September 11th, 2009

For a brief overview of the basic facts surrounding
this case, please see the post from Sept. 9, 2009.


THE SEARCH BEGINS

On the morning of Saturday, Sept. 19th, 1992, Tammy’s
aunt, Vicki Larsen, with whom Tammy was living at the
time, began her search for Tammy by calling Tammy’s place
of employment.

When Larsen learned nobody had seen Tammy at work, she
called Tammy’s friend Travis Novak, who also hadn’t seen
her. The last either of them knew, Tammy had gone out on
homecoming eve with Eric Stukel. Larsen got Stukel’s phone
number and the spelling of his last name from Novak.

Larsen then called Stukel, who told her that Tammy had left
his house to walk home Thursday night, and that he had not
seen her since.   

Travis Novak, learning that Larsen was having no luck
finding Tammy, called Tammy’s friend Marjo Swedeen, who
was going to school in Vermillion, SD.

Concerned, Swedeen drove to Yankton to start searching for
Tammy at local haunts, asking friends if they had seen or
heard from Tammy.

Swedeen and Novak planned to meet up after he got off
work that night, but before then Swedeen would arrive at a
party being thrown by Dan Fitch in search of Tammy, at
which she would learn Stukel was in attendance, watching a
movie, seemingly unconcerned about Tammy's disappearance
and unwilling to talk to Swedeen. *

Swedeen linked up with Travis Novak after he got off work
and told him about Stukel’s seeming indifference to Tammy’s
disappearance.  

The decision then was made to confront Stukel directly the
next day, which they would do.

Attorney for the defense Mike Stevens claimed that when he
interviewed Novak before Stukel's trial, Novak “acted
nervous” and that this nervousness was enough for him to
know that he had the right man, that Novak, not Stukel was
responsible for Tammy's death, despite a solid alibi and any
sort of motivation or physical or circumstantial evidence
whatsoever to back up his alternate theory.

Fortunately, in criminal investigations, facts do matter...
and all the facts pointed to Stukel's guilt, not Novak's.  

Besides, if Novak was Tammy’s killer, if his alibi (being 40
miles away at the time of Tammy’s death) was not airtight,
if he had any sort of motivation whatsoever, in the first
place, to beat Tammy to death, why would Novak actively
help in the search for Tammy?  

Stevens would likely chalk this up to one of those “great
mysteries,” but by a pretty straight comparison in behavior
this mystery can be easily solved.

That will be done in tomorrow's post.



                m.c. merrill


* SOURCE: Rothanzl, Lorna. “Friends Testify at Stukel
Trial.” Yankton Press and Dakotan.  Oct. 2nd, 1996.