NM NM - Tara Calico, 19, Belen, 20 Sept 1988

[kwatson696]

I occasionally google Tara's name to see if there is anything new. I came across an article a while back (it was actually a column) in a New Mexico paper, the Albuquerque Tribune, I believe, that was about Tara's mother, who had passed. Sad that happened before Tara was found.

I found that article too, interesting...........:crazy:

RIO COMMUNITIES - Perhaps Tara Leigh Calico knew how short her time was. Perhaps that compelled her to keep detailed to-do lists, judiciously apportioning time to brush her hair, time to cram in a tennis game or a bike ride or a run between work and college, time to shop for Mom.
http://web.abqtrib.com/archives/news03/091903_news_tara.shtml

 

[Richard]

Bumping case up. It is now 20 years old...

 

[Richard]

Tara Leigh Calico
Missing since September 20, 1988 from Belen, Valencia County, New Mexico.
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: February 28, 1969
Age at Time of Disappearance: 19 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'7; 120 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; green eyes.
Marks, Scars: Calico has a large scar on the back of her right shoulder. She also has a dime-sized brown-colored birthmark on the back of her leg.

See below link for photos.

Circumstances of Disappearance

Tara Leigh Calico was abducted just before noon on September 20, 1988 while on her daily 36 mile bike ride just south of Belen, New Mexico.

Around 11:45 pm, witnesses observed a 1953 Ford pick-up truck, dirty white or light gray -in color, with a white homemade shell, following Tara, who was wearing headphones, down the unpopulated stretch of highway where she was riding, but no one saw the abduction. The bike, a pink Huffy, has never been found. She was 2 miles from home at the time of the sighting. The small, cracked plastic window of the Sony walkman was recovered 19 miles east of N.M. 47 near the remote John F. Kennedy campground. Calico's mother believes that her daughter deliberately discarded the items as a way to mark her trail. Detectives also identified bike tracks on the north side of the shoulder of N.M. 47, near the place the cassette tape was found, where a scuffle might have taken place.

There were numerous unconfirmed sightings of Tara in 1988 and 1989 - mostly in the southern half of the United States.

On June 15, 1989, nine months after her disappearance, a Polaroid photograph of an unidentified female, bound and gagged, was located in a convenience store parking lot in St. Joe, FL. Though authorities have not positively identified the female as Tara, the photograph shows a book placed by the female and has been identified as "My Sweet Audrina" by V.C. Andrews, Tara's favorite Author.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning Calico's whereabouts, please contact:

Valencia County Sheriff's Department 505-865-9604
Email: shr@co.valencia.nm.us


Or
Belen Police Department 505-864-4403


Or
The New Mexico Department of Public Safety 505-827-9297
Email: dps.missingperson@state.nm.us

All information may be submitted on an anonymous basis.

NCIC Number: M-461117833

Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
NCMA
Vanished Children's Alliance
AMW
Albuquerque Tribune
The Doe Network: Case File 257DFNM

LINK:

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/257dfnm.html

 

[shefner]

How wonderful it would be to see this case resolved in some way....
God bless you Tara.....wherever you are

 

[kline]

This case is heartbreaking.
I wish all these missing cases were solved but this one has always been one I prayed would be resolved.
I firmly believe that is Tara in the photo.
Its not a joke or a hoax.
I hope there is a special boiling pit in Hell for the photographer.

 

[thefragile7393]

This one is just creepy and spooky, and so sad. I read the article from the 2007 post....and it mentioned that the Doels had doubts about the identity of the body found that Zuni mountains was that of Michael Henley. If DNA wasn't readily available back in 1990 I wonder if indeed (unless testing HAS been done since then) that the body is really his. If it is, who is to say that he isn't the boy in the photo, and that he might have been killed and put back where he was taken from to make it look like he died there? (Ok, that's really farfetched I know but it's just a thought). If indeed it wasn't him, then WHO is that child????

If the same man is pictured in other pictures, why haven't they been put out there to try and find the guy who is in them? LE, it seems, dosn't believe the pics are real or are of her, but why leave this stone unturned? You'd think they'd look at everything, regardless of how ridiculous it may seem.

 

[Insguru]

A couple of things are bugging me about the picture.....

First, if it was a "hoax" directly related to the Calico abduction, then why would the perp of the hoax, plant the photo in a convenience/gas station store parking lot in a small town in Florida? The odds of it getting discovered in one piece, actually turned in by a concerned citizen, and then actually matched up as being related to the Calico case that happend in New Mexico are really not that great.

My thought is that the photo is either totally unrelated to Calico or it is actually her.

Second, in terms of Henley, it is strange that the Zuni Mts., where he became missing were an hour's drive or so from Calico's home. His parents initially were convinced it was him. Granted, maybe their proximity to the Calico story and a resemblence to their son caused them to believe it was him, but i also think it is possible that after he became missing, he may have come accross an abductor, and ultimately was brought back to the relative area he was found and was buried there (or covered in brush depending on what you find on the internet - i have found very little on this). Perhaps she is somewhere up there too, in the mountains.

Anyway just a couple of thoughts as i try to make sense of this.

 

[Mr. E]

I was looking around, and I came across the case of David Borer, who disappeared from Alaska in 1989, just months before the Tara photo was discovered. I thought David resembled the picture of the boy.
http://www.missingkids.com/missingk...aseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US&caseNum=722859

 

[gaia227]

"Patty Doel said one of the first Valencia County sheriff's detectives on the case called her nearly every day with new and gruesome scenarios of what he believed had happened to Tara.
The most awful, she said, was that she was abducted by a satanic cult who cut off her hands and planted them in an autumnal equinox fertility ritual. Tara was then tied to a post in the bosque for three days and burned at the stake, his story went.
Days later, the same detective told a reporter that Tara was likely a runaway, she said. "He said, `We're all upset with her, but we'll give her a big hug when she comes back,'" she said. "I was so mad.""
http://web.abqtrib.com/archives/news03/091903_news_tara.shtml

???? The Sheriff would say these things to Tara's mother? Was he some kind of sadist pervert? I cannot imagine anyone thinking up and then telling the mother of a beloved missing girl these awful scenarios. It sounds like he was really trying to mess with her head a little. Very VERY weird, if you ask me.

 

[thefragile7393]

Makes me ponder if me maybe he knew something about all this. Belen was and still is a small town, maybe he knew her somehow. Wouldn't surprise me.

 

[BeavisMom62]

It was this case that led me to WS. I was just remembering it one day and googled it and it led me here. Which first led me to the pics linked above about the Iraqi woman's picture which was found in OK at the gas station. That caught my interest. It was funny (not ha, ha) that I was reading and reading that thread, but never noticed the dates. I had figured out early on in my reading that she was from the middle east but of course, by the time I got to the end, the thread was old and had already been solved. Well, that addicted me! I just wish there could be resolution for Tara.

 

[Insguru]

It was this case that led me to WS. I was just remembering it one day and googled it and it led me here. Which first led me to the pics linked above about the Iraqi woman's picture which was found in OK at the gas station. That caught my interest. It was funny (not ha, ha) that I was reading and reading that thread, but never noticed the dates. I had figured out early on in my reading that she was from the middle east but of course, by the time I got to the end, the thread was old and had already been solved. Well, that addicted me! I just wish there could be resolution for Tara.

Sorry, but i'm new to the thread and not following you.....the photo of the "gravely" injured women found in OK is of an Iraqi woman? Please confirm i'm understanding this correctly! thanks!

 

[Kiki]

I looked at the picture of Antreas Chet Cantrell and he had dark eyebrows and the boy in the photo had very fair eyebrows. I'm sure it cannot be Antreas Chet Cantrell.

If the pictures are not a hoax it looks like we could have another Franklin Floyd.

 

[kandoo76]

Is it cerain that the other child is definatly a boy and not a girl?

 

[Mr. E]

Any thoughts on the boy being David Borer?
http://charleyproject.org/cases/b/borer_david.html

 

[gaia227]

Sorry, but i'm new to the thread and not following you.....the photo of the "gravely" injured women found in OK is of an Iraqi woman? Please confirm i'm understanding this correctly! thanks!

That is the word. Apparently an Iraqi Vet sent pictures to his father and one of them was of a dead Iraqi woman. Why he would send his father a photo like that I cannot answer.

Here is the other thread where they talk about the photo being identified.

http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50654&highlight=tara+calico&page=26

 

[Mr. E]

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publishe...4&topicId=100020825&docId=l:851671570&start=4

Investigators say they know who killed Tara, but without a body they're having trouble gathering evidence.

 

[CrimeSolver]

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publishe...4&topicId=100020825&docId=l:851671570&start=4

Investigators say they know who killed Tara, but without a body they're having trouble gathering evidence.

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

 

[PattyCake]

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publishe...4&topicId=100020825&docId=l:851671570&start=4

Investigators say they know who killed Tara, but without a body they're having trouble gathering evidence.

did not know any of this. thanks for the link. very interesting. I really hope it's true and not just old town rumor and speculation. I come from a town that has had the worst of crimes never come to fruition... because none of it was true.

just makes me pause & pray it's true on this case. florida picture looks like her but the pic also looks like one of my sisters too if I covered her mouth. it could be a lot of girls.

 

[Hope4Lost]

The story about Tara being hit while on her bike and buried to cover it up makes a lot more sense than a kidnapping with mysterious photos dropped in all sorts of places. Rarely do genuinely bizarre things happen. It's usually the simplest solution.