This 19-Year-Old College Student Vanished In 1981, And The FBI Believes A Wallet Might Hold Some Clues About What Happened To Her
On August 29, 1961, Tammy Mahoney was born in Long Island, New York, and spent much of her childhood surrounded by the scenic suburbs.
Then, in 1981 at the age of nineteen, she moved to Oneida, New York, to live with her boyfriend, Karl.
Tammy also attended the State University of New York at Morrisville to pursue her dream of becoming a veterinarian while simultaneously working with animals as a groomer for Vernon Downs.
The nineteen-year-old did not have a car, though, so she was known to hitchhike to work. In fact, the constant struggle of finding a ride to her shifts was enough to make her quit on May 3, 1981, and begin searching for another job.
Tammy did not tell her boyfriend she had quit, though, and instead adhered to her typical daily schedule.
During that time, she applied to the Oneida Daily Dispatch– a local newspaper– just before she disappeared.
The nineteen-year-old was last seen on May 8, 1981, while she was hitchhiking near the Glenwood Shopping Center on Route 46. She allegedly had plans to visit Hamilton, New York, but never arrived at her destination.
And after no one had heard from Tammy for three days, her boyfriend reported her missing on May 11.
Facebook; pictured above is Tammy
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The Oneida City Police Department immediately launched an investigation and came to believe that a group of four men had picked up Tammy while hitchhiking that day and dropped her off somewhere within the Oneida Indian National Territory– a thirty-two-acre region along Route 46.
Initial clues also led authorities to believe she had been assaulted and murdered by these men.
Even after conducting numerous searches along the route, though, officials never recovered any remains.
And since then, the FBI has taken over Tammy’s case and has continued actively investigating her mysterious disappearance.
Investigators from the bureau have also issued two pleas to community members in recent years.
The first came in October of 2020– when investigators shared that four days after Tammy was reported missing, an anonymous wallet was turned over to the Oneida City Police Department on May 15, 1981.
It is believed that the owner of the wallet knew Tammy and saw her the night she disappeared. So, Thomas Relford, an FBI Albany Field Office Special Agent, urged the owner of the wallet to come forward in an interview with Spectrum News 1.
“I want to stress that this individual is not in trouble, but we still want to talk to them and are very interested in what they have to say about the wallet. We realize this was a long time ago, but we believe this wallet is directly connected to this investigation,” Relford said.
And most recently, in March of this year, the FBI also officially updated information surrounding Tammy’s case that points to a new timeline of events the night she disappeared.
According to WKTV Utica, extensive inquiries over recent years have led FBI officials to “know with certainty” that Tammy was picked up and brought to a party at a Territory Road home in Oneida.
Officials detailed how multiple credible witnesses have come forward with information and corroborated the story that Tammy later left the party on foot following an altercation with another guest. And now, they are urging others with information to contact the bureau.
“We know there are people out there who have the answers we need to solve this case and bring closure. We implore you to come forward,” said James Hendricks, an FBI Special Agent.
Like the bureau, Tammy’s family has also held onto hope that justice will soon be served and answers will be brought to light.
The Mahoneys also created a Facebook group and Twitter account entitled “Justice For Tammy Mahoney” to raise awareness about the case and provide community members with updates.
In 2019, Marleen Laccesaglia– Tammy’s sister– opened up about their aging mother’s hopes for the case.
“Mom is eighty-five. She misses her daughter. She says a prayer for her every day. It has been a long time that we haven’t had answers,” Marleen said.
Tammy was five-foot-three, one hundred and thirty pounds, and had brown hair and green eyes. The FBI is now offering a reward of twenty thousand dollars to anyone with information that leads to the recovery of Tammy’s remains and/or the arrest and prosecution of her perpetrator.
If you have any information, you are encouraged to contact the FBI Albany Office at (315) 731-1781.
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