SPRINGFIELD — In the summer of 1994 when Tammy Marie Lynds disappeared, a missing teen was not unusual.
As many as 20 young people were reported missing each weekend in Springfield and by November of that year, more than a thousand young people had been reported missing, Police Lt. Anthony Pioggia, head of the city’s Youth Aid bureau, told the Springfield Union-News at the time. They looked into each report, he said, but resources were stretched thin. Usually the teens were runaways, and most returned home within days.
