The error that forever changed the case of Tammy Jo Alexander's mysterious 1979 murder

The unsolved murder of Tammy Jo Alexander, found dead in a New York field in November 1979, is slowly yielding its secrets after 36 years of mystery. A keychain found with the young woman, bearing the inscription "Whoever has the key can open my heart," offered a poignant, yet ultimately unhelpful, clue at the time.

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Whoever has the key can open my heart.

Alexander, who was 16 when she ran away from her Georgia home in 1979, was shot twice, once in the back and once in the head. Heavy rain at the crime scene washed away crucial DNA evidence. Lacking identification, authorities initially registered her as "Cali Jane Doe." Her family, assuming she had simply started a new life, never filed a missing person report, leaving investigators unaware that the unidentified girl in New York was their missing relative.

The case began to break open in 2015 when Laurel Nowell, a childhood friend, searched for Alexander online. Unable to find her, Nowell contacted Pamela Dyson, Alexander's stepsister. The two women, fearing the worst, filed a police report, which had been omitted decades earlier. Forensic examiner Carl Koppelman noted a resemblance between "Cali Jane Doe" and a missing person from the newly filed report. A DNA sample from Dyson confirmed the match on January 26, 2015, finally giving the victim her name back.

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I thought she just wanted to leave and start over.

"We never lost hope," Dyson told ABC in 2024, reflecting on the long wait for answers. "We always hoped that someday, somewhere, someone would put something on a detective's desk and that would be the key to the case." While the family has found closure regarding Alexander's identity, they continue to await justice for her killer, whose whereabouts remain unknown.

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We never lost hope. We always hoped that someday, somewhere, someone would put something on a detective's desk and that would be the key to the case.