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E188: Tammy Jo Alexander image

E188: Tammy Jo Alexander

E188 · Coffee and Cases Podcast
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Tammy Jo Alexander had a hostile home life and, once she became a teenager, soon began running away in an attempt to escape the toxicity. She frequently hitchhiked across the country– sometimes with a friend but oftentimes alone. When she left for the final time, no one reported her missing. It wasn’t until 2015, when an old friend began to wonder what ever happened to Tammy Jo, that her family realized that something sinister had happened and filed a report. As a result, law enforcement were finally able to identify New York “Caledonia Jane Doe” as Tammy Jo Alexander. Soon the questions switched from “Where is Tammy Jo?” to “Who would have wanted to harm her?”

Hear clips of Tammy Jo’s voice here


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Transcript

Introduction to Unspeakable Podcast

00:00:00
Speaker
We have an excellent podcast suggestion for you this week that comes from our friend Kelly Jennings. With her background in law enforcement, she brings a needed perspective to true crime cases. Her show is called Unspeakable and is one you can find on your favorite podcasting app with a new episode every Wednesday. Here's a little about the show from Kelly herself.
00:00:30
Speaker
Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast where I tell stories of real crimes with real victims, whose cases are so shocking that many are left wondering how is this even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement, corrections, and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator, dig deep into complex cases of evil acts. Some so evil, many feel they are unspeakable.
00:01:00
Speaker
Unspeakable, a true crime podcast by Kelly Jennings can be found wherever you listen to your podcasts. But I have to warn you, if you're easily offended, then I'm not your girl.

Promotions and Personal Stories

00:01:09
Speaker
Listening discretion is advised. We make it our mission to discuss lesser known cases because we believe they deserve coverage. And we feel the same about the products that we use our voice to promote on the show. We want to share products of value and quality to tell you about the products that are worthy of being talked about.
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Introduction to Tammy Jo Alexander's Case

00:03:47
Speaker
Before Christmas break last school year, my students had used 144 pencils that I purchased for my classroom.
00:03:55
Speaker
Like most teachers, I bought nearly all the supplies in my room. So every snapped pencil, broken crayon, uncapped glue stick, or dry erase marker that was left open was like a personal stab to the chest.
00:04:08
Speaker
because after time supplying those materials can be expensive. I often wanted to shout, you can buy a pack of pencils at the Dollar Tree, please go do that, but I never did because my mind always went back to one boy I went through school with until he dropped out at some point in high school. This kid never, and I mean never had a pencil.
00:04:29
Speaker
In fourth grade science class, he asked for a pencil every single day. And my teacher gave him one with a smile on her face every single day. This kid was also never clean. He always smelled and he always had dirty clothes on. No one ever wanted to be his partner for science projects, we did, because no one wanted to smell him for the entire class period.
00:04:53
Speaker
I remember one class, my teacher pulled me aside as I walked in the door and asked if I would be his partner for a battery experiment we were doing in class. She said she noticed I always gave him a piece of paper when he would ask. I of course told her yes, I would be his partner. So for the next two days, I sat beside this little boy, learning about who he really was, about how he loved science, and he wanted to be a mechanic when he grew up. And I learned that his house didn't have running water, and that his window had a board over it because his father had thrown something through it in anger.
00:05:22
Speaker
I never noticed his body odor after those two days. I took that lesson with me into my teaching career and into today's case as well. Because the little girl we're going to talk about today didn't have the best home life. She didn't always have clean clothes or a pencil or anything else that's the basic need of every student. But that didn't make her any less worthy of everything good the world had to give her.
00:05:46
Speaker
And this poem by Joshua Dickerson reminded me of her. It's called, Because I Ain't Got a Pencil. I woke myself up because we ain't got an alarm clock. Dug in the dirty clothes basket. Because ain't nobody washed my uniform. Brush my hair and teeth in the dark because the lights ain't on.
00:06:04
Speaker
even got my baby sister ready cause my mama wasn't home. Got us both to school on time to eat us a good breakfast. Then when I got to class, the teacher fussed cause I ain't got no pencil. This is the story of Tammy Jo Alexander.
00:06:33
Speaker
Oh.
00:06:53
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Damron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement.
00:07:09
Speaker
so justice and closure can be brought to these families. With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because, as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week. Coming from the career we do, Allison, we are no stranger to the hardships that kids endure in their personal lives when they're away from school.
00:07:39
Speaker
Yes, people have no idea. It can be a punch in the gut every single day. And I was in tears when you were reading your intro because I know exactly that same emotion that you were feeling because we felt it every day for students too. And Tammy Jo was one of those kids that
00:08:04
Speaker
we would have known was struggling and we would have helped her as much as we could have, but you know, she had a hard time dealing with the hand that she had been dealt in life and it was rightfully so.
00:08:19
Speaker
Tammy was born on November 2nd, 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia to her parents, Barbara Jenkins and Joe Alexander. And while her parents and her life were far from perfect, she did find consolation with her half sister on her mother's side, whose name was Pamela Dyson. At least she felt like she had somebody. For a little while at least. Oh no.
00:08:43
Speaker
Tammy's parents, though, I don't know how long they were together, split up not too long after Tammy was born. And after that separation, Tammy, her mom, Barbara, and her sister Pamela moved to Brooksville, Florida. So they're at first in Georgia, then they moved to Florida. After that move somewhere in there, Barbara, the mom, became addicted to prescription medications.
00:09:10
Speaker
And Tammy's half-sister Pamela recalled later, quote, she did prescription drugs. She was suicidal. I think she had issues back then. They didn't diagnose, end quote. Probably because we're talking the sixties. Yeah. Still. Yeah. So.
00:09:30
Speaker
And Pamela was lucky in a sense because she was eventually able to leave that home situation because she had a different father than Tammy. She was actually able to go live with her parental grandmother and she left home at about age 11. And from what I remember, she was older than Tammy. Mm hmm.
00:09:52
Speaker
That had to be hard for both of them because I'm glad that she was able to get out of whatever situation that she was in at the same time that it makes me sad for Tammy that she was there by herself. Yeah. And she recalled like through all of those suicidal episodes and her mom would, you know, violently scream. They always found comfort in each other. And Pamela actually said, quote, my mom put Joan Crawford to shame.
00:10:21
Speaker
Oh wow. So I guess for our younger listeners, um, that's a pretty big comparison. It's a pretty heavy thing. Yeah, it is. Wow. She went on to describe her mother as a screamer and a slapper. So when she would get mad, she would hit them. Pamela said,
00:10:45
Speaker
And you know, I think this forces kids to grow up so quickly because Pamela was 11 when she left and she talks about when she left, she remembers.
00:10:59
Speaker
trying to make herself feel better by saying, oh, Tammy is smart. One day she'll escape this home life. You know, one day things will be better for her. And what 11 year old should have to even think those thoughts? Yeah. What a mature thing I think for an 11 year old to say. Wow. But sadly, Tammy really didn't escape that life. She did continue living with her mother and stepfather at the time. Mm

Tammy's Life and Disappearance

00:11:28
Speaker
-hmm.
00:11:28
Speaker
Eventually as Tammy got older, she started trying to make her way in the world and she actually began working early in her teenage years at a truck stop as a waitress. And this was the same truck stop that her mother worked at. So even in her work life, she was still with her mom. I was going to say that's, that's bad. Cause then she really can't, there is no escape.
00:11:50
Speaker
Right. Yeah. And I think because of that, you know, the feeling that she had no escape and she had this really hostile home life, Tammy had been, according to one report, in and out of foster care. She'd stayed with her grandmother on occasion, but always ended up back in this same situation. And because it was so hostile at a young teenage age, she actually started running away from home. I mean, if it's that hostile, then who could blame her?
00:12:20
Speaker
So on one of the occasions that she ran away, she actually ran away with her really good friend, Laurel Noel. And in this particular escape, we'll say, the two actually hitchhiked all the way to California. Oh my gosh. With whoever. From Florida? Yeah. So literally across country.
00:12:50
Speaker
Holy cow. And Laurel stated that the two had hit shocked with truckers. They hit shocked with whoever would be willing to give them a ride. But when they arrived to their final destination, she actually called her parents and they bought both girls plane tickets and flew them back home. And they were around 15 at this time.
00:13:13
Speaker
Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. My little sleuth hound is 14 and I cannot imagine. Yeah. And by the time she was 15, Tammy was hitchhiking with long haul truck drivers pretty frequently. So her family was used to her being gone for short sporadic periods of time.
00:13:36
Speaker
And, you know, I think we as parents would be very concerned about that, but I don't think that Tammy had the support she needed to get the help that she needed. Cause obviously she's crying out for help through all of this. Right. Right. I just, I'm worried if, if it got worse when she came back after all those times, cause clearly she's trying to get away. Gosh.
00:14:05
Speaker
And Allison in early 1979, Tammy's short sporadic runaway ventures turned into something much longer. She actually ran away in that year from her home in Brooksville, Florida. And she went to work at a prison ministry in Georgia. So like this place that helped young men who were on parole
00:14:31
Speaker
or were under probationary rules adjust to this lifestyle that they were now in instead of this prison lifestyle. So she actually was someplace long enough to get a job.
00:14:47
Speaker
to start working. Which I think is crazy because she's like 16 at the time. Were they not checking that and like saying, do you not have to have somebody sign off for you if you work at 16? I don't know how that works. Yeah, I don't either. And I would think that there would be, especially if you're working in a prison ministry.
00:15:11
Speaker
Yeah, because I think you would have to like, I mean, maybe it wasn't state owned, you know, like a state job, maybe it was a private place. But if it was the state, I would think you would have to have, you know, a background check or something. Yeah, that's what I would think too.
00:15:28
Speaker
This runaway trip, though, wasn't just for the short term, like you said, because she was there long enough to get a job. It appeared that Tammy was in it for the long haul. And like I said, she's only about 16 years old at the time. And it wasn't like she was exactly trying to hide what she was doing from her family and friends because while she was there, she would call and talk to her boyfriend or leave him voicemails when he didn't answer the phone while he was still living in Florida.
00:15:55
Speaker
And the boyfriend was asked about these phone calls. And he said that every time he spoke with Tammy or every time she left a message on the answering machine, she always sounded happy. And he said that she never seemed to be in danger or never hinted at any type of danger. She just seemed happy. However, Tammy eventually left that prison ministry in the summer and was not heard from or seen after that.
00:16:27
Speaker
Interesting. Okay. I'm curious to hear if we have any details. So this case actually has a lot of details and a lot of interesting. It's like one of those with sort of like the teeth analysis.

Investigation into Tammy's Murder

00:16:45
Speaker
Like it has some really cool forensic details.
00:16:50
Speaker
So she wasn't seen after she left that ministry until the morning of November 10, 1979, when a farmer in Caledonia, New York, which is like 23 miles or 37 kilometers southwest of the city of Rochester, saw something red in one of his cornfields. And so he's like,
00:17:09
Speaker
This is odd. This is really out of place. Let's just go see what's over there. Because at first he's thinking, you know what? A hunter's trespassing on my property. They do this all the time. They need to get out of here. But what he found was far worse than anyone trespassing on his property. Oh no. Oh no. So instead of a hunter, he found the body of a dead young girl in his cornfield. Oh no.
00:17:40
Speaker
So we're up in New York? Yes. And you're gonna be...
00:17:46
Speaker
you will be amazed at the journey they are able to determine that this girl went on. Like the way that she got around the country was amazing. Well, cause I was going to say, like you said, she's done with the prison ministry at the end of the summer and this farmer doesn't find her, I'm assuming this is her until November. So she had to have been somewhere in those months.
00:18:16
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And it's crazy the path that she was on. When police arrived on the scene, they quickly noted that whoever had killed this girl didn't leave a single piece of her personal information behind. So they had no way of telling who this girl was. Wow. So they actually named her Kalido because they had no other means to identify her.
00:18:46
Speaker
Surprisingly, though, she was fully clothed, though they are able later on to get a male DNA sample from her body. So I thought that was interesting. That is interesting. Unlike her identity, which proved hard to determine, the cause of death was evident from the start. She had died from a severe hemorrhage caused by two gunshot wounds.
00:19:13
Speaker
one to the head over the right eye and one in her back. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So this was violent. Yeah. Very violent. According to one article titled murder of Tammy Alexander that was updated on October 25th, 2022 quote the wound to the head indicates she had apparently not turned or flinched as is common when one is shot in the head.
00:19:43
Speaker
Instead, the entry wound suggests complete if horrified surprise. Her pockets have been turned inside out suggesting that any identification she carried had been removed." So I would be interested if somebody somewhere like were to recreate this, if you could figure out, you know,
00:20:04
Speaker
The angle that it went in and was it from above was she level with the person because I just have a hard time picturing I guess maybe she turned into it. But then why the shot in the back. Like if she doesn't flinch then could the shot in the back have come first and then the shot.
00:20:28
Speaker
above her eye. And that's why I guess the angle or trajectory of the bullet is straight versus, you know, what it would look like if she turned her flinched. Well, the autopsy reveals a lot about that because, you know, her body was sent off for an autopsy and the results of that determine that Tammy had been shot in the head first. Oh, interesting. I would not. Hmm. That's interesting.
00:20:58
Speaker
And they determined that investigators did because they found a blood spot along the side of the road that would have been consistent with her head wound. And then they can tell that her body was dragged into that cornfield. So they're able to tell she was actually shot along the road bordering that cornfield first. Wow. Which makes me feel like it was a hitchhiking incident.
00:21:27
Speaker
if it happens along the roadside. Yeah, but this is such a rural area. A lot of people wonder if it could have been someone from that area as well, which I guess those two could kind of play in together. And I don't know yet how she even ended up there. So she may have been there a while and gotten to know somebody. I don't know. I'll have to wait till you tell me. You got your wheels turning already.
00:21:58
Speaker
That's right. So they're able to determine that this person shoots her in the head and then they drag her into the cornfield and shot her again in the back and there she was left for dead. Sadly I read that it did rain very heavy on the night that she was murdered so most forensic evidence that we would have normally been able to find at the scene or on her was washed away.
00:22:25
Speaker
Police did believe that the murder weapon was a .38 caliber handgun, and investigators were able to locate a bullet, like a spent bullet in the dirt underneath the girl's body, which they compared forensically to hundreds of bullets that were fired from confiscated weapons that meant that .38 caliber handgun. But those efforts to trace the weapon expanded across North America, so into Canada,
00:22:53
Speaker
They even checked some that had been confiscated from people that were fleeing to Mexico and Europe, but that bullet, as far as I know, still has not been matched to a specific gun. Wow, that's a lot of forensic testing though, just to check.
00:23:12
Speaker
Yeah. And despite the fact that investigators had little forensic evidence to go on, they did know some very interesting characteristics and details about Tammy. And we're going to discuss those now, but I want to remind you Allison and the sleuth hounds that are listening that at this point in Tammy's case, she is still a Jane Doe or Cali Doe. So I'm going to kind of use those interchangeably. Okay.
00:23:40
Speaker
At the time that they find her body, they believe that Calli Doe or Tammy was between 13 and 19 years of age. They estimated that she was five feet and three inches tall and was about 120 pounds. She had light brown hair that was shoulder length and had been frosted in the front. And it looked like that had happened about four months before she died because some of that, you know, her roots were showing it was growing out. And her hair appeared to have been recently died from blonde to brown.
00:24:09
Speaker
They were even so detailed that they noted that her toenails were painted this coral color. And so, you know, while we didn't have a lot forensically to identify this girl, they did have a really good description of her. I mean, down to the toenail color. And so they're thinking, you know, we're going to be able to release all of this about her, about what she looks like. And Shirley, some family is going to turn up to claim her.
00:24:37
Speaker
and lay her to rest, but that didn't happen. At least not right away. Well, and you know, obviously they don't know this, but we know from what we know about Tammy, we understand why that didn't happen. Yes.
00:24:55
Speaker
Along with her tonal color and her hair color, police noted some details about Tammy that I wouldn't have thought significant, but you know, I'm not really trained to look for that type of thing, but apparently they noted she had visible tan lines from like a halter top or a bikini.
00:25:15
Speaker
And so then this was significant. Then after I read it, I was like, oh, duh, Maggie. Oh, because we're in November and she's in New York. Right. Yeah. Nowhere where you're going to get a tan. Yeah, exactly. So that detail, that tiny detail that I wouldn't have even thought a second about.
00:25:37
Speaker
They were, from that detail, they were able to determine that Tammy or Cali Doe had to have been visiting New York from a warmer climate, right? She had to come from somewhere with a lot of sunshine, even in October or November, for her to have such distinct tan lines. Right. Because this is 1979 and her tan would have been natural because tanning beds didn't really become a thing until later in the 80s.
00:26:08
Speaker
They also noted that she had freckles on like the back of her shoulders, acne on her face and her chest. And so now investigators believed that somewhere either in the Deep South or potentially on the West Coast, a family was desperately trying to find this young girl with the freckled back and the hair that was dyed.
00:26:30
Speaker
And you know, we've talked about several cases where teeth have played a vital role in determining who a person was or, you know, even where they came from. And they did examine Tammy's teeth, but in her case, her teeth showed nothing significant. The teeth were in natural condition. There were no restorations or fillings. It actually appeared that she had never been to the dentist. She'd never received dental care. So they're not going to have any type of, you know, dental record to look at.
00:27:00
Speaker
Wow. And some of her permanent first and second molars suffered from severe dental cavities and decay. But to me, this could be maybe this is just me thinking about my childhood. But to me, I would immediately go to like social class here because I'm thinking, you know,
00:27:25
Speaker
how often do we overlook dental health when we're struggling to make ends meet? That seems like that's the first time it goes, you know? And it makes complete sense for those of us listening because any of us who are listening have likely gone to the dentist. And if you've ever had, even with dental insurance, dental work done,
00:27:47
Speaker
it costs you out of pocket an astronomical amount and this is with dental insurance. So I mean that does it
00:27:56
Speaker
It makes sense to me. And I think that's why, you know, growing up in rural Kentucky, I mean, we had fluoride delivered to the classroom, you know, and different things like that, because I think there's at least an awareness of the need for dental care because that's linked to all kinds of other health issues. Yeah. I mean, I didn't even go to the dentist. I mean, luckily I have, I will say had, because now I have cavities, thanks to, you know,
00:28:24
Speaker
IVF throwing up and then the baby throwing up. I don't have cavities, but I had really good teeth and I had never been to the dentist until I got married just because that was like a luxury my family could never afford. Yeah. And I think that's a lot for a lot of people, but like you said, and this is going off on a tangent, not related to this at all.
00:28:46
Speaker
I think that dental health is part of physical health. And so I don't understand why the coverage is so poor. Because if you have poor teeth, that affects everything. So I get why you said seeing poor dental conditions would make me also think of a lower socioeconomic class.
00:29:09
Speaker
for Kelly Doe, yeah. Also consistent. So right now we, to the amateur investigators we are, are putting all of this together. And they also noted that she hadn't had any wisdom teeth come in yet, which I think also points to her age. Because you know, if you're younger, those take a while to come in. I mean, mine didn't come through until my 20s and 30s.
00:29:38
Speaker
So teeth, nothing really significant that we're going to be able to go on. Her blood type was a negative, but one thing that really stuck out to me throughout writing this case was that the autopsy revealed that she had actually eaten just hours before she was murdered. And within her stomach, they found corn, potatoes, and canned ham.
00:30:06
Speaker
And I think that's strange. So it doesn't sound like something that you would get like it's not fast food. It doesn't sound like something that you would get even at like a truck stop or something. I mean, this sounds like a meal somebody prepared. Yeah, I would think, you know, this is like you went in to maybe a diner or, you know, some type of restaurant where you're actually going to sit down or maybe somebody cooked this at home.
00:30:36
Speaker
versus chicken eggs and french fries or potato chips. Right, exactly. So just as investigators noted her tan lines, they also noted her clothing and jewelry. And if you remember the farmer that discovered her body said that what caught his eye was that he saw something red in the field. And that red was her red nylon line men's windbreaker jacket.
00:31:00
Speaker
The jacket had black stripes down the arm and was actually marked on the inside with a label that read Autosports Products Incorporated. She also had on a boys multicolored plaid button-up shirt that had a collar. She had on tan corduroy pants and a size seven. She wore blue knee-high socks, a white bra, size 32C, and she had on blue panties.
00:31:25
Speaker
They even noted that she had on brown shoes. So they're taking some detailed notes about her appearance here. We've also discussed in cases, so, you know, we've talked about teeth and how they've been able to tell us where people are from. And we've talked about, you know,
00:31:42
Speaker
pocket watches that we've been able to trace back to the exact store that they were purchased from or clothes that told us the country where this person may have lived. And so investigators thought this red jacket, it's so unique. We will definitely be able to track down where this was purchased from because, you know, they have that company name.
00:32:06
Speaker
printed right there on it. Yeah. But they actually reached out to the company and found that this, at this I thought was weird, but they were told that this red auto sports jacket was produced as a one-time promotional item and it couldn't be traced after distribution. So once it left the factory, they didn't know where they went. Well, or they could have said, you know, we sent it to
00:32:34
Speaker
every auto zone in the country and then you know you would have no idea where it went after that or every certain kind of race or something related to cars that's sad though because it as soon as you said the name on it i was thinking that exactly what you said i was like oh okay well maybe we can figure out exactly where this came from but no and i wonder if
00:33:03
Speaker
This would be more work, but I feel like almost with watches or something like that, you know, how they have serial numbers or you buy baby food and it has, you know, where like the serial number on it. In the case, there was like a recall. Sometimes I wonder if we could do that same concept with clothes and then they would be able to say like serial numbers one through 100,000 went to auto zone and like, in Michigan. Yeah.
00:33:31
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know why they couldn't. I mean, it would take more time, I guess. Right. But it would certainly help in cases like this.
00:33:41
Speaker
And along with that jacket, she also wore a silver necklace that had three small turquoise stones. And they thought that the necklace looked handmade and maybe was a replica or maybe actually handmade by Native Americans, maybe in the Southwestern United States. And attached to her pants, this is interesting to me too, like in the front belt loops, were two metal key chains.

Efforts to Identify Tammy

00:34:08
Speaker
One was shaped like a heart.
00:34:10
Speaker
and it had like a key-shaped cutout and inscribed on it where the words, he holds the key to my heart. So initially I was like, if we could find this key, then we know. But she also had the key attached as well that fit into that key chain. But those were sold all along the New York State Thruway. And so leading investigators were able to conclude, we at least know that she traveled along this route because
00:34:40
Speaker
That's where she got these little charms. Well, and from what we know of Tammy, I mean, the jewelry could have come from that hitchhiking trip out West. Oh, yeah. Yeah, sure. And the funding stopped there for a little while, at least.
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00:39:19
Speaker
According to people pill.com in 2006 in 2006 and this I did not even know was a thing. But when I read about it, I was like, interesting. Okay, there is a way that because I had no idea what this was when I first heard about this, but there is a way that
00:39:42
Speaker
scientists can take pollen or other spores that are on your clothes or you know like a bag or something like that and they are able to tell where geographically
00:39:57
Speaker
you would have been to get those spores on your clothes. Oh, fascinating. Well, it makes sense because the flora is different in all different states. So that is super interesting. I would have never even thought to look. No, I wouldn't have either. And
00:40:17
Speaker
Early in the investigation, if you remember, police noted that the tan lines on Tammy made them believe that she wasn't from New York and that maybe from the South or out West. And this idea peaked the interest of a man named Paul Chambers. Okay. And this man was recently hired
00:40:38
Speaker
as an investigator in Monroe County, New York in their medical examiner's office. And he wondered if maybe if they were able to look at Cali Doe's clothes, if they could determine a place of origin based off what they were able to find on these clothes. Go Paul Chambers. That's awesome. People are so smart because I would not think
00:41:04
Speaker
to do any of this kind of thing, because that's why this isn't my job. But he asked for and received permission to send her clothing to... This is so hard for me not to say, like a paleontologist or something.
00:41:25
Speaker
But he sent them to a paleontology laboratory at Texas A&M University. And this lab took Cloudy Doe's clothes or Taney's clothes and tested them to determine what kind of pollen was on them and where in the United States she would have had to have been for that pollen to end up on her clothes. And so here's what they found. All right.
00:41:48
Speaker
So I'm obviously not going to say the scientific name for these countries because I can't say people's names so I definitely can't say this. So among the types of pollen that were found on her clothing by Texas A&M were Australian pine or she oak, just regular oak, spruce was on there and birch.
00:42:11
Speaker
And those clothing pollen grains were compared to a control sample, again, so smart, of the pollen grains from the field where she was found. Okay. Cause it's rural, you said. Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. And they're like, you know what? If she had been there for a while, then all of these pollens shouldn't line up. And People Pill noted, quote, Oh, it grows wildly all over the United States. And Spruce and Birch grow in New York, among many other places in the country.
00:42:40
Speaker
But no oak, spruce, or birch pollen grains were found in the control sample. And neither spruce nor birch trees were found growing near the body dump site. The spruce and birch pollen on the unidentified body came from species common in mountainous areas of California. And what? Interesting. So on top of that, this Australian pine that was on her clothes is actually
00:43:10
Speaker
an invasive species. So it's not natural to the United States. It's been brought here. And because of that, it's just in limited locations in North America. So there's some in South Florida, some in parts of South Texas, parts of Mexico. There's some on the campuses of Arizona University and Arizona State. And then there's some in three different regions of California.
00:43:36
Speaker
Some in San Francisco, San Luis, and San Diego areas, because these trees can't survive autumn and winter seasons. So they would not be in New York. Oh, in colder climates. Okay. So investigators knew that these pieces of clothing, thus Tammy herself, had to have been recently in somewhere other than the state of New York. And most likely California.
00:44:04
Speaker
Yeah, and they do believe that she was in Southern California, particularly the San Diego region. That's their best, I guess, pollen print match for all of these grains that were found on her clothes, which I think also makes sense with the jewelry. Oh yeah, that's right. So based on the pollen evidence, the girl's visible tan lines, forensic researchers suggested that she may have been living near San Diego, so that Southwestern United States, and then traveled
00:44:33
Speaker
more than likely hitchhiking through the Sierra Nevada mountain range where Spruce and Birch grow, passing through Reno, Nevada, and traveled across the country to upstate New York. So she, again, has seen a lot of the United States. I just, you know what's getting me.
00:44:54
Speaker
What is I keep going back to because I found it odd that her boyfriend is, you know, back home in Florida. She is in Georgia for that. The prison ministry that she would not have said anything to her boyfriend about where she was going, because if she's calling him every day, then she at least feels some sort of affinity toward him that is
00:45:24
Speaker
if not love, at least an emotional connection. And I don't know how often their phone calls took place, but I do know that she called him regularly, but again, she is only 16. And so, you know, your interest changed frequently at 16. So maybe it was just one of those things where she was just kind of done with them. Yeah. I moved on maybe.
00:45:53
Speaker
But still, I think even just from his perspective, like if, you know, I had a friend who just randomly quit talking to me, I would probably be a little concerned. And maybe he was. Right. We don't know. Yeah. So we believe that after she left Georgia, that she goes all the way back out to California. And then all the way back to New York. Back to the east.

Identification and Renewed Investigation

00:46:19
Speaker
OK. Yeah.
00:46:21
Speaker
Now we know that Callie Doe is actually Tammy Jo Alexander, but obviously that wasn't always the case. So I want to discuss how Callie Doe found her identity. Okay. She actually went a very long time without her true identity being known. So remember Tammy's body is discovered in 1979. It wasn't until 2015 that we found out Callie Doe's true name was Tammy Jo Alexander. So a long time.
00:46:51
Speaker
Yeah. Wow. So remember earlier in the episode, we were talking about Tammy's background, how she was a waitress and that she had a tendency to run away. And she had that runaway episode with her really good friend. Yes. Laurel, where they went all the way to California.
00:47:10
Speaker
Yes. Well, that same friend, Laurel, you know, she's thinking in the year 2015, I wonder what Tami Jo's up to. And I do this a lot. I'll be like, I wonder what so-and-so's doing that I went to. And then you look them up on Facebook or something. Yeah. You know, that I haven't seen since fifth grade. Google them. I wonder what they're doing.
00:47:29
Speaker
Mm hmm. And she did that, too. So she's like, hey, I wonder what she's up to. And so she turns to social media in the hopes of finding Tammy and just, you know, maybe send her a message just to catch up. Yeah. But, you know, she actually searched and searched and couldn't find Tammy anywhere on any type of social media platform. And so she's like, you know what, I'm going to pay him a lot. I knew it. Yeah.
00:47:56
Speaker
So she reaches out to Pamela, who now lives in Panama City, Florida. And, you know, Pamela, from what I could tell, knew that Tammy had often run away from home. But I don't think that she knew about the, like, prison runaway.
00:48:18
Speaker
Okay. The final. Right. Because she hadn't lived at home since she was 11. Right. And the last that she knows, she's hoping that Tammy would, you know, maybe find a foster care home to stay at or, you know, something that would get her away from this relief. Just get out. Yeah. So she calls up Pamela and after the conversation that the two have, they're like,
00:48:42
Speaker
I haven't talked to Tammy, and Pamela's like, I haven't talked to Tammy. The last I knew, spoke with her, I was going to live with my grandma. And she's like, you know what? I'll contact some of my other family members and just see what's going on. And she actually learned that no one in her family knew anything of Tammy's whereabouts since the girl went missing in the late 70s.
00:49:07
Speaker
So when she left home to do that, nobody files a report. Nobody does anything. Well, there's dispute about the reports. Okay. So learning that no one in the family had heard from Tammy since 19, like 79 or whenever that last phone call to her boyfriend came in, the two become very concerned that Tammy has fallen victim to some sort of crime after leaving home.
00:49:33
Speaker
Because even if she had ran away and never came back, most people have some type of social media or you can Google them and find something about them, but they're finding nothing about Tammy. And Pamela said, this is where the dispute comes in. Pamela said that when she talked to her mother, her mother said that she filed a missing persons report on Tammy when she went missing. But because Tammy had a history of running away,
00:50:03
Speaker
the police didn't really take it very seriously. Okay. I could see it both ways, if we're being honest. I could see why people doubt Tammy's mom because of her history. I could also see
00:50:22
Speaker
just because of our case last week, now also in the 70s, the early 70s, of that mentality of teenagers, you know, when they're like, well, and especially one who's run away before, why I could imagine that they might have said, you know what, she'll come back, just wait.
00:50:49
Speaker
And then, you know, no follow up is done. I do think though that that should have a very easy paper trail. I mean, surely I would think record of that. And, you know, Tammy's family, even if they did file this missing person report has got a lot of backlash about her disappearance and this seemingly nonchalant attitude about not hearing from their loved one for so long. Because, you know, in the case last week,
00:51:19
Speaker
You had the dad and mom. Oh yeah. You're following this. We're going to follow through with stuff on our end without you. Like we don't, you know, we can do this on our own. She didn't have that, you know, right.
00:51:34
Speaker
which is sad. That is very sad, but I would agree with, I would agree. I understand why there's a lot of backlash because even if you go to the police and they say, she'll come back, you know, once a week goes by and she doesn't, then you, you go again. So.
00:51:52
Speaker
But in August of 2014, the Hernando County Sheriff's Office told Pamela that there had been no missing persons report that had been filed for Tammy. They didn't have anything on record. And so Pamela promptly files one. Gosh. Wow. In 2014. Yeah. Which I mean, I think
00:52:15
Speaker
Pamela's doing the best she can. I mean, she wasn't even... Oh, yeah. Yeah, she's not even aware. I had no idea about any of this. Right. In a freak chance, this is amazing to me as well. This man named Carl Koppelman, who was a California artist,
00:52:35
Speaker
came across this missing person's report of Tammy's as a moderator of a web sleuth online community where these like volunteers try to solve cold cases, including those of unidentified bodies. So he felt the pull to help in this case. So in 2010, he sketched a portrait of Cali Doe because you know, at this time, the Cali Doe was before
00:53:04
Speaker
the Tammy Missing Persons Report, the sketch that he makes. And he posted it to NamUs, just hoping that we can get a visual of this girl. So this is, again, four years. And again, four years before Laurel and Pamela have even started searching for Tammy, he does this drawing. And then in September of 2014, he sees the listing for actual
00:53:34
Speaker
Tammy. So it starts out, he sees the Cali Doe listing. He does the sketch. He does the sketch. Okay. And then years later, he sees the actual missing persons report for Tammy. And there's a picture of Tammy and he's like, holy crap. This is the same person that I drew. Wow. Yeah. I have goosebumps. That is crazy.
00:54:03
Speaker
The odds of that happening. Wow. Oh, I know. Because how many people are really going to go back?
00:54:11
Speaker
And I don't know, maybe, I don't know, I just found that so amazing. That he would, first off, remember that. I would not remember four years later, five or whatever. But he emailed the Livingston County Sheriff's Office with copies, also sent to NamUs Regional Administrators. He sent copies to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He sent copies to the Hernando County Florida Sheriff's Office. Look at him go.
00:54:39
Speaker
No, he's like, this is not going to be overlooked. And he says, hey, these people have a very strong resemblance. I think this may be the same person. And the police are like, yep, I think you're right. And so they contact Pamela and they're like, can we get a DNA sample to see if this girl is Tammy? Because they're half sisters. OK.
00:55:01
Speaker
So in January of 2015, the Monroe County, New York Medical Examiner's Office found that the mitochondrial DNA from the unidentified body matched that of Pamela, confirming that the victim was her half sister.
00:55:18
Speaker
And a week later on January 26, 2015, the Livingston County Sheriff's Office announced officially at a news conference that Callie Doe had been positively identified as Tammy Jo Alexander. Oh my gosh. When now begins, now it's so sad because they're looking for her to reunite and now they're looking for her killer. Yes.
00:55:46
Speaker
Yeah. And Pamela's family discussed what to do with Tammy's body because, you know, at this point, she's already buried in the Greenmount Cemetery in Danesville, New York, and they end up deciding to leave her there because she's been there for so long. And according to my research, the Daughtry Funeral Home that's located near there actually removed her Cali Doe headstone and replaced it with one that said her actual name, Tammy Doe Alexander.
00:56:17
Speaker
And when that new headstone was placed there, they had a public ceremony on June 10th, 2015 in her honor. And there was approximately 100 people there from the community or family members that attended to pay respect to her. Wow, that's quite a few. Yeah, it is. And Pamela and other members of Tammy's family
00:56:41
Speaker
were able to thank the Livingston community and the police for taking care of her, you know, when they couldn't and for loving her and for trying to find her killer. Wow.
00:56:55
Speaker
With Cali Doe finally being identified, like you said, this is just the spark investigators need to reignite the flame to find out who this killer is. Right. Because even when she was Cali Doe, we still needed to know who this killer was. And now that can look into people she knew or we know where she's from. We know. Yeah.
00:57:18
Speaker
And an important detail that they took into consideration was the fact that we know Tammy left home and she went to Young Harris, Georgia to this prison ministry. And through that, police say, you know what? These three men, we need to check these guys out. Oh, no.
00:57:40
Speaker
So they identified three male persons of interest who had known Tammy through this program. They take DNA samples from those men in question to compare to that sample that was taken from Tammy's clothing. But in November of 2016, the FBI announced that the men didn't match that DNA that was taken. And they were no longer considered persons of interest and were pursuing other leads.
00:58:06
Speaker
You know, I never read in my research that these people, their names were ever released. I don't know really how investigators focused in on them, but they've been ruled out. And by 2020, it was announced that the male DNA found on Tammy's clothing was now being tested in national databases in search of like a familial link to the killer. Oh, interesting.
00:58:33
Speaker
Another cool thing that they did was on her 57th birthday, so November 2nd, 2020, they actually released recordings of Tammy's voice to the public. And these were messages that went to her then boyfriend and they believed to have been sending him just months prior to her death. And they were released in the hopes that somebody would be like, Oh, I talked to that girl.
00:58:58
Speaker
in Rio Nevada in 19, whatever. And she was with my friend. So does she have a recognizable voice? Well, we're going to listen to them. Oh, OK. But I think their main hope was just that it would spark a memory somewhere. OK. Because along with this voice recording, they also put out a sketch of who they believed to be her killer.
00:59:28
Speaker
What? How would they know that? Because there was one sighting of Tammy and a man that was thought to be her killer. So either in October or November of 1979, we have reports that Tammy was seen in upstate New York. So we don't know if she got there in October or November, but people saw her in upstate New York right around the time.
00:59:56
Speaker
that she was murdered. And I found in my research that on November 9th, 1979, Tammy was seen in a diner in Lyman, New York alongside a man that was older than her.
01:00:10
Speaker
And the waitress who served them says that Tammy didn't appear to be distressed. She didn't appear to be upset or in any type of danger. And other people at the restaurant have since backed up the claim that Tammy was spotted there. And Tammy was later killed sometime after leaving that diner with this unknown man, because we can verify that because of the contents in her stomach. The food. Yeah.
01:00:37
Speaker
So they actually also release a sketch of Tammy's presumed killer along with those audio tapes. And he is described as being a white male between 5'8 and 5'9. And at the time he was wearing black rimmed glasses and he drove a tan station wagon. So we have a pretty good amount of information on him. And so I'm gonna let you listen to these clips. So if you click on
01:01:07
Speaker
link upper right of you it'll take you to the clips okay so like a little southern drawl
01:01:28
Speaker
And investigators did receive tips based off the stuff that they really saw that sketch and these three clips that will post the other ones for you all too. But obviously nothing really came out of those or we wouldn't be talking about Tammy Jo today. Right, right.

Theories and Family Dynamics

01:01:48
Speaker
So we have gotten to theories and various theories have emerged during the investigation and all these subsequent years, you know, attempting to shed some type of light
01:01:59
Speaker
on the things that happened surrounding Tammy Jo's murder. And one very prominent theory suggests that Tammy Jo Alexander was a victim of a serial killer that was operating in the area during the 70s. I feel like if you were a serial killer, the prime of your life was the 1970s. That was like the time. Because we have several
01:02:27
Speaker
notorious serial killers that would have been
01:02:31
Speaker
pretty much anywhere Tammy Jo would have been because she was everywhere. Right. That's true. And some believe that her murder could be linked to one of those known serial killers or maybe like an unidentified serial offender. There's no concrete evidence that we have that links Tammy's murder to any specific serial killer. We do have one serial killer that admitted to her murder.
01:02:59
Speaker
But we know that happens quite often, falsely. Yeah. And yeah. And this serial killer was Henry Lee Lucas. And he was arrested in Texas a few years after Cali Doe was discovered because he was suspected in a local murder case there. And Lucas eventually confessed to killing Cali Doe, but he never identified her, you know, cause at that time she was unidentified. Okay.
01:03:27
Speaker
But after confessing to one murder, Henry Lee Lucas then confessed to another, and then he confessed to another, and another, and another, and another. And before long, Texas Rangers had cleared, they had cleared more than 200 cases based on the serial killer's confession. So he's claiming to kill over 200 people, which- Right.
01:03:53
Speaker
his confessions became more and more far fetched as they went on and police lost confidence in his confession of the murder of Tammy.
01:04:04
Speaker
Because it initially he is talking about things that weren't released to the public. But then they are looking at these photos that they've shown him and they're like, oh, well, if he paid close attention to these crime scene photos and really analyze these, he could then he could talk about details that the public. Yeah, they don't know about. Right. It was also rumored that
01:04:34
Speaker
police, some officers were, you know, asking leading questions or even gave him pieces of information in these other cases. And so a lot of, yeah. So a lot of these 200 plus cases that he had confessed to, they really are like, okay, no. And Tammy's was one of those. They're like, yeah, this is not a trustworthy confession. This, he did not do this.
01:05:03
Speaker
Another possible theory proposes that Tammy was murdered by someone that she had a personal connection with. So they're thinking could this have been maybe an acquaintance? Maybe she was traveling with someone and she had been with this person for a while. Could it have been a friend? Maybe somebody she was romantically involved with. This theory
01:05:27
Speaker
A lot of people say revolves around maybe some type of jealousy or a binge because they would have had a personal interest in her. I do think the gunshot wounds and where she was shot is more personal than some of the other cases that we've covered. And also, and I know this is going to sound odd, the fact that she wasn't sexually assaulted, I almost feel like
01:05:58
Speaker
because she's young and I saw her picture on the website that you have the clips from. Yeah, she's very pretty and I would have thought that if this were a random person who has picked her up
01:06:15
Speaker
that there would have been some sort of motivation like a sexual assault that maybe she fought against or something like that. And I almost feel like the fact that there isn't signs of sexual assault shows that she and her killer had some other kind of personal connection. You know, and so like, like the jealousy or the, like there being another motivation.
01:06:44
Speaker
So I think that theory's interesting. I wonder if it could have been somebody that was jealous of her contact she was making back home to her boyfriend. I wonder if that could have played into it. A lot of people throw shade at Tammy's family for not being more concerned that their teenage daughter ran away from home and wasn't her friend for years, decades, really.
01:07:09
Speaker
without even looking into what could have happened to her. I definitely don't think, and I didn't read anywhere that people said anything negative about Pamela because that just makes zero sentence to say that that type of speculation. But some speculate maybe her mom or the stepfather know more than they care to share with police. But as far as I know, neither of them were ever suspected of anything.
01:07:37
Speaker
and both went to the grave not knowing what happened to Tammy or like that Cali Doe was Tammy. They did not know that. Because Tammy's mom Barbara died at the age of 56 in 1998. So Cali Doe was a thing but she didn't know it was Tammy. I do find it interesting that on her obituary
01:08:08
Speaker
It does list Tammy Alexander as one of her children, but it lists her as deceased. Oh. And I don't know who wrote the obituary. I don't know if it was like the funeral home and, you know, or if a family member wrote it, but I think that details interesting. That is very interesting, especially because of the runaway times in the past.
01:08:33
Speaker
that I wouldn't have thought that she I would have just thought or assumed that she had started a life somewhere else or something yeah and I don't think from everything I read I never saw anything that police well they weren't even investigating it because there was no report so they wouldn't have said oh we think Tammy's dead because
01:08:55
Speaker
They weren't right. There was no report of Tammy even missing for them to be looking for her. So I thought that was a little weird. Some people bring up the idea that she could have been involved in human trafficking.
01:09:07
Speaker
you know, given the circumstances of her case, some theories say that this could be a possibility, you know, that lack of identification and the fact that her body was discovered in a remote area kind of fueled speculation that this could have been a possibility. But there's no real concrete evidence to that. And I don't know how, how frequently that happened in the late seventies. That's what I was getting ready to ask. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure either. That's what I was getting ready to ask you.
01:09:37
Speaker
Yeah, I know you definitely didn't hear about it then. Right. So I just don't think that's a very plausible theory in my mind. And then lastly, I talked about this briefly earlier when we were talking, some people think could have just been someone local to the area, because the body was found in such a rural
01:10:00
Speaker
place that people are like you almost had to be from here to get to this road that's with on this cornfield um you know you would have had to been familiar with the region and the area to use it as a dumping site to avoid any type of detection i mean they're pretty pretty
01:10:19
Speaker
brave to shoot her along the side of a road. And I feel like you would have to know that that road maybe isn't the heaviest traveled to be able to pull something like that off. But like the question there is, did we examine any type of people from that area that had a history of violent crimes or criminal activity? Have we rolled out any people like that?
01:10:45
Speaker
And then I also think they could be a local connection and tie into, you know, like this hitchhocking theory, which we've talked about throughout, is that something happened to her while she was hitchhocking. I don't think it had to necessarily be, you know, she met a man in Reno and he drove her all the way to New York and killed her. It could have been she was picked up by somebody from New York and they killed her. Right. Yeah, I think.
01:11:16
Speaker
I think you're right. And I'm going to throw a third in there as well. I think that local connection, hitchhiker and personal connection aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. I think you could have somebody who's all three. I think you could have someone who we know that that Tammy hitchhiked. So that would make sense if she were picked up as a hitchhiker.
01:11:40
Speaker
And this person says, hey, you want to you like to travel around, you know, I'm from New York. I'm that's where I'm headed. And maybe she says, hey, that sounds pretty good. And she's with him, you know, long term. And I'm saying him because of the male DNA on her and the sightings in the diner. Maybe she's with him long term, they end up developing a personal connection. And then
01:12:05
Speaker
something happens where he feels betrayed or jealousy or whatever. And that's when the crime occurs. So I think I do think you're right. I think you do need to look at local connections. And obviously, this was someone who was traveling from elsewhere. So we need to look at somebody who was either a truck driver, a delivery person or somebody who had to travel out of town a lot.
01:12:35
Speaker
for work. Yeah, I agree with you.

Call for Public Awareness and Support

01:12:42
Speaker
The disappearance and subsequent murder of Tammy Jo Alexander, also known as Cali Doe, remains a tragic and unresolved case that's puzzled investigators for over three decades. Despite her identification in 2015, the circumstances surrounding her death continue to raise questions and illicit theories about the identity of her killer.
01:13:02
Speaker
The various theories surrounding the case range from the involvement of a local serial killer to personal connections or even the possibility of human trafficking. However, it's crucial to approach these theories with caution as they're all speculative and require further investigation and evidence to confirm their validity. The identification of Tammy Jo Alexander was a significant breakthrough shedding light on her identity and providing some closure to her family and loved ones. However, the crucial task of uncovering the truth about her murder remains an ongoing challenge.
01:13:32
Speaker
It's imperative that law enforcement agencies continue their efforts to re-examine the evidence, revisit witness statements, and utilize advancements in forensic technology to bring her case to justice. The unresolved nature of Tammy Jo Alexander's murder serves as a reminder of the importance of cold case investigations. It highlights the need for continued public awareness and cooperation as any piece of evidence, no matter how seemingly insignificant, could be the missing link in solving this tragic crime.
01:13:59
Speaker
Ultimately, finding the truth behind Tammy Jo Alexander's disappearance is not only essential for her family, but also for the pursuit of justice and the prevention of further acts of violence in our society. Investigators have received thousands of tips about this case, with no clear answer yet about who murdered this teenage hitchhiker all those years ago.
01:14:19
Speaker
However, Tammy's sister still holds out the hope that the real killer might be brought to justice someday. Pamela said, quote, somebody has to know something and just my personal opinion. We haven't reached the right person that has the piece of information that will lead this case to being solved. I always have hoped and I will never give up till the day I die hoping that they find who killed her, end quote.
01:14:43
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
01:15:12
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.
01:15:41
Speaker
And we want to send out Bounds of Love to a lot of people, to Desiree, to True Crime and Audities, and to True XS Crime on Instagram, as well as Laura Lee, the host of Victim's Voice Podcast, for reaching out to us on social media this week. We love knowing that you're out there, that you're friends of ours, and that you care, because that just makes us feel good, and you guys are amazing.
01:16:10
Speaker
Yes, you are. And we also want to give love to our newest five-star review writer, JJG, who wrote, quote, You ladies are the bomb diggity. I love your podcast. Keep up the great work, end quote. And, you know, first of all, let's bring back the phrase.
01:16:31
Speaker
bomb diggity because it's amazing. But I also love the just the collaborative, supportive space that we're in, you know, being in the true crime world, it is honestly a breath of fresh air to lift up others and to be lifted up at the same time. So thank you for that review. It means a lot.
01:16:51
Speaker
Yes. And we must tell you that we have so much love going out to our newest Patreon member, Megan. So welcome to the CNC Patreon family. Yay, Megan. We are very happy and excited that you are part of that family and you're willing to support the show. And don't forget that you can also just like Megan join our Patreon family to support the show and receive some bonus content each month.
01:17:16
Speaker
that ranges from full-length sob episodes to interviews to mini episodes and all of that starting at just five dollars a month and the link to join is in there where you can go to patreon.com slash slash copying cases mm-hmm plus
01:17:33
Speaker
If you want to join at a higher tier, then you will also receive quarterly swag boxes from us. And no matter what level you join, we do occasionally do drawings for giveaways like the one on this episode. That's right. So everyone who had joined Patreon by the 28th since that's when we drew, because this episode is airing on the 29th,
01:17:58
Speaker
was eligible to win a coffee and cases mug. So let's do that drawing now. OK, let's spin this little wheel that's on my computer for like 50 some names to see that. Here we go. And the winner is. Who is it? Who is it? Who is it?
01:18:24
Speaker
Lauren J. Lauren J. Awesome. So Lauren J. We will be reaching out so we can make sure that we have your address so we can get that mug to you. And with that, all of our love is going out to each and every one of you. Until next week, Sloot Hounds.