Tammy Jo Zywicki `93 never made it back to Grinnell.
The date was Aug. 23, 1992. Zywicki, 21, was driving from Evanston, Illinois, to Grinnell College, where she was expected to arrive that evening. Hours later, her car was found along Interstate 80 (I-80) by an Illinois state trooper and ticketed for being abandoned. That same evening, her mother called the Illinois State Police to report her missing.
Nine days later, Zywicki’s lifeless body was found 500 miles away, along Interstate 44 in rural Lawrence County, Missouri.
Those details, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have been at the heart of an over-30-year-old cold case murder. Just last month, one of the most prominent suspects passed away, leaving the details surrounding Zywicki’s death still unknown.
“We’re all one big family,” Jay Dick `93 said, tearing up. “And one of us was taken from us.”
He said he still remembers the vigil hosted for Zywicki outside the Forum, right after news of her disappearance broke. “There were a few people talking, but it was mostly quiet.”
Zywicki, a native of New Jersey who grew up in South Carolina, was a photo editor at The Scarlet & Black. A talented photographer, her photos featured a range of events from student registration, comedy shows, the campus disco club and several sports games.
“She was a joy to work with,” said Jessica Weisel `91, who worked with Zywicki and served as editor in chief of The Scarlet & Black in 1990. “I actually have been a lifelong hobbyist of photography because of her.” Little did Weisel know that only two years later, her classmate’s murder would make headlines in the very paper where her photos once ran.
“The search continues for the people responsible for the killing of Tammy Zywicki,” wrote Kendra Ford `93 in one of the stories she published about the case.
Ford said that, at the time, she thought, “everything else is going to have to wait, because this is all that matters right now.”
According to The Scarlet & Black archives, local restaurants, Grinnell College, students, and former Grinnell College President Pamela Ferguson all gathered funding for campaigns to mobilize the public and potentially discover the identity of Zywicki’s murderer.
Zywicki was last seen with her car at mile marker 83 on I-80 in Central Illinois between 3:10 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Aug. 23, 1992. A tractor trailer was reported near her vehicle, driven by a white male, 35 to 40 years old, over six feet tall with dark, bushy hair, according to the FBI.
The case has been featured on dozens of networks, including CNN, the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and “America’s Most Wanted.” Thousands of leads over the years raised suspicion about Bruce Mendenhall, a long-haul trucker later convicted of murder and suspected in a string of highway killings, who has since died and was considered a possible suspect.
Another possible suspect, Clark Perry Baldwin, a former Iowa truck driver and suspected serial killer, convicted in 2024 of a Tennessee murder and linked to two others in Wyoming, also died in prison last month before standing trial.
Multiple Scarlet & Black stories have been written about Zywicki’s death, including a piece about Women Take Back the Night, a long-standing annual march and vigil against sexual violence, which was held on Oct. 29 that year in her memory.
Ana Martínez-Alemán, who taught at Grinnell College at the time, was one of the speakers.
She read a letter from her Cuban aunt, who warned her to be careful because “no importa, eres una mujer sola,” translating to “nothing matters except that you are a woman alone.” Her aunt’s advice to her, and to other women: “You have to live knowing that, but you have to live with dignity.”
Martínez-Alemán said she was driving to Grinnell at the same time Zywicki was. “I remember that feeling of, ‘Wait a minute, I was just on there.’”
Some alumni, such as Portia Sabin `93, felt especially compelled to do something about the cause.
A month after the disappearance, Fearless — a student organization established in response to the tragedy — was born, per S&B archives.
“There was a lot of energy that needed to go somewhere when they actually found her body and we realized she was no longer with us,” Sabin said. “We were lobbying for … solar-powered call boxes at every mile marker on highways across the U.S. and then just a few years later, cell phones happened.”
In a statement to The Scarlet & Black, Gabrielle Szlenkier, public affairs officer for the FBI’s Chicago office, which has been overseeing the case, said the bureau “continues to aggressively investigate this case along with the Illinois State Police until a positive resolution is reached.”
The statement encouraged anyone with information to come forward, even if they’re not certain of its value. Tips can be submitted online at tips.fbi.gov or by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI.
The FBI has offered a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the identification of the individual or individuals responsible for Zywicki’s murder.
Even as the case remains unsolved, Zywicki’s memory has never left Grinnell.
Each year, the Bachelor of Arts Exhibition awards include the Tammy J. Zywicki Memorial Prize for Photography — a tribute to Zywicki’s talent for photography.
“She was very giving with her time, she was just a very, very, incredibly talented person too,” Weisel said.
Outside of Younker Hall, on the sidewalk along Park St, a rock stands in her honor. Tammy Jo Zywicki `93 never made it back to Grinnell.
