The night Tammy Lynds disappeared, her family assumed she was sneaking out to meet her friend and sometimes lover Ricky, who lived nearby. There was another Ricky who she was intimate with, but he lived all the way in East Springfield.
And then there was David B., who she invited to the Central High School JROTC Military Ball in the spring of 1994. Both of them also attended the CHS picnic together at High Meadows in North Granby, CT. They were supposedly hot and heavy on the summer of 1994.
It’s difficult to figure out David, according to reports. One of Tammy’s friends described him as the ultimate loser. “All the kids in the neighborhood called him shit-face, butt-face, pimple-faced peewee, and puss-boy,” he said. They insisted that he smelled and never showered. “The poor guy had the worst ache out of all of the kids around here. His face was always red with white-heads, his lips would look swollen at times, and his hair and face were greasy. Looking at recent photos of him, he said, “I feel like you can still see the pain and insecurity in his eyes. Tammy talked about how David was so desperate for people to like him, that he would do whatever people told him to do, and how he had no confidence. I can’t recall what he got caught doing, but some had asked him to shoplift or something like that.”
Tammy’s friend didn’t see David around much, but when he was in the neighborhood, he was a persona non grata. “Everyone talked tons of shit about him when he was around,” said, confessing that he didn’t know where he lived or who he normally hung around with, and he didn’t care.
“I also had bad acne and greasy skin back in 1994, so I wasn’t one to pick on someone about terrible skin,” he said. “But others weren’t as understanding. So he was never welcomed into the group of kids I hung out with. You could say he was shunned.”
Incredibly, however, David was able to get it together and make a quick transformation—a least among his peers at Central High School. Sindy Pabon, one of Tammy’s Central friends, described him as “friendly, jokey, and popular with the ladies.” Another friend said Tammy and David would get together for the occasional quickie in the closed and darkened school auditorium. She was head-over-heels for David. “I’m going to have his baby,” wrote Tammy in her diary on March 22, 1994, after she insisted in a previous entry that another boy used her just for sex. It's unknown if she was really pregnant or if that was simply her desire. “It sounds crazy, but I truly love him, or am I making another mistake?”
In 2019, Tammy’s father, Richard, revealed that it was his understanding that Tammy was “playing a game” between two boys named Ricky and David at the time of her disappearance. Richard was acquainted with both, having one of the two “Rickys” she was seeing over for dinner, and driving David back to his home on a side street off Parker Street once.
But what no one knew, except a 12-year-old girlfriend of Tammy's, was that Tammy claimed one of her “boyfriends” used to beat her. The girl is the daughter of a former co-worker of Tammy’s mother Susan, and their family every so often went over to the Lynds to socialize, and the kids played hide-and-seek. The girl looked up to Tammy as an older-sister figure, and had slept over the Lynds house in the past.
On July 21, 1994, the night Tammy went missing, the 12-year-old girl (who we’ll call Jill), her two brothers, and her mother visited the Lynds. The kids played hide-and-seek and Richard ordered pizza from Tony’s Pizza on Boston Road. Jill’s oldest brother, a year older than Tammy, insists that Richard and Susan were extremely drunk that evening—a claim that Richard disputes.
Regardless, Jill’s oldest brother reports that his sister said that Tammy that night told her that “she was abused by her boyfriend. When Tammy would be late, he would hit her.” Tammy also feared that night that things would not go well if she didn’t meet him on time. “The last thing Tammy said to my sister was that she would be late, and her boyfriend was going to act out,” he said. Tammy was wearing an all-black outfit that day. “Tammy always wore black when we played hide-and-seek,” he said. “It was easier to hide in all black.”
When Tammy was found as a skeleton on November 4, 1994, she was wearing jeans, not black pants. Susan reported to police that her daughter was wearing all black, but maybe she didn’t notice if Tammy had changed.
Jill didn’t know the boyfriend’s name, but “it was someone she started seeing at school in the ROTC program,” said her brother.
In 1994, Jill gave police all this information. But, as readers of this blog know, the case file was lost.
David was not in the ROTC, but he did attend the ROTC ball with her—maybe this is what a 12-year-old’s understanding (and a hazy 29-year-old memory) of what Tammy had said, especially if she was upset and crying. It’s hard to tell. It’s also difficult to determine who Tammy’s “boyfriend” was in July of 1994, because she was supposedly seeing several guys that year.
According to the Jill’s oldest brother, Tammy wanted to spend the night with his family, but this was not possible because they were staying with his aunt while their house was getting readied for them to move in, and the aunt did not allow guests. His mother called, and the aunt said no way. He said Tammy and her mother were fighting that night and Tammy stormed off the Lynds’ property around 5:30 p.m., right when the visitors left, heading south on Lamont Street, which is toward the old woods where teens gathered, but also in the direction where a couple of friends lived on Lamont. She eventually did come home, before venturing out at midnight to a meeting with someone her sister Allison said she was dreading. Who was she meeting? One of Tammy’s friends said she would always talk about a David or a Ricky. Nearly three decades later, in looking at Tammy’s lovers, I guess it helps to look at the diary pages available—I’ve been criticized for not publishing ALL of them, so here we go, all 32 pages:
The first entries from 1992 are about problems with her mother, which she updates in 1994:
A couple of entries from 1992 reveal her interest in a boy at her bus stop, and the second one shows Tammy’s habit of revisiting entries to update them. In the October 20, 1992 entry below, she apparently updated it on March 3, 1994 to opine that “he was a bastard, and nothing else.”
Susan puzzled over what T.E.E.L. meant below, but it likely stands for a well-known paragraph structure method from an essay-writing guide she learned in school: Topic sentence, Explain, Evidence, Link:
Then she believes she’s pregnant with J’s child:
In the August 9, 1993 entry she described a guy who asked her out, but she had a boyfriend. The second half of the page, along with the next page, is written in larger writing, as if she revisited the page later:
Some people have commented that the two similar—yet slightly different styles of handwriting—in the diary suggest that it’s a forgery. I’m no handwriting expert: what do YOU think?
In the following entry, from March 3, 1994, she wants to ask someone to the ROTC dance. Is it David, who was eventually her date for this event? Or is it Rick?
On March 3, 1994, she wonders at the prospect of having sex with a boy named Rick, but apparently revisits the page and writes that it was special for her “but a boy thing for him.”
On March 7, 1994, in a computer printout, she gets pretty graphic about fooling around with someone—is it the same guy?
On March 22 she seems satisfied with a lover, but then there is a months-long gap, after which on June 14, 1994, she writes that the boy never cared about her. However, she met David, with whom she is smitten. She loves him but doesn’t “know if it will last, he (will) probably get mad at me so much that he won’t want me around him no more.”
On June 14 again she believes she’s pregnant:
In another departure, she writes a diary entry in a spiral notebook on July 15, 1994—her last one, a week before she disappeared—in which she snuck out, went over her “boyfriend’s” house, and was “making love.” Was this David or someone else? At one point that summer she did tell David she was pregnant, but according to one of David’s relatives, she didn’t say (and probably didn’t know) how who the father was.
The diary entries lack description of the physical battles Tammy and her mother used to get into—fights that others recall—and there is no mention of physical abuse suffered at the hands of a boyfriend. Maybe she didn’t share EVERYTHING in her diary, knowing that her mother snooped in it, and there is also talk of another lock-and-key diary that hasn’t been accounted for. Was the “lost diary” more graphic?
Tammy’s choice in lovers and boyfriends has long been the subject of scrutiny within the family since her death. At the time, like any parent, they didn’t want to get in her way, unless there were some obvious red flags. In retrospect, Richard wishes he had taken more notice of them.
To wit, one night in early 1994, Richard was asked by a neighborhood father to retrieve his mentally-challenged daughter from the house of one of Tammy’s ex-boyfriends, fearing she was intoxicated and being taken advantage of. Why the father didn’t do this himself is unknown, but when Richard went to the house, he looked in the basement window and saw the ex-boyfriend and his brother having sex with the girl on a mattress. Well, actually, it was the ex-boyfriend’s brother banging away at her, with the ex-boyfriend standing there, watching and naked, ready for his turn—if he hadn’t had it already.
Richard knocked on the door. “When I called her name, she came to the door naked and not walking straight,” he said. “I told her to go find her clothes, and that I’m bringing her home. I told the two boys to stay right there at the door with me. They did. I never entered their house. She came out, and I walked her home. She kept saying, ‘Please don't tell anyone what you saw.’ All she could do was laugh and say she was sorry. She was very drunk.”
Tammy's boyfriends and other casual sex partners: did any of them play a role in her death? “I didn’t really get to know these boys,” said Richard. Even when they came over to visit, how much can you learn from someone who is obviously on his best behavior? But as we’re learning from Tammy’s diary entries and personal accounts, one (or more) of them used her just for sex, one was a rapist, and one was possibly a batterer.
Was one of them a murderer?
32 comments:
Why didn’t you add the diary pictures from blog 9?
She did write she got in trouble for thinking she was pregnant and taking a test downtown. This was dated 1993.
Why didn’t her father take an interest in her life after that first pregnancy?
Why did all the other questions in these blogs get ignored by the family?
The pregnancy test essay was a school assignment.
Yes, but the diary entry in this blog 12 is dated 8-9-93 and it talks about pregnancy, the school assignment is dated 9-16-93. These are real life events she’s writing about. She’s trying to tell people what’s going on in her life.
What other assignments do you have?
Any other stories based off of real life events?
I think all these people that are coming out now are looking for their 5 minutea of fame..where we're you when this first happened you wait almost 30 years to say something.
The 12-year old girl did tell police 29 years ago. Believe me, it wasn’t easy for her to discuss this again. She was anguished by this and not looking for attention.
Why write all these blogs and talk around all these questions at the same time? You have what’s left of Tammys side of her story, we all think her father is lying. That leaves you sixty percent of her story to verify. I would want my family to talk about me after I die, I wouldn’t want people to pretend I didn’t exist. Some people made a real mess of this.
This doesn’t explain anything. Tammy and J. had a rough relationship. Her parents knew all about this and they forbid her from sleeping with him after that pregnancy scare, they said find a guy who pulls out. I’m positive that is what this lady is remembering.
I know no one will respond, yet I’m still going to say that this story about Richard witnessing Tammys ex and his brother raping a mentally challenged girl is completely and utter trash.
This event never took place, why not add that Richard saved some puppies and kittens from a dumpster fire on their way home, really try to force readers to like this guy.
People start speaking out against this guy and they receive gifts on their front steps, then you don’t hear from them in over a week.
What’s going on here?
What about the two dairy entries above that assignment photo in blog 9?
It would seem we also need help from someone who will listen and answer our questions.
What time did Tammy walk out the door?
It’s peculiar that Tammy never mentions any negative comments about any boys or her father in any of these dairy entries. She doesn’t vent about any normal issues kids her age should have. It does seem like we have only been given a select few pages from this diary, hoping to lead us in a certain direction or away from some suspects?
This is a total shit show. WTF
You’re right—I missed those 2 pages. Just added them.
This does make things a lot easier to follow, trying to make sense of all this has been a 29 year project. Thanks for correcting that and adding those pics. We appreciate how much work you have put into all of this and understand how overwhelming it all is.
Are there any other school assignments or writings that might have more meaning than people previously thought?
Interesting that you yourself post a story from Richard about a drunk mentally challenged girl having sex with Tammy’s ex, saying it like it’s a fact, yet you don’t allow our comment simple postulating that Richard may have killed his own daughter by accident or anger. 🤔 helping shut down the conversation?
He killed her because summer school cost too much? Give me a break.
That along with dozens of other reasons her parents could’ve been and probably were pissed off at her that summer.
1.maybe Tammy cost her parents a nonrefundable vacation that summer?
2. summer school did cost something.
3. The Lynds were doing renovations, summer school dollars took away from that.
4. Tammy was getting into fights with her mom.
5. Tammy was getting tonight fights with people at school.
6.Tammys parents were part of legal proceedings because of these fights.
7. Tammy knew about her moms cheating, probably knew about her dads issues as well.
8. No one believes Tammy trusted Allison with any pinky swear promise.
Allison was a spoiled little snitch, she always ratted everyone out.
A missed vacation caused a murder. OK.
Questionable motives; no proof A grand jury would laugh..
These are all reasons that Tammy would want to run away. Every aspect of her life was total garbage. School, family, personal. Children often emulate their parents. Tammy ran her mouth like her parents, slept around like her parents.
Where is the proof that the father slept around? That hasn’t even been floated as a possibility until you state it like it’s a fact. That’s why I don’t publish some of the comments. Anyone can say anything. But when it comes to backing it up…nope.
We also pointed out how the father knew about this previous abuse and still tried to intimidate people in this case for no reason. Name one time he put in any real effort, actually tried to solve his daughters case.
He gave me the binder contents—I didn’t have to ask for them. He responds to my questions every time. You don’t think he wants this solved?
So explain his behavior, a couple guys speak out against him and he stops helping? How many kids say they have shitty parents? No one cares that he was a butthead. The family won’t even give anyone an accurate description of what really happened that Thursday night. He’s only telling you things that lead you away from the truth, this is why law enforcement and news agencies gave up.
Post that comment, let Richard explain why he confronted Ricky at mingles. He knew J was the past abusing boyfriend, her diary clearly said David was the babies daddy. Wtf was he doing at that karaoke bar 15 years later? Ricky never mentioned Richard singing.
All these guys that have gone silent were all suspects. Should police do wellness checks, just to make sure no died from a heart attack after reading this stuff?
Sorry, I was taking a wellness break from the comments on the golf course. Even golfing the last two holes in the dark made more sense than reading some of this stuff.
Hey Hell's - glad to read your last response about some of the stuff you've been getting as comments to your blog. It's been a tough read because of the loss of someone's life and the silence around it but then the comments you get about this case make it even more so.
From one person sending dozens of comments over the many posts containing nothing but question after question that they almost demand to be answered to other readers stating that you need to exhume a body or contact the DA or publish unsubstantiated claims, etc..
It has really taken the focus off the case. This was a tragic occurrence. Some commenters have participated positively in an effort to start discussion/trigger memories/create a space where those who may be fearful can open up.
Others are just posting in a ridiculous manner as mentioned above. One or two commentators have described all this as a mess. Another recent comment describes a shit show. My humble opinion is for these commentators to check themselves. Don't create the mess. Don't create the shit show.
Keep on doing the good work, Hell's - hope you have the patience to suffer the fools.
Parker House
Shame on you for lying Hell’s Acres. 🤣 R and L have spread a lot of different stories around, though they are not big on details.
We would also like to announce that we are so glad they “respond” to your questions. 🙄 We are all ready and excited for more of their blathering blatherskite. 💩
Summer school didn’t cost shit in public school . Maybe $50 or for a bus pass if that it was public . Incorrect it was not gonna stop renovations try again
What a bunch of railroading crap ! But why say it ? What’s your motive for all of the going hard for the parents crap? Who didn’t have dysfunction at home ? It doesn’t make ‘em murderers !!!! Richard wouldn’t turn over his own evidence and all
Of his info after the cops “lost it “. A murderer doesn’t want their spot blown up! Stop the stupidity .
Let me guess, it’s stupid cause it’s true.
Often times killers crave attention.
Use some common sense next time.
I don’t think that notebook diary entry is Tammy’s hand writing. I’m no expert, so I think it’s worth having someone with some knowledge of handwriting analysis take a look one day.
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