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Real Name: Tara Leigh Calico
Nicknames: Tar Tar
Location: Belen, New Mexico
Date: September 20, 1988

Bio[]

Occupation: Student
Date of Birth: February 28, 1969
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 120 lbs.
Marital status: Single
Characteristics: White female with brown hair with a cowlick, green eyes, a large scar on back of right shoulder, a brown birthmark on the back of one leg, and another large scar on her calf.

Case[]

Details: Nineteen-year-old Tara Calico was a sophomore at the University of New Mexico. At 9:30am on September 20, 1988, she left her home in Belen, New Mexico, to go on her regular thirty-four mile, two-hour bike ride. She rode her neon pink Huffy bike with yellow control cables and sidewalls on her usual route along Highway 47. She was last seen along her route at around 11:30am. A suspicious pickup truck was closely following her. She and her bike have never been found.
When Tara was not home at 12pm, her mother, Pat, and stepfather, John, went out to search for her. The next day, a full-scale search began. Pat found her Sony Walkman about 100 yards off of Highway 47. Footprints on the ground led to what might have been the site of a scuffle, where the Walkman was found. Bike tracks, possibly from hers, were found nearby, along with a vehicle's tire tracks and an oil slick. Although there were several reported sightings of her in the southern United States in 1988 and 1989, none of them could be confirmed.
However, on June 15, 1989, this case took a bizarre turn. A woman in Port St. Joe, Florida, 1,200 miles from Belen, made a routine trip to her neighborhood convenience store. As she got out of her car, she noticed a white van in the next parking space. When she walked out of the store, she saw a Polaroid photo lying face-down where the van was. It showed a teenage girl and a young boy, apparently bound with their hands behind their backs. Their mouths were sealed with black tape. It appeared to have been taken in a white van. The woman took it to the police.
The national media ran hundreds of stories about the photo. Tara's parents saw one of the stories and got in touch with the Florida police. They recognized her as the girl in the photo. Michael Henley's parents also recognized him as the boy in it. He had vanished while on a camping trip with his father and a family friend in the Zuni Mountains of New Mexico in 1988. Factory analysis determined that the photo was recently taken. The FBI has not been able to determine if the children in it are Tara and Michael. A forensic artist compared pictures of them to it and was 85% sure that they were the ones depicted.
Suspects: There are no known suspects, but witnesses report seeing a dirty white or light gray-colored 1954 Ford pick-up truck with a white handmade camper shell following Tara.
Authorities are also looking for the white cargo van that was parked at the Junior Food Store in Port St. Joe, Florida, on June 15, 1989. It had no windows and a sliding door at the side.
Extra Notes:

Results: Unsolved - It is no longer believed that the boy in the photo is Michael. His remains were found in 1990, just a few miles from the campsite where he was last seen. Authorities believe he was not the victim of kidnapping or foul play but instead died from prolonged exposure to the wilderness after getting lost in the forest. His disappearance is no longer considered connected to Tara's.
The Calicos moved to Florida in 2003. Sadly, Tara's biological father died in 2002, Pat died in 2006, and John died in 2022. However, her siblings are still alive and hope that she will be found. Two other photos believed to be of her have surfaced in the years since her disappearance; however, the last one, showing a woman with bandages over her face on an Amtrak train with a man sitting next to her, is believed to be a prank.
In September 2008, investigators announced that they no longer believed that Tara was the girl in the photo. Instead, they have learned from witnesses that she was most likely killed on the day of her disappearance by "boys" she knew from school. In 2013, a man named Henry Brown made a deathbed confession to the police. He revealed that shortly after her disappearance, he had been in the basement of a man named Lawrence Romero Jr. While there, he noticed what appeared to be a young woman's body wrapped in a blue tarp and buried in a makeshift grave.
Romero, along with a man named Dave Silva and another man with red hair, told Henry that the body was Tara's. They told him that on the day of her disappearance, they, along with a man named Leroy Chavez, were in a truck when they noticed her riding her bike. While trying to get her attention, they accidentally struck her with their truck. They abducted her, took her to a grave pit, and raped her.
When Tara threatened to go to the police, Romero stabbed her to death, while Silva, Chavez, and the third man held her down. They originally hid her body in a nearby bush. However, as searches began for her, they moved her body to the basement. Henry told investigators that they threatened to kill him if he went to the police. He also said that they got away with the crime because Romero's father, Lawrence Romero Sr., was the sheriff at the time. He and the other boy's parents also allegedly helped cover up the crime. He apparently found a note written by Romero Jr., confessing to Tara's murder, and destroyed it.
Henry also told investigators that he believed the men later placed Tara's body in a pond near one of their houses. He also said that her bike had been disposed of at a junkyard. Another man also came forward and told the police that one of the suspects had confessed to him as well. Romero Jr. committed suicide in 1991. Despite the testimony of the witnesses, since Tara's body has never been found, no charges have been filed against the other suspects.
In 2017, a friend of Tara's, Melinda Esquibel, created a podcast and started her own investigation into this case, along with Tara's sister, Michelle. They are currently working on a documentary about it. In October 2019, the FBI offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the solution of this case.
In 2021, a sealed search warrant relevant to this case was executed at a home in Valencia County. It is not known what, if anything, was found there.
In June 2023, the Valencia County Sheriff's Office announced that they had enough evidence to submit Tara's case to the District Attorney's Office for review in hopes that charges could be brought against several persons of interest in this case. Their names and further details about the case against them have not yet been revealed. Neither Tara nor her bike have ever been found.

Thegdamnvan

Regarding the type/make of vehicle portrayed in the abductees' polaroid photograph

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