On October 17, 2022, Tammy Pitkin was captured on grainy surveillance video at a Rite Aid in Albany, Oregon.
It is the last confirmed time she was seen.
Tammy appears to be accompanied by her two dogs, Trooper and Cope.
According to those familiar with the surveillance video, she is wearing jeans and a light colored hoodie or sweatshirt.
Twelve days later, on October 29, her gray Toyota Camry was found abandoned on a remote Forest Service road off Highway 20 east of Sweet Home.
Tammy was not with it.
Tammy lived in Red Bluff, California, where she built a career in real estate. In 2020, she joined Better Choice Real Estate as a Realtor after years working in the industry.
She was a wife, a mother and was preparing to welcome her first grandchild into the family.
Friends and loved ones have said they never believed Tammy would willingly walk away from the people she cared about or the life she had built.
In the days before she disappeared, investigators believe Tammy traveled north through Oregon.
On October 15, she withdrew $1,000 from a bank account that some family members later said they did not know existed.
She made several stops along the way.
She purchased a prepaid phone card in Red Bluff, stopped at a Taco Bell in Weed, California, bought fuel in Glendale, Oregon and later purchased a prepaid Visa card in Sutherlin.
She spent the night of October 16 at a hotel in Sutherlin before driving north the next morning.
By the afternoon of October 17, she appeared on surveillance video in Albany.
After that, the public trail ends.
When Tammy's car was later discovered east of Sweet Home, many of her personal belongings were still inside.
Investigators reported finding her purse, identification, passport, Social Security card, birth certificate, medications, clothing, dog leashes and other personal items.
Search teams began combing the surrounding mountains.
The terrain was steep, heavily forested and difficult to navigate.
Search and Rescue teams, tracking dogs, drone operators, mountain patrol volunteers and community members searched roads, ravines, waterways and dense timber.
Nothing led them to Tammy.
Months later, one part of the story changed.
Trooper was found alive.
After surviving alone in the wilderness for months, Tammy's Labrador Retriever was safely captured after animal control used food to lure him close enough to rescue.
The community quickly rallied around him.
Donations helped cover his veterinary care before he was adopted into a new home.
Updates shared over the following months showed Trooper slowly settling into a life of comfort after surviving alone in the mountains.
Tammy's other dog, Cope, has never been found.
As the searches continued, Tammy's sister, Airaka, became the steady voice behind the effort to keep Tammy's name in front of the public.
Through hundreds of updates, she shared search efforts, investigator information and requests for the public's help.
When one search ended, another was planned.
The community never stopped showing up either.
Volunteers returned to the mountains.
Drone teams donated their time.
Billboards carrying Tammy's photograph appeared throughout Northern California.
News stations revisited her story.
Friends, coworkers and strangers continued sharing her name, hoping someone might recognize a detail that had been overlooked.
Years passed.
The search continued.
Investigators have pursued numerous leads.
Reported sightings have been investigated.
Searches have been repeated using new technology and different search teams.
Still, Tammy has never been found.
Nearly four years after she disappeared, the questions remain unanswered.
How did Tammy travel from Albany to the remote Forest Service road where her vehicle was later discovered?
What happened after she left the Rite Aid?
Trooper found his way home.
Cope has never been found.
Tammy's family is still searching.
So is the community that refuses to let her be forgotten.
Left in Oregon, Salem. 5,486 likes · 18,356 talking about this. Left in Oregon documents missing persons, cold cases, forgotten history and the stories that still live quietly across Oregon...
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