Teresa Faye Hammon was eighteen for less than a month when she disappeared from Sacramento on May 8, 1981. After an argument, she left the house she shared with her boyfriend and his mother. Teresa failed to appear at her early morning shift at Burger King the following morning. Articles of Teresa’s belongs were found scattered throughout Sacramento dumpsters, but 38 years later, her case remains cold.
I’d never heard of Teresa Faye Hammon when I stumbled across her name during a casual, late-night scroll through NamUs. After writing about other poorly-publicized Sacramento cold cases from the 1970’s and 1980’s, I wasn’t surprised her name was unfamiliar. NamUs pages are typically sparse, but I can usually get some context from newspaper archives, forums, and missing persons websites.
That wasn’t the case with Teresa Hammon.
I can find so little about her early life or the circumstances of her disappearance. The only Sacramento Bee article mentioning the case was published one week after Teresa’s disappearance. This maybe due to the fact that Teresa was, unsurprisingly, treated like a runaway in the early days of the case, thereby limiting the amount of media attention.
I became so frustrated by the lack of contextual information on this case that, during my West Coast vacation, I got off my ass, into the car, and down to the Sacramento Library to do some old-timey research. In the Sacramento Room—my favorite place in Sac County—I spent three hours blindly combing through area yearbooks, city directories, and phone books dating from 1955 to 1981.
I didn’t find much. But, through the bits and pieces I’ve been able to collect through my obsessive research, an incredibly rough sketch of Teresa’s life appears.
Teresa Faye Hammon was the fourth child born to Maxine Fay Young on April 12, 1962 in Placer County and James Templeton Berg. Unfortunately, her father passed away five months before Teresa’s birth, leaving Maxine to raise newborn Teresa, two-year-old Tamera, four-year-old James, and six-year-old Jackie—as a single mother.
Eventually, Maxine married Paul Dean Hammon, a man employed as a truck driver—according to the Sacramento Bee—with whom she had a son, Paul Dean Hammon, Junior, in 1965. The only record of this marriage is from their 1980 divorce, so it’s unclear at what point Paul Sr. entered Maxine’s life. I don’t know when Teresa changed her surname to “Hammon” or why—based on the thin timeline alone, one could assume that Paul Sr. may have been the only paternal figure Teresa ever knew, so perhaps that’s why she changed her name.
I scoured public records, but couldn’t find addresses for Maxine or Paul Hammon, so I don’t know if Maxine and the kids—likely only Teresa and Paul Jr., given that the eldest two married in the late 1970’s—relocated after the couple’s 1980 divorce. But, according to the Sacramento Bee, Teresa started 1981 living with her mother in Elverta, roughly 20 miles north of Sacramento proper.
While one of the two published photos of Teresa is obviously from a yearbook, I still can’t figure out where she went to school. However, James and Tamera Berg appear to have attended Rio Linda High School—graduating in 1975 and 1978, respectively—so I can’t help but wonder if Teresa did, too. The last Rio Linda yearbook available on Ancestry.com is from 1977, but I cannot find Teresa Berg or Teresa Hammon in it.
On Tuesday, May 5, 1981—just three days before she disappeared—Teresa moved-in with Cliff Thompson, her 18-year-old boyfriend, and his mother in Citrus Heights, according to Teresa’s mother.
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Cliff Thompson is a major question mark in this case: he does not appear to have spoken directly with the media about Teresa’s disappearance, and his mother’s name wasn’t included in the Sac Bee article. Despite how important it could’ve been in investigating the disappearance, no source lists the address or even the neighborhood in which Teresa and Cliff lived.
At least half of my time in the Sacramento Room was spent looking for Cliff Thompson. After flipping through six yearbooks (plus my Ancestry.com yearbook searches), four phonebooks, and nine city directories from the 1970’s and 1980’s, I finally found a Cliff L. Thompson, whose occupation was living as a Burger King clerk, living at 6717 Piper Court in Citrus Heights in 1980 and 1981.
Subsequently, I did some digging and found a Cliff Thompson in Mesa Verde High School’s Class of 1980. Unfortunately, he was one of several graduates whose picture was not included in the 1980 yearbook.
It’s unclear what exactly prompted Teresa to move—Was it familial strife? Convenience? Proximity to work or school? Taking the relationship to the next level?—but Maxine told the Bee her daughter left on good terms; she didn’t believe the move was connected to Teresa’s disappearance.
We never had any knock-down fights. She said, ‘Mom, I don’t want to leave you mad.’
Maxine Young Hammon, as quoted in the Sacramento Bee
On the evening of Friday, May 8, 1981, Teresa reportedly got into an argument with Cliff, after which Teresa left home on foot.
It’s unclear what, if anything, occurred that night, as the timeline jumps to 6 AM on Saturday, May 9th, when Teresa was scheduled to open at a Burger King in North Highlands.
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This Burger King doesn’t appear to exist anymore, so after perusing the 1981 Sacramento Suburban City Directory, I’m pretty confident it was located at 6813 Watt Ave, six miles from where I believe she and Cliff Thompson were living in Citrus Heights.
According to her manager, Dave Loveless, Teresa didn’t arrive at work as scheduled. It’s not clear when or by whom, but eventually someone called the police and Teresa was reported missing.
In the days following her disappearance, Teresa’s belongings were discovered discarded near the Burger King at which she worked.
The specifics are once, again, kind of murky: according to the Charley Project, Teresa’s clothes and identification were found behind a PayLess Shoestore at Watt Avenue and Elkhorn Boulevard.
However, according to the Sac Bee, while searching for clues with his mother near the Burger King, Paul Hammon stumbled upon an auto parts store’s dumpster containing Teresa’s work uniform, panties, personal letters, yearbook, and a paper bag with her charred driver’s license and social security card. It’s unclear if this occurred on May 9th or May 10th.
The “Runaway” Treatment
The case was initially treated as a runaway, as seems to be the case with so many cold cases from this era.
In the week following her disappearance, Sacramento investigators did manage to interview Teresa’s friends, none of whom had heard from her. Maxine told investigators that her daughter wasn’t the runaway type, telling the Bee:
It’s not like her. I’m just terrified. She’s been pretty well-protected all her life. She’s not street-wise.
Even Lieutenant Ray Root—who also spearheaded the Sac Sheriff’s East Are Rapist taskforce—admitted Teresa didn’t seem the type to runaway. And yet, the case appears to have been a low-priority. As the Sacramento Bee put it:
Root said other than the personal effects found in trash bins, there is no indication of foul play.
Sorry, but no indication of foul play? Lt. Root failed to mention that some of the aforementioned effects were found partially charred! Is that not suspicious? Am I the crazy one here?!
Anyway, Root called the case “very strange,” and said they’d run out of leads only a week into the investigation.
Eventually over the last 38 years—there’s so little information about this case that the exact date is unclear—investigators stopped treating this like a runaway and shifted towards homicide, but that has not caused the case to break.
After remarrying in 1983, Maxine died in 1990 in Elverta. Paul Hammon, Jr., Teresa’s youngest brother, passed away in Texas in 2017. It looks like the Berg children, Paul Hammon Sr., and Teresa’s step-parents might still be kicking, but like with much in this case, I can’t be sure. I also don’t know what happened to Cliff Thompson, or when the case shifted from runaway to homicide.
What do you think happened to Teresa Faye Hammon?
It’s hard to discuss theories in this case with so little information available about the crime and the surrounding parties.
I would also love to speak to someone who knew Teresa or remembers the disappearance. It’s so hard to give this case the detailed coverage it deserves with with so little information available. I want to know who Teresa was in life: what hobbies she enjoyed, what her favorite song was, where she grew up. Without this contextual information, this story will remain two-dimensional.
1981 wasn’t that long ago; there’s probably someone out there who knows something and is still alive. Inspired by all the ice-cold cases that have been solved recently, I truly believe that more eyeballs on Teresa’s case might help close it.
My name is leann and I’ve known theresa since we were in elementary school. Her disappearance has always bothered me and I keep feeling like if the police would have actually investigated her case they probably would have figured out what happened. I ran into her at school a couple of days before we graduated and I know her boyfriend was sleeping around and as soon as we graduated she was going to leave him. As far as i know her brother still lives in the old family home on el verano ave in elverta. If you are interested in anything else about her send me a text to 406-579-3342
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I knew her brother. I remember when this happened. I read Paul Jr passed away in Texas a few years ago.
Paul Jr passed away in Missouri not Texas. I am married to Jackie (Jack) Berg, the disappearance of my husband’s sister has haunted each of the Berg/Hammon family members.
My name is Debbie and I knew Theresa in high school and still today I wonder if there ever was a resolution. But it seems not really. This is the first article & pictures I’ve seen but I knew it was her the second I saw the high school picture. That’s Theresa! I recognize her! It was kind of exciting but still so sad and reading all that was the same as if I was reading it years ago. It all came back. I don’t know or think I knew her boyfriend but i remember the name. I do remember she worked at the Burger King that used to be near the corner of Watt Avenue & Elkhorn Boulevard (on Watt on the northwestern corner but not right at the corner. Maybe the second business. but that has been gone for many years. Demolished. That whole corner has changed.
I think she was a year older than me. She probably would have graduated a year ahead of me in 1981. We went to high school together.
She was always a kind and sweet friend to me, I think to everyone. She was such a pretty young lady. We would have sleepovers or just listen to music in the little shed type structure made into her bedroom. I can remember black lights & posters that glowed. It was really cool to a teenager. I remember the room being kinda damp & cool. I can’t remember if the floors were really all that finished but there was carpet down, I think. It always smelled funny, possibly due to the age & dampness but it wasn’t bad & still pretty neat!
I didn’t have many friends but I remember that it was nice she wanted to be my friend.
Theresa, you are remembered, thought about & I will never forget you. & I missed you then & still do today.
I don’t think there was anything I could add that would or could help but i don’t think she really was the type to run away like that & not have any communication ever. I’m sorry Even tho she was kind a free spirit. So very sad. I’m sorry!
Thank you for the story about Theresa and the hard work everyone has done on the case and for the updates as well. I wish I heard some good news or the case had been solved. But glad she’s been remembered!
Thank you very much for sharing.