There are new developments in a 35-year-old cold case. It centers on a 19-year-woman, Tammy Mahoney, who disappeared from the Oneida area in 1981 –- a search is underway in Oneida. Cara Thomas reports.
ONEIDA, N.Y. -- A new search Friday into the disappearance of an Oneida teenager 35 years ago turned up empty, investigators said Friday evening.
Tammy Mahoney, 19, disappeared from the Oneida area back in May of 1981. Her boyfriend reported her missing three days after she didn't return home to her Lenox Avenue apartment.
The investigation led police to believe she may have been sexually assaulted and murdered during a party on Oneida Nation territory.
Police have long-thought they knew who might be responsible, but have never had enough evidence to make an arrest and Mahoney's body has never been found.
Friday, the cold case is became active again as state police assisted the FBI and Oneida city police, searching the woods along Route 46 just south of the city of Oneida.
Search crews brought shovels full of dirt to a tented area, but in a statement later in the day, Oneida Chief David Meeker said that the results of the search "were negative," but added that the investigation into the lead that brough them to the site is ongoing.