Sailor Missing From Guided Missile Ship for 8 Months Turns Herself In

A Ventura County sailor whose mysterious absence from her ship prompted an eight-month search has turned up alive on the East Coast, a Navy spokesman said Thursday.

But where and how Petty Officer Tambra Leigh Morrison had spent her time since she vanished Aug. 3, 1986, from the Port Hueneme-based guided missile ship Norton Sound are among questions Navy investigators still want answered.

The Navy said an “internal” and “routine” investigation was under way as Morrison remained confined to the barracks of the Norfolk, Va., naval base.

‘Unauthorized Absence’

“We are treating this as a normal unauthorized absence,” said Chief Petty Officer Paul Versailles, assistant public affairs officer of the Naval Surface Force Pacific Fleet in San Diego. Asked if there was concern that the 22-year-old Morrison was involved in any espionage, he said: “I have no indication that anything like that is involved.”

On April 13, Morrison, accompanied by her mother, Sandra Hill of Statesville, N.C., surrendered to base authorities in Norfolk.

Versailles said he did not know what prompted her action. Her relatives could not be reached Thursday.

Morrison vanished under mysterious circumstances.

A member of the Norton Sound’s telephone repair crew, she had indicated to shipmates that she intended to return the following day to the vessel.

“As she was leaving the ship, she waved to a friend on board and said ‘See you tomorrow,’ ” Versailles said last August.

Possessions Left Behind

Morrison left bank records and other personal possessions in her ship bunk, apparently having departed with only her car and the clothes she was wearing.

Authorities learned in November that her blue, two-door Honda Civic had been found abandoned several weeks earlier at a truck stop in Corning, off Interstate 5 between Sacramento and Red Bluff, Versailles said.

Morrison, then 21, and her father, a Buena Park engineer, were very close, friends of the family said. It was not known whether Morrison had been in touch with her father.

Versailles said the Navy’s search for Morrison had remained active since last summer. Morrison had also been sought by her shipmates, and her father and family friends went to the media to seek the public’s help in finding her.

If Morrison is charged with unauthorized absence or desertion, Versailles said, she will be subject to a court-martial.