Identified! OK - OSBI Needs Help to ID Woman In Photo *Resolved*

[Reannan]

I believe the design on the robe or pajama top is placed there by something called "flocking". Here is a link to a robe that has a flocked pattern. If you look at the blue robe in the photo, you can see th little white "dots" in the design. I think the fabric starts essentially white, and the blue and tan colors are flocked onto it. Here is the link to a flocked robe: http://preview.tinyurl.com/2ofy8o

 

[Chica]

From the first time I looked at this photo, the item she is lying on reminded me of a 'strawberry shortcake' sleeping bag my daughter had as a young child (she is now 29 yo!) . . . just a thought. In the lower left corner of the 'un-retouched' photo it even looks like it could possibly be a strawberry on the blanket/sleeping bag...what do you think??

 

[trixie]

It does look like a strawberry but I still think it's one of those miami "pink flamingo" type of articles, you know tropical. Since there is a crease in this photo I tend to think someone carried it around with them, perhaps in a wallet. However the crease doesn't seem old because it's hard to see. Maybe it hasn't been creased too long.(Or the image just isn't coming through on our screens as to what it really looks like.) I also think she looks middle eastern. She also looks Italian or Hispanic to me. It looks to me like she has olive skin coloring. If her ears are pierced she has no earrings in and no makeup on. It seems as if she was ready for bed or even IN bed.
I also don't think she looks anything like Tara Calico. Different eyebrows, different nose.....too many differences that are obvious.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

Hi Everyone,

I went to Purcell this weekend (for those who don't know, my mom lives there) and I actually drove out to Woody's. I spoke to a clerk who was working there. She was not the one who found the picture, however, she was there when it was found by/on a gas pump. She said that the person who found it came back into the station shaking and almost being sick. I can't even imagine....it is horrible enough for us to look at here. Anyway, I told her about our group and that we were concerned. She was happy to know that others from around the world cared. I guess what we all have to realize is that Purcell is a very small town. I tried to get on my mom's internet (dial up!) and I could not even access this website. Many people, not all, but many, still live in a very small world, but Purcell is an awesome town and this is big and scary to them. SeriouslySearching, I know I told you that I had to tell my mom about this, however, I am happy to report that this young girl's photo and story was featured in last weeks' Purcell Register newspaper, so she is getting some local publicity. I still have no answers, but I can share that Woody's is in a very isolated area. There were a couple of houses and Woody's itself is a small convenience store and gas station. It is RURAL America at its finest....sorry for the long post, but like many of you, I am so worried about this whole thing....

:clap:Thanks so much for your help! It is good to know they aren't hiding it around there for some reason. I was beginning to wonder if OSBI had held this back for a long time or something. Did they happen so say when this was found?

It does help to get an idea of how isolated Woody's is and that tells me more this was planted instead of dropped accidently.

 

[fran]

Wow! I think we were on the first page the other day when I first saw this and now we're on #10. Good job taking this seriously, fellow sleuthers!

I still think that if this picture could get onto a Nationally syndicated program, NG, Greta, or especially AMW, this woman would be identified. Someone has to know who she is.

JMHO
fran

 

[Mr. E]

:clap:Thanks so much for your help! It is good to know they aren't hiding it around there for some reason. I was beginning to wonder if OSBI had held this back for a long time or something. Did they happen so say when this was found?

It does help to get an idea of how isolated Woody's is and that tells me more this was planted instead of dropped accidently.

I agree. If it's not off the main highway, then why would anyone leave it there, if not for someone wanting it to be seen. And if Purcell is so tiny and removed, I'm guessing the person wants the picture to be seen by someone specific.

 

[Chica]

I agree. If it's not off the main highway, then why would anyone leave it there, if not for someone wanting it to be seen. And if Purcell is so tiny and removed, I'm guessing the person wants the picture to be seen by someone specific.

Does the gas station have a security camera? OR, could they check their records for the evening the pic was found to see if they could identify via charge card records? It seems just about everyone uses charge cards for gas these days... It just doesn't make sense to me that someone wanted the pic found...it is just so risky these days with security cameras everywhere. Of course, if it is a serial killer, they could want the attention.

I also agree that this needs to be on a nationally televised program, i.e., Nancy Grace or Greta.

 

[kgeaux]

I've looked at the robe again trying to determine if it's flocked or not. Some parts look as though they are, because lots of white seems to be showing through (or else it's reflecting a flash.) If you go to the right from her chin, however, there's a line of white stitches---so we've got some embroidery. Just noticed there is a collar on the robe, too.

Interesting take on the "strawberry" Does anyone happen to have an old photo featuring the Strawberry Shortcake sleeping bag? Maybe someone could do a comparison and rule it in or out.

Also, zooming up on the "fly" it looks like a series of horizontal black lines----like stitches? I honestly can't decide what I'm looking at right there.

The "matter" at the lower left corner, when zoomed in on does appear to be organic to me, there's just something about the way it loops and curls.

 

[kgeaux]

Does the gas station have a security camera? OR, could they check their records for the evening the pic was found to see if they could identify via charge card records? It seems just about everyone uses charge cards for gas these days... It just doesn't make sense to me that someone wanted the pic found...it is just so risky these days with security cameras everywhere.

I agree it had to have fallen out by accident. Since it is creased, it would make sense that it could have dropped out of a wallet when someone opened the wallet to withdraw cash/credit cards.

Since the photo was found "on" or around the pump, it couldn't have been there for too long. Normal breezes would have blown it away if it had been there any significant amount of time. I hope LE ran all the credit cards used that day and tracked those people down.

It sounds like such a small place, I wouldn't think they'd have security cameras, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Reannan]

I think whoever left the picture was confident there were no security cameras either....that is why Woody's was selected as the site to display his photography. I lean towards it being left on purpose. The crease doesn't look deep enough to have been folded up in a wallet for a long period of time. It is more like it was slightly bent, perhaps placed in a box that was too narrow for it to lay flat, so it was folded, but not completely bent so that a lid could fit on the box. I would think it would be risky for a serial killer to walk around with pictures like this in his wallet. What if he got pulled over and had to provide his license, or in a car wreck? Too much risk IMHO.....but then again.....I have never been a serial killer, and thankfully, I am not prone to think like them.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

The more I study the unretouched photo, the more I am convinced it is Tara Calico.

People have mentioned we didn't pluck our eyebrows thin back in the 80s/early 90s...but she was from NM and here in OK...we are a bit behind in the fashion scene (or I should say...used to be.) What was going on nationally didn't neccessarily reflect what our culture was doing...so plucked thin eyebrows were more the rule than the exception here about that time worn with a white eyeshadow in a thin line underneath. OR maybe the perp had a thing for the thin eyebrow look. He kept her alive for a period of time and could dictate she change her appearance somewhat during that time. (Tara's captor also allowed her other "luxuries" such as the book of her fav author which no doubt was used to help identify her in the earlier photo with the boy and his purpose for allowing her to have it.)

Tara Calico was allowed to keep up her appearance. (She was allowed to be out on a beach in Florida, as I recall.) I think the attached ear is shown on purpose for identifying her as is the "cowlick" and the reason she was 'posed' in this way. The hair might look like it has been "chunked", but it looks more like natural highlights to me not to mention it could also be bloodsoaked making it look darker in areas.

I believe the mattress was in a travel trailer and that is comforter with a floral pattern...probably with large, hot pink flowers and the two-toned green leaves...again...popular in the late 80s/90s.

The more I see other photos of other missing women, the more I am drawn back to Tara. Her mother's death could be the reason this person left the photo in a remote location...it was his MO all along to keep torturing her mother and father/LE by taking and dropping such photos through the years. His sick "game" could have ended with her death. The perp always left them to be found in the least likely place for him to be seen...old gas stations, a residential construction site, etc. I would say he did this in the middle of the night when the places were empty and no one would see him leave them. (There are many gas stations like this that dot the countryside in NM and in OK still to this day. They have been in business forever and they simply don't make enough money to update or have a need for cameras as robberies in our small communities are quite rare.)

Gut feeling tells me it is Tara Calico and this photo was to prove that on his part. (I bet this ends up being a polaroid like his others.) He WANTS people to know it was her because it has been his way of "bragging" that he was still out there and could taunt the family and LE. I think when they find the perp...he will still have other photos which will progress and match up to the photos he left. They are his "trophies".

 

[Reannan]

I totally agree that the picture looks an awful lot like Tara Calico, only the lady in the picture is older. I hate to think he kept her for years, but we know from other cases, that those sort of horrors happen. You would think, that LE would have additional pictures of Tara that they could use to look at the moles, and other identifying characteristics we have discussed. Evidence that points to it being Tara includes the fact that she is dressed in a blue robe/pajama top that is the same color as the shirt in one of the more famous pictures of Tara. In fact, it is the picture of Tara with her hand under her chin.....posed sort of like the picture we are now discussing, only the hand is posed slightly differently. I think the unknown picture is posed, and I think it was left intentionally.

 

[jacobean]

Hello! First i just want to say thankyou for welcoming me and that - very cool people.

I just cant get this girl out of my mind! Re the eyebrows - it was the first thing that struck me, and the more i look at her skin tone, Kgeux & niteowl - i think you're right, middle eastern - and i think it could explain the clothes as well..

Kgeux: the lower left section you mentioned, i never noticed it before - so i went back and had a closer look and im really sorry to say it - gross- but my first thought was intestines (so sorry)

 

[kwatson696]

http://www.city-data.com/city/Purcell-Oklahoma.html


This is interesting to read, According to our research there were 11 registered sex offenders living in Purcell, Oklahoma in early 2007.
The ratio of number of residents in Purcell to the number of sex offenders is 531 to 1.

 

[lizzybeth]

Hello! First i just want to say thankyou for welcoming me and that - very cool people.

I just cant get this girl out of my mind! Re the eyebrows - it was the first thing that struck me, and the more i look at her skin tone, Kgeux & niteowl - i think you're right, middle eastern - and i think it could explain the clothes as well..

Kgeux: the lower left section you mentioned, i never noticed it before - so i went back and had a closer look and im really sorry to say it - gross- but my first thought was intestines (so sorry)

I thought that too but with it looking like the injury is to the head I was thinking more along the lines of brains. Brains do have sections that might look like intestines (or at least they do to me). I wonder if there was another injury to the lower half of her body that isn't shown in the picture?

I'm supposed to be working but I find myself checking this thread often. I hope they're able to find out who this girl is soon. She deserves to have a name; to have her loved ones know and to have the person that did this to her punished.

 

[laini]

From the first time I looked at this photo, the item she is lying on reminded me of a 'strawberry shortcake' sleeping bag my daughter had as a young child (she is now 29 yo!) . . . just a thought. In the lower left corner of the 'un-retouched' photo it even looks like it could possibly be a strawberry on the blanket/sleeping bag...what do you think??

I thought so, too! I looked through all the old and new strawberry shortcake bedding and sleeping bags I could find online. I haven't found any that match. The only thing that matches is the colors and that there is a green leaf.

 

[Chica]

The more I study the unretouched photo, the more I am convinced it is Tara Calico.

I agree it looks like it could very easily be Tara Calico, with the exception of the eyebrows.

Here is a link to the first photo found that is believed to be Tara and Michael Henley.

http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200301684W

Both Tara and Michael's mothers believe it is their respective child in the photo. When I compare the features of the girl in the first photo found with the features of the girl in the most recent photo found, they look like they could very easily be the same girl, save for the eyebrows, which could easily have been reshaped.

 

[Chica]

I thought so, too! I looked through all the old and new strawberry shortcake bedding and sleeping bags I could find online. I haven't found any that match. The only thing that matches is the colors and that there is a green leaf.

I've been searching all morning for vintage strawberry shortcake sleeping bags, etc., and I can't find any that match. When I first looked at the pillow or blanket or whatever it is she is lying on, it immediately triggered the memory of my daughter's strawberry sleeping bag, and every time I take another look at it, the same image jumps into my head. I'll keep looking.

 

[kgeaux]

Hello! First i just want to say thankyou for welcoming me and that - very cool people.

I just cant get this girl out of my mind! Re the eyebrows - it was the first thing that struck me, and the more i look at her skin tone, Kgeux & niteowl - i think you're right, middle eastern - and i think it could explain the clothes as well..

Kgeux: the lower left section you mentioned, i never noticed it before - so i went back and had a closer look and im really sorry to say it - gross- but my first thought was intestines (so sorry)

That's what I thought, too. But so close to her head, I couldn't imagine how any internal organ from the abdomen would end up there, especially since her robe seems to be intact. But it looks more like intestines than brains, to me.

I thought so, too! I looked through all the old and new strawberry shortcake bedding and sleeping bags I could find online. I haven't found any that match. The only thing that matches is the colors and that there is a green leaf.

All the strawberry shortcake stuff I can find are in more pastel brights, rather than "neon" brights. I have had no luck at all finding anything in the colors on the mattress/cover/sleeping bag, etc. It seems to be nylon, very shiny, in good condition, so if it's from the 70's or 80's the picture must have been taken back then, because I don't see any wear and tear on whatever it is.

Now, the robe: I have found a robe that doesn't match exactly, but is similar. I don't know how to get the picture from "my pictures" to a post on websleuths.....if anyone can help me, I'd appreciate it.

 

[lizzybeth]

Like a few other people have said she could have had them tweezed or threaded. I didn't know a lot about the Tara Calico case but after reading today it seems she had been seen in the company of several adult men. She could have very well tweezed/threaded between the time the first photo was taken and the last one.

http://www.childseeknetwork.com/pics.php?type=photo2&id=117

She looks a lot like the unidentified girl in this black and white photo.