FBI zeroes in on cold-case homicide thriller on NY Oneida reservation

ONEIDA, NY – Early this month, Debbie Mahoney woke from a nightmare. Her long-lost little sister Tammy, last seen on a tiny Native American reservation in Oneida, NY, in 1981 and believed to have been gang-raped and murdered, got here to her in a disturbing dream.

“It’s like she gained’t relaxation till this case is solved,” Mahoney mentioned.

It’s been 42 years since 19-year-old Tammy, a SUNY Morrisville scholar from Farmingdale, Lengthy Island, was picked up whereas hitchhiking to a good friend’s home. Cops say she was taken to the close by 32-acre Oneida Nation Territory in what folks up right here, together with the Natives, nonetheless name “Indian nation.”

Now, her disappearance and presumed homicide is likely one of the hottest chilly circumstances within the nation.

The FBI held a news conference in May saying the case was nonetheless energetic and that a number of new witnesses have come ahead. Not too long ago, the State Police’s Main Crimes and Chilly Case models joined the investigation.

Police instructed The Submit that they assume they’ve recognized who killed her from the beginning. Not less than 13 folks have been current at a celebration in a trailer on the Oneida Nation Territory, a small reservation in Oneida which was then a ramshackle, mud-filled stretch of land stuffed with cellular houses.

Investigators say it was “urged” to them by these witnesses that Mahoney, who could have recognized some Oneida Nation members, was gang-raped and killed.

However for the reason that crime allegedly occurred on sovereign Native American land, it’s been tough to each examine the case and get witnesses on the report. On the time of her disappearance, native police weren’t allowed on the Oneida Territory with out permission and there had been violence between the residents and regulation enforcement at instances.

“We all know who the dangerous guys are they usually know that we all know,” mentioned former Oneida Police detective and former Madison County Undersheriff Doug Bailey, 76, who’s been investigating the case for many years. “I hope they nonetheless are wanting over their shoulder each minute of daily of their life. They’re native, they’re right here … I see them within the aisles at Walmart.”

Bailey was so targeted on the Mahoney case that he visited Tammy’s mom, Jean, who died in 2020, in Lengthy Island and his mom and Jean turned pen friends. Jean additionally took Bailey and his spouse to a gravesite close to Farmingdale which remains to be ready for Tammy’s stays ought to they be discovered.

“It’s so arduous that she handed with none closure,” Bailey instructed The Submit. “However I’ll inform you there are folks round right here who needs to be scared to dying proper now. There are additionally individuals who’ve been carrying round a really darkish secret for many years and they need to unburden themselves.”

The timeline in Tammy’s case is astonishing for the variety of stops and begins, clues and dozens of so far-fruitless digs within the space which have taken place since she was final seen on Could 8, 1981. Bailey mentioned he and his crew investigated greater than 900 leads over time.

One major particular person of curiosity has died and one other killed himself, in line with Submit interviews with a number of sources.The Submit was unable to contact two different males who’re reportedly individuals of curiosity and nonetheless dwelling within the space.

Mahoney had been finding out animal husbandry at SUNY Morrisville however dropped out her sophomore yr. She had been working as a groomer at a neighborhood horse secure and seeing a neighborhood man, Karl Lockwood, who was questioned early on however rapidly cleared as a suspect.

FBI brokers reportedly made visits to residents of the Onondaga reservation, a much bigger Native American territory 40 miles from the Oneida Nation Territory, as not too long ago as final week of their newest efforts to influence extra witnesses to Mahoney’s disappearance to return ahead.

Quite a few members of the Oneida Nation instructed The Submit that they consider Mahoney was taken to the social gathering on the Oneida Territory, transported to the Onondaga reservation, after which introduced again to the Oneida land the place she was killed.

“This crime is a tough one however we’ve got loads of confidence that it will likely be solved,” Sarah Ruane, 40, of the FBI’s Albany workplace instructed The Submit. “We have now a mixture of outdated and new data and we predict we will deliver this case to the end line. The objective is a profitable prosecution of the perpetrators and at last with the ability to lay Tammy to relaxation.”

Complicating the investigation is the shadow forged right here by the historic trauma suffered by the unique Oneida Indian Nation, one of many 5 Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, who came to the aid of Americans against the British in the Revolutionary War however later misplaced about 3.5 million acres of their land right here in unlawful state land grabs and gross sales.

Native Oneida members instructed The Submit there are solely 500 grownup Oneida left within the space. The vast majority of the unique Oneida left for Wisconsin and Canada within the early 1800s after they started dropping their land in New York.

However one man, Ray Halbritter, who’s one-quarter Oneida, who has nearly singlehandedly revived the Oneida fortunes within the space — although not with out some controversy.

The 72-year-old’s identify got here up repeatedly when The Submit visited the world to ask locals about Mahoney’s disappearance. He’s not thought of a suspect within the case however a lot of native Oneida, and a few non-Oneida residents, all mentioned his energy and affect have contributed to the reluctance of those that allegedly witnessed Mahoney’s final hours to provide testimony to regulation enforcement.

Halbritter was born and raised about 165 miles away, moved to the Oneida Territory in his early 20s and started promoting cigarettes out of a shack, and later opened a small bingo corridor.

On paper, Halbritter seems like a Native American hero: He’s managed up to now to purchase again not less than 25,000 acres of what was ancestral land and had it put in a federal belief.

Halbritter’s meteoric entrepreneurial and political rise — he was named a spokesman for the Oneida Indian Nation in 1975 — was simply getting underway on the time of Tammy’s disappearance.

A supply near the Mahoney investigation mentioned Halbritter was interviewed in reference to the case however was not thought of a suspect.

At the moment, Halbritter is the CEO of Oneida Nation Enterprises and the multi-millionaire proprietor of the Turning Stone Resort Casino just a few miles from the place he first bought cigarettes on the Oneida Territory. He additionally owns many native gasoline stations and Sav-On drugstores.

Halbritter is now some of the highly effective males in central New York — thanks partially to land and playing offers made first with Gov. Mario Cuomo after which his son, Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Halbritter, who efficiently campaigned for the Washington Redskins NFL soccer crew to alter its identify, can also be controversial — particularly amongst two warring factions of the native Oneida.

Although some native Natives admire him and name him “the boss” or the “go-to man,” others complain that he’s dictatorial and doesn’t share his fortune. Some Oneida didn’t need the tribe to enter playing.

The Submit visited each the Oneida and Onondaga reservations this month and spoke to a lot of Oneida Nation and Onondaga members concerning the case. The Oneida mentioned they obtain a yearly stipend of $16,000 from the Oneida Nation, which Halbritter controls.

“It’s a small reservation, actually a one-road neighborhood,” Sonny Manos, who grew up on the Oneida Territory, instructed The Submit. He added that many residents really feel reluctance about whether or not to “open their mouth.”

Halbritter declined to remark when reached by cellphone and referred inquiries to his spokesman, Joel Barkin, a former strategist for US Sen. Bernie Sanders in addition to for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC.)

When requested about Mahoney’s disappearance. Barkin mentioned that Halbritter’s personal police power, the Oneida Indian Nation Police Division (which is comprised of virtually all Caucasian officers), has labored intently with native police and the FBI on the case and, in 2019, provided a $20,000 match to a $20,000 reward provided by the FBI for data that solves the case.

“The Oneida Indian Nation is hopeful that our collective efforts will assist clear up the case and produce closure for the Mahoney household and our neighborhood,” Barkin mentioned in an electronic mail.

Halbritter’s adversaries are many and embody Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R-New Hartford), who has accused Halbritter of corruption and for misrepresenting his heritage, even as soon as calling him “Spray Tan Ray.”

Barkin instructed The Submit that questioning Halbritter’s heritage is “false and offensive” and mentioned that he has “generated a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} for the state and native counties, in consideration for, amongst different issues, the state’s recognition of Oneida’s sovereign proper to pursue accountable land use and financial growth initiatives with out interference.”

Tenney helped one of Halbritter’s chief nemeses, the full-blooded Oneida Indian Melvin L. “Smokey” Phillips, professional bono in an 18-year fight against Halbritter. Phillips, who died final month at age 85, was embroiled in complicated, still-ongoing lawsuits involving land in Oneida that he and his ancestors declare to have held for greater than 200 years and preserved in an 1842 treaty that was codified into state regulation.

Tenney instructed The Submit that Halbritter was making an attempt to take Phillips’ land; Joel Barkin mentioned in response that Phillips was making an attempt to promote his land to non-Indians.

Doug George-Kaentiio, a Akwesasne Mohawk who lives proper close to the Oneida Territory, was married to essentially the most well-known Oneida in recent times, Grammy Award-winning Native American singer Joanne Shenandoah who died in 2021 at age 64 and was Halbritter’s cousin. She grew up on the Oneida territory and her mom was a clan matriarch.

George-Kaentiio, an author and journalist, gave an in depth account of what he mentioned occurred to Mahoney however The Submit was unable to confirm it.

“It’s a horrible and unhappy story what occurred to that woman and it haunts this neighborhood to this present day,” he mentioned. “[Police] preserve gathering testimonials and say they’re shut to creating an arrest however by no means do.”

George-Kaentiio instructed The Submit that he and his spouse and her household fought Halbritter for years as a result of they didn’t need the Oneida going into gaming.

George-Kaentiio mentioned that Halbritter and his ally, the late US Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, made deals that went as far up as the Clinton administration. The offers resulted in Halbritter being named the formal chief of the Oneida in 1993 by then-President Invoice Clinton. That very same yr Halbritter signed a playing compact with then-Gov. Mario Cuomo and playing was launched in New York State.

“My spouse suffered as a result of she didn’t associate with Halbritter,” George-Kaentiio mentioned. “A few of her family members moved away due to him. It’s very irritating.”

In 2017, Mahoney’s highschool classmate and good good friend Theresa Humphrey co-founded the Fb group Justice for Tammy Mahoney, which has greater than 7,000 members and tries to maintain the warmth on cops and the FBI to maintain on her case.

“I’d prefer to see the boys who did this put in shackles and arrested,” Humphrey, additionally 61, instructed The Submit. “Then I need to coordinate a memorial for Tammy down right here in Farmingdale.”

Humphrey mentioned she met Tammy when the 2 have been about 7 or 8 they usually went by elementary and highschool collectively.

“I lived two blocks away from her,” Humphrey mentioned. “We grew up collectively. We had an actual camaraderie. We at all times used to go to Jones Seashore as youngsters. The final time I noticed her we have been at Jones Seashore. I begged her to not go upstate. I wished her to remain right here.”

Marlene Mahoney Laccesaglia, Tammy’s youthful sister, spoke on the FBI’s Could press convention.

“I used to be in tenth grade on the time,” Laccesaglia mentioned. “It was a horrible expertise … the uncertainty and never realizing what occurred initially …When my mom was alive, she would say a prayer for Tammy each night time.”

Laccesaglia hopes individuals who know what occurred to her sister will come ahead.

Anybody with data regarding this case is requested to contact the FBI’s Albany Workplace at 315-731-1781 or their native FBI workplace.