Last Night

I am thinking about last night. People always ask what you did last night, where did you go, who did you see, when did you get home. It is like a police interrogation. Alot of crimes happen at night. I read a book once that said that most burglaries take place between 2 and 4am when people are sleeping. I told the police about this information. Their response was that I needed to stop reading books that told me most burglaries take place between 2 and 4am. It simply isn't true.

I would have liked to have come up with that one brilliant idea that solved one of these cases. Everyone wants to think they have the answers, the solution to the puzzle. The FBI and police have enough people like myself trying to "help" them. That is why I started the blog. I think about my blog posts and wonder if they are any good. I think I did the best with Amanda Tusing's case, in terms of a different perspective. Do police think like I do? Do the murderers in these cases think I have some good questions?

I often wonder what the murderers in my blog think. For example, when watching "The Haunting Evidence" episode on Amanda Tusing's case, does the murderer think,"These psychics are right on, I better be careful" or "What a bunch of B.S. It almost makes me want to say something just to prove it." I think about Tammy Zywicki's case and wonder, "What if this person is still alive?"

I think about the victim's families too. None of these cases are personal to me. They are names I read about in some news article or saw on a show. I do not know any of the victims. I think Tammy Zywicki and Amanda Tusing(and maybe Veronica Blumhorst and Lindsay Harris) were the only daughters in their respective families. Russell Turcotte certainly seemed very important to his family as they still perform American Indian tribal rituals at the site where his body was found. And then I remember what I heard this woman say the other day: "I cannot imagine ever having to bury my own kid"(she was on her way to a funeral) and it made me think. When life does not go in order and someone is taken right as they are about to begin their own lives, I think dealing with that would be very hard. I think about the time that passes too and wonder if the definition of an "open" case to them is that it has not yet been closed.

Look at the world for what it is and not for what other people make it out to be. Be suspicious and careful. Always remember there might be someone out there to get you. People have dark natures inside of them. You can't trust anybody. People that seem nice and helpful are really just luring you into a false sense of security so they can take advantage of you. They are preying on your vulnerability.

I would like to think that is not the way to go through life. I am a believer that sometimes bad things happen to good people. It is hard to keep a positive outlook on the world when you do not understand why things happen the way they do. I try to remember yesterday was yesterday. Tomorrow is another day. That is all you can do.

Cara Knott and Amanda Tusing

I often compare Amanda Tusing's murder to that of Cara Knott in 1986 because of the similarities in both cases. There is also a People magazine article dated June 13, 1988, about Cara Knott's case. The case is so similar, in fact, that I look to it for information concerning what might have happened to Amanda Tusing. Even if Amanda Tusing was killed by someone posing as a police officer, Cara Knott's case is useful.

There is one thing I do wonder about which I always found odd. Cara Knott was dropped from a bridge into a creek where her body was found. In Amanda Tusing's case it looks as if she was also dropped into a creek. I imagine the Haunting Evidence psychics believe she was drowned in the creek because there was no injury to Amanda Tusing's body. I just cannot understand why someone would want to drag someone else struggling and alive to a creek bed to drown them. On a rainy night like that it would be extremely difficult not to get shoes muddy, dirty pants legs, in addition to being able to see what you are doing, especially while trying to carry or pull a body. Maybe she was put in the water somewhere else? That is why I kind of thought maybe it might be a woman. I think a man would just drop the body off the bridge. But then there is a chance the body would be injured. A woman would have to drag the body.

As for car keys, cell phones(maybe hers was on?), cans of soda, license and registration papers and ATM card, the "other" perspective was that maybe she did not drive her car to the spot where it was found. However, there is one huge problem with my own theory. The problem is that police would fingerprint the car placing her in it. The can of soda being cold would exclude the boyfriend, not unless someone can perform some type of magic trick to show me how a can of soda stays that cold on a humid, June night nearly two hours later.

A case like Amanda Tusing's can cause your imagination to run wild. That is all you can do.

Amanda Tusing: Time

My blog about Tammy Zywicki and Amanda Tusing is made up mostly of speculative bs. That is what I call it. I start from the idea that the prevailing theory is correct and then try to come up with a different perspective about each case.

For example, in Amanda Tusing's case the prevailing theory is that she was kidnapped and murdered by someone posing as law enforcement. This is a good theory. I have compared her case to that of a girl who actually was killed by a law enforcement officer, that being the case of Kara Knot. I try to come up with ideas based on the cases being similar. For example, in Kara Knot's case, the officer tried to erase his log book entry to show that he was not in the area when she was pulled over. Maybe if an officer killed Amanda Tusing, he did the same thing. Another example would be clothing. In Kara Knot's case, the officer had part of his badge ripped so slightly that Kara Knot had part of the unique string under her fingernails. In Amanda Tusing's case, if it was a real police officer and he drowned Amanda Tusing in the creek, I imagine his pants and shoes would need to be cleaned so police would check on who turned in their uniforms for cleaning that week. The problem is that in order for any of this stuff to be checked out it has to be a real officer and not someone posing as one.

But I always have to come up with a different perspective. My different perspective is that the case is not at all like the Haunting Evidence episode. I have often wondered if police checked the car's computer for information, whether that might help. I always notice with my car that whenever mechanics work on it the time is always messed up when I get the car back so I do not like using my car clock to keep track of time.

One thing I find strange, amongst all the others, is that it does not look like Amanda Tusing wore a watch. It seems odd because on the night in question she needed to be home by a certain time. I would think she would want to keep track of time. She pulls over onto the side of the road because of the rain storm and is losing time trying to get home. But I do not wear a watch either. What I do is use my cell phone. I imagine when the police checked her car the cell phone was on. Otherwise, unless she uses her car clock, how would she know what time it is?

My Blog

I theorize in my blog mainly about two cases, that of Tammy Zywicki and Amanda Tusing. Both cases are unique in that I chose them for a reason. Tammy Zywicki's case I remembered and the geographic aspect of it I still believe to be interesting even if at the end of the day the best conclusion is that the dead suspect from Peru, IL. is probably her killer. Amanda Tusing's case I found unique because I had trouble believing the Haunting Evidence tv show theory of what happened to her. You could say I "see" the case differently from the psychics. I doubt anyone picked up on it because like most of what I write, it is an assumption.

When I chose each of these cases, it was for the reason that they are both "cold" cases to the point where I would find it hard to believe that investigators are even working on any more. Moreover, I thought each case had sufficient online evidence with which to investigate and get information. A case with pictures, like Amanda Tusing's, is great because you can actually make some solid conclusions. It is still guesswork, but the conclusions seem that much more solid.

I wanted my blog to be different from other blogs about different murder cases. First, I thought it was best to focus on a few cases instead of many different ones. You could write post after post about missing persons although in investigating Tammy Zywicki's case I came across one missing person, Veronica Blumhorst. For me, she represents all missing persons. Lindsay(or Leslay) Harris I came across when I saw a tv news spot about the FBI's new program linking truck driving murders. I also thought it unique that she was also missing a prized watch like Tammy Zywicki. No case is less than 6 years old and one is over 20 years old.

Second, I wanted my blog to actually focus on ideas that might help "solve" these cases. This is a long-shot I know, but I thought the blog would be more interesting if it came up with new ideas instead of rehashing the same old story about a particular murder case. For example, there are other news articles, blogs, websleuth posts, about Amanda Tusing's case. But there are very few, if any that I can find, blogs that talk about the actual online evidence associated with the case and what they(the author) think about it. I am anonymous but not to the FBI or police. I have submitted ideas through letters etc until I came up with the idea for the blog, a way to reach people without bothering them.

Amanda Tusing case: And then it started to rain

On June 14th, 2000, Amanda Tusing left her boyfriend's house in Jonesboro, Arkansas at 11:30 pm to travel home to Dell, Arkansas along Rt. 18. It was about an hour's drive. Sometime along the way it started to rain and she pulled her 1992 Pontiac Grand Am to the side of the road underneath a streetlight in front of a home. What happened next is a complete mystery. At about 1:30am, when she had not phoned her boyfriend to let him know she arrived home safe, he called her parents and her father and boyfriend both went searching for her car. The boyfriend found the car first near Monette, Arkansas with the doors locked and the keys still in the ignition. Amanda Tusing was not with the car. Her body was found a few days later. The prevailing theory has always been that the rain or an officer of the law or someone posing as one caused Amanda Tusing to pull her car to the side of the road. When the car was found, the windshield wipers were in mid-swipe. This aspect of the case for me has always led to an interesting question: When the car was found, was the windshield wiper knob still turned on? According to specs for a 1992 Pontiac Grand Am, the car has power windows. If it was pouring down rain, I think it is safe to suggest she had her windows up when she pulled to the side of the road. I tried this little experiment. If you turn the windshield wiper knob on and off the wiper will always complete its swipe. If the windshield wiper knob had been found in the off position when the car was discovered, there is no way she could have talked to anyone on the side of the road by powering down her window. The reason is that after you turn the windshield knob off, once you turn power back on to power down the windows for example, the wiper will always complete its swipe. And if you turn the knob off while power is on, the wiper will always complete its swipe. The part that I always found odd was that the power to the vehicle has to be on the entire time during which she would have talked to the mystery person on the side of the road. If the car was running I thought a police officer would ask her to turn it off. If she had the windows rolled down in the rain I thought she would have turned off the wipers so they did not push rain water into her car. Even if she turns the windshield wiper knob off while talking to the mystery person on the side of the road, she still has to roll back up the window. I read that Amanda Tusing drove a 1992 Grand Am and I was curious to read about the car online. I found an auto review in the Chicago Tribune that pointed out that the one feature that is annoying on these cars are the power door locks. They will engage when you put the car in a forward gear, but will not disengage when you stop the car. Maybe Amanda Tusing drove a different type of car or her Grand Am was different, but I know this from experience: If you have to constantly push a button to get out of a vehicle, you will be afraid of locking your keys in the car.

Amanda Tusing: The ATM card

I thought of another idea concerning Amanda Tusing's murder case the other day when I was at the ATM. I read somewhere that her and her boyfriend had stopped at an ATM in the hours before she got in her car to drive back home. Whatever I read it did not say who withdrew cash, but it really does not matter since I do not even know if Amanda Tusing's wallet is as disheveled as mine is.

One of the things I suggested to help narrow down a possible suspect is whether or not she gave the police officer or person posing as police her license and registration. Maybe they did not ask for it, but that would be odd. I think asking for it would make the potential victim believe more or less that they were actually dealing with a police officer. Getting back to the ATM card, if a person pulls that card out of their wallet and no others up to the point of being on the side of the road, which card should be the first one facing out in the wallet? The ATM card. Now there is no definitive answer. Maybe the person just shoves the card back between the other cards in their wallet so that would not help. I just noticed that whenever I pull a card out of my wallet to give to a cashier, whether it be my ATM card or my license that card is always first when I open my wallet again. Maybe she had one of those wallets where each card has a slot for that particular card so this would not help.

But there is still the registration. I keep my registration in my glove compartment box in my car or on the side door along with insurance card, etc. If a police officer asks for that information I would have to dig through the other papers in my glove compartment so when I get the registration back, I throw it in the glove compartment. When I open the glove compartment next, which paper should be on top? The registration. If I kept the registration on the side panel of one of my doors, when I pull it for the police officer and then put it back, it would most likely be in front of the other papers or it would be sticking up a little kind of like when someone pulls a file folder from a cabinet but does not push it all the way back down when they put it back.

Police check all of this stuff out, but for my blog I thought I would post it as an example. This case has very little to write about because there are no witnesses and no physical evidence. But it is a good case for a blog since the person responsible has little to fear from police prosecution. It is about as close to getting away with murder as possible. The only thing I really want to know is if it is really a police officer or someone posing as a police officer? I know that is the main theory, but you never know.

If what police say is true, that it is most likely a police officer or someone posing as a police officer, remember that if the person is careful they will probably have planned this type of crime out ahead of time. The advice I would give is that if you are driving late at night and you get pulled over by someone you think might not be a police officer, after you are stopped, look for one thing: whether the guy turns out his lights.

One thing that I find "odd" while not being conclusive is that can of soda, not just the way it was placed, but when it was placed. Even if she stops at a gas station to pick up that can of soda before she stops her car, I am very surprised that when they find the vehicle the can of soda is still cold, "half-frosted". The boyfriend does not find the car until nearly two hours later. I can tell you since I did not have a refrigerator until a short while ago that whenever I tried to keep a can of soda cold during the summer it never worked. If I left a can of soda sitting like that in my car for two hours it would not be cold.

The last question that I find interesting is why does someone set the parking brake on level ground if they are not going to leave the vehicle? I just thought maybe it is because they are going to look under the car. When it is a habit to lock the doors you lock the doors. As for my theory about being locked out of the car, I actual did that one time. I had manual locks and managed to lock myself out of the car while the car was still running!

Amanda Tusing: A different theory

My blog has always been about providing a different perspective so I came up with a different theory as to what might have happened to Amanda Tusing.

Let's say she is driving along in the rainstorm but all the sudden she sees an animal that she avoids or she hits something in the roadway. So she pulls her car to the side of the road. Then she gets out but because she wants to examine the car. In the process though she leaves her keys in a position where the power doors end up locking on her after she exits the vehicle. So now of course she has a big problem. She cannot call anybody because her cell phone is locked inside her car. And she is getting drenched standing outside her car frustrated about what she has done.

That is the theory.

The Seventh Month is Always the Saddest

My idea for this post was to provide at least one useful idea or piece of advice on each of the four different murder cases I talk about in my blog.

1. Lindsay Harris(or Leslay Harris)May 2005-

I keep getting the name mixed up, but unfortunately I really do not have much advice on this one other than you probably have to try to think like a truck driver. One time I talked to a truck driver and he said that being a truck driver is all about one thing: patience. Waiting for your next pickup, waiting for the next call from dispatch, waiting in traffic, waiting to rest before you can drive on again, it is all about waiting.

I do not think this killer is a psychopath. Even if Lindsay Harris is alive for a day before she is killed and her body dismembered, think about what it takes to place parts of her body all the way from Las Vegas in hopes of distorting an identification from taking place.

2. Amanda Tusing June 2000-

I think when it comes to Amanda Tusing's case you have to think like someone working a missing person's case. Police do not initially assume the worst when someone vanishes because people disappear for all sorts of reasons. Some run-away, some fake their disappearance, some just do not want to be found. Investigators would check the boyfriend, parents, but also would call hospitals, the morgue, etc. Always check everything because it might be the one thing that leads somewhere.

There is one important starting point that should be remembered when it comes to Amanda Tusing and Tammy Zywicki's cases: No one knows that they will be parked on the side of the road at such and such time. It is simply fate. Therefore the first part of the crime should be rather simplistic because the killer does not have time to do what he might have done in Veronica Blumhorst or Lindsay Harris case, follow and prepare. My idea is that the case could be as simple as she was kidnapped elsewhere, and her car left where it is because the killer lives close to that area. Police consider all of this.

Also, if the crime has simple beginnings, the location of Amanda Tusing's body could be important. I think that depending on the flow of the river current, any intersection of the road with the river before the point of the body location should be checked. Any type of flood reporting might lead to the name of such and such officer and it could be important.


3. Veronica Blumhorst- September 1990

There is not much to write about this case because like Lindsay Harris it is a missing person/murder case. Obviously the boyfriend is a good place to start but there is one other place that would also be a great place to start when investigating her case. That place is the grocery store where she worked. I worked at a grocery store before, one of these family owned with only 7 or 8 locations that today is no longer in business but I can tell you this with certainty: Grocery stores have a social scene unto themselves. At the one I worked at it seemed like every bagger or stocker(mostly males) was dating or wanted to date one of the cashiers(mostly females). If you were a bagger you tried to work with the cashier you were attracted to because when it is slow you can chat. Even the night manager threw certain favors towards the cashiers in order to get in good with them. At the store I worked at the baggers and stockers had to wear black dress pants, a white shirt, and tie. The nice thing was all the tips you raked in during the day which made working there versus working at another grocery store a little different.

I read that Veronica Blumhorst had a "bubbly" personality. I do not know how attractive she was to other guys but it would be very surprising to me if police could not find one single guy who either wanted to date her or was dating her at that grocery store. Maybe the boyfriend worked at the grocery store too? Then again, it might have been a customer who followed her home or maybe someone who saw her parking her car in the garage late at night or someone else who did not work at the grocery store. Like much of the information in my blog, I only suggest another avenue, one I am sure police checked out.

4. Tammy Zywicki- August 1992

I read a bit more about Amanda Tusing's case and how the investigator working the case felt that he knew her even though he never met her. It got me to thinking about an idea, a victim profile. Tammy Zywicki is the only one where there is enough information to make some solid guesses. I am a little biased when writing this because my freshman year in college I did a paper on James Dean. I never met Tammy Zywicki, but you can hint at certain things. So this is my victim profile of Tammy Zywicki....

Tammy Zywicki was a warm-hearted existential thinker. The James Dean picture on the wall says she liked to live in the fast lane, live life for now. "Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow." Some people do that, others get stuck in neutral. Then there is the It's A Wonderful Life movie. To an existential thinker, It's A Wonderful Life is not about an angel and how an angel gets his wings. I disagree that is why she liked the movie. The angel is just the vehicle for telling the story. A person who likes watching that movie every Christmas watches it because it is about a man who gets to see what the world would be like without him. It is about LIFE. Life would be a the constant theme that would come up when describing a person like this. They are interested in learning about life. Then there is going to Grinnell College. Why does a person choose to go to a college in the middle of Iowa when their grades are probably good enough to go to any other great university closer to home? Soccer and life are probably the answers. Small towns, small colleges with Div. 3 soccer teams are different because you are less of a number. Getting an education is one thing. The experience you have while you get your education is another. My point is going to Grinnell is probably alot different than going to Iowa State or Rutgers. It is probably much different than going to other larger private schools too. Grinnell would be the perfect school for someone like this because it serves two purposes: It is small, and it is quality, a top school.

Up until that day in August, I would imagine her outlook on the world was a positive one. She had already spent 3 years and a semester in Spain and nothing bad happened. The point is that nothing could have prevented what did happen. Wrong place, wrong time, just like Amanda Tusing. A person like this would want their loved ones to continue living their lives. You just do not know what is going to happen. Life is a journey not a destination. She simply looks at the world for what it is. The only thing you take with you are the memories you create along the way. I think if I had to pick one word that Tammy Zywicki's friends would use to describe her it would be "genuine." And life goes on....

Will a victim profile help solve a case? Is it correct? It is my perspective. I read she once punched a guy in the hallway at her school. Then you read about how she was stabbed in the arm when her body was found so the conclusion is that if someone attacks her she is going to try to fight. Then when you read about her case it seems as if police found no sign of a struggle at the crime scene. It does not seem in keeping with the type of person she is described as being.

That is why I always took the view that she was attacked elsewhere and not at the car. There is nothing to suggest I am right or wrong. It is just a different perspective. For example, I could have looked up registered sex offenders in the area or different trucking companies but I am sure those areas of the case have been covered. So I thought maybe she was kidnapped in Mendota and that is how I came across Veronica Blumhorst case. Veronica Blumhorst kind of piqued my interest when I read her description. As for the distance of Tammy Zywicki's body I thought it might be because the person is trying to keep anyone from connecting the dots. It is a thin theory especially since the details of each case are very different and in Veronica Blumhorst case there seems to be major suspicion of the boyfriend.


I sometimes wonder how many of these cold cases actually get solved. If there is one thing I learned being an amateur web investigator is that I have not solved anything. I think even if I were an actual investigator on one of these cases it would be just as difficult. It is hard to explain. But that is why they call it a mystery.

Amanda Tusing Case: June 14, 2000

Amanda Tusing was another young woman who was abducted from the side of the road after she pulled over to wait out a rainstorm. This case is featured as an episode of Haunting Evidence titled "Forgotten Fiancee". On June 14, 2000, Amanda Tusing left her boyfriend's house in Jonesboro, Arkansas at 11:30pm to return to her parents house in Dell, Arkansas. About halfway into the 45 minute trip, she pulled her car to the side of the road near Monette, Arkansas to wait out a bad thunderstorm. When she had not arrived home by 1:30am her boyfriend called her parents since he had not heard from her that she arrived home safely. At that point her father and boyfriend traveled from opposite directions toward each other looking for her car. Near the middle of the route the boyfriend found her car and then met up with her father to call police. A few days later on Fathers Day, June 18th, a passerby found her body in a drainage ditch called Big Bay Ditch near Lake City, about 13 miles west of where her car was found. The cause of death was consistent with drowning.

This is another unique murder case. It reminds me of a Forensic Files case about a girl named Kara Knot. The circumstances seem so similar. In that case, though, it is presumed her killer saw her first.

There is one unique aspect of Amanda Tusing's case. I do not know whether or not her killer took her license, but if it is a police officer or even someone posing as a police officer it would be strange if her license was not gone or even wet along with her registration when the car is found. This is the major difference between her case and the Kara Knot case. The reason investigators came upon the police officer who murdered Kara Knot was because after airing her case on tv(like airing Amanda Tusing's case on Haunting Evidence), women came forward pointing to one officer who had pulled them over and made them feel uncomfortable. This ended up being the officer who murdered Kara Knot. The officer even participated in the program featuring Kara Knot's case warning women to be careful when traveling alone.

Even if the person knew Amanda Tusing was from Arkansas, you would think they would want to know what part of Arkansas. When the psychics did their reading at Amanda Tusing's body site, the paranormal investigator said it best when remarking it is easy to see why whoever killed Amanda Tusing chose this place for her body. The key word is chose and when you factor in the cause of death, this certainly seems like a person who is organized and neat, maybe even phobic about it.

The difference between Kara Knott's death is that it was rather impersonal while Amanda Tusing's was personal. In all the cases I have read about concerning drowning, there seemed to be a personal connection between that manner of death and who eventually was found to be responsible.