Twenty years ago on August 23, 1992, 21-year old Tammy Zywicki was abducted along I-80 on the way to school and killed. Her killer has never been found.
That day Tammy Zywicki dropped her brother off at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and then headed to school in Grinnell, Iowa.
She never made it there. She went missing along I-80W in LaSalle County. Her car was found abandoned by mile marker 83 that same day. Her body later turned up just nine days later in Lawrence County, Missouri, near Joplin.
Tammy's story made national headlines back in 1992, but what didn't was the story of Marcia Shepherd. Marcia's car had broken down not far from where Tammy was abducted that day. She tells TV6 she's been tied to Tammy and her family ever since.
"It could've been me, it could've been me," Shepherd says.
She says every year this day comes, a rush of emotions and memories come back to her.
"It brings back everything, it brings back where I was going, what I was doing, my divorce, everything."
Shepherd was headed to Peru, Illinois on I-80W when her car broke down at around the same time and place where Tammy was abducted.
She says someone stopped to check her car, then followed her to the next exit.
"Before we got there, we went right by Tammy's car," she says, "I noticed the car, the color and all that, but I didn't know anything until the next day."
Once Shepherd heard about Tammy's case she called police to no avail.
Despite a few breaks in the case here and there, Tammy's killer is still a mystery.
"I know someone knows something, I know someone knows something," she says.
Shepherd has kept in contact with Tammy's family all these years. Tammy's parents now live in Florida; TV6 talked to her mom who says they spent the day with family, visiting places Tammy would've liked to see.
"This day is particularly hard because it is 20 years, it's a very very important anniversary," Tammy's mom, Joann Zywicki says.
Zywicki says they're still holding out hope for any piece of information and want others to learn from Tammy's story.
"The smallest little clue is all you need sometimes," she says, "We would like to find some closure, but at the same time we feel that if we have any other students going back to school to be more alert to be more careful then we've done a lot there"
Illinois State Police are still looking for any clues that might bring Tammy's murderer to justice. They are offering a $50,000 for any information that cracks the case.
For more information on Tammy's story, visit this link: http://www.isp.state.il.us/crime/unsolveddetails.cfm?id=1
If you have any information on this case, contact Illinois State Police or the FBI.
