Seven weeks after the identification of a teenage girl found fatally shot in 1979 in a Livingston County cornfield, investigators are planning another return to the home turf of the slain teen.
Among the leads investigators from the Livingston County Sheriff's Office will be chasing is this question: What was the connection between Tammy Jo Alexander — the girl killed in Livingston County — and a Georgia-based prison ministry?
In late January, Livingston County Sheriff Thomas Dougherty announced that, after more than three decades, the slain girl found in a Caledonia cornfield had been identified as Alexander, a 16-year-old who disappeared from Florida in 1979. Alexander, who grew up in a troubled household, had run away before and her disappearance was likely suspected to be another instance of her running away.
Collaborating with the FBI, Livingston County Sheriff's Office investigator's have made one trip to Alexander's hometown of Brooksville, Fla. They are now planning a return, said Chief Deputy Sheriff Matthew Burgess.
One of the leads investigators are pursuing is Alexander's ties to Rainbow Prison Ministry in Young Harris, Ga., located in a rural mountainous area in the northeastern corner of the state.
Little public information is available about the ministry, which worked with inmates who had been released on probation or parole. But investigators have made a connection between Alexander and the ministry.
Georgia resident Lawrence Chandler now owns property where the ministry director, Norman Kirsch, operated the ministry. Kirsch and his wife, Myra, are now deceased and the ministry has been defunct for years, Chandler said. A son is also deceased.
Kirsch kept a cabin on the property — one that Chandler now rents out — and provided some housing to former inmates whom he'd ministered to when they were jailed, Chandler said.
During the coming trip to Florida and the South, investigators hope to better clarify the connection, Burgess said. He said they are looking for anyone who may have worked for the ministry or been connected to it, especially in 1979.
With the many tips, "we're still deciphering what is fact and what is fiction," Dougherty said.
"The leads are continuing to come in," he said. "We have so much ground to cover, with different jurisdictions between here and Florida."
GCRAIG@DemocratandChronicle.com
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If anyone has information in the case, they are asked to contact the FBI's Toll-Free Tipline at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), Livingston County Sheriff's Office at 1-844-THE-LCSO (1-844-843-5276), or their local FBI office.
