Tammy Leppert

[jstephen]

Has anyone heard anything about the Tammy Leppert case? She disappeared in Florida in 83...her case was profiled on Unsolved Mysteries, and her sister has a website.

[jstephen]

Some more info on Tammy's case;

Please read this: Please help me find out what happened to my sister. Is she alive or dead? I just want to know. Her name is Tammy Lynn Leppert, she came up missing in Cocoa Beach, Florida. July 6, 1983. She was let out of a car near the glass bank in cocoa beach, near the Exxon station, after a heated discussion with a male companion. She has never been seen or heard from again. Has anyone seen or heard from her since July 6, 1983. Did anyone here know her? I've looked at the doe network, and have compared a few jane does to her description. This is very hard for me to do. Not all of the unidentified jane does out there are on the doe network though, some are not. How can I find out what is on the NCIC? Is it available to me? Tammy's birthdate is Feb 5, 1965. She was 18 when she came up missing. Her description is approx 5'4" tall, 115 pounds, hazel eyes. She is very pretty. She was in beauty pagents, modeling, and a few parts in movies (Spring Break, Scarface, Little Darlings, and Video Wars). She was about to go to California for some movie parts, I think, before she disappeared. I dont know for what movies. Her missing persons story was featured on Unsolved Mysteries, some of the things on the story are not correct. The car was not black, it was a white corvette, or blue maverick. She had on a blue blouse with flower appliques on the shoulders, and a blue skirt. The hoouse they were staying at was in Rockledge, Florida, not Cocoa. She may have been 3 months pregnant. She was taller than the 5'3" they say, 5'4"-5'5". The police have looked into her being a Christopher Wilder (Serial killer) victim, but was never linked to him;I do not think christopher bernard wilder had any thing to do with tammy's disappearance.or John Crutchley (The Vampire Rapist), who recently died in prison. If anyone knows of any information on a Fat boys barbeque in cocoa,cocoa beach florida in trouble for anything in the 1980's please email me ok?Also if you know or have heard any sightings of Tammy Lynn Leppert or have ever called in a sighting please email me ok?Any information on her, alive or dead? What you may have heard? What may have happened? Anything, anything at all. I will look into it, ok? I just want to know. TO THE LIVING WE OWE RESPECT, TO THE MISSING OR DEAD WE OWE THE TRUTH. Someone somewhere has to care about what happened to Tammy Lynn Leppert. I care........
Hi
Here is Tammy Lynn Lepperts web site.If I may please ask.Please put this where ever you can ok?and please help and please use the contact person as her sister suzanne at suzannec4444@yahoo.com.and or the link to I care missing persons cold cases.You can make a difference.You really can.

[porchlight]

Decades later, pain remains
Billy Cox
Staff

Sad vigil drags on for 2 Brevard families

By Billy Cox

Florida Today

Wednesday's reunion of 15-year-old Elizabeth Smart with her parents in Utah was widely hailed as "miraculous" in the wake of her June 2002 abduction.

For the families of two teenagers who disappeared from Cocoa Beach decades ago, however, only false hopes -- not miracles -- have shaped their ordeal.

On April 28, 1977, 13-year-old Keith Fleming was last seen walking southbound along A1A, just north of State Road 520, several miles north of his house. On July 6, 1983, 18-year-old Tami Lynn Leppert of Rockledge vanished after being dropped off by a friend at the "Glass Bank" in Cocoa Beach.

Although the trails remain cold, the Cocoa Beach Police Department still regards them as open cases, said Lt. Bud Ayers of the criminal investigation division. Leads continue to trickle in, mainly to the Leppert file, thanks largely to an "Unsolved Mysteries" show that premiered in 1992 and continues to air in syndication. All have been dead ends.

More awareness

"The world's a different place than it was back then," says Ayers, an 18-year law enforcement veteran. "There wasn't the awareness that we have today. I'm not even sure they had the term sexual predator in those days."

All that changed in the years following the kidnapping and murder of 6-year-old Adam Walsh in 1981. The boy's father, John Walsh, led a movement that resulted in a nationwide missing-children database, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the milk-carton ID campaign, and "America's Most Wanted," one of law enforcement's most useful television resources.

In Dallas, Leppert's stepfather, Richard Leppert, couldn't help but think about his own daughter when the Smarts received their good news on Wednesday. It also magnified his loss.

"I loved Tami so much," Leppert says. "She was my baby. I haven't really held out any hope for her for a long time now. But I took out the pictures I have."

Leppert's ex-wife, Linda Curtis, went to her grave in 1995 without a resolution. A talent agent, she had groomed Tami to be a model and an actress, and the teen had made cameo appearances in films such as "Spring Break" and "Scarface." From her deathbed in an Orlando hospital, Curtis made a final plea through Florida Today for closure as she succumbed to kidney and liver failure at age 54.

"I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me, but if that's what it takes to get the right person to come forward, that's OK," she said...

[porchlight]

Have you seen my sister Tammy Leppert?

"Oh, please, please, everyone who believes in fairies,
clap your hands!" Tami urges. Grief and fear come trickling down Tami's
cheeks so easily it flows like blood from a fresh wound. "Please!" she
continues with greater conviction, "Louder! Oh please, louder!" The
audience responds with lusty, award-winning applause and Tami's tears of
sorrow smear with tears of relief.

Tinker bell lives.


Tammy was a star. No Oscars but to her family she was destined to have a trunk full. At 18 she already had a couple hundred trophies and a few movie roles. This was the beginning of star, One critic, Steve Walz, Was projecting her to be "One of the stars of the 80's" involving her name in the same breath with Brooke Shields . Then in 1983 a ride with a friend changed that forever. Vanished without a trace, without witnesses, no clues. She simply disappeared off the face of the earth.


July 6, 1983 seems so long ago to most people but for Suzanne Leppert it is an eternity. It is the last time anyone saw or heard from her sister Tammy. In her last days with family and friends Tammy was very nervous and worried. There have been many scenarios about why but so far none can be proven.


Tammy left her family's home in Rockledge, Florida at 11:00 a.m. on July 6, 1983 with a male friend. Her friend later told authorities that he and Tammy had an argument while driving and that he left her standing in a parking lot outside the Glass Bank near an Exxon gasoline station in the vicinity of State Road A1A between 2nd Street North and 3rd Street North in Cocoa Beach, Florida.


Suzanne is also asking if anyone knows of a Jane Doe case that may fit Tammy to contact her. The Doe Network case number 22UFCA has already been ruled out.



Someone knows what happened. Someone knows where she is. Yes 1983 was a long time ago but not to the person/people who know Tammy’s fate. It is yesterday and it haunts their daily thoughts and nightly dreams. One call can set you free and help this family have peace knowing the truth.



You can anonymously contact your local police, you can email Suzanne at suzannec4444@yahoo.com or contact us here on this blog and at fromwhisperstoroars@yahoo.com. Help yourself and this family.




It can also be viewed at: http://fromwhisperstoroars.blogspot.com/20...my-leppert.html

[porchlight]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whatever Happened to Tami-Lynn Leppert?

7 years ago, model says goodbye, hasn't been heard from since




I like this place, I've lived here all my life, and I'd like to stay here. ever since I was a little girl, I've always
dreamed of having a house in cocoa beach and living happily ever after.

-Tami-lynn leppert, March 1983


It was the last interview she gave before the fairy tale disintegrated, And she was good at it: Poised engaging, An easy
smile that could melt glacial skepticism. Naturally she was good. She was a pro. Four hundred-ten talent and beauty
contests since age 4. Two hundred-eighty trophies.
She just turned 18. And she was at a crossroad. Her latest flirtation with hollywood-a cinemetic turkey called
"Spring Break"-had just been released.But she harbored no illusions about it. Her non-speaking role as a bikinied nymphet
carried no more weight than her erlier camoes in "Little Darlings" and "Scarface."
What "Spring Break" represented was the latest stop in a carefully nurtured ascent to movie stardom. If visibility
management meant getting tami's curvaceous hips splashed across a movie poster (Four college dudes erecting a
"Spring Break" flag atop them, Reminiscent of the allied triumph at Iwo Jima), That was good enough for now.
And if Tami-Lynn leppert felt compelled to feign embarrasment over this no-talent coup by crossing her eyes and making a
goofy face, These were times for celebration.
Or so it seemed.
At least three producers were talking major roles in upcoming projects. One critic, Steve Walz, Was projecting her to be
"One of the stars of the 80's" involving her name in the same breath with Brooke Shields and insisting, "She's not just
another dumb blonde"
Model, Dancer, Beauty Queen, Covergirl at age 13. Five-feet five, Hazel eyes, 105 pounds. A can't miss resume. A magnetic
aura that turned the heads of men and boys alike, Pulling strangers and their promises into her orbit.
But somewhere inside those invisible walls, Beyond the curiosity of judges and talent scouts, A bomb was ticking. Those
familiar with the sound never understood until it was much too late:
The weight of expectations.
A web of paranoia.
Broken glass.

On July 6, 1983, Tami-lynn Leppert went for a ride and vanished so cleanly it was as if she'd never existed.
Nearly seven years later, Beneath the cobwebs of distance. There isn't even a shrine to commemorate what was. Only a
question: Was Tami the architect and star of the perfect getaway or the victim of a perfect crime?

TAMI'S MOTHER/AGENT
Linda Curtis moved from Brevard County three years ago,
Primarily to shake the emptiness she felt every time
she saw something that reminded her of Tami.
Which was always.
curtis lives in orlando, Where she conducts her modeling business from a home she only half-jokingly refers to as
"The Cave." An artist with eccentric notions stucco edifice himself-Its few windows are primarily ventilation caliber.
Having been spotlighted nationally by life magazine and ABC's "20/20" for her talents as one of America's most succesful
child modeling agents. Curtis might well be expected to enjoy a lifestyle commensurate with her abilities.
But nothing ever come easy for Linda Curtis.
After a series of heart attacks, Chronic diabetes and a ruptured tendon in her foot, her mobility is relegated to a walker
and a wheelchair. She doesn't want her picture taken. And there is the heavy emotional baggage to contend with, Which includes
two husbands, Five children and rip-offs by business assotiates
By 1983 only daughter Tami remained a part of her household. Today, Even Tami is a memory-which Curtis is still attempting
to manage, Via book and a screen-play.
Predictably, The story will accent all those magic moments only a mother can recite so well:
The time her nine-year-old daughter surrendered a beauty pageant to the broken hearted runner-up after an official mistakenly
announced the other girl the winner, The time Tami " sold more Girl Scout cookies than anyone else in Brevard County".
Tami as a philanthropist who made special visits to Brevard County Detention Center inmates on Christmas Eve: A popular
little girl who "Was always sticking up for the underdog."
But Curtis plans to unsheathe a more pointed edge in the book. Contrary to what some people think, she insists that her
daughter was no runaway. Tami, she charges, was yanked into the shadows by a conspiracy involving prominent Brevardians
whose names, would make trial lawyers eyes light up with dollar signs.
" I want people over there to know I'm writing a book," She says referring to a project (no actual names used) she's been
tolling over for months. "I want to shake them up. I want the criminal to know they can't absorb my child-or anyone's child-
wothout ulimately paying the penalty for it."

TAMI-LYNN LEPPERT
now resides in the computer memory bank of Florida Crime Information center. A comunity of 5,944, roughly the size of Indian
Harbour Beach. She can be found there alongside another cocoa beach entry Keith D. Fleming. who vanished in 1977 at age 13.
Cocoa Beach Police Capt. Bob Wicker is mildly indignant over curtis' allegation that his department blew the investigation
of Tami's disappearance. He says he coudn't find a hint of foul play.
"I can't say there was anything unusual about the case. Other than some faintly problems I understand she was having at
home" Wicker says. "The agent in charge was a real go-getter. He he was the type the sees communists behind every tree,
if you know what I mean."
The case fell into the departments lap when Tami, a Rockledge resident, was last reported seen in Cocoa Beach. Among other
things, Curtis says the young man who picked up her daughter up on the morning of July 6, 1983, was never thoroughly
interrogated. She says that Tami once told her that she feared the same man-A businessman-wanted to kill her.
Wicker dismisses.
"Nothing in the report has him down as a suspect" He says. "We have no reason to believe he did anything wrong, at this
time."
Wicker says he has no current Address on the man Tami was last seen with. Because the case is still pending, he says,
records on the investigation remain closed.

"FAMILY PROBLEMS"
Tami-Lynn Leppert lived in fear shortly before she vanished. Strangers prowled around the eyes of those she knew best.
She woudn't drink from open containers; She only ate food from someone else's plate, Not hers; She stayed in her room and
refused to answer the door. Linda Curtis concedes these things. She says she got her first glimpse of deterioration the
year before, When Tami broke down on the set of Brian DePalma's cocaine-war thriller, "Scarface." A blood-and-guts scene
during the filming sent her into hysterics.
But Curtis insists that Tami's authentic tears were rooted in a confession that would consume her. Tami told her mother that
how in an effort to score points, a friend bragged to her on a large-scale, drug-money laundering operation in Brevard. Cops,
Bankers, Leading citizens-the people in on the take were powerful, powerful enough to make Tami fear she knew too much.
Curtis says she told Tami to make a report with the Brevard County Sheriff's Department.
Officer Mike Wong, now with the department's drug task force , says he vaguely remembers his meeting with Tami. "It was so
long ago," Wong says "and the best I can recollect , the the conversation didn't have anything to do with anyone trying to
kill her. I think she came in to talk about some stolen propety she wanted back."
Wong expresses bewilderment over the drug scenario. "the last I heard, they thought that racecar driver was involved."
That referance is to serial killer Christopher Wilder.
Before he was shot to death in a tussle with a state trooper on the canadian border in spring 1984, Wilder's murder spree
lanced Brevard. The FBI linked Wilder-A Grand Prix aficianado who posed as a fashion phographer-with the abduction and
murder aspiring Satelite Beach model Terry Ferguson , last seen at Merritt square mall.
Curtis filled a $1 million wrongul death sult against wilders astate that year. She says Wilder met her daughter daughter
on the set of "Spring Break" in fort lauderdale and traveled to Brevard in a fruitless effort to convince Curtis to let
him photograph Tami.
Curtis said she never considered Wilder a strong suspect. She says she only sued the Wilder estate luring the manhunt to
force him to answer questions about Tami. She dropped the lawsuit after wilder's death.

RICK ADAMS
WAS one of the few people Tami-Lynn Leppert trusted to the end. "It's hard to say why, really" Adams says. "Maybe it's
because I never really wanted anything from her. "now 27, Adams sifts through his pictures. Pointing out the times he
escorted her to both his junior and senior proms at Cocoa High School. It was one of those hard-to-catagorize teen-age
relationships-not exactly a hot romance, but not exactly little sister/big brother either. He knows only one thing for sure
"She could've dated anybody she wanted to. "They drifted apart after he graduated. Perhaps that was inevitable."Tami had alot
of pressure about her apearance in public, "Adam recalls. "Because of who she was, she felt like she had this image she had
to live up to. Everything she did was, like, fine-tooth combed. Her make up had to be just right, every hair had to be in
place, what she wore had to be perfect. It drove me crazy, to tell the truth. I got burned out on the whole thing, with with
so many people hanging around, so many people coming up to her. It was almost like having to compete for attention, and I
wasn't into that." but shortly before she disappeared, Adams says Tami began confiding in him, telling him that someone was
trying to kill her. He says the fear was real. "I knew it wasn't drugs. I can say for sure that Tami wasn't into drugs. She
didn't even drink. "Finally, on Tuesday evening July 5, 1983. Tami told Adam she had "seen something she shouldn't have
seen" She didn't get aspecific. They went to pray at Rockville Evangel Temple. "Tami cried as hard as I've seen anyone cry
before" Adams says.He dropped her off in front of her house around 11 that night . They made pland to go back to church
wednsday afternoon."And then." Adams says "She looked at me and said. I just want you to know that I may have to go away for
a while. But I also want you to know that I love you."
Then they hugged each other, and held the embrace for as long as it took.
Rick Adams never got a chance to ask her what she meant. He called late the next morning to reconfirm their date.
She was already gone.

CURTIS CONCEDES TAMI
had been restless, that her career hadn't advances as quickly as she wanted. She says Tami was preparing to pursue some
acting leads waiting for her in California.
But paranioa engulfed her first. It was the last of June, first of July 1983.
"Tami went outside for some reason-which seemed strange, considering how she afraid to go outside-when the door slammed
and locked behind her. I think a gust of wind caught it." Curtis says. "Anyway, she went berserk. She bashed the window with
a baseball bat she picked up in the front yard, and she reached her and inside to unlock the door. "She came running in,
Yelling and screaming, but before she could do anything I pinned her against the wall and kept saying. " I love you, Tami I
love you Tami, over and over again, And then she went limp."
The next day Curtis checked Tami into the Brevard mental health center for 72 hour observation. " Then they released her and
said she was normal as far as they could tell." Curtis says. "So we were all set to check her with another psycho therapist.
But We were too late."
Curtis was sitting in the house that wednsday morning when she heard a car horn beep out front. Tami peered out the window
and went out the door. she was wearing a light blue blouse, a denim shirt and was barefoot. She stuck her head back in and
said "bye mommy, I'll see you in a little bit, OK?"
"For some reason, I was preoccupied that day and I didn't pay much attention to it, and I'll never forgive myself for that."
Curtis says. On the other hand since her daughter did not have her purse. curtis didn't think she was going far.
Ten minutes later, Curtis heard the car engine crank up. She rose to see what was going on. Tami was riding away in the
car of the young man she suppossedly feared.
It was 11 a.m. Linda Curtis never saw her daughter again.

THE LAST REPORTED
contact Tami attempted came in a flurry of calls she made that wednesday afternoon.
Three times she left urgent messages for her aunt, Ginger Kolsch, at Kolsch's Cocoa Beach costume shop, Balloonatics. Kolsch
was out of town, Tami said she was calling from a nearby location.
"Tami was definately afraid of somebody," Kolsch says. "It was real, I'm convinced of that."
Kolsch says the runaway scenario doesn't wash.

"DID YOU EVER
see her play Peter Pan?" asks Rick Adams. "Linda's got it on video."
The performance in an enduring image in Adams' memory, a special place for the little girl he thought was destined to be a star.
This is the one where Tami-Lynn Leppert, dressed as the famous boy-who-wouldn't-grow-up, is confronted with a dying Tinkerbell
poisoned by the notorious Captain Hook. And the only way to save Tinkerbell's life is to rally the support of the audience.
"Oh, please, please, everyone who believes in fairies, clap your hands!" Tami urges.
Grief and fear come trickling down Tami's cheeks so easily it flows like blood from a fresh wound.
"Please!"she continues with greater conviction, "Louder! Oh please, louder!"
The audience responds with lusty, award-winning applause and Tami's tears of sorrow smear with tears of relief.
Tinkerbell lives.
"She could make you cry, man," Adams says, "That was Tami at her best. She had the gift."
A fountain of sorrow, forever young.


Florida Today March 18, 1990
By Billy Cox

[porchlight]

http://z13.invisionfree.com/Porchlig...730&st=0&#last

more info here

[jstephen]

Porch, thanks for the articles, and especially the "Unsolved Mysteries" clip! I haven't seen it in years; I'd forgotten how scary and creepy it was. I don't know what it is that draws me to Tammy, but I really hope that she just decided to start all over again for whatever reason and that someday she'll let her sister Suzanne know something. Odds are against it, I know. There's something about Tammy that's very different and special. Again, thanks!