I prepared myself for a possible letdown after Greta Jochem’s excellent and probing front page story last August in The Republican on Tammy’s murder, even though I certainly couldn’t complain about the story’s placement: the entire top half of the front page and two whole pages inside in the Sunday paper!
Alas, apparently there have been no recent developments in the case—at least I’m not aware of any. At heart, I’m an optimist—maybe someone will come forward, I thought. But I’m also a realist. I had written 23 blog posts with very few volunteering their thoughts since April of 2023, aside from the usual people—especially Tammy’s friend and sometimes lover Ricky Stebbins.
It was surprising that Tammy’s sister Allison told Jochem that to this day Stebbins remains a possible suspect in her opinion, and that police had good reason to question him at the time. “In my book, he’s still on the suspect list,” she said. Yet, according to her mother Susan’s notes, police told her they eliminated him as a suspect less than a month into the investigation—not to mention the fact that Stebbins has lately been on a crusade, of sorts, to solve this mystery.
Nonetheless, Allison recalled, Tammy said she was meeting a “Ricky” the last night she was seen—although it was determined that Tammy had also been dating another boy named Ricky.
Allison pointed out that Tammy’s diary revealed that exactly a week before, she snuck out of the house on a dare to go over a boy’s house, and passed two bars. “When I was going past the first bar, I had a man start following me,” Tammy wrote. “I booked.” Then, after “making love” in the boy’s bedroom, when she was walking home, she had to pass by “both bars. When I was going by the second bar coming from my house, a guy started calling me and following me, but I booked.”
Bars along Boston Road near the Lynds’ home, heading east, included John Joe’s, Mattie’s and the Sports Page. Allison noted that Tammy’s most direct route to Stebbins’ house, near Boston Road, would have taken her past these bars, according to her father’s marked map. Allison said it would have been unlikely for Tammy to take a short cut through the woods next to North Branch Tributary Park to get to his house in the middle of the night. Walking along well-lit Boston Road was an easier and safer option, albeit drunk patrons were exiting bars.
However, Stebbins said he didn’t meet Tammy on that night, July 14, 1994, or the night she disappeared exactly a week later. Stebbins also reiterated the fact that in 2023 he was the only one of Tammy’s old friends who was willing to engage in a dialogue about the murder with her father, Richard, when others wouldn’t.
Allison notes that Stebbins is obsessed with the case. He doesn’t dispute this, but he says he desperately wants to clear his name and once and for all find out what happened to his friend. Besides, he said, it was Allison who had first reached out to HIM with questions about Tammy in 2016 via Facebook messenger.
Regardless. let’s take another look at Tammy’s likely route, according to her diary. On July 14, 1994, was Tammy seeing someone else whose address would have taken her past two bars—presumably on Boston Road? Tammy also could have walked by a couple of bars if she were traveling in THE OTHER direction, heading southwest, on Boston Road: the Country Inn (formerly the Ranch House) and the Pine Point Café on the corner of Boston Road and Preston Street. The latter bar would have been a mile away from her Lamont Street home—roughly the same distance as the walk from her house to the Sports Page.
Where did this mystery lover live? Tammy’s diary didn’t say.
* * * * * * * * * *
How did Jochem happen upon this cold case? Let’s just say a little bird, whose initials are H.A., emailed her boss, informing him that it was the 30th anniversary of the slaying, that there was, ahem, a lengthy blog series about it, and that Allison was available for an interview.
That same little bird told her that Stebbins was willing to talk to her—no big surprise there, lol. I guess the real shock was that Tammy’s mother Susan consented to a brief interview with Jochem. Susan hasn’t publicly commented on the case in decades, presumably putting it all behind her and moving on with her life. “She was on the fence about this,” said Allison regarding the prospect of her mother contacting Jochem.
Susan waited three weeks, as the story was well on the way to being written, before she decided to do the right thing. “No one’s forcing you,” Allison told her. Susan complained to Allison about the Hell’s Acres blog—that there were so many untruths, though she didn't say what was inaccurate, whether it was in the blog posts or the comments. Probably both, in her eyes.
The weeks dragged on without a response from Susan. “You know what?” Allison told her mother. “This is the kind of thing why I don’t have a relationship with you.” She couldn’t believe that her mother had written off the past as too painful to deal with. Allison reminded her that this wasn’t simply an annoying blogger—it was the investigations editor for a newspaper, and the first time mainstream media was interested in covering this in 10 years.
The interview with Susan apparently wasn’t extensive. She had a few sentences in the story—which is better than nothing. Allison has many, many more questions to ask her mother, such as, why did she tell police she didn’t know where her husband was that night? Shortly after the murder, that claim had prompted police to immediately suspect Richard enough to request him to take a polygraph. The results were inconclusive.
“Why didn’t SHE have to take a lie detector test?” asked Allison. “She hated Tammy. My sister and I were daddy’s girls, and she used to get in fights with Tammy, and I saw her drag Tammy around by her hair on our living room and kitchen floor. My dad didn’t do any of this. He never beat us.”
These skirmishes with Tammy are well-documented in the blog. Perhaps that’s why Susan doesn’t like this blog series, especially the part about her having an extramarital affair at the time. “She didn’t want all the dirty laundry to come out,” said Allison.
According to Allison, the night Tammy went missing, Richard fell asleep in the living room chair and Tammy nudged him to go to bed, which he did. Strangely, Susan told police she didn’t know of Richard’s whereabouts around the time Tammy snuck out of the house at midnight. “My mother threw my father under the bus,” said Allison. “She told the cops she didn’t know where he was, and said she thought that maybe he had followed Tammy.”
However, when Tammy left that night, Allison watched her sister go out to the street from several windows in the house, and it was SUSAN who was missing from the house—not Richard.
“My mother had a ritual—she would read her romance novels in the bathroom for about three hours every night,” said Allison. “It was her ‘me’ time, her alone time when no one could bother her. It was her way of decompressing from the day. We used to call it her ‘office.’ Except she wasn’t in the bathroom that night. I was walking all over the entire house, pacing from window to window. I knew where my dad was. He was in bed. I could hear him snoring. I don’t know where my mother was.”
“Where do you think she was?” I asked her.
“I don’t know,” she answered. “If anything, she might have followed my sister. I don’t know. What she did that night—and what she said to police—just didn’t add up. She didn’t know where my father was?” She answered her own question: “They slept in a waterbed, so when you sleep in a waterbed, you can tell when someone is on the other side,” because of the water displacement in the mattress.
Allison also repeated her father’s assertion that Susan, the next
morning, instead of wearing her usual nightgown, was fully dressed when her
father left for work. Why did she break from her normal routines the night
before and that morning?
* * * * * * * * * *
There
are also huge discrepancies between Richard and Allison’s same version of the
early evening of July 21, 1994 and the account of Steve (not his real name),
who said he, his sister, his brother, and mother visited the Lynds to have
dinner, and then the plan was for the kids to play hide-and-seek, but the
agenda was scuttled when Richard was supposedly falling-down drunk and Tammy
was fighting with Susan.
Steve said he and his family left in disgust around 5:30, at the same time an upset Tammy ran from an argument with her mother and headed south on Lamont Street. Allison remembers it differently: that 5:30 was the time Steve’s family ARRIVED, and they left between 9:30 and 10:00.
Allison said her father wasn’t intoxicated—that he had stopped drinking in 1982 because alcoholism ran in his family, and he only had an occasional beer or glass of champagne at celebrations. “I have videos of family gatherings, and my father isn’t drinking in any of them,” said Allison.
Steve also claimed his 12-year-old sister (who we’ll call Jill), said that Tammy that day told her that “she was abused by her boyfriend. When Tammy would be late, 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.
Jill didn’t know the boyfriend’s name. “It was someone she started seeing at school in the ROTC program,” said her brother. In the spring and possibly the summer, Tammy had been dating a David B., who was not in the ROTC, but he did attend the ROTC ball with her, and maybe that’s what she meant. She gave police all this information, yet apparently police never interviewed David B., according to David’s younger brother, who I talked to in November.
“The police never spoke to him in 1994,” said David’s brother, who hasn’t been in touch with David in a few years, and he isn’t the only one who found it odd that police didn't interview his brother. “My mother and I always thought it was weird,” he said. “I mean, why wouldn’t they?”
This is not simply a matter of police lacking attention to detail in the initial investigation—merely failing to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. It’s obviously a major omission. A blown opportunity. After all, she told David she was pregnant, according to another relative. She wrote in her diary that she was going to have his baby. To say that he was worth talking to is quite the understatement.
Even so, he sincerely doubts that David had anything to do with the murder. “I’m just not seeing it,’ he said, “He was always a calm guy. A regular guy. He just doesn’t have it in him.”
Then there is Tammy’s friend Will’s claim that she was over his house between 5:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. and that he gave her a knife to protect herself that night. Is this true? That contradicts the timeline, unless Tammy took off from her house for more than an hour.
* * * * * * * * * *
So here we are. Allison likens it to being “square one” again, despite the newspaper and blog coverage. What have we learned? Through this blog (using, at times, pseudonyms), we know who the main players are in this drama: Ricky, Jason, Will, Owen, David B., and David D. OK, I’ve finally given the last initial of the “other David”! (Will and Owen are pseudonyms.) We also know that Jason and Owen had talked about hurting Tammy, according to Will.
In addition, we’ve learned that Tammy was supposed to meet a “boyfriend” the night she went missing.
Who was it?
49 comments:
It’s unfortunate that no matter what we do, we can’t change the past. But we can change the future. Proof’s in the pudding right? I started sharing my memories of a friend very few people have been interested in talking about and her story actually made front page news. I know that’s the power of positivity in motion, no one can convince me otherwise. I’m not taking credit for any of the work either; I just helped shine a light on an unsolved mystery.
I really think Tammy would be heartbroken to learn that her family didn’t grow closer after she died and that you guys still aren’t close now that Richard’s gone. After getting to read her diary, I truly believe she would’ve wanted you all to be able to talk about all of your problems and try to solve any issues together as a family. It’s bad enough you missed out on her in your lives- her death shouldn’t have cost you guys your relationship, too.
I’m not sure what kind of untruths might be buried within these blog pages, but I wish someone would finally set the story straight. It’s been 3 decades- how painful can the truth be? How can we reflect on the past if no is willing to talk about it?
Calling me obsessed is hilarious, I was given access to information I thought was lost and I was told someone knows what happened the night Tammy disappeared. Of course I’m going to start poking around. I should probably point out that there’s still no explanation for how she died and her case hasn’t been solved. Thankfully I’m not one to get frustrated and lose interest.
As far as being Desperate for anything, I would say it’s to find someone willing to have a conversation and answer any questions that arise.
Whenever I talk to people face-to-face, they’re super chatty and share all kinds of wild information, as soon as I ask them to share this stuff publicly, no one is available for comment.
I’ve been searching for answers for as long as I can remember and it wasn’t until after my father died that I was able to actually start figuring things out. I mean it when I say- ignoring my problems never helped them go away. People pretending things didn’t happen and pushing me to move on, instead of trying to help me understand what happened just made things worse.
If something matters to you, you have to fight for it- because no one else will.
Great job man. Sorry I had to deleted those comments. They were incomplete. I copied this from part 3.
But who am I kidding? The code of silence seems to be an impossible one to break in this case.
I can write about Tammy’s personality to no end—and I should, because it gets lost in the narrative. Still, it has been nearly 30 years—and not only will no one come provide any relevant information, but also no one from the neighborhood is even willing to discuss the case—at all. And that is really weird.
“It’s almost like she’s a forbidden subject,” said Ricky.
Again, I ask, why?
You know what…… weird doesn’t even begin to describe it. Did people make a pact to never speak about her ever again? This is more like a Conspiracy of Silence. These people can’t all have the same reason for staying quiet can they?
It’s really sad that people would rather watch Ricky fail than help him or you hells acres.
I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. Regulation 46A 🤣
Why do you still bother if no one cares or wants to help?
You don’t find anything else weird about all this?
That’s not what I said.
Hey Allison,
I’m sorry to have to say this. You are an adult now. Don’t just put this all on your mother. You owe it to your sister. Tell the truth. I know your father didn’t leave you any choice. I know you wanted to keep everything private. Things didn’t work out that way.
This man spent the last 2 years trying to bring attention to your sisters case, he took time away from his friends and family. He didn’t have to do that. No one else has helped you the way this man has. He must have a heart of gold to put up with this nonsense.
You can answer a lot of this man’s questions Allison. You were there. You know what happened. Tell him.
What do you think the problem is then? You weren’t afraid to call Mr Lynds out on his rigamarole… lol
Too afraid to spit some hot fire? 🔥
How come Erin hasn’t put Allison in contact with dateline coldcase?
They only talk to men
Do you think everyone is quiet for the same reason?
Well gosh I know very little about this until the blog. Grew up in Western MA…hell’s Acres is a journalist shining light on often forgotten things. Many of the comments are way over my head. I hope the poor girl gets justice but accusations and vitriol do not help.
You would need to be a part of these fellas back room conversations in order to follow things.
Whatever they don’t agree about ends up in an anonymous comment.
For what it’s worth Rick..… I don’t think anyone ever suspected you of anything. I think your heart was in the right place but it’s pretty clear these people never wanted you involved.
#justicefortammy
I’m not the author. If I was I would be very grumpy. Why didn’t Ali tell him about talking to David B?
i think Ali would have told people if Dave was to afraid to talk about Tammy.
She accuses her mother of holding back stuff but she does to.
Who told you that?
Erin hasn’t been feeling well. Her ibs has been acting up. She’s not out of the game yet
I publish all comments except the extremely idiotic ones, and even then I let a few slip in, like this one.
As I was leaving the gym yesterday, I ran into an old family friend that I haven’t seen in years. Obviously I told him about being in the paper because of Tammy and my legal excitement since we both know the same people within our court system. This guy displayed everything I tell people is wrong with our country in a matter of minutes and I told the people with me that, right after this guy walked away. I also told them I was going to write about this encounter. I really feel like talking to grown men that run away from their problems, inspires me to try harder and harder to achieve my goals.
How can someone claim a problem “can’t” be solved, if they’ve never put in effort “at all” in solving it?
How can someone expect our problems to “ever” get solved, if thinking about these issues makes them so angry, they can’t talk about it?
If anyone has any ideas, feel free to share them.
You might post all the comments that are sent to you but people clearly aren’t telling you the whole truth.
Ali tells you her mom says things are untrue in your blog but won’t tell you she talked to Dave before he moved?
Not cool. Whoever else knew and didn’t tell you is just as bad.
One of you knows
Why don’t you reach out to governor Healy? She appointed her ex-girlfriend as SJC. Very strong leaders
I wonder if Mr Lynds somehow forgot how persistently annoying Ricky Stebbins is or maybe he didn’t? Anyone ever consider that?
Ricky the Relentless…. Hahahahahaha
Sad doesn’t even begin to describe it. I honestly thought certain people would step up and help out. People close to me have told me how stupid they think I am for helping and they think I’m wasting my time. It really makes me wonder what’s wrong with people.
I don’t think everyone is quiet for the same reason, but I could be wrong.
Thanks, I don’t think anyone honestly believed I was a suspect either. No one has been willing to share any stories they heard otherwise. I really wish I could remember why I wasn’t allowed to talk to the Lynds after Tammy went missing.
I share everything I can remember from all my backroom conversations.
I don’t try to agree or disagree with the things people tell me. I try to investigate every lead I’ve been given.
I have left a few weird things out. I heard someone claimed to have broken Tammy’s arm. That past injury wasn’t noted in her autopsy, so I didn’t tell people about it.
I told everyone in 2023 that I heard Allison talked to David before he moved.
Ricky running out of steam? 😀
In the shadowed recesses of Fox rd, whispers tell of a young girls death, her secrets buried beneath moss and leaf. With every rustling breeze and fading sunlight, the forest guards its enigmatic tale, a mystery that may never unravel.
Can Allison share anything else she remembers from that night?
I think Allison deserves some answers. It’s been 30 years. What happened to her sister???
This is just a thought. Maybe people are afraid to speak up about what happened and these untruths because there worried about you guys tearing them apart publicly. I won’t point any fingers but a few things written have sounded a little harsh. If you guys don’t seem to get along I don’t think other people will feel comfortable joining in. Does that make sense?
I don’t know why other readers don’t comment on these things, so I’ll say it… I think It’s really impressive that Hell’s Acres was the first to report Springfield detectives didn’t speak to the guy Tammy wrote “got her pregnant” in her diary. 30 years later and he’s uncovering new clues to help explain what happened that summer.
I really appreciate all the hard work you’ve put into finding answers for what happened to my friend.
This is a lot of hard work. You should pat yourself on the back. I think nice stuff all the time but I don’t always say it. The world needs more people like you.
And??? There’s no story to go along with this? Come in guys… are you talking to yourselves???
I don’t know about all this Hell’s Acres. I think people are jerking you around
Why wouldn’t Devon reach out to his brother David? Not talking in years kinda hints that David isn’t such a calm guy or maybe they have some family issues. You wrote this in December. David wants to let the world know the grim reaper paid him a visit but his dead pregnant girlfriend isn’t worth a couple minutes of his time.
Allison clearly knows more than she’s willing to share but I think someone needs to ask her if she knew David wasn’t questioned by police.
I don’t think Richard knew this. He would’ve mentioned this in his father speaks video that Lou Rock video. He talked about kids being questioned and Dave playing a game with Tammy. He also spoke about kids being warned ahead of time about being questioned. A warning wouldn’t give him a free pass. Something doesn’t add up.
AnonymousJuly 28, 2024 at 6:18 PM
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…
This is for Rick. If this is true. What do you plan on doing about it?
Hells Acres .. can I reach you somehow?
hellsacres@gmail.com
Give them credit for trying???
What would you do if your child went missing and you were desperate for help?
I think asking friends and family members to spread rumors to spark police interest is a really good idea. I’m really curious why it didn’t work?
I’ve shared all the rumors I’ve heard in the last few years and I haven’t had one person with first hand knowledge willing to come forward. No one wants to sit down and talk about any of these things. Yes, I know that Richard shared a lot of stuff and I’m grateful for it, but he never answered any of the questions I felt were important. He just left us all with more questions.
I don’t have any negative feelings toward the Lynds family. I’m not sure where any of this could lead, but I know doing nothing will lead nowhere.
Someone said you wrote a blog on the sixteen acres rapist that wore underwear on his head. I couldn’t find it.
He’s in this post: https://hellsacres.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-1994-fox-road-murder-mystery-part-4.html?m=1
He’s also mentioned at length in the comments at the bottom of this post: https://hellsacres.blogspot.com/2012/06/18-year-old-fox-road-murder-mystery.html?m=1
I don’t recall seeing any missing persons posters or hearing about this Tammy missing in the news. Do any other locals remember seeing them?
Ricky said district attorney Mark Mastroianni was in a video saying that he was gonna go over Tammy’s diary again and he can’t find it on YouTube anymore.
I found one news video on YouTube that said the examination of her case was intense and the scrutiny was intense.
Ricky has a good point, how intense could it have been to miss a chance to speak with David?
How many other kids weren’t questioned?
I think Ricky’s right…….. these people were too lazy to go over Tammy’s diary and notes again.
Detectives didn’t put any work into her case.
I can’t imagine how fucking pissed Richard Lynds must’ve gotten dealing with these asshats…. Wtf is wrong with springfield police?????????? Richard must be rolling over in his grave……
I’d just be worried about saying things and then finding out you’re wrong or what’s been said isn’t true. Just saying 😉
These are pretty wild stories. I bet you could get a few more people to share their experiences and you could have another blog series.
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