Tammy A. Vincent

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Marin County Sheriff/coroners Office (CA)

Offense Location:

Tiburon, California

Summary:

Tammy Vincent disappeared from Seattle, Washington on September 10th 1979. Two weeks later her body was found on a beach in a Tiburon, California. She had been brutally attacked and murdered. Since her body was set on fire and badly burnt, she remained unidentified for nearly thirty years. In 2007, the remains were identified as belonging to Vincent after her mother and sister submitted DNA samples which led to a match being found. Her murder remains unsolved.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

Tammy Vincent originally lived with her parents on their farm in Okanogan County, Washington. Those who knew Vincent described her as a headstrong teen with a thirst for adventure. She often fought with her parents, ran away from home, and would disappear for weeks at a time. She left her parent’s house in the fall of 1978 before she ended up in a foster home in Spokane. Vincent then ended up in Seattle, Washington where she found work as a prostitute. She was arrested in a raid on two SeaTac, Washington establishments that were suspected fronts for prostitution in August 1979. In exchange for immunity, Vincent agreed to testify against several people who were arrested on suspicion of operating these establishments as fronts for human trafficking. As a result, Vincent was moved to Spokane to keep her safe and away from the suspects. However, an attorney of one of the suspects found her and divulged her location. She left shortly after this. Tammy was officially reported missing to the King County Sheriff’s Office on August 29th 1979. She was last seen at a motel 19200 block of Aurora Avenue North on September 10th 1979. Witnesses saw her getting into a silver Lincoln Continental driven by one of the men who employed her for prostitution. She was never seen again. The next day, she was ordered to be held as a material witness to testify against her employers but Vincent never showed up to court. Vincent’s family last saw her during the summer of 1979 when she showed up to her house in a car with someone else they didn’t know. She later called her family, indicated her life was in danger and that she wanted to come home. This was the last time her family heard from her. For years it was suspected Vincent had been a victim of the Green River Killer, a notorious serial killer who targeted prostitutes in the Seattle area. He was later identified as Gary Leon Ridgeway in 2001 and was subsequently convicted of over 40 murders. In 2003, Tammy’s mother and sister gave detectives DNA samples to see if she was a match for any of Ridgeway’s unidentified victims but no match was found.

Additional Details:

Tammy was driven to San Francisco, California to prevent her from testifying in the criminal case against her employers. It’s been noted that her employers had connections to the area. She is believed to have worked as a prostitute at the Palace Theater on Turk Street in San Francisco. The last person to see her alive was a clerk at a Woolworths store on Powell and Market Streets in San Francisco on the night of September 25th 1979. She was in the company of a white male who was dressed in a white leisure suit. The clerk said that the man purchased an ice pick, acetone, and paint before him and Vincent departed the store. Tammy was then driven to a beach on Blackie’s Pasture in Tiburon, California. It’s believed that she was attacked in a nearby parking lot before her killer stabbed her 43 times in the back and chest with the ice pick when she tried to escape. Vincent was then doused with acetone and paint before being set on fire by her attacker. Her face was burned beyond recognition but she was still alive, managed to get herself up and run 20 feet across the beach before collapsing. She was then shot in the back of the head, killing her instantly. Her killer than set her body on fire once again and fled the scene in a blue van. A witness reported seeing a “bonfire” on the beach at 3:00 am followed by a blue van speeding away from the scene. Vincent’s body was found by joggers on the morning of September 26th 1979. The suspect left behind the ice pick, black paint can, two containers of acetone, and a cigarette lighter at the scene. Also left behind was the receipt from Woolworth’s which had the murder weapons listed. Despite extensive investigations into the teenager’s murder, Vincent’s body was not identified for nearly three decades. In 2002, her body was exhumed so DNA samples could be taken. The identification came in February 2007 when Tammy Vincent’s DNA sample was uploaded into CODIS to be compared to all unidentified human remains found in the United States. A match was found between Vincent and the unidentified murder victim found in Tiburon. Her remains were cremated on August 7th 2007 and returned to her family in Seattle.

Case Last Updated:

Nov 14, 2025