Who Killed Tammy Jo?

By Olivia Watson

The body of an unidentified female was found in the town of Caledonia, in New York's Livingston County, on November 10, 1979. It was determined that she was murdered the night before and her body was left in a field just off U.S. Route 20 near the Genesee River in the eastern end of town. She was called "Cali Doe" as no one would claim her body or declare anyone missing in the area...But over 35 years later, the mystery of Cali Doe was finally solved....This is her story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trellis Publishing
• Release date: Jul 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201549374

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AMBER Alert: The Murder of Amber Creek

RENEE DUCKWORTH

Amber Gail Creek, who preferred to be called ‘Aimee’, was born on July 2, 1982 in Park Ridge, Cook County, Illinois. Her parents had lived together for just two years and had never married by the time that they each went their separate ways. Amber lived with her mother, Elizabeth Mowers, in the village of Lake Zurich, a north-western residential suburb of Chicago, until she was six years old. This was far from a happy home. Her mother was a cocaine addict who would often use in front of her daughter. Amber also divulged that a man had sexually abused her whilst she was under her mother’s care. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services stepped in and Amber’s father Robert Creek was awarded sole custody of his daughter. She was sent to live with him in the nearby suburb of Palatine.

It was here that Amber grew up. Contact between Amber and her mother was all but cut off. Initially she was haunted by memories of the abuse and would often cry herself to sleep at night. However, over time, and despite the abuse, separation of her parents and the shuffled living arrangements, Amber seemed (at least for the time being, and to outward appearances) to develop into a relatively cheerful child who led the regular life of a suburban girl. Her best friend and fellow Sundling Junior High School class of 1996 graduate, Heather Lowing, recalls Amber fondly - ‘I remember her being happy. She was just a very normal, junior high girl. I don't remember her missing school because she ran away, or talking about an awful home life.’

However, within six months all of that would change. As she entered her freshman year of high school, Amber sunk into a deep and crippling depression. Seeking some kind of temporary relief from her despair, she turned to drugs and alcohol. ‘She didn’t want to deal with it,’ Robert Creek later said. She would act out by repeatedly running away from home for brief stints or by sneaking out of the house at night to meet older boys. Her cousin, Desiree Reeves, recalls ‘She told me she was in the woods with a few boys. I remember asking her, Why? Why do you sneak out? I was scared for her. I