Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Case Updates with Photos
Tammy Lynn Leppert
Leppert, date, approximate 1983; Age-progression to age 48 (date, approximate 2013); Christopher Wilder; John Crutchley
Date Missing 07/06/1983
Missing From
Rockledge, Florida
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 02/05/1965 (57)
Age 18 years old
Height and Weight 5'4 - 5'5, 105 - 115 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A blue denim skirt, a light blue shirt with flower appliques on the shoulders, and flip-flops. Carrying a gray purse.
Medical Conditions Leppert may have been three months pregnant at the time of her disappearance, but this has not been confirmed. She was apparently suffering from emotional problems at the time of her disappearance.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, hazel eyes. Leppert may spell her first name "Tammi." She occasionally uses Tammi and/or Tami-Lyn as stage names.
Details of Disappearance Leppert left her family's home in Rockledge, Florida at 11:00 a.m. on July 6, 1983 with a 20-year-old male friend. She said she was going to the beach and would be "be back in a little while." She never returned home.
Her friend later told authorities that he and Leppert 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.
Many reports erroneously state that Leppert was barefoot at the time of her disappearance. Her mother said she noticed she had not combed her hair before leaving the house that day, which is very uncharacteristic of her; she usually spent considerable time on her appearance before going anywhere. At the time of her disappearance, Leppert was planning to go to California to act in some movies. She apparently never arrived there, however.
Investigators looked into the possibility that Leppert was attacked by Christopher Wilder, a man linked to at least a dozen disappearances, rapes, murders and/or attacks of women in the early to mid-1980s.
Photos of Wilder are posted with this summary. He frequented the Florida region at the time of Leppert's disappearance. He sometimes attempted to lure young female victims by offering non-existent "modeling sessions" or other tactics, which would have fit well into a scenario involving Leppert. She was a relatively known model who had won several titles and was an occasional actress, landing bit parts in the films Scarface and Spring Break, and she wanted to be an internationally famous star.
Wilder, whose history of violence towards women went back to his adolescent years, was put on probation in 1980 after pleading guilty to attempted sexual battery towards a teenage girl. While on a visit home to Australia that same year, he was charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting two teenage girls. His parents bailed him out of jail and he flew back to the United States, promising to return for his trial which was set for April 1984.
Wilder is a also a suspect in the Florida disappearances ofMary Opitz,Rosario Gonzales, and Elizabeth Kenyon. He was killed during a shootout with authorities in 1984.
Leppert's family filed a one-million-dollar lawsuit against Wilder before his death, but dropped the suit afterwards. Leppert's mother, modeling agent Linda Curtis, later stated that she never believed Wilder was involved in Leppert's disappearance. Police have never been able to link Wilder and Leppert and it may be coincidence that she disappeared at the same time he was targeting area models. He had a long history of sex crimes but did not begin his killing spree until a year after Leppert vanished.
John Brennan Crutchley, the so-called Vampire Rapist, is also considered a possible suspect in Leppert's , and in the 1985 disappearance of Patti Lou Volansky from Mims, Florida. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1986 for kidnapping and raping a woman in Orlando, Florida. He drained half her blood and drank it.
Crutchley died by suicide in prison in 2002. Authorities have never been able to link him to Leppert or Volansky's disappearances. A photo of Crutchley is posted with this summary.
Curtis criticized the police for allegedly mishandling the investigation into Leppert's disappearance. Police initially believed she ran away, and some continue to think that foul play was not involved in her . Curtis said her daughter was afraid of the man who last saw her, and that the individual was never properly investigated. Authorities say they did the best they could to find Leppert and the man she was last seen with has been interviewed is not a viable suspect in her .
Curtis believed that Leppert may have been kidnapped and murdered as a result of her knowledge of a large-scale drug and money laundering operation in Brevard, Florida. The operation allegedly involved many prominent local citizens. Leppert was reportedly afraid for her life because of what she knew. She stayed in her bedroom more than usual and refused to drink from open containers or eat from her own plate.
Curtis claimed Leppert made a police report about what she knew, but investigators have no record of the report and do not espouse Curtis's theory. Curtis moved to Orlando, Florida after her daughter's disappearance. She died in 1995. Leppert's sister is still looking for her and believes her mother's theory about Leppert's disappearance.
Leppert's dental records have been lost. Some agencies incorrectly state that her home is in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
Investigating Agency
Cocoa Beach Police Department
407-868-3269
321-868-3251
Other
Suzannec4444@yahoo.com
Christopher Wilder Biography
The Child Seek Network
NamUs
The Doe Network
I Care---missing persons cold s - Message Board - Yuku
Tammy Lynn Leppert is Missing
Florida Department of Corrections
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
CrimeBlogger1983
Florida Today
Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Case Updates with Photos