RONALD TAMMEN JR -- MISSING 4/19/53 from OXFORD, OH
Ronald Henry Tammen Jr. Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance Missing Since: April 19, 1953 from Oxford, Ohio Classification: Endangered Missing Date of Birth: July 23, 1933 Age: 19 years old Height and Weight: 5'9 - 5'10, 175 pounds Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian male. Dark brown hair. Tammen had a muscular build in 1953. His blood type is O-positive. Details of Disappearance Tammen was last seen in old Fisher Hall, a former Victorian mental asylum converted to a dormitory at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio on April 19, 1953. He was a resident hall advisor at Fisher Hall, and lived in room 225. At 8:00 p.m., he requested new bedsheets because someone had put a fish in his bed. Sometime around 8:30 p.m., Tammen apparently heard something outside his room that disturbed him, and went out into the hallway to investigate. He never returned. His roommate came in at 10:00 p.m. and found him gone. The roommate originally assumed Tammen was spending the night at his Delta Tau Delta fraternity house, and did not report his disappearance until the next day. There is no indication that Tammen left of his own accord. His clothes, car keys, wallet, identification, and other personal items were left behind in his dormitory room, and he also left the lights on, the radio playing, and a textbook lying open on his desk. His 1938 Chevrolet sedan was not taken from its place in the school parking lot, he left his bass fiddle in the back seat of the car, and he left behind $200 in his bank account. Tammen is believed to have had no more than $10 to $15 on his person the night he disappeared, and was not wearing a coat. However, authorities have not found any indication of foul play in Tammen's disappearance either. They do not believe he could have been forcibly abducted, as he was large enough and strong enough to defend himself against most attackers. They theorize that he could have developed amnesia and wandered away, but if that was the case he should have been found relatively quickly. A woman living outside of Oxford, twelve miles east of the Miami University campus, claims that a young man came to her door at 11:00 p.m. the evening Tammen disappeared and asked what town he was in. Then he asked directions to the bus stop, which she gave him, and he left. However, the bus line had suspended its midnight run, so he could not have gotten on a bus. The witness says the man she spoke to was disheveled and dirty and appeared upset and confused. He was not wearing a coat or hat, although it was a cold night and there was snow on the ground. He was apparently on foot, since the woman did not see or hear a car. The man matched the physical description of Tammen and was wearing similar clothes, but it has not been confirmed that they were the same person. Five months to the day before Tammen vanished, he went to the Butler County Coroner's office and asked for a blood test. The coroner claims that this was the only such request he ever got in 35 years of practice. It is unknown why Tammen wanted the test done and whether it has anything to do with his later disappearance. Tammen's parents, who lived in the 21000 block of Hillgrove Avenue in Maple Heights, Ohio in 1953, last saw him a week before he disappeared and say he did not appear to be troubled by anything at the time. He was on the varsity wrestling team in college, played in the school dance band, and was a business major and a good student. He dated at the time that he vanished but did not have a steady girlfriend. In the decades after Tammen's disappearance, students at Miami University claimed his ghost haunted Fisher Hall. His parents are now deceased. Fisher Hall was torn down in 1978 and an extensive search was conducted in the rubble for Tammen's remains, but no evidence was located. His case remains unsolved. Investigating Agency If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Oxford Police Department 513-524-5240 PHOTO AVAILABLE AT LINK http://charleyproject.org/cases/t/tammen_ronald.html

Tale of vanishing student lives on "The rumors spread around Halloween' Saturday, October 31, 1998 BY RANDY McNUTT The Cincinnati Enquirer OXFORD -- Ronald Henry Tammen Jr. was just another hard-working Miami University student until that cold Sunday night on April 19, 1953, when he walked out of Room 225 and into oblivion. Forty-five years later, the sophomore business major remains Oxford's favorite ghost story. But is he dead, lost or in hiding? "The rumors spread around Halloween," said Phillip R. Shriver, a former Miami president and history professor who will talk about the case today on campus. TAMMEN FILE Born: July 23, 1933, Lake Hospital, Lakewood, Ohio. Parents: Ronald H. Tammen and Marjorie Jane McCann. Physical features: Dark hair and muscular. Weight: 175 pounds. Height: 5 feet, 10 inches. Last home address: 21001 Hillgrove Ave., Maple Heights, Ohio. Education: Maple Heights High School graduate; one year at Miami University. Campus affiliations: Member of Delta Tau Delta, Campus Owls dance band and the Miami varsity wrestling squad. Grade-point average: 3.2. Blood type: O positive. Source: Enquirer research Mr. Tammen, a 19-year-old residence hall adviser, vanished from old Fisher Hall, a former Victorian mental asylum that was some said was haunted. "About 8:30 p.m., he entered his room after returning from a road engagement with the Campus Owls, a popular dance band for which he played string bass," Dr. Shriver said. "Outside sat his 1938 Chevrolet sedan. It is said he heard something that disturbed him, and he went into the hall to investigate. Apparently he didn't intend to go anywhere. He left his wallet, car keys and personal items on his desk." He also left the lights on, a book open, the radio playing and his clothes in the closet. His bank account, with about $200, remained active. It was as if Mr. Tammen had slipped into another dimension. Authorities checked all bus, rail and air terminals. The Air Force ROTC sent 400 men to help students search the countryside. "Officials have discounted any theory of foul play, commenting that the missing man is rugged and strong," the Miami Student reported five days after the disappearance. "Dean of Men Carl Knox, after an investigation, said Tammen was not in any financial difficulty . . . since counselors are chosen for their stability, there seems to be no reason for a voluntary disappearance. Thus, officials have temporarily settled upon the thesis of amnesia." Friends and family -- from Maple Heights, near Cleveland -- said Mr. Tammen wouldn't leave without telling them. At first, police developed the amnesia theory, but later they did consider that he might have deliberately disappeared. Mr. Tammen's mother died a short time later. His father moved to Florida and has since died. A brother, who graduated from Miami, lives in California, but could not be reached. Dr. Shriver, who came to Miami in 1965, thinks Ronald Tammen somehow lost his memory and later that night arrived on the doorstep of Mrs. Carl Spivey in Seven Mile, about 15 miles east of Oxford. "At midnight, she heard a knock," he said. "She saw a young man -- he fit Tammen's description -- standing outside. When she opened the door, he asked her how to get to the bus station. "But there was no bus station in Seven Mile. She told him to go to Hamilton. She noticed he had a smudge of dirt on a cheek and his eyes were vacuous. Snow was on the ground that night, but he wore no coat or hat. She shut the door and expected to hear his car start, but it didn't. Then she realized the young man was walking. "There's every belief he was Ronald Tammen. The supposition is that he had an attack of amnesia. He had no idea who he was, but he wanted to get to the bus stop." That night, the Tammen story ended. But not totally. He has continued to inspire a morbid curiosity in students and reporters. "We keep a thick file on him," said Holly Wissing, director of the university's News Bureau. "He's been written about a lot over the years. It's one of those good Halloween stories." Intrigued by his story, a student group invited a spiritualist to campus to conduct seances on Halloween in 1967 and 1975. If Mr. Tammen was dead, they reasoned, he might reveal it to them. "The spiritualist said he had a vision of a young man studying at his desk," Dr. Shriver said. "He heard a noise that disturbed him and he went to the basement to investigate. There he encountered two men. One came up from behind and hit the young man with some kind of object. "Now, I'm not a spiritualist, nor do I necessarily believe in that sort of thing, but it is an interesting aspect of the case." The problem with the amnesia theory is the condition doesn't usually last. Dr. Peter Simson, a psychologist at Miami, said most post-traumatic conditions last a matter of months, at most. "I've never heard of it lasting for years," he said. "It's hard to imagine it going on since the 1950s." The late Joe Cella, a reporter who covered Mr. Tammen's disappearance for the Hamilton Journal-News, claimed the police investigation wasn't thorough. He continued to inquire about Mr. Tammen for 25 years, and he carried the student's class photo in his wallet. He learned that Mr. Tammen asked for sheets and pillowcases an hour before he disappeared. Mr. Cella also discovered that five months before Mr. Tammen disappeared, he visited Garrett Boone, a Hamilton physician, to determine his blood type. Nothing more. "It hardly seems possible that a young college student would walk out of his room and vanish from the face of the earth," Mr. Cella said in a 1977 interview. But by then, police had neither leads nor reasons to continue the investigation. They didn't even keep the original case files. The next year, the university razed 120-year-old Fisher Hall to make way for the Marcum Conference Center. "It happened so long ago," Lt. Dan Umbstead of the Oxford Police Department said this week. "About the only thing we have left from that time is a picture of the police chief. "I did find an arrest card on Mr. Tammen, though. He was cited for running a red light at Main and High streets on March 21, 1953. His $5 fine was suspended. "Who knows? Maybe that had something -- however small -- to do with the case. I've seen people kill themselves over less." http://www.enquirer.com/editions/1998/10/31/loc_miamighost31.html

"Miami Mysteries and Ghost Stories" version of the tale of Ronald Tammen's disappearance: http://www.lib.muohio.edu/mysteries/files/tammen.html

Last Updated: 11:44 am | Wednesday, February 6, 2008 DNA test to see if body is student BY THE ENQUIRER MIAMI UNIVERSITY -- Does a body found in northwestern Georgia belong to the ghost of Miami University? Authorities might soon know. Friday morning, officials will exhume the body of a man found more than 50 years ago to retrieve DNA samples, said Sheriff Steve Wilson of Walker County, Ga. Butler County detectives are working with Walker County to see whether the decomposed body, discovered in June 1953, belongs to Ronald Henry Tammen Jr., a 19-year-old Miami sophomore who disappeared from his dorm room one night in April 1953. Authorities hope to compare the unidentified body's DNA to that provided by Tammen's siblings. After that evening, Tammen was never again seen alive, though some at Miami claim to have seen his spirit wandering the campus. http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080206/NEWS01/802060415

Body Found in Ga. in 1953 Exhumed Reported By: Kevin Rowson Web Editor: Tracey Christensen Last Modified: 2/8/2008 8:04:09 PM The exhumation of a body in Walker County, Ga., Friday could finally put to rest the mystery of the disappearance of a college student who walked away from his dorm room at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1953, never to be heard from again. Authorities want to know if a body found on West Rogers Road not far off U.S. Highway 27 in Walker County 55 years ago is that of Ronald Tammen Jr. Before the interstate system was built, Highway 27 was the main route into Walker County, Georgia from Oxford, Ohio. Helping in the investigation is the now 91-year-old deputy coroner who embalmed the unidentified remains, placed them into a bag, glued the zipper shut, and then put them in a wooden box for burial at a city cemetery. No marker was placed on the grave. Harry Millard says he has thought about the unidentified body since he picked it up from W. Rogers road in 1953. Millard told 11-Alive News "It would be wonderful to find out who he was, where he lived and where he'd been." Tammen was a 19-year-old sophomore at the time of his disappearance. His roommate returned to their dorm to find his radio playing, book open, and his watch, wallet, keys, and coat, but there was no sign of Tammen, who remains the focus of ghost stories on the college campus today. Some theorized that Tammen ran away to avoid the draft. The body in question was found 400 miles away in Walker County about one month after Tammen's disappearance. The Walker County sheriff's department reopened the case in January in hopes that new technology could solve the mystery. They then received a tip that the mystery body could be that of the missing Ohio college student. When they started to compare the facts of both cases, they ordered the exhumation. The exhumation started Friday morning and authorities from both Georgia and Ohio were in attendance, as well as Georgia’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Kris Sperry, and Georgia Bureau of Investigation forensics anthropologist Dr. Frederick Snow. They hope to get enough DNA from the remains to compare to Tammen's sister for a positive identification. By mid-day Friday, investigators had reached what remained of the grave. Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson said the bag was completely visible, but not in tact. Investigators unzipped the bag and removed what remains were left by hand. "We found what appears to be parts of two femur bones and maybe an upper bone and there were teeth," Sheriff Wilson said. Dr. Snow and Dr. Sperry were cautiously optimistic that a DNA sample could be obtained. "I'm cautiously optimistic, that's about the best I can say," said Dr. Sperry. Authorities said it could take six to eight months to get results of the testing, depending on the condition of the remains. The remains will be taken to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation lab in Atlanta, officials said. Dr. Sperry said the best specimens will be sent to a lab in Quantico, Virginia where tests for DNA will be conducted. http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=110952

DNA Does Not Match Missing Miami Student Last Update: 2:51 pm Ron Tammen Test results in today from Georgia show a body found there in a pauper's grave is not that of a Miami University student who disappeared more than 50 years ago. Officials exhumed the body from a Walker County, Georgia cemetery in February. Officials had hoped it would turn out to be that of Ron Tammen. He was 19 years old when he disappeared from his dorm in 1953. The person in the grave was found shortly after Tammen's disappearance. Local 12 traveled to Georgie for the exhumation with Tammen's sister, who provided a DNA sample to authorities to help with the match. But today officials say the body is not that of Tammen's. http://www.local12.com/content/breaking_news/story.aspx?content_id=76626f14-83b6-434c-9f6f-51ed96132f1c