Loretta L. Tinkham

• Missing Since 11/03/1994
• Missing From Peoria, Illinois
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 11/19/1963 (61)
• Age 30 years old
• Height and Weight 4'10, 97 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Red hair, hazel eyes. Tinkham may use the last names Skeeter and/or York.

Details of Disappearance

Tinkham was last seen in Peoria, Illinois on November 3, 1994. She has never been heard from again. Tinkham is one of several missing women from the Peoria area; others include Stephanie Gibson and Cheryl Murray. Another woman, Sheryl Murwin, vanished from Peoria in 1994; her skull was found in 2001 and identified in 2003.

Arie Ray Davis was convicted of the murder of an Illinois woman in the late 1990s and was sentenced to death. Prostitutes working in the Peoria area reported that Davis enjoyed strangling and beating them in the early 1990s. Investigators said that he suffered from a sexual dysfunction and felt inferior towards women.

Authorities do not know if the cases are related, but it is possible that the women came into contact with Davis. He died after suffering a heart attack on death row in October 2002.

Davis consistently maintained his innocence in the disappearances. Several unidentified female bodies have been located in the Peoria area in recent years, but the victims are not believed to be related to the missing women's cases.