SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Law enforcement officials are hoping a $15,000 reward will lead to a crack in the 1992 slaying of a Yankton teenager.
Yankton police Cmdr. Todd Brandt says he is hoping “someone who knows something is ready to do the right thing.”
Nineteen-year-old Tammy Haas disappeared after attending Yankton’s homecoming and then going to a party on a farm just across the Nebraska border. Her case is among South Dakota’s most notorious unsolved mysteries.
Haas’ body was found by a golfer in Cedar County, Nebraska at the bottom of a ravine. In 1996, Haas’ boyfriend Eric Stukel was tried and acquitted of manslaughter in her death.
In April, the family hired private detectives, using $24,000 raised through social media. “Our prayer is that the ones who know what happened to Tammy will have the courage to tell so we may all receive the peace we need by knowing the truth,” Tammy’s mother, Nancy Haas, wrote in a statement regarding the fundraising effort. A page on Facebook – “Justice for Tammy Haas” – has grown to 5,200 followers. The social media movement was started without direct involvement of the family but to seek answers on the Haas family’s behalf.
In April, Dateline NBC listed the Haas murder in its “Cold Case Spotlight.”
“There are people out there that know what happened to Tammy, and today, we’re talking directly to them,” FBI Minneapolis Special Agent Michael Paul said Tuesday in announcing the reward on what would have been Haas’ 48th birthday.
“The burden of that knowledge that they carry, the weight of knowing for so many decades without speaking, coming forward now can lift that burden off their shoulders, their heart and their soul,” Paul said.
Haas’ gravesite was vandalized shortly after friends and family were in town to visit the site in May 2020.
“The vandalism of the grave did indicate to us that someone in this area still is thinking about this and may have some knowledge about it,” FBI special agent Matt Miller said.
