Un-Blog Aug 25th, 2009

To review:

Tammy was last seen by reliable, multiple witnesses at about
11:15 p.m. on Sept. 17th 1992, at the Stephenson farm in
northwest Nebraska.

At about this time, Tammy was getting ready to go back to
Yankton with Eric Stukel, who claims he took her home.

Nearly a week later, her body would be found within a ravine
1 1/2 miles by road from this farmhouse.

Over the course of the evening of September 17th, about 80
people were in attendance at this party -- all potential suspects,
all subject to questioning by law enforcement.

Though Stukel claims he took Tammy back to Yankton with
him, which was eight miles away, and also claims he was with
her until as late as 12:30 to 1:00 a.m., forensic evidence
revealed that her time of death was no later than 12:35 a.m. --
and more likely much closer to 11:30 p.m. and midnight. If
Stukel claims he was the only one with Tammy at these times,
then he is the only person with opportunity to commit the
crime of her homicide.

Pathologist who studied the wounds on Tammy's body
determined that she didn't die accidentally, but was
deliberately killed at the hands of another.

Out of all the suspects who could have potentially killed
Tammy, only one would confess to this crime while Tammy was
still missing (courtroom testimony of this confession will be
revealed in later posts) and only one would fail a polygraph
administered by law enforcement (the results of which will
also be later revealed.)

With these facts in hand, law enforcement quickly impounded
Eric Stukel's automobile. There they found physical evidence
indicating that Tammy's body had been placed in Stukel's trunk.

THE NITTY-GRITTY DETAILS – PART I

Forensic analysis would reveal extensive urine stains on the
back of Tammy’s pants legs, as well as a secondary urine stain
on the back of her underwear. Note well that the urine on
Tammy’s pants and underwear would be of different blood and
secretion types, meaning that the two urine stains came from
two different human sources.

(Secretors, who make up 80% of the population, shed DNA
with their urine. Non-secretors, who make up the other 20%,
do not shed DNA with their urine.)

The type of urine on the pants was type O Secretor, the most
common of blood-urine types. The type of urine found on the
back of the underwear was type A Non-secretor. 31% of the
population has type A blood. 20% of the population carries the
gene for Non-secretor urine.

In other words, the odds of a person carrying type A non-
secretor urine is relatively minimal.

Eric Stukel is a carrier of this rare type of urine and blood, but
Tammy Haas was not.

Further, there was no known cross-contamination between the
type O secretor urine on the pants and the type A non-secretor
urine on the underwear, suggesting that the type O secretor
urine got on the back of Tammy’s pant legs at one time, and the
second source of urine—the one matching Stukel’s—got on the
back of her underwear at another time.

Critical to understanding how this could be was the condition
of Tammy’s body when it was found in the ravine, with her
pants off and her underwear on.

The position of Tammy’s body on the ravine floor suggested
that she was barrel rolled down the steep incline of the ravine,
with her shoes and purse being thrown into the ravine from
somewhere near the top of the slope.

According to pathologists Dr. Brad Randall, with Laboratory
Clinical Medicine in Sioux Falls and Dr. Thomas Bennett, Iowa
State Medical Examiner, none of Tammy’s injuries were
consistent with any type of fall.

The only injury Tammy had having anything to do with
Country 121 was an abrasion on her back, broken by the
waistband of her underwear. This injury most likely occurred
when Tammy was pulled from Eric Stukel’s trunk and dragged
by her armpits across County 121.

Yellow reflective paint beads on her jeans, consistent with the
type of reflective paint used to mark the highway lines on this
road also would seem to indicate this was the means by which
she was dragged to the top of the ravine.

Sandburs that had collected on Tammy’s underwear indicated
that she had been pulled under the guardrail at the top of the
ravine, above where her body was found. Not coincidently, this
was the only place that the species of flora consistent with
these type of bur were found in the vicinity.

The only reasonable way to explain the sandburs caught in her
underwear was that Tammy’s pants had become unbuckled and
had fallen loose around her hips at some point in the process of
her body being moved, probably when she was being dragged
across the road.

According to friends, the jeans she was wearing that night
were loose fitting and had been safety pinned at the button to
keep them in place. If this were the case, her pants coming
unfastened during a struggle or during her transport in the
trunk would also seem to make sense.

Because Tammy’s feet were clean, we can assume that her shoes
were still on her feet when she died and had only come off in
the process of her delivery to the ravine.

Why make such a big deal about all these little details?

These little details matter, and tell the tale of Tammy's demise.

The physical evidence indicates that Tammy was assaulted and
killed, that she was placed in Eric Stukel trunk, that she was
dragged and dumped into a ravine.

This is what experts in their field have determined, based upon
the physical evidence, not on rumor and speculation, not upon
Tammy supposed reputation, largely fabricated by those trying
to deflect responsibility from the guilty, not on wishful
thinking by a credulous community...but on cold, hard facts.

But back to the troubling matter of those two sources of
urine…

The lack of dirt, debris, burs, and paint beads from the road on
her bare legs, as well as the position and the location of the
jeans in relationship to the body where it was discovered in the
ravine suggested that somebody had to have tampered with the
body after it came to a rest at the bottom of the slope, not
during her transport or death.

After Tammy’s body came to a rest face-down at the bottom of
the slope, somebody returned and yanked her pants down so
they were hanging off one leg…but why would anybody
possibly want to do this?


                         m.c. merrill

ALL THINGS IN GOOD TIME.