Vanished

By Rick Darling

A collection of true crime murders and cold cases... One such cold case has been the subject of much speculation over the last few years. Tammy Kingery, a housewife, and mother of three lived a fairly unassuming life in the town of North Augusta, South Carolina. But as the days and months progressed, the circumstances surrounding her sudden and bizarre disappearance began to take on sinister overtones. And throughout it all, the questions multiplied: Where was Tammy? What happened during those two hours when she was alone in the house? And how does someone just disappear so quickly and completely, with not even the barest hint of a trace?

• Language: English
• Publisher: TruthX Publishing
• Release date: Jul 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201342203

Book preview

VANISHED :

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF TAMMY KINGERY

PHIL SUNDAY

table of contents

VANISHED

MISSING TIFFANY

KELSIE SCHELLING

NATALEE HOLLOWAY

JENNIFER KESSE

TARA CALICO

ROBERT HANSEN

BEVERLY ALLITT

AMY BOSLEY

SHEILA LABARRE

According to The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), well over 600,000 persons are reported missing every year in the U.S. These individuals—old and young, male and female—often disappear without warning or trace. In many cases, these missing individuals are found within a short amount of time, typically none the worse for wear. But sadly, in many other cases, these individuals who have vanished without a trace are left unaccounted for more than a year—in essence becoming what many agencies consider a cold case when all potential investigative leads have been exhausted.

One such cold case has been the subject of much speculation over the last few years. Tammy Kingery, a housewife, and mother of three lived a fairly unassuming life in the town of North Augusta, South Carolina. But as the days and months progressed, the circumstances surrounding her sudden and bizarre disappearance began to take on sinister overtones. And throughout it all, the questions multiplied: Where was Tammy? What happened during those two hours when she was alone in the house? And how does someone just disappear so quickly and completely, with not even the barest hint of a trace?

Tammy’s Early Life

Tamara Tammy Russell was born on April 13, 1977, in Northwest Indiana. She quickly became a bright light in her family’s everyday life.

She was just so nice, all the time, even as a child, recalled her sister, Becky Aldering. We shared a room, not because we had to, but because we wanted to.

While Tammy was attending high school, she worked afternoons at a local pharmacy, where she struck up a friendship with the young man stocking the shelves—Park Kingery.

We just started talking and it progressed from there," Park reminisced.

He was nice and quiet. They seemed a good match, noted Carolyn Russell, Tammy’s mother. The young couple apparently agreed with Carolyn’s assessment. On September 20, 1994—five months after Tammy’s 17th birthday—she and Park got engaged. They were married within two years.

Shortly after their marriage, Park nabbed a job as a welder in South Carolina. The couple decided to take a big leap and decided to relocate to Edgefield County, South Carolina (population 26,985), a good two-hour drive east of Atlanta. The decision surprised Tammy’s family but according to family members, she was happy in her new surroundings. She decided to enroll in nursing school. Soon, she announced some wonderful news: she and Park were expecting their first child—a girl, Caitlin.

It’s what she had been dreaming of her entire life, her dad remembers. She finally became a mom. She was so happy.

Tammy’s sister agrees. To see her holding any child, but her own children in particular—she just loved them. She was never happier than when she was holding a baby.

After finishing a degree in nursing in 2001, Tammy settled into her new job as a nurse caring for the residents of an NHC Healthcare nursing home as a nurse in a local branch of the NHC Healthcare nursing home, just a ten-minute drive from their home.

Tammy was a really caring individual, observed her mother Carolyn in a TV interview. The people that she took care of, she became really close to her patients. You would even see her at their funerals when they passed away. So, she built her life kind of around her work.

During that time, Tammy and Park also welcomed into the world their second child—their first boy, Carter. With a growing family to look after, Tammy and Park began building their own residence in a densely wooded region of Edgefield County in 2007. Their new home, nestled in a quiet corner off the main road, was quiet and serene. Family members reminisced about how Tammy would enjoy spending time out on the second-floor deck.

Soon after they moved into their new dream house, the couple had their third child, Cameron. With a new home, a fulfilling career, and three wonderful children, Tammy finally had everything she had wanted.

The Weeks Before

During the first weeks of September 2014, Tammy seemed to be suffering physically—according to Park she had had to miss a few days of work, which was unlike her. Tammy would typically go straight to bed after returning home from work. Park said that Tammy believed her ailments were untreatable.

Around the middle of September, Tammy began suffering from insomnia and other sleeping disorders. On one occasion she had a severe case of night sweats which forced her to change her clothes.

Tammy had reached out to us and told us that she was not feeling herself for the past four nights, her sister Becky remembered. She had woken up in the middle of the night and needed to change her clothes because she was sweating so badly.

Tammy’s sisters were worried and urged her to make an appointment to get a thorough check-up as soon as possible. She mentioned to them that she had already done so and would be seeing her doctor on September 21.

September 20, 2014: The Day of The Disappearance

It was still a cool 67 degrees on the morning of September 20, 2014, when Tammy began her shift at NHC Healthcare on Austin Graybill Road. As Tammy’s sister Becky remembers it, Tammy’s co-workers noticed almost immediately that something was amiss with her.

She came in that morning and right away was not feeling good, said Becky. "The people around her said she was acting agitated and began repeatedly checking her blood pressure and that it was high. They were trying to get her to calm her down, telling her that her agitated state was making it worse. One of the women she worked with reported that Tammy got loud.

And Tammy doesn’t get loud, Becky emphasized.

Not too long after her shift began, Tammy called her husband to let him know that she wasn’t feeling very well and wanted to come back home to rest.

She called about an hour after she went to work, Park stated. Says her heart rate was way up, she was dizzy, and I needed to pick her up.

Since Tammy didn’t feel well enough to drive herself home, Park told her to leave her car at work, and that he would come by and bring her home himself.  He arrived shortly, and the two returned to their home, where an exhausted Tammy slipped into her pajamas and lay down in their bedroom to take a nap.

Park thought that it would be best if his wife had the opportunity to get some rest without being interrupted by other family members. Their daughter was already out of the house and at a friend’s place where she had slept over the previous evening. Deciding that Tammy would get more rest if the rest of the household was out, Park left the house with their two sons to run errands around town at approximately 10 a.m. Their first stop was Park’s mother’s home, where his older son was dropped off, so he could mow the lawn for his grandmother. Park and his younger son then embarked on a series of errands, visiting several stores around town. By the time the two returned home, only a couple of hours had passed since their departure.

Almost immediately, Park knew that something was wrong—the dog was chained outside, and the door was locked. Inside, things were even more strange: there was a note from Tammy that contained nine words.

Gone for a walk. Be back soon. Love you.

The Search for Tammy Begins

Park immediately knew that there was something terribly wrong with this scenario. Members of Tammy`s family have mentioned that writing a note, rather than sending a text message, was totally out of character for her.

Park began his search for his wife immediately. His immediate thought was that Tammy would try to retrieve her car which she had left back at her workplace. But attempting to do so on foot would be a long walk—more than an hour and a half on the main roads—that she should not be attempting in her condition. Leaving his two sons at home, Park got in his car and drove the route she would have likely taken on foot. He also contacted Tammy’s mother, Carolyn, who rushed to their house right away. Park also called his daughter, informed her of the news, and instructed her to recruit a friend so that they could search by a car another route that Tammy could have taken if she was returning to her workplace.

But neither search yielded any results. Park returned home shortly, where he and his son went out into the thick woods surrounding their home to search on foot. From their home, Caroline, Tammy’s mom, could hear the two men yelling Tammy’s name as they combed the area.

You could hear him calling for Tammy, Caroline remembers.  I wanted to go out and look with them, even though I had a bad ankle and I know I couldn’t a good job."

At 2 p.m. Park and his family called the police. 

*        *        *

The Edgefield County Sheriff's Office quickly mobilized in response to Park’s call. Deputies began searching the surrounding areas, similar to what Park and his daughter had done, but came up with similar results.

At the Kingery home, investigators searched the house for any clues that might reveal what had happened in the Kingery home in those two hours. Tammy had left her keys, cell phone, and purse when she went on her walk. This was another puzzle as well since the house's main door could only be locked from the outside, with the key. Yet Tammy's keys, including the house key, were inside along with other items she might have been expected to take if she were planning a long absence.

There were also initial reports that Tammy had taken a Hard Rock Cafe backpack when she left, but this was later corrected as the backpack had been sold at a yard sale the week. 

With no clues in the house with the exception of the note and no signs of Tammy walking in the area, investigators bring in bloodhounds to track Tammy down. The dogs were able to sniff the nursing scrubs Tammy had worn in order to get her scent but even that did not help them find a trail anywhere in the immediate vicinity.

Local investigators quickly expanded their search as they called on a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division in order to get an aerial search by helicopter started. Additional resources were added to the ground search as well, with an estimated 20-25 deputies fanning out over a wider perimeter around the Kingery house after the bloodhounds failed to trace her scent. They also searched a hiking trail near Interstate 20 where Tammy had often gone in the past, roughly three miles south of the Kingery residence.

We put feet on just about every bit of soil around the house within a one-mile radius, recalls Captain Chris Walsh of the Edgefield County Sheriff’s Department. We’re walking through the woods in a grid pattern and we’re getting nothing."

With the search turning up empty, investigators broaden out their search, checking for signs of an unidentified white female. A be on the lookout notice issued for Tammy drew as many as twenty different accounts of sightings miles from the Kingery home. These included one report in the Central Savannah River region of South Carolina and Georgia around North Augusta, as well as another of a Caucasian female walking along the interstate in Columbia County, Georgia, more than 30 miles due west of where Tammy was last sighted. All of the reports proved false.

As the sun began to set on North Augusta, the search ground to a halt. It’s only when Caitlin, Park and Tammy’s daughter, arrives home that day, that another mystery is revealed.

The Search Continues

During her search, Caitlin and her friend caught sight of a woman who could have been her mother riding as the passenger on a motorcycle that passed them on the road, not far from the Kingery residence. Caitlin and her friend attempted to turn around and follow