After She Went Missing In 2012, Her Car Was Found Abandoned Not Far From Her Home, But Her Boyfriend Searched The Vehicle Before Contacting Police
In 2012, Tamala Wells was a 33-year-old mother of two. After graduating from nursing school, she worked in home healthcare. She also lived with her boyfriend, Rickey, and the couple had been together for 17 years.
Yet, in August of that year, Tamala mysteriously disappeared, and over a decade after she went missing, community members have continued searching for answers.
It all began on August 6, 2012. Around 9:00 p.m. that evening, Tamala was last seen by her boyfriend while she drove away from their home, located in the 19000 block of Appleton Street. She was in her vehicle, a 2001 white Pontiac Grand Prix.
Then, at about 10:30 p.m., Tamala and her mother, Donna Davis, spoke on the phone.
She apparently never went back to her residence, though. The next morning, at about 6:30 a.m., Tamala’s 6-year-old daughter called Donna, claiming that her mom hadn’t come home the night prior.
“I answered the phone [and] I could hear a scary voice of a little girl saying, ‘Grandma, my mama didn’t come home last night,'” Donna recalled.
This pushed Donna to begin repeatedly calling her daughter, to no avail, as Tamala did not answer. By the end of that same night, Donna’s phone calls also started going to voicemail.
Tamala’s mother lived in Florida with her husband at the time. But the couple didn’t hesitate to travel to Detroit and begin searching for Tamala.
When they found no signs of her whereabouts, the Detroit Police Department was contacted, and she was reported missing.
Facebook – pictured above is Tamala
Once an investigation was launched, Tamala’s boyfriend, Rickey, reportedly told authorities that she’d been acting suspiciously leading up to her disappearance. Tamala supposedly told Rickey that she needed to go somewhere but didn’t disclose the destination.
Rickey also claimed that Tamala typically went out to grab drinks with her girlfriends one or two times a week. However, he didn’t think she’d leave behind their 6-year-old daughter for such a long period of time.
Police questioned Rickey multiple times, and he took a polygraph test, which he reportedly failed, although he was never charged in connection with Tamala’s case.
Rickey stated that he was not involved in her disappearance and has reportedly maintained custody of their daughter ever since Tamala went missing.
Her car was ultimately discovered abandoned three days after she vanished by Rickey, and some pieces of clothing were found inside.
The vehicle was left on Coventry Road, which was only a couple of blocks away from her home. According to Rickey, a friend of his named Bud had seen the car.
Rickey proceeded to look inside the vehicle afterward and realized some items were missing, including a basketball and a jack from the trunk. At that point, he contacted investigators.
But authorities claimed that Rickey’s search compromised potential evidence that could have been collected.
“He reported the vehicle gone, and then he found it himself, and before calling us,” said Detroit Police Sergeant Marcellus Ball.
“Instead of calling us to come to the scene to investigate, Mr. Tennant took it upon himself to go inside the vehicle and to search the vehicle, and that’s when he called us. And that was very odd and disturbing to me.”
In 2016, Sergeant Ball also stated that “everything” led authorities back to Rickey in “some kind of way.”
Nonetheless, with unclear details and little leads, Tamala’s case has remained unsolved.
“We’re still investigating. Just because you believe something to be true, you have to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, and right now, we can’t do that,” Sergeant Ball had said at the time.
Community members in Detroit are still raising awareness about Tamala’s case years later. Minister Malik Shabazz organized a search last February and continues supporting Tamala’s mom, Donna.
“We don’t believe there are cold cases. We believe there are cases that are solved and there are those that are unsolved. And we’ve been standing with Donna Davis, her mother, for 10 years and six months, and we’ll stand another 10 years, six months if we have to,” Shabazz said.
“But it would be nice if somebody would just say something, and someone knows.”
Tamala was five foot four, weighed about 155 pounds, and had black hair and brown eyes.
Anyone with information regarding her case is urged to contact the Detroit Police Department at (313) 596-5640.
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