Identity of a 1979 murder victim finally solved

I am so glad that she was finally identified and given her name back. Nobody deserves to remain nameless. Rest in peace TAMMY.

I wish they could also find the identity of the 'Boy in the cardboard box', that case has haunted me forever.

We don't commonly speak of love and law enforcement in the same breath, especially in recent years, but this man is surely a beautiful example of both.

No...nothing was said about who killed her, and if they were brought to justice, nor yet why her family/friends hadn’t pushed more for her to be found. Very sad, and how lucky she was to have this special tenacious man on her case all these years. Well done Sir.

There is a sense of dedication and grief in this officer's voice.

She ran away from home. 30 years later her half-sister filed another missing persons report and submitted DNA in Florida her family thought she ran away from home and just didn't want to be found

That is a good man. "All it takes for evil to take hold is for good men to turn their head and do nothing." John F. Kennedy

Poor girl. God bless this man.

Tammy Alexander was formally identified on January 26, 2015, more than 35 years after her discovery. Laurel Nowell, a close friend in high school from Brooksville, Florida, had started trying to reach Alexander in the 2010s by social media. She eventually reached Alexander's half-sister, Pamela Dyson, of Panama City, Florida, who knew that she had often run away from home, but Dyson had not lived with her younger half-sister after about age eleven. She learned that no one in her family knew anything of Alexander's whereabouts since the girl had left sometime between 1977 and 1979. Dyson and Nowell became concerned that Alexander had fallen victim to a crime after leaving home. Dyson said that her mother did report Alexander as missing, but she has since believed that, since Alexander had a history of running away and returning, police may not have taken the case seriously. In August 2014, the Hernando County sheriff's office told them no missing persons report had been filed for her, and promptly filed one. Carl Koppelman, a California artist, came across the "missing person" report on Alexander as a moderator of the Websleuths online community, where volunteers try to solve cold cases including those of unidentified bodies. In 2010, he sketched the portrait of "Caledonia Jane Doe" and posted it in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). In September 2014, he saw the new listing for Alexander and quickly realized that they were the same person. He emailed the Livingston County Sheriff's Office (with copies sent to the NamUs regional administrator, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and the Hernando County, Florida Sheriff's Office) to tell them of the strong resemblance between the two images. Police arranged to take a DNA sample from Dyson. In January 2015, the Monroe County, New York medical examiner's office found that mitochondrial DNA (MtDNA) from the unidentified body matched that of Dyson, confirming that the victim was her half sister. A week later on January 26, 2015, the Livingston County sheriff, Thomas Dougherty, announced at a news conference that Caledonia Jane Doe had been identified after 35 years.

Kudos to this amazing relentless detective for staying vigilant and never giving up hope. It paid off

This man is a great caring person

Hopefully she gets justice! Tammy didn’t deserve to die like this.

So who was the murderer? Why didn't the family try to find her or report her missing? Many unanswered questions.

He seems so heartbroken

Poor officers who have to deal with these horrors too.

This is really moving. God bless the sheriff for his work.

Im happy she has a name & she was sombody. R.I.P Pretty Tammy

I wish someone could solve my sister's almost 39 year old cold case murder. She was only 19.I don't know how to contact cold case detectives.

The death body identified but the killer is free poor girl 😠

Now that is what you call a decent man . God bless you !!