INSIDE THE DISAPPEARANCE OF TARA CALICO AND THE FRIGHTENING PHOTOS LEFT BEHIND
Inside The Disappearance Of Tara Calico And The Frightening Photos Left Behind
On the morning of September 20, 1988, 19-year-old Tara Calico left her home in Valencia County, New Mexico, to go for her daily bike ride.
Her route, along New Mexico State Road 47, was the same every day. Her mother, Patty Doel, knew it well because the pair of them often traveled it together. Lately, though, Patty had been skipping rides.
A recent incident in which a car drove aggressively close to her — deliberately passing her multiple times — had made her nervous and less inclined to ride. Tara, however, continued the tradition, cheerfully refusing her mother’s suggestion that she carry mace.
It was the same sunny stretch she had been riding for years, and nothing bad had ever happened. As she headed out the door, Tara jokingly told her mother that she’d better come looking for her if Tara didn’t show up by noon. She had a tennis date with her boyfriend at 12:30 that she was determined to keep.
But noon came and went, and Tara Calico never came home.
Tara Calico Vanishes In Broad Daylight
Wikimedia CommonsNew Mexico’s State Road 47, the site of Tara Calico’s disappearance.
It was the beginning of a mystery that would, in time, consume the nation. But for ten months, Patty Doel and her husband John heard nothing.
On the afternoon Tara disappeared, Patty drove up and down their bike route, looking for any sign of her daughter. When she couldn’t find her, Patty contacted the police.
The search party they put together located neither Tara Calico nor her bike, and nobody who was questioned witnessed any kind of accident or abduction.
A few people recalled seeing Tara along the road, and one or two remembered a light-colored pickup truck they thought might have been riding along with the cyclist.
Police also found pieces of Calico’s Walkman and a cassette tape, which Patty would later become convinced were broken and dropped deliberately, part of her daughter’s effort to leave a trail. But Tara and her pink bike weren’t found.
Without compelling evidence of foul play, police began to question John and Patty about Tara’s home life. Was their daughter happy? Did she ever talk about travel?
They suspected that the 19-year-old had run away from home — a hypothesis her family vehemently denied, describing Tara as a cheerful girl brimming with enthusiasm.
“There was just so much she wanted to fit into a day. She was like a little machine. It was amazing,” said a heartbroken John Doel, Tara’s stepfather.
Patty and John waited — and waited. But no further evidence was forthcoming. Tara Calico had simply vanished.
A Cold Case Heats Up As A Disturbing Clue Appears
YouTubeOne of the last photos of Tara Calico.
Then, on June 15, 1989, nearly nine months after Tara Calico’s disappearance, a mysterious Polaroid picture was discovered in a convenience store parking lot in Port St. Joe, Florida, nearly 1,500 miles from where Tara had disappeared.
The eerie photo showed a teenage girl and a young boy lying on sheets and a pillow.
Both have duct tape over their mouths and appear to be bound.
YouTubeA mysterious polaroid found in 1989 that’s believed to show Tara Calico.
The woman who found the picture immediately called the police, telling them that a white Toyota van had been parked in the spot just before she got there. A mustachioed man in his thirties had been the driver.
Police staged a roadblock to intercept the vehicle, but the attempt to locate either it or its driver proved unsuccessful.
The polaroid gained national attention when it was shown on the television program America’s Most Wanted. Friends who tuned in to the show called Patty, telling her to look at the polaroid — was that Tara?
When Patty Doel first saw the photo, she wasn’t certain. But the more she looked, the surer she became.
The girl in the picture had a discolored streak on her thigh, a scar just like the one Tara had gotten in a car accident when she was younger. And then there was the dog-eared paperback next to her: V. C. Andrews was one of Tara’s favorite authors.
Patty was convinced: a little older and without makeup, Tara was looking back at her from the polaroid.
But the authorities weren’t so sure.
Experts at the Los Alamos National Laboratory doubted it was her, and the FBI was unable to offer conclusive evidence either way. Scotland Yard in the U.K., however, took a crack at the photo and concluded the girl was indeed Tara Calico.
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