Tammy Zywicki (Courtesy Iowa City Press-Citizen)
Clark Perry Baldwin (Courtesy photo Black Hawk County Jail)
Authorities in Illinois say an Iowa man charged in 1990s serial killings “does not appear to have been involved” in the unsolved 1992 slaying of a college student.
The Illinois State Police said Friday that Clark Perry Baldwin is not a suspect in the death of 21-year-old Tammy Zywicki.
The statement appeared to rule out what had seemed to be a promising lead in the case of Zywicki, who was abducted after experiencing car troubles on Interstate 80 near La Salle, Illinois in 1992. She was returning from Evanston, Illinois to Grinnell College in Iowa. Her body was found in Missouri days later, with evidence of stabbing and sexual assault.
Full Story at The Des Moines Register
IOWA COLD CASES founder Jody Ewing compiled the following case summary using excerpts from sources listed at the bottom of this page. Though Tammy’s case is officially under Illinois State Police jurisdiction and the FBI’s Chicago Division, she has a page here due to her status as a Grinnell College (Iowa) student at the time of her death and because many wrote to say they felt she should be included here. We agree, and urge anyone with any knowledge about her unsolved murder to contact Special Agent Jorge Fonseca, Illinois State Police, at (815) 726-6377 Ext 286, or your nearest FBI office.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the identification of the individual or individuals responsible for this crime.
On Sunday, Aug. 23, 1992, Tammy J. Zywicki, a 21-year-old Grinnell College student, departed Evanston, Illinois, to return to school in Grinnell, Iowa, where she planned to arrive that evening. Later that day, an Illinois State Trooper found Zywicki’s car — a 1985 Pontiac T1000 with New Jersey license plates — and ticketed it as an abandoned vehicle.
On Monday, Aug. 24, 1992, Illinois State Police towed the vehicle. That same evening, Zywicki’s mother contacted the Illinois State Police and told them her daughter had not arrived at college.
On Tuesday, Sept. 1, 1992, her body was found along Interstate Highway 44 (I-44) in rural Lawrence County, Missouri, located between Springfield and Joplin.
The petite blonde female had been wrapped in a red blanket bound with duct tape, sexually assaulted, and stabbed eight times — once in the arm and seven times in a circle around her heart.
She’d reportedly last been seen with her car at mile marker 83 in central Illinois sometime between 3:10 and 4 p.m. on Aug. 23, 1992. Witnesses reported seeing a tractor-trailer near Zywicki’s vehicle during this time.
Tammy Zywicki wrote this essay as part of her college application (Courtesy Dean Zywicki)
Zywicki’s missing personal property included a Cannon 35mm camera and a musical wristwatch with an umbrella on its face.
Tammy’s Pontiac T1000, New Jersey license plates (Courtesy FBI)Her murder attracted national attention, and Illinois State Police launched a multi-state 14-investigator task force that called in local forces and the FBI.
In January 1993, an unnamed eyewitness placed a call to the task force, stating she’d seen Zywicki pulled to the side of the road and that a man was with [Zywicki], watching as the young girl struggled to fix her car.
The witness described the man — allegedly the tractor-trailer’s driver — as a white male between 35 and 40 years of age, over six feet tall, and having dark, bushy hair.
Tammy Zywicki’s Pontiac T1000, New Jersey plates (Courtesy FBI)
The official FBI report confirmed Zywicki had last been seen in the presence of a man whose appearance resembled the eyewitness’ description.
The eyewitness reported yet another coincidence; she worked at a medical facility and said the wife of the man who fit the truck driver’s description had come in for a routine blood test, and while there, told the eyewitness about a musical watch her husband had just given her. The timepiece matched the description of the one Zywicki had in her possession when she went missing, and investigators had never recovered the watch.
The eyewitness believed a strong connection existed between the events, and three days after the woman left the facility, the eyewitness contacted Martin McCarthy, a member of the investigative team who’d joined the federal task force in November 1992.
Officials identified the trucker as Lonnie Bierbodt and brought him in for questioning. Bierbodt provided both blood and hair samples for testing before being released.
A few weeks later in February 1993, the task force disbanded — citing lack of progress — and Tammy Zywicki’s homicide case eventually went cold.
View the FBI Reward Poster
The FBI marked the case’s 10th anniversary with a renewed public plea for any information and announced a $50,000 reward — which joined a standing $100,000 reward from an anonymous private source in Zywicki’s New Jersey hometown — for any information leading to an arrest in the case. FBI officials also confirmed for the first time that they’d collected DNA from Zywicki’s body 10 years earlier and had the evidence on file.
Along with the FBI’s newly released information, former task force member McCarthy came forward with allegations that Lonnie Bierbodt should have been arrested but was never formally held as a suspect. McCarthy also presented several previously unreleased facts, which he believed pointed to Bierbodt as a suspect. Those facts included:
Bierbodt also had a criminal record. He’d committed two armed robberies in the ’80s and officials considered him a “violent felon.” At one time he’d been serving three concurrent 20-year sentences before being released and paroled in 1990.
Lonnie Bierbodt died in June 2002 at age 41. Martin McCarthy retired as a master sergeant for the Illinois State Police the following month.
A soccer club patch Zywicki may have had in her possession (Courtesy FBI)
In July 2007, FBI agents contacted investigators in Tennessee about questioning 56-year-old trucker Bruce Mendenhall in Zywicki’s slaying. Mendenhall, of Albion in southern Illinois, was arrested Thursday, July 12, 2007, and charged with killing 25-year-old Sara Hulbert at an interstate truck stop in Nashville, Tenn.
Mendenhall eventually confessed to killing six women at truck stops in Tennessee, Indiana, Alabama, and Georgia. He didn’t confess to Zywicki’s death, but Ross Rice, an FBI spokesman in Chicago, said it was the agency’s duty to question Mendenhall.
“We have an over-the-road trucker who is accused of murdering at least one woman who was abducted in a roadside situation, which is exactly what happened in the Zywicki case,” Rice told the press after Mendenhall’s arrest. “I think it would be a dereliction of our duties if we didn’t look into it.”
Although hopes were temporarily raised for closure in Zywicki’s homicide, investigators never charged Mendenhall in the Grinnell student’s death.
Courtesy photo Chicago TribuneThe 20th anniversary of Tammy Zywicki’s unsolved murder did not go unnoticed.
In “Remembering what Tammy Zywicki would have liked,” Chicago Tribune writer Mary Schmich wrote an especially poignant piece about the journey Joann and Hank Zywicki made from their Florida retirement home to the small Pennsylvania town where they — and Tammy — were born.
FBI officials in Chicago said they hoped the $50,000 reward would help resolve Zywicki’s case.
On the eve of the 20th anniversary date, the head of Illinois State Police insisted investigators hadn’t forgotten the case. As the Des Moines Register reported on Aug. 22, 2012:
“This investigation remains a top priority, both for me personally as well as the men and women” of the agency, State Police Director Hiram Grau said, noting that authorities “are committed to bringing justice and peace to the Zywicki family.”
A Greenville News article published Jan. 22, 2015, said Illinois State Police turned to the nationally known organization, the Vidocq Society, for help in solving Zywicki’s murder.
The Greenville News described the Vidocq Society as follows:
The Vidocq Society began with a 1990 luncheon involving three men from various specialties in criminal investigation — a former special agent for the U.S. Customs Service, a forensic sculptor and a prison psychologist. Their intent was simply to eat well and discuss crimes and mysteries.
Before long, they had formed a more formal group and narrowed its interest to cold cases. Now, the society has a membership of about 150 people from all areas of criminal investigation.
The society’s name comes from Eugene Francois Vidocq, who is considered the founder of modern criminal investigation. A thief who spent some years in prison, Vidocq became an informant to the police and ultimately founded a private detective agency in the early 1800s. He is credited with developing modern record keeping, the science of ballistics and making plaster of Paris casts of shoes.
Courtesy photo NBC Channel 5 News, ChicagoRetired Illinois State Police investigator McCarthy still believes trucker Lonnie Bierbrodt is responsible for Zywicki’s murder and would like to see a grand jury empaneled to hear the evidence.
McCarthy also wants Gov. Bruce Rauner to assign a special prosecutor to investigate the student’s death, NBC Channel 5 News reported Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015.
The NBC News story said McCarthy and Zywicki’s parents believe error after error was made in the days following the coed’s disappearance that cost them answers and likely precious physical evidence. The retired officer said he’s pressing Rauner to assign a special prosecutor to look into the case.
“I feel so sorry for [Joann and Hank Zywicki]. I don’t think they’ve been well-served,” McCarthy told the Chicago NBC network. “We’ve come to the point where we have a lot of evidence. We have a suspect. We need a grand jury. We need the power of the grand jury,” he explained.
According to Master Sgt. Padilla, State Police investigators presented evidence in Zywicki’s death to Vidocq Society members in Philadelphia in November 2014 and have been following up on their suggestions.
Padilla declined to discuss the new avenues of investigation, and said investigators have not shared with the family all that they have done for fear of compromising the investigation, the Greenville News reported.
Padilla said there has never been a main suspect in the case, and that several people — some still living — were being investigated.
Henry “Hank” Zywicki, 75, died Tuesday, May 26, 2015, in Ocala, Florida, without ever seeing justice served in his daughter’s unsolved murder.
Joann Zywicki, who still lives in the same Ocala active living community, said in an Aug. 28, 2020 interview with thestate.com that he never got over losing Tammy.
Courtesy photo Kathi Lynn King, findagrave.comTammy Jo Zywicki was born March 13, 1971, in Pleasant Hill, Pa.
Mass was held at the Catholic church in West Newton, Pa., on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 1992, with burial in the West Newton Memorial Cemetery in Westmoreland County.
Tammy was survived by many loving friends and relatives, including her parents, Joann and Hank Zywicki, and three brothers, Todd, Dean, and Daren.
Video by KCCI Des Moines, August 23, 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMjVb-DFWIs
If you have any information about Tammy Zywicki’s unsolved murder please contact your local FBI office, the nearest American Embassy or Consulate, or Special Agent Jorge Fonseca, Illinois State Police at (815) 726-6377 ext 286.
After watching the People’s airing of this case, Tammy, why don’t they pursue the genealogy route w that DNA they finally lifted off her clothing? Many murders are solved now by hiring a Genealogist to track a family start then begin narrowing it down. Just a thought. They family deserves closure.
I was watching today program and was worry why no body try looking firmy camera of Tammy should be exoensive and maybe killer try selling
Type of truck displayed in 1971?
I’d recommend watching the People Magazine Investigates episode on Tammy’s case. It was a good and informative watch,
All signs sure point to Lonnie Bierbrodt it appears from my perspective. The authorities did render an opinion on him and a few others. I want to spoil for anybody who plans on watching the segment.
They said his DNA was not a match …
In regards to the suggestion of Timothy Jay Vafeades being involved. It appears that he kept his victims captive. Lonnie Bierbodt, makes a better suspect, for the following reasons:
He lived close to where her body was found. He was visiting family, who lived close to where she first disappeared. The blanket she was wrapped up in had a Kenworth logo on it. He drove a Kenworth truck. Also, the musical watch. Also, he sold his truck within days of her being found.
However, all this is circumstantial evidence. It appears that the authorities most likely did not handle the processing of evidence properly. The processing of the crime scene is very important, this includes maintaining a proper chain of custody, as it is passed along to crime labs.
The two guys caught and charged in the kidnapping and murder of Bobby Frank’s, in 1920’s Chicago, were caught because of a pair of eyeglasses found where his body was dumped. It turned the eyeglass frame was something new from the eyeglass company Almer & Coe. It turned only three people in the Chicago area, had eyeglasses with those new frames.
Also, Colonel Goddard, MD, U.S. Army Reserve, was brought in by Cook County Coroner Jury, to process the St. Valentine Day massacre. He found that two Thompson sub machine guns had been used. One had a 50 round drum magazine and the other had a straight 20 round magazine.
Both weapons were found in the residence of Fred “Killer” Burke, in St. Joseph. He also shot and killed a policeman, who was assigned to investigate a vehicle accident Burke was involved in.
Now that CeCe Moore has been able to solve multiple cases through dna from crime scenes, we have new methods and connections beyond codis. If the FBI lost tge dna, they can still submit the blanket she was wrapped in to get dna from the killer. Contact Ce Ce Moore. The dna can be pulled from the blanket and then uploaded to Gedmatch to identify the killer’s relatives and narrow it down to the one.
Clark Perry Baldwin just arrested for 1991 and 1992 murders in Wyoming and Tennessee. A long-haul trucker from Iowa. Any chance he’s the man?
https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/authorities-arrest-waterloo-man-in-connection-to-wyoming-cold-case-murders/article_3a0049bc-677e-54bf-b7a3-a07b1248a400.html
I think there is a possibility! The timing is right and everything. The only issue I saw with it was the manner of death between Tammy and the women Dennis killed.
Illinois police have since stated that he isn’t a suspect in the Tammy Zywicki case. Considering how many details are similar to other cases that Clark Perry Baldwin is a suspect in you would think they wouldn’t dismiss the idea so easy. They must have some evidence that clearly points to someone else.
Is there anything official that is documented publicly that shows that authorities mishandled the DNA or have a poor unusable sample? I see comments mentioning it, but nothing to back it up. I guess it’s possible they don’t have any DNA from Bierbodt to compare it to. Maybe this will be yet another one of those cases solved when a family member does one of those ancestry DNA tests, inadvertently connecting the dots.
Never forget. Awakened with Tammy on my mind. Read her story. All these years, She is on my mind and on my ❤. Praying for you and your family.
We have many cases over the years that have never been handld properly considering all the available forensic tools. But, we have missing person’s cases, where the agency tossed the reports or never took a report. So, law enforcement has a black eye in many of these cases.
However, the FBI should have been involved from the beginning. She was last seen in Illinois, and was found murdered in Missouri. They hopefully would have processed the vehicle and the crime scene.
Could this be another victim of Jesperson? I believe the timing is right and he bound other victims with duct tape. I believe his full name is Keith Hunter Jesperson and he is currently in the Utah prison system serving multiple life sentences.
i was around the same age as tammy and remember seeing the news stories when she first went missing and it scared me to death as a young man i have since gotten into law enforcement and left it mainly because of what happened in tammy’s case a lack of seriousness about cases cops seem to feel they don’t need to be very thorough in missing investigations because a lot turn up alive and cops feel this is a waist of time she with a boyfriend or had a fight with the family and so special care is not taken and extra steps are no taken in the initial investigation but once the scene is cleared and other people are allowed back in the scene is contaminated and any evidence that wasn’t collected is lost for life i have followed this case and is saddened that this young bright girl who was trying to go to school to get a college education was so salvagerly murdured with overkill and her dad has now passed away not never finding out who murdered his daughter i can’t believe dna has solved this case which tells me that A either none was collected or B the real killer has high up connections and evidence was lost on purpose there should have been a ton of evidence to link some one the guy more than likely touched her car to pretend to want to help, fiber sand hair from his clothing should have transfered to the blanket as he was carrying her to the dump area all log sheets for truckers traveling through that area should have been looked into for missing time unaccounted for or being late on deliveries so being a former cop this reaks of a family member or friend of a high ranking law enforcement official in that area who was able to infirtrate the investigation and lose or alter evidence you would to almost have a PHD in forensics to be able to avoid leaving tons of evidence behind and WERE TALKING 1992 none of the forensics shows were really on tv to educate the public on how evidence left behind in a crime scene can connect someone why wasn’t there pubic hair transfers even if a condom is used, why wasn’t there hair transfer,to the blanket she was carried in SOMETHINGS NOT RIGHT HERE,if it was a ordinary trucker your telling me he is that edept in forensics that he didn’t leave no evidence behind i don;t buy it the only other possible thing that could have happen is that when a case becomes real big some cops or forensics take evidence home and keep it as a souvernier to show friends a family later of a big case they were involved in which is bad
I am a retired Illinois State Trooper and worked in District 21 Ashkum at the time.I was not involved in the investigation, however,I do feel it was a case that should have been solved.Sunday, new week, possible tollway video and toll booth on I-80 and location of her recovered vehicle. These factors alone would lead me to believe the route taken by the offender was I-80 to Rt. 59 south to I-55 in Bloomington to I-44 St. Louis and southwest to location where victim found. A large number of truck stop on the route. I don’t know anything about the specific of the case at the time, however a major aggressive in investigation by FBI, Illinois,and Missouri State Police manpower I think would have solved the case.
Remember when this happened. So sad no one has come forth with information about it.
Someone got away with murder. Wonder if that person has committed more? God be with the family.
I pray for justice for the family and friends. My heart and thoughts are with the family. God be with them.
Matt, you should have gone into law enforcement or a similar profession!
I dont know why I still remeber this happening. I was 9 years old living in Sauk Village Illinois when this happend. I remember the semitruck reported on tv. I used to look for that truck. RIP, I hope the family finds closure.
I hope I live to see who this worthless poor excuse of a human being. . I hope he gets caned once a month up to his execution. .
so sad because there is no closure for her friends or family.
I remember this story when I was kid
Why dont they get a writ or whatever is needed and exhume Lonnie Bierbrodt for DNA.
poor baby girl… investigators are still working on the loss of your life. you have not been forgotten.
Dawn Blair
Really sad
I remember this case and think about this young girl. It was this tragic event that prompted me to get a cell phone. I hope this is solved
Poor girl…
Shame on you law-enforcement not doing at work !!
I remember this. Very sad
I remember hearing about this like it was yesterday! Can’t believe it’s been this long!
Someone somewhere knows something. How can they live with themselves?
This is THE ONE that haunts me to this day!!
I remember that, how sad for her family.
Lonnie Bierbrodt also allegedly had his truck – quite similar to the truck seen by the witness when they went past Tammy’s car – steam cleaned and sold several days after the murder. The small DNA sample of her clothing was too poor and small when it was retested in 2004.
Tammy Zywicki cold case
The fact that DNA was taken from Lonnie Bierbrodt was no help at all, as the detectives had no DNA to match it to. The whole crime scene was botched from the beginning. They didn’t even search for evidence for 3 days after her body was found. Her car was dusted for prints but, so many people had been inside and touched just about everything, no prints could be matched. She was found wearing clothing, she would not have picked out for herself. She was stabbed with something like a pen knife. No weapon was ever found. Poor Tammy suffered a slow death of internal bleeding. Interesting fact that, when Bierbrodt’s wife came with him fro questioning, she pointed out a watch he gave her that, played “Raindrops keep falling on my head”. That was the exact watch that was missing from Tammy, that she owned. There’s no doubt that L. Bierbrodt was the killer. A nurse that saw him clearly helping Tammy with her car, identified him. I believe that the Illinois investigators are not disclosing vital information. Their reason, I believe, is that Brierbrodt died from AIDS and they just don’t care anymore. Pressure needs to be put on them so, the Zywicki family can have closure, even if the guy is dead.
Timothy Jay Vafeades HE MIGHT BE THE ONE ….sounds right…fits his profile…and he was a trucker …i be dammned if he had nothing to do with it.
From what I can recall reading elsewhere, Bierbodt’s family refused to provide authorities with a DNA sample when Bierbodt died. He was and remains the best suspect in this young woman’s murder.
Did the DNA match this Lonnie Bierbodt? Why did FBI agent Martin McCarthy say he should have been arrested unless it matched? I know they came out with DNA around 1986 so surely they had it in 1993 when Bierbodt was questioned. I’m not sure when they developed CODIS but I wonder if they ever ran the DNA through that program after they started it. I live near intersate 80 were this happened and I remember it on the news. I remember fealling so sorry for that poor little girl and her family. I just dont understand why GOD allows such unjust things like this to happen. If I remember right the news said it was the first time her parents let her drive back to collage on her own. Normally they drove her back and then something like this happens. I remember reading articals about a trucker that use to go to a certain restuarant in Missouri and sit in the same booth time after time and just sit and stare at the spot accross the street where they found Tammys body. Yes I remember feeling so bad about Tammy that at the time I was hopeing they would catch whoever did it. It still bothers me to this day 20 years latter. I guess thats why I did a search today on Tammy just to see if they ever caught anyone. I just wonder if that trucker that use to sit at the reasturant was Lonnie Bierbodt? I wish they would run the DNA through CODIS just to see what happens.
Abraham, FBI either lost or misplaced DNA, it was a very small sample anyway. There is a way to prove Bierbrodt gave Tammy’s watch to his wife. Both witness and wife alive. Grand Jury could solve this problem. Why hasn’t it?
Has DNA been taken from belongings of Lonnie Bierbodt even though he died in 2002.My husband and I think the authorities should pursue the DNA angle.
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Please read the attached link which I read via aol. Perhaps Boyer is worth looking into. Was Bierbolt ever connected to the Zywicki case with DNA??
What about Clyde Wilkerson from Benton, Arkansas He’s in prison on other murders. Was a trucker.
It’s amazing this is still considered cold. Was blanket DNA ever compared to what DNA was gotten from the trucker, Bierbodt?
They collected hair and blood samples from him. Thats DNA
Yes they said he was ruled out.
I too thought of Keith Jesperson – have you seen his mug shot? 6’6″ with dark bushy hair. Have they checked him out? He has victims (according to him) that have not been identified.
What about Keith Jeeperson? I saw him on Kids of Killers and thought of Tammy.
I agree my immediate first thought after reading the description was Jesperson.
But I do think it was Bierbrodt. The watch given to his wife and his locations during the crime aren’t just coincidences…
You are right, it was clearly Bierbrodt. All of the cumulative evidence points directly at Lonnie and no one else.