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Whatever Happened to Tami-Lynn Leppert?



7 years ago, model says goodbye, hasn't been heard from since




I like this place, I've lived here all my life, and I'd like to stay here. ever since I was a little girl, I've always
dreamed of having a house in cocoa beach and living happily ever after.

-Tami-lynn leppert, march 1983


It was the last interview she gave before the fairy tale disintegrated, And she was good at it: Poised engaging, An easy
smile that could melt glacial skepticism. Naturally she was good. She was a pro. Four hundred-ten talent and beauty
contests since age 4. Two hundred-eighty trophies.
She just turned 18. And she was at a crossroad. Her latest flirtation with hollywood-a cinemetic turkey called
"Spring Break"-had just been released.But she harbored no illusions about it. Her non-speaking role as a bikinied nymphet
carried no more weight than her erlier camoes in "Little Darlings" and "Scarface."
What "Spring Break" represented was the latest stop in a carefully nurtured ascent to movie stardom. If visibility
management meant getting tami's curvaceous hips splashed across a movie poster (Four college dudes erecting a
"Spring Break" flag atop them, Reminiscent of the allied triumph at Iwo Jima), That was good enough for now.
And if Tami-Lynn leppert felt compelled to feign embarrasment over this no-talent coup by crossing her eyes and making a
goofy face, These were times for celebration.
Or so it seemed.
At least three producers were talking major roles in upcoming projects. One critic, Steve Walz, Was projecting her to be
"One of the stars of the 80's" involving her name in the same breath with Brooke Shields and insisting, "She's not just
another dumb blonde"
Model, Dancer, Beauty Queen, Covergirl at age 13. Five-feet five, Hazel eyes, 105 pounds. A can't miss resume. A magnetic
aura that turned the heads of men and boys alike, Pulling strangers and their promises into her orbit.
But somewhere inside those invisible walls, Beyond the curiosity of judges and talent scouts, A bomb was ticking. Those
familiar with the sound never understood until it was much too late:
The weight of expectations.
A web of paranoia.
Broken glass.
On July 6, 1983, Tami-lynn Leppert went for a ride and vanished so cleanly it was as if she'd never existed.
Nearly seven years later, Beneath the cobwebs of distance. There isn't even a shrine to commemorate what was. Only a
question: Was Tami the architect and star of the perfect getaway or the victim of a perfect crime?

TAMI'S MOTHER/AGENT
Linda Curtis moved from Brevard County three years ago,
Primarily to shake the emptiness she felt every time
she saw something that reminded her of Tami.
Which was always.
curtis lives in orlando, Where she conducts her modeling business from a home she only half-jokingly refers to as
"The Cave." An artist with eccentric notions stucco edifice himself-Its few windows are primarily ventilation caliber.
Having been spotlighted nationally by life magazine and ABC's "20/20" for her talents as one of America's most succesful
child modeling agents. Curtis might well be expected to enjoy a lifestyle commensurate with her abilities.
But nothing ever come easy for Linda Curtis.
After a series of heart attacks, Chronic diabetes and a ruptured tendon in her foot, her mobility is relegated to a walker
and a wheelchair. She doesn't want her picture taken. And there is the heavy emotional baggage to contend with, Which includes
two husbands, Five children and rip-offs by business assotiates
By 1983 only daughter Tami remained a part of her household. Today, Even Tami is a memory-which Curtis is still attempting
to manage, Via book and a screen-play.
Predictably, The story will accent all those magic moments only a mother can recite so well:
The time her nine-year-old daughter surrendered a beauty pageant to the broken hearted runner-up after an official mistakenly
announced the other girl the winner, The time Tami " sold more Girl Scout cookies than anyone else in Brevard County".
Tami as a philanthropist who made special visits to Brevard County Detention Center inmates on Christmas Eve: A popular
little girl who "Was always sticking up for the underdog."
But Curtis plans to unsheathe a more pointed edge in the book. Contrary to what some people think, she insists that her
daughter was no runaway. Tami, she charges, was yanked into the shadows by a conspiracy involving prominent Brevardians
whose names, would make trial lawyers eyes light up with dollar signs.
" I want people over there to know I'm writing a book," She says referring to a project (no actual names used) she's been
tolling over for months. "I want to shake them up. I want the criminal to know they can't absorb my child-or anyone's child-
wothout ulimately paying the penalty for it."

TAMI-LYNN LEPPERT
now resides in the computer memory bank of Florida Crime Information center. A comunity of 5,944, roughly the size of Indian
Harbour Beach. She can be found there alongside another cocoa beach entry Keith D. Fleming. who vanished in 1977 at age 13.
Cocoa Beach Police Capt. Bob Wicker is mildly indignant over curtis' allegation that his department blew the investigation
of Tami's disappearance. He says he coudn't find a hint of foul play.
"I can't say there was anything unusual about the case. Other than some faintly problems I understand she was having at
home" Wicker says. "The agent in charge was a real go-getter. He he was the type the sees communists behind every tree,
if you know what I mean."
The case fell into the departments lap when Tami, a Rockledge resident, was last reported seen in Cocoa Beach. Among other
things, Curtis says the young man who picked up her daughter up on the morning of July 6, 1983, was never thoroughly
interrogated. She says that Tami once told her that she feared the same man-A businessman-wanted to kill her.
Wicker dismisses.
"Nothing in the report has him down as a suspect" He says. "We have no reason to believe he did anything wrong, at this
time."
Wicker says he has no current Address on the man Tami was last seen with. Because the case is still pending, he says,
records on the investigation remain closed.

"FAMILY PROBLEMS"
Tami-Lynn Leppert lived in fear shortly before she vanished. Strangers prowled around the eyes of those she knew best.
She woudn't drink from open containers; She only ate food from someone else's plate, Not hers; She stayed in her room and
refused to answer the door. Linda Curtis concedes these things. She says she got her first glimpse of deterioration the
year before, When Tami broke down on the set of Brian DePalma's cocaine-war thriller, "Scarface." A blood-and-guts scene
during the filming sent her into hysterics.
But Curtis insists that Tami's authentic tears were rooted in a confession that would consume her. Tami told her mother that
how in an effort to score points, a friend bragged to her on a large-scale, drug-money laundering operation in Brevard. Cops,
Bankers, Leading citizens-the people in on the take were powerful, powerful enough to make Tami fear she knew too much.
Curtis says she told Tami to make a report with the Brevard County Sheriff's Department.
Officer Mike Wong, now with the department's drug task force , says he vaguely remembers his meeting with Tami. "It was so
long ago," Wong says "and the best I can recollect , the the conversation didn't have anything to do with anyone trying to
kill her. I think she came in to talk about some stolen propety she wanted back."
Wong expresses bewilderment over the drug scenario. "the last I heard, they thought that racecar driver was involved."
That referance is to serial killer Christopher Wilder.
Before he was shot to death in a tussle with a state trooper on the canadian border in spring 1984, Wilder's murder spree
lanced Brevard. The FBI linked Wilder-A Grand Prix aficianado who posed as a fashion phographer-with the abduction and
murder aspiring Satelite Beach model Terry Ferguson , last seen at Merritt square mall.
Curtis filled a $1 million wrongul death sult against wilders astate that year. She says Wilder met her daughter daughter
on the set of "Spring Break" in fort lauderdale and traveled to Brevard in a fruitless effort to convince Curtis to let
him photograph Tami.
Curtis said she never considered Wilder a strong suspect. She says she only sued the Wilder estate luring the manhunt to
force him to answer questions about Tami. She dropped the lawsuit after wilder's death.

RICK ADAMS
WAS one of the few people Tami-Lynn Leppert trusted to the end. "It's hard to say why, really" Adams says. "Maybe it's
because I never really wanted anything from her. "now 27, Adams sifts through his pictures. Pointing out the times he
escorted her to both his junior and senior proms at Cocoa High School. It was one of those hard-to-catagorize teen-age
relationships-not exactly a hot romance, but not exactly little sister/big brother either. He knows only one thing for sure
"She could've dated anybody she wanted to. "They drifted apart after he graduated. Perhaps that was inevitable."Tami had alot
of pressure about her apearance in public, "Adam recalls. "Because of who she was, she felt like she had this image she had
to live up to. Everything she did was, like, fine-tooth combed. Her make up had to be just right, every hair had to be in
place, what she wore had to be perfect. It drove me crazy, to tell the truth. I got burned out on the whole thing, with with
so many people hanging around, so many people coming up to her. It was almost like having to compete for attention, and I
wasn't into that." but shortly before she disappeared, Adams says Tami began confiding in him, telling him that someone was
trying to kill her. He says the fear was real. "I knew it wasn't drugs. I can say for sure that Tami wasn't into drugs. She
didn't even drink. "Finally, on Tuesday evening July 5, 1983. Tami told Adam she had "seen something she shouldn't have
seen" She didn't get aspecific. They went to pray at Rockville Evangel Temple. "Tami cried as hard as I've seen anyone cry
before" Adams says.He dropped her off in front of her house around 11 that night . They made pland to go back to church
wednsday afternoon."And then." Adams says "She looked at me and said. I just want you to know that I may have to go away for
a while. But I also want you to know that I love you."
Then they hugged each other, and held the embrace for as long as it took.
Rick Adams never got a chance to ask her what she meant. He called late the next morning to reconfirm their date.
She was already gone.

CURTIS CONCEDES TAMI
had been restless, that her career hadn't advances as quickly as she wanted. She says Tami was preparing to pursue some
acting leads waiting for her in California.
But paranioa engulfed her first. It was the last of June, first of July 1983.
"Tami went outside for some reason-which seemed strange, considering how she afraid to go outside-when the door slammed
and locked behind her. I think a gust of wind caught it." Curtis says. "Anyway, she went berserk. She bashed the window with
a baseball bat she picked up in the front yard, and she reached her and inside to unlock the door. "She came running in,
Yelling and screaming, but before she could do anything I pinned her against the wall and kept saying. " I love you, Tami I
love you Tami, over and over again, And then she went limp."
The next day Curtis checked Tami into the Brevard mental health center for 72 hour observation. " Then they released her and
said she was normal as far as they could tell." Curtis says. "So we were all set to check her with another psycho therapist.
But We were too late."
Curtis was sitting in the house that wednsday morning when she heard a car horn beep out front. Tami peered out the window
and went out the door. she was wearing a light blue blouse, a denim shirt and was barefoot. She stuck her head back in and
said "bye mommy, I'll see you in a little bit, OK?"
"For some reason, I was preoccupied that day and I didn't pay much attention to it, and I'll never forgive myself for that."
Curtis says. On the other hand since her daughter did not have her purse. curtis didn't think she was going far.
Ten minutes later, Curtis heard the car engine crank up. She rose to see what was going on. Tami was riding away in the
car of the young man she suppossedly feared.
It was 11 a.m. Linda Curtis never saw her daughter again.

THE LAST REPORTED
contact Tami attempted came in a flurry of calls she made that wednesday afternoon.
Three times she left urgent messages for her aunt, Ginger Kolsch, at Kolsch's Cocoa Beach costume shop, Balloonatics. Kolsch
was out of town, Tami said she was calling from a nearby location.
"Tami was definately afraid of somebody," Kolsch says. "It was real, I'm convinced of that."
Kolsch says the runaway scenario doesn't wash.

"DID YOU EVER
see her play Peter Pan?" asks Rick Adams. "Linda's got it on video."
The performance in an enduring image in Adams' memory, a special place for the little girl he thought was destined to be a star.
This is the one where Tami-Lynn Leppert, dressed as the famous boy-who-wouldn't-grow-up, is confronted with a dying Tinkerbell
poisoned by the notorious Captain Hook. And the only way to save Tinkerbell's life is to rally the support of the audience.
"Oh, please, please, everyone who believes in fairies, clap your hands!" Tami urges.
Grief and fear come trickling down Tami's cheeks so easily it flows like blood from a fresh wound.
"Please!"she continues with greater conviction, "Louder! Oh please, louder!"
The audience responds with lusty, award-winning applause and Tami's tears of sorrow smear with tears of relief.
Tinkerbell lives.
"She could make you cry, man," Adams says, "That was Tami at her best. She had the gift."
A fountain of sorrow, forever young.


Florida Today March 18, 1990
By Billy cox

hi
There is a new lead out that I hope the cocoa beach police department is following up on. someone said Tammy wanted some money?back that someone owed her and Tammy said if this person did not pay her back she would tell on this person.Maybe she did.This person threatened to kill her.I feel and think we will find out what happened to Tammy and hopefully where she is through this last lead.I think this person should be the # 1 suspect in Tammy's disappearance.But I still hope and pray all avenues and all suspects are pursued.
ttyl
Suzanne

YOU DO NOT HAVE MY PERMISSION TO COPY OR POST THIS POLICE REPORT ON TAMMY ANYWHERE. THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE YOU WILL FIND THIS POLICE REPORT.







YOU DO NOT HAVE MY PERMISSION TO COPY OR POST THIS POLICE REPORT ON TAMMY ANYWHERE. THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE YOU WILL FIND THIS POLICE REPORT.

Hi
I do not think christopher bernard wilder had anything to do with tammy's disappearance.I do not think he was tammy's friend.She reached out to her friend that picked her up that morning.they had an arguement with him.he gave her about $300.Which is why I feel she was seen at the bank to maybe cash that check.He said he dropped her off there.Everything was coming down on tammy at the same time.everyone I talked to acted paranoid like they knew something or was hiding something.Everyones stories kept changing.Why keep changing the story.She did not have mental problems,.She was not going berserk for no apparant reason.apparentally some unidentified man had hit her and the fight was about the way she was being treated by the people they were staying with.The police thought tammy ran away because she was fighting with her mother.Ok then where is she?No one has heard from her in 20 years.I feel she would have called someone and she didn't.She was not mentally ill.I think she wanted away from everything.With the latest lead that came in that she threatened to tell on someone for something this person did if this person did not give her money?this person owed to her.This person threatened to kill her.I feel she was very afraid of this person.I feel this person should be the # suspect in her dissappearance.I do feel you will find out what happened to tammy through this new lead.Please follow up on it.If you have any newspaper articles please send them to me ok?I believe in the newspaper article angle of what happened..I do feel she is a unidentified Jane Doe somewhere.I beg anyone.Please help me find her.do you know of any unidentified Jane Does anywhere that fits her discription? she was 5"4,died blond (Dyed)hair.hazel.Some of her pictures look hazel blue brown eyes.about 115 pounds.DOB 2-5-65.Please email me at suzannec4444@yahoo.com.
Thank you and God bless you

suzanne

Here is one more picture, I have blown it up to see her face with less makeup and the necklaces better.There was a 3rd necklace on tammy in the Genie picture.

Thank you,
ttyl,
Suzanne

The name of the article is "Breaking in with Stars in her eyes"

POLICE SEARCHING FOR MISSING MODEL
by Hanna Lea Skolnick
Florida Today 7/12/1983
When local model and actress Tammy Lynn Leppert left her Rockledge home last Wednesday, she called out, "Bye Mommy, I'll see you in a little bit, OK?"
That was the last thing Linda Curtis heard her daughter say.
The 18-year-old -- who has appeared in many television commercials and in small roles in a few recent movies, including "Spring Break" -- has been missing since last Wednesday.
Curtis, Leppert's mother-coach-agent-adviser, filed a missing persons report with the Cocoa Beach Police Department Sunday night, four days after her daughter disappeared.
Curtis said her daughter left the house early Wednesday afternoon to go out with a visiting friend from Tampa, who Curtis only knows by the name of "Keith".
Leppert had been undergoing emotional and physical problems for a few months and had met with "Keith" to talk things out, Curtis said. But the friend dropped Leppert off just two blocks south of the glass bank on SR A1A in Cocoa Beach after a heated discussion, Curtis said. He was the last person to see her.
"From what he says she was just really upset," Curtis said, "And he didn't know how to handle that."
Curtis said she called dozens of friends and relatives, but no one had seen or heard from Leppert. And Leppert's recent emotional problems have left her frightened and confused, Curtis said.
"I'm scared to death," Curtis said, "She's so open and loving and she has such a brilliant career ahead of her. And the poor thing is running scared someplace out there on the beach. There are all kinds of weirdos you don't know who could have gotten her."
Leppert has been winning talent and beauty contests since age 4 and has appeared in various television shows, commercials and movies. And the stunning girl is up for major roles in three upcoming movies, Curtis said.
"They may be just thinking of her as another runaway," said Curtis, whose son has been missing for five years. "But they don't understand. She spent her whole life developing her career and she wouldn't just walk away from it."
"Tami and I have always been very, very close. Even if she were mad at me, she would call me even if it were just to curse me out. She knows the agony I would be going through. She would have called me, or at least someone."
Lt. David Bartman of the Cocoa Beach Police Department said his officers' task was made more difficult by the delayed report and by the fact that Leppert, who recently turned 18, is legally an adult.
They are combing the beach area and distributing fliers with Leppert's picture, as well as following up possible leads, Bartman said. But foul play is not suspected and there is no indication Leppert was taken anywhere against her will, Bartman said.
Leppert has blond hair, hazel eyes and, at 5-feet 4-inches tall, weighs about 105 pounds.
Anyone who has seen Leppert or has any information about where she may be is asked to call Cocoa Beach police at 783-4911.




February 25, 1985
Florida Today

MODEL'S WHEREABOUTS REMAIN A MYSTERY

When local actress and model Tami Lynn Leppert climbed into a car with a friend almost two years ago, her mother thought she was going to the 7-Eleven convenience store.

"Bye Mommy, I'll see you in a little bit, ok?", the 17-year-old said as she left the house the day she disappeared. She was barefoot and without a purse.

Outside her home, she hopped into a car driven by a man named "Keith". He said he dropped her off about two blocks south of the Glass Bank in Cocoa Beach after they had a fight, said Linda Curtis, the teenager's mother.

Searching for some sign of Leppert, Curtis said she checked with the teenager's friends, but none of them had seen her, she said. Hours slipped into days without any sign of Leppert.

Police have yet to find clues leading to Leppert's whereabouts. She was last seen on July 6, 1983, near a Cocoa Beach shopping plaza.

The only information Cocoa Beach Detective Harold Lewis has received since her disappearance were two telephone calls from a woman who said that Leppert was still alive.

"When the woman called the first time, she said that Tami Leppert was well and would contact us when the time was right," Lewis said.

"During the second call, she said that Tami was doing what she always wanted, going to school to become a nurse."

Lewis said he does not suspect foul play in connection with Leppert's disappearance.

"I have a gut feeling that Tami just split," Lewis said.

But Leppert's mother dismissed that possibility. The teenager grew up in Brevard and had no reason for leaving her family and friends here, Curtis said.

And the idea of Leppert going to nursing school is impossible, she added.

"They could have called and chosen any profession except nursing," Curtis said "She (Leppert) is deathly afraid of blood."

During the final scene of the movie "Scarface," there is a bloody shootout, between the movie star Al Pacino, and some soldiers.

Leppert, who has a bit part in the movie, "started crying and almost passed out," when "blood squibs" on the set started popping, her mother said.

"Scarface" was the last movie Leppert appeared in before she disappeared about five months later, Curtis said.

The teenager had been winning talent and beauty contests since age 4 and appeared in a variety of television shows, commercials and movies.

"My daughter has always been spoiled by society standards," Curtis said "There's nothing the child ever wished for that she didn't get."

"Most kids want to meet a movie star, let alone be in a movie", she said "Most kids want to be a model let alone have several modeling assignments."

Last May, Curtis filed a $1 million wrongful death suit against the estate of Christopher Bernard Wilder, a Boynton Beach contractor police linked to the abduction, rape or murder of at least 12 women.

In the lawsuit, Curtis charged that Wilder abducted and possibly killed her daughter, who disappeared almost eight months before Wilder began his nationwide killing spree that ended with his own death.

Wilder died April 13, 1984, during a scuffle with police in New Hampshire.

Authorities could never prove that Wilder was connected to Leppert's disappearance, according to Lewis.

Curtis still wonders what happened to her daughter. But she said she is slowly coming to the realization that Leppert probably is dead.

"Indications are pretty good that she's probably not with us, and if she is, she doesn't know who she is," Curtis added.

Leppert had been undergoing emotional and physical problems and had told several friends that someone was trying to kill her days before she vanished, Curtis said.

Her daughter was so paranoid before she disappeared that she could have gone with someone who offered her protection, according to Curtis.

With an inkling of hope, however, Curtis says she will continue her search.

"When a mother's looking for her daughter, there's nothing she won't go through to find her."