A $20,000 reward has been posted for information in the death of Tammy Jo Alexander of Brooksville. The body of the young woman -- who was missing since the late 1970s but was not listed as missing until 2014 -- was found in a New York field in 1979.
The reward was announced by the Livingston County (N.Y.) Sheriff's Office in conjunction with the FBI.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective B. Schneider at the Livingston sheriff's office at (585) 247-7100 or Detective George Loydgren at the Hernando County Sheriff's Office at (352) 754-6830.
Background on the case
On Aug. 8, 2014, Laurel Nowell, of Apache Junction, Ariz., called the Hernando sheriff to report former classmate and friend Alexander, who would be 52 years old today, was missing.
Nowell said Alexander, who lived in Brooksville and attended Hernando High School, went missing sometime between 1977 and 1979.
Alexander's family never reported her as a missing person.
Investigators contacted Sharen Nelson, Alexander's stepsister in Lakeland, and confirmed Alexander was missing and that the family had never reported it to authorities.
Alexander was entered into the Florida Crime Information Center database and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
Pamela Dyson, of Panama City, Alexander's half-sister, was also contacted and confirmed her half-sister had been missing since sometime between 1977 and 1979.
On July 7, 2015, the Hernando sheriff was notified of a previously unidentified dead woman in Livingston County, New York, who was matched to Alexander via DNA testing.
The Livingston sheriff's office said the woman's body was between the ages of 13-19, was found on Nov. 10, 1979, in a cornfield. Alexander had been a homicide victim.
For additional information on this case, please contact the Livingston sheriff's office at (585) 247-7100.
Here is more background on Tammy Jo Alexander:
