Tami Lynn Leppert

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by bigted12

Brenda Heist had a criminal past, her marriage was over and while sat crying in a park, was found by strangers who invited her to hitchhike to florida, she spent years sleeping under a bridge..

She did not have a criminal past, she was going through a divorce and applied for financial assistance and was denied. She was approached by three strangers who asked her what was wrong and she told them about her problems and they asked if she wanted to hitchhike to Florida with them...and she did. She also lived with a woman for close to a year as a housekeeper. This person was shocked at her appearance when she was found roughly a year after moving out of the house. She wasn't homeless the entire time she was missing. She dated. She had a Facebook (under an assumed name).

Originally Posted by bigted12

but bringing up brenda is interesting, maybe it's very similar and we just haven't found tammy yet. this case proves it's possible.

Brenda Heist up and abandoned everything on a whim due to stress in her life. Tammy was also going through a stressful period in her life. The big difference is that Brenda was found after a decade...and not a hint of Tammy has ever surfaced since she went missing.

What I would like to know is...how often did Tammy "disappear" or leave the house? Was it semi frequently? Never? She wasn't reported missing for a week, which makes me think this was a semi regular occurrence. Why was she trying to go to Ft. Lauderdale? Did she have friends in the area? Does she actually have a brother that also went missing?

[bigted12]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

She did not have a criminal past, she was going through a divorce and applied for financial assistance and was denied. She was approached by three strangers who asked her what was wrong and she told them about her problems and they asked if she wanted to hitchhike to Florida with them...and she did. She also lived with a woman for close to a year as a housekeeper. This person was shocked at her appearance when she was found roughly a year after moving out of the house. She wasn't homeless the entire time she was missing. She dated. She had a Facebook (under an assumed name).



Brenda Heist up and abandoned everything on a whim due to stress in her life. Tammy was also going through a stressful period in her life. The big difference is that Brenda was found after a decade...and not a hint of Tammy has ever surfaced since she went missing.

What I would like to know is...how often did Tammy "disappear" or leave the house? Was it semi frequently? Never? She wasn't reported missing for a week, which makes me think this was a semi regular occurrence. Why was she trying to go to Ft. Lauderdale? Did she have friends in the area? Does she actually have a brother that also went missing?

What i've read about brenda heist says that she was arrested for drug posession, forgery, giving the police a false name...she also spent a few years living under the bridge. which is a little strange right?

her behavour suggests it was more than a simple whim from someone who wanted to begin a new life and was 100% mentally well.



as for tammy i've asked chatgtp some of the those questions and it says that she didn't have a history of going missing before that day, she also didn't have a brother. according to chatgtp she had no biological siblings, only an adopted sister suzanne...

i'm not against the idea that she ran away, but if she did run away, i don't believe that it was like a sane decision. it's impossible.

wing said that "some days were worse than others"

tammy being mentally stable would have found a way home, i think when people say "she tried to hitch a ride and was killed" it's an attempt at making it fit, it's too easy, too compact.

i believe she "freaked" out that day in the car, gets out and becomes overwhelmed with emotion and whatever else, thats when she makes those "frantic" calls... scared, shoeless, confused and with her mental health playing against her, she makes some bad choices or maybe she doesnt think at all... did she have paranoia about returning home? did she have an episode that day, later that night that could have even made her forget things?

google says that LSD can cause memory loss and even brain damage...

outside, wandering around, she physically and mentally gets worse. i think it is possible that somewhere along the way she could have died, even murdered... but could she have lived on the streets, wandered around, even met a guy?

maybe she knows who she is, maybe she doesn't, maybe it's not so black and white..maybe she's still out there...

maybe at this point the lack of body, makes it's just as viable shes out there and alive.

[Labonte18]

Originally Posted by XCalibur

You know you kind of caused me to think of a question I raised in my own mind. Thinking of all these unsolved cases from the show over the years, particularly missing persons, how do we know that in some instances some of these missing persons have not resurfaced and got in contact with their families and we just never heard about it? and how many times wanted criminals from the show have been either caught and turned up deceased and we just never heard about it?

In general over the years Unsolved Mysteries has been pretty good about keeping its wiki pages and site updated with solved cases. Even though the main show has been off the air over twenty years now the most recent reincarnations of the show notwithstanding, including the recent Netflix version of the show. of course the 1-800 number has long since been disconnected but as far as I know the site is still active and updated. And I'm guessing people who ran the show still research and track old cases sometimes.

But, i have to think there has been at least a few instances where missing persons from the show, or even other kinds of cases have been resolved and it simply was never reported to Unsolved Mysteries or any other media that Unsolved Mysteries tracks. i mean its been years since Bobby and Christy Baskin were found for all we know they may have finally decided to at least meet their brother who knows? And they simply did not report it for their own reasons.

In the case of Tammy Lynn Leppert, I seem to remember she had a younger sister who was looking for her as recently as a decade ago, as far as i know she still is. So i don't think this applies to her. And like you I've always believed just based on the circumstances of her disappearance she is likely no longer with us. But there is no way to know for sure. And the guy she went with that day I'm far from certain he has told everything he knows about her disappearance either.

But I still bet this happens more than we think.

I'm sure it's happened. i think we've probably discussed some of them here.. i know that if UM is involved and they are notified.. They do updates. That's from personal experience. They did a little update video on the Lori Jane Eblin case.. It was just text, but.. They put out an update. i presume Lori's sister let them know that she was found.

There's also been at least a few where someone was found/case solved, but "No further details were available"..

So.. I'm.. decently certain that what you describe has happened.. I don't know if it would be a surprising amount or not, because.. I don't know how many it'd take to surprise me.. lol. Then there are others that.. We discussed Walter Rice here.. I did some work on tracking him, and I someone found info I had overlooked where he was in the 1940 census. Basically, he was a cousin of MLB HoFer Jim Rice. that's.. "Solved" but.. Not officially. Mainly because.. No one who could officially solve it is still working on it.

Let's also say.. The people here? .. and, I'm not including myself in this because.. You people are freaking hardcore. But.. If you all haven't heard about it.. I'd say it hasn't been solved.

Originally Posted by bigted12

It depends, i think it's pretty safe to say that she took something like LSD at that party and it seriously messed with her mental health. because everyone says that before that party she was fine and she came home a "different person"

"it was as if a switch was flicked"

mental illness doesn't appear like that unless it's drug releated, we also have nobody saying she shown signed of mental illness BEFORE the party. so it's drugs...

I'm not an expert on these things, so i dont know how badly this could affect someone, does it get worse and worse? could she have had some meltdown after the argument?

i don't think that it's a sane theory that she just wandered off that day and could have even been taken in by someone, her mental health declines, her appearance dramatically changes by living badly.. and she just slowly drifts away.

maybe she died a year later, maybe she died 5 years later or maybe shes still out there.

it's difficult because we dont have a body dead or alive.

I think if you had ever dealt with someone who was manic, you'd change your mind on that 'flipping a switch' statement. Because.. It absolutely can hit like that.

I could get behind the idea that maybe she was struggling with milder issues of paranoia and.. Maybe even not liking to be around crowds.. And.. She went to that party and it just all kinda hit.. But.. The thing is.. She never seemed to come down from the manic state. It was like she TRIED to pretend.. But, based on the story, it makes it sound like she pretty much stayed in that state.. and.. The question is.. At least for me.. Is that what happened.. or.. Is that just the better story? Did she have ebbs and flows where she went between 'normal' and manic?

Going manic and staying that way for months on end.. That's.. Unusual.

It does bite many of us in the butt from time to time.. UM wants to tell a good story.. So.. They had to walk that line between informative and entertaining back in the day when they were on a network. I think they have more leeway to get the true info across now on Netflix.

[bigted12]

Originally Posted by Labonte18

I'm sure it's happened. i think we've probably discussed some of them here.. i know that if UM is involved and they are notified.. They do updates. That's from personal experience. They did a little update video on the Lori Jane Eblin case.. It was just text, but.. They put out an update. i presume Lori's sister let them know that she was found.

There's also been at least a few where someone was found/case solved, but "No further details were available"..

So.. I'm.. decently certain that what you describe has happened.. I don't know if it would be a surprising amount or not, because.. I don't know how many it'd take to surprise me.. lol. Then there are others that.. We discussed Walter Rice here.. I did some work on tracking him, and I someone found info I had overlooked where he was in the 1940 census. Basically, he was a cousin of MLB HoFer Jim Rice. that's.. "Solved" but.. Not officially. Mainly because.. No one who could officially solve it is still working on it.

Let's also say.. The people here? .. and, I'm not including myself in this because.. You people are freaking hardcore. But.. If you all haven't heard about it.. I'd say it hasn't been solved.




I think if you had ever dealt with someone who was manic, you'd change your mind on that 'flipping a switch' statement. Because.. It absolutely can hit like that.

I could get behind the idea that maybe she was struggling with milder issues of paranoia and.. Maybe even not liking to be around crowds.. And.. She went to that party and it just all kinda hit.. But.. The thing is.. She never seemed to come down from the manic state. It was like she TRIED to pretend.. But, based on the story, it makes it sound like she pretty much stayed in that state.. and.. The question is.. At least for me.. Is that what happened.. or.. Is that just the better story? Did she have ebbs and flows where she went between 'normal' and manic?

Going manic and staying that way for months on end.. That's.. Unusual.

It does bite many of us in the butt from time to time.. UM wants to tell a good story.. So.. They had to walk that line between informative and entertaining back in the day when they were on a network. I think they have more leeway to get the true info across now on Netflix.

I'm sure you'e heard of the "the yuba 5", it's a famous case from the 70s, where after a basketball game 5 friends take a drive out into the country, go missing and months later their bodies are found. all had either mental health issues or learning difficulties. the thing is, they were found in a situation where they had food to survive and even means of contacting someone.

although the case is different, it kinda shows how someone having a mental illness can stop them even doing basic things in order to get help or survive...

if she was in the car and then had some episode, she gets out of the car, then instead of calling for help, she "frantically" calls her aunt and someone else.. she's already showing signs of not being rational.

so the question is what happens next? like i've said before, it's too easy to say "well she tried to thumb a ride and the guy just happened to be a killer, so she was murdered.."

I think the most likely theory is that starts walking around, maybe becomes disoriented, she has no shoes according to most people, she has no purse, shes panicking at this point and who knows if her paranoia sets in and she thinks someone is something is after her. this then makes her to make one bad decision after another. in turn it affects her mental illness even worse...

maybe someone takes her in, a guy...LSD causes brain damage...could her mental health have just got worse and worse until she barely knew who she was?

maybe the only mystery is what became of her, she could have gotten into drugs which would have made her both change mentally and physically... maybe she died at some point or maybe she's out there!



Edit - when i said "it was like flicking a switch" i mean she went for 17-18 years of showing zero mental health problems, she came back from that party acting like she did... thats not normal, thats not manic or anything else, something triggered it.

[blacksymbiote]

Originally Posted by bigted12

Wait a minute, we could be on to something here...

Your investigations have concluded that tammy decided to masterfully pretend to have these mental illness espisodes as a means of getting out of showbiz? Those extra roles really did seem to be mounting up.

When all this failed she then decided to dupe even UM, because there was no freakout in the car, infact the guy dropped 50 grand in her lap and helped her began a new life? of course picking out a much more less showy wardrobe to begin her new journey.

listen black, i wasn't buying it 2 comments ago, but now i'm all in. i think it's time you broke it. i think it's been long enough for everyone, especially the family.

i implore you to call fort lauderdale LE. put this case to bed once and for all.

The alternative being she tricked the doctors and sheriff into thinking that she was perfectly healthy. Again per Roberts, her freak out wasn't some crazy rant, but a refusal to go home. I find it hard to believe she went from wanting to go to ft Lauderdale to not even able to barely function.

[vnn]

Originally Posted by bigted12

LSD causes brain damage

Not true. I do acid regularly, and I’ve never been healthier, smarter, and happier. Zero side effects aside from some insomnia.

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by bigted12

What i've read about brenda heist says that she was arrested for drug posession, forgery, giving the police a false name...she also spent a few years living under the bridge. which is a little strange right?

her behavour suggests it was more than a simple whim from someone who wanted to begin a new life and was 100% mentally well.

All of those charges were after she had fled and been living in Florida for years. She left on a whim after financial assistance was denied.

Originally Posted by bigted12

i'm not against the idea that she ran away, but if she did run away, i don't believe that it was like a sane decision. it's impossible.

A sane decision for someone might seem like an insane decision for you. It's not impossible.

Originally Posted by bigted12

tammy being mentally stable would have found a way home, i think when people say "she tried to hitch a ride and was killed" it's an attempt at making it fit, it's too easy, too compact.

Not if she didn't want to return home.

Originally Posted by bigted12

i believe she "freaked" out that day in the car, gets out and becomes overwhelmed with emotion and whatever else, thats when she makes those "frantic" calls... scared, shoeless, confused and with her mental health playing against her, she makes some bad choices or maybe she doesnt think at all... did she have paranoia about returning home? did she have an episode that day, later that night that could have even made her forget things?

She was not shoeless on the day she disappeared.

Originally Posted by bigted12

outside, wandering around, she physically and mentally gets worse. i think it is possible that somewhere along the way she could have died, even murdered... but could she have lived on the streets, wandered around, even met a guy?

maybe she knows who she is, maybe she doesn't, maybe it's not so black and white..maybe she's still out there...

maybe at this point the lack of body, makes it's just as viable shes out there and alive.

She was in a fairly populated tourist-y area in Florida in July. She was last seen walking in the direction of where her aunt had a business (which was less than a mile from where she was last seen). She had made several calls from where she was dropped off. We don't know if she was able to reach someone who came and picked her up. We don't know if she ran into someone she knew who gave her a lift.

[Labonte18]

Originally Posted by bigted12

I'm sure you'e heard of the "the yuba 5", it's a famous case from the 70s, where after a basketball game 5 friends take a drive out into the country, go missing and months later their bodies are found. all had either mental health issues or learning difficulties. the thing is, they were found in a situation where they had food to survive and even means of contacting someone.

although the case is different, it kinda shows how someone having a mental illness can stop them even doing basic things in order to get help or survive...

if she was in the car and then had some episode, she gets out of the car, then instead of calling for help, she "frantically" calls her aunt and someone else.. she's already showing signs of not being rational.

so the question is what happens next? like i've said before, it's too easy to say "well she tried to thumb a ride and the guy just happened to be a killer, so she was murdered.."

I think the most likely theory is that starts walking around, maybe becomes disoriented, she has no shoes according to most people, she has no purse, shes panicking at this point and who knows if her paranoia sets in and she thinks someone is something is after her. this then makes her to make one bad decision after another. in turn it affects her mental illness even worse...

maybe someone takes her in, a guy...LSD causes brain damage...could her mental health have just got worse and worse until she barely knew who she was?

maybe the only mystery is what became of her, she could have gotten into drugs which would have made her both change mentally and physically... maybe she died at some point or maybe she's out there!



Edit - when i said "it was like flicking a switch" i mean she went for 17-18 years of showing zero mental health problems, she came back from that party acting like she did... thats not normal, thats not manic or anything else, something triggered it.

From what I've heard, it's not really a huge ramp-up for Schizophrenia. I don't have any personal experience with it, so.. I can't say you're wrong.. I just.. Question it a bit. It's also possible that if there was an increasing period, she might have been able to keep it together during that and people not notice, or just write it off as a bad day.

The end-game here is.. Where is she now? I think you're in agreement, more or less, on that as well. Everyone can have a theory.. But, with little to no hard evidence.. That's all they are.. Theories. Some.. Probably better and more well thought out than others.. Some.. Perhaps bordering of defamation, to be honest.

after the involvement with the Lori Jane case.. I.. Might actually be a little biased. If you read things prior to her being found.. You see a number of similarities to this case, to the Adam Hecht case.. Bunch of people from the outside looking in who pointed fingers.. Some.. I mean.. Logically.. They have to be a suspect. That.. Doesn't mean that they really had anything to do with it. Lori Jane's case.. The 'husband' was absolutely a prime suspect. But, at the end of the day.. Other than being a complete and total POS and having the information that would have led to her being discovered and not sharing it.. He really had nothing to do with her death. The family hasn't spoken on the details and even I don't know all of them, but, basically, they were both hardcore into drugs, he took her to the hospital and she died there and was 'missing' for 23 years.. After dying in a hospital!

So.. I have zero doubt that influences me quite a bit.. Seeing that is possible, and how little effort the police put into finding her.. I think all of us have this picture in our heads of the cops turning over every stone.. And, sadly, I've seen how that.. Just doesn't happen. They're more than happy to take the credit when someone dumps the information to solve a case in their lap, tho.

It's kinda my crutch lately, but.. Gene Hackman. I'll give real money to ANYONE who had that she died of Hantavirus and he lived in the house for a week afterwards with her dead body at the start. I think most everyone was in the same mindset I was, for the most part. CO poisoning. And, when that was disproven.. We all kinda floundered. One person on another message board where we were discussing that one was completely hardcore that they were poisoned by pesticides. I found that funny, because.. Pesticides might just have saved her life.

Looping all this back to Tammy Lynn.. It's another case.. I just don't know. It's hard to argue with most of the theories. I mean, some of them are out there, but.. I haven't really seen one yet that you can't say "Hey.. Possible". We all have our own thoughts, feelings and biases that point us away from something or towards something.

If she turned up alive tomorrow.. I'd be VERY surprised. I think she's deceased, and likely has been since shortly around the time she went missing. But.. How? That's where.. Everything is on the table. I suspect, if this is ever solved, no one will have nailed it. that being said.. Missing people DO turn up after long periods of time when everyone thinks they're dead, so.. It's not impossible.

I guess.. the TLDR version.. You can sum it up in one statement. "You don't know what you don't know"

[Dogface82]

What ever happened to AspenGold, Rick Adams, and others who knew or encounteredTammi? They used to post regularly on this thread. Dynoguy88 posted a pretty good timeline and some news articles.
The comments at the beginning of this thread made it clear that Tammi and her mother lived with wing and his parents in the Flanagan home. There is a general consensus that Tami had a gray purse or wallet and flip flops. A local pointed out that the shoeless issue was neaningless because so many people ran around barefoot anyway. I recommend reading this thread from the begining, more facts less raw emotion, almost no demonic references. Easily read without a bucket of holy water.

[tvscript124]

I've now changed my thinking about Tami's mother, mostly influenced by parents being judged harshly in other cases based on appearances. It's easy to blame Tami's mother, but no one really knows what was going through Tami's mind just before she vanished, be it drugs or schizophrenia or something else.

[bigted12]

Originally Posted by tvscript124

I've now changed my thinking about Tami's mother, mostly influenced by parents being judged harshly in other cases based on appearances. It's easy to blame Tami's mother, but no one really knows what was going through Tami's mind just before she vanished, be it drugs or schizophrenia or something else.

I think that when it comes to forums like this, there are always a few people that maybe because of ego or whatever, will never simply say "i don't know" or "i'm not sure"

They'll come up with a theory, that not only has no basis, but it denies reality. I mean there are people in this thread who have never met tammy, they have never heard her speak and even might have not been alive when she went missing! but in order to make their theory fit will tell you what tammy was thinking, what her career plans were, what she liked, what she didn't like...

It's bizarre.


As for tammys mother...although i'm not against the idea that she was a pushy beauty queen mom... it just seems like some cliche from a 90s hallmark movie.

As for her being guilty in some way? well as soon as tammy started to act strange, her mom took her to be observed for 72 hours, then later to speak to LE.... if the mom was doing something bad, tammy could have said anything to both the doctors and the sheriff to implicate the mother...

the mom also did the segment on UM... hardly the actions of a guilty immoral person...

I mean i've even read here hahaha that a 12 year old Wing was complict in the abuse!!! and that Wing and the mother had poor tammy working the extras circuit.. bringing in those 40 bucks a time roles to keep them in a luxury lifestyle!

Like i say, some people will come up with the craziest nonsense to make something fit, rather then say "i dunno"

[TheCars1986]

43 years ago today is when Tammy disappeared. I know a lot of people continue to speculate about the male friend who dropped her off and left her, but I honestly do not believe he had anything to do with Tammy's disappearance. According to his story, they got into an argument over his refusal to give Tammy a ride to Ft. Lauderdale, and he pulled into the Glass Bank parking lot. Some articles say that witnesses saw Tammy walking in this parking lot. The missing persons report for Tammy says that the male friend let Tammy out of his car two blocks south from the Glass Bank. Tammy left with the friend at around 1:00 p.m. on the day of her disappearance. The male friend claims to have let Tammy out of his car around 3:00 p.m. that day. Her aunt owned a shop in the area, and there were apparently 3 different calls that Tammy had made to the business trying to reach her aunt (business was closed at the time Tammy tried calling). According to this article, Tammy left 3 "urgent" sounding voice mails to her aunt. As you can see from this map, Tammy was let out two blocks north from her aunt's shop. Tammy also called another friend who owned a video store and left a message for him, and his store was located about two miles north from where the Glass Bank was. She was calling people locally for help. She was in a populated area, and was not shoeless as some articles like to say. I think it's likely she hitched a ride with the wrong person and met with foul play.

[dynoguy88]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

I think it's likely she hitched a ride with the wrong person and met with foul play.

I believe this as well. And I don't believe she ran away only because of the circumstances going on at the time. She hated doing the beauty pageants and she really wanted to focus on acting. This 3-month trip to California was for auditions. She was going to be away from her mom and away from the beauty pageants. Why choose THIS exact moment to run away?

[TheCars1986]

I'd like to know why she specifically wanted to go to Ft. Lauderdale that day. It was three hours south from where she lived. She told her mom she was going to the beach for the day and she'd be back, which is where the argument started with her friend since he said he would only go as far as Cocoa Beach.