Dark Downeast - The Disappearance of Tammy Lynn Belanger (New Hampshire)

Episode Date: August 16, 2021

EXETER, NEW HAMPSHIRE: 8-year old Tammy Lynn Belanger was skipping down the road to Lincoln Street School, right on time as she did every day. Except on November 13, 1984, something or someone intercepted her usual route. Tammy Lynn never made it home. She didn't even make it to school.One suspect emerged as the likely perpetrator, but despite his long history of offenses against young girls, investigators are still searching for that one piece of hard evidence that would prove his guilt once and for all.CONTENT WARNING: This episode discusses sexual assault and violent against children. Please listen with caution.Anyone with information about the unsolved disappearance of Tammy Lynn Belanger is asked to call the Exeter Police Department at 603–772–1212. View source material and photos for this episode at darkdowneast.com/tammybelangerFollow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTokTo suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-caseDark Downeast is an audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.

It seemed to be a typical November morning. Chilly and somewhat grey, yet peaceful as New England autumn mornings so often are. It was around 8am. Betty Blanchett brewed a pot of coffee and shuffled over to the kitchen table, a yawn escaping as she sat down. She scanned the day's paper and took a bite of toast before movement just outside the window caught her eye. Betty glanced up to a familiar scene. Eight-year-old Tammy Lynn Belanger came to the street corner, looked both ways, and was on her way, skipping

across the street, headed to school. Betty watched for a moment, feeling the calm of their quiet, small town, the feeling of knowing your neighbors by name and most of their family. Exeter, New Hampshire in 1984 was home to roughly 13,000 people, a close-knit community built on the banks of the Exeter River. It was an ideal spot for families looking for comfort, shared values, and the assurance that their kids could safely walk alone to school. But what Betty didn't know that morning, what no one in the sleepy seacoast town could know,

was that there was someone among them who threatened that very sense of safety they took for granted. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the still-unsolved disappearance of Tammy Lynn Belanger on Dark Down East. I love you. in the third grade, getting A's and B's. She is very punctual, her dad, Nelson Belanger said in a 1984 Boston Globe article, quote, she gets up early and has breakfast and goes to school right when she should at eight, end quote. Tammy had been taking the same route to school since the first grade, and her schedule was predictable by that point. So on the afternoon

of November 13th, 1984, when Tammy didn't arrive home by 3.30, her usual time, her parents, Nelson and Patricia, were somewhat worried. Patricia called Lincoln Street School to see if her daughter might have been held up for some reason. But to her surprise, the school secretary said that Tammy hadn't actually been to school that day at all. She'd been marked absent. At the time, absences weren't confirmed by school staff, and parents weren't required to let the school know if their child was going to be out that day. By the time anyone realized Tammy had never made it to her class or back home, she'd already been missing for nearly seven hours.

Patricia's heart sank. She hung up and immediately called the local police. An officer arrived at the Belanger home shortly after, and recognizing that the evening's temperatures were quickly dropping, a search involving police and volunteers was immediately assembled. Jim Valliquette, Exeter's lead detective on the case in 1984, recalled the initial search in a 2019 Seacoast Online story, quote, The real key is to be doing something in the first 48 hours after a disappearance,

because after that, things start to stale, memories start to fall off. The sooner law enforcement knows about it, the better our chances are of discovering evidence. End quote. The team started at the Belanger house and working a grid pattern and covering two blocks at a time followed Tammy's route to the school. The school itself was searched from top to bottom. Every room, closet, the basement, and even dumpsters. The search that night and into the next two days turned up nothing. It's as if the young lady walked into a vacuum,

former Exeter police chief Frank Caracciolo told the Boston Globe in an interview on November 15th, quote, as far as we know at this point, she is simply a missing child. We have no evidence of foul play, but we do have an eight-year-old that's been missing for a long time, and the circumstances are highly questionable, end quote. Although police weren't ready to suggest foul play, The Belangers were certain Tammy would never run away or willingly leave home with someone without her parents' permission. She is not the type of youngster to take a ride from someone, even a neighbor, Nelson told the Boston Globe. Patricia and Nelson were convinced from the start that Tammy had been abducted.

For the next week, officials and volunteers combed through the town of Exeter and surrounding areas, even collecting trash from the street Tammy lived on and draining local rivers and ponds. Detective Valliquette recalled in a 2019 story, We were opening manhole covers, we were searching in dumpsters, knocking on doors, interviewing people along her normal path. I think we didn't spare any opportunity. We had to get some real investigative talent in here. Working alongside local police were FBI agents called in to assist and close to 200 volunteers from Exeter and neighboring towns. By Friday, the team honed in on one location in particular, a gravel pit in Kensington, New Hampshire. Searchers discovered footprints and drag marks leading to a pond, but just footprints leading away from the water's edge. The assumption being that someone

had thrown something into the water. But searchers and divers left with nothing to indicate Tammy had ever been there. Within the week, the Massachusetts Society for Young Victims was handing out missing posters at truck stops in hopes that truckers could help spread the word across the country. The president of this organization, John Sobolewski, noted that the truckers are an important network for spreading awareness along their routes about children in trouble. Tammy's disappearance had an immediate impact on Exeter families. Though it was common for kids to walk to school on their own before Tammy went missing, mothers and fathers were rearranging their morning routines to include dropping their kids off at the door of the school. As one mother said to the Boston Globe, quote, As for the Belangers, they weren't losing hope.

Nelson and Patricia believed Tammy was somewhere, perhaps being held against her will, and Nelson spent the majority of his time searching the woods, campsites, and hunting cabins looking for her. Meanwhile, police were narrowing their focus. Several witnesses reported seeing a beat-up blue sedan with Florida plates in the area on the morning of Tammy's disappearance. Then, a phone call to the police chief from a parole officer led them to their prime suspect. A convicted sex offender was back in town

after violating parole with an out-of-state trip, and he was known to be driving a blue car with Florida plates. Victor G. Wanetti was working at an Exeter auto shop in the fall of 1984. His life was filled with a string of burglaries and run-ins with the law, including an arrest for the sexual molestation of an 8-year-old in 1973, though that charge was eventually dropped. The girl's mother didn't believe her. Five months later, Victor and that girl's mother got married. His accuser

became his stepdaughter. Five years later, when the same girl was 13 years old, Victor Vannetti was arrested, charged, and convicted of felonious sexual assault and sentenced to seven and a half to 15 years at New Hampshire State Prison. When Victor was sentenced for the rape of his stepdaughter, the judge ordered him to have a psych evaluation. Victor refused to accept responsibility for his actions or to admit any wrongdoing. Instead, he claimed in letters to the judge that he and his stepdaughter were in love. And yet, after only a month, the doctor who performed his evaluation concluded, quote,

Victor Wanetti was granted parole after four years. The FBI first talked to Victor on November 19th, just six days after Tammy's disappearance. Chief Richard Kane, who led the Exeter Police Department from 1999 to 2016, told Seacoast Online, quote, Victor had been convicted for sexually assaulting his stepdaughter beginning when she was eight, and his blue car with a broken taillight and Florida plates was seen in the area when Belanger disappeared, end quote. Digging further, police discovered Victor, who had always shown up to work, had happened to call in sick on the morning of the 13th.

It seemed police were on the right track, and they made a call to Palm Beach, Florida. It was an area where Victor had family and he was known to visit. That call would offer more information than Exeter police ever bargained for. On May 27th, 1984, several months before Tammy disappeared on her way to school in Exeter, New Hampshire. An eight-year-old girl named Marjorie Luna, called Christy, went missing after leaving home to buy cat food just around the corner from her home in Greenacres, Florida. Investigators first looked at two brothers, Willis and Charles Rambo, who lived nearby Christy Luna's home. Police had

interviewed a six-year-old friend of Christy's who said she and Christy often played at the home of the two brothers. The friend also told police that Charles and Willis had sexually assaulted her. The Rambo brothers became prime suspects in Christy's disappearance, and so police dug up their yard but found nothing. Then, three days later, Christy's older sister Allison claimed that her mother's boyfriend had been molesting her. The boyfriend, Larry Jackson, became the third suspect. Meanwhile, in May of 1984, Victor Wanetti was staying with his mother in Lake Worth, Florida while on parole from the New Hampshire State Prison after serving four years for those felonious assault charges.

Lake Worth is just five miles from Green Acres where Christy disappeared. In the few short weeks that Victor had been there, he was arrested for night prowling, but was released pending sentencing. Christy Luna disappeared two weeks after that. According to the Palm Beach Post, Victor had attended church with his parents the morning of Christy's disappearance and then went on to attend a party that afternoon in the very same neighborhood that Christy lived. Unfortunately, Victor wouldn't be on authorities' radar for this case until months later. While investigators focused on the brothers and the mother's boyfriend, Victor was sent to jail in Lake Worth on the night prowling arrest. He'd spend 30 days behind bars before, upon his release,

making his way back to New Hampshire in early November of 1984. Victor knew his parole was going to be impacted by his unannounced trip to Florida without permission, and on top of that, he was arrested while he was there. He returned to New Hampshire that November in hopes of sorting things out with his parole officer. Brad Bissell, Victor's boss at the auto shop, remembered the call from Victor on the morning of November 13th. And thinking he'd been out all night drinking with a woman,

Brad told him, quote, well, I hope she was worth it. And then Victor didn't say a word, just silence, end quote. It was Victor's parole officer who had notified Exeter police that a child rapist was in town and may be of interest in the Tammy Belanger case. According to the Palm Beach Post, when police searched Victor's beat-up blue sedan with Florida plates, they found a sex toy, a patch of carpet,

a chainsaw, a stolen stereo, and some other random items. Investigators also noted that the car was modified so that the back doors didn't open from the inside. That evening, once Victor realized he was a person of interest,

he asked Marge at the Motor Inn to tell police that she'd seen his car in the parking lot the morning that Tammy disappeared. But Marge refused. Police would go on to search Victor's room at the Motor Inn, finding photos of a young Brooke Shields and advertisements of children in underwear. But it wasn't until December 1984 that Victor was named the prime suspect in the Exeter Police's investigation. He was taken back to prison and his parole revoked, but without a body and any concrete witnesses or evidence, police couldn't charge him with any crimes relating to Tammy Belanger's disappearance. Back in Florida, the molestation charges against Christy Luna's mother's boyfriend, Larry Jackson,

were dropped after his accuser came clean and admitted she'd made up the story to get him away from her mother. That left the two Rambo brothers, and now Victor, as the top three suspects in the Christy Luna case. And police were leaning towards one over the others. They were 1,500 miles apart on two different dates, and they have one common denominator, said Valliquette to Seacoast Online. Remember, there's two girls missing and victors at the scene of both of them. He'd have a better chance of winning the lottery, end quote. Ultimately, police dropped the battery charges against the two Rambo brothers as well.

The brothers pled guilty to a lesser charge of loot assault and were placed on 10 years probation after a few months in jail. As Victor sat in New Hampshire State Prison for the next few years, investigators continued to build their case against him, but by January 30th, 1991, there were still no charges against him in Tammy Belanger's disappearance. Victor was set free, having completed his original sentence.

Upon his release, the Exeter Newsletter published an editorial declaring, quote, no charges, no hint of charges. We have to believe that if there was any case to be made against this man, our law enforcement authorities would have been efficient enough to make it during those seven years when they had their man right where they could keep an eye on him, end quote. Victor Winetti made his way to a bus station and left town. In April 1991, the Exeter Police Department received information that a man fitting Victor's

description had been lurking around school playgrounds in the area. But when they went to investigate, according to the Palm Beach Post, there was no one to be found. They decided to check in with law enforcement in Greenacres, Florida. The police there did know where Victor was. With the Christy Luna investigation still ongoing,

they had set up surveillance of Victor's mother's house, watching him leave each day around 5am, drive to a local plaza, and then walk to a nearby apartment complex, where he was videoed masturbating while looking into the window where three young girls slept. This man was one of the most atrocious pedophiles I've ever researched. I'll spare you the depths of his perversions, but I'll say this. There was no doubt in the minds of investigators that he had the potential to victimize young girls, because he'd done it. Especially girls the ages of Tammy and Christy.

However, investigators just weren't sure if his crimes had escalated to the point of kidnapping and murder. Detective Valliquette was assigned to go to Florida and assist 30 other officers with the surveillance. You wouldn't believe what this guy was doing, Valliquette told Seacoast Online in a 2013 story. Quote, this guy is one of the best examples of why law enforcement has to be sensitive to guys and gals sitting alone in cars. We can tell you that he surveilled bus stops, and we have him in Florida looking into windows at night, end quote. On Memorial Day weekend in 1991, as surveillance of Victor was ongoing, Sheriff's Detective Loro Diaz in Lake Worth, Florida, secretly tailed Victor to a trip to Fort White, Florida. Diaz watched from a distance as a chilling scene unfolded. Juanetti suddenly pulled a U-turn and drove across a field towards two eight-year-old girls.

Diaz could see that Victor was trying to chat with the two girls, and he tried to radio for backup, but was having trouble with his equipment. So, Diaz bailed from the secret surveillance and approached Victor and the two girls, telling him that the girls were with him. Victor first tried to challenge the detective, who was still undercover and in plain clothes, not identifying himself as a member of law enforcement. After a few tense moments, Victor hopped in his car and sped off.

Finally, on June 4th, 1991, after three weeks of surveillance and witnessing some truly horrendous behaviors, Victor Juanetti was arrested for indecent exposure, trespassing, and burglary as he was returning to his car after his morning routine. Detective Valliquette from New Hampshire was present for his arrest. According to reporting by the Palm Beach Post, authorities found a scrapbook in the house Victor shared with his mother in Florida. Inside were numerous photos of young girls, and among them, a photo of Tammy Belanger, clipped from the pages of the endless media coverage of her disappearance. Victor was a fan of writing letters to the judges presiding

over his many court cases. For this arrest, he appealed to the judge claiming that law enforcement were obsessed with him, writing, quote, I believe that they should have arrested me the first time I broke the law, arguing that their ongoing surveillance was for their own enjoyment. He continued, what if a person was killing people? How many would they let him kill before they stopped him? Unquote. Victor's trial for the indecent exposure, burglary, and other charges began over a year later in April 1992, during which he was questioned about the disappearances of Tammy Lynn Belanger and Christy Luna. He continued to deny any involvement.

But fellow inmates testified against him, saying that he had bragged about both killings. Christy's mother, Jenny Luna, attended the trial. She'd been in contact with Victor, sending him letters, asking for him to talk about her daughter's disappearance. Victor, who'd been vocal with local newspapers, claiming entrapment, refused to see Jenny. Quote, It's sickening, sitting here watching this guy, knowing he murdered my child.

He told me to watch what I say about him. But if he's not guilty, why won't he at least talk to me? End quote. On May 12, 1992, Victor G. Wanetti received a 75-year prison sentence as a habitual offender. Circuit Judge Walter Colbeth stated at the sentencing, quote, the one thing I did not hear any scintilla of reference to is remorse and sorrow on your part for the emotional upheaval and pain you caused. End quote. Although Victor being behind bars for the rest of his life may have put some at ease, it still left questions unanswered for the Belangers and Christy Luna's family.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel wrote, As deputies led Juanetti away from the courtroom after the sentencing, Jenny Luna chased him down the hallway and fired questions about her daughter Christy. What did you do to my daughter? Why won't you tell me? I hope you rot in hell. Why won't you let my nightmare end? End quote. A decade after Tammy went missing, in December 1994, police were tipped off about evidence that could help solve the case. That evidence was said to be in the grave of a woman named Eva Miskinis, who was buried in November of 1984. Police were scant on details in the media. They didn't say what the evidence was, who tipped them off, or why it was thought to be connected. Connected enough to actually dig up a grave.

Because there's no obvious connection between Miskinnis and the family of Tammy Belanger. According to papers at the time, police dug up the grave, but found no connection or evidence for Tammy's case. Despite the decades-long investigation, the evidence in both Tammy Belanger and Christy Luna's disappearances has always been considered circumstantial. We were never able to discover what happened. There was no absolute evidence, Valaket said in a Seacoast online story covering

Tammy's case. Quote, even hair fiber right now would be so much more drastic information. At the time, we could compare hair follicles, hair itself. To do DNA testing, it was just coming out. We'd had to have the follicle. If you didn't have that, all they could do was compare diameter, color, or additive, end quote. In 2019, current Exeter police chief Stephan Poulin said Tammy's case is now under the jurisdiction of the New Hampshire State Attorney General's Cold Case Unit. Poulin told Seacoast Online, quote,

Knowing that there's progression with evidence to see if there's anything we could do now that we couldn't do even back in 2013 when we looked at the case again, we'll get people who call, email, or get an anonymous tip. Maybe they remember seeing a certain vehicle in a certain spot around that time frame and it didn't seem right to them, and they've held on to it for all this time. There's a lot of hearsay, and we look into everything, end quote. Authorities stopped short of publicly declaring Victor the person responsible for Tammy's disappearance,

stating that because they were never able to establish what happened to Tammy, they couldn't say who did it. No physical evidence, no arrest. Still, Victor Juanetti remained the prime suspect in both the Tammy Belanger case and Christy Luna's case up until his death in 2012. Due to Florida's gain time law, Victor was released from prison just months before he died of natural causes, but he'd spent the last 20 years of his life

behind bars. In the years following their daughter's disappearance, Patricia and Nelson Belanger moved away from Exeter and eventually divorced. Nelson passed away in 2017, but Chief Kane remained in touch with Patricia, who never gave up hope that someone would come forward with information. The two checked in at least twice a year. Kane said in a 2013 story, We would love nothing more than to give closure to the family and be able to solve this one in one way or another." End quote. At the time of her disappearance, 8-year-old Tammy Lynn Belanger was 4 feet 6 inches tall with long brown hair and brown eyes. to 70 pounds and was wearing tan corduroys, tan suede boots, a purple sweater, an aqua jersey

with black and white stripes, and a tan jacket. She would have been carrying her red backpack with her name and address on it. Anyone with information is asked to call the Exeter Police Department at 603-772-1212. Tammy Lynn Belanger's case is one that haunts Exeter, New Hampshire to this day. It changed the small town forever. The story is revisited by local papers each anniversary, a reminder of the little girl who loved and excelled in school, confidently walking there each morning, right on time, full of optimism, and ready to take on a brand new day.

Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. This episode was researched and written by Olivia Gunn, with additional writing by me, Kylie Lowe. Source material for this case and others is listed at darkdowneast.com. Thank you for supporting this show and allowing me to do what I do. I'm honored to use this platform for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones, and for those who are still searching for answers in cold missing persons and murder cases, each time you take action, each time you share a post or say their name or listen to their story, you are making a difference.

Together, we will not let their names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East.