Tammie missed her morning bus to Saratoga Springs Junior High School on west Circular Street in Saratoga Springs, New York on April 19, 1986. She told her sister she would hitchhike to school instead. Tammie never arrived for her classes that day and has not been heard from again. In February 2011, authorities announced they believe Tammie had been murdered and they had identified her probable killer as Arthur Mason Slaybaugh II. Slaybaugh was a corrections officer at Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility in Winton, New York. He died of a heart attack in 2001. She knew and admired him and thought of him as a mentor. Authorities had long considered Slaybaugh a person of interest in Tammie's case, but they had little evidence against him until after his death, when witnesses came forward with information, they had been too afraid to disclose before.