From 13th District Attorney General Bryant Dunaway:

In 1994, James Christopher Tatrow, TDOC #265920, was the ring-leader in the kidnapping, torture and murder of ROGER DALE ZAMMIT, age 18 and JOHN ALLEN HARRY, age 26.

Tatrow with some help from his co-defendants, kidnapped these two men and tied them up in his home. Over a period of 3 days, he tortured, beat and stabbed them. After tying them up, he forced his victims to lay in the bathtub where he used a paracord rope to strangle Roger Zammit to death. John Harry tried to run away in the backyard. Tatrow shot him with a rifle in the head, killing John. Tatrow then wrapped their bodies in woven wire; he tied concrete blocks to the victims and then threw their bodies off of Hurricane Bridge into Center Hill Lake.

In July 1996, a jury convicted Tatrow of two counts of first degree murder and 2 counts of especially aggravated kidnapping. He received two life sentences to run concurrently. According to the law at the time, he would be eligible for parole after serving 25 years. The law has changed since then.

Today, April 8, 2025, I attended a parole hearing for inmate James Christopher Tatrow. This was his third. Myself and several members of the family of Roger Zammit attended to speak in opposition to Tatrow’s early release.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the hearing officer made his recommendation to decline parole due to the seriousness of the offense commenting that release would depreciate the seriousness of the crime.

Please take a moment today to remember ROGER DALE ZAMMIT and JOHN ALLEN HARRY. Their lives were taken and their families continue to grieve.