddaughter) in the early 1990s.
The 1977 rape of the five-year-old boy: I know a Slater Ave. guy whose brother was with the victim but was able to get away from the attacker. (This was in the woods behind Slater, the "North Branch Tributary Park" bordered by Slater backyards, Grayson, and Wisteria.) The accused rapist lived on Jennings and was sent to Northampton State Hospital for 20 days observation, but I don't know if he was ever convicted.
There was also a fellow who lived at the end of Lloyd Ave. (borders North Branch Tributary Park) who received a suspended sentence for molesting a 10-year-old girl in 1992.
The following was outside the area we're referring to, but there was also the Lucerne Road guy who was convicted of several sex crimes, including trying to rape a jogger in 1980 at the corner of North Branch and Sunrise (at the edge of the Putnam's Puddle Woods.)
Ever hear about these crimes? You might even know of others. Much doesn't make the news or is forgotten over the years.
Wow! Thanks for the reply!Ok the street Wollanston was a dirt road next to Nanas Kitchen.It technically had two houses on the road.
DeleteNow the road turned in to a path that led to Grayson drive leading to the trailer park.Ok now from there you
could head east where you could pick
up another path. Now this one
connected to the back of Wal-Mart.
But also brought you the end of
Lucerne which is considered The
other end of Grayson Dr.Whew! Now
the crazy thing is,lets say we take the
path where Tammy was found, if you
head east and stay close to the
stream, you end up in the same
spot...Other end of grayson.
Ok. Lets go back to where they found Tammy and cross Fox road and go down to the stream you can take that all the to the backyard of the house that sits at the end of grayson where the s-curve is. You can also be on the North Branch side and come out by the Sunrise Terrace intersection.
One more section... if you go down Sunrise abit there's another shortcut that will come out at the top of the street Behind Sophias.Now after detention one day leaving Duggan, Two of my friends and I are cutting through there and next thing you know an arrow came out of no where and stuck in a nearby tree...WE Hauled...
Hi Slater Ave. Guy,
ReplyDeleteI always thought that there must be a path from where Tammy was found that went to the east end of Grayson. I couldn't find it when I first wrote the blog post, but I didn't think to stay closer to the stream. It's possible that the path is overgrown now. After all, kids these days are in the woods a lot less than in previous generations, and they would be the ones to keep the trails going.
The same is true for the trail on the other side of Fox Road (North Branch Parkway side). From Fox Road, with the stream on the right, the trail gets overgrown (some poison ivy there too) and pretty much ends, but there is a more well-defined trail further down North Branch Parkway, heading toward the Sunrise intersection. As you point out, years ago, it was all connected.
I had never seen the trail on the Grayson trail of the above-mentioned stream--the one that takes you to the back yard of the now-demolished and rebuilt house at the S-curve. I looked for it when I walked along Grayson, but I couldn't find it.
Funny you mention that old house. 885 Grayson had a bit of a reputation as a place to stay away from. A convicted arsonist lived there with his sugar daddy for decades.
We used to walk the trail behind Sophia's a lot, and it's still there, although it's overgrown near Sunrise at "The Log."
I often tell people how wooded the area was decades ago. Before the senior living complex was built on Grayson I used to walk to my friend's house on Rosewell by heading down Sunrise, taking a right on Grayson, and then a left through the woods to the end of Rosewell. I describe these woods in this post: http://hellsacres.blogspot.com/2010/07/paving-of-our-precious-pine-point-party.html.
Amazingly, if you look on a satellite map, they are STILL ripping down woods and building housing there (Delaware Avenue).
Just think, at the time of the murder, it was possible for Tammy to walk to the end of her street (Lamont), which ended in woods, walked through the woods, crossed Grayson, and re-entered the woods, and walked through them all the way to Fox Road that night. It's a possibility. But who knows?
Have you heard any rumors about this murder? The DA's office seems to have no leads. Was it the person she was meeting? Acquaintance? Random act by a stranger? Who knows? At least one person does. That's for sure. I have a feeling others have information.
Hi Slater Ave. Guy,
ReplyDeleteI always thought that there must be a path from where Tammy was found that went to the east end of Grayson. I couldn't find it when I first wrote the blog post, but I didn't think to stay closer to the stream. It's possible that the path is overgrown now. After all, kids these days are in the woods a lot less than in previous generations, and they would be the ones to keep the trails going.
The same is true for the trail on the other side of Fox Road (North Branch Parkway side). From Fox Road, with the stream on the right, the trail gets overgrown (some poison ivy there too) and pretty much ends, but there is a more well-defined trail further down North Branch Parkway, heading toward the Sunrise intersection. As you point out, years ago, it was all connected.
I had never seen the trail on the Grayson trail of the above-mentioned stream--the one that takes you to the back yard of the now-demolished and rebuilt house at the S-curve. I looked for it when I walked along Grayson, but I couldn't find it.
Funny you mention that old house. 885 Grayson had a bit of a reputation as a place to stay away from. A convicted arsonist lived there with his sugar daddy for decades.
We used to walk the trail behind Sophia's a lot, and it's still there, although it's overgrown near Sunrise at "The Log."
I often tell people how wooded the area was decades ago. Before the senior living complex was built on Grayson I used to walk to my friend's house on Rosewell by heading down Sunrise, taking a right on Grayson, and then a left through the woods to the end of Rosewell. I describe these woods in this post: http://hellsacres.blogspot.com/2010/07/paving-of-our-precious-pine-point-party.html.
Amazingly, if you look on a satellite map, they are STILL ripping down woods and building housing there (Delaware Avenue).
Just think, at the time of the murder, it was possible for Tammy to walk to the end of her street (Lamont), which ended in woods, walked through the woods, crossed Grayson, and re-entered the woods, and walked through them all the way to Fox Road that night. It's a possibility. But who knows?
Have you heard any rumors about this murder? The DA's office seems to have no leads. Was it the person she was meeting? Acquaintance? Random act by a stranger? Who knows? At least one person does. That's for sure. I have a feeling others have information.
I remember when my neighbor Michael Demars came out of the woods at the end of Starling rd, near Kathleen St.,Underwear over his head as police arrested him. the woods he came out of separated colonial estates from Kathleen St., all of us who grew up in that neighborhood were on red alert, I remember driving around the streets near my house, with a car load of guys, just trying to see if we could catch the perp ourselves, little did we know he was right down the street.
ReplyDeleteFunny, even as a child, there was something different about that family. The father was odd, he would drive slowly, staring at us from behind thick lenses, chomping on a cigar, occasionally yelling swears at us as he passed. He had a house full of kids,maybe 5 or 6, none of them integrated well with any of the many kids in the neighborhood, as we got into our teens, it was clear there was something VERY wrong with all of them, the boys were simply odd, while the girls began to gain recognition as promiscuous. There were several suspects on nearby streets, but as for Demars,I heard he plead NGI and went to Northampton state hospital.
If u go by now, that house was repoed by the bank many years ago, but never resold. I can only think what horrors happened there,as messed up as the kids were, they didn't stand a chance with a father like Warren Demars
I remember reading about groups of guys looking for the rapist.
ReplyDeleteDid you or your friends hear anything about the rapist who lived on Lucerne? His name was Marcinkiewicz.
No don't remember him, but I had a police scanner and a shopping carriage handle ( very heavy by the way) and my friends and I all had sisters, so we were both scared and motivated to help find "the rapist", I remember a kid from sparrow Dr. Being whispered about as the suspect, it was a surreal time, I can remember being home, hearing it on the scanner, and going with my next door neighbor ,in a hurry, just in time to see Demars sitting handcuffed on the ground,outside a cruiser
ReplyDeleteHi I was recently looking for the name of the guy that got convicted for my attempted rape. I was the jogger, the year was 1981. I was 19 years old and had just joined the AF. I was told I had to run five miles a day so I started training by running around Putmans Puddle. I lived on Starling Rd. I use to run down Starling, to Sparrow then to N. Brook, as I was headed toward the curve around the woods that begins Sunrise Terrace Marcinkiewicz was waiting for me. He blocked my way and just stared at me crazy eyed. So I looked behind him and saw that he car was parked on the side of sunrise terrace. I said "Can I help you?" the next thing I know he leaped forward and tried to grab me. I ran away as fast as I could having just run a good five miles I did my best to get away. I screamed at the top of my lungs HELP! Call the police! I kept jumping up and down off of the curbing across the street on N. Branch. Luckily when he caught me around the waist and was trying to throw me into the bushes a car was driving by and I yelled out STOP! He attempted to cover my mouth but I kept pushing and punching, kicking as hard as I could to keep him away from me. The Painter guys got out of their car and they started walking towards us so he let go. At the same time a woodsman came out of the woods with an ax and said "What's going ON!" As the rapist walked away he limped and went to sit in his car. The guys all walked over to him and Marcinkiewicz said "I didn't do anything to her!" The guys were painters on their way to my street to pick up another painter for a job. They were very nice and attempted to ask me to get into their car so they could bring me home. I was still in shock and I couldn't talk. I motioned "NO" I walked all the way home and they drove right next to me bless their hearts. I finally walked through the door and said "MOM!" When they caught up to this guy on Lucerne Rd. he was laying on his couch with a steak on his black eye, an ice pack on his three cracked ribs, and another ice pack wrapped around his sprained ankle. He had three young children at the time and was married. I found out after I testified that he had five other victims. When they found out he was in jail they all came forward. This man got 120 years for the six victims that he tortured. One girl was his baby sitter and was only 14 years old. He raped her and then tried to choke her to death by climbing into her window the next night because the parents came over that day to ask what had happened the night before since their daughter refused to talk, get out of bed and was in the fetal position. Instead of taking it to court they moved away to Boston. The next victim lived in Chicopee, Marcinkiewicz was a fuller brush sales man and asked the woman he had just sold a broom to if she would have sex with him for $20. Needless to say she hit him over the head with the broom that he sold her and kicked him out of her apartment. Another women who refused to testify out of fear. I'm glad that my Mom taught me to stand up for myself because the guy would probably still be at large. I wonder if he is still in jail? I hope so, a leopard doesn't change it's spots. I hope you enjoyed hearing more about what happened. By the time I went to Basic Training at Lackland AFB, TX my dad mailed me a newspaper clipping telling all about how Marcinkiewicz had finally been caught and got 120 years in jail for the rapes and my attempted rape. Thanks for letting me know his name now maybe I can find the article my dad sent me all those years ago.
ReplyDeleteWow. Incredible. He messed with the wrong jogger! He's out, by the way, a registered sex offender living in Chicopee, I believe. More convictions, including a tax fraud scheme when he was incarcerated, but he's a free man. Quick question: was he bald (or balding) when he attacked you?
ReplyDeleteComing home from a friends house on Gary road in 1979. Just took the test to get into Cathedral high. I was riding my bike on Sunrise Terrace just getting to Northbrook. A car came very close to my bike almost running me into the curb. When I turned to look at him he didn't have pants on and was masturbating. He asked if I wanted a ride. I was so so scared. By that time I was at the corner of Northbrook and Sunrise Terrace. I dropped my bike and Just ran into a small yellow house on the corner of Northbrook and Sunrise. Just opened their screen door like I lived there and walk in. Telling the teenage boy in his kitchen someone was following me. He said ok ok come in. I called my parents immediately to come and get me. I only lived a few houses away. As I was waiting for my parents to get me. The man came by again and slowly drove by the house. I was sitting on their side stairs waiting for my parents. I thought he was coming back for me. We called the Spfld police. They took me for a ride. They drove by a house where they knew of a man already charged of sex crimes. And there he was getting out of his car!! Police told my parents he has already been brought to court for his previous actions. And just keeps getting out. It would be better to do nothing so he wouldn't know our address. So nothing was ever done. I have come back to live in the area. Every time I drive by the house I think about it. Right at the end of Sunrise on Breckwood to the right. I imagine they no longer live there it was in 1979. Wonder if the new owners know of the history. Probably not. But truth is you truly don't know who's living next door. Where ever you live. Just need to always be on alert. Sadly.
ReplyDeleteWhat a sad story. I came across it through googling something else. I'm curious though. Why did she take the chance of waking her father and telling him to get to bed... not something you'd do if you wanted to successfully sneak out? It seems to me that if it happened like that it meant she wanted him to catch her and stop her from going. She'd have a good excuse for whoever it was that she was going to meet and seemingly was not eager to do so.
ReplyDeleteHer father doesn't seem to have realised that she had gone out even though she left the front door open. It's like she wanted him to catch her and stop her but he didn't. I don't know what their house was like but I know in most American houses the whole ground floor is pretty much open plan which meant if he had fallen asleep watching tv that he'd have gotten up and surely even if she was gone he'd have noticed the front door was open.
Yes,
ReplyDeleteIt didn't occur to me that she wanted to get caught sneaking out until you mentioned this.
I wonder if any of the details will eventually come out. There is lots of talk in the comments about predators in the neighborhood--and for good reason--but it still seems to me she probably knew her attacker.
It could have been a crime of opportunity by a stranger--a teenage girl walking in an area surrounded by woods late at night--but...
I want to have people to help me figure out what has happened to my sister's case that has been staggered and put to the side and the facts of what really has happened to my sister and why her case was put to the side and someone is trying to cover something up that they want to hide themselves and not to be found or be mentioned in her case so I want as many people to help me figure out what has happened to my sister and why they took her away from me and my family.
ReplyDeleteAlison I agree there is something a miss in this case I pray for tammy and your family it will surface the truth will appear stay strong xx
DeleteHi, if the above comment is from Allison, Tammy's sister (and not a prank), thanks for commenting please feel free to leave any other comments that would shed more light on this 25-year-old case. Have you heard anything that has not been in the news outlets--anything you wish to share? You can also email me at hellsacres@gmail.com.
ReplyDeleteI'm Tammy father. I have not stopped searching, and asking questions about how and by who killed my daughter. I have all kinds of written statements, reports, diary books on all the things she did and talked about prior to her disappearance on July 21, 1994. I go back over my notes again and again. Trying to see if I missed anything.
ReplyDeleteThe latest thing that has come to mind is the talk of where she was supposed to be meeting this boy at, in the woods at the pit. I remember my youngest telling me this back then, so back then I searched in the wooded area off of the dead end of our street.
Now thinking about this more, the area behind where Tammy was found is a wooded area. Is this pit in that area of woods. I never went into those woods to check, don't know why but haven't.
Also, after having a meeting with the DA in their office, years back now. I was told that all of the evidence to the case is missing. Where and why is it missing. No one can answer this question. Thinking about this, I came up with one good possibility, in the casket with Tammy, 6ft underground where no one can get to it. The perfect hiding place.
This has been a horrible tragedy for you Mr Lynds. I hope this renewed interest in your daughters case, leads to an arrest and conviction.
DeleteHi Richard,
ReplyDeleteThe woods where Tammy was found was kind of a "pit" in that it's a depression downhill from Fox Road. There are many pathways there and I guess could have been a gathering place in 1994. I don't know. I was in the Boston area from 1986 to 2007 so I'm not sure where area kids were hanging out during this time period.
There was a place called "The Pit" near the "Log Cabin" (a long gone party shelter) in the woods at the end of Moss Road, where Pheasant Drive is now. I believe the woods were bulldozed when they added subdivisions at the end of Pheasant. I forgot when the area was cleared.
The Pit next to Moss Road is where one of the rapes occurred in the fall of 1982. MD (see the above comments from the Pidgeon Drive guy) was convicted of at least four rapes and one other attack and sentenced to 8-10 years--no idea when he got out. This is not too far from Fox Road and the hill and field at Mary Lynch was a cut-through connecting both neighborhoods.
There was also "The Ditch" at the end of Wilkes Street--see the reference and comments on my post at http://hellsacres.blogspot.com/2012/10/spitting-to-all-fields-part-8.html. That was near Fox Road but it was a 1970s party spot. I don't know when that area was cleared.
I'm not sure what you mean that the evidence is now "with Tammy." It's got to be frustrating to hear that all the evidence is missing. Very suspicious.
By the way Richard, as for a possible suspect, I came across the following Facebook thread a few years ago. Ever hear of Eugene McGahee? Check it out:
ReplyDeleteMelissa Antoinette Garza I never knew that happened to Tammy. I was destroyed with my own drama to even cope. It's a long-shot but I honestly fear my father may have been involved. He was a sociopathic child molester who raped 70+ kids. Several members of my family (including myself) always thought he murdered at least 1 person but never any evidence. He died 4 yrs ago. If I knew anything substantial or had any evidence I'd turn it over but it's all speculation. if Gene McGahee (Eugene McGahee)'s name comes up in an investigation. That's my father and I'll be happy to provide any thing I know. He died in Florida. I had very little to do with him after 1997.
Melissa Antoinette Garza some of my family (myself included) always thought my father killed Molly Bisch. There's a lot of parallels and coincidences between the Bisch case and my dad's whereabouts . I'm hoping I'm just paranoid and crazy but I know Tammy had been to my house when she was younger. I remember her and by 1994 I had zero friends and was basically out of high school so I was completely unaware. I hope I'm wrong. I'm talking to my hubby because with anyone else I know this would be totally off the wall, but for those who knew my dad, you'd know why this is making me fucked.
Melissa Antoinette Garza after talking with my hubby and brother I texted the police at 274637 with all the info I do have which isn't much at all. I used my real name...didn't do it anonymously.
Roxanne Corneau Melissa...I am glad you contacted the police. It is better to say something than not, even if there is no connection.
Melissa Antoinette Garza Roxanne Corneau yeah when I spoke with my brother and he was like 'you're not being crazy. It's very possible." I thought I had to reach out.
Roxanne Corneau I'm also very sorry for what you described here...I wish I had more to offer...you showed some real admirable strength.
Melissa Antoinette Garza Roxanne Corneau Thanks. I'm 10 yrs+ in therapy which has helped. I just wish I was braver when I was younger. So many things would be different for so many people. Hope you're well. I hope one way or another the police do find who is responsible forTammy's death so that her family can have some peace. If it does happen to be my father, I will reach out personally to Tammy's family and see if there's anything they need me to do. It's good hearing from you.
Katelan Foisy Oh Melissa, I had no idea. This was incredibly brave and strong. Thank you for texting the police. I think any information helps and who knows what will come from that in the future.
Melissa Antoinette Garza Thanks guys! <3 It just sucks that he died before going to prison. In the last 5 years before he died, it seemed like there was going to be some crackdown because he escaped to Florida and both the police and private investigators started contacting me and Geno (brother) for info but we didn't have much because we wrote him off. I know he burned down a woman's house that wouldn't leave it to him and he burned down my mom's first house and the family suspected him in killing one foster kid who ran away (Maggie) and ended up dead that night and we have our suspicions about Molly Bisch. If there's any DNA that they want to test, I'll be happy to offer mine because Gene was my bio father and if he did do it and left DNA, maybe they can tell by my DNA.
Melissa Antoinette Garza right now I'm just avoiding panic attacks with meds because if the police call back I need to maintain control and be calm and try to stay focused because if by chance my father did do this, I really want to try to do this the right way.
It seems counterproductive to keep saying Tammy was intentionally killed/murdered if there is zero evidence to support this claim. It leaves out the possibility of anything else being the cause of her death. We have someone saying they think their father could’ve killed her and that Tammy had visited this persons house sometime before her death and they even believe this father could’ve killed molly bish(maybe), there are stories of people being raped around that time in that very area(maybe), there are even claims of someone being shot at with an arrow(intriguing idea). Has anyone ever looked into the illegal hunting in that area? What if someone was out illegally hunting that night and shot her thinking it was a dear, someone with a bow wouldn’t make any noise. It’s even possible she could’ve been mortally wounded elsewhere and walked/crawled to the spot she was found without the person who shot her ever knowing who or what they hit. But since no one seems to want to ask that question, it can’t be proven or disproven.
ReplyDeleteHow can her sister be so sure that Tammy was scared to go out, how does she know she wasn’t suffering from some sort of medical issue? A brain aneurysm or someone suffering from abnormally high blood pressure wouldn’t present itself to a child who’s worried about her big sister sneaking out at night. It’s entirely possible that had her younger sister convinced Tammy to stay home, they could’ve woke to find she had passed away anyway.
If her diary is such an important piece of this 25 year old case, why is Tammy’s father hiding it from the world? Is there something in these pages that paints the family in a not so flattering light?
This all sounds like a huge 25 year guilt trip on the father and sisters part. They both feel they could’ve prevented this had they been able to see the future, now they want to place that guilt on someone else.
I guess there is no physical evidence to support the conclusion that she was murdered (at least none we know of--the police may not have released all their info to the media.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there were many deer in the area in 1994. I could be wrong. There were NO deer in Sixteen Acres when I left in 1986. There were plenty of deer there in the early 2000s. Was there much bow hunting (at night) there in 1994? Doubt it. The arrow would have been found with the body.
An aneurysm is a possibility. Anything is possible. But what needs the most attention in an investigation is what's probable. She had been threatened. She was afraid to go out; and when she did she ended up dead--found in a semi-secluded area where people illegally dump a lot of debris.
Unfortunately, police initially treated it as a runaway case. Had those woods been searched at the time they would have found her and evidence would not have been degraded/nonexistent.
And, um, the father and the sister just want the case to be solved. Sure, they go over the what-ifs. Wouldn't you?
I haven’t heard this in years. My girlfriend at the time this girl was found used to live on Grayson dr in those duplex’s by slater, We used to walk that path to get to her friends house at the top of the hill, There used to be a couple wooden bridges that crossed that stream, but you had to watch out cause some jerk would string wire across the trails, one time my friend tj got knocked out from being clotheslined by one of the wires . I used the bridge right across from Mary lynch school all the time, it was a straight shot right to her house. I lived on Kane st back then. When they found her no one seemed to make a big deal of it. We all threw caution to the wind and kept riding our bikes like maniacs and never looked for traffic when exiting the woods or crossing intersections eve. There used to be a path behind my girlfriends place that lead through the woods to Lloyd ave and we’d use that to head over to 5-mile to skinny dip, back then there was another path for methuen, it was a crazy steep hill with long boards over the nastiest stream you ever saw, it filled the swamp behind my gf’s apartment, we took this route to get to k-mart back when it was there. All of those trails look like they’re all gone now from google maps. With all these wild theories on her death, it sounds like she got hit by a drunk driver and they panicked and they moved her to the side of the road ASAP and took off. They might not even remember hitting her if they were totally s$&tfaced. If any kids that the time knew about this, it’d be just like that movie stand by me, kids would’ve gone to see the dead body to poke sticks at it, I know it sounds cruel, but kids aren’t the brightest,
ReplyDeleteHi folks,
ReplyDeleteApparently there is some buzz on this case because it's the 25-year anniversary, but also because there are some paranormal investigations involving a "spirit box" (using electronic voice phenomenon or EVP for short) to try to get answers from beyond this world. These include site visits to where they found Tammy's body on Fox Road, her old house, and her grave.
I am going to limit these references in the comments because, frankly, I don't take much stock in this kind of thing. I try to keep an open mind, but this case isn't going to be solved by voices from beyond.
I did get one lengthy comment that I'm not going to show in its entirety because of some inflammatory language, but there was one interesting tidbit. Take it for what it's worth:
"Hi (first name begins with R), there has been new information that has been brought to my attention. There is a place that you, your cousins and (first name begins with S) used to hang out at allot. It was a very well hidden place. It is what is known as the pit. This is where Tammy said she was going the night she disappeared, 25 years ago, a week from now. She was going to meet you there instead of at your parents home, which she did the week before. I have been told that Tammy did meet you at this pit and that is where she was killed. Her body was dragged out of the pit, up the bank to the spot behind the log where she was finally found in November. My plan is to contact the news media with all this info before I go to the DA'S office. The reason why, I have been told that you and your family still have strong connections in the police department and my efforts to get help would get me no where. So I will leave it up to the news media to do my digging."
It is about time that this case makes it to the light of day. There is a family that loved Tammy, and they have known each day since July 22, 1994 without her. It took that video of the spirit-box session to get people talking again.... Tammy deserves a voice, since hers was taken others have to speak up, and out about what happened. Someone knows where Tammy was going, and someone knows what happened. Accident, murder, whatever it was, the truth needs to be told. Someone does know the truth.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that’s what this case needs. Some inflammatory language
ReplyDeleteCrazy I just saw a anniversary video on YouTube about this. Way back in the day we saw detectives while riding our bikes in the woods and they warned us that they found a dead girl on the same path we were riding on and that we shouldn’t be riding there without an adult. Being easily excitable back then we asked what happened. They told us no one knows, all they found were bones and that animals had chewed on her remains. We always thought they were just trying to scare us. Scary to think she might have been stabbed or shot and animals chewed the evidence away.
ReplyDeleteHi Allison, I have been reading up on your sisters case. I read that no one has figured out who your sisters boyfriend was and the an "entry in her diary said she snuck out of the house around midnight a week before she died to meet a boy who lived east of Lamont Street along Boston Road." Not sure if this has tried this yet but I have an idea to maybe give some leads on the boyfriend. Has anyone crossed referenced the last names on property records for houses in the area where the boy "lived east of Lamont Street along Boston Road" against boys at her school or boys she hung out with? This definitely would be time consuming. I am happy to help if you need help going through property records. Just an idea to maybe look at things from a different angle.
ReplyDeleteAs for evidence, with all the scientific advancements in forensics, has your family considered having another autopsy done? I know they can cost a pretty penny but I definitely would be willing to donate or help raise funds to help your family get the answers you so deserve.
Hells acres, why don’t you do a follow up to this story? Those paranormal videos are terrible, I know they’re for entertainment but man they are ruff to watch. Even most of the comments in this blog seem like it’s all the lynds family and that paranormal guy going back and forth
ReplyDeleteI don’t know how I stumbled upon this blog but it brings back memories that I have growing up in the neighborhood behind Warner School mid 70’s -80’s. We never really hung around the other side of Parker Street ( neighborhoods bordering Parker and North Branch). I do remember the case of this girl back in the 90’s and always thought a connection could have been made to the Lisa Zegiert murderer. It is still possible even though he claims Zeigert was his only murder but I don’t believe it. In any event there is also the very real possibility that Tammy was involved in a hit and run . She was found very close to the road correct? BTW when she went missing how did the people searching for her throughout those woods miss her body? That seems odd in itself. I’m sorry to learn of all the rapes back then. I can only imagine what went unreported as well as all the pedo cases. I personally am a male and when I was a kid in my neighborhood I had an experience that I kept to myself and never told my parents . This would have been mid 70’s neighborhood behind Warner School. Wow,I just realized last comment on this was last year.
ReplyDeleteHello. I grew up on Lamont Street however, I was 5 years old in 1994. I remember my parents telling me that at least 3 child molesters lived on our street and that we could only ride our bikes back and forth to our neighbors mailboxes so our parents could always see us. This case has recently come into my mind for unexplained reasons. I was listening to a murder podcast and thought "What are the details of the girl who lived on my street and was found dead?" I wanted to know more. My brother and I would go for walks all the time with my dad around the neighborhood and whenever we passed Tammy's house, he would tell us her story. My recollection of the story was a little different than the details I've read about but I always remembered having a sinking feeling whenever I saw her house. I'd be damned if I ever tried to sneak out of my house. My parents drilled into me how incredibly dangerous the world around us was. Maybe because of this case? I can only imagine how my parents and the community felt along with the Lynds family that this case went unsolved. I believe very much this was a homicide. There is enough circumstantial evidence to support that. The accounts from her sister, she was nervous to go out, her diary writings. Not to mention it would be incredibly unlikely for an otherwise healthy 15 year old girl to have died from some unknown medical condition that decided to present itself during the exact time she snuck out at night? And planned to be back within a 3 hour window? I'm not buying that theory. It was either an accident, hit and run or foul play. I'm a true crime fan who works for law enforcement, although not an officer, and it pains me when I hear about how many officers treated such victims as runaways in years passed. If they truly searched these woods they would have found her sooner and would have gotten more evidence. BUT there is always the possibility that she did not die the day she disappeared either. If police did search that area thoroughly and she was not there perhaps something more sinister happened? Perhaps she could have been abducted, held for some time and then murdered and put where she was found? Who's to say? We really don't know. I really would love an opportunity to read her diary. I feel there has got to be something there. Weren't any of her friends questioned about who this boyfriend could have been? Allison said she saw 2 men behind a shed outside when her sister left the house. Did police question the occupants of that house? Could they have seen which direction she went? Might they have been involved in foul play? I just cannot believe that there appears to be practically no investigation. Was anyone other than the family even questioned? I also really feel that there needs to be another autopsy, a second opinion from a forensic anthropologist. Not the ME. I understand very much that there is much less information to be gained from skeletal remains than if she had been found prior to decomposition. However, there COULD be something. Sadly I know all too well that many police departments have mishandled evidence in years passed. The chain of custody was not maintained or was really even a thing. Officers would take evidence out and not return it. They would touch evidence without gloves on. Call it laziness or ignorance or whatever. It's a damn shame is what it is. I feel like all hope is not lost with this case though. Someone knows something.
ReplyDeleteI never heard Allison saw 2 men behind a shed. Where did you read this?
ReplyDeleteHi Hells Acres. I know of the men behind the shed because Allison posted a school writing assignment on a Facebook page dedicated to Tammy. It was written a few years after Tammy's death. She wrote about the details of that night except she changed the names of the people involved. According to her everything in the writing was her memory of what occurred except she changed the names. In that writing she mentions she saw 2 men hiding behind a shed when Tammy walked out the front door and wondered if Tammy saw them. Creepy.
ReplyDeleteMy bro jp used to get all tore up talking about this chick. He spoke about her a lot before he passed away last year. We all could tell this Tammy meant something special to him. Makes me feel better inside knowing he’s chilling with her now. They both were taken from us to soon.
ReplyDeleteHow did bj die if I may ask??
ReplyDeleteSorry I misspelled jp on accident
ReplyDeleteIt’s only a matter of time now and the Springfield police will announce will charges against another suspect who’s passed away.
ReplyDeleteHell’s Acres, you’ve been pretty quiet about this cold case. With all the excitement surrounding the Danny Croteau revelations, why haven’t you revisited this one?
ReplyDeleteI know this is kind of a strange question but it keeps coming up in my mind 35-40 years later but has anyone ever found or heard of anyone finding a strange contraption that looked like a gun but had a cone attached to it and if you squeezed the trigger that it would magnify sound VERY powerfully ? one of these was found outside of my bedroom window as a child and it has occurred to me that it could have been being used in an effort to scare or "silence" me about the abuse...? I grew up close to the 16 acres wilbraham border... just thought you never know... could be somehow helpful.... to something or someone.
ReplyDeleteThis is crazy, my mom just told me about a guy wearing a trench coat and flashing us around this same time period. We lived in colonial estates and were walking to my grandparents house on Moss rd. She said she didn’t think my brother and I saw him, but she got freaked out and we got to their house in record time.
ReplyDeleteRS!
ReplyDeleteI worked with Tammy’s mom Sue in East Longmeadow. Sue has always blamed Rick for Tammys death. Sue said Rick didn’t listen and had a smart mouth that always got him into trouble. She didn’t like the way that Rick had rubbed off on Tammy.
ReplyDeleteTammy wouldn’t have been so defiant if it wasn’t for him. Rick didn’t respect his elders and made things hard on Tammy’s parents
At least you didn’t say I was disrespectful, I have always asked a lot of questions, that got me rough up as a child. I learned to question authority at a young age, especially when adults saId things that don’t make any logical sense.
DeleteI can’t follow people blindly, I’m not a mindless drone. 🤣 🖖🏻
I don’t have any “bad” memories of the Lynds family. They’re all positive in one way or another.
One of the nights I had dinner at the Lynds house, I was graciously allowed to wash dishes afterwards and thankfully Mr Lynds was nice enough to explain to me that I was doing it all wrong and provided instructions on how to improve my technique. 🤣 Now that I’m an expert, I prefer to wash dishes myself, I might not put them away when they’re dry, I’ve also gotten quite skilled at stacking dishes, not just washing them. Why ruin a good thing?
It’s really strange, I hardly ever spent time alone with Tammy, other people were there with us and it would be nice to hear some positive stories added to these blogs. What did Tammy do for those 15 years of her life? She didn’t spend it all me.
I’m not sure if everyone is aware of this, our moms went to high school together and we all spent time together growing up, saw each other at church crap. I can’t even remember what year she left OLSH, we didn’t go to school together again after that. We met back up the winter of 92/93 while sledding at the hill by Mary Lynch school, when she was dating Joe.
ReplyDelete