Spring Break
Body in GA not that of former Miami student
Kellyn Moran
Issue date: 7/9/08 Section: Front Page
The mystery of Ronald Tammen, a Miami University sophomore who disappeared in April 1953, is still unsolved.
Tammen was a Resident Assistant in Fisher Hall and a member of Delta Tau Delta and the wrestling team. He left his residence hall room the night of April 19 with the light still on and his psychology book lying open on his desk.
One woman, whose house in Seven Mile was 16 miles from the university, claimed Tammen knocked on her door asking for directions to the nearest bus stop in the early morning hours of April 20.
That was the last supposed sighting of the sophomore.
In February, a body was exhumed in LaFayette, Ga. that officials believed could be Tammen.
Captain Mike Freeman of the Walker County Sheriff's Department said officers were trying to solve cold cases when they received word of Tammen's case. He said a body had been found around the time period of Tammen's disappearance near U.S. Route 27, which runs through both Oxford and Lafayette.
There were three other missing person reports during the time period the department knew of, but the body did not match the circumstances of two reports.
Remains of the body were sent to FBI labs to extract and test mitochondrial DNA for a match with Butler County Sheriff Department's DNA records for Tammen. But the results of tests showed the body was not Tammen.
Freeman is still hopeful that the fate of Tammen and the identity of the exhumed body will be revealed.
"It's really paid off for us," Freeman said. "We have mitochondrial DNA on file for the body. Plus the police in your area have mitochondrial DNA for Tammen. So, that gives us more hope to some day find Tammen or identify our victim."
He said the department doesn't plan on stopping its investigation of either case.
"Our next step here is to reach out through the media … and we're going to try to see if someone has a family member or friend (who) disappeared," Freeman said. "I don't know if we can ever solve the crime in terms of the homicide … Most likely, the offender is deceased (and) the witnesses probably are. We would like to at least identify the subject."
Tammen was a Resident Assistant in Fisher Hall and a member of Delta Tau Delta and the wrestling team. He left his residence hall room the night of April 19 with the light still on and his psychology book lying open on his desk.
One woman, whose house in Seven Mile was 16 miles from the university, claimed Tammen knocked on her door asking for directions to the nearest bus stop in the early morning hours of April 20.
That was the last supposed sighting of the sophomore.
In February, a body was exhumed in LaFayette, Ga. that officials believed could be Tammen.
Captain Mike Freeman of the Walker County Sheriff's Department said officers were trying to solve cold cases when they received word of Tammen's case. He said a body had been found around the time period of Tammen's disappearance near U.S. Route 27, which runs through both Oxford and Lafayette.
There were three other missing person reports during the time period the department knew of, but the body did not match the circumstances of two reports.
Remains of the body were sent to FBI labs to extract and test mitochondrial DNA for a match with Butler County Sheriff Department's DNA records for Tammen. But the results of tests showed the body was not Tammen.
Freeman is still hopeful that the fate of Tammen and the identity of the exhumed body will be revealed.
"It's really paid off for us," Freeman said. "We have mitochondrial DNA on file for the body. Plus the police in your area have mitochondrial DNA for Tammen. So, that gives us more hope to some day find Tammen or identify our victim."
He said the department doesn't plan on stopping its investigation of either case.
"Our next step here is to reach out through the media … and we're going to try to see if someone has a family member or friend (who) disappeared," Freeman said. "I don't know if we can ever solve the crime in terms of the homicide … Most likely, the offender is deceased (and) the witnesses probably are. We would like to at least identify the subject."
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