Victim in 40-year-old cold case identified as US Army captain
On April 18, 1980, in brush on the bank of the North Canadian River near Jones, some fishermen found a young woman, dead from three gunshot wounds to the chest and covered in quicklime.
The unidentified woman became known as the Lime Lady.
Whoever killed her might have thought the quicklime would speed up decomposition. Instead, the lime preserved her body. Investigators found her mummified and mostly intact.
The Lime Lady was estimated to be 18 to 25 years old, about 5-foot-7 and 120 pounds. She wore shoulderlength and curly brown hair, and had freckles on her fair
complexion. The Lime Lady had a heart-shaped tattoo on her upper left breast. She had missing teeth and an appendectomy scar.
Using traditional investigative techniques, authorities tried to identify her.
They were stymied for years.
In 2008, Sheriff's Capt. Bob Green took the case. Around 2014, the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office, working with the state Medical Examiner's Office, sent a DNA sample from the Lime Lady's body to a missing persons database at the University of North Texas. No matches turned up. “It just came to a point where I thought, `Let's try something unconventional,'” Green said.
Unconventional worked. On Thursday, Green made an announcement.
The Lime Lady has a name.
A Christmas present
She was found at the end of a lonely road near Britton Road, where fisherman would park and walk to the river. Investigators speculated that her killer or killers may have lived nearby.
They also thought she may have been killed at a different location and dumped along the river. Her arms were stretched backward. Maybe she was dragged through the brush.
Because the three gunshots came from different ranges, her killer was probably walking toward her as he fired his weapon — a .45-caliber firearm that was a favorite among outlaw biker gangs at the time, investigators said.
Back then, there was a biker bar in nearby Jones.
“I'm really not sure how long she was in Oklahoma,” Sheriff P.D. Taylor said.
In late 2018, Green, the sheriff's captain, contacted the nonprofit DNA Doe Project, whose volunteer genealogists help law enforcement agencies identify John and Jane Does.
DNA Doe Project uses sophisticated DNA techniques and was able to create a candidate profile that took nearly 9 months to complete, the Sheriff's Office said.
Green and DNA Doe Project also worked with the Oklahoma State
Bureau of Investigation and the state Medical Examiner's Office to find and study the Lime Lady's blood and oral swab samples.
“The process of obtaining a usable DNA profile was a long one,” said Cairenn Binder, a forensic genealogist with DNA Doe Project.
The Lime Lady's closest match was a second cousin once removed. There were a few other matches on both sides of the family — third and fourth cousins once removed.
The Lime Lady's dental records were used in the identification process. The state Medical Examiner's Office assisted in finding her military medical records.
On Dec. 24, her identity was confirmed.
“Really great Christmas present for us,” Binder said.
The fishermen had discovered the Lime Lady's body on her 21st birthday.
Tamara Lee Tigard was born on April 18, 1959.
Another twist
She was from California. She had parents and a sibling on the west coast, but investigators said they are dead. She served as a captain in the U.S. Army, authorities said.
Tigard lived in Las Vegas before arriving in Oklahoma. Investigators don't know why she was here.
“I actually have a few people to talk to,” Green said.
A missing person's report had been filed for Tigard in Las Vegas. Green spoke with a detective there.
“Another twist in the case is that there was a law enforcement contact with a woman in Ohio,” he said.
“She was using our victim's identifiers and that's how she was cleared from that missing person's case.”
Green said he hoped identifying Tigard would restore dignity to her life. She's buried in an unmarked grave in an Edmond cemetery, he told The Oklahoman.
“We're going to see if we can bring her some more dignity with a headstone and stuff,” he said.
“We're going to see if we can bring her some more dignity with a headstone and stuff.”
Sheriff's Capt. Bob Green