Tamara Walls

DOB: January 27, 1975

• Officer Patrick Jordan-Peoria Police Department

    On September 22, 2004, a sister of Tamara Walls came to the Peoria Police Department and reported that Tamara had been missing for approximately three weeks. It was reported that Tamara had not been one to go that long without checking in, and no one in the family had heard from her for the previous three weeks.

• Detective Dave Hoyle-PCSD      

• Detective Cy Taylor-TCSD

    On January 26, 2005, the defendant spoke to them about the murder of Tamara Walls.  The defendant stated that he picked her up around the Harrison Homes area of Peoria, Illinois, and drove her to his residence on Starr Court.  There they smoked crack, drank whiskey and had sex. While having sex he began to strangle her and she struggled and scratched his face. He overpowered her and choked her until she was dead. Once she was dead he carried her body from the house into the back yard.  There, he set fire to the body  in a burn pile.

    Detectives produced a photograph of Tamara Walls and showed it to the defendant.  He identified her as the person he had murdered and burned.  He said he remembered her because when he returned to the burning body he found that it had not completely burned and so he had to light the fire again.  He remembered her name, he said, because Tamara Walls had her driver's license in her possession and he burned the license along with her body.

    The defendant then directed detectives to several dump sites, one being located behind 2317 N. Willow Road in Norwood, Illinois  The defendant told police that he would dump remains of burned human bodies here and at another location after returning home in the daylight and finding remains that he missed or dropped when he made the initial dumps.  Burnt remains were clearly visible at this location. The scene was secured and processed in painstaking detail by police and forensics teams with all pieces tagged and packaged and each location plotted.

• CSI Matt Davis-Illinois State Police

• Dr. Stephen Nawrocki-Crime Scene Services Command Anthropology Case Reviewer

     From 01/27/05-01/29/05, these men led the processing of several locations for the presence of human remains, including the location identified by the defendant at 2317 Willow Road in Norwood.  At this location were found human remains including a portion of a human mandible (or jawbone) with a 2.5 mm hole in the bone, indicating prior orthopedic intervention.

• Dr. George Kottemann-DDS

• Forensic Odontologist

    On August 2, 2005, he reviewed the antemortem dental records of Tamara Walls and made a forensic comparison with the human mandible bone recovered at the Willow Road dump site.  Dental records confirmed that Ms. Walls had undergone a previous surgical procedure of the jaw resulting in the attachment of a reconstruction bar to the left side of her mandible and that it contained a screw attachment and opening consistent with that made by a dental instrument.  After review, it is determined within a reasonable degree of dental and forensic certainty that the mandible bone segment found at the Willow Road site is that of Tamara Walls.