Sacramento County investigators seek answers in cold case death of 1-year-old Alyssa Tait

By Lee Anne Denyer

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) — Family members of one-year-old Alyssa Jane Tait are asking anyone with information about the death of the baby to come forward as Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office investigators are reexamining her case.

“What a sweetheart she was,” said Ginger McGarr, Alyssa’s maternal great-grandmother. “She had a good smile, and she loved to be loved on. She was just very precious.”

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said Alyssa died on May 18, 2005, from blunt force trauma injuries. Investigators believe those injuries were sustained sometime between the evening of May 17 and the morning of May 18, but so far no one has been held responsible.

“When I first came into the child abuse unit, I was handed a letter with a picture from Ginger that had been mailed into the sheriff, and it was asking us to not forget about Alyssa and to try to find justice for her,” said Sgt. John Sydow.

Sydow said Tuesday that advancements in investigative resources and a fresh look at the case lead him to believe the case is solvable. He is hopeful people may come forward with information they didn’t know was pertinent at the time.

“This is one where I think we can actually move the needle on it and come to a resolution,” he said. “It is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with very tiny pieces.”

According to Sydow, investigators don’t fully believe statements made by Alyssa’s mother, father and a roommate of the now-former couple are fully truthful. He stressed, however, that none of the three are believed to be a suspect nor is there any indication one is a stronger potential person of interest than another.

“It has been a bit of a challenge trying to figure out exactly who was where, when and who is being honest and who’s not being honest and who’s leaving things out and so on,” he said. “We believe that all three of them have knowledge.”

Officials said one of the parents went to work, but timelines are murky.

McGarr and her daughter, Alyssa’s grandmother Kim Keena, told KCRA 3 that Alyssa’s mother went to work overnight and came home to their Carmichael apartment to find Alyssa in distress. Keena remembered her daughter frantically calling for the family to come to the hospital.

“Just a few weeks before that, we were loving on (Alyssa) and playing with her at her birthday, and, you know, just a few weeks later, we’re saying goodbye,” Keena said.

She said sometimes, still, it’s too difficult for her and her daughter – whose name was not given by the sheriff’s office – to talk about Alyssa’s death.

“This is the first glimmer of hope that we’ve had that possibly things might change, and we could see justice for Alyssa,” Keena said.

After nearly 20 years of questions, the family hopes answers are close. McGarr said she stopped writing letters and sending pictures of her great-granddaughter to the sheriff’s office on Alyssa’s birthday and the anniversary of her death after investigators told her there was nothing they could do.

“I wrote letters to the sheriff’s department and I said, ‘Please do not forget her. We need justice for her,’” she said.

She said she was shocked when, years later, deputies arrived at their home last week.

“We’re just praying and praying that something comes of this now,” McGarr said.

The sheriff’s office is asking anyone who knows the family, Alyssa or has heard something about her death over the decades to please contact authorities.

Investigators said they’ll reexamine evidence collected in 2005 with technology that wasn’t previously available and plan to reinterview the parties involved in hopes of revealing new information.

“If anybody has any information that they can offer the sheriff’s department in this case, just think of that beautiful little face and don’t let justice not be served,” Keena said.

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