Seven years ago, model says goodbye, hasn't been heard from since
I like this place, I've lived here all my life, and I'd like to stay here. ever since I was a little girl, I've always
dreamed of having a house in cocoa beach and living happily ever after.
Tami-lynn leppert, march 1983
It was the last interview she gave before the fairy tale disintegrated, And she was good at it: Poised engaging, An easy smile that could melt glacial skepticism. Naturally she was good. She was a pro. Four hundred-ten talent and beauty contests since age 4. Two hundred-eighty trophies.
She just turned 18. And she was at a crossroad. Her latest flirtation with hollywood-a cinemetic turkey called
"Spring Break"-had just been released.But she harbored no illusions about it. Her non-speaking role as a bikinied nymphet carried no more weight than her erlier camoes in "Little Darlings" and "Scarface."
What "Spring Break" represented was the latest stop in a carefully nurtured ascent to movie stardom. If visibility
management meant getting tami's curvaceous hips splashed across a movie poster (Four college dudes erecting a
"Spring Break" flag atop them, Reminiscent of the allied triumph at Iwo Jima), That was good enough for now.
And if Tami-Lynn leppert felt compelled to feign embarrasment over this no-talent coup by crossing her eyes and making a goofy face, These were times for celebration.
Or so it seemed.
At least three producers were talking major roles in upcoming projects. One critic, Steve Walz, Was projecting her to be "One of the stars of the 80's" involving her name in the same breath with Brooke Shields and insisting, "She's not just another dumb blonde"
Model, Dancer, Beauty Queen, Covergirl at age 13. Five-feet five, Hazel eyes, 105 pounds. A can't miss resume. A magnetic aura that turned the heads of men and boys alike, Pulling strangers and their promises into her orbit.
But somewhere inside those invisible walls, Beyond the curiosity of judges and talent scouts, A bomb was ticking. Those familiar with the sound never understood until it was much too late:
The weight of expectations.A web of paranoia.Broken glass.
On July 6, 1983, Tami-lynn Leppert went for a ride and vanished so cleanly it was as if she'd never existed.
Nearly seven years later, Beneath the cobwebs of distance. There isn't even a shrine to commemorate what was. Only a question: Was Tami the architect and star of the perfect getaway or the victim of a perfect crime?
TAMI'S MOTHER/AGENT
Linda Curtis moved from Brevard County three years ago,
Primarily to shake the emptiness she felt every time
she saw something that reminded her of Tami.
Which was always.Curtis lives in orlando, Where she conducts her modeling business from a home she only half-jokingly refers to as "The Cave." An artist with eccentric notions stucco edifice himself-Its few windows are primarily ventilation caliber. Having been spotlighted nationally by life magazine and ABC's "20/20" for her talents as one of America's most succesful child modeling agents. Curtis might well be expected to enjoy a lifestyle commensurate with her abilities. But nothing ever come easy for Linda Curtis.
After a series of heart attacks, Chronic diabetes and a ruptured tendon in her foot, her mobility is relegated to a walker and a wheelchair. She doesn't want her picture taken. And there is the heavy emotional baggage to contend with, Which includes two husbands, Five children and rip-offs by business assotiates
By 1983 only daughter Tami remained a part of her household. Today, Even Tami is a memory-which Curtis is still attempting to manage, Via book and a screen-play.
Predictably, The story will accent all those magic moments only a mother can recite so well:
The time her nine-year-old daughter surrendered a beauty pageant to the broken hearted runner-up after an official mistakenly announced the other girl the winner, The time Tami " sold more Girl Scout cookies than anyone else in Brevard County". Tami as a philanthropist who made special visits to Brevard County Detention Center inmates on Christmas Eve: A popular little girl who "Was always sticking up for the underdog."
But Curtis plans to unsheathe a more pointed edge in the book. Contrary to what some people think, she insists that her daughter was no runaway. Tami, she charges, was yanked into the shadows by a conspiracy involving prominent Brevardians whose names, would make trial lawyers eyes light up with dollar signs.
" I want people over there to know I'm writing a book," She says referring to a project (no actual names used) she's been tolling over for months. "I want to shake them up. I want the criminal to know they can't absorb my child-or anyone's child- wothout ulimately paying the penalty for it."
