On a cold January day in 1982, the life of 17-year-old Tammy Williams, a White female from Brooklyn, Connecticut, was tragically cut short. On January 5th, while walking home from her boyfriend's house, she was abducted. Tammy was a student known for her warm personality and infectious laugh, described by her best friend as having a heart of gold and being a fun person to be around.
The night before she disappeared, she was with her friend at a local spot, listening to music.
For a time, her disappearance remained a mystery, leaving her family and the small community of Brooklyn devastated. Several days later, her body was discovered in a wooded area. An investigation revealed she had been raped and strangled. The case eventually went cold as there were no strong leads for investigators to follow. It would be years before the truth of what happened to Tammy Williams would come to light.
The man responsible for Tammy's death was Michael Bruce Ross, a serial killer who terrorized young women in Connecticut and New York between 1981 and 1984. Ross, who grew up in Brooklyn and even attended school with Tammy, abducted her near his family's chicken farm. After sexually assaulting and strangling her, he concealed her body. It wasn't until Ross was arrested in 1984 for another crime that he began to confess to the murders of eight women, including Tammy Williams.
Michael Bruce Ross was convicted for the murders of Tammy Williams and several other young women. In 1987, he was sentenced to death for his crimes. After years of appeals, Ross was executed in 2005, the first person to be executed in Connecticut in over four decades. His confession and subsequent conviction finally brought answers to the long-unsolved murder of Tammy Williams, though the pain of her loss remains for those who knew and loved her.
