TARA WAS in her home with her pets. She had been shot in the non dominant side of her head.
Her body showed signs of tampering, post mortem.
Officers Thomas Jones, Stephen Hodges and Detective Brad Hylander closed and exceptionally cleared Tara’s death case
in just 4 hours.
In following days helpful, confidential information we provided to Brad Hylander went straight to Thomas Wolf who had been behaving quite suspiciously. Wolf would call us and repeat what we thought had been a private conversation.
It was also VERY concerning to have Brad Hylander quip,
“well at least she wasn’t raped.”
My daughter’s death cause was written up as a suicide, so why would sexual assault be mentioned?
We waited anxiously for the toxicology and pathology results and were devastated to learn absolutely nothing had been done! Too late. On Wolf’s orders Tara’s body had been directly cremated
by Wells Cremation within hours of her death.
We were anxious for what Brad Hylander’s investigation turned up. After total silence I called Hylander in February of 2017 and asked him the case status. He seemed surprised, “What investigation? I’m not doing one. Her case is closed. Just because you have your suspicions …doesn’t mean I have to do an investigation.”
How arrogant!
Tara’s family lived in Canada and he thought we had no idea of MS laws. Despite his dishonesty he was rewarded by the SPD and promoted to rank of Master Sergeant (!) before quitting the SPD on January 28, 2018, allegedly to run his family’s electrical business in Walls, MS with his brother, Bubba Hylander. Stephen Hodges quit the force claiming PTSD and took his service dog with him, and entertains as “Stephen Michael” in coffee houses as part of a group called “Mississhippie”. Officer Thomas Jones incident reporting was full of errors. It’s amazing he got this far in life. Poorly educated, he doesn’t know his geography and claimed to have attended at the scene
with an officer that wasn’t even there!
We heard Hylander severely underestimated
my tenacious pursuit for the truth
and wishes he had “not got involved.”
*
The Southaven Police insist my daughter took her own life despite a peer reviewed forensic bloodstain pathology report published by a well respected former Mississippi Bureau of Investigation crime lab agent
SHOWING IRREFUTABLE PROOF Of HOMICIDE.
No. This is NOT a case of incompetence or stupidity.
Besides Hylander, Jones, and Hodges, chief Steven Pirtle resigned under cloudy circumstances, and
deputy Mark Little, the most vocal in calling Tara’s death a suicide despite him having ZERO proof, retired in 2021.
Pounders and DA Champion died.
Brent Vickers, present at the death scene
not only stayed on but was promoted as police chief.
We tried to communicate with him; he ignored us.
May 20, 2025 *Seth Kern was made SPD police chief. We hoped he would be the honest one and break the chain of deceit. He was sent Second Look’s bloodstain and victimology reports showing irrefutable proof of Tara’s COD being a homicide yet Kern maintains the SPD’s status quo that Tara’s death was a suicide.
He does admit he has NO PROOF of this to show us.
Kern blames the DeSoto County Coroner’s office. Does he not realize the police and coroner have to work together?
https://www.google.com/search?q=Mississippi+death+investigation+Coroner+and+Police+need+to+work+together&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-ca&client=safari
*Kern needs to educate himself on suicide antemortem behaviours. Perhaps he should take the course offered by Second Look Training and Forensics on this subject. It’ll make him a smarter, more aware team leader.
AND INSULT TO INJURY…
IT’S A FACT THOMAS WILLIAM WOLF HAS BEEN USING TARA’S EXCELLENT CREDIT TO ACQUIRE MORTGAGES, HOMEGOODS AND VEHICLES ,
AS HIS CREDIT SCORE IS POOR.
THAT‘S CALLED IDENTITY THEFT.
AKA
FRAUD.