Hi all. I first learned of this case in 2018 and it is what brought me here as a member. I've more or less read through most of this thread. Regarding the polaroid... I have some comments/observations I'd like to make. Also, I have found a wee bit of info that wasn't mentioned here, I wouldn't say it's that helpful but is interesting nonetheless.
Some thoughts/questions:
1. First off, for the record, I do not think that is Tara Calico. The whole cover-up story with the boys hitting the bike, hiding the body, etc. makes sense to me, everything clicks. What doesn't click is why a kidnapped girl from NM was taken to FL. Yes, of course, human trafficking can occur across an entire continent, that's understandable, but I would think traffickers would find a closer place for their "transactions". But either way, I don't think that is her in the pic.
2. So this thread was started in 2009 around the time that the newer pics of a boy with a black marker drawn across his mouth made headlines. Every recent article I've read online about this has mentioned a "letter" (or was it two?), an "original" pic of the boy, then of course the version with the black marker. All recent sources simply show 1 pic with the black marker, I see no "original" pic without it, nor do I see anything regarding the contents of the "letter" itself. I'm assuming by letter they are referring to words written on a piece of paper, so wtf did it say?
Early posts in this thread link to the original news articles that contain both pics plus the letter contents. Someone here even linked everything separately on an image hosting site:
http://www.newsherald.com/news/joe-76835-port-rekindled.html
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/4264/koshwrboyandletter.jpg
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/6610/kosxc0unsolvedmystery2.jpg
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/5079/kosxc0unsolvedmystery3.jpg
Well none of these work now. The News Herald link no longer exists, I even tried searching for it on their site, nope. Fox news did a similar one at that time too, same problem. I can understand the image hosting links probably expired, by why are the news links missing for this story? Why doesn't anyone talk about what that letter says? Somebody here mentioned regarding the letter "The numerals are made in a very old style. The seven in particular and the four and the six remind me of the European style of writing numerals." Maybe someone who was around here back then could shed light on that?
3. There's talk about a phone number written on the spine of the book. Experts say that it could be any one of 300 possible combinations, 57 of which are active. I may know one or two things but I'm not a photoshop expert, has anyone here with those skills tried to unsharpen those pixelated numbers on the book? Speaking of which, when zooming in on the book, I noticed what "may" look like a clear/silver bracelet on the girl's wrist. Maybe my eyes are playing tricks?
4. Being that nobody has come forward regarding who they are, could one of these scenarios be possible:
a) They are siblings abused/enslaved by the parents who are twisted/sick individuals.
b) They are not US citizens. Port St Joe is close to Panama City, an area notorious for trafficking, right? Maybe this photo is of the kids when they arrived in Florida from overseas and they were sold to a FL/US resident.
5. The photo was said to be found just outside a convenience store where a white van was parked. However, I don't think that photo was snapped right then and there in the parking lot. I think this photo was taken at another location (that same day) just after the driver or whoever loaded these two kids into the van. By another location, I mean wherever they were being held in FL just prior to being transported in the van. From that point, the driver must have accidentally dropped it when leaving the store.
With that said, I'd like to add two things...
1. That Egghead software shirt... Someone on here mentioned a while back that they were aware an Egghead software employee spoke on another social media site about being approached by LE regarding the girl wearing one of their shirts in the pic. I saw this post and sent a private message to the employee. Apparently, the "full police report" was sent to the company and it sounds like LE knows more about the kids in the pic than we do. For one, they somehow know the girl is a vegetarian, they had "names", as well as pics of the kids before they were kidnapped. The report also acknowledged that the girl was held captive longer than the boy.
I was shocked to hear this. Since LE supposedly knew the identities of these kids, I inquired further about that bit but the employee responded saying memory was vague on that bit. I scared to press for any further details so I just left it at that. I don't know how many missing person reports state whether or not the person was vegetarian or not, but if so that should definitely narrow down the list for girls that went missing in the late 80s.
2. Somebody in the thread photoshopped a close up of the girl without the tape on her mouth. I took that pic and did a bit of photoshopping of my own, clearing it up a bit. What a huge difference, see attached pic.
Also, there is a mobile app called MyHeritage which many people had downloaded a few months back for the sole purpose of its "animation" feature, or as i call it "RE-animation". They were uploading pics of their deceased loved ones and the app edits the image so that it can move or imitate movement as if the person were alive again. It's not 100% but it's sure damn close and creepy AF.
I came up with the idea of trying this with the girl in pic, both with and without tape on her mouth. I figured maybe seeing the face/head move certain ways would give a better look at who she could possibly be, just trying to see her from different angles. You can even make her smile a bit and little things like that. I will upload them here later.
In the meantime, any thoughts/ideas?