About Tami's Death
.....on December 7, 1988, Tami and her friend Christine Hillis left school during 1st period. They had told friends that they were running away from home. That was the last day we had seen Tami.
This is the cross of flowers that our mother put on the ditchbank where her body was found. And every chance ma gets, she is there visiting, and putting up more flowers so her memory does not die.
On December 9, 1988, it was reported that the two girls were seen hitchhiking on #85 North out of Crestview, Florida. Tami was wearing jeans, a jean jacket with names written all over it, and white tennis shoes. She had told friends she was going to either North Carolina, Tennessee or Indiana. She had no money or extra clothes with her at the time she left. The person who reported her on #85 was the
last person that we have heard from that seen her alive. She was a cigarette smoker (Marlboro) and hung out a game rooms and pool halls. Even though she was only 16, she often passed for 18 or 21. Our main goal here is to find someone.....ANYONE....who might have remembered seeing her during her long and final journey, who may have some information to help find her killer(s). Our family did everything we could to find Tami but all our efforts just didn't work.
This is Tami and niece Calina
Her step-dad was a truck-driver and he put up flyers along his path wherever his job took him...but still, we heard nothing. In our minds she just needed her space and we knew she would soon come home. It wasn't until one day in March when we received something that would change our lives forever. Our mother subscribed to "The Leader" newspaper in Knox, Indiana. She liked to keep up with
what was happening in Starke County since we were gone. My mother took care of Perry Fisher, a family friend, due to his age and disabilities. And as well, he liked to keep up with the news that was happening "back home". The day was like any other, my mother opened her weekly paper sent from Indiana, when she read the headline that stated "Two women's bodies found in ditch near Starke Co. line". My mother went into hysterics,
for she knew, This was her Tami.
Sister and Tami celebrating 13th Birthday
I remember very clearly the events that unfolded during the next few days. We did everything to try to convince her that she was drawing up conclusions that was inconceivable by the rest of us. First thing ma did was call the police department, which eventually led to conversations with the Starke County and LaPorte County Police Departments. The file was soon sent to the Crestview Police Department where it was delivered by hand to our mother to verify pictures of articles that were found on her decomposed body. It was then that the horror of her death was confirmed. The jewelry...the Dental records.....the shoes.....they all were Tami's. It was then that the reality hit us all that SHE WAS GONE, SHE WAS TRULY GONE!! A fisherman had found her body while fishing along the banks of the water. I can't image what that man went through...finding the body. It was two days later when her friend, Christine, was found. My mother took it very hard. How could her baby be taken from her at such a young age. What did she do to deserve what she got. SHE WAS 16...she had not yet begun to live. She should have been given the chance to be a wife ...a mommy....everything she wanted to be. Instead, a stranger took
her life away, way before her time. She will never have the chance to
"BE" again. Her funeral was held in Knox at Braman & Son Memorial Chapel on April 1, 1989. Again, we remember this day very clearly. The ceremony had to be a closed casket ceremony due to the decomposition of her body. Our mother begged them to let her see Tami...but they refused. We feel that it was much better that she remember Tami as the beautiful girl that she was rather than decomposed body that was laying in that coffin that day.
Whether it be in our dreams when we sleep or in our daydreams at work, she is always on our minds and forever will be. It has been 10 years since she was last with us but she will always be with us in spirit and heart.......ALWAYS!!
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Email: alannagad@gmail.com
