July 18, 2025 • 20 mins
Episode Summary:
On April 29, 1986, 13-year-old Tammie Anne McCormick of Saratoga Springs, New York, vanished without a trace. Despite decades of investigation, leads, rumors, and persons of interest, her case remains unsolved.
In this episode, Amanda Morgan unpacks the chilling mystery surrounding Tammie's disappearance. From that fateful morning in 1986 to modern theories and forensic searches, we explore what happened to this bright, spirited young girl—and the many unanswered questions still haunting those who knew and loved her.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
Tammie's background and life leading up to April 1986
Conflicting accounts of her plans the morning she vanished
Investigative missteps and rumors of runaway plans
Key persons of interest, including Arthur Mason Slaybaugh II
Possible connections to serial predator Lewis Lent Jr.
The 2021 “Rails to Trails Jane Doe” theory and Reddit speculation
Updates from recent years, including searches and investigative dead ends
A detailed description of Tammie at the time she disappeared
A call to action for anyone with information
Key Details:
Name: Tammie Anne McCormick
Age at Disappearance: 13
Date: April 29, 1986
Location: Saratoga Springs, NY
Height/Weight: Approx. 5'3", 105 lbs
Physical Description: Long light brown hair, hazel eyes, pierced ears, homemade tattoo/scar of initials "TAM" on upper left arm
Clothing: Denim jacket, yellow striped shirt, black corduroy pants, beige boots, shoulder bag
Have Information?
Call the Saratoga Springs Police Department at 518-584-1800.
🔗 Resources & Links:
Visit our website for full source material: nydarksidepodcast.com
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Listen to Episode 32 for more on the Rails to Trails Jane Doe case
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Stay safe. Stay curious.
– Amanda Morgan
The intro music of this episode is a portion of 'Mysteries Remain' courtesy of Krooked Knuckles. Check out our collaborative video featuring some open New York unsolved cases: https://youtu.be/nK8Gy4hDLZA
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
On April 29th, 1986, a 13 year old girl from Saratoga Springs,
NY vanished without a trace. Decades later, her disappearance
remains an unsolved mystery, despite extensive
investigations, leads, and theories.
Today, we dive into the chillingdetails of her story, uncovering
(00:22):
facts, exploring the leads and asking the questions that remain
unanswered. I'm Amanda Morgan, and this is
New York's dark side. Tammy and McCormick was born on
(01:05):
July 3rd, 1972 to Nancy Heber and William McCormick.
She was the youngest of the family's six children and
pictures that I have seen of her, she was a beautiful girl.
She had a vibrant smile. She had this long light brown
hair and sparkling Hazel eyes. Tammy loved horses, she had a
(01:26):
passion for drawing and she really enjoyed spending time
working outside in the garden with her grandmother.
The McCormick family would oftentravel to Florida for spring
break and at the end of summer they would end it all with a
trip to Cape Cod. So really enjoying the outdoor
vibes and being together as a family.
(01:49):
In 1986, Tammy lived with her family in the Geyser Crest
neighborhood of Saratoga Springs, NY.
April 29th, 1986 was the day that changed everything for the
McCormick family. That morning started out as just
another routine day. However, after most of the
(02:10):
family had either left for work or school, Tammy would tell her
older sister Jennifer that she actually had decided that she
was going to skip school that day.
Jennifer offered to skip with her and spend the day with her,
but Tammy told her Nope, just goahead and go.
So Jennifer, suspecting nothing was amiss, went off to start her
(02:33):
day, not realizing that this would be the last time that she
saw and spoke with her sister. A short time after Jennifer left
the house, Tammy also left and that morning Tammy had dressed
herself in a denim jacket, a yellow striped shirt, worn black
corduroy pants and beige boots. She did have pierced ears, but I
(02:57):
couldn't find any information onif she was wearing earrings that
day or not. She was later seen carrying a a
shoulder bag. And I want to point out here
that if you dig into this case, you will find some conflicting
information in the articles as to Tammy's activities from here.
(03:19):
Some articles said that Tammy was planning to hitchhike to
school, others said that she wasplanning to go to a friend's
house. And in an article with News
Channel 13's Cold Case 13 reportthat aired in 2020, investigator
Matt Wilson, the lead investigator on Tammy's case,
(03:41):
Wood acknowledged that there area lot of variations in the
timelines and stories relating to Tammy's disappearance, which
have made the investigation incredibly difficult.
This same episode had an interview with Tammy's sister,
Jennifer, who said that Tammy had told her that she was
planning to skip school that day.
(04:02):
Regardless of what Tammy's intentions were for the day, we
do know for a fact that Tammy did not arrive for classes that
day, nor would there appear to be any confirmation that she
arrived at a friend's house. Tammy's mother, Nancy, would
later state that she was not initially concerned when Tammy
didn't return home that April evening, as she did have a habit
(04:26):
of sometimes staying over with afriend's house and not calling
to let her parents know until the next morning, so it didn't
initially seem to raise any red flags to them.
However, when that phone call never came the morning of the
30th and Tammy still did not arrive at school on the 30th,
nor did she return home that evening, her family started to
(04:50):
worry about her and Nancy. Tammy's mother would file a
missing persons report with the Saratoga Springs Police
Department. The search for Tammy would be
complicated. As police started to conduct
interviews with Tammy's friends,they received conflicting
stories on whether anyone had seen Tammy.
(05:11):
On the morning of the 29th, 1 friend was adamant that she had
seen Tammy at the school. Others said that none of them
had seen Tammy. She never showed up that day.
Police came across rumors that Tammy may have run away during
these interviews and in the months apparently leading up to
her disappearance, Tammy had reportedly told several of her
(05:35):
friends that she was planning onrunning away to Jacksonville,
FL. Tammy's mother, Nancy, has
always maintained that there wasno chance that Tammy had run
away that day since she took none of her belongings with her
and she was wearing her most worn pair of jeans and a pair of
boots that she complained gave her blisters on the day that she
(05:58):
disappeared. Personally, I find it difficult
to believe that a 13 year old girl, even if they had plans to
run away and start completely over somewhere fresh, wouldn't
take some of their personal belongings with them.
But that's neither here nor there.
As they continued their investigations, detectives would
(06:20):
track down a friend of Tammy that said that there really,
truly was a plan for Tammy, along with this friend that was
unnamed in the source material, to leave for Jacksonville, FL on
the morning of April 29th. And during the interview, this
friend told investigators that she had gone to Tammy's house
(06:42):
the night before on the 28th andhad slept that night hidden in
Tammy's closet until the other members of the family left.
And according to this friend, she and Tammy were then planning
to hitchhike to Florida. But for some reason, Tammy left
the house without her, leaving her alone in the McCormick home.
(07:05):
This friend would ultimately find another girl to hitchhike
to Florida with. And these two girls did
successfully make it down to Florida, where they were later
tracked down by the investigators looking for Tammy.
But there was no indication thatTammy had been with them during
their trip to Florida. The next lead in the case would
(07:27):
come from a tip from a motorist.After Tammy's disappearance
became public knowledge. The tipster reported that on the
morning of April 29th, he had picked up a young girl matching
Tammy's description. He told police that he dropped
her off on Route 19 near Saratoga Lake.
As police continued to talk to Tammy's friends, they would
(07:50):
realize that many of these friends were hesitant to give a
lot of details regarding Tammy'smovements in the days before her
disappearance because they were actually afraid of getting
themselves into trouble with lawenforcement.
Investigators would eventually uncover that Tammy, along with
many of her friends, were hanging out with a much older
(08:13):
crowd and the name Arthur Mason Slaybaugh the second would come
up. Slaybaugh, who went by his
middle name Mason, became a person of interest in Tammy's
disappearance from the very beginning.
At the time of Tammy's disappearance, Slaybaugh was 26
years old. He was working as a corrections
(08:34):
officer at Mount McGregor Correctional Facility in Wilton,
NY Slaybaugh had a reputation for having young girls at his
house where they would party andconsume alcohol.
In 1986, Slaybaugh lived in a small house on Saratoga Lake
(08:54):
near where Tammy had reportedly been dropped off by that
motorist. And one article I read reported
that Tammy had another connection to Slaybaugh outside
of the parties, as Tammy would babysit for Slave Ah's
girlfriend who had a young child.
And during the course of following this lead, police also
(09:16):
uncovered that Slave Ah's girlfriend had reportedly left
town on April 29th and traveled to Jacksonville, FL.
This was a strange coincidence that she left the day that Tammy
disappeared and went to the samelocation that Tammy's friends
hitchhiked to and alleged that Tammy had been planning on
(09:37):
traveling to. Unfortunately, at the time, this
was about all the information that they had tying slave off to
Tammy's disappearance, which wasnot really enough to file
charges or prove anything. So here's where it kind of SAT
for a bit. One potential other suspect in
Tammy's disappearance would comeonto law enforcement's radar in
(10:00):
the mid 1990s with the arrest ofLouis Steven Lent Junior, and
I'm going to save the deep dive on him for another episode.
But in case you are not familiarwith him, here's a bit of an
overview. On January 7th, 1994, Lewis Lent
attempted to abduct a 12 year old girl named Rebecca at
gunpoint in Pittsfield, MA. Rebecca was incredibly smart.
(10:25):
She was incredibly badass in my opinion.
She had known as soon as this was going on that she had to get
away from this asshole at all costs.
So Rebecca faked an asthma attack.
She doesn't have asthma, and shejust pretended that she couldn't
breathe. And I can, in all honesty, say
(10:46):
that I don't believe I would have had the wits about me to
think of trying this had I been Rebecca.
Thankfully for her, this tactic worked.
Lent became very confused as shewas trying to like sit down and
was pretending to hyperventilate.
So he grabbed her backpack, which she just quickly pulled
herself out of and ran down the street to where another man was
(11:11):
shoveling snow and he took her into the bank and called law
enforcement and Lewis. Lent was later found and
arrested for the incident and would be convicted of several
charges relating to that attempted abduction.
During their initial interrogations of Lewis Lent, he
(11:34):
would confess to the murder of 12 year old Jimmy Bernardo, who
he abducted in October of 1990 from Pittsfield, MA, whose body
was later found in Newfield, NY.He also confessed to the
abduction of 12 year old Sarah Ann Wood of Frankfurt, New York,
who he abducted in August of 1993 while she was riding her
(11:56):
bike from the church where her father served as pastor.
Sarah's body has unfortunately never been found, though there
have been searches across multiple states over the years.
Lewis Lent has been named a potential suspect in Tammy's
case, as well as a few other unsolved missing persons cases
around New York and other statesas well.
(12:20):
He has been reluctant to tell law enforcement where Sarah's
body is, and it's believed that this is because there are
remains of other victims in the area that he hasn't confessed
to. Lewis Lent is now in his 70s,
and he's currently serving life in prison for the murder of
Jimmy Bernardo in a Massachusetts State prison.
(12:41):
But law enforcement from New York does maintain regular
contact with him, continuing to try to find closure for the Wood
family and potentially some other families as well.
In 2011, investigators started to take a closer look at Tammy's
disappearance. They believe that Tammy was
likely murdered on the day that she disappeared, and at this
(13:04):
time, investigators formally named a person of interest.
This man was former corrections officer Arthur Mason Slaybaugh,
the second who I mentioned earlier.
By this point, unfortunately, they wouldn't be able to
interrogate Slaybaugh again, as he was now deceased, having died
of a heart attack in January of 2001.
(13:26):
Investigators started to take a harder look at Slabaugh when
witnesses began to come forward after he passed away, stating
that they had been too afraid tospeak up while he was still
alive. These witnesses were both
friends of Slabaugh and one of his former girlfriends, though I
can't say for sure if this was the same girlfriend who had left
(13:47):
for Florida the day that Tammy went missing.
Based on these tips, investigators believe it was
even more likely that Tammy was on her way to his house on
Browns Beach near Saratoga Lake that April morning.
There have been several searchesconducted looking for evidence
(14:07):
of Tammy or her remains. The most recent search took
place in November of 2017 when afield property owned by Kenneth
Slabaugh, the brother of Arthur Mason Slabaugh, was searched on
Route 30 in Northampton, part ofFulton County in New York.
The search focused on a trash pile on the property where
(14:27):
neighbors would say that Mason and Kenneth would bury all kinds
of things at all hours of the night.
Unfortunately, investigators found no sign of Tammy with the
search. Even more unfortunate is that
this is where the case seems to stand.
But maybe there is somebody out there who has a piece of
(14:48):
information that could bring an end to the questions that
surround Tammy's disappearance. This case intrigues me.
I have so many questions, and one of them did involve a little
bit of a rabbit hole that I wantto share, which has since been
debunked. But while researching, I did
(15:09):
find one interesting theory on Reddit.
And of course, due to the source, you can take this as you
will. But I'm including it here
because quite honestly, I had a similar thought when I was
recording a prior episode, and there's just some other
interesting things about it thatI'll get to in a minute.
A poster using the username KK 6NJ posted in the Grateful Doe
(15:33):
Reddit thread a theory that Tammy may be the Rails to Trails
Jane Doe found in Portland, NY in September of 2021.
And I covered the Rails to Trails Jane Doe information in
episode 2 covering the disappearance of Corey Anderson,
Marquita Mull, and Patricia LameHurt.
So if you haven't listened to that episode, I would urge you
(15:55):
to take a listen once you finishthis episode because there are
some other yet unsolved cases that I would love to get more
attention on. To recap the Rails to Trails
Jane Doe, on September 26th, 2021, a woman was walking on the
Rails to Trails path in Portland, NY off of Woben Rd.
when she spotted what she thought was a skull near the
(16:18):
head of the trail. Police were called,
investigators were dispatched tothe area and they found
additional human remains near the skull that appeared to have
been in the area for decades. They also at the same time
located a second set of human remains in the area and those
remains were later identified asbelonging to 50 year old
(16:39):
Marquita Mull. Since dropping that episode,
charges have been brought forth in the Marquita Mull case. 62
year old Richard Fox of Buffalo was charged with Marquita's
murder in January of 2025. At the point where I was
researching this, the second setof remains was a still
unidentified doe and she was found wearing a yellow and white
(17:03):
striped shirt branded as Jack and Coco, sized 18 to 20, and
the information on the Jane Doe's post listed that shirt is
being sold in the 1990s. Tammy went missing in 1986.
However, the poster shared some research that they had done
(17:23):
diving into some legal depositions for the Jack and
Coco company that sold the shirtthat could implicate that the
the shirt was actually for sale much earlier than the 1990s,
which means that it could have been the brand of shirt that
Tammy was wearing. The user had shared this
information with law enforcementand when I came across the post,
(17:45):
I also shared it with law enforcement.
I did get a response back from investigator Matt Wilson that
Tammy had been rolled out as therails to Trails Jane Doe, and
while this lead didn't pan out to be Tammy, I bring it up
because it was an impressive amount of armchair sleuthing by
the poster that you never know, it could have been the break
(18:08):
needed to solve this case. However, as it turns out, this
Jane Doe would get her name back, thankfully, and that was
because of DNA. In February of this year, 2025,
the Rails to trails Jane Doe wasidentified as Cassandra Watson.
Cassandra was last seen alive inBuffalo in 2003 or 2004.
(18:31):
She was around 40 years old at the time of her disappearance.
Richard Fox, the alleged murderer of Marquita Mall, is
who we discussed in episode 32, now also faces charges for the
death of Cassandra. Cassandra was in a relationship
with Fox at the time of her disappearance, and she was
living with him in a residence in Buffalo.
(18:53):
Both Cassandra and Marquita are believed to have been strangled
by Fox. Authorities are also looking at
Fox for other unsolved cases, sothere may be more information on
that coming. Tammy was only 13 on that April
1986 morning when she vanished without a trace.
(19:13):
She had long, light brown hair with Hazel eyes.
One piece of identifying information I don't believe I
mentioned earlier is that she had either a homemade tattoo or
a scar with her initials T AM onher upper left arm.
Her ears are pierced. She was last seen wearing a
denim jacket, a yellow striped shirt, worn black corduroy
(19:36):
pants, beige boots, and was carrying a shoulder bag.
If you have any information on the disappearance of Tammy and
McCormick, please call the Saratoga Springs Police
Department at 518-584-1800. If you haven't already, please
follow the show on your favoritepodcast platform and consider
(20:00):
leaving a rating a review. It really helps get these
stories out to more listeners. You can find all the sources for
this episode at our website andwhydarksidepodcast.com and
join the discussion on our Facebook or Instagram page.
Until next time, stay safe, staycurious, and remember some
shadows in New York never fade.
On April 29th, 1986, a 13 year old girl from Saratoga Springs,
NY vanished without a trace. Decades later, her disappearance
remains an unsolved mystery, despite extensive
investigations, leads, and theories.
Today, we dive into the chillingdetails of her story, uncovering
(00:22):
facts, exploring the leads and asking the questions that remain
unanswered. I'm Amanda Morgan, and this is
New York's dark side. Tammy and McCormick was born on
(01:05):
July 3rd, 1972 to Nancy Heber and William McCormick.
She was the youngest of the family's six children and
pictures that I have seen of her, she was a beautiful girl.
She had a vibrant smile. She had this long light brown
hair and sparkling Hazel eyes. Tammy loved horses, she had a
(01:26):
passion for drawing and she really enjoyed spending time
working outside in the garden with her grandmother.
The McCormick family would oftentravel to Florida for spring
break and at the end of summer they would end it all with a
trip to Cape Cod. So really enjoying the outdoor
vibes and being together as a family.
(01:49):
In 1986, Tammy lived with her family in the Geyser Crest
neighborhood of Saratoga Springs, NY.
April 29th, 1986 was the day that changed everything for the
McCormick family. That morning started out as just
another routine day. However, after most of the
(02:10):
family had either left for work or school, Tammy would tell her
older sister Jennifer that she actually had decided that she
was going to skip school that day.
Jennifer offered to skip with her and spend the day with her,
but Tammy told her Nope, just goahead and go.
So Jennifer, suspecting nothing was amiss, went off to start her
(02:33):
day, not realizing that this would be the last time that she
saw and spoke with her sister. A short time after Jennifer left
the house, Tammy also left and that morning Tammy had dressed
herself in a denim jacket, a yellow striped shirt, worn black
corduroy pants and beige boots. She did have pierced ears, but I
(02:57):
couldn't find any information onif she was wearing earrings that
day or not. She was later seen carrying a a
shoulder bag. And I want to point out here
that if you dig into this case, you will find some conflicting
information in the articles as to Tammy's activities from here.
(03:19):
Some articles said that Tammy was planning to hitchhike to
school, others said that she wasplanning to go to a friend's
house. And in an article with News
Channel 13's Cold Case 13 reportthat aired in 2020, investigator
Matt Wilson, the lead investigator on Tammy's case,
(03:41):
Wood acknowledged that there area lot of variations in the
timelines and stories relating to Tammy's disappearance, which
have made the investigation incredibly difficult.
This same episode had an interview with Tammy's sister,
Jennifer, who said that Tammy had told her that she was
planning to skip school that day.
(04:02):
Regardless of what Tammy's intentions were for the day, we
do know for a fact that Tammy did not arrive for classes that
day, nor would there appear to be any confirmation that she
arrived at a friend's house. Tammy's mother, Nancy, would
later state that she was not initially concerned when Tammy
didn't return home that April evening, as she did have a habit
(04:26):
of sometimes staying over with afriend's house and not calling
to let her parents know until the next morning, so it didn't
initially seem to raise any red flags to them.
However, when that phone call never came the morning of the
30th and Tammy still did not arrive at school on the 30th,
nor did she return home that evening, her family started to
(04:50):
worry about her and Nancy. Tammy's mother would file a
missing persons report with the Saratoga Springs Police
Department. The search for Tammy would be
complicated. As police started to conduct
interviews with Tammy's friends,they received conflicting
stories on whether anyone had seen Tammy.
(05:11):
On the morning of the 29th, 1 friend was adamant that she had
seen Tammy at the school. Others said that none of them
had seen Tammy. She never showed up that day.
Police came across rumors that Tammy may have run away during
these interviews and in the months apparently leading up to
her disappearance, Tammy had reportedly told several of her
(05:35):
friends that she was planning onrunning away to Jacksonville,
FL. Tammy's mother, Nancy, has
always maintained that there wasno chance that Tammy had run
away that day since she took none of her belongings with her
and she was wearing her most worn pair of jeans and a pair of
boots that she complained gave her blisters on the day that she
(05:58):
disappeared. Personally, I find it difficult
to believe that a 13 year old girl, even if they had plans to
run away and start completely over somewhere fresh, wouldn't
take some of their personal belongings with them.
But that's neither here nor there.
As they continued their investigations, detectives would
(06:20):
track down a friend of Tammy that said that there really,
truly was a plan for Tammy, along with this friend that was
unnamed in the source material, to leave for Jacksonville, FL on
the morning of April 29th. And during the interview, this
friend told investigators that she had gone to Tammy's house
(06:42):
the night before on the 28th andhad slept that night hidden in
Tammy's closet until the other members of the family left.
And according to this friend, she and Tammy were then planning
to hitchhike to Florida. But for some reason, Tammy left
the house without her, leaving her alone in the McCormick home.
(07:05):
This friend would ultimately find another girl to hitchhike
to Florida with. And these two girls did
successfully make it down to Florida, where they were later
tracked down by the investigators looking for Tammy.
But there was no indication thatTammy had been with them during
their trip to Florida. The next lead in the case would
(07:27):
come from a tip from a motorist.After Tammy's disappearance
became public knowledge. The tipster reported that on the
morning of April 29th, he had picked up a young girl matching
Tammy's description. He told police that he dropped
her off on Route 19 near Saratoga Lake.
As police continued to talk to Tammy's friends, they would
(07:50):
realize that many of these friends were hesitant to give a
lot of details regarding Tammy'smovements in the days before her
disappearance because they were actually afraid of getting
themselves into trouble with lawenforcement.
Investigators would eventually uncover that Tammy, along with
many of her friends, were hanging out with a much older
(08:13):
crowd and the name Arthur Mason Slaybaugh the second would come
up. Slaybaugh, who went by his
middle name Mason, became a person of interest in Tammy's
disappearance from the very beginning.
At the time of Tammy's disappearance, Slaybaugh was 26
years old. He was working as a corrections
(08:34):
officer at Mount McGregor Correctional Facility in Wilton,
NY Slaybaugh had a reputation for having young girls at his
house where they would party andconsume alcohol.
In 1986, Slaybaugh lived in a small house on Saratoga Lake
(08:54):
near where Tammy had reportedly been dropped off by that
motorist. And one article I read reported
that Tammy had another connection to Slaybaugh outside
of the parties, as Tammy would babysit for Slave Ah's
girlfriend who had a young child.
And during the course of following this lead, police also
(09:16):
uncovered that Slave Ah's girlfriend had reportedly left
town on April 29th and traveled to Jacksonville, FL.
This was a strange coincidence that she left the day that Tammy
disappeared and went to the samelocation that Tammy's friends
hitchhiked to and alleged that Tammy had been planning on
(09:37):
traveling to. Unfortunately, at the time, this
was about all the information that they had tying slave off to
Tammy's disappearance, which wasnot really enough to file
charges or prove anything. So here's where it kind of SAT
for a bit. One potential other suspect in
Tammy's disappearance would comeonto law enforcement's radar in
(10:00):
the mid 1990s with the arrest ofLouis Steven Lent Junior, and
I'm going to save the deep dive on him for another episode.
But in case you are not familiarwith him, here's a bit of an
overview. On January 7th, 1994, Lewis Lent
attempted to abduct a 12 year old girl named Rebecca at
gunpoint in Pittsfield, MA. Rebecca was incredibly smart.
(10:25):
She was incredibly badass in my opinion.
She had known as soon as this was going on that she had to get
away from this asshole at all costs.
So Rebecca faked an asthma attack.
She doesn't have asthma, and shejust pretended that she couldn't
breathe. And I can, in all honesty, say
(10:46):
that I don't believe I would have had the wits about me to
think of trying this had I been Rebecca.
Thankfully for her, this tactic worked.
Lent became very confused as shewas trying to like sit down and
was pretending to hyperventilate.
So he grabbed her backpack, which she just quickly pulled
herself out of and ran down the street to where another man was
(11:11):
shoveling snow and he took her into the bank and called law
enforcement and Lewis. Lent was later found and
arrested for the incident and would be convicted of several
charges relating to that attempted abduction.
During their initial interrogations of Lewis Lent, he
(11:34):
would confess to the murder of 12 year old Jimmy Bernardo, who
he abducted in October of 1990 from Pittsfield, MA, whose body
was later found in Newfield, NY.He also confessed to the
abduction of 12 year old Sarah Ann Wood of Frankfurt, New York,
who he abducted in August of 1993 while she was riding her
(11:56):
bike from the church where her father served as pastor.
Sarah's body has unfortunately never been found, though there
have been searches across multiple states over the years.
Lewis Lent has been named a potential suspect in Tammy's
case, as well as a few other unsolved missing persons cases
around New York and other statesas well.
(12:20):
He has been reluctant to tell law enforcement where Sarah's
body is, and it's believed that this is because there are
remains of other victims in the area that he hasn't confessed
to. Lewis Lent is now in his 70s,
and he's currently serving life in prison for the murder of
Jimmy Bernardo in a Massachusetts State prison.
(12:41):
But law enforcement from New York does maintain regular
contact with him, continuing to try to find closure for the Wood
family and potentially some other families as well.
In 2011, investigators started to take a closer look at Tammy's
disappearance. They believe that Tammy was
likely murdered on the day that she disappeared, and at this
(13:04):
time, investigators formally named a person of interest.
This man was former corrections officer Arthur Mason Slaybaugh,
the second who I mentioned earlier.
By this point, unfortunately, they wouldn't be able to
interrogate Slaybaugh again, as he was now deceased, having died
of a heart attack in January of 2001.
(13:26):
Investigators started to take a harder look at Slabaugh when
witnesses began to come forward after he passed away, stating
that they had been too afraid tospeak up while he was still
alive. These witnesses were both
friends of Slabaugh and one of his former girlfriends, though I
can't say for sure if this was the same girlfriend who had left
(13:47):
for Florida the day that Tammy went missing.
Based on these tips, investigators believe it was
even more likely that Tammy was on her way to his house on
Browns Beach near Saratoga Lake that April morning.
There have been several searchesconducted looking for evidence
(14:07):
of Tammy or her remains. The most recent search took
place in November of 2017 when afield property owned by Kenneth
Slabaugh, the brother of Arthur Mason Slabaugh, was searched on
Route 30 in Northampton, part ofFulton County in New York.
The search focused on a trash pile on the property where
(14:27):
neighbors would say that Mason and Kenneth would bury all kinds
of things at all hours of the night.
Unfortunately, investigators found no sign of Tammy with the
search. Even more unfortunate is that
this is where the case seems to stand.
But maybe there is somebody out there who has a piece of
(14:48):
information that could bring an end to the questions that
surround Tammy's disappearance. This case intrigues me.
I have so many questions, and one of them did involve a little
bit of a rabbit hole that I wantto share, which has since been
debunked. But while researching, I did
(15:09):
find one interesting theory on Reddit.
And of course, due to the source, you can take this as you
will. But I'm including it here
because quite honestly, I had a similar thought when I was
recording a prior episode, and there's just some other
interesting things about it thatI'll get to in a minute.
A poster using the username KK 6NJ posted in the Grateful Doe
(15:33):
Reddit thread a theory that Tammy may be the Rails to Trails
Jane Doe found in Portland, NY in September of 2021.
And I covered the Rails to Trails Jane Doe information in
episode 2 covering the disappearance of Corey Anderson,
Marquita Mull, and Patricia LameHurt.
So if you haven't listened to that episode, I would urge you
(15:55):
to take a listen once you finishthis episode because there are
some other yet unsolved cases that I would love to get more
attention on. To recap the Rails to Trails
Jane Doe, on September 26th, 2021, a woman was walking on the
Rails to Trails path in Portland, NY off of Woben Rd.
when she spotted what she thought was a skull near the
(16:18):
head of the trail. Police were called,
investigators were dispatched tothe area and they found
additional human remains near the skull that appeared to have
been in the area for decades. They also at the same time
located a second set of human remains in the area and those
remains were later identified asbelonging to 50 year old
(16:39):
Marquita Mull. Since dropping that episode,
charges have been brought forth in the Marquita Mull case. 62
year old Richard Fox of Buffalo was charged with Marquita's
murder in January of 2025. At the point where I was
researching this, the second setof remains was a still
unidentified doe and she was found wearing a yellow and white
(17:03):
striped shirt branded as Jack and Coco, sized 18 to 20, and
the information on the Jane Doe's post listed that shirt is
being sold in the 1990s. Tammy went missing in 1986.
However, the poster shared some research that they had done
(17:23):
diving into some legal depositions for the Jack and
Coco company that sold the shirtthat could implicate that the
the shirt was actually for sale much earlier than the 1990s,
which means that it could have been the brand of shirt that
Tammy was wearing. The user had shared this
information with law enforcementand when I came across the post,
(17:45):
I also shared it with law enforcement.
I did get a response back from investigator Matt Wilson that
Tammy had been rolled out as therails to Trails Jane Doe, and
while this lead didn't pan out to be Tammy, I bring it up
because it was an impressive amount of armchair sleuthing by
the poster that you never know, it could have been the break
(18:08):
needed to solve this case. However, as it turns out, this
Jane Doe would get her name back, thankfully, and that was
because of DNA. In February of this year, 2025,
the Rails to trails Jane Doe wasidentified as Cassandra Watson.
Cassandra was last seen alive inBuffalo in 2003 or 2004.
(18:31):
She was around 40 years old at the time of her disappearance.
Richard Fox, the alleged murderer of Marquita Mall, is
who we discussed in episode 32, now also faces charges for the
death of Cassandra. Cassandra was in a relationship
with Fox at the time of her disappearance, and she was
living with him in a residence in Buffalo.
(18:53):
Both Cassandra and Marquita are believed to have been strangled
by Fox. Authorities are also looking at
Fox for other unsolved cases, sothere may be more information on
that coming. Tammy was only 13 on that April
1986 morning when she vanished without a trace.
(19:13):
She had long, light brown hair with Hazel eyes.
One piece of identifying information I don't believe I
mentioned earlier is that she had either a homemade tattoo or
a scar with her initials T AM onher upper left arm.
Her ears are pierced. She was last seen wearing a
denim jacket, a yellow striped shirt, worn black corduroy
(19:36):
pants, beige boots, and was carrying a shoulder bag.
If you have any information on the disappearance of Tammy and
McCormick, please call the Saratoga Springs Police
Department at 518-584-1800. If you haven't already, please
follow the show on your favoritepodcast platform and consider
(20:00):
leaving a rating a review. It really helps get these
stories out to more listeners. You can find all the sources for
this episode at our website andwhydarksidepodcast.com and
join the discussion on our Facebook or Instagram page.
Until next time, stay safe, staycurious, and remember some
shadows in New York never fade.
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