Tawni Lee Mazzone (September 3, 1981 - January 27, 1999) was a teenager who died after jumping from a speeding car on January 26, 1999, shortly after running away from home. Tawni was identified in 2008.
Case[]
Tawni Mazzone was born in Massachusetts, and was described as a troubled teen who bounced between her two divorced parents. She moved into her mother's home in Phoenix, Arizona the fall of 1998. She went missing in January 1999, and was considered a runaway. Friends reported numerous sightings of her after she disappeared.
Mazzone died on January 27, 1999 when she fell from a moving Cadillac on Interstate 10 near Casa Grande, and was unidentified for almost a decade. She was identified in 2008 when her brother came across her case online.
The driver of the Cadillac was determined to be a man named William Walker. He was detained at the time of Tawni's death, and charged for fleeing the scene of an accident. He gave the police a fake name, and ran away with a warrant still out for his arrest.
Authorities tracked down a woman named Lindsay DeJong, who was in the car that day while they were looking for Walker. She told authorities her and Walker had tried to convince Mazzone to engage in prostitution, so she tried to leave the car. The two wouldn't let her leave so she jumped out the car to her death.
Gallery[]
Sources[]
- Phoenix New Times
- Arizona Republic (archived)
- Attempt to Identify
- Maricopa County Medical Examiner (archived)