America’s Highway Serial Killers /// Part 3 /// 592 | Forensic Files

[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you're
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[Music] I need you with me [Music] [Music] back in 2003 we started seeing a marked increase in
the number of bodies recovered along the side of the road and as we started digging into it
more and more we started noticing within our database a number of bodies along the side of the road victims kept coming
up as prostitutes specifically truck stop prostitutes and one after another our main suspects or confirmed offenders
were identified as truck drivers and so putting those pieces together we started
to say something's going on we have an inordinate number of victims and offenders from this rather specific pool
of the population so what's going on here what are we missing and this is not to say that every truck
driver is a serial killer obviously but when we see them come up when we know that we've identified one as a subject
they're extremely difficult to track down and the mobility of their occupation allows them access to so many
different areas of victim selection and then victim release locations so we've developed this initiative to
try to focus in on these cases to help those agencies who are investigating these types of cases that don't know
where to turn that don't have the information or know what information they should even be requesting to try to
track these guys down and then once they've been identified them to then tie them to similar cases Nationwide and
that's where vicap really comes in is because it's a database of these similar types of cases we can use things like
the offender's Mo like building a timeline on the subject and being able to place them in the location of a
similar case to tie them back to additional cases [Music] you heard it right there that is the
voice of a great woman an incredible crime fighter who we have talked about so much recently on this greatest of
True Crime shows greatest of course that is if you prefer a little hint of garage
in your crime reporting turns out most do that there at the start of our true crime talk in today's trailer was the
voice of Christine Palazzolo an FBI crime analyst who worked on the highway serial killer initiative and of course
was so instrumental in the identifying serial killer Sam little and his victims a case and serial killer that we
profiled here three weeks ago in the garage in a three-part series starting with episode
585 titled Sam little the killer of women back to Christine Palazzolo I think that someone should build a statue
of this woman for all of her brilliant and hard work that she has done over the years saving lives no I'll start making
one out of mashed potatoes and helping to find Justice for some victims when Justice looked to be so doubtful that is
Agent Palazzolo dropping us some knowledge about the FBI's Highway serial killer initiative and VI cap which our
listeners know stands for the violent criminal apprehension program now we are going to start off today
talking about a young woman named Tammy Joe zawicki who unfortunately could possibly fit into both of those
categories concerning the FBI the highway serial killer initiative and VI cap and this is such a scary and sad
story Tammy Joe zawicki was a wonderful very intelligent bright enthusiastic young woman now if anyone wants to look
Tammy up you can find her on the FBI's website fbi.gov Tammy can be found under the
seeking information category there they have listed reward information as well which says the FBI is offering a reward
of up to fifty thousand dollars in this case and listen carefully because this case is incredibly solvable so listen
carefully because as our friend Robert Stack said maybe you can help solve a mystery we will start this True Crime
Story off with a paragraph from Iran aryan's masterful article from People magazine that he wrote on this case
titled the long road back Ron's article came out in August 23rd of 1993. this was one year after the crime and starts
off by citing some statistics just keep in mind these statistics are from 1993. and the article starts off
statistics and crime reporting tell us much about murder in the U.S we know that on average 20 000 Americans are
killed every year and we often learn how they were murdered and why far less visible however are the
repercussions of those homicides the pain that a victim's family and friends must live with in the months and years
after this is the story of one such crime the killing of a 21 year old college student
on or shortly after August 23 1992 and how it challenged and changed the lives of her family classmates and
community over the following 12 months as in any investigation Captain the timeline is always extremely important
so let's dive right into the timeline and a shout out here to the good folks over at uncovered.com who have one of
the most comprehensive timelines for Tammy's case our timeline is going to start in August 21st 1992. August 21st
was a Friday that year now we already said that Tammy was quite intelligent but she was rather driven as well in
fact Tammy is a double major in art history and Spanish and she has recently returned from studying abroad in Madrid
good for her Captain I think if I ever get the opportunity to go to Madrid I don't think that I'm coming back nor
would you study but Tammy is back and she's getting ready to start her senior year at Grinnell College which is a
private school located in Grinnell Iowa home of the fighting squirrels as said she studied in Spain during the spring
semester of her junior year then Tammy spent the summer living at home with her parents and working at a video store
this in New Jersey on Friday August 21st Tammy and her younger brother Darren are leaving from
their parents home in New Jersey it's my understanding that they moved there the
year before when their father Dan was transferred Tammy grew up most of her younger years in Greenville South
Carolina so they're heading from New Jersey to Pittsburgh this is because Tammy's parents they're already in
Pittsburgh they're visiting either family or friends and Tammy and Darren will be stopping there and staying the
night Darren is 19 years old and he's attending Northwestern University plan Tammy and Darren will stay the
night in Pittsburgh with their parents from there they will drive about seven and a half hours to Northwestern
University to get Darren to campus Tammy will stay one night there with a friend of hers at Northwestern and then
Tammy will continue on traveling solo from Northwestern University to Grinnell college so Sammy will travel the 295
miles from Northwestern to Grinnell by herself this is roughly a four and a half to five and a half hour drive
depending on Route and anybody that's done any traveling knows that's two long days of travel so everything starts off
according to plan Tammy and Darren arrive in Pittsburgh they stay the night there on Saturday August 22nd Tammy and
Darren make the long trip from Pittsburgh to Evanston Illinois home of Northwestern University
now this leg of the trip was not only the longest part of the drive but this is where they start to run into some car
trouble Tammy is driving a white 1985 Pontiac T1000 four-door hatchback Darren would later say that they had to
stop a couple of times because the engine was stalled the T-1000 model sounds like a Terminator model from the
long road back article Darren explains quote the engine would just decelerate the oil light would Flicker and then
when you'd pull over the engine would shut off after the next two stalls I added oil and water and it ran fine
once in Evanston Tammy drops Darren off and then she stays the night with her friend
this brings us to Sunday August 23rd before Tammy left Darren says he checked everything on the Pontiac and told Tammy
if the car started doing what it had done the day before to just stop somewhere like at a rest area and wait
until the evening when it was cooler and then continue to drive so it sounds to me Captain like the car was mostly
overheating sounds to me to be the problem and this being August as well just because we're in the garage doesn't
mean we're mechanics Tammy left Evanston Illinois heading west to Grinnell Tammy
made it past Chicago heading toward interstate 80. at about 505 p.m that Sunday about four hours after she had
said goodbye to her brother an Illinois State Police Officer spotted a white 1985 Pontiac parked on the westbound
shoulder of I-80 this is five miles east of LaSalle located next to mile marker 83. the
locked car was tagged as an abandoned vehicle now not until 2 pm the next day which would be Monday the vehicle would
be towed away and not until 7 pm would the owner be identified of this abandoned vehicle all right but we need
to fill in some of the gaps here yes Captain so we have Tammy she leaves her friends home around lunchtime that day
now at approximately three to four pm Witnesses would later report seeing Tammy pulled over on the shoulder of
Interstate 80. this is as said next to mile marker 83 the exit for Utica so unfortunately
she doesn't make it very far before she runs into what we can presume was additional car trouble right depending
on what route one would take you are looking at a four and a half to five and a half hour drive from Northwestern to
Grinnell College Tammy only made it about an hour and 40 minutes to about two hours of drive time
her route is a little curious to me I would have taken 88 until it picks up Interstate 80 so she's a little further
south than what I would have expected but it is still in route to Grinnell now here's where things get a little
messy police say according to eyewitness statements they have about 20 different
vehicle types that supposedly stopped to help Tammy but one in particular stood out to law enforcement that was a
semi-truck or a tractor-trailer before we get back to the article it is important to note that Tammy's friends
at Grinnell College often just called her Z on Monday August 24th now this is back at home in New Jersey
her parents the zawikis had expected Tammy to make her usual check-in call when she arrived at Grinnell when she
didn't telephone on Sunday evening turns out neither parent was overly concerned they said quote we thought she
had probably met up with friends and it got too late to call this is Tammy's mother saying this her name is Joanne
but by Monday morning when they still hadn't heard from Tammy they began to worry
and we have her father Hank says by then we knew something was wrong it just wasn't
like her not to check in with us you were stating that there was problems with the car before and hey if I just
add a little bit of water I add a little oil it fixes the problem it could be the
reason why her driving plan is a little different than what you would have taken
because there could have been some issue going on with the car that she tried to
you know make a stop to fix got back on the freeway and and then then the car stopped
working and not only that the the reason for to to go kind of into panic mode here for
the zwikis would be not only the the concern that she didn't call Sunday night she still hasn't called Monday
morning but by now you've likely spoken to Darren your son who has told you yeah
we ran into some car trouble right from between Pittsburgh and Northwestern and I told her what to do the car
checked out and looked to be fine when she left but now you know hey my 21 year old daughter is driving solo by herself
for five and a half hours roughly in a vehicle that is not in Tip-Top shape right
so Tammy's mother Joanne she repeatedly called Tammy's friends at Grinnell wondering if anybody had seen her and of
course nobody is reporting that they had in fact somebody wrote on the message board which was located just outside of
Tammy's dorm room and wrote Z where have you been your mom's having a cow so everybody was expecting her to show
up at some point unfortunately that doesn't end up being the case well I feel bad for her mom because that hurt
really bad to have a cow but a couple things one when your vehicle is not driving correctly you're more likely to
get into an accident so you have that to think about or if she pulls over on the side of the road
she could get hit by a moving vehicle um people drive like yahoos and then you have the other possibility that if she
breaks down in a bad location that she's met with the wrong crowd or somebody with nefarious thoughts stops to help
her instead of somebody being a Good Samaritan so a lot of possibilities of of putting yourself in a bad position so
now we have both parents that are extremely worried Joanne asked Grinnell Police to look for Tammy's car
then began calling Iowa and Illinois State Police it was only after their daughter's
hatchback had been towed and a description logged on a computer that the zawikis Learned of its location
now keep in mind this is we've already pointed out this is going to be later on Monday once this vehicle is towed so
Hank when he finds out this new information her father he immediately filed a missing persons report with the
Illinois police because that's where the vehicle was found in the state of Illinois
he described his daughter in the report as five foot two inches tall 120 pounds blonde with green eyes and long blonde
hair now he later added that she was probably wearing turquoise shell wire rim glasses and had her hair in a
ponytail and when last seen by her brother she was wearing a white T-shirt dark shorts and gray running shoes she
also had a fabric friendship necklace and a green watch that played Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
it's also reported in the report that she was carrying about 150 dollars in cash credit cards a leather handbag
extra clothing and a box and several cameras now in Illinois the state police they
scoured the interstate the I-80 site where Tammy's car was found eventually using metal detectors search
dogs and a helicopter the car which this is really disappointing to hear she's missing we can believe that it's
due to her car trouble but when police find it in they say that it started up without any
problem after being towed but like you stated earlier it sounds like the car possibly was overheating so when she
pulls over on the side of the road the car cools down when they try to start it back up it starts up fine yeah you just
gotta chill out for a little bit there so it says in it's reported that they checked the vehicle for fingerprints the
problem with putting that item right here in our timeline is I don't think that it fits right here in the timeline
I know for a fact that they checked the vehicle for fingerprints however this was done days
later it wasn't done right after it was towed or right after it was identified as belonging to this now missing person
well because State Highway Patrol sees abandoned cars all the time hundreds and hundreds of them a day and
so this is a typical procedure we're going to take the car we're going to give them a day
for the owner to come move it oh they don't move it we're going to tow it now we're going
to figure out who owns this vehicle now we got to contact somebody that has connected to them so it is a process and
I know with a lot of these missing person cases you know like Mara Murray and stuff where people go law
enforcement didn't do enough well if they could go back in time and if if somebody would have told them hey you
need to uh really do your due diligence and look for evidence in this vehicle because this person will be missing for
the next 20 or 30 years but an abandoned car just becomes very routine for law enforcement and you're right captain
that is absolutely the case especially in a case like Mara Murray's where she is not reported missing for several days
but in this case it's quite a bit different because the vehicle's towed at 2 pm she's reported missing at 7 pm and
identified as the owner and Driver of the vehicle that was towed so yeah it takes some time for those things to work
their way through the system but they had all the information Illinois State Police did at that time that night and
it wasn't fingerprinted that night now when the vehicle was eventually searched we learned that Tammy's leather bag the
money any money that she was carrying credit cards and a Canon EO s camera we're all missing from the
vehicle so either she took those with her or somebody else took those from her on Monday August 31st investigators
announced that they were looking for a white five axle semi-tractor trailer with two brownish diagonal stripes on
both the tractor and trailer they say that drive-by Witnesses reported seeing the truck and its driver near mile
marker 83 on Interstate 80 on August 23rd roughly between 3 and 4 P.M and a man was seen with the semi truck
as well and that man is described as a white male about six feet tall with bushy dark hair the man appeared to be
talking to a young blonde woman who resembled Tammy our missing person the two were standing by her car
apparently checking something under the hood According to some of these Witnesses Illinois State Police
Lieutenant Harold brignado said of the man he is the last person we know who may have talked to her he's not a
suspect we just want to talk to him now of course with this announcement Captain leads are flowing in this is
when we get about 60 people reporting that they saw Tammy on the side of the interstate between 3 and 4 P.M on that
Sunday afternoon the hood of her car was up some reported seeing a green Dotson pickup parked behind her vehicle
another described a tractor-trailer truck with stripes down the side of the trailer but again over 20 vehicle types
were reported as being seen parked at that General location and that General time
which really confuses matters quite a bit later police would say that we had all of these reports of people seeing
other vehicles stop there on the side of Interstate 80 but right we didn't have anyone coming forward saying that they
were somebody that actually stopped to help Tammy or somebody that comes forward and says they they stopped and
spoke with her right and just think about the distance that she was covering that day over 200 and
some miles if somebody stopped to help her that was traveling a distance like that there they could be two to three
hundred miles away when cops are looking for answers nine days after Tammy disappears this is on Tuesday September
1st a man driving on Interstate 44. this is in Missouri in the state of Missouri
this is 490 miles from where Tammy was last seen this man was driving for his work that
day and he stopped because he was concerned that his tools in the back of his truck were getting wet it was
raining fairly heavily at this time when he stops while stopped he noticed something
wrapped in a blanket secure it on both ends with duct tape it was about 14 feet from the edge of the roadway he said
there was a foul odor the man is 37 year old Lonnie DeMont he said quote I was finished and was
coming around to the front of the truck when I smelled the odor I looked right and saw the blanket in the grass just
from the shape of it I could tell it was a body so DeMont drove to a nearby Highway Patrol station
and tells them what he witnessed then he returns to the scene with an officer they made a small cut in the
blanket and saw a human leg the body which was lying face up on a grassy slope again about 14 feet from the
pavement had been wrapped tightly in a white twin size sheet and a dull red blanket silver duct tape closed off both
ends so somebody unfortunately wrapped up this package nice and neat almost like a
large burrito here on the side and I'm I'm guessing by our Witnesses statements here
I can visualize this and agree with the size and the shape that unfortunately what we're looking at here is probably a
bottle [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] we are back cheers mates cheers cheers
to you Colonel now they're not going to be able to identify this body right away
right unfortunately it's going to take dental records that would soon tell detectives that this was in fact the
body of their missing college student Tammy's a Wiki Tammy was wearing an East Side Eagles t-shirt and shorts that had
a Greenville County Recreation Soccer League logo on it important to note really kind of a bizarre fact of this
case these are not the clothes that she had on when she left Evanston remember we
have our witnesses there her friend her brother the solar right before she left she also had on lacy panties and a bra
embroidered with the word love and the Brazier was like a nude color or flesh tone and we have her mother who goes on
record Joanne stating this is not anything that Tammy would have picked out for herself or purchased for herself
to her knowledge so go ahead so it leans towards this idea that maybe a perpetrator
uh abductor or trickster into getting hey get into my vehicle I'll take you down to the gas station well now once I
get you in the vehicle I can control you and then he puts her in a situation where he says you need to put on this
outfit or you need to put on this lingerie or whatever that seems like the situation but keep in mind the East Side
Eagles t-shirt and the shorts with the Greenville County recreational soccer league logo on them those those two
items belong to her she just wasn't wearing those according to our Witnesses when she left just a few hours earlier
but yeah you're right with the undergarments this according to her family they're
saying these were we don't believe these two be hers and we believe whoever abducted her made
her wear these for whatever reason at some point now the Lawrence County coroner his name
is Don Lakin had performed the first examination of what was initially described as a shoeless badly decomposed
body and he States in his early report it appeared to be a white female approximately 16 to 24 years of age she
was clothed in a blue T-shirt with East Side Eagles soccer 1989 printed and white lettering on the front and had a
pair of faded blue cut off sweatpants athletic socks that is the description of her clothing some of the more grim
findings from our corner here are seven puncture wounds made by a sharp instrument no more than a half inch wide
these were found in the upper chest area the weapon had penetrated the lungs liver and pericardial Sac around the
heart the victim's right bicep was also punctured possibly due to a struggle or maybe she went to defend herself or
block the knife with her hand or arm and receive the puncture to the right bicep
right a bruise-like discoloration appeared on the right side of her neck interesting and then a quote from the
coroner says the odd part was she didn't appear to have any blood just some body
fluids on the sheet and blanket from the decomposition end quote he estimated that the body had been out in the sun
for four maybe five days all right so let's take some inventory of the situation here shall we our
victim has been stabbed seven times six times in a circular pattern around her heart
and once in her right arm the knife used was small per the report most likely a pen knife is what experts
have said and I've reviewed conflicting reports on the amount of defensive wounds some say
that she put up quite a struggle others say that there was a surprising lack of defensive wounds I'm not
100 percent sure why the discrepancy in this description well hopefully she was able to rip this son of a bitch's
testicles out but discrepancies like this make it hard to examine the case yeah and it sounds to me like they've
done a couple of examinations so maybe they had other findings later but again we can only report to you what we have
viewed and read ourselves and from the prior information in that report the other thing that really sucks here
for any type of investigation is we don't get a good idea of when she was killed
or where right we're we're simply told that he estimated that she had been out in the
sun for four or maybe five days well it was nine days later from the time that she was we can just say abducted we
don't have to keep saying disappeared or went missing it's obvious at this point
that she's been abducted by somebody and had to have been abducted on that day that her vehicle broke down so it's nine
days later when the body is found and if our coroner is suggesting that it's four
or five days out in the sun I think he's kind of ballparking it here Captain I don't think he's you know giving us uh I
don't think that's a really a window of time that we should be really anchored to here in our
investigation right but it does sound to me unfortunately like there was a possibility that she may have been held
somewhere for a period of time and obviously they're stating she wasn't killed on the side of the road there
everything points to she's been killed elsewhere and then somebody pulls up and dumps the body there 14 feet from the
edge of the road on this offering a lot of killers will take their victims back to their home and then torture them at
their home and then once they kill the victim they they dump the victim but some of these truck drivers they can
just they can use their truck as their little torture chamber and when they're done with their victim they can then
just dump them on the side of the road well in one of the serial killers that we started off talking about last week
keep in mind he had a partner for some of his murders he had his girlfriend riding shotgun with him so in that
situation you have somebody that is there to help you control your victim while you're still traveling and keep in
mind too we also have to factor in the distance between where we know she was last seen
and where the body is eventually found nine days later it's what did we say captain 490 miles
yeah that's at 60 mile an hour that's over eight hours of driving we love math right there so we have at least one day
in some kind of vehicle transporting the body right regardless of the situation and
she may have been sitting out there her body may have been on that roadside for the entirety of those four or five
days as the coroner was stating that she had been out in the sun doesn't mean that she had to have been there in that
location but he's saying she's been out in the sun and she may have been there that entire time
the other thing too and we're going to keep going back to this a couple times because it's worth really exploring and
parsing out as much as we possibly can here we have several reports of a bunch of
sightings of such Vehicles near mile marker 83 where Tammy was the last time she was seen or believed to have been
seen alive this again nine days before her body was discovered almost 500 miles away
we have all of those sightings we have all of those eyewitnesses but apparently no one saw whoever left Tammy's body
on the side of the road right but again a semi truck or a truck or a car being on the side of the road for
five minutes is not that unusual it's not going to be something that just sticks out like a sore thumb and if
you're doing anything in the middle of the night right I don't know that anybody driving by is
going to be very suspicious I think there's a lot of truck drivers will pull over on the side of the road
to sleep correct and that probably was more likely in the early 90s than today well and think about how much of your
you only need to do limited activity to get the body from a vehicle to this location on the side of the off
ramp on your screen she's about 120 pounds she's not that heavy well and regardless you're carrying her 14 feet
and what I'm pointing out here is if you have a small vehicle that's one thing but if you have a tractor trailer
that offers a decent amount of concealment too for what you are doing in that limited amount of time that you
need to be doing it yeah that's an excellent point now so this is a week later after the body's found this takes
us to Tuesday September 8th Tammy zawiki was laid to rest following a casket closed ceremony in a mass at a Catholic
Church in Newton Pennsylvania now by the time that Tammy was buried the hunt for her killer had sparked
Nationwide interests this especially after America's Most Wanted aired a spot announcement on her disappearance
that's what prompted a flood of tips about the truck with the diagonal stripes and logo that are now being
phoned into the investigators and because her death involved in abduction across state lines remember she was
believed to be abducted in Illinois she's found in Missouri we have the FBI agents the FBI and Agents from the FBI
that will join the 14 Illinois State Police investigators working with also the Missouri Authorities on the case
right at the beginning of the investigation the zwicki's criticized the police for treating Tammy's
disappearance or how they treated her disappearance initially as though she were a runaway and this is
this is one of those things we've reviewed this stuff and seen this in other cases too it's just incredibly
disappointing it's a real gut punch every single time but we're gonna we're gonna stay on this for just a minute
here because I have a big issue with this one okay look captain and I agree you get like a
victim or somebody that's missing that's the age like 12 or under 13 and under and the cops look at you and say well
they probably ran away and you you look at them cross-eyed going are you kidding
me they're too young to run away now maybe with 16 17 year old maybe if you have some kind of delinquent juvenile I
get that situation but what their response was what the Illinois State Police response was this she's probably
off with a boyfriend somewhere oh no no to which the parents informed the police
she does not have a boyfriend to which then they were told well she's probably off with one of her guy friends
somewhere she'll turn up this is why you don't assume because you make an ass out
of you and me you know you shouldn't especially in an investigation you're just gonna assume oh she's probably off
with a boyfriend or something that that's ridiculous that's like you always say lazy or stupid and and I
think that's both well here's the thing too I I worry that just the wrong lazy or stupid or both person answered the
phone that day because you gotta believe that there's plenty of good officers men
and women in the Illinois State Police today especially today but even back then as well
and this is just really a black eye for the entire department when you have somebody who gives this type of response
because you should take in account and factor in the character of the individual that is being reported
missing and the circumstances surrounding that disappearance right so yeah or where she went missing from
she's not going missing from a location that she has a huge history a big background no she's driving through
number one and number two you find her vehicle on the side of the interstate that's
that's alarming in itself without even having a missing person's report I mean think about this [ __ ] like let's say
I'm I'm from Ohio and you find my car in West Virginia and they just then assume
what we don't know exactly where he was going or where he was heading uh but but
he probably was off with a girlfriend what there's no evidence of this you have no
evidence that I I even know anybody in the area it's this well and that's not even
taking into account your character and what I'm trying to bring up here with Tammy is we're talking about a 21 year
old woman young woman who is on scholarship at a private college right this isn't somebody that just
willy-nilly decides not to show up one day or just goes because of her jib right that just decides oh I'm going to
smoke a bunch of pot and ride shotgun and Chase the Sun for three or four days no that's not the type of person that
she is there's nothing wrong with smoking pot and Chasing the Sun and so what I'm also disappointed in is
let's go back to something that we've already covered that I believe is key in in a second black guy on Illinois State
Police here coroner says that her body was out in the sun for four maybe five days
she's missing for nine before the body's located if you had taken this report this
missing persons report seriously there's a chance you could have gotten to her while she was still alive
we don't know that for certain because we don't have the scientific facts to back that statement up but we can base
it off of the information that's been reported that there was a possibility that you
had a couple of days to find her and instead your answer is well she's probably off with some guy friend
somewhere up to no good mom and dad don't worry she'll turn up in a couple of days well
in the detail that you brought up earlier that keeps swirling around my head it's this idea that she was
enclosed that her parents State belonged to her but in undergarments that they don't
believe are connected to their daughter they don't believe she owned those undergarments I mean just can't say with
100 certainty we can only base it off of what the family has said but this is not
something that they've wavered on over the years they've said this from the time that she was found until today
that we don't believe that those were hers we have no reason to believe that the they belong to her so we have a task
force if you want to call it that if you will right that we have the Illinois State Police involved we have Missouri
authorities and we have FBI agents all involved now these wikis over the years have pointed out that especially in the
early stages of this case this investigation they didn't feel like the communication
between those three agencies or or however many agencies were involved in this was great they don't think the
communication was great that there may have been some infighting or or at the very least not sharing of information
and we have said time and time again that the two of the best weapons that we have in fending off serial offenders
these days is that we apprehend them faster right we have less serial killers with
numbers as high as 20 30 40 people right because they're getting caught simply after one or two victims and a lot of
that is based off of two factors two major key factors one technology and two communication between all of
these law enforcement agencies now the highway the FBI's Highway serial killer initiative and VI cap and things like
that are all key pieces in opening up those lines of communication and kicking off the conversations keeping the
information flowing and getting to the right people now one thing I will say that is of good
work in Tammy's case is she is on several databases which is really to me the start of of any of this type of
investigation that first thing I do when when we take a look at a case for porch light
and it's a cold case the first thing I look at is what databases is our victim on or in most cases what what databases
should they be on and in Tammy's case if you look her up she's on several databases a couple that come to mind of
course we've already mentioned the FBI's website she's on the seeking information
category and probably some others and we also have her on the Iowa cold cases database and probably some more I I hope
because those are tools those are tools for not only solving these cases and bringing Justice for our victims and
their families and their friends but also tools for us to keep the public safe by getting these monsters off of
the streets out of our communities and in this case off of our nation's interstates and highways yeah because
any young female that has broken down on the side of the road or pulled over on the side of the road is a potential
victim for one of these monsters when you read about cases like this and about some of the other cases that we've
covered in the last couple weeks going back to to Sam little and last week's cases
but Tammy's especially it's when it makes you want to just fall to your knees and thank God that we
have cell phones these days because I I would guess and I would hope that Tammy's situation would have been that
much different that much better if she would have had some ability to communicate with somebody else or call
for help now on the better side of the investigation Captain we do know that when they were working the case
they worked the case quite hard as far as I can tell there were men from all over the country that were looked at as
possible suspects many of them truckers Persons of Interest included men from as
far away as Tampa Florida Humboldt County California and Nashville Tennessee now I'm going to circle back another
time to what I believe is one of the key elements in this case and is really it's
it's sad that so little came of this because in any case as a detective you would think having so many potential
Witnesses would be a godsend so in review and with a little more detail in the early weeks of the investigation
more than 60 drive-by Witnesses 6-0 drive-by Witnesses reported having seen Tammy on August 23rd right all together
they claim to have seen 26 different types of vehicles this including cars motorcycles and vans and trucks that
stopped to help her with men and women at different times apparently offering her assistance
remarkably none of the people who stopped has ever come forward to notify police of their
encounter with Tammy quote we can't explain it FBI agent Bob long said quote except that maybe these
people still don't know about the case or they're afraid to get involved [Music]
[Music] we pointed out there that the FBI is concerned that maybe people have not
heard of this case or for some reason they would be afraid of coming forward look it's been all of these years later
and nobody is going to fault you for calling in a tip or information today today is the day make it happen if you
know something say something report it if you have any information keep in mind there is a fifty thousand dollar reward
for information leading to the identification of the individual or individuals responsible for the murder
of Tammy Jose and the FBI would like for anyone with information to contact their
local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or consulate so much more to get
to we want to hear your thoughts on the blog at truecrime garage.com join us back here tomorrow same Back Time same
bat Channel and until then be good be kind and don't learn [Music] thank you foreign

America’s Highway Serial Killers /// Part 3 /// 592

Part 3 of 4

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

This week we pick up right where we left off with more bad guys and bad news from America’s Highways. Tammy Jo Zywicki was an amazing young woman who had just one year left at Grinnell college before going on to some big and wonderful things. When her car broke down in central Illinois that all changed. Most of us would have stopped to help the young woman or felt guilty as we continued on our journey hoping not to be later for our next stop. Unfortunately in this real life true crime story that was not to be. As her Pontiac sat on the side of Interstate 80 (I-80) Tammy had her head under the hood trying to fix the problem but then along came a spider. A predator saw an opportunity and pounced. Police have come up with some suspects over the years and we are ready to serve them up to you as we close out this four part series. If you have any information regarding the still unsolved murder of Tammy Jo Zywicki please call or email your local FBI office. If you have any information regarding the still unsolved murder of Kristin Schmidt please call the Oregon State Police - dial *OSP or *677 if you are calling from a mobile phone, or dial: 503-378-3720

Beer of the Week Breakaway Session IPA (Nashville Soccer Club) by the amazing folks over at Fat Bottom Brewing Co. Nashville, Tennessee

Garage Grade - 4 and a quarter bottle caps out of 5

Recommended Reading - Killer on the Road: Violence and the American Interstate by Ginger Strand

Our show - True Crime Garage “Off the Record” is available only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Brief Summary

The episode covers Tammy Joe Zawicki's case and the FBI's efforts to track truck drivers as potential serial killers.

Key points

The Highway Serial Killer Initiative. A program aimed at tracking down serial killers targeting vulnerable victims.
Introducing Tammy Joe Zawicki. A bright college student whose story takes a dark turn.
Tammy's Last Known Movements. Tammy's journey from New Jersey to Grinnell College ends in mystery.
Parents' Growing Concern. Tammy's parents worry when she fails to check in after her trip.
Missing Persons Report Filed. Tammy's father files a report after her car is found abandoned.
Tammy's Body Discovered. A man finds a body wrapped in a blanket on the roadside, leading to a grim discovery.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Justice looked to be so doubtful.

Discussion of Agent Palazzolo's work

6:44WatchOct 21, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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