Tammy Lynn Leppert was an 18 year old model, actress, and former beauty queen who went missing from Cocoa Beach, Florida in 1983. Just before she disappeared, she had a minor role in the movie Scarface. Tammy has still not been found to this day.
Tammy Lynn Leppert was born on February 5, 1965 in Rockledge, Florida. During her childhood and adolescence, Tammy worked as an actress and model. She even took part in beauty pageants from as young as 4 years old. As she grew older, Tammy also took place on magazine covers and other movies, such as CoverGirl Magazine in 1978 and a small role in the 1983 movie Spring Break. She also had a lead role in the movie CoverGirl Behind The Scenes, which she played herself. After attending a party when she finished shooting for CoverGirl, one of Tammy’s friends Wing Flannagan said she returned as “a different person”. It is stated that she had become more sullen and paranoid.
On the fourth day of filming for Scarface, Tammy suddenly returned home. Her mother assumed that this was because of her fear of being murdered, so she planned to go to a doctor to get Tammy checked out. However, she was released from a medical center after 72 hours after appearing to be fine and coherent.
Before she disappeared, Tammy was last seen on July 6, 1983 in Cocoa Beach, Florida. She was last wearing a matching blue denim shirt and skirt with flowers on it, a gray purse, and sandals. However, some have said she left without shoes or money. She was between 5’0” and 5’5”, weighed between 105-115 pounds, had curly blonde hair, and hazel eyes. She was also believed to be possibly 3 months pregnant.
One of Tammy’s other friends, who was also the last person to see her, told authorities that the two of them got into an argument while driving back from Rockledge, Florida and he left her in a parking lot as a result. Even though he was last seen with Tammy and Tammy’s mother has stated that she was afraid of him, this friend is not considered a suspect.
A man by the name of Christopher Bernard Wilder suspected to have something to do with Tammy’s disappearance. He was connected to the murders of 12 other women ranging from Florida to California. He would lure these women in by promising them that they’d be photographed for magazines. Christopher Wilder was later killed in a shoot out with the police in 1984. Before his death, Tammy’s mother sued Christopher’s estate for more than $1 million for connections to Tammy’s disappearance. However, this was halted as some were unsure if he was really involved. Convicted kidnapper and rapist John Crutchley was also a person of interest. He was suspected of killing as many as 30 women, but he later died by suicide in prison in 2002.
Tammy’s mother also believed that there was a possibility that she was killed due to her knowledge of local drug trafficking. She believed this because Tammy showed signs of paranoia, and she was also cautious when consuming foods and did not drink from opened containers. It was noted that Tammy did file a police report prior to her disappearance.
After her disappearance, the Cocoa Beach detective got two phone calls from a woman stating that Tammy was still alive and doing well. She first said that Tammy would call when the time was right, and then she said that Tammy was pursuing her dream, which was becoming a nurse. Tammy has been ruled out as multiple unidentified decedents over the years, such as the Slidell Jane Doe found in 1986 and the Newport News Jane Doe found in 2014. In 1992 the show Unsolved Mysteries covered a segment regarding Tammy’s disappearance.
Though Tammy has been missing for over 37 years, the search for her will continue. The truth about what happened to her will eventually come to light.
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That’s a bizarre final sentence: “The truth about what happened to her will eventually come to light”. Really? I’d say 42 years on, the facts of Tammy Lynn Lepert’s tragic disappearance/death aged just 18, are highly unlikely to ever come to light.
I’m puzzled that the last man to see her alive, a ‘friend’ Tammy had told others, including her mother, she was afraid of, is not considered a suspect by police. He even said they parted company with him throwing her out of his car, after a heated argument. That man has prime suspect written all over him! If, as some reports state, Tammy was 3 months pregnant when she went missing, that alone could provide a motive for murder, as it so often has in femicides.
The poor girl was clearly mixing with some dangerous men, and had a very clear instinct about the danger she was in. How heartbreaking that even with the love of her devoted Mom, she couldn’t break free and build a wonderful future for herself. She clearly had a lot going for her, and at just 18 was already getting very promising breaks like her ‘Scarface’ appearance. God bless her and all the women and girls whose lives are still to this day, cruelly snuffed out by toxic, controlling men.
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