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.