“So, why did you kill Tammy?”
“You guys would know,” he
answered. “You were there when I did it.”
The party went silent.
“What the hell?” someone said. “Did you hear that? That dude just…”
“Ssshhhh! He’s admitting
it!”
“Go on, tell them what we
did,” continued Ricky. “Come on, you were there.”
No, YOU tell US, Ricky,”
said his cousin with a smile.
There was some more
back-and-forth until Ricky’s cousins realized it was getting out of hand and
they stopped. One girl was getting angry and another was practically in
tears.
Jesus, you’re wasted,”
said his other cousin. “OK, that’s enough.”
A couple of big guys got
in Ricky’s face. “Can we talk to you outside?” said one of them. “No” was not
an option as they pulled him past his cousins and out the door.
“What the fuck is wrong
with you?” asked one of them as he tightened his grip on Ricky’s sleeve. The
other chimed in: “What are you thinking with that shit?”
Ricky, who was 20, had
become painfully accustomed to his cousins constantly joking about him
supposedly killing Tammy Lynds when he was 15, but now he looks back on that party as time he had
finally fought back by giving them a taste of their own medicine. “This was the
first time I got drunk and first—and last—time I drank peppermint Schnapps,” he
recalled. “I started crying like baby and told the two guys about my cousins
picking on me about Tammy’s murder for years—saying that I got her pregnant and
killed her.”
The big dudes forgave him
and they shared a three-way bro-hug. “Never being drunk before or having the
courage to talk shit back to my cousins was a new experience,” said Ricky. ”We
walked back to the house and these guys went off on my cousins. They kept my
cousins away from me for the rest of the party and wouldn’t let us drive home.
We ended up sleeping there. It was an awkward ride home.”
Ricky’s way of sticking up
for himself did have some consequences: a family meeting held shortly afterward
that was nothing short of a shit storm. “That is when my cousins stopped joking
about this—they stopped saying that I killed Tammy, who was my best friend,” he
said. On one hand, the ribbing stopped—on the other, the incident caused a
permanent rift in the family. To this day, he’s not on speaking terms with
those cousins. And anyone within earshot of Ricky’s drunken backtalk no doubt
told their friends what they had heard him say, so the murder myth continued.
Part of what made Ricky a
prime suspect shortly after Tammy’s death was the Lynds family’s belief that he
was her main boyfriend, so the police focused on her last diary entry, a week
before her death, in which she snuck out of house at midnight, just like the
night she vanished, but on this evening/early morning she went to her “boyfriend’s” house, where
they fooled around on his bed:
Ricky thinks that the
police narrative was that he had gotten together with Tammy by sneaking out at
night, even though every time he was intimate with her it was during the
daytime, when her parents weren't home.
“The detectives made me
say that she snuck out one night and knocked on my window,” said Ricky. “I
think the detectives had to come up with a way for Tammy to get my
attention—she couldn’t call that late, and I didn’t have a beeper.”
Ricky’s bedroom was in his
basement and he insisted that what the detectives coaxed him into saying was
implausible. “The cellar windows were those old-style, single-pane, metal frame
type, with metal flaps on each side to lock and unlock them,” he said. “They
were hard to open and close, and they were loud when you did. So when police
pushed me to agree that she woke me up by knocking on the window and inviting
me out into the middle of the night—I thought it was totally absurd, especially
considering my parents’ room was right above mine. There were no finished
ceilings or sound barrier—it was a regular basement ceiling.”
Ricky had told police that he and Tammy had sex a few times in the spring and summer of 1994, “but they forced me
to change my story,” he said. “They coerced me to say she knocked on my window,
and they wanted me to say that she asked me to come out with her or she wanted
me to invite her inside, but I didn’t agree to either in this fake story.”
In fact, Tammy had another
boyfriend, named David, and she had been intimate with several boys. Police
ruled out Ricky as a suspect in late November of 1994, but neighborhood rumors
of his involvement persist to this day. “As much as it bothers me to hear it,
I’d be stupid to think I’m not going to hear it a lot more, especially now that
I have started talking about her case,” he said.
To be sure, Tammy’s murder had a profound ripple effect on all her family and friends. It
is unfortunate, however, that much of what is lacking in the usual media coverage
on an unsolved killing is the aftereffects of the homicide—how the tragedy
ravages other lives.
Sindy Pabon was one of the
last friends to speak with Tammy—they talked on the phone around 1:00 p.m. or
2:00 p.m. on July 21, 1994, the last day she was seen alive, and Tammy “sounded
sad.” After she went missing, “her mom mentioned about her possibly being
pregnant when she asked me if I knew where she was. My heart was breaking
seeing her family in pain, worried, and afraid.” And then, on November 11,
1994, the skeletal remains that were found off Fox Road in Springfield a week
earlier were identified as Tammy’s. “I was devastated,” said Pabon. “My mom
came into the room when she heard me scream after I saw the news on TV. My
boyfriend at the time was also very upset—they were in the Air Force ROTC
together.”
Pabon remembers Tammy as “really
smart, super sweet, and caring. She had a great sense of humor and loved to
laugh and wasn’t afraid to be silly. I always thought of her as a very genuine
person and a peacemaker. She was a sweetheart. I truly hope this mystery will
get solved so her family can finally have much-needed closure and peace.”
Jennifer Eger, in her 1997
Central High School yearbook, wrote that Tammy “was always there for me. She
recalled that Tammy loved music and “loved dance. It was her favorite thing to
do. When I was around Tammy, if I was in a bad mood or not, she had something
nice to say to me to put a smile on my face. She would always let people live
their lives the way they wanted to, but she would always help someone through
things if they were bad…Do you know how people say you never realize what you
have until it is gone? That is so true. After the funeral, many people were
questioned. I was also. When I talked to police, they told me how they found a
lot of notes written by me sent to her, or copies of letters she had written to
me. During all the time I knew Tammy I never realized how much we had talked to
one another. Every day now, I wish for her to come back because she was one of
a kind, and I don’t have anyone else like her.”
For the Lynds family, the
murder was like an atomic bomb, and the fallout continues. Richard and Susan’s
marriage had been rocky in the years before the slaying, but the grief and stress opened fissures in those rocks, things got worse,
and when their children, Allison and Josh, became adults and moved out on their
own, the couple divorced in 2006. Richard has cardiac problems that he attributes to
aging, but it’s obvious his daughter’s murder has taken a toll on his heart—and
his family. At present, the surviving members do not discuss the murder with
one another.
Richard, who had been
looking for answers since his daughter’s murder, approached a District Court
judge in 1995 to ask if anything could be done, “and I was told not to do
anything—do not do anything to upset the police, because I would not like the
outcome,” he said. “That was the main reason why for years I was afraid to do
anything. But in 2013, I finally decided to contact the DA’s Office.”
For a while, Richard had
also been considered a prime suspect because three polygraphs he took were
inconclusive, and his wife didn’t provide an alibi for him the night Tammy went
missing because she didn’t verify that he was home. He said that he was
watching TV and had fallen asleep in a living room chair, only to be nudged by
Tammy and told to go to bed.
Richard said the DA’s
office told him in 2013 he was no longer a suspect, so for the next decade, he has
refused to keep quiet about the cold case. It is ironic that he and Ricky, once
the prime suspects, are now the most vocal advocates in trying to solve Tammy’s
murder.
Tammy’s sister Allison, in an interview with
videographer Lou Rock, discussed the torment she’s had to endure
because she assured her sister that she wouldn’t tell anyone she was sneaking
out of the house at midnight. “I was the last person who saw her, and for years
I blamed myself for her death,” she said. “It eats away at me.” Asked by Rock
what message she would have for whoever is responsible for her death, she
replied, “You didn’t just take her life. You took mine.”
39 comments:
The cross shown at the beginning of this, I made and put in place at the spot where Tammy was buried, during the winter of 1994/1995. We still have it today.
There are some huge gaps in these dairy entires you’ve shared with us. Can you share what these other dares were? These obviously weren’t sexual in nature, they skipped the dares and made love instead . Sneaking out was a dare, but she writes it down as though the person inviting her over uses the dare as a second option, because she couldn’t come over at 8.
Did Tammy ask to go over anyone’s house that evening, but was refused because of her summer school? Is that why she was dared out at a time after this person may have thought her parents were in bed?
Did any off duty police officers also work as bar security at any of those bars back then?
This diary entry is a month after her previous pregnancy entry and there’s no mention of that even being a thing in these two pages.
Are you building us up to a big reveal?
What do the next 6 days leading up to her disappearance say in her diary?
Was 8pm-2am a normal bar shift back then? Do any other jobs fit that description?
Tammy writes “then after we had our time together without anyone telling us we had to stop” as though there was no fear of getting caught.
She wrote about sneaking into his room in the dare, but he just let her in once she arrived and she didn’t have to sneak around or out of his house after? Very puzzling
Did Tammy normally get up at 7am for summer school? How were her grades in the classes she was taking? Was she skipping?
What is this Dare game, if it isn’t sexual in nature?
Do other diary entries say what this guy wanted to dare her to do first, before daring her to sneak out at night? It seems like he wanted to get her to do something, but Tammy redirected him.
Are there any dairy entires that appear as teasers? Like- You’re not gonna believe what I tell you tomorrow diary, type entires?
How did this dare occur? It says at 8pm this guy asked her to come to his place.
Were they hanging out at Tammy’s house or did he stop by and she wasn’t allowed to leave when he asked her to sneak over?
Did Tammy ever ask her parents if she could go out on a summer school night?
Did she just tell this guy her parents would never allow it, so she never bothered to asked?
Great article
This all sounds heartbreaking. Endless jokes all because her case wasn’t solved. It just so happens that O.J. Simpson was falsely accused of murdering his wife around this exact same time in 1994. That case also became a shit show.
This is the final diary entry that I know of.
What about previous diary entries? Are those anymore helpful?
Did Tammy write about her troubles?
Did she speak of other friends?
If anything, Tammy seems very happy and excited. Not sad like her friend described.
Do you have any other examples of Dares in her diary? What did Tammy’s friends say about these Dares?
Where is the rest of the audio you all talked about?
Why doesn’t Lou or Allison chime in on all this?
Have any of Tammy’s other friends explained why they would rather let two previous suspects have all the say?
None of Tammy’s so called “Friends” bother to like or share these blog posts. What’s up with that?
Why does the family refuse to come together to give us an accurate time line?
They obviously weren’t all in the same room doing the same thing. What were their last interactions with Tammy like?
Thankfully the family thought ahead and copied all the pages in her diary. It seems pretty sparse unfortunately.
What’s up with the lack of answers around here? Who’s in charge?
I’m still waiting to know if police found missing posters with her body? No one was caught pulling down those missing posters. You guys claim it’s a known dumping area.
No one has ever taunted you or police with a real scenario of how Tammy died?
Did the police ask any other kids to make up stories?
Has anyone else come forward and admitted to talking to Tammy in the days leading up or the day she went missing?
What about the phone records? Is anyone looking into getting copies of those?
Do you have better copies of this stuff yourself? What does the rest of the crossed out sentence say?
You can see it says “ one of his dares….” I
can’t make out the rest. It’s crossed off and possibly misspelled.
It really is to bad Tammy didn’t have a friend to share these adventures with at any point before she went missing. She didn’t mention this guy telling her she needed to keep all of this a secret.
Was the stress of summer school to much for Tammy and most of her friends ditched her?
You ask a lot of good questions, and if I had answers for them all the investigation would be a lot further along. But here we are.
In her diary, she wrote about disagreements with her mother, Susan. I haven’t read about any more “dares.” You might find it interesting to know that she kept another diary, which was under lock and key, a book that her mother took from her, and no one has seen this diary other than Susan, as far as we know.
Why isn’t anyone stepping up to help you answer some of these questions?
You guys are crazy. So what? Kids always have “disagreements” with their parents. Don’t tell us her Dad thought her failing classes and needing summer school was super fantastic.
Maybe Tammy just said some mean things in her other dairy and her mom was trying to protect their image. A dairy is for venting. No one ever said those thoughts had to be pleasant.
Perhaps we’ve been wording things wrong. You guys must have a process. Obviously you Hell’s Acres don’t have the answers to any of these questions, or they would hopefully be in the story.
Who do you turn to for these answers?
Are you actually working on getting those phone records? Is it possible?
If no one is responding to these questions(about Tammy), who is capable of answering with facts, how are you ever going to solve this case?
I am going to call your bluff. Would please share a picture of any disagreement in her diary. Where is this proof of this mysterious second diary? When did her mother supposedly take this second diary away from her? Without evidence to back all this up, it just sounds like a lame move to redirect your readers.
The disagreement with her mother pages will be in my next post.
Hey Hells, love the blog.
I binged this collection over the weekend. I just went back and did a word search for "suicide". Has anybody raised the question that this was a suicide? Sitting on or near that big log, middle of the night, possibly high or drunk. Could it be that Tammy cut her own wrists? The knife beneath her after several months. Just wondering if anybody had considered that. Keep fighting the good fight!
This past weekend I took a walk down in that area of woods on Fox rd, there’s still a little path by a telephone pole to enter. I was surprised at how open the woods were, it wasn’t a scary dense forest as I imagined. I couldn’t find that autobot spray paint, perhaps it finally washed away? All the thick brush seems to be closer to the side of the road. Even that pit area across the road, seems to give anyone standing around a good 360 degrees view. There’s no fire pits close to these areas, so people partying would’ve used lanterns, candles or flashlights. Did kids set up screen tents in the woods back in the mid 90’s?
Did Tammy ever write about kids partying in the woods? Even if she didn’t attend, she could’ve been jealous and wished to be included.
You can tell that pit area was once considerably deeper, why hasn’t anyone excavated down to the original floor level?
I must admit the idea of clearing that area is quite daunting, but it has been 29 years. Does anyone have a screen sifter and a strong back?
How do the street lights work in that area? Did they have sensors back then? Or were they on timers? It’s pretty creepy when street lights just shut off on you while you’re walking up the road.
What happened to that baby doll that was hanging from the bushes on Fox rd? It was there all summer 2022z It was in the spot they found Tammy’s body. Has anyone ever looked to see if someone decided to toss anything else in that area? Something to taunt investigators
That is a very dangerous area. A vergance of negative energy resides along those paths. Natives called this area The Point, because there is an energy vortex of paranormal activity in the center of Fox rd. Settlers just added Pine because of some trees.
How can you post all this stuff without any quotes from the mother or brother? What if they dispute events? Tammy posted her mother and sister were up the first time she snuck out, obviously her sister saw her and spoke with her, if she’s telling the truth, what did Tammy say to her brother that evening? Why was the father a suspect, if the younger daughter could give him an alibi? Wouldn’t the mother have been a suspect? You make it out like she was no where to be seen during these events. Were the mother and brother together?
Did anyone ever ask if Tammy played that pass-out game? You put you head between your legs, breathing in and out deeply 10 times, then stand up really fast and squeeze your neck with both hands. You’ll wake up on the floor, sometimes people convulse. I know we played it in the early 90’s. We would even do it off of people decks and fall into their pools. Waking up under water is very startling.
Dude I totally forgot about the pass-out game. I wonder how stuff like that spread around back then, we didn’t have the internet. It’s like that folded paper game, kids just passing info all over the country, trying out dumb stuff. We used to catch each other before hitting the ground, we’d choke ourselves or friends out in front of other people too. It was pretty funny to hear the panic in the girls voices when you woke up. I’m pretty sure we missed a few people and they ended up some pretty nice lumps on their skulls.
Sounds like everyone is protecting the murderer with all this silence. They’re probably grateful for the lack of exposure.
What if it’s like that movie, “I know what you did last summer”. Tammy was partying with a bunch of people in the middle of the woods, then somebody killed her, when no one was looking. Everyone panicked when they saw her lifeless body, unsure of who was responsible, they all decided they would rather take a chance just dumping her body on the side of the road, than expose what they were doing and made a pact to never speak of Tammy again.
How totally out of this world would it be, if the murderer has been writing within these anonymous comments or just reading them and waiting to respond when someone guesses correctly. Who the hell put that doll there? Was if the killer is taunting all of you? What if it wasn’t a joke, but a clue? They could’ve tossed more evidence into the bushes. Could someone have removed the autobot spray paint? It is a good guy name. Who is going down to check for readers?
What a heart breaking summer, I recall Tammy being upset when Kurt Cobain, John Candy, then Chris Latta died all in 1994. There was a boy who used to joke around about wanting to kill himself in school. Other kids recommended that he do it during lunch, for maximum emotional damage. Thankfully he never did it and was hopefully joking. I never stopped to wonder if that dude was serious. It’s disturbing to think that could have happened while school was in session back 93-94. It’s nothing to kids these days.
I never understood how people got all bent out of shape when Kurt Cobain died. The same guys that took his death hard back then, are still totally obsessed with him today. It was a huge deal at the time. Didn’t MTV play it live? Then police entered and found he committed suicide.
That Nancy Kerrigan assault also happened that year. It turned into a huge joke, I know I’ve seen some comedies referencing it. Did Tammy ever go skating? Maybe a jealous girl attacked her in the middle of the night over some boy? Unfortunately people like to emulate others. The missing knee cap could also be a sign of an assault. Along with the fact her body was found literally on the side of the road. A grown man or a strong teenage boy should let have had any trouble moving her to a more discreet location. It’s almost as if it was a last minute thought to dump her behind that row of logs.
If this wasn’t some random act, I’d be curious to know who was watching while police collected evidence and removed her remains.
What about Tammy’s friends back then?
Was anyone overly helpful with information?
VHS recorders were very popular at this time, did anyone happen to record police working the crime scene?
You present a very odd timeline. This girl T started dating D somewhere around the beginning of June 94 and was trying to get pregnant. The diary pages from blog 5 confirm that. A month and a day later, T writes about sneaking out over her boyfriends house. But never uses a name. Are there any diary pages between 6-14 and 7-15?
Did any of Tammy’s friends keep their own diaries back then? Maybe they wrote about some event or thoughts around these dates 29 years ago, anything that could help point you in the right direction.
How did Tammy’s boyfriend feel about her pregnancy? Was he as excited as she was? Teen pregnancy wasn’t a regular thing like it is today. Once her parents read those diary entries, were they planning on letting her keep the baby? Up until November they wouldn’t have had a reason to believe she wasn’t coming home, they would have been expecting her to arrive with a baby bump.
If Tammy knew her mother was reading her dairy at any point before she took it from her , these stories could all be made up, just to piss her mother off. Was she really trying to get pregnant or just writing it? Tammy would know her mother would be forced to admit she learned this from the diary, especially if Tammy told her it was all bullshit and she only wrote it to catch someone snooping and that she didn’t tell anyone else. Mother and Daughters have been known to have altercations just as much as Fathers and Sons. From the comments of the few friends who replied, no one talked about any pregnancy stuff in the month leading up to her disappearance, it was only revealed in these writings as less than a rumor, but not quite a fact. I wonder if anyone would’ve ever mentioned pregnancy, if police officers weren’t asking questions about it. This family seems to be tight lipped about personal affairs.
I have a gut feeling that this theory of fake dairy stories to piss mom off is right on the money. The story about sneaking out is in a notebook, totally different than the dairy she was using a month before. I also just noticed that the bottoms of some of those original dairy pages are cut off. What information was written there? You can tell by the inspirational quotes on the pages not cut off.
That sneaking out story really seems like it’s designed to piss someone off.
I snuck past you and my sister the other night and even a few bars, my boyfriend was amazing and no one was around to tell us to stop. This sounds like the kinda thing a kid writes, when their parents are having issues. Ha ha look at me, I’m getting laid and dads on the couch.
If this is true, then no one really has any idea what Tammy was up to. Have any credible friends come forward with true life stories about this girls final weeks/days? So far from your comments, you have one person who claims they never heard any pregnancy stories.
Have you heard anything from anyone that fits this scenario?
Why don’t they strap that cross to a tree in the area Tammy was found? draw attention to the case now that her dad has passed away.
Wonder if anyone will thank people for their silence?
Years later and none of these questions have been answered. Wow
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