Resolved FL - Port St Joe, 2 Children 96UMFL & 66UFFL, bound & gagged in photo, Jun'89

[Classito]

Meridith Medina...Missing from OK Feb 1989...Her stepmother, Nancy Medina, went missing 4 years before...

How could anyone think the photo is a hoax...I see fear in those eyes...and the boy has marks all on his neck...


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[CarlK90245]

In case you're having trouble visualizing what she looks like without the tape on her mouth, I photoshopped out the tape.

 

[Aleph]

The girl's shirt may say "Diesel." Could be similar to this contemporary design: http://www.farfetch.com/shopping/men/item10755904.aspx

 

[ThePhantom]

I think she looks like a thinner version of Tara Calico. Thank you very much for posting this!!

 

[badhorsie]

Just reading on that site that rhymes with edit. Someone has posted that the T shirt that the girl was wearing is a Egghead Software tshirt, the poster worked for them and LE sent the office the photo.
This is a pic of a similar T Shirt

 

[tatertot]

Wow! I'm blown away that someone recognized it as his/her old employer's design. I also see why we were mistaking the "Professor Eggheads" on her shirt for Disney characters like Huey, Dewey and Lewey -- they have the same bulbous heads.

Egghead Software was a brick-and-mortar computer software store. According to the site below, they only had 107 stores in 13 cities by 1988, the year after this photo was found:

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/egghead-com-inc-history/

If this was a shirt only given to Egghead employees instead of some type of promotional deal ("buy three software titles, get a free shirt") that could narrow things considerably. Either Jane Doe or her abductor might have been an employee.

 

[badhorsie]

I think the poster said it was a promo sold in store but I need to check. Have family over today but will check for sure later and report back

ETA The T shirts were sold in Egghead stores

 

[ThePhantom]

I believe the police have other pictures sent to them that they have not released. But I don't know why.

 

[DueSouth]

http://i.imgur.com/FLOp2Ma.jpg

Check this out.

Some smart individual noticed the reflection of light in what appears to be two eyes behind the boy. Probably of a dog or some other animal.
I hope the link I provided worked, one I found on a discussion of this photo on Reddit. Either way, look at the two whitish dots behind the boy.

Edit. It does work. Is that a dog?

What is that??

 

[mjak]

Yes, over the years we have had debates about those "eyes" Some of suggested it is a dog, others believe it to be light reflecting in cubby holes that are part of the van they believe the kids to be in. Also of interest I have thought for a long time now that, that is a girl not a boy with her hair tightly pulled back and she is wearing a thin chain ( necklace) around her neck.

http://i.imgur.com/FLOp2Ma.jpg

Check this out.

Some smart individual noticed the reflection of light in what appears to be two eyes behind the boy. Probably of a dog or some other animal.
I hope the link I provided worked, one I found on a discussion of this photo on Reddit. Either way, look at the two whitish dots behind the boy.

Edit. It does work. Is that a dog?

What is that??

 

[Classito]

I've lightened it up and do not see any animal. Perhaps pieces of gauze or cotton, or holes. Looks like gauze or cotton below the girls knees wrapped in blue...There also looks like shoe or some kind of handle at the top left...To me they appear to be in a trunk..the area looks like it dips




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[DueSouth]

Yes, I think that a snout or other feature of a dog's face would show up more prominently.

I just wanted to run it by other sleuthers to get some ideas about what that could be.

The "boy" could very well be a girl, although obviously a much younger one than the lady in the foreground.
This case is very mystifying.

I do wonder if the photo found in California was related to this case or not. It seems to be similar to this, based on the way it was described. I am sitting on the fence as to whether this is/was Tara Calico or not.

I am very certain that this was something nefarious, and not a dumb joke or innocent prank though. Has the sighting of the girl being forced along the beach been confirmed to be this girl? From what I read, there haven't been too many details of that aspect of the case revealed.

Also, where is the squirt gun that I have read is there?

 

[DueSouth]

It could be a trunk. The wall behind the boy looks like it is made of a soft material, similar to the rear of a car's back seat.

 

[Sleuthster]

Has anyone ever heard of this photo of a boy bound? It was found in 2001 in Dillon,CO in the parking lot of a grocery store there. I always wondered if it could be connected http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/photo-of-bound-boy-found

Photo http://images.ibsys.com/2001/0911/955817.jpg


I could even wonder if it was the same boy but it was found 12 years later and LE told the news that it was developed at a one hour photo near where the photo was found.

 

[DrDMike]

I don't know, it still looks like a prank.

After all these years, LEO has no idea who the kids are. They do not match any missing kids. That leaves the possibility that the picture was taken by a family member or even a friend. If that is the situation, I can see why no would come forward because they would be worried about getting into trouble. Also, Tara Calico is believed to have been killed in a hit-and-run.

 

[Classito]

Are they sure that is a boy? Something strange about the chest area..maybe the shirt is just out of whack..


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[ezio_mctavish]

Has anyone been able to find the two other photos? I have heard people claiming they saw them, but they could never remember where.

 

[ThePhantom]

Allegedly the police have other photos that to date have not been released. Also, wasn't a photo sent to a church as well?

 

[DueSouth]

One photo was on an Amtrak train somewhere, and seems to have been ruled out as a prank.

The other was found on or near a construction site in Southern California, and was deemed more likely to be authentic, in other words an image of the same girl as seen in the Florida photo.

I can't remember where I read these details, and the info was scant, unfortunately.

I have searched the Web, but I haven't found these pictures, and it seems that they were never released publicly, or at least posted online.

 

[Murkywaters]

One photo was on an Amtrak train somewhere, and seems to have been ruled out as a prank.

The other was found on or near a construction site in Southern California, and was deemed more likely to be authentic, in other words an image of the same girl as seen in the Florida photo.

I can't remember where I read these details, and the info was scant, unfortunately.

I have searched the Web, but I haven't found these pictures, and it seems that they were never released publicly, or at least posted online.

The first was found near a residential construction site in Montecito, California. The haunting Polaroid, taken on film not available until June 1989, shows the blurry image of a girl's face, her mouth again covered with tape, her hairline exhibiting that same cowlick at the right temple. Behind her is light-blue striped fabric similar to that on the pillow in the Toyota van photo. Another Polaroid, this one taken on film not available until February 1990, shows a woman loosely bound in gauze, her eyes covered with more gauze and large black-framed glasses. A man is sitting next to her on a passenger seat of an Amtrak train.

Here is what you remember reading. I always wondered why the second photo find in California has not been released to the public. Hopefully in the Tara calico documentary coming out next year they will feature it.