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Hi there and welcome!
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I'm Dr. Tana McCoy and I am the founder of The Delphi Voice Project. I felt compelled to start this project after my own experience as a victim this summer. More traumatic than the actual crime was the complete lack of due process afforded to me by local law enforcement. I would take long walks in the woods to try to destress and started listening to true crime podcasts to think about something other than my situation and the overwhelming frustration of finding no justice and having no voice. I was familiar with The Delphi Murders but, within the context of my own experiences, the lack of an arrest after Libby provided audio and video evidence incensed me.
Dr. Tana McCoy
I had compiled many pieces of irrefutable evidence to prove a local con man had stolen my car title, forged it and reported it stolen. When I realized local law enforcement wasn't going to help, I contacted the Attorney General, FBI, State Police, Department of Justice, Mayor's Office and many others. I spent well over 100 hours to no avail-the police did no meaningful investigation and my car was released to him.
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The fight for justice took a horrible toll-emotionally and physically. I lost 10 pounds and experienced crippling anxiety and insomnia. My Dad said I aged 10 years in a month. In the end, I had to accept temporary defeat, look for a good civil rights attorney, and for my own sanity, move on. I was too close to the situation. But, in order to find meaning from the experience, I also decided to channel my frustration, anger, and sense of injustice into helping someone else--Abby and Libby. I vowed the evidence THEY collected would not be in vain. I just lost a car. They lost their lives. I suddenly didn't feel hopeless anymore. So, in a sense, they saved me.
I have extensive experience in the criminal justice field in a variety of different capacities. I began my professional career as a child abuse investigator in rural Arkansas. Oh goodness, I was so young and green! The children's stories were absolutely horrifying (but certainly brought life to my lectures later as a professor). Being a young mother at the time, I quickly found the experience emotionally overwhelming particularly when young children similar to my son's age were involved. I was also on call 24/7 making less than $14,000 a year. I smartly decided my emotional health and ability to be an effective parent was at stake and fortunately got a job as a parole officer for serious and persistent juveniles. Now, these were kids I could get onboard with! But, instead of spending each weekend worrying about my client's welfare and safety as before, I worried about the safety of the community! Actually, I loved these kids. I saw their humanity and, almost without exception, the common thread of untreated trauma. This was during the incarceration binge in the 1990s and Arkansas was pouring its money into building prisons as opposed to hiring more social workers, and increasing training and pay beyond $14,000. So, off most went to prison and off I went to graduate school to hopefully acquire a new skill set to upset their trajectories. Full disclosure--the career move wasn't entirely altruistic. I had seen The Silence of the Lambs and really started to fancy myself a Clarice Starling. Whatever the motivation, I never became Agent Starling. I fell in love with higher education, received my Master's and eventually my doctorate in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University in Texas.
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I initially worked as a Research Associate for the court system in Harris County Texas and then as a Research Scientist at a historically black university (Go Prairie View!). There, I focused on disproportionate minority contact, girls, and juvenile sex offenders. Great experience. Great people. Until this past year, I was in academia at universities in Arkansas and then Chicago for 13 years as a tenured Associate Professor. I also Chaired the criminal justice program for six years. I love teaching and the most rewarding experience of my career has been working with students.
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My favorite classes to teach have been research methods, statistics and serial murder. Coincidentally, many speculate a serial murderer may be responsible for The Delphi Murders. I've also published research in a number of areas including women on death row, the Karla Faye Tucker execution and sentencing outcomes for defendants with court-appointed attorneys. My work in court processing lead me to start a mitigation consulting company which I presently do. I work with defense attorneys and conduct a detailed investigation of the defendant's social history so sentencing decisions are based on the totality of the person's life. In addition to the sensational one-dimensional newspaper article on the front page of The Chicago Tribune, the traumatized child let down by the overwhelmed, underpaid childcare investigator twenty years earlier also gets a seat at the plea bargaining table. Basically, I tell their story. We all have one. They deserve to be told.
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I absolutely loved Chicago except for one small issue--the weather. So, the pandemic provided an opportunity to do what I had been threatening each winter for the past decade-get to a warmer climate. While I continue to do my mitigation consulting, my recent experience as a crime victim has compelled me to tell Libby and Abby's story and advocate for their due process rights. They too deserve a voice. While I have previously co-founded an directed a nonprofit (Juvenile Justice Center of Arkansas), this is my first foray into investigative journalism. Please join me by supporting The Delphi Voice Project. If I'm willing to relocate to Delphi Indiana in the winter, hopefully you will do your part. And check out my vita for additional information about my qualifications. Our progress and efforts will be chronicled in our blog. Please contact us if you have suggestions, input, or questions. And please, if you can, support our efforts to bring justice to Abby and Libby and continue our advocacy for murdered children for years to come.
