132: Tammy Lynn Leppert: The Actress Who Vanished | An Unsolved Florida Disappearance with guest reader Kathy Garver
She Goes by Jane: A True Crime PodcastShow Notes
If you grew up in the 1980s, you may have seen Tammy Lynn Leppert without ever knowing her name. A model, aspiring actress, and rising presence in Hollywood, Tammy appeared in films like Scarface and Spring Break. With her striking look and growing momentum, 1983 was supposed to be the year everything changed. Instead, it became the year she disappeared. On July 6, 1983, Tammy left her home, telling her mother she would be back shortly. She was last seen in Cocoa Beach after an argument with a friend. She has never been seen again. In this episode of She Goes By Jane, we look beyond the headlines and theories to focus on who Tammy was—her ambitions, her discipline, and the life she was building before it was abruptly interrupted. We explore the days leading up to her disappearance, the unanswered questions that remain, and the ways her case was shaped by early assumptions and missed opportunities. This is a story about visibility, vulnerability, and what happens when someone can be seen by so many and still vanish without a trace. 📍 Cocoa Beach, Florida | July 6, 1983📖 Featuring an original poem written in her honor, read by actress and author Kathy Garver.. ➡️ Help bring attention to missing and unidentified women—subscribe and share this episode. 📍 Find us on Instagram & Facebook.📚 Get Aimee’s book, Doe, now available via University of Akron Press, Bookshop.org, and Amazon. 📰 For more women-centered true crime content, subscribe to Aimee’s newsletter, GIRLHUNT. More about Kathy: KATHY GARVER is most fondly remembered for her starring role as “Cissy” in the long-running CBS international television hit, Family Affair, Kathy Garver has also garnered critical acclaim in movies, stage, radio, voice-over animation, speaking and audio book narration. To add to her long list of credits and accolades, Kathy was nominated for a 2026 Grammy Award for the Best Audiobook, Narration, Storytelling Recording for Elvis, Rocky and Me. She also received the Golden Era Award in March of 2026 and will receive the Margaret O’Brien legacy award in December of 2026. In addition, Ms. Garver added author to her long list of accomplishments. Her first book, The Family Affair Cookbook, published by Bear Manor Media is a tasty trip down memory lane with anecdotes and photos. Her memoir, Surviving Cissy: My Family Affair of Life in Hollywood was released next and sold out in three months -- a reprint was ordered and now is also available in the paperback version. X-Child Stars: Where Are They Now was launched in 2016 and is already planned for a reprint. Holiday Recipes for a Family Affair was next in 2019 . The Family Affair Scrapbook was released in 2022 to critical claim. Her newest book released appropriately on St. Valentine’s Day is Romancing with the Stars, a tome about long term relationships in Hollywood along with a travel guide in each of the 27 chapters to recreate romantic moments and places the stars now made famous. The talented Ms. Garver has also won acting accolades such as Best Actress from the Family Television Awards, and continues her award-winning presence by securing recognition from the entertainment world. Recent awards include two more Audie Awards, one for her narration of The World’s Best Short Stories, the other for her direction of Amy Tan in The Opposite of Fate, read by the author. She was also recognized by the Young Artists Foundation with the “Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award” and the Emerald Award from the Southern California Motion Picture Council. In 2013, this prestigious organization also bestowed on Ms. Garver the highly-esteemed Golden Halo Lifetime Achievement Award previously given to Mickey Rooney and Margaret O’Brien. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from She Goes by Jane: A True Crime Podcast
“If something happens to me, don’t give up until you find out what happened," Pamela Butler told her brother. He could never have guessed he would need to do just that.
For years, Steven Sherer had called his wife, Jami Hagel Sherer, over and over whenever she was away from him. It was a way for him to constantly monitor where she was, who she was with, and to control her actions. On September 30, 1990, he called Jami’s parents’ house twice. And then the phone stopped ringing.Jami had told her mother that morning that she was leaving Steven. Jami told her mother she just wanted to gather a few belongings, grab her favorite lunch, and then return to her parents’ house. It should have taken minutes.Jami never arrived.When Jami didn’t arrive and Steven didn’t call, her mother worried the two had reconciled. But when Steven showed up without Jami claiming he hadn’t seen her, her mother knew something was very wrong. Jami Hagel has been missing since that day in 1990. Listen to Part 2.📍 Redmond, Washington | September 30, 1990
In 1986, 22-year-old Jami Hagel met Steven Sherer at a bar in Redmond, Washington. He was charming, persistent, and was soon sending her a dozen roses. Within months, the relationship that started with romance would become something far more frightening.
On a June night in 1950, seventeen-year-old Barbara Kelley left home for a date with Henry Baird, a 28-year-old World War II veteran she had been seeing for several months. Barbara told her parents she would spend the night at a friend’s house in nearby Eureka. There was no reason for them to worry. The next morning, Henry was found nude on a remote beach along the Northern California coast. He had been shot to death. His companion, Barbara, was nowhere to be found.Henry had been shot in the back of the head. Nearby, his clothes were found neatly stacked. With them were Barbara’s clothes. But there was no sign of Barbara. Within hours, police began to investigate the theory the teenager had been involved in Henry’s death. In the years since the murder and disappearance, speculation has run rampant including false confessions, searches through the woods, and a connection to an eerily similar case in another county.But at the heart of it all is Barbara Kelley, a seventeen-year-old girl who went on a date and never came home.📍 Humboldt County, California | June 17, 1950
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