A beauty school student is found murdered in her apartment In the autumn of 1982, a sense of unease settled over the coastal city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, following the discovery of a promising young woman's life cut tragically short. Tammy Little, a 20-year-old Caucasian female, was found deceased in her apartment at 315 Maplewood Avenue on Tuesday, October 19, 1982. A student at the Portsmouth Beauty School with aspirations of becoming a model, she was known for her sociable and outgoing nature.
Concern grew when friends and family had not heard from her for a few days. The last time she was seen was after a night out in Boston, when friends dropped her off at her home in the early morning hours several days prior to the discovery of her body.
The scene that unfolded inside her first-floor apartment was one of violence. An autopsy later confirmed that Tammy Little had died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head. The brutality of the crime sent shockwaves through the community, not only because of its violent nature but also due to its chilling similarities to another recent homicide. Less than a year earlier, another young woman from Portsmouth, Laura Kempton, who was also a student at the same beauty school, had been murdered under strikingly similar circumstances in her downtown apartment. Both women were aspiring models, lived alone, and frequented the same local establishments.
For decades, Tammy Little's case remained cold, a persistent and painful mystery for her family and the community. Investigators explored numerous leads and considered several individuals as persons of interest over the years, but no arrests were ever made. The shadow of suspicion fell on various individuals, including those with criminal histories in the area, but none were definitively linked to the crime. The striking parallels with the Laura Kempton case led many to believe the two murders were connected, perpetrated by the same individual.
A significant development in the Kempton case in July 2023, however, cast a new light on Tammy's unsolved murder. Through the use of advanced DNA testing, authorities were able to identify Ronney J. Lee as the killer of Laura Kempton. Lee, who died of a drug overdose in 2005, had a history of burglary in the Portsmouth area. While this breakthrough brought closure to the Kempton family, it did not immediately solve Tammy Little's case. Investigators have not definitively linked Lee to her murder, and her case remains an active and open investigation. The question of whether a connection truly exists between the two tragic deaths continues to be a focus for law enforcement, leaving the full story of what happened to Tammy Little in October of 1982 waiting to be told.
