Tammy Alexander

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Livingston County Sheriffs Department (NY)

Offense Location:

Town of Caledonia, New York

Summary:

Tammy Jo Alexander was a 16-year-old girl from Brooksville, Florida who ran away from home in 1979 and was murdered on November 9, 1979. She was shot twice and found in a cornfield in Caledonia, New York on November 10, 1979, remaining unidentified for 35 years until DNA identified her in January 2015. Her murder remains unsolved.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

In 1979, Tammy Jo ran away from her home in Brooksville, Florida. This would be the last time she was ever seen by her family. Either in early October or November of 1979, Tammy ended up somewhere in Upstate New York. On November 9, 1979, Tammy was seen at a diner in Lima, New York alongside an older man. The waitress who served them stated that Tammy did not appear distressed or in any danger. Other people at the restaurant have also backed up the claim that Tammy was spotted there. Tammy was later killed sometime after leaving the diner with the unknown man. The farmer saw red clothing in one of his corn fields near the Genesee River and went to investigate, assuming that he had spotted a trespassing hunter. Instead, he found the body of a young woman and notified police soon after. She had been shot once in the head, dragged into the cornfield from the road, and then shot again in the back. The girl had been murdered with a .38 caliber weapon but was unidentified for many years.

Additional Details:

Pamela Dyson, Alexander's half-sister, believes that Alexander left to escape a turbulent household. Dyson had a different father from Alexander, and, after about age 11, she lived with her paternal grandmother. According to Dyson, Alexander's biological father was not part of the younger girl's life; she grew up with their mother, Barbara Jenkins, and a stepfather. Tammy ended up at the Rainbow Prison Ministry in Young Harris, Georgia, which is a rural yet mountainous region in the Northern sector of Georgia and hosts inmates who have either been released on parole or on probation. This was the last confirmed communication made by Tammy, later that summer Tammy's trace disappears. On what would have been her 57th birthday, cassette recordings of Tammy's voice were released publicly. The messages contained were addressed to her then-boyfriend, which were created around July 1979. Most potential forensic evidence was washed away by heavy rain on the night she died, but they knew she had come to the Caledonia area from a distant, warmer locale because she had tan lines on her upper body. Alexander's case was well-publicized in the time she was unidentified, and Livingston County police continued to process thousands of leads from the public. The investigation stalled in 1980, leading county officials to arrange for her burial as "Unidentified Girl" at Greenmount Cemetery in Dansville, New York. In 1984, serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed to the crime, but his statement was not considered credible. In 2016, three men had been tested against the DNA sample detected on Tammy's clothing; in November it had been announced that none of them turned out to be a match. The men were described as persons of interest, as they were acquainted with Tammy before she died. Carl Koppelman, a California man who is a member of Websleuths, believed that he had identified a match between a new image of Tammy Alexander, long missing from Hernando County, Florida, and a forensic portrait of a young unidentified homicide victim known as Caledonia Jane Doe, found in Livingston County, New York in 1979. He notified both Sheriff's offices and the NamUs database administrators. With this lead, police were able to make a DNA match between the victim and her half-sister, confirming her in January 2015 as Alexander more than 35 years after her death. Serial killer Christopher Wilder was speculated to possibly be involved in the murder, which took place several years before he began his crime spree. He was killed by police before investigators in New York could speak with him about the case.

Case Last Updated:

Oct 16, 2026