In November 1984, Tammy Belanger, a shy and diligent 8-year-old, vanished from the small town of Exeter, New Hampshire.
Her disappearance sent shockwaves through the close-knit community.
In this town of 13,000 residents, people felt so secure that they rarely bothered to lock their doors.
Sadly, this unsolved case marked the end of an era of innocence in the town.
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| Tammy Belanger |
Background
Tammy was the youngest of three children born to Norman and Patricia Belanger.
She had spent her entire life in Exeter, a place she knew well and loved.
Exeter, New Hampshire, was considered an extremely safe and peaceful place in the 1980s.
She was a third grader at Lincoln Street School, located just a mile from her home on River Street.
Since bus service was only available for students living two miles or more from the school, Tammy walked to and from school every day.
She had been taking the same route since first grade and was comfortable walking alone, as she had done countless times before.
Tammy was known to be a quiet, studious child who loved school and was always punctual.
Her parents, Norman and Patricia, had every reason to believe their daughter was safe on her daily walk to school.
However, on this day, that was not the case.
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| Tammy Belanger age progression photo |
The Disappearance
On the morning of November 13, 1984, Tammy left her house at 8:00 a.m. to begin her usual walk to school.
As Tammy walked down the street, a neighbor named Betty Blanchette looked out her kitchen window and saw her skipping along.
It typically took Tammy about 10 minutes to walk to school, but that day, she never arrived.
At the time, the elementary school did not have a policy of notifying parents when a child was absent.
As a result, Tammy’s parents were unaware that she hadn’t made it to class.
Patricia became concerned when Tammy didn’t return home by 3:30 p.m.
After waiting a few more minutes, she called the school, only to discover that Tammy hadn’t been there all day.
Panic set in, and she immediately contacted the police to report her daughter missing.
The responding officer understood the gravity of the situation right away.
Given the freezing temperatures and the wind chill expected to drop below zero, it was crucial to find Tammy quickly due to the harsh weather.
Despite a thorough search along her usual route to school by both police and volunteers, there was no sign of Tammy.
The Exeter Police Department, along with concerned neighbors, searched throughout the night for Tammy.
But their efforts were unsuccessful.
By the following morning, a massive search operation was launched.
The police chief enlisted the help of the Coast Guard, firefighters, and officers from surrounding communities.
They scoured the entire town, searching for any clues that might lead to Tammy.
Divers searched the Exeter River, volunteers checked dumpsters and trash cans, and officers combed through wooded areas.
Sadly, they did not find anything.
Even the school Tammy attended was searched from top to bottom, but no trace of her was found.
Despite the lack of physical evidence pointing to foul play, authorities could not rule out the possibility.
With the chance that Tammy had been kidnapped, the FBI was brought in to assist with the investigation.
Over the next three days, up to 200 volunteers joined the search, but no clues emerged.
After exhausting all initial leads, officials concluded that Tammy had likely been taken out of the area.
Potential Theories
1) Voluntary Disappearance: While there was no immediate evidence of foul play, Norman and Patricia were adamant that their daughter hadn’t run away.
Tammy loved school and had never been late or skipped a class.
She was close to her family and had a stable home environment.
Tammy was also very shy around strangers.
Her parents couldn’t believe she would have willingly accepted a ride from anyone she didn’t know.
They were convinced that she must have been abducted.
2) Foul Play - Detectives began their investigation believing that Tammy was the victim of foul play.
They started by interviewing her family, quickly ruling them out as suspects.
They also spoke with Tammy’s friends, who reported nothing unusual in her life.
Also, no one had noticed any strangers around the school.
It seemed as though Tammy had simply vanished into thin air.
In the first two days of the investigation, over 1,000 tips were called in, but every lead turned out to be a dead end.
A reward was offered for information leading to Tammy’s recovery, but even the prospect of money failed to produce the break investigators needed.
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As days passed without progress, fear gripped the town of Exeter.
Parents stopped allowing their children to walk to school.
Tammy’s classmates were especially frightened, and counselors were brought in to help them cope with their feelings.
Posters of Tammy were put up all around town, reminding everyone that she was still missing.
Norman Belanger, unable to sit idly by, drove to remote areas.
He searched through hunting campsites and abandoned cabins, hoping to find his daughter.
Norman and Patricia remained steadfast in their belief that Tammy was being held somewhere against her will and that she would eventually come home.
A month after Tammy’s disappearance, the police were still at a loss.
Despite the dozens of calls they received daily, every lead they followed ended in disappointment.
Potential Suspect
In December, authorities identified a man named Victor Wonyetye as a person of interest.
He worked at an auto body shop just a few blocks from where Tammy was last seen and had a criminal record.
Wonyetye had been living in Florida before moving to New Hampshire.
He was also a suspect in the disappearance of Marjorie Christina Luna, another young girl who went missing in May 1984.
By January, police believed they had enough circumstantial evidence to seek an indictment of Wonyetye for Tammy’s kidnapping and probable murder.
However, the district attorney disagreed.
Without a body, it was nearly impossible to secure a conviction, and there was no concrete proof that Tammy was dead.
Additionally, there was no physical evidence linking Wonyetye to the crime, so he was never charged.
On the first anniversary of Tammy’s disappearance, detectives admitted that they had exhausted all leads.
As a result, the investigation reached a standstill.
While the Belanger family continued to hold out hope that Tammy was alive, most of the investigators believed that Wonyetye had murdered her, but they couldn’t prove it.
In the years that followed, several anonymous tips led to additional searches in various areas around New Hampshire.
However, none yielded any evidence related to Tammy’s case.
Wonyetye remained the only suspect ever named.
He passed away in December 2012 after spending most of his remaining years in a Florida prison on unrelated charges.
Tammy Belanger is still listed as a missing person.
Tammy Belanger was just 8 years old when she disappeared in 1984.
She had brown hair, brown eyes, and a lazy left eye.
At the time of her disappearance, she was 4 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 70 pounds.
Tammy was last seen wearing an aqua jersey with black and white stripes, a purple sweater, tan corduroy pants, a tan jacket with blue sleeves, green and blue socks, and tan boots.
She was also carrying a red backpack with her name and address on it.
If you have any information about Tammy Belanger, please contact the Exeter Police Department at 603–772–1212.
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