NORWICH – Flowers litter the lawn in front of the home of Tammy L. Periard. Although the facts of her death are getting the attention of local residents, those closest to Tammy want her to be remembered for the person she was and the life she led.

Tammy, the oldest of five girls was born and raised in Norwich. “She was very talented and had an energetic spirit,” said Tammy’s oldest niece, Danielle Conant. According to Conant, Tammy, being the oldest sister, was the leader and when there was a problem everyone would go to her. “She was a family-oriented person, who loved spending time with us.”

Periard was planning a trip with her niece to Turning Stone Casino in April. “We were going to go see a chef, my aunt loved to cook,” said Conant. This weekend the duo was planning a trip to the Carousel Mall in Syracuse. “Tammy had a great sense of style,” Conant said. The niece added that she and Tammy were very close and spent a lot of time together. “She will be missed greatly and we are simply devastated about what happened,” she said.

“In place of having her own children, she devoted a lot of time to her nieces and nephews,” Conant said, explaining that Tammy was very excited about being an aunt. Tammy often spent time volunteering for her nieces’ Girl Scout troop. “She helped out quite a bit with her niece’s troop,” said Cindy Martin from the Indian Hills Council’s Binghamton office. “Everyone was grateful for her help.”

Conant said her aunt loved to garden and cook. “We used to call her our own Martha Stewart,” she said. According to her niece, Tammy had a green thumb, loved the outdoors, arts and crafts and made beautiful wedding cakes. “I wanted her to be the one to make my wedding cake,” Conant said.

Conant says the family was devoted to finding Tammy.

“When you hear about murder, and it’s someone you’re related to, you’re not thinking about the facts, you’re just thinking ‘oh my God.”

Conant said initially her family thought Tammy might just be hurt and unable to contact them, but now that they know that isn’t the case, they want to know the facts as to why this happened.

Periard worked for Kelly Management, where she managed several Norwich area apartment buildings. “She was always very busy with the apartments,” said Conant. “She was on call 24 hours a day.” Conant said despite the stresses of the job, Tammy dealt with it well and never complained. “She never burdened us if she was dealing with something personally. She was just glad to spend the time with us and happy to be with us,” said Conant.

“She was the type of person you could talk to,” said Michelle Sayles, a tenant of Periard’s. “She would come over and play with my kids sometimes. She was just a very friendly, caring person.”

“It’s a shame this had to happen,” said another tenant, Mike Demuth. “I don’t understand why someone would do this to such an awesome person.” Demuth claims he was working with Tammy to switch apartments with the victim’s accused murderer, Daniel Brown, Sr. According to Demuth, Tammy never mentioned Brown. “She kept all her personal business to herself,” he said. Tammy’s family agreed, saying they never heard Tammy talk about problems she had with tenants.