On July 21, 2024 we will mark the 30th anniversary of the murder of Tammy Lynds, so I thought it would be an opportune moment to develop a timeline of that date exactly three decades ago, as well as developments that took place shortly thereafter.
Needless to say, timelines are important—essential, actually. In cold cases, as years go by, different interpretations can mold facts in different ways. Everyone has their own versions of events, but verifying timelines can disentangle myth from fact.
By reconstructing the last night Tammy was seen, July 21, 1994, we know that she snuck out shortly after midnight, according to her sister, Allison, and planned to return about 3:00 a.m. She didn’t come back. No disputing that.
Fortunately, we have an account from her friend, Will (not his real name), of her whereabouts a few hours before she left her home. We have recently discovered that she was at his house, down Tammy’s street, Lamont Street, earlier in the evening. Will said Tammy was there until about 7:00 p.m., when he walked her back home. “She was grounded, but she was only allowed here [his house] because she was like family,” said Will. “I guess she was grounded HERE. We were having a little get-together.”
“How did you feel about Tammy?” he was asked. “Were you in love with her?”
“Yes,” he answered. “I cared about her a lot.”
“Have you ever told anybody about this?”
“No.”
“Had you ever told her?”
“Yes.”
Indeed, Will let Tammy know that night that he was romantically interested in her. “I also knew that she had other guys, and I told her if were to work on a relationship, she needs to break it off with the other guys and be serious with me.”
However, this was left unresolved. The talk turned to the subject of their friends, Jay Francis and Owen (not his real name). “They were both planning to have sex with her, but Jay also had another plan because—there were times I hung out with them where I overheard them talking, especially with [name redacted], how they wanted to hurt Tammy.”
To help Tammy protect herself that night, Will gave her a knife with “a wooden handle,” he said. “It’s an old cutting tool. I guess it can be used for cutting carpet.”
This is basically the description of the knife police found under Tammy’s skeleton off Fox Road. At the police station, detectives showed it to members of the Lynds family, as well as Tammy’s friend Ricky Stebbins, and these are their drawings of it, as detailed in Part 6 of this series:
This is Richard’s drawing of the knife he was shown:
Ricky Stebbins did an internet image search and pulled the following likeness:
Later on that night, after Will walked Tammy home, “I bumped into none other than Owen, Lumpy (Jason Francis’ nickname) and Pete (not his real name ),” said Will. “They were just walking around, and we walked back to Owen’s house down the street. Then [name redacted] showed up later, before they were leaving around 11:30 p.m. to go to a 'party.'”
Will used his fingers to provide air quotes when he said “party,” indicating possibly nefarious intentions.
By the way, every word Will said above can be verified, and Will himself had agreed to the interview.
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Let’s press the rewind button and go back even further.
Again, we know that later Tammy left her own house, heading south on Lamont Street, shortly after midnight, but it certainly helps to even revisit the hours before she went to Will’s house, when Susan’s co-worker and her three children visited the Lynds, with plans of dinner (pizza from Tony’s Pizza) and a game of hide-and-seek among the kids. The co-worker’s son, Steve (not his real name), did not look forward to these visits, in which he said Tammy’s parents, Richard and Susan, always drank heavily. Sometimes, to avoid dealing with the Lynds family, he would ask his mother to drop him off at Colonial Estates down the road, where he lived until the summer of 1993 and still had lots of friends at those apartments.
It was better than dealing with the dramas on Lamont Street. “Sue was always yelling,” he said. “Josh and Allison would cry, and Tammy would slam doors. I never liked going there. I didn’t like what I saw. I would usually walk to Colonial Estates with my younger brother, while my sister and baby brother would play with Tammy, Josh, and Allison. Sometimes we would stay because they would beg us to play hide-and-seek.” Every so often he would comply, but he was very reluctant. “Tammy and Sue fought constantly,” he said.
Sure enough, in the late afternoon of July 21, Steve said mother and daughter were battling again, and Richard was intoxicated. Steve and his brother helped pick Richard up after he drunkenly fell, and practically carried him to his living room recliner. “He was out of it,” said Steve. “Drunk as a skunk.”
Richard, before he died, denied this, saying he gave up alcohol in 1982. “I don’t know why Richard disputes the drinking, unless he just doesn’t want people to think they were alcoholics,” said Steve. “I can understand that.”
Tammy asked Steve’s family if she could sleep over their house in Connecticut. “My mom said no,” said Steve. “We had moved to Connecticut on July first, so we were staying with my uncle and aunt until November while our new house was getting ready, and my aunt never allowed us to have company. Sue was yelling at Tammy as we were getting in the car. Then we saw Tammy run in the opposite direction of where we were headed.”
Because they were driving toward Fargo Street to Boston Road, Tammy would have been running south on Lamont Street in the direction of both Will’s house and the woods where neighborhood kids gathered. Steve said this was around 5:30 p.m., which makes sense in the timeline, because that would have meant Tammy was later at Will’s for roughly an hour-and-a-half. “My mom was tired of the atmosphere, and we left,” he said. She had warned Susan in the past that this drinking and bickering act was wearing thin on her, and she had meant it.
And as we know from an earlier blog post, that night Tammy told Steve’s 12-year-old sister Jill (not her real name) that she was abused by her boyfriend, who she said she would be meeting that night, and when Tammy was ever late to their get-togethers, he would hit her. “The last thing Tammy said to my sister was that she would be late, and her boyfriend was going to act out,” he said. It was painful for Jill, who was interviewed by police in 1994, to recall this memory. “She choked up over the phone.”
What did Tammy do between the hours 7:00 p.m. and midnight? This is not so clear. Did she resume fighting with her mother? Susan later found a summer school assignment Tammy had completed that night for the next day—one of the reasons the family believes she didn’t have the intention of running away. So she must have been doing homework. According to one report, Susan saw her in her room at 11:30, but we don't know how accurate this account is.
Richard always maintained that his guests stayed later—until at least nightfall, because he said it was dark out when they left. At some point he fell asleep in his chair, he said, until Tammy nudged him—apparently just after midnight—and told him to go to bed. Then, unbeknownst to him, she went out the front door, never to return.
“I would drive back to Connecticut sometimes because my mom would have a few drinks, but nothing like Richard and Sue,” said Steve, recalling that it was still very much light out when he drove his family away. “It was sunny,” he said. “I wore sunglasses on 91.”
After Tammy went missing, Steve and his family came all the way up from Connecticut and helped Susan search for Tammy, with him and his brother facing the potentially dangerous task of looking by city parkland where the homeless camped. “My brother and I would search the woods on North Branch across from Colonial Estates,” he said. “Lots of people lived in those woods down by the marsh, closer to Grayson Drive where it would cut off by Lucerne Road. Susan had my mom go down to Moss Road and hand out fliers with Tammy's picture. Susan said she would walk down Fox Road. Richard was never there. Never helped. Susan claimed it was too hard for him. I never respected him after that.”
However, according to Richard’s detailed timeline below, he had searched for Tammy both alone and with Allison.
Steve said he and his family helped Susan search for two weeks, and “then she didn’t want our help anymore. Did she totally give up after all these years?”
Last year, Richard reached out to Steve in an effort to get ahold of his mother and her recollections of the last night Tammy was seen alive, but Steve didn’t want to stress her because of her serious illness, and he remembered that Richard and Susan had lashed out at his mother the day of Tammy’s funeral:
“The last time I saw the Lynds family was at her funeral,” said Steve. “Her parents verbally attacked us and blamed us for Tammy's death.
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Yes, it also helps to have Richard’s timeline of events, which is listed below. Interestingly, someone called the Lynds home on November 6 identifying himself as a police officer and seeking information, such as what Tammy was wearing, “to update their computers.” However, on November 7, 1994, the police’s Youth Aid Bureau told Richard the Springfield Police didn’t call them the previous day, and chalked it up to a “prank phone call.”
Also, Richard’s timeline detailed his reaction to being an initial suspect in the murder and asked to take a polygraph. The results were inconclusive.
Police told Richard in 2013 that he was no longer considered a suspect, and no one has been publicly identified as one for 30 years. Do they have any three decades later? Good question. No answer. Yet. As I wrote in the last post, stay tuned.
41 comments:
This stuff doesn’t make any sense, above you’re trying to tell one story, then to end things off, you throw us a curve ball and use Richards own words to contradict previous his claims. We’re jumping ahead and I need to step back.
First observation, man this guy had a major hard on for Ricky Stebbins. The name Ricky is barely mentioned in Susan’s notes but Richard only seemed to have been focused on him, there is no mention of Richard speaking to any of the other kids that lived in their neighborhood or any mention of these kids claiming Ricky was involved in any way. But Richard made a note of going to Ricky’s house and questioning him. Why didn’t Richard question Ricky about Tammy being pregnant at this time?
Richard must’ve forgotten he wrote this stuff down or maybe he was confused after all these years.
Next we’ll use Tammy’s own words from that typed dairy you posted in blog 12, dated March 1994, Tammy wrote that Ricky, I’ll write that name again, Ricky woke her up at 6:30 and she told her dad Richard about it.
Now talking about July 22, Richard said in that video he made with Lou rock, it was a regular day, he got up, made his lunch and went to work, Susan was already dressed. Yet in his writing Richard is clear that Susan noticed Tammy missing between 6 and 6:15. I really want to know how he totally missed all that action? Why the hell would Susan slowly wake Allison up? Why was there no sense of panic? Richard would’ve written he left for work early if that had happened. Or is he claiming Susan had the kids be extra quiet so that he wouldn’t be alerted to Tammy’s absence? Even though he knew she had summer school, maybe he was too drunk to notice and Susan didn’t want to start a fight that early? It makes more sense that Richard knew, but didn’t want to miss work for Tammy screwing around. Only Susan knows what really happened that morning.
July 25, days after Tammy went missing, Richard writes he parked at the end of Duffy lane, walks north and south on Grayson and didn’t know he and Allison were 300ft away from Tammy’s body. There’s also a picture of him and one of the kids 300ft away from where they found Tammy, but looking from the north branch pkwy side, not Grayson. So strange he never drove up fox rd or used that sidewalk that you can see in the picture in his search. It’s not like people use that road to get to colonial estates at all. Honestly it sounds like a guilt trip to me, Richard walked Allison close enough to give her the impression he tried to find Tammy, but he was to afraid to get caught near her body. This is the same area that people said smelled horrible. I wonder why he didn’t bring the family dog for this search? Something isn’t right about all this, don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.
It’s interesting to note that they found Tammy’s diary the day she went missing. They also made copies for the police.
In that Lou rock video, Richard claims that officers stopped by and that’s when the diary’s were lost, but here in his own words, the police misplaced and then found the copies the Lynds made.
So what did the Lynds do with the originals? Richard doesn’t mention giving them to police.
With all the weird details Richard has chosen to give people, while at the same time refusing to answer simple questions about these inconsistencies, I have to question how much of his statements are true.
Richard said in that video that he took the lie detector test and it came back inconclusive, but here in his own words he writes that a lawyer called police and told them he wouldn’t be going down to the registry, all they had on him was probable cause.
There’s no mention of him going down and taking the test. There’s definitely no mention of any inconclusive results. With all the other details he’s added, I find it hard to believe he left that out by accident. Plus he writes that 3 other lawyers won’t touch the case.
Why is there no mention of Tammy’s pregnancy? Seeing it was among the last things she spoke about, you’d think Richard would’ve added that to his notes. Especially considering Tammy wrote she was having David’s baby on 6/14/94. I would think that would be really important.
Someone needs to go back and triple check any info Richard shared.
It really sounds like Richard was trying to frame Ricky Stebbins, then the police caught on to him and he got a lawyer then clammed up.
This doesn’t sound screwed up to anyone else? Richard says it himself, police had probable cause. It seems it was his lucky day, they didn’t have any physical evidence to go along with that probable cause.
I would love to compare the diary pages given to police to Tammy’s actual diary. When did police learn that Tammy was pregnant?
Why did the lynds push so hard for Tammy to be labeled missing? Why didn’t they just tell people that Tammy told Allison she was sneaking out to meet Ricky, then they found her dairy and it said she was pregnant with David’s baby? I think people would’ve been receptive to that, unless the abortion Richard spoke about was at this time.
Both are reasonable assumptions when considering possible motives for running away.
Lumpy is gone, but these other guys might be willing to tell you what they remember.
I would love for police to address those lie detector stories. They don’t even need to give us the results, I’d be happy if they only tell us IF he took the lie detector test or not.
Did Richard ever tell the truth? Or was this always just an attention seeking grab?
On the Tammy Facebook memorial page someone wrote that Tammy went from unsolved to unsolved homicide March 17, 2021
But you yourself hells acres posted a letter in blog 7, august 2023, this letter was from March 28, 2012 and it clearly says Tammy’s going to be added to the county’s list of unsolved homicides.
Is this just terrible communication on the families part?
Is this just a sign of emotional distress and Richard didn’t mean to mix facts up? Being emotionally dysregulated could explain his angry outbursts. Though I don’t get the impression he ever blamed himself for anything that happened or wished he could’ve done something differently.
Most people dwell on the What If’s in these terrible situations,
It’s very strange that the family doesn’t speak up and address these issues.
All this weirdness about this super accurate story about Tammy sneaking out has me bothered as well.
You’re telling me that two guys one with a white and one with a black hat were both in the yard that Tammy was sneaking out through? Why didn’t anyone question the neighbors back then? Didn’t Tammy have friends who love’s directly behind her?
We already know Allison stayed up late with her mom from that dairy entry Tammy wrote about them being in her parents room the week prior to this night. Why hasn’t Allison mentioned this fighting between Tammy and her mother? Why has it only been Richard?
How many friends did Tammy tell about her sneaking out?
That whole pinky swear in that news interview seemed off, especially if Tammy was already late and all these shenanigans were slowing her down.
Why won’t Allison tell us what Tammy was doing before she woke her dad up at, according to Richard was nine, ten or ten thirty?
Why couldn’t Tammy leave earlier? There’s no mention of mom’s or brothers whereabouts at this time.
Lucid should contact Ricky and they should do a session. They could even go back to Fox rd so she could get a better reading. Ricky is Tammy’s only friend who’s still actively searching for answers. I bet she could help him find them.
Whatever happened to #JusticeforTammy?
Hold the baloney, Richard Lynds had a weird confrontation with Ricky Stebbins at Mingles, what year did this happen? You wrote about it in blog 2
Then in 2019 Richard wrote Ricky a letter claiming someone told him that Ricky killed Tammy at that pit you guys found and then dragged her over to the side of Fox rd,
Where did these stories come from? What game was Tammy supposedly playing between David and Ricky?
Richard also wrote that giving up post after Ricky contacted you, then after all these years Richard decided to work with Ricky and yourself, handing you what he claimed was his entire file.
This is the point that all those other people involved stopped actively helping.
It doesn’t make any sense that Richard would attack Ricky the way he did, unless he was trying to scare him into silence.
What kind of message did Richard send David? Is that his name you erased after Ricky, his cousins and blank? Blog 20
It would be really helpful if people who received messages from Richard, would share them with the group.
Did Richard send these messages to Ricky’s cousins? Why haven’t they reached out with any stories?
I also read in blog 2 that Ricky talked to Allison and she said someone might have had Tammy use Ricky’s name to lure Tammy out or had her pretend she was going to see him.
Why would Allison respond to Ricky, but not to you?
What does Lou Rock, Lucid and Momma Rock think about all this stuff that Richard told everyone, compared to what he wrote all those years ago?
Does Allison remember going for that walk? What a haunting experience and just days after Tammy went missing. Was she there yet? How much evidence could’ve been obtained? The weirdest thing about this is bringing Allison and not Josh, he hung around with Tammy and her friends, he would’ve been able to give a better idea of the paths they took when riding bikes or walking to friends houses.
Kinda weird that Richard avoided fox rd and thought nothing of it when there was a body found there, almost like that kinda thing happened regularly, so he just skipped that article. That sounds insane to me, most people would say they had a terrible feeling when they read that but held out hope.
I never noticed how close those logs were to the side of the road and how close the log Tammy was found behind was to that telephone pole at the start of the path right there. You can see this in your blog 11, there’s someone standing on the curb and up against that log, there’s an guy like 10-15 feet from him, right in front of that telephone pole. For some reason I thought she was found closer to the bridge.
If you look at the Facebook comments for part 10, Ricky points out in that Lou rock video that Richard said he got up at 6:30/7am as he always did and his notes say Susan noticed Tammy missing at 6/6:15am. What the heck is going on here?
That comment is huge and Ricky wrote it long before Richard had surgery.
Did Josh and Richard ride up Fox rd to get to Ricky’s cousins house? Did they ride down the path that Tammy was found along?
Holy Moly
2010 or before; I can’t give an exact date.
I used to announce I was going out on MySpace and Facebook, I would stop there almost every night after work, it was along the way home and everyone there was always super friendly.
Richard didn’t live in the area, so he must have made special trips to Mingles, I don’t recall if he was drunk, he might have had water. Sad to say, he never once tried to have a conversation, He never tried telling me about all the trouble his family was having finding out what happened to Tammy and Richard never once got up to sing some karaoke, he wasn’t bustin out Backstreet or *NSYNC, maybe he just liked to hear people sing. He went there more than one time, but I don’t remember if it was days in a row or different weeks. So many wasted opportunities.
You gotta talk to kids that used to smoke together. Chris Barrows, Dan Stebbins, Joe Theriot, Bill Andrews, Kelly Hooper, Jeff Robbins, Jen Eger ,David Chick, Sam Comstock, Tim Fourier, Tim Gilmartin, Josh Lynds. It’s legal now, so no one’s getting in trouble.
It’s to bad Richard didn’t save his old recordings for you, it would been nice to see which of Tammy’s friends spoke about her in the news.
It really seems like you’re just a few conversations away from having all your answers, once you get ahold of Tammy’s mom and this guy Will, you’ll be able to clear this all up.
When did someone last speak to Will?
Anyone else know how close this Will was with the Lynds 30 years ago? If Tammy was allowed to go over his family’s house while grounded, it seems their was a closer relationship than was alluded to in Tammy’s moms notes.
What was Tammy grounded for?
Why didn’t Richard or any of the Lynds for that matter, mention Tammy’s going over this Wills house that night? Even if they heard it second hand.
Did Tammy mention an abusive boyfriend to Will? Did Will give Tammy that knife because of the boyfriend you wrote about?
There has to be someone willing to put you in touch with Will or the Lynds
I hope your blog reaches the right people soon, you’ve been doing great work and it’s really appreciated. Thank you
Again, so many potential suspects- Richard, Ricky, Lumpy, Susan (yes Susan), Susan's boyfriend, the girls who attacked and bullied Tammy (whom she had a pending court case against), boyfriends we know about and boyfriends we don't know about, numerous predators in the area, the random guy walking down the street, etc. This was a 15 year old girl out walking past bars at night...hello!!! If Richard and Susan weren't involved, okay. But letting their 15 year old daughter be out all hours of the night...but, then again, why would she be out like that? Well, it seems that one consistency that people have in their accounts of the Lynds family is that it was a real shit show. A mom who was physically and verbally abusive to her daughter. A dad who could never stand up to his wife and was obviously checked out. If any of this is untrue, where are Susan and Allison to contradict it or at least give their side of things? Nowhere. Crickets. Just crickets. If the 30th anniversary of my daughter's murder was occurring, I would be out there every place I could be, talking to everyone I can. How about a private investigator? Of course, they cost money. So start a freaking Go Fund Me page!! People start those for any reason. Someone at my work place started one because he wanted a new guitar... and people donated!!! I would think people would donate for this most worthy cause.
When the law doesn't care (and its obvious from Day 1 that Springfield PD couldn't have cared less about this case), go up the ladder. If the DA blows you off, go to the AG's office, go to the Governor's office. The Lynds are the only people who can really do this and their silence is deafening.
What I don’t understand is why Allison Lynds and Lou Rock were so vocal just a couple years ago, but totally ghosted everyone once Richard Lynds shared his file with Hell’s Acres. Can anyone explain that? She was visiting Springfield and making videos, then there’s comments online about never getting to see some video evidence .Things turned into a sitcom. Seriously, it’s been 30 years, what’s with all the games? Why won’t someone step forward and set things straight? So what if someone lied? Desperate times called for desperate measures. People might not forgive the Lynds, but they’ll have no choice but to understand or let it go. Regardless, talking about all this stuff didn’t work, it didn’t draw attention to Tammy’s case, no one took those stories seriously or followed up on them. Total wasted effort on the Lynds part, they should’ve been working with people, not against them.
I’m gonna throw the Springfield police a bone here, how could they solve a case, where none of the people involved will talk? Tammy’s old friends aren’t rushing forward sharing anything more than a couple sentences worth of vague memories, were they any more helpful to police back in 1994? Probably not, kids are dumb, cops probably thought they were idiots. Richard Lynds wouldn’t clear up any inconsistencies for us readers, how big of a pain in the rear was he for those officers involved? Have the Lynds always been so vague and confusing with their words? I know it’s hard losing a child, but it had been 29 years, Richard Lynds should have been able to pull it together and give better answers after all this time.
This is definitely one of those situations that you want to get ahead of.
All it’s going to take is one person coming forward with the truth and this whole story is going to unravel before our eyes. Anyone willing to set this story straight?
I’m sorry, I hope this doesn’t come across as negative, I really appreciate everything you’ve done, but I was really surprised when this new blog post popped up and you’re still out here practically begging people to fill in this missing timeline information.
I don’t want to toss people under the bus, but several people have told me that there is already a 24 hour timeline , I even have one message proving its existence from 2019.
I’m really sorry that people aren’t giving you all the information you need in order to write the most informative stories you can. All your work has given us the best chance Tammy’s case has ever had of being solved.
I was really hoping that this would turn into an open conversation, not an interrogation. But I hate pretending that I’m clueless to the fact that there’s more info being withheld, that could possibly make a huge difference in this case, but I can’t bring it up because it might hurt someone’s feelings.
I wouldn’t have poked my head out in the first place, but people started spreading all these wild rumors and making me aware of the bigger picture. Plus it drives me nuts when someone tells me half a story, so of course I went searching for answers, I’ve got the free time. Thankfully I had a lot of help along the way. I honestly thought Richard was lying about having family friends over, no one would tell me who the kids were, no one had a last name. You’d think that would be something important people would remember.
I’ve been wrong about a bunch of stuff and gotten stories mixed up, I still shared whatever I remembered.
I also don’t remember the Lynds behavior being any different than my own families. Certain kids got picked on way more than others, it’s just the way things were, some kids were easy targets. Tammy from everything we learned, apparently couldn’t catch a break. She needed help 30 years ago and didn’t get it. She still needs our help now, regardless of how people feel about each other it’s time to set things right. I should’ve spoken up decades ago, for whatever reason I felt like I couldn’t and shouldn’t talk, that was a mistake. Now that I know things are on the right track, giving up doesn’t seem like an option.
Will someone please share this 24 hour timeline with Hell’s Acres? This honestly should’ve been cleared up last year, when Richard shared his file. If this timeline can’t be shared, can someone at least explain why it’s an issue?
I just noticed something. If this guy Will gave Tammy a big ole knife, where was this knife as she was fumbling out of the house? Allison never mentioned it. If Tammy told Allison she was scared, why didn’t she whip that knife out and tell Allison that she has protection? She could’ve easily assured her by saying she’d cut a bitch. If he hits me, I’ll cut his dick right off.
Any who, just saying that no one’s talking about a pocket knife here. Unless you’re trying to say it was hiding in a body cavity? Which doesn’t seem to be a convenient location to retrieve in a time of need.
Something about all this knife talk doesn’t sit well with me. I have a strange feeling that this story is going to change once you talk to this guy.
None of this knife talk is in Susan’s notes.
What year did Will do this interview?
Who interviewed him?
We need a timeline for when this dude Will said all this stuff.
Why would he say Tammy was allowed over his house, if it wasn’t true? Seems like something the Lynds would’ve called him out for lying about, get what I mean? Did he say this stuff yesterday?
If you have it, that means Richard Lynds had it, why didn’t he speak about this more?
This Will character hunted Susan Lynds down and told her a story about Owen and Lumpy having impure thoughts about Tammy and them possibly doing the horizontal Hokey Pokey?, but neglected to share this tidbit about giving her a knife to protect herself???
Didn’t everybody and their grandmas have Swiss Army knives back then? Why the hell would Tammy need a carpet or steak knife??? Was she going out to war that night? There’s no similarities to what she wrote about the week before except sneaking out. Correct me if I’m wrong. Tammy was all happy go lucky, maybe a little tired; now it’s a week later, she’s scared but sneaking out anyway with a weapon hidden on her. Why wake her drunk dad up this last night, but she left a sober dad sleeping on the couch the week before??? Seems more likely that he like to drink on Thursday nights and slept like he was in a coma..
This really sounds made up, like he needed an alibi, just saying…seems like he’d be more likely to yell at her to go to bed, she was grounded and had summer school.
All of a sudden he’s alone and lights are all on, where did everybody go? this story is a disaster
My guess is he was on the couch the entire time, right up until Susan saw the door open, or he caught Tammy sneaking back in.
It’s time to face facts, you started pumping out these Tammy blogs starting last April. We already know for a fact that Susan, Joshua and Allison are well aware of that fact that you’re writing these blogs and have Richards file. Pretending that you’re waiting for word to spread isn’t going to cut it, word has already gotten around, people are choosing to remain silent.
This is exactly how people behave when you catch them in a lie. The big question here is, what are the Lynds trying to hide?
If it’s just the emotional and physical abuse, no one cares.
If it’s the laziness and alcoholism, again no one cares.
If it’s that they lied about all these stories to draw attention to Tammy’s case, no one cares.
Doesn’t their cousin April live in the next town over from Springfield? If she went to police with stories, why isn’t she sharing them with you 30 years later?
I could’ve sworn Allison once told me that Jen Eger, Jeff Robbins and Tim gilmartin had all been over for dinner at their home on Lamont. Not saying it was the same night, but they were friendly like that.
Speaking of friendly, how old was this kid Will that Tammy visited the night she disappeared?
Your story has Will over Owen house at 11:30 after walking around, then Owen and lumpy leave for a “party”
It doesn’t sound like Will had a bedtime, he parents weren’t looking for him.
If he was so worried about Tammy and her safety, why didn’t he wait around and walk with her to wherever she was going?
It sounds like those guys bailed on him, so he was free to protect Tammy, if she really did tell him she was in danger.
Plus your story has Tammy leaving Will’s house at 7pm, you really believe Tammy was carrying a knife around, waiting for her opportunity to sneak out of the house, but had to come back for a gate key, to a fence she could have easily climbed over or unlocked hours before.
This is probably why news agency’s and law enforcement had to stop helping solve Tammy Lynds case, nothing makes any sense, anyone who knows something, is keeping it to themselves.
You can’t solve a puzzle, if people refuse to give you all the pieces.
All these stories do sound like a bunch of bullshit a couple drunks came up with on a wild Thursday night.
They just wrote these stories, they didn’t want to talk about these stories or answer any questions about shit people might be confused about.
Why the hell would they want to do that?
I wonder how many people have wanted to scream this past year? You shouldn’t have to beg people for answers, you shouldn’t have to hunt people down to get them to clarify things they’ve said.
What I really don’t understand is why the Lynds don’t use their trump card every time someone says- Hey you Lied.
That’s when the Lynds say- Hey you were never there to help, so shut the fuck up.
Hey, you don’t know what it’s like to be ignored when someone is missing, so shut the fuck up.
Hey, you don’t know what it’s like to find your loved on dead on the side of the road and have police do a shit job investigating, so shut the fuck up.
Now that people are willing to listen, they don’t need to come up with any wild stories or try twisting the truth to draw attention to Tammy’s case.
Did this Will really give Tammy a knife or was it part of someone’s trash that got tossed?
What time did Tammy really leave the house Thursday night? Part 9 says Susan last saw Tammy at 11:30pm, was Richard on the couch?
Did Tammy really return from Wills house at 7pm? Or was Susan mistaken about seeing Tammy doing her homework.
Could Tammy have disappeared right after leaving wills and the Lynds are to embarrassed to admit they didn’t notice her missing?
I’ve read comments, on just about every blog.
The way these comments come through, with no help, no explanation’s, just criticism and demanding of answers, by a lot of these anonymous accounts. Shockingly demanding the families come forward….
Victim families, do not have to answer anything, nor explain to the internet sleuths, why they choose to do the things they do. Also, victim families read these blogs, I’d like to kindly remind everyone involved. These types of blog threads, hurt people. They hurt families, and people go off on rants, without realizing how disrespectful they get, towards the, victim and or survivors.
Threads like these, comment sections like these, make victim families, not want to get involved, explain, or even see anything pertaining to the case.
This is a child, a 15 year old child, who people are going off, talking about sex, pregnancies and corrupt police departments.
This instills no hope, no positive outlooks, and truly only is hurtful, to those closest to the victim.
I’m going to guess none of these anonymous individuals, have lost anyone to homicide before?
Please remain respectful. Not only for the victim, but for those survivors, that have to come and read some of this garbage.
If you’re going to come and comment, be helpful, as these families need a positive outlook, they’ve been through enough.
What a great comment. Others have tried to say what you conveyed so well. It is heart felt. Hope it is heard.
I think commenters are "demanding" that the family come forward because they are just stone silent. There are a lot of rumors and accusations about the family going around (and have been for quite a while). If the family felt the rumors were just BS, wouldn't they come out and say that? But no, there is silence and silence tends to keep rumors going...silence lets people fill in the gaps with their own interpretations. And sadly, yes, the police department's handling of this case is at best incompetence (i.e., losing the file) and at worst, a cover up to protect the guilty.
I am a survivor, and I assure you they don’t have to do anything.
Families stay quiet because to relive it over and over and over is so traumatic, it’s not something they choose to relive.
I’ve let so many rumors fly around, simply because it’s draining, to come to complete strangers, who don’t do anything to help, but think they know everything about your life, story, or even the victim.
It gets comical at times, and it gets traumatizing at time. These are people lives. There family, sister, father, niece, it’s not the worlds business…… I know people feel entitled, but I assure you that family owns no one anything.
They’ve discussed all that needs to be said and known to the police, they owe the public nothing, even though some of you feel it’s your right.
Didn't hear, eh?
Before anyone compares, my case with the Tammy case, what I do, compared to what the Tammy family doesn’t……….
Every case is different. Every family is different in the way they handle things. I have no problem, coming forward and fighting, clearing up rumors, you name it…… that does not mean the Tammy family is expected to do the same.
Some heal in silence. Some prefer silence.
I don’t blame them one bit for staying quiet. Honestly, this much rumors and back and forth, where would they even begin. It’s draining to even think about.
To the Tammy family:
Keep healing, the way YOU need.
Care to oblige?
We are talking about the homicide part, of the police department right?
I’ve worked with them since they stepped in, I know all of them quite well actually…… mind explaining who and what you are talking about?
Do you know them? Personally? You’ve talked to them? Worked with them? Had a meeting with them about a family member?
Ever answer a phone call from them and have a conversation?
Who exactly is corrupt? Can you name someone?
Also, if you are talking about the family rumors, that have been flying around for 30 years, again, I’ll remind the public…. It’s THEIR family’s business. Just because Tammy was murdered, does not give the public the right, to rip apart whatever family trauma, may or may not exist.
Again, unless you have something helpful to add to the case, know the family personally, or know that homicide department…. Just stop. It’s all noise.
Unfortunately, being quiet and staying quiet has done nothing to help with this 30 year old murder case. Why is it that the only people who talk about this case are the people on this blog? If you Google Tammy and this case, there is very little out there. There's Hells Acres and almost nobody or nothing else. Why is that? I think we know.
I’d never say be quiet about a 30 year old case. But there’s a line between respect and disrespect, and facts with false information. Be mindful, for those lines get blurred too often in the true crime community.
I just hope you can solve this soon so Ricky can shut the hell up about it already 🤣🤣🤣
A lot of these perceived demands to answer questions are a result of my excitement. I’ve been talking to anyone who will listen about Tammy’s case and tell them about all these new blog posts that keep getting written. I’m easily excitable as it is, so people can imagine how I fell when every month there’s a new blog and new information, of course I run to anyone who is still willing to listening to me and bombard them with my thoughts, my questions and my comparisons to past posts and comments.
I’ve annoyed a lot of people in my quest for answers, but my persistence has paid off each time, so it’s encouraged me to continue.
I was beyond nervous writing Hell’s Acres about Tammy, she’s always been one of those subjects I’d rather not talk about in public, seeing people still add my name to the list of murder suspects, plus there was/is a lot going on in my life and Tammy’s case comes with a different type of stress. Thankfully I kept pushing forward, albeit slow at times. After reading all Hell’s Acres blogs, I honestly thought he could help or point me in the right direction, I really appreciate the fact that he took everything I said seriously and took the time to write about it, Richard Lynds was impressed enough by his writing to share his file on Tammy.
I see patterns in everything, every choice we make has an effect on something else. If I didn’t write Hell’s Acres, Richard never would’ve shared his file and there wouldn’t be any stories or information about Tammy. Now I constantly think about how to inspire more people to share what they remember. Richard might be gone now, but this isn’t over, there’s still hope.
For what it’s worth, I still “feel” like I’m owed an explanation, I’m pretty positive I won’t get my answers, but I still talk to people about it. If anyone feels different, please explain how my “feelings” are incorrect. Look at the facts, after 29 years, I started getting answers to questions I didn’t even know I was going to want to ask, but I’m still waiting to learn why Richard was such a crabby ass towards me, Hell’s Acres hasn’t shared any information from these files that has helped me understand where this all came from. In fact I’m more confused than ever.
1. July 21, 1994 Tammy goes missing, Richard stops by my house that next morning Friday the 22nd.
2. Still July 1994 Richard writes he stops by my house to talk on the steps, I don’t recall this, so it wasn’t a very informative chat.
3. 2010ish Richard stops by Mingles for some unknown mystery reason.
4. 2017 Richard sends me messages, then just stops mid conversation this is how he ended things.
(No, with the new people in the DA office, they are going forward even farther than before in items that have been found, DNA taken off of her that they still have and written statements made by people after Tammy was found, about who and how she was killed and who was directly responsible for her going out that night when she disappeared.)
5. 2019 I get that pit message and warned not to cross his path
6. July 8, 2023 Richard writes me asking some questions and thanks me for talking to him before I even respond. I ignored all his past horse doo and helped him, despite the way he’s always treated me.
Did Richard act like this towards everyone? His only notes about me are from 1994,
Everyone can agree that the Lynds were very upset with this entire situation and how it was handled.
For whatever reason, they misdirected some their anger towards me. Did they feel I should have done more to help? I had been over for dinner at some point around the time Tammy went missing, they had wanted me to train Josh to fight, I remembered their reasoning was about a fight on a bus, I must’ve gotten facts mixed up with that school fight. After Tammy went missing, none of us kids were asked to help look, we were told not to talk to the Lynds.
The lynds were left alone, without any hope for answers, with no idea where to turn. We can’t blame one person, one law enforcement agency or one news agency for how this situation was handled, this is a statewide, system wide problem and it’s only gotten worse.
The commonwealth of Massachusetts serves its own interests, it doesn’t serve the people.. You know there’s a serious problem when lawyers wouldn’t take the Lynds money. Why would there be any concern? Why would the Lynds be told not to do anything? They should’ve told to do everything in their power to bring awareness to Tammy’s case.
Why isn’t there a standard check list for families in case these types of situations arise? Wouldn’t it be super helpful for anyone who hasn’t experienced this before, to have a system already in place?
Knowing the right people to contact, what information to gather, what steps to take if you still haven’t found your loved one or how to set up a community search. This type of info could make all the difference in these missing or runaway child situations. I still don’t understand how the youth aide bureau didn’t take lead. It’s all very confusing. The Lynds never should’ve been forced to search for Tammy and put up their own flyers, then continue this investigation themselves.
I don’t blame the Lynds for anything and I’m not demanding any answers from them. I do blame Richard for getting me all excited, this is already ridiculously long, so I’ll share that message again
( No, with the new people in the DA office, they are going forward even farther than before in items that have been found, DNA taken off of her that they still have and written statements made by people after Tammy was found, about who and how she was killed and who was directly responsible for her going out that night when she disappeared. )
Richard got my hopes up with this message, I still hope that this is true and he just made up that story about springfield police losing evidence in an attempt to get them to make a public statement about Tammys case.
That message from Richard is why I reached out to Lou Rock and asked where that pit was. I didn’t know that he was already working with the Lynds at that time. I could’ve tried exploring that area and attempted to find it on my own, but I was impatient and really wanted to know.
Hell Richard even made me feel like this was gonna be a team effort by sending me the things he did. I even ignored a lot of inconsistencies in the things he said, like saying the police lost the entire file. I focused on the things I had control over. I tried to be as respectful as I could considering all the rumors and games.
On a different note.
Now that it’s coming to Tammy’s 30th anniversary, I wonder how many people remember all the craziness going on back then.
Nancy Kerrigan got whacked in the knee, that earthquake in L.A.,l
the Lorena Bobbitt trial was all over the news (I joked about that way to much)
Kids took school trips to see Schindlers List in theaters.
no one mentioned R Kelly’s bump and grind coming out( probably cause of all the pee)
Kurt Cobain commits suicide
that branch Dravidian cult stuff
racial tensions were high with that Rodney King trial
first extra solar planets announced
John Wayne Gacy was executed
Pulp Fiction premiered
Lion King premiered
All that O.J. Simpson stuff
Forest Gump premiered
The song Kiss from a rose was released
Hulk Hogan beats Ric Flair woooo
Does anyone else remember going to the movies or talking to Tammy about any of this stuff. Hard to imagine it’s been 30 years since we all started bumping and grinding.
There has to be one or two old friends still out there with a story to share,
I read this earlier.
What if governments learned from the MKUltra experiments in the 50's that trauma allows you to control people, so they purposely orchestrate disastrous events to keep their citizens afraid + dependent on them, and that's one of the reasons that mental illness has been rising?
This made me think of Richard Lynds traumatizing story about their search for Tammy and answers. It’s totally heartbreaking to read that. That got me thinking about the effects of being ignored and the way Tammys family was by the police and the youth aide bureau. Families in these types of situations should never be ignored. Whenever a child goes missing, is severely injured or dies, families need emotional support, not being forced to constantly call for any updates. They were living in a literal nightmare and had no help. Anyone interested in the effects of being ignored will find countless articles.
Did anyone else notice in that Search for Tammy, on July 25,1994 Richie says he and Allison walked from Duffy lane, up Grayson then talks about taking a trail next to a Brook back to the other end of Grayson.
It totally sounds like they both walked by that Pit that you wrote about. Have any of you guys walked that trail to see where it ends?
Are there any other trails in that area?
This case gets more and more exciting with each and every rumor… 😃 Tammy’s bestest bus buddy TG used to go over the Lynds house for dinner… That’s where he was asked if he would tell their cousin April about a imaginary conversation he had with Ricky…🫨 TG agreed to tell April and that’s where that vital info storyline came from… shame on you guys, that’s really just terrible story writing, you can tell they didn’t put much thought into this… just blame Ricky… 🤥
say he told you all this stuff, even though he doesn’t know you… 🙄 tell everyone Ricky thinks you’re super cool and wants to be your friend… 🫶🏻 then tell April that Ricky confessed everything to you… April will be super impressed by this and want to date you… 😻
Somehow TG screwed this simple task up… he didn’t get the girl of his dreams… 💔 No one believed his story… how sad…
I guess your knife story about JR is way off base… 🔪 so much so that people say reading it makes them mad, they wish you’d stop writing that crap and people have said you don’t know what you’re talking about… 😂 keep in mind that this stuff doesn’t upset set them enough to correct you… 😂 what fun would that be… 🤔 people like shock and awe… they will be thrilled if this lastest rumor about JR not even being around when Tammy went missing is true… 😵 why won’t anyone tell you the true timeline??? 😱
Time to admit you were a pawn ♟️ in someone else’s game… 🫨 people had TG telling stories, then they got JR telling stories… now you Hell’s are telling their stories… not facts… Stories… 🤣 are we in a multiverse??? Are we living different outcomes at the same time???
It’s super annoying to hear Ricky point out the same things over and over. Like any of us friends have these answers. Where are all Tammy’s family and friend’s?
Why did Richard avoid walking on that side of fox rd? Ricky made a video showing how wide open the view is once you walk in, he never shuts up about how much wider that bike path was back in the day. He claims Richard would have seen that path clear as day.
Did Richard just want someone to blame? Ricky doubts this now that he knows Richard walked his other daughter right near that spot on his final documented search, just days after Tammy went missing. Why wouldn’t Ricky think Richard was returning to the scene of the crime? Taking his youngest daughter on a guilt trip.
Everything Richard said in those Lou Rock videos is contradicted in his search for Tammy story, so I can see why Ricky thinks it sounds like there’s hidden meaning in everything Richard said.
How could Richard be unaware that his wife was also searching that area?
Why didn’t Richard or Allison mention walking by that Pit to Lou Rock? Ricky said there was always a grassy path there.
I think it's time to end all of this and move on. 30 years out and no push from law enforcement to solve this. Family push seems minimal...and frankly without that, the law won't push. Most everything on this blog are lies, rumors, innuendo, half truths-however you want to call it. It's always "one person can step up and be that last piece of the puzzle". Well, if that person is out there, they've had 30 years to do the right thing...and still nothing. Some things are destined to be unsolved. That's life.
There’s always Hope, plus I would still like to see Tammy get that memorial bench Richard spoke about.
This Is exactly what happens when you ignore a problem for to long.
How can you mourn someone, when no one wants to talk about them?
How can you give up, when it feels like you haven’t really started?
Some of the feedback here is brutal and unfair. Hell’s Acres is trying to shine a light on a case forgotten by so many. This puts the best info at the time these blogs are written. There is no intentional subterfuge or printing anything but what has been provided by seemingly reliable sources. If it wasn’t for this blog I’m not sure 16 acres would have a memory anywhere now.
Hell’s Acres was told a story and wrote about it. Some details were incorrect, no one blames him for that.
Richard Lynds spent 29 years searching for answers without someone to help guide him through all this, so it’s expected that he would start getting all the facts mixed up.
It’s awesome that Hell’s Acres has stepped up when no one else has been willing to, but one person is only capable of so much.
At least these questions will be here for people in the future, Tammy has a little story to go along with those Facebook pictures.
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