Tammy Zywicki case: August 23, 1992

I thought with this post I would supply information for anyone looking up the Tammy Zywicki case from 1992. The following are my notes from various sources. I am going to post them as I wrote them. Remember this stuff comes from newspapers and my own conclusions so take it for what it is worth. Hopefully it helps.

News associated with case:


1. Tammy Zywicki planned to stay for 2 weeks at Grinnell before going to Chicago for the start of an Art program on September 8.

2. Her car was found at 5:05 pm by police and ticketed. She was last seen at the car at 3:28pm. The car was towed at 2pm Monday, August 24th. The shirt she was wearing was white with the word "private" in red and blue lettering on back. The top half of the letters were red. The bottom half blue. There was a tilde over the word, probably the i, to denote the Spanish pronunciation.

3. In terms of news coverage, by Sunday August 30th, only CNN had covered the story nationally. Locally(Chicago area), Wednesday, August 26th, her story appeared on CBS news Chicago as a missing persons case. Saturday August 29th it was a front page story.

4. GCRC on the shorts she was wearing when found stood for Greenville County Recreation Commission. I thought this was important because I thought it stood for Grinnell College Rugby Club.

5. August 1992 was chilliest ever in Grinnell, Iowa(up to that point). A great site to look up weather history is wunderground.com. I've used it to look up both Tammy Zywicki and Amanda Tusing's weather on the days associated with their cases. With Amanda Tusing's, the weather is followed in 5 minute increments. I was surprised to know weather is followed that closely in terms of information.

6. The gas station at the exit where Tammy Zywicki's body was found was a Zip Stop gas station that served Sinclair diesel(I think). The exit where her body was found is a wide open exit. What that means is you could see someone dumping something if you looked and were driving along the expressway. About the only cover would be a semi parked. Less than a quarter mile going south off of that exit there is dense forest with winding country roads, the stuff only locals would drive. It would be very difficult with a semi. In a way I suppose this supports the semi driver theory because they did not choose that location to place the body.



Some of my own information with conclusions:

1. POSSIBLE FEMALE INVOLVEMENT-- Sometimes truck drivers travel in teams, especially with a wife or girlfriend. Teams are for faster delivery. Each driver can drive 11 hours max before having to rest. Most prefer solo dedicated lanes. One trucking company I came up with in the area where her body was found was called A & E trucking. It was important to myself because 40% of drivers are female. High number of male/female teams.

2. GAS REFILL-- A semi can make it 500 miles without having to stop for gas. A car cannot. Most people also have to use bathroom sometime during a 500 mile trip.

3. DIFFERENT CLOTHING-- Supposedly when body was found it was dressed in some unique underwear not her own. Possibly someone's wife or girlfriend clothing or truck driver has transexual tendencies. Maybe a flesh colored bra because it was on a flesh colored item like a mannequin.


Possible roadside scenarios:


1. KIDNAPPED BY TRUCK DRIVER-

Most likely scenario but I would imagine the semi would have to be used as a screen between her and drivers going by. The distance would suggest this is probably the case. The main suspect, Mr. Bierbrodt, was a truck driver. While I am cautious to go and conclude that he killed her there is no denying that in the last 18 years the FBI and police have not connected other crimes(through DNA) to this one. If the killer were still alive and is a serial killer or is in prison, etc. his DNA profile would have come up by now.

2. WALKED TO NEAREST EXIT OR HOUSE-

Not likely since walking alongside road because of so many witnesses and a walking distance of at least a half hour. Other possibility was somehow making it past fence alongside I-80 to the nearest farm house or maybe even trying to take a picture from overpass by climbing hill(photography to pass time). If the crime scene was in Missouri I decided to look up the closest business that might use a semi and came up with some cattle ranch. I also saw a semi I remember that had something to do with woman's undergarments located north of exit 33 parked in a small area of houses. I took a picture of it although it is nothing like the one described located next to her car on the day of her abduction. Someday I will actually find that disposable camera(ughhhhh).

3. TOOK A RIDE FROM SOMEONE-

Maybe took a ride from female, then kidnapped elsewhere. The story always seems to suggest the car doors were locked and she took a bag and a camera with her to where she was going. It is a possibility only because even if the assumption is she was kidnapped I wonder what female would not take a ride from another female? I am not saying females are not dangerous, but when you are stuck on the side of the road you have got to make some decisions. I am simply a believer in the idea that most people do not believe they are going to die today. The best witness is probably the woman at the hotel who thinks she saw Tammy Zywicki because she saw her standing still where as everyone else saw her at 55-60 mph. I focused my attention in that location because I thought if she was kidnapped there the location where she was taken might be close by.


COMMON CASE LINKAGE

1. The only case where there are some similarities to Tammy Zywicki is Leslay Harris. Also 21,blonde, 5'2", but blue eyes, her unique wrist watch was not found. Part of her body was left alongside a highway exit off I-55 in Divernon, IL. The biggest difference is in the way they were killed. Leslay Harris body was dismembered and the police only found her leg at the highway exit. Tammy Zwyicki was stabbed 7 times and bled out. Leslay Harris case there seems to be a bit of overkill and the person went to alot of trouble to try and hide and keep police from identifying her while in Tammy Zywicki's case the killer seemed to want to subdue her and took little effort in trying to conceal the body's location.

This aspect of finding the body is a little strange in my opinion because I would think that after keeping the body or keeping Tammy Zywicki alive the person would have to assume that no one knows where she is located. This is unlike Amanda Tusing where most likely she was kidnapped and killed in the same night.


If you are one of those people trying to investigate Tammy Zywicki, Amanda Tusing, Leslay Harris, or Veronica Blumhorst cases, good luck. The blog is written primarily about the first two cases. I can tell you from my own experience that even though I am not a police officer or FBI that it is alot tougher than it looks. It is strange how perception changes over time. Before I used to think that any semi that looked like the Tammy Zywicki semi or any other sort of "clue" was somehow related to her case. Now I realize that is just how I pictured it.