FL FL - Tara Exposito, 14, Gulfport, 6 November 2002

[coco]

Couldn't find any threads on this case so thought I would post-

-Tara Exposito*, missing since November 6 2002 from her family home in Gulfport, Florida

-Human remains discovered January 7 2003 in an East Hillsborough citrus grove

-Remains thought to be those of a white female, aged 12- 17 years of age. This Jane Doe was thought to have been dead for at least 6 months , possibly 2 years

- November 2003, remains found in citrus grove are confirmed to be those of missing 14 year old,Tara Exposito

-Tara's death ruled a homicide.

^That's just a brief summary of the case, anyone know of any other developments?

*Doenetwork spells last name as "Esposito"

 

[outofthedark]

Article on Tara:
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/11/23/Floridian/Who_is_she_How_did_sh.shtml

Identified Victims Internet Memorial- 2 parts (includes Tara, she's on pages 7-8):
http://www.angelfire.com/blues/meyahna/in_memory/index.album/in-memory?i=0

 

[Hiandmighty]

This is such a sad story. I hope her family can solve the puzzle about what happened and who murdered Tara.

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

Was her COD ever determined? Like did they ever find clothing remnants in the orange grove? If not, that points to homicide to me. If the victim was found naked. Also the article I read mentions her sweater was found in her driveway and hair tie was found a bit further away, that indicates a struggle to me.. I don't see a runaway throwing her sweater in the driveway before running off. It just seems strange to me.

 

[PayrollNerd]

Was her COD ever determined? Like did they ever find clothing remnants in the orange grove? If not, that points to homicide to me. If the victim was found naked. Also the article I read mentions her sweater was found in her driveway and hair tie was found a bit further away, that indicates a struggle to me.. I don't see a runaway throwing her sweater in the driveway before running off. It just seems strange to me.

She must have tried to pull away and the sweater was effectively torn off of her. She must have been so scared. Poor girl.

 

[PayrollNerd]

Who is she? How did she die?

The skeleton was scattered across a citrus grove in East Hillsborough - a femur, a finger, a jawbone nestled in a tangle of highlighted hair. Sun had bleached the bones. The skull lay on its left side, tilted toward a rotting orange.

Fragmented remains of a life, now barely recognizable as human.

Detective Dale Bunten arrived on the scene Jan. 8, a day after a young man stumbled across the skeleton and called the police.

Bunten called in the medical examiner, who measured the size and shape of the skull and the growth plates in the pelvis. He said the bones belonged to a white female, age 12 to 17. She had been dead for at least six months, maybe as long as two years.

"Neighbors told us that grove hadn't been worked in more than a year," Bunten would say later. "But you have to wonder how this person was out here for that long, and no one discovered it."

Finding only bones is unusual. So is finding the remains of such a young girl. Bunten had no idea who she was or what she might have looked like. He had no tissue, no fingerprints. He gave her the usual police name for an unidentified female: Jane Doe.

It would take almost a year of steady, determined work for Bunten to learn her identity. What he discovered would solve a year-old mystery and break the hearts of a family in Pinellas County.

Jane Doe turned out to be somebody after all.

 

[PayrollNerd]

Her Find A Grave. What an adorable smile!
Tara Exposito (1989-2002) - Find A Grave Memorial

 

[PayrollNerd]

Death Masks
When Tara Exposito, 14, went missing from her family home in Gulfport, Fla., in November 2002, officers at first considered her a runaway. Even when the skeleton of what was determined to be a small-framed, teenage girl was discovered in East Hillsborough, about an hour’s drive away, it wasn’t at first linked to Tara’s disappearance.

It took the perseverance of Det. Dale Bunten and the skill of forensic sculptor Wesley Neville, a lieutenant at the Florence County (S.C.) Sheriff’s Office, to link the remains to the girl.
First, Bunten sent the girl’s skull to Neville, a full-time certified forensic artist. Neville reconstructed the girl’s face, using markers and clay to flesh out her unique features.

“Upon completion of the reconstruction, I sent the package back to the Florida investigator in charge of the case,” says Neville. “Then, while searching through various missing persons Websites, I came across Tara’s photo, and the likeness was uncanny to that of the reconstruction that I had just completed. The investigators obtained DNA from Tara’s mother, submitted the sample to the FBI lab for analysis, and the match was confirmed.”

 

[PayrollNerd]

History

2003 A local teenager disappeared in what was believed to be a runaway case, and her decomposed body was found several months later in a Hillsborough County orange grove. The remains went unidentified for quite some time until a forensic artist applied a clay mask to the skull and noticed the resemblance to photos of the missing girl, Tara Exposito. The cause of her death has yet to be determined.

 

[StarrChance]

It really doesn’t sound good, she must have had a troubled life and in fear of her father.

 

[heartanium]

Just looked into Shawn and he has a long criminal record. These are records just from Pinella County. He has arrests in other counties around (Hernando County, etc) but I am having trouble pulling them from the sheriff's website.

ARRESTED October 2, 2008, RELEASED October 3, 2008
Pinellas Park, FL
Charges: RESISTING ARREST W/O VIOLENCE, FTA OPEN CONTAINER

ARRESTED December 14, 2008, RELEASED October 8, 2009
Gulfport, FL
Charges: LEAVING SCENE OF CRASH INVOLVE INJURY, DUI INVOLVING PROPERTY DAMAGE, DWLSR (FELONY-HABITUAL), AUTO THEFT, RECKLESS DRIVING.

ARRESTED December 12, 2009 RELEASED to Doctor March 22, 2011
Gulfport, FL
Charges: FELONY DWLR-HABITUAL, LEAVING SCENE OF CRASH INVOLVE INJURY, DUI

ARRESTED May 7, 2012, RELEASED October 2, 2012.
Pinellas Park, FL: 2 COUNTS BURGLARY (ASLT OR BAT DOMESTIC RELATED), ASSAULT SIMPLE DOMESTIC RELATED
VOP DWLSR

ARRESTED August 9, 2013, RELEASED August 11, 2013 on bond
St. Petersburg
Charge: CHILD ABUSE
Pinellas County Sheriff's Office Charge Report

ARRESTED April 29, 2014, RELEASED November 3, 2014
St. Petersburg
Charges: 8 COUNTS OF VOP OBT PROP IN RETURN FOR W/L CHECK (bad checks), BURGLARY (CONVEYANCE-UNOCCUPIED), DEALING IN STOLEN PROPERTY, POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE

ARRESTED February 5, 2016 RELEASED February 5, 2016 on bond
Hudson, FL
Charges: FTA CRIMINAL MISCHIEF, FTA BATTERY

ARRESTED February 17, 2016 RELEASED April 4, 2016 on probation
Hudson, FL
Charges: FTA CRIMINAL MISCHIEF, FTA BATTERY, FAILURE TO APPEAR

ARRESTED January 10, 2017 RELEASED April 13, 2017
Hudson, FL
Charges: VOP CRIMINAL MISCHIEF, PASCO: #17CF000697AES CRIMINAL MISCH, PASCO#1606710CFAWS DWLSR-HAITUAL, PASCO#16A0298MMAWS RESIST/OBST W/O VIOL, PASCO#1606710CFAWS DWLSR W/KNOW X3 CONV, PASCO#1601071MMAWS VIOL PRETRIAL RLSE, VOP BATTERY (Mostly previous charges)

ARRESTED November 7, 2019, RELEASED to other county November 15, 2019
St. Petersburg, FL
Charges: FTA OBSTRUCTING OR RESISTING OFFICER W/O VIOL, HERNANDO #20191560MM FTA PETIT THEFT, HERNANDO #20191725MM FTA TRESPASS STRUCT, FTA DISORDERLY CONDUCT

ARRESTED July 24, 2019, RELEASED July 25, 2019 on bond
St. Petersburg, FL
Charges: DISORDERLY INTOXICATION - PUBLIC PLACE, OBSTRUCTING/RESISTING OFFICER W/O VIOLENCE

ARRESTED: December 16, 2020, RELEASED December 23, 2020
Land o Lakes, Florida
Charges: DRIVING WITH SUSPENDED LICENSE

Outside of Pinella County:

Stole his neighbors debit card in 2015 when she was in the hospital.