athy
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similar but the hairline is different on the two.
NM NM - Tara Calico, 19, Belen, 20 Sept 1988
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similar but the hairline is different on the two.
SeriouslySearching
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While it could be the artist who reconstructed the photo without the tape, the eyes on the boy held captive are much closer together and the nose is different. I don't think it is Shawn.
Did they ever release the other two photos? I don't recall hearing about them, but I haven't read up on this case in a very long time.
I wonder if these children are not brother and sister and the person who had them is a parent which is why no one came forward. They both appear healthy and she doesn't show any signs of bruising or injuries. The glass in the photo indicates they were being given something to drink which means the tape had to be removed.
The book is interesting in that while being held captive, she is allowed some form of entertainment which is unusual. Why would a captor care if she was entertained? How could a child in that situation be mentally capable of a "good read" anyway?
Also the tape appears to be freshly applied in the photos. There is no rumpling or pulling away of the edges as I would expect to see if it had been on there for a long time.
I noticed the story where the officer says he believes he knows what happened to Tara is now gone. (sad that no one saved it here) They do not need a body to prosecute, but evidently they did not find enough evidence to bring charges. Did it go to a GJ? If they have a suspect, they should have something which ties him to the area and to Tara at the time of her disappearance. I would like to know what would lead them to believe in one single suspect.
VespaElf
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As disturbing as they are I have always wanted to see the other 2 photos.They were talked so much about but never shown which is frustrating.
IMO the kids were "posed" for the photo(s).I believe the children were not keep bound at all times & the pictures were part of a series of either *advertiser censored* or "advertising"(i.e to sell them) thats why(imo)the tape looks new.
I also think thats why the kids look slightly bored(i.e not "wide eyed" in terror)as sadly I think theyd been held so long they were used to the "routine".I think this photo was spontaneously taken ("spur of the moment" if you well)hence the casual posing,location & why theres a glass & book out as well.It wasnt pre-planned or "set up".Why this was taken I can only speculate.
As for the book...........why not "let" her read?Many abductors 'entertained'their victims.Some abductors even enrolled their victims in school! If 'Tara' was kept for so long Im sure she acclimated herself(as a means of survival)to the situation she was in & maybe she relished being able to escape into a book(especially a favorite book).From all the cases & stories Ive read the book doesnt seem out of the ordinary.
Yes I wish the old links had been saved.........anybody remember the articles saying Scotland Yard determined it WAS Tara in the photo but the STATE lab said no so the FBI went with that???
txsvicki
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I don't remember details, but know it's been said by some agencies that the pic was most likely Tara and others say it isn't. I also read that Tara's mother felt that it was her, but some authority said it wasn't because the girl's legs were shaved in the pic. I thought it was Tara and that she had a look of hatred in her eyes at whoever was taking the pic.
VespaElf
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I think its Tara.
Yes it was the FBI who said it wasnt because her legs were shaved(!).Every article I read made it out like the FBI was VERY dismissive of the photo........I really hope that wasnt the case.I know Scotland Yard said it WAS her .
God! I wish those links were saved!
future criminologist
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I totally agree with you. it IS really disturbing, especially if you have children of your own. I don't have kids, but the boy's photo made me think of my nephew who is the same age.
future criminologist
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can't seem to get this article - any way you could copy and paste it in a post?
I think this is the same article; this is the source: http://kidnappingmurderandmayhem.blogspot.com/2008/09/mystery-of-tara-calico-by-leslie.html
Albuquerque Journal
September 14, 2008
What Happened To Woman Missing 20 Years? Sheriff Says He Knows
by Leslie Linthicum
A girl rides a bike on a lonely stretch of road. Then, poof, she's gone.
The mystery of Tara Calico's disappearance began to unfurl a little after noon on Sept. 20, 1988, when Tara's mother drove south on N.M. 47 from Rio Communities, expecting to find her daughter with a flat tire. Instead, all she found in the dirt on the side of the road was a tire track from the bike Tara was riding.
Tara never came home, and so began a family's chain of sorrow. And a puzzle that fed the television crime shows. And a police case that has now stretched out to fill two banker's boxes and 20 years.
Gone without a trace.
At least that has been the storyline.
But to Valencia County Sheriff Rene Rivera, the case isn't much of a whodunit.
He says he knows what happened, and has for years.
Twenty years into the Tara Calico mystery, Rivera would like to let everyone in on what happened to 19-year-old Tara out on N.M. 47 on that September day:
"The individuals who did the harm to Tara, knew who she was," Rivera told me. "They knew who she was, and they're all local individuals. And I believe that the parents (of the attackers) were some of the people that helped the individuals with hiding the truth or hiding the body or trying to escape prosecution."
Tara was 19 and starting her second year in college. Her attackers were boys she had gone to high school with, although they were behind her in school and younger, Rivera says.
"She was a real pretty girl. She was very athletic and a lot of guys wanted to talk to her, they wanted to meet her, they wanted to go out with her. And while she was riding the bike, they went up to try to talk to her, try to grab her, whatever, while she was on the bike."
The truck they were driving accidentally hit Tara, Rivera says, and bad turned worse.
Rivera has been working on the case since he started as a deputy in 1989, since he was promoted to detective in 1996 and since he was elected sheriff in 2006. For all of those years, the walls of Valencia County have been talking, naming names of the boys who were in the truck, names of the boys who helped bury Tara's body after they killed her, names of the parents and other relatives who helped clean up and cover up the mess.
Rivera says he has had enough information to get arrest warrants for the two boys - now men - whom he has identified as the killers. Two others have been identified as accomplices.
Then why, 20 years later, are we marking another milestone anniversary of a missing person's case?
Because Tara Calico is still missing.
"It's kind of hard to make a case," Rivera says, "without a body."
Rivera and Detective James Purdy are still talking to people about Tara Calico, and they're hoping that time will wear away some of the resistance to answering that one lingering question: What did they do with her?
"You know it's very frustrating, being that there's a lot of people that know what happened," Rivera said. "They know the whereabouts of the body or the remains.
"A lot of the information that we are getting is because people are starting to open up a little more. When this first happened, people were scared. People were threatened not to speak out because what happened to Tara could happen to them."
One of the most riveting aspects of the Calico case was a Polaroid photo found outside a convenience store in Florida a little less than a year after Calico went missing. It showed a bound young woman who looked strikingly similar to Tara, in the back of a van, staring at the camera. A boy, also bound, was lying next to her.
Tara's parents had the photo analyzed by Scotland Yard and said it was determined to be Tara. An investigator for the Valencia County District Attorney had a Los Alamos National Laboratory analysis that determined it wasn't.
Maybe the photo was of Tara, Rivera says. But all of his informants tell him Tara never left home.
"I believe the body's nearby," he says. And he believes her bike will be with it.
Tara's father died in 2002. Her mother died in 2006. Living family members, kids when Tara was a kid, are grown. Tara would be 39 later this month.
"I want to be able to give them closure, to be able to say, you know, I got the individuals who did whatever they did to her. I was able to recover the remains and give them to them to give her a proper burial."
Tara Calico's disappearance is one of New Mexico's oldest, most lingering cold cases.
"Actually, it's a mystery that's getting hotter every day," Rivera told me. "Some people have this information, and they've had it for so long that they've gotten sick by hiding the information they have, and now they're coming forward to try to relieve themselves.
"Some of these people that were witnesses to the crime have been scared to come forward. They think that, being that they were there, that they're going to get prosecuted for the death. At this point, what I want to let people to know is that, if there were witnesses there, I'm willing to work with them. I need to have their information. I need to be able to recover this body."
Albuquerque Journal
September 14, 2008
What Happened To Woman Missing 20 Years? Sheriff Says He Knows
by Leslie Linthicum
A girl rides a bike on a lonely stretch of road. Then, poof, she's gone.
The mystery of Tara Calico's disappearance began to unfurl a little after noon on Sept. 20, 1988, when Tara's mother drove south on N.M. 47 from Rio Communities, expecting to find her daughter with a flat tire. Instead, all she found in the dirt on the side of the road was a tire track from the bike Tara was riding.
Tara never came home, and so began a family's chain of sorrow. And a puzzle that fed the television crime shows. And a police case that has now stretched out to fill two banker's boxes and 20 years.
Gone without a trace.
At least that has been the storyline.
But to Valencia County Sheriff Rene Rivera, the case isn't much of a whodunit.
He says he knows what happened, and has for years.
Twenty years into the Tara Calico mystery, Rivera would like to let everyone in on what happened to 19-year-old Tara out on N.M. 47 on that September day:
"The individuals who did the harm to Tara, knew who she was," Rivera told me. "They knew who she was, and they're all local individuals. And I believe that the parents (of the attackers) were some of the people that helped the individuals with hiding the truth or hiding the body or trying to escape prosecution."
Tara was 19 and starting her second year in college. Her attackers were boys she had gone to high school with, although they were behind her in school and younger, Rivera says.
"She was a real pretty girl. She was very athletic and a lot of guys wanted to talk to her, they wanted to meet her, they wanted to go out with her. And while she was riding the bike, they went up to try to talk to her, try to grab her, whatever, while she was on the bike."
The truck they were driving accidentally hit Tara, Rivera says, and bad turned worse.
Rivera has been working on the case since he started as a deputy in 1989, since he was promoted to detective in 1996 and since he was elected sheriff in 2006. For all of those years, the walls of Valencia County have been talking, naming names of the boys who were in the truck, names of the boys who helped bury Tara's body after they killed her, names of the parents and other relatives who helped clean up and cover up the mess.
Rivera says he has had enough information to get arrest warrants for the two boys - now men - whom he has identified as the killers. Two others have been identified as accomplices.
Then why, 20 years later, are we marking another milestone anniversary of a missing person's case?
Because Tara Calico is still missing.
"It's kind of hard to make a case," Rivera says, "without a body."
Rivera and Detective James Purdy are still talking to people about Tara Calico, and they're hoping that time will wear away some of the resistance to answering that one lingering question: What did they do with her?
"You know it's very frustrating, being that there's a lot of people that know what happened," Rivera said. "They know the whereabouts of the body or the remains.
"A lot of the information that we are getting is because people are starting to open up a little more. When this first happened, people were scared. People were threatened not to speak out because what happened to Tara could happen to them."
One of the most riveting aspects of the Calico case was a Polaroid photo found outside a convenience store in Florida a little less than a year after Calico went missing. It showed a bound young woman who looked strikingly similar to Tara, in the back of a van, staring at the camera. A boy, also bound, was lying next to her.
Tara's parents had the photo analyzed by Scotland Yard and said it was determined to be Tara. An investigator for the Valencia County District Attorney had a Los Alamos National Laboratory analysis that determined it wasn't.
Maybe the photo was of Tara, Rivera says. But all of his informants tell him Tara never left home.
"I believe the body's nearby," he says. And he believes her bike will be with it.
Tara's father died in 2002. Her mother died in 2006. Living family members, kids when Tara was a kid, are grown. Tara would be 39 later this month.
"I want to be able to give them closure, to be able to say, you know, I got the individuals who did whatever they did to her. I was able to recover the remains and give them to them to give her a proper burial."
Tara Calico's disappearance is one of New Mexico's oldest, most lingering cold cases.
"Actually, it's a mystery that's getting hotter every day," Rivera told me. "Some people have this information, and they've had it for so long that they've gotten sick by hiding the information they have, and now they're coming forward to try to relieve themselves.
"Some of these people that were witnesses to the crime have been scared to come forward. They think that, being that they were there, that they're going to get prosecuted for the death. At this point, what I want to let people to know is that, if there were witnesses there, I'm willing to work with them. I need to have their information. I need to be able to recover this body."
thefragile7393
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Absolutely. It was enough to get Scott Peterson to trial before the bodies turned up. If he has as much evidence as he says he does, there should be enough for at least a GJ.
KOOL LOOK
~~~Sin is the Cause of all Sorrow~~~For this Gal,
The red larger print bolded by me in Rivera's quote I want to respond to. If what he says is true in this paragraph, it will be what I think will solve this case. It is to true these people in knowing information, possible involvement will make them sick and eat away at them, I think this case will be solved. This article almost sounds to good to be true, for an ending. But, he possibly could be telling the truth. Being patient, and waiting them out.
I pray this is solved real soon and we have answers and Tara back to her family and the good side of society who wish her memory be a happy ending in some way. Bless her parents souls, for this justice shall be the vengence.
reportertype
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This is the first case I remember about a missing person. Assuming the sheriff's information is correct, it's probably not completely up to him to pursue the case. It'd be the DA's office. Lots of DAs are hesitant to attempt to move forward without a body.
I think the sheriff's info makes a lot of sense -- that Tara and her bike are both buried some place in NM. Typically crimes are more banal than our imaginations. I don't know if she was hit by accident or fought back if they tried to abduct her and was killed or what. Could be a number of things.
I do think it fits with no bike being found. If you were just traveling thru NM, why would you grab the bike, too? Why not just leave it?
It sounds, though, like a lot of people know what happened. Unusual that they've all remained silent for this long.
I think the sheriff's info makes a lot of sense -- that Tara and her bike are both buried some place in NM. Typically crimes are more banal than our imaginations. I don't know if she was hit by accident or fought back if they tried to abduct her and was killed or what. Could be a number of things.
I do think it fits with no bike being found. If you were just traveling thru NM, why would you grab the bike, too? Why not just leave it?
It sounds, though, like a lot of people know what happened. Unusual that they've all remained silent for this long.
PORT ST. JOE New twists were added to a 20-year-old mystery with a series of letters delivered in Port St. Joe.
Three letters containing disturbing images of an unidentified young boy arrived in recent weeks, leading law enforcement officials to consider a link to a 1989 possible missing children case.
Port St. Joe Police Chief David Barnes received two letters, postmarked June 10 and Aug. 10 from Albuquerque, NM.
http://www.newsherald.com/news/joe-76761-port-span.html
Maz
Three letters containing disturbing images of an unidentified young boy arrived in recent weeks, leading law enforcement officials to consider a link to a 1989 possible missing children case.
Port St. Joe Police Chief David Barnes received two letters, postmarked June 10 and Aug. 10 from Albuquerque, NM.
http://www.newsherald.com/news/joe-76761-port-span.html
Maz
There was nothing at all written with the letters?
Maybe it is someone suggesting that this boy is the boy from the 1989 picture (the drawn-on duct tape is someone's way of saying "See! They look the same!"), although that wouldn't explain why there would be no letter explaining the photo.
Maybe it is someone suggesting that this boy is the boy from the 1989 picture (the drawn-on duct tape is someone's way of saying "See! They look the same!"), although that wouldn't explain why there would be no letter explaining the photo.
reportertype
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That is just bizarre.
thefragile7393
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My only explanation is that someone wants LE to connect the dots somehow
I dunno, that's a rather poor explanation (and not really much of one to explain the lack of a letter).
dearmont
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The person sent the latest photos to the local newspaper (The Star) in Port St Joe. It's possible that they went to the Star website to get the mailing address. It is possible that the IP address of the computer used to search the address was captured by the newspapers server? Maybe too late to dig into it at this point.