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

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I agree. It does't look like she is really bound. It would also explain why the little boy (or girl) was never identified--no family members ever spoke out.
AC4RD said:
I think you're completely correct, though a lot of people would disagree. Just MHO but you're right, the girl isn't really bound, the black tape looks loose, the book in the photo looks staged, and--some people would disagree strongly--I don't think she even looks scared. And if the photo were real, there would be NO reason I can think of for the bad guy to deliberately leave such a significant 'clue' where it would certainly be found immediately.

MHO only, but nothing about that photo seems to have anything to do with the Calico case. I think the most likely explanation is that it's a stupid prank.

While I'm offering opinions, I think that "accidentally hit the bike" story was cobbled together to make the whole thing seem less sinister. If it were accidental, IMO, the logical thing would be to get her to a hospital right away and tell the story honestly. The boys would be in trouble, but not as much as if they were covering up an accidental death.

So, I think the obvious (though I'd guess a majority of the group will disagree) explanation is: no accident, photo unrelated, poor girl was grabbed for sex by some rotten kids, and was killed; family influence kept anybody from going to jail for it. Very very sad IMO, but easily explained. I think if I had daughters that age, I wouldn't let them out of the house without a couple of armed guards. (sigh)
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AC4RD said:
Agree, Blue Girl! I didn't know anything about this case until yesterday; I've listened to most of the "Vanished" podcast episodes since then, and I think it's a remarkable achievement. Ms Equibel has obviously done a lot of research, she's assembled the material well, and I'm eager to listen to the rest of the podcast episodes soon. Great work!

"Blue Girl"--any relation to Laura Palmer? ;-)
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It's amazing how much details revealed thanks to Melinda and Vanished podcast team regarding Tara case, I admire Melinda. It seems that the killers are all dead and it such a shame they didn't punished when they were alive due to corruption.

You are correct ;-) my nickname inspired from Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet ,David Lynch is my favorite director.
 
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The Haunting Polaroid
In 1989, a woman pulled off the Route 98 (Florida) into the parking lot of a food store and found what appeared to be a polaroid photo lying face down on the asphalt. When the woman turned the polaroid over, the picture she saw was harrowing.

The haunting polaroid photo that was found on asphalt.

Possible victim: Tara Calico.
A young woman and a younger boy lie on their backs on a rumpled pile of mismatched sheets and pillows. Both look directly at the camera with expressions of tense resignation. Their mouths are covered with duct tape, and their postures suggest that their wrists are bound behind them. The space they occupy is cramped and poorly lit. The only source of light seems to come from behind the photographer. The photo could well have been taken in the back of a windowless van with its side door pulled open...

The origin of the mysterious polaroid has a myriad of theories but the children on have never been identified.

LINK:
Chilling Final Photos of Murder Victims Taken by Their Killers
 
I have mainly followed the port st. joe photo thread instead of this one and I am 100% sure the only thing the photo has to do with Tara Calico is the fact that Calico's mom claimed it was an image of her daughter. If you really take a close look at the photos of both Tara and the girl in the van it isn't difficult to see that the girl in the van photo was several years younger than Tara. Tara would have been about 20 when that photo was taken and the image of the girl looked about mid teens.

I also don't think the photos of the kids in the van are even real and the image looks even more staged now that increasingly detailed versions of the photo have come out in recent years. Yes we can say that the tape is suspicious and if the kids mouths were truly being taped shut they would be taped in a totally different way but for me the thing that truly gives it away as being a fake is the way the girl is lying. If her hands were truly bound behind her she wouldn't be lying like that. She would either be lying on her side or her back would be noticeably arched up. The only way she could have been in that position we saw her in was if she was just sitting on her hands. In my opinion it was just a group of people having a little fun with the camera. In one of the episodes of the vanished podcast Melinda said that she got word from an investigator who claimed that he received a call from the girl telling him that the photo was a fake but the computer he placed the info on crashed and so it was lost. Of course the investigators claims can't be corroborated but I think there is a lot of evidence at this point to say that the photo wasn't real to begin with.

As far as Tara Calico goes I don't think the answers are nearly as crazy as the rumors would have you believe. I think she most likely was either accidentally run over or purposely killed by local individuals and then her body was hidden somewhere in the vast desert surrounding the area where she lived. As others have already mentioned in this thread I think the main reason Tara's mom latched on to the Port St. Joe pic was because it was the only way to get the FBI involved in Tara's case.
 
I'm going to have to agree that I don't think the photo shows Tara, or that the girl in the photo really has her hands bound, but the Doe Network page for the girl in the photo says this: "This unidentified teenage girl was also seen on the beach in Port St. Joe, Florida on June 15, 1989. She was accompanied by several older Caucasian males, who appeared to be ordering the girl along the beach front. It is not known if this girl was being held against her will by these individuals or if the incident was staged." So if the same girl (or a very very similar one) was seen in the same town on the same day being ordered along the beachfront then to me that indicates that either the girl really was in trouble, or that these people were very dedicated to playing a prank.
 
angelwasari said:
I'm going to have to agree that I don't think the photo shows Tara, or that the girl in the photo really has her hands bound, but the Doe Network page for the girl in the photo says this: "This unidentified teenage girl was also seen on the beach in Port St. Joe, Florida on June 15, 1989. She was accompanied by several older Caucasian males, who appeared to be ordering the girl along the beach front. It is not known if this girl was being held against her will by these individuals or if the incident was staged." So if the same girl (or a very very similar one) was seen in the same town on the same day being ordered along the beachfront then to me that indicates that either the girl really was in trouble, or that these people were very dedicated to playing a prank.
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While true that there is that additional report however at the same time there is about as much context to that report as there is to the photo. Even if that report is true and it wasn't something someone was just making up it would have been something someone reported after the fact after they had already heard the news about the photo so thoughts of 'worst case scenario' would have been running through their mind. Also 'ordering along the beachfront' could have just as easily been adults making sure a teenager in their group didn't go too far off on their own. Lastly the person that made that report likely wasn't up close to the group to where they could get a real good 'vibe' for what was going on. It was likely something they just witnessed from a distance.

To me the reports of someone seeing the girl on the beach only further indicates to me that the photo was a fake. If people were holding kidnapped children against their will I seriously doubt they would be taking them for strolls on a public beach. To me it gives further indication that it was just a family/group of people on vacation.

Also the Doe Network page probably needs to remove the train photo from the girls page. That very clearly isn't the same person and it also seems extremely evident it was just a joke photo.
 
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The people from the Tara Calico podcast claim that the photo has something to do with Tara but they won't say what. That made me wonder what the deal is with those podcasters. Sometimes they act like this is fictional and try to maintain suspense.
 
The picture very much comes off as a goofy family thing. The young lady even had put her book down.
 
Cascadia Mount said:
The people from the Tara Calico podcast claim that the photo has something to do with Tara but they won't say what. That made me wonder what the deal is with those podcasters. Sometimes they act like this is fictional and try to maintain suspense.
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If the people from that podcast are anything like any of the podcasts I have seen in the past they don't know much more about the case than you or I do. Instead of being sleuthers with a keyboard they are just sleuthers with a camera. Also some podcasters try to manufacture suspense in order for them to warrant continuing to make videos about a case.
 
sony12 said:
If the people from that podcast are anything like any of the podcasts I have seen in the past they don't know much more about the case than you or I do. Instead of being sleuthers with a keyboard they are just sleuthers with a camera. Also some podcasters try to manufacture suspense in order for them to warrant continuing to make videos about a case.
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Yeah, the podcast had interviews and was informative for a while but now it seems like they are just trying to keep it going.
 
Let's not forget that duct tape being used to silence someone is only seen in the movies. In real life, it's not effective for gagging somebody. A real kidnapper would use a cloth. That just gives further credence to the infamous polaroid being a staged prank.

The photo was only linked to Tara in the first place because her mother heard about it on the news and thought it was her daughter. With all due respect, parents of missing children are often clutching at straws. Case in point, Michael Henley's mother identified the boy in the same photo as her son, only to find out he died in the woods where he vanished.
 
ekardh said:
Let's not forget that duct tape being used to silence someone is only seen in the movies. In real life, it's not effective for gagging somebody. A real kidnapper would use a cloth. That just gives further credence to the infamous polaroid being a staged prank.

The photo was only linked to Tara in the first place because her mother heard about it on the news and thought it was her daughter. With all due respect, parents of missing children are often clutching at straws. Case in point, Michael Henley's mother identified the boy in the same photo as her son, only to find out he died in the woods where he vanished.
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Yeah if Tara's mother wasn't so adamant about the girl in the photo being Tara the picture probably would have long since been forgotten and likely would have never found it's way onto the internet. If there is one thing we can probably be a 100% sure of though is that the two kids in the photo (whoever they were) were probably never reported as missing. If they had been and family members were actually out looking for them then we likely would have had other people come forward whose son and daughters resembled the kids in the photo much closer than Tara ever did. Tara was probably to old to be the girl in the photo anyway and the photo was found on the opposite side of the country from where Tara lived.
 
sony12 said:
Yeah if Tara's mother wasn't so adamant about the girl in the photo being Tara the picture probably would have long since been forgotten and likely would have never found it's way onto the internet. If there is one thing we can probably be a 100% sure of though is that the two kids in the photo (whoever they were) were probably never reported as missing. If they had been and family members were actually out looking for them then we likely would have had other people come forward whose son and daughters resembled the kids in the photo much closer than Tara ever did. Tara was probably to old to be the girl in the photo anyway and the photo was found on the opposite side of the country from where Tara lived.
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Good points.

People are often wonder why the subjects of the photo never came forward if it was just a prank. There are perfectly innocent explanations for this. First of all, they may be too ashamed of the backlash they might face for it. And secondly, they might not even know it was linked to Tara's disappearance. The sleuthing community often overestimates the notoriety of cases like this within the general public.
 
ekardh said:
Good points.

People are often wonder why the subjects of the photo never came forward if it was just a prank. There are perfectly innocent explanations for this. First of all, they may be too ashamed of the backlash they might face for it. And secondly, they might not even know it was linked to Tara's disappearance. The sleuthing community often overestimates the notoriety of cases like this within the general public.
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Yeah. If you aren't one that pays too much attention to True Crime material there is a good chance you would never know about the situation with the photo.

There was a lady who did a podcast show looking into the Calico case (not sure if she is still doing the show or not) and she did an episode about the port st Joe photo and she said she was contacted by an old detective saying he got a call from someone claiming to be the girl but the info was lost due to power outage. Who knows if any of that is true but if it is the girl may have already felt she did her duty in letting someone know.

The podcaster was a little more legit than most are as she said she was someone who went to school with Tara. So I give her a little more credence than I do most YouTubers/podcasters you see talking about cold cases.
 
ekardh said:
Let's not forget that duct tape being used to silence someone is only seen in the HYmovies. In real life, it's not effective for gagging somebody. A real kidnapper would use a cloth. That just gives further credence to the infamous polaroid being a staged prank.Yea

The photo was only linked to Tara in the first place because her mother heard about it on the news and thought it was her daughter. With all due respect, parents of missing children are often clutching at straws. Case in point, Michael Henley's mother identified the boy in the same photo as her son, only to find out he died in the woods where he vanished.
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sony12 said:
Yeah. If you aren't one that pays too much attention to True Crime material there is a good chance you would never know about the situation with the photo.

There was a lady who did a podcast show looking into the Calico case (not sure if she is still doing the show or not) and she did an episode about the port st Joe photo and she said she was contacted by an old detective saying he got a call from someone claiming to be the girl but the info was lost due to power outage. Who knows if any of that is true but if it is the girl may have already felt she did her duty in letting someone know.

The podcaster was a little more legit than most are as she said she was someone who went to school with Tara. So I give her a little more credence than I do most YouTubers/podcasters you see talking about cold cases.
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The photo is used as the emblem for the podcast. I've asked why and gotten the answer that there is a connection but they won't say what.
 
Cascadia Mount said:
The photo is used as the emblem for the podcast. I've asked why and gotten the answer that there is a connection but they won't say what.
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The photo has become synonymous with Tara at this point so they are probably just using it because it is a way to advertise their podcast without having to write or say anything.
 
Amazed the photo nonsense still persists today-it is clear from the picture that the female whether a prank or an abduction is many years younger than Tara, her facial structure is also very different. As for the other photos-total joke.
 
th


The Mysterious Polaroid
On a warm August day in 1989, a Floridian woman pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store and found a disturbing polaroid on the ground. The photo depicted a young woman and an even younger boy bound and gagged on a bed. Police immediately launched a harrowing investigation on the matter, but in the 28 years since the investigation commenced, there have been no leads on who either captive is, if they're still alive, nor who their captor is. There was a point when 19-year-old Tara Calico was speculated to be the woman in the photo after she had been missing since September 1988, but there wasn't enough evidence for police to confirm this. The boy was speculated to be young Michael Henley, but the missing boy's remains were later found in a New Mexico forest.

LINK:

15 Most Chilling Pics Serial Killers Took Of Their Victims
 
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