NM NM - Tara Woodman, 18, Albuquerque, Oct 2004

KLAGETOH, Ariz. — The first thought that comes to mind when the family remembers Tara Lynn Woodman is her laughter, her sense of humor and outgoing personality.

“She was a beautiful and loving person, full of life and energy,” according to her aunt, Marlene Forster.

Woodman moved to Albuquerque in 2004 and later was reported missing. Now, almost three years exactly after her skeletal remains were found Feb. 25, 2005, on a mesa in West Albuquerque, she is finally coming home to be laid to rest.

Detective Rich Lewis of Albuquerque Police Department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, who took over the case about 1-1/2 years ago from Homicide, said Friday, “Woodman was reported missing to our agency in 2005, about the same time we discovered the skeletal remains.”

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Much like her identity, the secret to Tara Woodman's death is out there, somewhere.

Detectives plan to find out who killed her, just as they located her name last week - about three years after Woodman's skeleton was discovered by hikers on Albuquerque's West Mesa.

Using her recovered skull, a Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department's forensic artist recreated a facsimile of the young woman's face.

And the skull reconstruction, the first of its kind in Albuquerque, broke the case open as an artist's sketch prompted a flood of tips from the Gallup area.

That's Tara Woodman, 18, the callers said.

Aspiring poet. Skilled athlete. Beloved cousin, daughter, niece, granddaughter and friend.

Fresh out of high school, Woodman had moved to Albuquerque from Sanders, Ariz., setting her own path away from the Navajo Reservation and her very large family there.

"Living on the reservation isn't an easy life by all means, but it wasn't difficult for her in a violent sense. She has a very loving family, and she loved them," said her uncle, Mark Forster, from his home in Sanders. "She wrote to family saying I will contact you, but don't contact me. She was starting her own life."

Still, when family stopped hearing from Woodman in the fall of 2004, they started looking for her. They eventually filed a missing persons report with Albuquerque police on Feb. 28, 2005.

The report said she'd last been living with Paul Eugene Perea, then 28. Woodman was Perea's girlfriend, though he was married at the time, according to court records.

Police have not named suspects in the case and would not comment on Perea.

Perea, now 32, is serving 14 years in prison for raping a 13-year-old girl in January 2005, the same month Woodman's skeleton was found.

He also served time at age 19 after he was convicted of beating his abusive father to death at an Albuquerque softball park.

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