Tammy Zywicki Slaying Still Unsolved, 30 Years Later

JOLIET, IL — Thirty years after she was abducted and murdered, authorities say they haven't forgotten about Tammy Zywicki. The 21-year-old left Evanston on Aug. 23, 1992, heading back to college in Iowa. She never made it.

Nine days after her broken-down car was found abandoned on Interstate 80 near LaSalle, the college senior's body was found wrapped in a blanket, hundreds of miles away on a highway in rural Missouri. She'd been stabbed to death.

No one has ever been arrested in Zywicki's death, and an ex-con trucker considered the prime suspect by a former Illinois State Police investigator died of AIDS in 2002. In 2012, as the 20th anniversary of Zywicki's death approached, state police said they were pursuing promising new leads in the case. But 10 years later, it remains unsolved.

On the 25-year anniversary of Zywicki's killing, Illinois State Police said the case remained active. "The FBI and ISP continue exploring new leads, examining 200 items of evidence and retesting items with modern DNA testing," police said in a news release marking 25 years since Zywicki was last seen along a stretch of I-80.

Zywicki, a native of Marlton, New Jersey, had reportedly dropped her brother off at Northwestern University in Evanston and was making the trek to Grinnell College in Iowa. She was last seen alive between 3:10 and 4 p.m. Aug. 23, 1992 near mile marker 83. Some witnesses said they saw a tractor-trailer parked behind her broken-down car, a white 1985 Pontiac T1000. Other witnesses said they saw a pickup truck, according to the Daily Herald. According to state police, the truck driver was described as a white man between the ages of 35 and 40 and over 6 feet tall, with dark, bushy hair.

The day she vanished, Zywicki's abandoned car was found and ticketed by a state trooper. The car was towed from the scene a day later, on Aug. 24, 1992 — the same day her mother called state police to say her daughter had never arrived at college.

On Sept. 1, 1992, Missouri state troopers, alerted by a passing motorist, found Zywicki's body wrapped in a blanket sealed in duct tape along I-44 in rural Lawrence County, Missouri, between Joplin and Springfield. The 21-year-old had reportedly been sexually assaulted and stabbed seven times in a circular pattern near her heart. She'd also been stabbed in the right arm and had duct tape over her mouth, according to the Des Moines Register.

Police said some of Zywicki's personal items have been missing since her disappearance, including a Cannon 35 mm camera and a Lorus brand musical wristwatch that played the tune "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head." The watch, seen in a photo released by Illinois State Police, had a green umbrella on its face and a green band.

A red and white soccer patch with the monogram "St. Giles Soccer Club, Greenville, South Carolina," was also taken from Tammy, state police said.

In 2012, ex-state police investigator Marty McCarthy told the Associated Press that his prime suspect, trucker Lonnie Bierbrodt, reportedly gave his wife a musical watch similar to the one Tammy owned. "In 20 years, let's face it, no other suspect has come forward other than Bierbrodt. He's a helluva suspect," McCarthy said in 2012. Bierbrodt, who died in 2002, was questioned but never charged, and the watch was never found.

But in more recent years, ISP Master Sgt. Jeff Padilla said he believed Tammy's killer is still alive. “We are treating this investigation as a brand-new investigation,” he said in 2015.

In 2015, mother JoAnn Zywicki, who now lives in Florida, said she was still holding onto hope that her daughter's murder would be solved. "It never really goes away," she told the Sioux City Journal. Tammy's father, Henry "Hank" Zywicki, died in 2015. JoAnn is now 80 years old.

More than a quarter-century after her death, Tammy Zywicki is still featured on the FBI website, with a $50,000 reward offered for information leading to the identification of her killer or killers.

Anyone with information on Tammy Zywicki's murder is asked to contact the ISP at (815) 726-6377 or the FBI Chicago Field Division at (312) 421-6700. Callers can remain anonymous.

Editor's note: This article was originally published in 2017