The Disappearance of Tara Calico

[Echoes]

The Disappearance

On the 20th September 1988, Tara Leigh Calico, who had a passion for writing lists and a love for athletics, borrowed her mother's bright-pink Huffy mountain bike to go on her daily, 2-hour-long, 35-mile cycle along New Mexico State Road 47, only to never return home. 

Prior to leaving her home on Brugg Drive in Rio Communities, just a few miles outside of Belen, New Mexico, she told her mother, Patty Doel, to pick her up were she not back by midday, as she had made plans to play tennis with her boyfriend later that day. 

When Tara did not return by noon, Miss Doel drove along her daughter's usual cycle route to pick her up, but could not find her. This prompted her to contact the local police, who then began to search for Tara.

Despite a desperate search by both Tara Calico's family and the police, only the remains of a Walkman and a cassette tape were found, both of which were confirmed by Patty to be her daughter's. Miss Doel suggested that Tara left these objects behind purposely, in order to create a trail, but this proved inconclusive and neither Tara nor her mother's bicycle were ever located.

Several witnesses came forward to claim that they saw Tara being closely followed by a 'light-coloured pickup truck', and it was later revealed that Tara had receieved multiple 'threatening notes' prior to her disappearance. This lead both the police and Tara Calico's family to believe that foul play was afoot.

The whereabouts of Tara Calico are still unknown, and it is still unclear what happened to her, although it is suspected that she was abducted on that awful summer morning. 

The Polaroid

On June 15th 1989, almost a year after Tara Calico's disappearance, Tara's stepfather John Doel was notified of something strange by a friend.

Almost 1,500 miles away, in Port St. Joe, Florida, a woman discovered a polaroid photo in the car park of a convenience shop. Prior to finding the photo, she claimed that a white Toyota van was parked in the very same parking space as she found the photo, and that the driver of the van looked to be a middle-aged man with a moustache. Despite attempts by the police to intercept and identify this man, he has not been identified.

The photo shows a young woman and a boy, both of whom appear to have their hands bound behind their backs and their mouths covered with black duct tape. The pair appear to be held against their will in the back of what appears to be a vehicle. Upon seeing this photo, Patty Doel quickly became adamant that it was her daughter in the photo. She also pointed out that a marking on the woman's leg was identical to a scar that Tara received in a car accident.

Family members of nine-year-old Michael Henley, who went missing in New Mexico in April 1988 while on a camping trip with his family, contacted police to claim that they thought that the boy shown in the polaroid was their son. Michael's remains, however, were discovered later in 1990 just seven miles from these campsite where he went missing, casting doubt upon the identity of the boy.

To this day, it is still unknown what exactly happened to Tara Calico.

 

 

 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Tara_Calico#Disappearance

https://people.com/crime/tara-calico-polaroid-photo-true-story/

http://lauthinvestigations.com/blog/2018/07/disappearance-tara-calico/

https://allthatsinteresting.com/tara-calico

https://www.crimeonline.com/2018/06/25/tara-calico-update-new-leads-clues-emerge-in-cold-case-of-polaroid-photo-girl-who-disappeared-while-riding-her-bike/

[Ares_Zeusson]

4 hours ago, seanjo said:

Tape over the mouth is a movie depiction of 'silencing' people. So fake.

 

Well maybe it's not & their kidnapper just isn't too bright & actually did emulate film.

Tape over the mouth does work but you've gotta wrap the tape all the way around the head with a gag in the mouth.

[Echoes]

14 hours ago, Goddess of the Mist said:

Haunting..... Missing persons cases are the worst - no closure for anybody.

I wholeheartedly agree - it must be horrible to lose someone, especially your daughter, like this  To make matters worse, Tara Calico's mother, Patty Doel, developed dementia before she passed away in May of 2006, and reportedly "saw Tara in every cyclist who rode by."

[Robotic Jew]

35 miles in 2 hours sounds exhausting if not in a car...

That polaroid has been connected to a large number of cases though. While they do look similar I don't know if there's really any reason to believe this is her over anyone else it has been connected to.

[skliss]

12 hours ago, Robotic Jew said:

35 miles in 2 hours sounds exhausting if not in a car...

That polaroid has been connected to a large number of cases though. While they do look similar I don't know if there's really any reason to believe this is her over anyone else it has been connected to.

Don't they have software today that can compare the two photos and come up with a probability percent that they are the same person? 

[Robotic Jew]

12 hours ago, skliss said:

Don't they have software today that can compare the two photos and come up with a probability percent that they are the same person? 

Maybe? Not sure the accuracy when dealing with 30 year old photographs found in parking lots though.

[Newfrance]

I remember the case from ''Unsolved Mysteries.'' Rumour has it that they know who did it but cannot prosecute due to not enough evidence.............Quite a case, hopefully someday justice will be served..........The polaroid really just make the case more complex..............No one can say for sure if it is her................

[Newfrance]

The FBI stated the polaroid was inconclusive and the British version of the FBI stated it was her.......The truth remains unknown...........

[skliss]

6 hours ago, Robotic Jew said:

Maybe? Not sure the accuracy when dealing with 30 year old photographs found in parking lots though.

I saw a show where they identified Billy the Kid playing  croquet in a newly discovered photo that was taken from a distance. I think it would be worth a try.

[AnaK26]

I lived for eight years in New Mexico and I can tell you from what I experienced, it's a poor state with high crime and lots of shadiness.

There's lots folks "passing through."  We lived in what was considered an "upscale neighborhood" & there was a drive-by shooting a block away from our house.  That was the final straw for us...we moved three mos. later.

So this case doesn't surprise me.  To me there's nothing more tragic than a missing persons case.  Its one thing to lose a family member due to them dying and you don't get over it, but at least you know what happened. 

With a missing person, majority of the time, their family never gets so much as a burial... it's pitiful.

Edited February 14, 2019 by AnaK26
Word omission

[Rolltide]

On 12/27/2018 at 5:06 AM, Robotic Jew said:

35 miles in 2 hours sounds exhausting if not in a car...

That polaroid has been connected to a large number of cases though. While they do look similar I don't know if there's really any reason to believe this is her over anyone else it has been connected to.

Seems about right, ~17mph is about average for an avid biker, especially on a flat road like Route 47

[the13bats]

Seems i recall the Polaroid being debunked explained,  whatever to call it but before replying i looked around for a brief time on google and it appears the picture is still a mystery,

It also seems they ruled out that the picture showed a missing boy who was later found deceased and most have reasons to doubt calico is the girl, some investigators suggested a stagged picture, pointing out things  like the girl appears more to be laying on her hands than them pulled behind her tired and both appear in great shape to be living like that in the back of a van,

So the image is all over the place it had a lot of exposure and no one has solved it, thats both scary that its real victims and relieving to me that if staged it is far more likely it wouldnt be solved, if you were the creep who staged that, would you want the fall out of exposure?

But if those are real victims why havent they been identified, very sad very scary,