Was mysterious 2005 death of Tammy Eileen Penner a case of murder?

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The body was discovered along Hwy. 7 in a wooded rest area between Rockwood and Guelph on a warm August day.

After nearly two decades as a Jane Doe, Tammy Eileen Penner was finally identified in 2024. Who or what killed her, and why, remains a mystery.

Now, cops have issued another call for information, particularly targeting truck drivers who may recall the 41-year-old and who she was with.

Was her death a murder?

So far, homicide detectives have stopped short of calling death a murder.

“Tammy was in somewhat of a decomposed condition when she was found,” Det. Insp. Randy Gaynor told CTV News. “That’s why the identity was difficult to make.”

Penner’s remains were discovered by a passerby on Aug. 28, 2005. OPP investigators determined she had been dumped there a month prior to the gruesome discovery and that her body had been dragged into the bush.

The female victim was covered by a Woods-brand sleeping bag, and cops concluded her clothes had been purchased in the Montreal area. Her cheekbone, nose and left eye socket had previously been fractured, but the injuries had healed by the time of her death.

Penner was reported missing by her family in December 2007.

In 2022, as part of a province-wide initiative, cops used groundbreaking investigative genetic genealogy to identify the tragic woman. She was finally identified as Penner in April 2024.

Victim originally from British Columbia

Originally from Chilliwack, B.C., Penner was known to criss-cross the country, often hitching rides with long-distance truckers. OPP detectives believe she travelled from her hometown to Abbotsford, B.C., before heading east to Ontario.

“In June of 2005, she was at Mountain View Mall in Midland, Ont., and subsequently around the time of Saturday, July 30, 2005, she was dropped off at the now-closed Husky Truck Stop, (located on) Highway 401 and Dixie Road in Mississauga,” Gaynor said.

She was later spotted near a cream- or beige-coloured transport truck shortly after being dropped off. At the time, Penner may have been wearing a beige tank top and black corduroy shorts and carrying a blue sleeping bag.

Cops are looking to speak to people who worked at or visited the truck stop during the summer of 2005. Do they remember Penner or who she may have been travelling with?

Truckers may have the answers

“We believe that truck drivers out there would know Penner or know about her,” Gaynor told CTV News, adding that investigators are trying to fill in the gaps between her last reported sightings and the discovery of her corpse.

“At that point in time, the family knew that she was travelling back and forth from Alberta to Ontario, but they didn’t have specifics,” Gaynor said. “There’s several months in between her last sighting in Midland, when we know that she was dropped off, and then there’s a month until she’s found.”

Cops found no additional clues at the scene where her body was dumped.

Penner used numerous aliases

Gaynor added: “Someone out there knows about Tammy. They know Tammy. They know about her travels. They know who her associates were. We ask them to please come forward so we can get more about the circumstances surrounding her death and provide them to the family.”

A mother, daughter, and sister, Penner reportedly last spoke with her family in August 2005, when she called her sister. The RCMP said she went by several aliases, including Tammy Glendinning, Kim McLean, Kim Eileen Glendinning, Tammy Berston, Tammy Eliason and Kim Penner.

She had several tattoos including a male/female sign on her right upper arm, a black jaguar on her upper left shoulder and a half-moon on her abdomen.

Anyone with information about Penner, her movements in Ontario prior to Aug. 28, 2005, or the circumstances surrounding her death is asked to contact the OPP.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun

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