Murder of Tammy Alexander

Tammy Alexander
School portrait, circa 1978
Born
Tammy Jo Alexander

November 2, 1963 (1963-11-02)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
DisappearedFirst half of 1979
Brooksville, Florida, U.S.
DiedNovember 9, 1979 (1979-11-10) (aged 16)
Caledonia, New York, U.S.
Cause of deathHomicide (gunshot wounds to head and back)
Body discoveredNovember 10, 1979
Off U.S. Route 20 in Caledonia 42°55′03″N 77°46′35″W / 42.9174°N 77.7763°W / 42.9174; -77.7763 (approximate)
Resting placeGreenmount Cemetery, Dansville, New York, U.S.[1]
42°32′35″N 77°40′52″W / 42.543°N 77.681°W / 42.543; -77.681 (approximate)
Other namesCaledonia Jane Doe, "Cali Doe"
Known forUnidentified victim of homicide for 35 years
Height5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) (approximate)

Tammy Jo Alexander (November 2, 1963 – November 9, 1979) was an American teenage girl who was found murdered in the village of Caledonia, New York, on November 10, 1979.[2][3][4] She had been fatally shot twice and left in a field just off U.S. Route 20 near the Genesee River after running away from her home in Brooksville, Florida, earlier that year. For more than three decades, she remained unidentified under the names Caledonia Jane Doe or Cali Doe until January 26, 2015, when police in Livingston County, New York, announced her identity 35 years after her death.[5]

Alexander was aged 16 when murdered, though her age was not clear to investigators at the time. Most potential forensic evidence was washed away by heavy rain on the night she died, but they knew she had come to the Caledonia area from a distant, warmer locale because she had tan lines on her upper body. Advances in technology allowed investigators to make use of improving forensic techniques to evaluate trace evidence they had collected and, following a successful DNA extraction from her remains in 2005 and a palynological analysis of Alexander's clothing,[6] they concluded that she had spent time in Florida, southern California, Arizona, or northern Mexico prior to her death.[7][8][9] Later analysis of isotopes in her bones would lend further support to this conclusion. In addition, a portrait was made of Alexander based on a facial reconstruction, in the hopes that someone would recognize her image, and it was uploaded to an online public database in 2010.

Identification was achieved based on a combination of factors; in 2014, a renewed search for Alexander by her half-sister and a close high school friend resulted in the filing of a new missing persons report with police in Hernando County, Florida, as she had not been seen or heard from since the late 1970s. Carl Koppelman, the artist of the reconstructed photo, notified the Livingston County Sheriff's Office about a potential match between the two pictures, and in 2015 a follow-up mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis confirmed a match with Alexander's half-sister based on the DNA results from 2005.[10]

Alexander's case was well-publicized in the time she was unidentified, and Livingston County police continued to process thousands of leads from the public.[7] The investigation stalled in 1980, leading county officials to arrange for her burial as "Unidentified Girl" at Greenmount Cemetery in Dansville, New York. In 1984, serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed to the crime, but his statement was not considered credible.[5] The perpetrator remains unidentified.[11]

  1. ^ Democrat & Chronicle
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference lcso-pr was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference namus was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference nysp was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b "Police ID 'Jane Doe' found in Livingston Co. cornfield in 1979". January 26, 2015. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference bryantjones-2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference ap-20061004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference doe-1ufny was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference bryant-20090803 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Baker, Conrad (January 26, 2015). "Tammy Jo's Portrait Artist Sheds Light on Solving Mystery". Genesee Sun. Geneseo, NY. Archived from the original on February 2, 2015. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
  11. ^ Serena, Katie (December 4, 2019). "The "Confession Killer" Claimed He Killed 600 Women — Was Tammy Jo Alexander One Of Them?". All That's Interesting. Retrieved January 7, 2020.