Death of Tammy Terrell

Tammy Corrine Terrell was born July 4, 1963, and was from Roswell, New Mexico. She was last seen alive on September 28, 1980, after being dropped off at the Roswell State Fair; later that night she was seen at a Roswell restaurant with a white man and a woman, possibly planning to travel to California. She is believed to have died around October 4, 1980.

At approximately 9:20 p.m. on October 5, 1980, her nude body was discovered near the Arroyo Grande wash, just south of State Route 146 in Henderson, Nevada, in an area now near the I-215 Beltway. She was found by two brothers driving on a dirt road, one of whom was an off-duty police officer. The body, described as having been positioned deliberately, showed blunt force trauma including multiple wounds to the back of the head—believed to have been caused by a roofing or framing hammer—along with facial injuries, seven puncture-type stab wounds to the upper left back, and evidence of sexual assault. One of her lower teeth had been knocked out during the attack. The cause of death was determined to be stabbing with an unknown two-pronged instrument with prongs approximately 3 inches long. Her body appeared to have been washed, and a piece of yellow or orange shower curtain was found nearby. Physical details recorded included shoulder-length strawberry blond or reddish-brown hair, a height of about 5 feet 2 inches, a weight between 98 and 110 pounds, pierced ears, silver-painted nails, a small amateur "S" tattoo on her right forearm, and dental work including a suture procedure to straighten a tooth, which led investigators to believe she was not from an impoverished background.

For decades, investigators were unable to identify her despite extensive efforts, including fingerprint and dental record comparisons, television broadcasts seeking tips, and forensic facial reconstructions. Her body was exhumed at least four times—in 2002, 2003, 2009, and 2016—for further investigation, including one exhumation prompted by a since-ruled-out missing persons lead from California. Twenty missing individuals were excluded as possible matches over the years. The case was officially reopened in June 2015, and the former Clark County coroner worked with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to publicize it, describing it as the case that prompted the department's cold case unit.

In 2019, hair samples from her original autopsy were sent to Astrea Forensics, which used whole genome sequencing to generate a genetic profile uploaded to the genealogy database GedMatch. On December 2, 2021, the Henderson Police Department announced that the previously unidentified "Arroyo Grande Jane Doe" had been identified as Tammy Corrine Terrell, through forensic genealogy work supervised by genetic genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter. DNA samples from her two sisters confirmed the identification. As of the most recent reporting, the investigation into her killing remains ongoing and no perpetrator has been identified or charged.