ALAMONS COUNTY, NC (TCD) — Investigators recently identified the suspect who kidnapped, sexually assaulted and fatally wounded a woman jogging about 45 years ago.
According to a news conference held April 4 by the Alamance County Sheriff's Office, Tammy Sue Aldridge went out for a jog on June 30, 1979, and never returned home. She was allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted by Aldridge before her body was found on Highway 54 several days later.
Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson said when investigators found Aldridge, her body was still warm. Aldridge's shorts were worn backwards and her shirt was backwards, indicating that she wore them after her death. The victim's ankles were reportedly tied with rope, and given the burns on her body, it is believed her hands and neck were also tied with rope. Her autopsy confirmed that she died from strangulation.
Investigators claimed Aldridge was held hostage before his death. While incarcerated, she was allowed to call home twice: on Sunday, July 1, and Monday, July 2, 1979. That would be the last time her family would hear from her, Johnson said.
Another man was also charged in the case but was found not guilty, according to the sheriff's office.
Aldridge's case was reopened in 2020. Investigators reportedly took DNA samples from the family of a person of interest. Officials used genetic genealogy to find that the DNA matched the female products found on the victim's body. As a result, the Sheriff's Office identified Gary Lane Laframboise as the primary suspect.
Laframboise is now deceased, but lived a few miles from where Aldrigde's body was found.
The suspect was arrested and charged with kidnapping and impersonating a police officer in an unrelated incident on October 11, 1979, three months after Aldridge's death. He pleaded guilty to that charge and also admitted to assaulting a police officer after breaking the officer's skull. While in custody. He served time in prison for the crimes from May 1980 to August 1982, according to the sheriff's office.
Johnson said he hopes the move “will bring some closure to the family.”
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