The Disappearance of Tara Calico and The Eerie Polaroid

Tara Leigh Calico, known to her faithful family and friends as fiercely independent and outgoing, was open minded, athletic, and passionate about her place within her own world. Her deep rooted connection with exploration and self discovery, as well as her inclination to engage with the arts and make a positive impact on her peers, was cut short by an unexplainable, unsolved disappearance in the late morning hours of September 20th, 1988, leaving all who knew her across Belen, New Mexico and the entire country at large grasping for answers in a sea of evidence that drowned us all in doubt…

As a hope to provide more substantial reasoning built upon observable evidence and situational analysis, this is an examination of the disappearance of Tara Calico, and the suspicious Polaroid discovered in Port Saint Joe, Florida that may or may not give a window into her undetermined fate...

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Tara Calico Case File Photographs:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zO0LJOt31_MhY3Nn3mhmpd_5pnI2g_m_?usp=sharing

Researched and written by TJ Ruesch
Episode narrated by William Earl
Music by CO.AG

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• 14:29 (Cont.) The Disappearance of Tara Calico and The Eerie Polaroid

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Tara Calico known to her family and friends as fiercely independent and outgoing was open-minded athletic and passionate about her place within her own world. Her deep rooted connection with exploration and self discovery, as well as her inclination to engage with the arts and make a positive impact on her peers was cut short by an unexplainable unsolved disappearance in the late morning hours of September 20th, 1988, leaving all who knew her across Belen, New Mexico and the entire country at large grasping for answers in a sea of evidence that drowned us all in doubt, in the hope of providing more substantial reasoning built upon observable evidence and situational analysis. This is an examination of the disappearance of Tara Calico and the suspicious Polaroid discovered in port st. Joe Florida, that may or may not give a window into her undetermined fate. This is the cold case. Detective podcast, Tara Calico was born February 28th, 1969 to parents, David and Patty Calico in New Mexico. The land of enchantment in an ordinary world, Tara was an adventurous young girl and grew up exploring the great outdoors joined by her siblings and friends around the area during childhood, her mother and father divorced. And Tara remained with Patty who remarried to John Dole and moved to Bellin. Another regular New Mexico suburb. Belen is the primary seat of Valencia County, New Mexico taking its name from the Spanish translation of Bethlehem. The legendary biblical town. It's the transportation hub of the greater Valencia area and primarily a Catholic and Christian demographic. When the Dole family moved to Balin, it seemed like the quintessential place to raise Tara and her siblings, Michelle and Chris. It was perfectly quaint without a controversy or worry in the world. It's a place described as quote, small town America, where everyone knows everyone. Everyone looks after everyone and no one is outside the realms of safety. It's main economic turnstile was ranching and it offered many recreational possibilities across its welcoming landscape. This meant it was the perfect place for Tara to engage in her exploratory tendencies free from the fear of sinister consequences. As Tara entered adolescents and young adulthood, she became a beloved of her high school class by schoolmates and close friends alike. They described her as an athletic yet highly intelligent individual with an innate kindness, not often seen from children her age. She was in mind by her peers and revered by her teachers who noticed her undying responsibility and knack for extreme organization. A trait that would be highlighted after her disappearance. A story told by Melinda bell, a friend of Tara's described her as a friend to anyone. Melinda had joined the marching band in high school, and at the time had no one else to confide in or hang out with in the band. When Tara saw Melinda sitting by herself one day, she took this new girl into her circle of friends, despite knowing nothing about her, a selfless act of building a better atmosphere for her peers and a memory that stuck with Melinda. Well after the fact after high school concluded, Tara decided to attend college and study psychology, a subject that always fascinated her. She chose the university of New Mexico, Valencia branch, which also happened to be Melinda's school of choice as well. The two would see each other frequently and often spoke during moments of freedom. It was around this time that Tara also started dating former high school classmates, Jack Cole, a captain of their football team, and well-liked student athlete, the two metadata social event with mutual friends after they graduated and started a relationship. Soon after they always talked about traveling the States and country together and often stayed active while dating. This was the preferred lifestyle for Tara who was a religious biker and outdoor enthusiast. And sadly it was the first domino to a fateful collapse. When on September 20th, 1988, Belen New Mexico would forever be transformed from the idyllic American community to a dark spot of mystery, tragedy and controversy in the early waking hours of Tuesday morning, September 20th, 1988, it's around 9:00 AM. Tara Calico wakes up and sets out her clothes and school books on her bed. She preps to leave her Belen New Mexico home to ride her bicycle along New Mexico state road, 47, a daily routine frequented by Calico and her mother Patty. At this point. However, Patty has quit riding with her daughter after getting the feeling a motorist was stalking her during that Trek. She urges Tara to ride with mace hidden on her person, but Tara rejects the idea sometime after 9:15 AM. Tara asks Patty to come pick her up along the highway. If she hasn't returned by noon. When Patty asks, why Tara reveals that she intends to play tennis with her, then boyfriend at 12:30 PM. That day followed by college classes at 3:30 PM to bounce 9:30 AM. Tara leaves her house on her mother's bicycle, a 10 speed pink huffy brand due to her own bike. Having a flat tire. The neon bike also came with yellow control cables and sidewalls, very distinguishable characteristics. This would be Tara Calico's last confirmed contacts with her friends or family over the next two hours between 9:30 AM and 11:15 AM. Tara banks, approximately 17 miles to the Southern railroad tracks outside of town. Her usual route the ride is assumedly normal without hassle. And she turns around to start the ride home so she can get ready for her tennis date at around 11:30 AM. Tar is seen on the pink bicycle, riding northbound towards her home by two unidentified wrench, hands along state, route 47, nearly 15 minutes later at 11:45 AM. Three men drive southbound on the other lane of the 47. They are driving home from a hunting excursion and pass by Tara on her bicycle. However, they notice something very airy as a white pickup truck tales her very closely. They note Tara is listening to music on her Walkman with headphones and seems ignorance to the pursuance truck behind her. Not long after the second sighting. Another driver in the South lane passes Tara and also witnesses. The white truck tailing her just under five miles away from the Rio communities. This driver claims he noticed the ominous truck contained multiple occupants and not just a solo driver. This is the last confirmed sighting of Tara Calico. Five minutes past noon. Patty dwell stays true to her word and sets out to pick up Tara per her daughter's request. She drives up and down the railroad tracks both ways along route 47, but makes no sighting of her daughter or the pink bike. Patty even calls a nearby hospital to check and see if Tara had an accident and was admitted, but no one matching her description is accounted for Patty. Then rounds up a few of Tara's friends to help search, but not a trace is found. They finally give in and call the Valencia County Sheriff's office where a police search party begins the following day on September 21st, the search team discovers a sense of bicycle tracks on the West side of route 47, four miles from the Rio communities, and even closer to Tara's last sighting, the bike tracks via from the side of the road onto a soft shoulder and towards a location about a hundred yards away from the highway. This new location has actual tire tracks as well as a fresh oil slick from here. Police find a trail of footprints that leads them to their biggest find in the case thus far Tara's cassette tapes of the rock band, Boston, the broken front plastic window to the Walkman device and empty beer cans strewn about between September 21st and the 23rd law enforcement doubles their search efforts around state route 47 on Saturday, September 24th, investigators find the remaining pieces to Tara's broken Walkman around the entrance of John F. Kennedy camp ground at the base of the Manzano mountains. The area is remote's unpopulated and only 20 miles away from the initial discovery throughout that same weekend, the Ventura County Sheriff's office dispatches more than 300 air and land searches to patrol the river and Monzo mountains, but find nothing out of the ordinary and retreats on Tuesday, September 27th in the following days and weeks authoritarians seek out any and all witnesses to Tara's final bike ride. On the 20th, they find seven people who claim to have seen Tara five of which also claimed to have seen the white pickup truck following her. Four of these individuals are even hypnotized in an attempt to pull more details, but nothing concrete is learned. Law enforcement also eliminates possible evidence such as a biking water bottle found in a nearby yard, a patch of uneven dirt alongside route 47, a connection to the September, 1985 disappearance of Deborah Landstuhl and three men who were found drinking beer in the back of a pickup truck. Soon after Tara's vanishing their alibis, the beer they were drinking was Budweiser and the empty beer cans found near Tara's broken Walkman were old Milwaukee. One month later on October 25th lead investigator sheriff Lawrence Romero tells the public their main suspects. I believe to be two males based on the report that the white pickup truck was seen with two men inside the driver is described as 35 to 45 years old whites with red hair, standing five foot nine to six foot and weighing 200 pounds and most interestingly with wrinkles between his eyes and temples. The truck itself is detailed as a whites, 1950s to 1960s Ford pickup model with a camper shell Chrome hubcaps, large tires, and the Ford emblem spelled in smashed red glass letters. His license plate starts with WB Y or WB Zed and ends in the number six again, weeks go by and hundreds of calls and hotline tips pour in regarding the suspect and the vehicle announcement made by police leading to a few interviews, but no arrests are made. And the case begins to grow cold on June 15th, 1989, an unnamed woman in port st. Joe Florida comes to police with a Polaroid photograph. She found in the parking lots of a convenience store. The picture displays a young female adults and a young boy duct taped at the mouth and bound at the wrists laying in the back of a van. This Polaroid is broadcast across the country and relatives of Patty Dole, call her to inform her that the girl in the disturbing photograph bears a striking resemblance to Tara Patty flies to Florida to take a closer look and agrees that the woman in the shots looks like her daughter over the next year. Two more photographs are submitted to authorities that show a young female bound and gagged in a similar fashion, but feature a different woman than the one in the original port st. Joe photograph. While all three are believed to potentially involve Tara Calico, non have ever been confirmed to contain her image and their status is left up to debates among government agencies and amateur sleuths alike decades pass, and Tara Calico's disappearance remains unsolved despite endless searches around New Mexico, by countless investigators and private contractors, little evidence has ever uncovered surrounding the case in September of 2008, 20 years. After the fateful morning, the then sheriff of Ventura County, Rene Rivera comes out with a statement alleging he knew who kidnapped and killed Tara, but without any incriminating evidence or bodies to exume, the conclusion could only remain a theory. His wasn't the only hypothesis circulating the news. And as his peculiar confession wears down on the followers of the case. So does the coverage of Tara's mystery in 2013, a task force was created by six different federal and local agents to reopen the investigation. But over seven years later, and nothing new has surfaced regarding Tara Calico or her mother's pink neon huffy bike.

Speaker 2: 14:23

[inaudible]

Speaker 1: 14:23

when people familiar with the Tara Calico disappearance, think of her cold case. The first image that pops into their head is the suspicious Polaroid photograph found by a woman at the port st. Joe's convenience store in June of 1989, as previously mentioned, the picture appears to show a young woman and a little boy held against their will trapped in the back of a van without an identity or story. After the woman turns the Polaroid into the police. She mentioned that the parking spot where it had been found was actually occupied by a white Toyota van. When she arrived at the store leaving seconds, before her return to the parking lot, the woman was able to catch a quick glimpse of the driver and stated he was middle-aged and mustached probably in his late thirties immediately. The suspicions of the photo began to click. The white van could easily be the van that houses the bound woman and child from the image. Could this van be the source? Could the driver be the kidnapper or could this all be a prank? The woman or authorities and local newscasters didn't think so, they started investigating right away and sent the Polaroids to a current affair where it was nationally televised. Now here comes the connection to Tara Calico, friends of the Dole family, watched a current affair and felt that the port st Joe pitchers, female subjects bore a striking resemblance to Tara. They telephoned Passey and John who didn't hesitate to study the pitcher themselves, Patty slowly but surely came to understand that the lady in the photo was her daughter. The biggest clue she stated Tara had been in a car accident as a girl and battled a leg injury that left her with a scar along her thigh and pointed to a discolored streak along the bound woman's thigh in the Polaroid. Not only that, but if one looks closer at the image, one can make out a book sitting next to the woman. The book in question was my sweet Audrina by VC Andrews, coincidentally, or maybe not one of Tara Calico's favorite books by one of her favorite authors investigators on Tara's case agreed that there were enough similarities to warrant professional analysis, and multiple agencies took a closer look. However, out of three detailed inspections, the results were inconclusive. Scotland yard said the bound woman was Tara. The Los Alamos national laboratory said it wasn't Tara and the FBI could not make an official conclusion. The naysayers had plenty of their own physical traits to emphasize first and foremost, the bound woman's facial features didn't quite match Tara's. Their eyebrows are of distinctly different shapes as well as their overall draw lines. That being said, we must consider the drastic changes in settings. The Polaroid could not have been taken any sooner than may of 1989. As that specific stock of film hadn't been produced and released until spring of that year. Thus, the photo must be depicting Tara at least seven months after her disappearance and alleged kidnapping. A lot of physical change can happen in that time span, including weight loss that affects the jawline and a lack of hygiene and eyebrow maintenance. But perhaps more importantly, the Polaroid scenario would include months of being lodged in a tight space months of anxiety, months of stress. Of course, there will be noticeable differences to studio lits, makeup and style portraits. Most used to compare Tara to the bound woman. These are arguments to both sides of the equation, but ultimately there is too little information in the Polaroid to make an affirmation regarding Tara. Of course, there is an entirely separate mystery in the port st. Joe photograph as well. The little boy laying next to the bound woman deserves equal attention. When the Polaroid first made waves around Belen New Mexico and the in general, many people wondered if the male subjects was Michael Henley, a young boy who went missing five months before Tara in April of 1988. He too disappeared in New Mexico during a hunting trip with his father. He had wandered away from the camp site one day and vanished with search and cruise, unable to find a shred of evidence while he had no personal relationship with Tara or the Dole family, his physical characteristics also matched the bound boy and relatives of the Henley family agreed. It was probably him how or why they'd be together was cloudy. But if a serial kidnapper was a bound in New Mexico, it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that they'd been secluded together across the country. However, this theory went moot a year later in June of 1990, when Michael's remains were found buried in the Zuni mountains of New Mexico, a forensic analysis found that Michael had most likely died of exposure in the wilderness after wandering off from the camp sites, which was seven miles from the excavation zone. The camp site was also only 75 miles away from Tara's disappearance. But when Michael's fate was learned, the connection to Tara dissolved and the bound boy in the photograph remained unidentifiable. Just another unexplainable story associated with the strangers in the mysterious port st. Joe Polaroid, while the Polaroid controversy spawned thousands of theories on its own. Non-weight as more probable as the one that surfaced in 2008 by law enforcement themselves after years of stale leads and a spiraling investigation, then Valencia County sheriff Rene Rivera said he actually knew what happened to Tara that September morning in 1988, the Valencia County news bulletin reported on the 19th anniversary of the disappearance that Rivera quote received information over the years, the two men who were teenagers at the time of Tara's disappearance found her riding her bike on the rural road that day and had help afterwards disposing of her body. He continued detailing his ferry through a play by play of the morning itself that the two men were taunting Tara in the back of a pickup truck, hit her bank, causing her to lose control and fall kidnapped her, and then killed her when she threatened to contact or authorities out of panic. Rivera went on to say that the reason he couldn't act on the tips or arrest those responsible was because there was no concrete evidence to convict specifically Tara's body or place of burial. However, he did believe that it was likely still in Valencia County and most likely in the general area of those railroad tracks, Rivera wouldn't even release the names he had in relation to theory, making many citizens, including stepfather, John Dole, curious why he would make the claim in the first place Rivera counted and said that he made the announcement in hopes. It would persuade the perpetrators or anyone with information about Tara's resting place to come forward and bring legal closure to the Calico and Dole families yet, no matter how much the sheriff pleaded, no one came forward on his desperate conclusion, ended up causing more pain than it relieved with this in mind to sheriff Rivera's theory does match a recorded incidents left behind in Tara Calico's case documents. Now available in the public record inside of the documents section contains an interview with Henry Brown, New Mexico citizen, who was since perished due to failing health. The interview, which some label is more of a confession is held by sheriff deputy Frank[inaudible], who was specifically requested by Brown. When he was asked to come in and share his side of the Tara Calico story frustratingly, there is no date connected to this events, but it is believed to have taken place years after the disappearance in the interview, Brown recounts, his times hanging around fellow Valencia County teenagers led by troublemaker Lawrence Romero jr. The son of the old sheriff Lawrence Romero, sr. He said Lawrence jr. Was a drug peddler and interested in dating Tara Calico, but it was never considered because according to Brown Tara was dating a man by the name of Jeff Abita. Brown continued recalling that he was at a party attended by Lawrence jr. And his other mischievous friends in the basement underneath Lawrence Jr's trailer. And that launched told him he and the guys had hit Tara on her bike with their truck, raped her and murdered her Lawrence jr. Informed Brown that they had originally just tossed the body in some nearby bushes, but became paranoid in light of the police searches and transferred her body to the makeshift trailer basements and later to a nondescript pond. Funnily enough, Henry Brown was not the only person to tell this story to authorities. Another man named Donald Dutcher also informed police in 2013 that a suspect had confessed their heinous crime to him, but he didn't have an exact location on the body. Either coincidence, law knots, neither Brown, no Duchess stories could be confirmed by Lawrence jr or his friends themselves because they had all in fact died. By the time of the interviews, Lawrence died of a self-inflicted gunshot wounds and conspirators claimed there was a suicide note with a confession to Tara's murder, but if it did exist, Rivera never entered it into evidence. Another questionable decision, the case documents also failed to mention reliable sources of the names of the other criminals, but Bellin residents and others with knowledge of the case confirmed that the legitimate suspects did indeed die before they were able to be called forward. So the question remains if this theory holds serious weight, is it truly a lack of physical evidence keeping police from taking it to the prosecutor's office? Or is there a coverup in play by the Valencia county's Sheriff's office? Obviously the main suspect being the son of a former sheriff raises a major red flag and the cloudiness of a written confession raises speculative suspicion. But it goes without saying the two separate interviews with the same story have to be considered legitimate. It's a shame. The suspects themselves are no longer with us. And the amount of time that has passed since tower's disappearance does not bode well for an unknown accomplished to randomly come forward and share for the details. But it does match multiple witness testimonies regarding Roughriders in a pickup truck, tailing Tara during her bike rides, certain details are clunky, such as the information that Tara was seeing a man named Jeff and not Jack Cole, a drug dealer, nonetheless, and the last person on earth, any of her friends could see her dating, but the theory does give a thorough reasoning why Tara's body was never recovered, being hidden amongst the vast New Mexico wilderness and ignored by those with the ability to recover her. This is a truly dastardly, active injustice and corruption. If true, of course, there are plenty of other hypotheses surrounding Tara Calico, like any prominent missing persons case broadcast on national networks, plenty of possible sightings came into law enforcement and television networks, regular people claiming they've seen Tara with suspicious individuals, all walking freely among the streets. However, most of these sightings came in Florida after the Polaroid mishap, most likely the results of phenomenon bias. People were much more willing to believe they had seen Tara after thinking she was held hostage somewhere in the sunshine States, a combination of wanting a solution to be born of a possibility and to play the hero in an unsolvable mystery. They thought Tara may have fled on her own explaining the added vanishing of her bike and the breadcrumb trail to know where made up by her broken Walkman. Yet the theory made no sense when considering her healthy home life, relationships and drive to finish school, there were absolutely no warning signs of abandonment and Tara had plans in place to make sure she wouldn't get lost a far cry from a scheme to dissolve into the far away world. Another prominent theory, put Tara's fate in the hands of an elaborate kidnapper, a serial criminal with a twisted mind and a knack for public. This idea was born, not just from the one Polaroid found in port st Joe's, but from a series of photos found by outsiders and received by Florida police. In addition to the first picture, another Polaroid image was discovered at a construction sites in California, depicting a young woman gagged and seemingly under distress. The picture was up close and blurry, but the woman wants again, bore a few similarities to Tara and the fabric in the background could have been a match to a fabric seen in the port st. Joe's Polaroid. The third image came from an unconfirmed location, but depicted a woman tied to an Amtrak sitting next to a male figure. Laughing this female showed even fewer comparisons to Tara and the entire situation was widely believed to be staged and never seriously considered by investigators in a strange twist 20 years after the Polaroids were found, another set of printed pictures entered the case. Chief David bonds of port Saint Joe's police department received two envelopes. Postmarks June 10th and August 10th, 2009 from Albuquerque New Mexico. The first envelope contained a photograph of a Brown head boy with a black Sharpie drawn band of tape over his mouth. The second envelope contains the original unaltered photo of the same boy. Then two days later on August 12th, port st. Joe newspaper, the star received a third envelope again, postmarked, August 10th in Albuquerque. It contained another photo of a boy with more black Sharpie drawn over his mouth. It's unknown if the boys were the same person in each mailing, but investigators initially wondered if they were somehow connected to Tara Calico's case due to the same locations matching her profile. Unfortunately, there were no letters in the envelopes containing identities or any clues at all, but perhaps strangest of all, these envelopes were obtained the same time. A self proclaimed psychic was calling into port st. Joe PD talking about dreams. She had of Tara dying and being buried in California after running away. She also mentioned she met a girl at a strip club who claimed to be Tara, but that girl was located and mistakenly identified. Conspiracy theorists think that both incidents are connected that either the psychic caller was also the person sending in the envelopes as a means to find attention or the work of a serial kidnapper, playing a Zodiac killer level prank on local authorities and new stations. They believe Tara was kidnapped and driven around the County in the back of a van. And that she was the girl in at least the port st. Joe photograph and possibly the girl in the other Polaroids as well. Could the psychic have been a legitimate suspects, multiple agencies, the maps calling it a hoax, but many have their doubts pointing at the piling circumstantial evidence to be more than a mere coincidence. Before we divulge our hypothesis of Tara Calico's unsolved disappearance, we want to make it known. Our conclusions prevented in cold case. Detective are purely logical speculation based on evidence circumstance and factual subtext. We are only privy to the same information presented in each video, and we do not attempt to promise certainty or an expert guarantee on the findings we reach in closing, we simply observe research and report. We believe that while the port st Joe Polaroid bears a haunting look alike of Tara Calico, she was most likely, never photographed after her disappearance. And if she was it never made it into the hands of investigators, like the three prominent photographs did after 1989. In fact, it's hard to imagine Tara ever made it East of the Mississippi river in general, most likely staying in the general vicinity of her original vanishing site. In fact, we strongly consider the testimony of Henry Brown and Donald Dutcher to be real, if not completely, 100% accurate. It is hard to fabricate the truth when told from multiple uncoerced sources and even harder when most of their details matched the circumstances around the case itself. However, it is greatly disturbing that the police received such confirmation yet never acted upon it citing a lack of evidence despite in depth knowledge of the crime. Was it a full blown Valencia County sheriff department coverup? It can't be said for certain, but when considering the main perpetrator is the son of a former sheriff, this is not a good look for Valencia County. Thus, we believe that the white pickup truck tailing Tara was indeed full of the suspects who would have knocked her to the ground, taken her and either killed her or sent her off with the other accomplices and fled the Rio communities area. If Tara did survive that morning's kidnapping, where she ended up is as good a question as any, but chances are she perished at the hands of those who initiated the crime and was buried in a location nearly impossible to be certain of as the expensive new Mexico's wastelands are vast and funds to carry out complex searches are at a low point. Hopefully the FBI agents assigned to reopen Tara's case can find new leads and maybe even a surviving suspects. But until then the cold binds the mystery with a harrowing lack of clarity. In the meantime, we will Tara, not for the morning of September 20th, 1988, but in all the moments leading up to that fateful day, we will remember her undying, compassion and empathy for the human race. We will remember her ability to make anyone and everyone feel welcome. Regardless of background, we will remember her humanity and dreams to thrive in an open, unique and interesting community. We will remember Tara Calico, not for a controversial Polaroid found in a parking lot, 2000 miles away from her home, but for the light she shined over her community and all those, she knew this is cold case. Detective, thank you for listening to this episode,

Speaker 3: 34:09

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