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

[Music] is it possible to predict the unpredictable could surgeons use a patient's own Anatomy to create 3D
printed life-size organ models to map out challenges ahead of time making surgery more precise efficient and less
invasive is it possible it already is because every day we're doing what's never been done learn more at
mayoclinic.org Sloss mayoclinic you know where to go when it comes to Quality sleep Ashley
has you covered with top mattress brands at winning prices and with special financing options available you can
snooze now and pay later plus your mattress purchase helps give the gift of better sleep to children in need and US
Special Operations forces visit your local Ashley store or shop online today and make every snooze count financing is
subject to credit approval C store or ashley.com for [Music] [Music] details [Music]
welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me
as always is a man who has learned the magical medicinal powers of the SE ladies and gentlemen here is the c yeah
and I live in a pineapple it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling the
[Music] friends this week we are very excited to be featuring a great beer from our
friends at Fat Bottom Brewing Company in beautiful Nashville Tennessee fat bottom
is the official craft beer partner of the mls's Nashville soccer club and everyone should try this wonderful
Session IPA from Fat Bottom called Break away Session IPA Breakaway has amazing fruit Aromas and citrus forward Hops and
a little punch as well in this easy drinking IPA garage grade four and a quarter bottle caps out of five and
here's some praise and thank you that goes out to our friends for helping us out with this week's beer run first up a
cheers to Joshua in Mount Eaton Ohio and a big we like your JB to Ashley in Hamilton Ohio next up here's a big R
Swanson please and thank you that goes out to Ma and shaie Kansas and a big shout out
to Lauren and Warick New York next up here's a cheers to Kevin in Indian Head Maryland and last but certainly not
least we have Daniel in Essexville Michigan everyone we just mentioned they went to our website true Crim garage.com
and helped us out with this week's beer F yeah BW aru in beer run if you need more True Crime garage for your ear
balls and we know you do cuz your balls are sweaty and you need to go over to True Crime
garage.com and click on the off the Record link it's our bonus show it's on Stitcher premium and you'll love it
guaranteed it's Oprah's favorite show it's Jason seagull's favorite show it's it's Ted lasso favorite show you'll
enjoy it check that out thanks for the support and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather
around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime hey hey hey hey hey I don't need let you
miss [Music] me I you miss [Music] me 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 truckstop
prostitutes and one after another our main suspects or confirmed offend Enders 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 um 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 to 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 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 hey hey hey hey hey I you with
me 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 Palazo 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
3 weeks ago in the garage in a three-part series starting with episode 585 titled Sam little the Killer of
women back to Christine palalo 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 doubt 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 palalo dropping us some
knowledge about the FBI's Highway serial killer initiative and vicap 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 tamy Joe zawicki who unfortunately could possibly fit into both of those categories concerning the
FBI the highway serial killer initiative and vicap and this is such a scary and sad story Tammy Joe zwiki was a
wonderful very intelligent bright and 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 $50,000 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 Ron aran'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 199 93 and the article starts off statistics and crime reporting tell us
much about murder in the US 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 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. 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 grenell College which
is a private school located in grenell 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 the plan Tammy and Darren will stay the night in Pittsburgh with their parents
from there they will drive about 7 and 1 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 grenell college so Sammy will travel the 295
miles from Northwestern to grenell by herself this is roughly a 4 and 1/2 to 5 1/2 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 Unity iversity 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 T1000 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 tamy 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 continued 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 well just because we're in the garage doesn't mean we're
mechanics Tammy left Evanston Illinois heading west to grenell Tammy made it past Chicago heading toward Interstate
80 at about 5:05 p.m. that Sunday about 4 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 5 Mi east of lale located next
to mile marker 83 the locked car was tagged as an abandoned vehicle now not until 2:00 p.m. the the next day which
would be Monday the vehicle would be towed away and not until 700 p.m. 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 3: to 4:00 p.m. Witnesses would later report seeing
Tammy pulled over on the shoulder of Interstate 80 this is as said next to mile marker 883 the exit for
UDA 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 4 and 1/2 to 5 and
1/2 hour drive from Northwestern to grenell college Tammy only made it about an hour and 40 minutes to about 2 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 grenell 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 grenell College often
just called her Z on Monday August 24th now this is back at home in New Jersey her parents the Z wikis had
expected Tammy to make her usual check-in call when she arrived at grenell 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 Z wikis 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 5 and 1/2 hours roughly in a vehicle that is not in tiptop shape
right so Tammy's mother Joanne she repeatedly called Tammy's friends at grenell 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 cuz 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 uh 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 grenell 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 zis 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 person's 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 5'2 in tall 120 lb 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 w watch
that played Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head it's also reported in the report that she was carrying about
$150 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 uh the I80 site where Tammy's car was found eventually using metal
detectors search dogs and 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 and 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 got to
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 of them a day and so this is typical
procedure we're going to take the car we're going to give them uh a day for the owner to come move it oh they don't
move it we're going to tow it now we're got to figure out who owns this vehicle now we got to contact somebody that is
connected to them so it is a process and I and I know with a lot of these missing
person cases you know like Mar Murray and stuff where people go law enforcement didn't do enough well if
they could go back in time and 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 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 p.m. she's reported missing at 700 p.m. 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 is 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 were 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 semit trctor 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 semit truck as
well and that man is described as a white male about 6 feet tall with bushy dark hair the m 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 Herold
brignardello 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 400 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 they're they could be 2 to 300 miles away when cops are looking for
answers 9ine 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 mil 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 the it's was
raining fairly heavily at this time when he stops while stopped he noticed something wrapped in a blanket secured
on both ends with duct tape it was about 14 ft from the edge of the roadway he said there was a foul odor the man is 30
7-year-old Lonnie damont 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
damont 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 ft from the pavement had been wrapped tightly in a
white twins siiz sheet and a doll 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 witness's
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 [Music] [Music] body this show is sponsored Ed by better help do you look forward to the holidays
maybe you struggle with seasonal Blues this time of year can be a lot and it's natural to feel some sadness or even
anxiety about it but adding something new and positive to your life can counteract some of those feelings
therapy can be a bright spot something to look forward to to make you feel grounded and to give you the tools to
manage everything going on if you're thinking of starting therapy give better help a try it's entirely online designed
to be convenient flexible and suited to your schedule just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a
licensed therapist and switch therapist at any time for no additional charge find your bright spot this season with
betterhelp visit betterhelp.com Garay to get 10% off your first month that's better help
hp.com garage is it possible to predict the unpredictable could surge s use a patient's own Anatomy to create 3D
printed life-size organ models to map out challenges ahead of time making surgery more precise efficient and less
invasive is it possible it already is because every day we're doing what's never been done learn more at
mayoclinic.org Sloss mayoclinic you know where to go dreaming of overseas Adventures or
connecting more deeply with family from afar Rosetta Stone Bridges the language Gap I've tried others but Rosetta
Stone's immersive lessons and voice feedback technology are game changers dive into 25 Languages by learning
intuitively just like when you were a kid and here's the holiday Sparkle grab a lifetime membership now and save 50%
gift yourself the world head to Rosetta stone.com now and save 50% [Music] [Music]
all right 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 Tami zawicki Tammy was wearing
an Eastside 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 that saw her right before
she left she also had on lacy panties and a brawl embroidered with the word love and the bazir 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 so go ahead so it leans towards this idea that maybe
a perpetrator uh abducts her or tricks her into get in 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 to 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 Laken had performed the
first examination of what was initially described as a SHO 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 Eastside Eagles soccer 1989 printed in white lettering on the front and had a
pair of faded blue cut off sweatpants athletic socks uh that is the description of her clothing some of the
more grim findings from our coroner here are seven puncture wounds made by a sharp
instrument no more than a half in wide these were found in the upper chest area the weapon had penetrated the lungs
liver and pericardial sack 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 received the puncture to the right bicep
right a bruis likee 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% 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 5 days well it was N9 days later from the time that she was
we can just say abducted we don't have to keep saying disappeared 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 N9 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 mhm 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 14t from the edge of the road on this off ramp a lot of
killers will take their victims back to their home and then tort 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
and 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 MPH that's over 8 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 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 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 N9 days before
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 5 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 in the middle of the night right I don't know
that anybody driving by is going to be very suspicious because 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 B body from a vehicle
to this location on the side of the offramp well you're stating she's about 120 pounds she's not that heavy well and
regardless you're carrying her 14 ft and what 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 bodies found this takes us to Tuesday September 8th Tammy zwiki 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 interest 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 an abduction across state lines remember she was believed to be abducted
in Illinois she's found in Missouri we have the FBI agents uh 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 zis 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 going to we're going to 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 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 crossy going are you kidding me they're too young to run away what the now maybe with 16 17y 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 to which the parents inform 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 going to 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 got to
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 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 well
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 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 what I'm trying to bring up here
with Tammy is we are 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 go cut 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 3 or 4 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 in a
second black ey on Illinois State Police here the coroner says that her body was
out in the sun for four maybe 5 days she's missing for nine before the body's located if you had taken this report
this missing person's 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 and the detail that
you brought up earlier that keeps swirling around my head is this idea that she was in
clothes 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 they 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 the Z 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 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 now the highway the FBI's Highway
serial killer initiative and vicap 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 uh 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 uh database and probably some
more I I hope um 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 tamies 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 uh 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 Humble 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 driveby
Witnesses 60 driveby Witnesses reported having seen Tammy on August 23rd right altogether 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 tammye we can't explain it FBI agent Bob
long said except that maybe these people still don't know about the case or they're afraid to get
[Music] involved I don't need [Music] you and 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 $50,000 reward for information leading to the
identification of the individual or individuals responsible for the murder of Tammy joa wikii 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 true Crim garage.com join us back here tomorrow
same bat Time same bat Channel and until then be good be kind and don't litter [Music]
[Applause] is it possible to predict the unpredictable can 3D printed life-size organ models help to map out complex
surgeries ahead of time is it possible it already is right here Mayo Clinic you know where to go

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

Part 3 of 4

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://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

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com (https://pcm.adswizz.com) for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brief Summary

The episode covers the unsolved case of Tammy Joe Zawicki, focusing on her disappearance and the investigation's challenges.

Key points

Highway Serial Killer Initiative. An initiative focusing on tracking down serial killers targeting truckstop prostitutes.
Tammy Joe Zawicki's Disappearance. Tammy, a bright college student, goes missing during a solo drive.
Discovery of a Body. A man finds a body wrapped in a blanket on the roadside, leading to a grim investigation.
Tammy's Clothing Mystery. Tammy was found in clothes her family insists she wouldn't wear, suggesting foul play.
Police Assumptions. Police initially treated Tammy's disappearance as a runaway case, causing frustration for her family.
The Importance of Communication. Effective communication between law enforcement agencies is crucial in solving cases.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I think someone should build a statue of this woman for all her brilliant work.

7:35WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.