TAMMY ZYWICKI: Who killed this Grinnell College senior in Iowa - August 1992

On a sweltering August day in 1992, Tammy Jo Zywicki dropped her younger brother off at Northwestern University in Illinois, and set out for Grinnell College in Iowa, excited for her senior year.

The 21-year-old never made it.

Hours after Tammy left the Chicago area and headed west toward Iowa on I-80, her white 1985 Pontiac 1000 hatchback was found abandoned on the side of the road, five miles east of LaSalle, Illinois.

Tammy — an upbeat, athletic, talented amateur photographer from Marlton, New Jersey — was nowhere to be found.

For nine days, her family, friends and the police looked for her.

Their desperate search ended on Sept. 1, when a driver spotted her body, wrapped in a blanket, on the side of a Missouri interstate.

"I was just numb," Tammy's mother, JoAnn Zywicki, now 78, tells PEOPLE about learning her daughter was dead. <more at link>

College Student Was Brutally Slain on Drive to Campus in 1992: Will DNA Advances Catch Her Killer?

The Tammy Zywicki murder case is the focus of the March 22 season premiere of <em>People Magazine Investigates</em>, airing at 10 ET/9 CT on Investigation Discovery and discovery+

people.com

An #IOWA college student went missing in 1992. Later, she was found murdered and wrapped in a blanket. Who killed her?

For nearly three decades, police have been hunting for answers about who killed Tammy and how her remains ended up 500 miles south from where she was last seen.

www.crimewatchers.net

 

[Kimster]

Bill Huffman's podcast, and more information with links:

Tammy Zywicki, August 23, 1992

Source: FBI.gov On August 23, 1992, Tammy J. Zywicki departed Evanston, Illinois, for college in Grinnell, Iowa, where she was expected to arrive that evening.

podcasts.apple.com

 

[GrandmaBear]

I read the articles but have not watched the podcast. Does anyone know if her car was found out of gas, with any mechanical problems, flat tire or damage by another vehilcle?

The small punctures around the heart are unusual sounding. Never heard of such a thing. Who would know how to do such a thing?

Just thoughts upon first reading although I have seen her picture somewhere before/the case.

 

[kdg411]

I read the articles but have not watched the podcast. Does anyone know if her car was found out of gas, with any mechanical problems, flat tire or damage by another vehilcle?

The small punctures around the heart are unusual sounding. Never heard of such a thing. Who would know how to do such a thing?

Just thoughts upon first reading although I have seen her picture somewhere before/the case.

I'm familiar with this one .. here's a recent article about her car

An Illinois State Police trooper found Zywicki’s white 1985 Pontiac T1000 abandoned on Interstate 80 near mile marker 83 in LaSalle County. Zywicki had been having car trouble on her trip, which started from her family’s home in New Jersey. An extensive search was conducted. Zywicki’s body was discovered by accident on Sept. 1, 1992, alongside a Missouri highway. The 21-year-old had been stabbed to death, authorities said.

Murder of college student Tammy Zywicki, who disappeared in Illinois, back in the TV spotlight

The unsolved murder of a college student who went missing while driving from Evanston to Iowa in 1992 is the subject of a new episode of the TV show “People

www.pantagraph.com

ISP details Unsolved Crimes

 

[Guess Who]

most likely took I-44 straight down. That's about an 8 hour trip.

 

[GrandmaBear]

I'm familiar with this one .. here's a recent article about her car

An Illinois State Police trooper found Zywicki’s white 1985 Pontiac T1000 abandoned on Interstate 80 near mile marker 83 in LaSalle County. Zywicki had been having car trouble on her trip, which started from her family’s home in New Jersey. An extensive search was conducted. Zywicki’s body was discovered by accident on Sept. 1, 1992, alongside a Missouri highway. The 21-year-old had been stabbed to death, authorities said.

Murder of college student Tammy Zywicki, who disappeared in Illinois, back in the TV spotlight

The unsolved murder of a college student who went missing while driving from Evanston to Iowa in 1992 is the subject of a new episode of the TV show “People

www.pantagraph.com

ISP details Unsolved Crimes

Thank you. So she was having car trouble or at least had been prior... Probably no cell phone either based on the fact this was in 1992.

 

[kdg411]

Thank you. So she was having car trouble or at least had been prior... Probably no cell phone either based on the fact this was in 1992.

Correct. The only cell phones then were the ones that mounted in your car, if I recall correctly.

 

[Guess Who]

Correct. The only cell phones then were the ones that mounted in your car, if I recall correctly.

people were more apt to have pagers in 1992 than cell phones. They did have cell phones in 1992 but they were HUGE and not that common.

 

[GrandmaBear]

So from Chicago to LaSalle is only about 1.5 hours or about 100 miles. She did not get a long way in her car... Not even close to her college and then southwest to Missouri with someone most likely. As said before, not the best mapper but I googled separately to look. It certainly does fit with a trucker but then it could be anyone as well of course.

 

[GrandmaBear]

Correct. The only cell phones then were the ones that mounted in your car, if I recall correctly.

people were more apt to have pagers in 1992 than cell phones. They did have cell phones in 1992 but they were HUGE and not that common.

Yeah and parents were unlikely to have the phones that were out at the time or car phones, much less children, even adult children. As I recall...

 

[Kimster]

I read the articles but have not watched the podcast. Does anyone know if her car was found out of gas, with any mechanical problems, flat tire or damage by another vehilcle?

The small punctures around the heart are unusual sounding. Never heard of such a thing. Who would know how to do such a thing?

Just thoughts upon first reading although I have seen her picture somewhere before/the case.

The punctures weren't due to the stab wounds?

 

[GrandmaBear]

The punctures weren't due to the stab wounds?

I am not sure just that the one article said they are unusual and were made around her heart with something quite small, sounded like never seen anything quite like it before... It stood out to me.

 

[GrandmaBear]

The punctures weren't due to the stab wounds?

Here you go, it is from the People article above. I guess they are stab wounds but from a small, sharp item causing internal bleeding and was a "strange" way to kill someone.

She'd been stabbed with a small, sharp item which caused internal bleeding, says retired Illinois State Police special agent Martin McCarthy.
"It was a strange way to kill somebody," he says. [emphasis added is mine]

 

[Kimster]

Here you go, it is from the People article above. I guess they are stab wounds but from a small, sharp item causing internal bleeding and was a "strange" way to kill someone.

She'd been stabbed with a small, sharp item which caused internal bleeding, says retired Illinois State Police special agent Martin McCarthy.
"It was a strange way to kill somebody," he says.

It makes me wonder if the weapon was used as to its availability in the heat of the moment, rather than a planned attack.

 

[Guess Who]

Here you go, it is from the People article above. I guess they are stab wounds but from a small, sharp item causing internal bleeding and was a "strange" way to kill someone.

She'd been stabbed with a small, sharp item which caused internal bleeding, says retired Illinois State Police special agent Martin McCarthy.
"It was a strange way to kill somebody," he says.

ice pick? long darning type needle?

how "small" is small?

 

[GrandmaBear]

It makes me wonder if the weapon was used as to its availability in the heat of the moment, rather than a planned attack.

It could very well be, some weapon of opportunity? I also wondered the opposite, if it was perhaps to not have "external" blood evidence and more of a signature...

 

[GrandmaBear]

ice pick? long darning type needle?

how "small" is small?

That's what I wonder too? It could also be short and sharp or long and narrow and sharp. Not very specific...

 

[Summer_Breeze]

Tammy J. Zywicki murder remains a mystery

LAWRENCE COUNTY, Mo. — It’s been 30 years since college student Tammy J. Zywicki was found dead more than 500 miles from her hometown. Many questions still remain but the most important &#821…

www.fourstateshomepage.com

by: Abigael Killinger
Posted: Mar 24, 2023 / 09:26 AM CDT
Updated: Mar 24, 2023 / 12:28 PM CDT

<snip>
“It’s certainly been one of the harder ones because it may have occurred over multiple states and that is something that makes it really hard. It wasn’t just something that happened just here in Lawrence County but again it could have been Illinois, it could have been any of a number of states and the area that we have to look through is just so vast,” said Delay.


Delay says if the agency had the proper technology at the time things could have been different in solving this case.

“And of course during that time we didn’t have the technology that we have now to help solve crimes, some of what we call “rapid fire DNA testing” and a lot of different things that could have been used back then had we had it, it may have helped us, but then again it may not. So, there are just a lot of things that we simply just don’t have the answer for yet,” he added.
The Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office still receives information on the case and urges the public to continue speaking up.

“Somebody else has heard something that we already knew about but they felt the need, and we are grateful that they felt the need to pass that on to us because that’s right now probably about the only thing that is going to solve this case is somebody, somewhere, driving down the road at that time saw something, saw that semi-truck, saw a guy unloading some unusual package on the side of the road and that’s probably the only way at this point we are going to be able to solve this,” said Delay.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Upstate soccer team honors former player killed three decades ago

An Upstate soccer team is honoring a young woman, whose life was tragically cut short more than three decades ago.

www.foxcarolina.com

Upstate soccer team honors former player killed three decades ago​

An Upstate soccer team is honoring a young woman, whose life was tragically cut short more than three decades ago.

On Monday night, the Eastside High School girls soccer team hosted the Tammy Zywicki Memorial Soccer Game. The game is a way to honor her life, while reminding the community of the unsolved crime that took her life.

Tammy’s brother, Dean Zywicki, expressed his gratitude, stating, “It means a lot to our family that the high school does this and people remember her.”

The Eastside girls soccer team took to the field wearing armbands stitched with Tammy’s name and the class of ‘89, paying tribute to the former player.

Tammy was named the Most Valuable Player in her senior year of high school. She continued her soccer journey at Grinnell College in Iowa.


Tammy’s death has left a lasting impact on her loved ones. Her friend, Maryanne Fox said, “It’s gonna take one brave person that knows these people and know what occurred to come forward and say finally speak truth.”

Her brother remains hopeful that forensic advancements could help solve the case. “Each year that goes by, its probably less and less likely, but also with scientific advances, I know that some of the cases that have been closed have been solved,” Dean Zywicki said.

The FBI and the Illinois State Police said new techniques for testing DNA may help reveal the killer’s identity.

The FBI is actively working on the investigation and encourage anyone with information to contact their local FBI office.