IL IL - Tammy Zywicki, 21, La Salle, 23 Aug 1992

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I looked through their website and it is not listed there. That doesn't mean it wasn't profiled at some point during the shows history though.
http://www.unsolved.com/murder.html
 
gaia227 said:
Nice overview of this case on TruTv's Crime Library
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/unsolved/tammy_zywicki/1.html
Click to expand...

from page 4 of the above link:


Bierbodt, 31 at the time of Tammy's death, was a convicted felon who'd been serving two concurrent 20-year terms for a pair of armed robberies until he was paroled in 1990. He lived in Missouri, close to that stretch of highway between Springfield and Joplin where Tammy's body was discovered. After his release, Bierbodt began to drive trucks, specifically a Kenworth truck. The red blanket in which Tammy's body was found was decorated with a Kenworth logo. A further coincidence was that Bierbodt had been visiting some family in Illinois, mere minutes from the spot on I-80 where Tammy was last seen. Yet after Bierbodt was questioned and swabbed for DNA, he was released and no arrest was made. With no other leads, the task force dedicated to Tammy's case was disbanded shortly thereafter.

Nothing I can find indicates the results of the DNA test on Bierbodt. While I asked my neighbor, an ISP - but not a detective- over a year ago he never got any info for me and I don'twant to keep bugging him about it. It would be nice to know if both Bierbodt and Mendenhall were officially ruled out via DNA.

Also, according to the above link there is a 150,000 reward for Tammy's case. If that is still active, I wonder why this one hasn't been solved?

Still praying for answers on this one.
 
:bump:


bumping for Tammy. It still amazes me this case has not yet been solved.

I wonder where things currently stand with this case with today's forensic technology. Especially with testing for DNA on the red blanket wrapping Tammy's body.

I posted upthread in 2009 that I had asked my neighbor regarding any conclusions to rule in or out the two possible suspects. I never heard anything from him about it. Next time I bump into him I'll ask if he has heard any recent news on her case.

Incredibly sad this case still remains unsolved.
 
I wonder whatever became of those DNA test results on Bierbodt as a possible suspect.

I don't recall reading far enough into the trutv link originally posted by gaia227 upthread to realize Bierbodt died in June of 2002. It really makes me wonder if IL just drops cases if the primary suspect is deceased. (Off the top of my head, I can't recall any IL cases which were solved and closed after the perp was deceased. though that doesn't mean none exist. I just don't recall any.)

Also from the trutv link.

An FBI task force were assigned to the case. Fourteen investigators set out to gather any information regarding Tammy's killer. In January 1993, an anonymous female witness called the task force and told investigators that the wife of a man who matched the FBI's description — the bushy hair, the age and height — entered her workplace for some routine bloodwork. The woman showed the witness a watch her husband had given her. The Lorus-brand wrist watch was unique — it had an umbrella on the face and played the tune "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head." It matched the description of one of the personal items Tammy was said to have had with her when she disappeared but which were never recovered after her body was found. The witness and the watch led investigators to Lonnie Bierbodt.



http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/unsolved/tammy_zywicki/4.html
 
theforgotten said:
Was this case ever on Unsolved Mysteries? For some reason I think it was.
Click to expand...

I'm fairly certain that the case wasn't ever on Unsolved Mysteries but I do believe that it did get on one of the 30 minute syndicated Unsolved Mysteries clones such as Missing: Reward with Stacy Keach or Prime Suspect with Mike Hegedus.

This case was also a substantial cause of the cell phone boom.
 
How did the use of cell phones boom after this-is there evidence to support that?
 
I heard several people say that this case is why they bought one or got one for their kids. They knew she would still be alive if she'd had one.
 
I knew Tammy and her brother Darren from our high school cross country team in SC. She was remarkable. I can't believe no one has been held accountable after so long.
 
How would Tammy still be alive? People with cell phones are killed all the time.
 
mikej73 said:
I knew Tammy and her brother Darren from our high school cross country team in SC. She was remarkable. I can't believe no one has been held accountable after so long.
Click to expand...



Welcome to WS mikej73! :welcome:

Thank you for joining us. :welcome:

I still remember this case like it happened yesterday. I was working in EGV IL, at the time, in what was then and is still the largest Industrial park in the US. I think every one of us in the office kept an eye out on every semi we saw in the area hoping to id the truck that was seen parked behind Tammy's car. It seemed so surreal a young college student on her way to school would befall such a tragedy.

Since joining here, I've looked and have never seen any updates regarding the dna/forensic testing of the two suspected persons of interest. I happen to live very near an IL State trouper. He's not in the same district Tammy was murdered. I asked if he knew if either were ruled out via dna. Sadly, I never heard back from him which could be because it is an ongoing investigation.

In any case, this coming year marks the 20th anniversary of Tammy's unsolved murder. DNA and forensics have made such great advancements in the last few years and continue to advance. This is one crime, I honestly thought current forensic technology could and should be able to solve.

I pray before the 20th anniversary arrives this coming August an arrest has been made and the person responsible charged. Or if the perp is deceased, Tammy and her family still deserve answers and closure.

Tammy and her family continue to be in our prayers.
 
This one was huge news in IL. My cousin was murdered in '79 on a highway. They'll never find his killer either.
 
I remember being so personally touched by this disappearance, because she looked so much like I did, and I was also spending lots of time on the road traveling back and forth to school... my mother was terrified something would happen to me even before this.

I have always remembered this case and though I knew it had gone cold, I lost track of it. I had assumed that with the advent of more sophisticated forensics, the guy would've been caught by now. He left a WEALTH of forensic evidence behind... blanket (fibers? hair?), sheet (body fluids), duct tape and evidence of the sexual assault...? How can this STILL be unsolved? This isn't the crime of a first/one time offender!

I don't like the lack of response to the forensic evidence from the state cops. It seems, l don't know, just suspiciously wrong. Tammy deserves justice, even if the guilty one is dead. Something reminded me of Tammy this morning, and I've been searching for this case for about an hour and a half. (didn't think to search it as a cold case). Now I'm mad and sad.
 
This year is the 20th anniversary.

"A witness told McCarthy she saw a man matching Bierbrodt’s description with Tammy Zywicki and her broken-down car as she passed by on the interstate. The Datsun pickup truck the witness said she saw behind Zywicki’s vehicle matched one Bierbrodt had before he steam-cleaned and sold it just days after the killing, McCarthy said.

Not long after the killing, Bierbrodt gave his then-wife a musical watch similar to one Tammy was said to have taken with her on the trip back to college. Tammy’s body was found wrapped in a blanket with a Kenworth logo, and Bierbrodt drove a Kenworth-made truck.

Yet McCarthy says prosecutors resisted charging Bierbrodt, figuring there wasn’t enough evidence to take the case before a grand jury. Bierbrodt was 41 when he died of AIDS in 2002.

“In 20 years, let’s face it, no other suspect has come forward other than Bierbrot. He’s a helluva suspect,” said McCarthy, 65 and now retired in Wheaton. “I’m an old cop, and these kinds of things just bug the hell out of me. But I’ll keep fighting.”
www.dailyherald.com/article/20120729/news/707299933/
 
Bierbrodt looks like the perp. The evidence is so strong against him - the truck logo, giving his ex wife a watch that exactly matched Tammy's.

With all due respect to Tammy, her family, and the investigators who were assigned to this case when it happened, I think I see a pattern with cold cases in Illinois. Even if perhaps a small pattern.

The pattern I have noticed: If the crime occured in Illinois, the suspect is deceased and the victims family resides outside of IL, I simply do not see cases being solved.

This case, imo, is screaming to be solved. If DNA can be obtained from the crime scene and compared to Beirbolts, I'd bet my last dollar this case would be solved.

I wish the retired detective McCarthy would find us here, because I would love to ask why the state is not pursuing closing this case.

Additionally, I would love to see my small but noticable pattern challenged. What cases which occured in IL with the perp deceased and the victims family residing outside of IL have been solved?

Why isn't Illinois doing something similiar to what occured with Adam Walsh's case? Perp is deceased, but authorities are certain who is responsible and can now close the case type thing. Tammy's family deserve answers. The case should not sit dormant because the suspect is deceased and I am afraid that is exactly what happened. And that throughout Illinois if a perp can not be brought to trial, the case is left unsolved and on the books purposely.


Praying this case is solved soon and not forgotten because the perp is likely deceased. :praying: :rose:

Tammy is not forgotten and will never be forgotten. :rose:
 
Claudette said:
“In 20 years, let’s face it, no other suspect has come forward other than Bierbrot. He’s a helluva suspect,” said McCarthy, 65 and now retired in Wheaton. “I’m an old cop, and these kinds of things just bug the hell out of me. But I’ll keep fighting.”
www.dailyherald.com/article/20120729/news/707299933/
Click to expand...

Respectfully snipped. It bugs the hell out of a lot of us here at WS too Mr. McCarthy, it really does. And I am very glad to hear something coming from Wheaton regarding the very old likely solvable but probably collecting dust cold cases here in Illinois.
 
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