Tara Calico was last born on September 20, 1988. It was a very good day for Patty Doel, mother of Tara, until her daughter didn’t return when she said she was leaving. Known for her routine bike ride along New Mexico State Road 47, Tara, who lived with her mother in Belen, New Mexico, was spotted by neighbors driving by on that fateful day. Tara’s disappearance was widely perceived as a kidnapping, although to date no culprit or suspect has been identified or caught.
All hopes of finding her seemed lost by July 1989, when a Polaroid photo of a young woman and boy surfaced. The unidentified young woman in the photo bore a striking resemblance to the missing girl and, after careful investigation, was even confirmed to be calico by Doel. However, a thorough analysis of the photo by Los Alamos National Laboratory determined that Doel was wrong.
The development culminated in a multitude of investigations by several agencies, none of which have received any leads to date. Many things can be described as weird and spooky about this unusual crime case. However, this will not prevent us from shedding light on the facts known to us.
Facts about Tara Calico’s disappearance
fateful day
Tara Calico felt that it might take her longer than usual, as she planned to play tennis with her boyfriend at 12:30 p.m. So she asked her mother for Doel to come pick her up if she wasn’t home by noon. As mother and daughter had predicted, Calico wasn’t home until noon. Doel then went out to get her and did her normal morning route but did not find her daughter. She started asking around and people nearby admitted to seeing Calico riding past them earlier. Other chilling revelations included that a pickup truck followed her as she passed. However, no one saw Calico being kidnapped or forced into a vehicle.
Doel was used to driving with Tara Calico
Patty was her daughter’s riding companion until she felt she was being chased by a motorist. This scared her and she stopped morning drives. Concerned for her daughter’s safety, she had advised Calico to carry a self-defense spray on every trip, but her daughter had dismissed the idea.
police search
When Patty couldn’t find her daughter, she contacted the police. Police were unable to locate Calico’s bicycle, but did find some pieces of her cassette and Walkman. It was assumed that this is some kind of trace left by the missing girl. It was also believed that Calico wanted to run away from home and go into hiding on purpose, but her mother and stepfather, John Doel, continued with their search.
Polaroid photo
All hopes of finding Calico seemed lost until June 15, 1989, when a Polaroid surfaced. It was nine months after Calico’s disappearance that the photo surfaced. The mysterious photo of a captive young woman and boy, bound and gagged, was found in a Port St. Joe, Florida store parking lot. The photo was found by a woman in a parking lot where a Toyota Cargo was parked. The driver of the vehicle has not yet been found.
The photo made rounds in the media when it was unearthed in Calico’s seemingly forgotten disappearance. Patty Doel was convinced it was her daughter upon seeing the picture when she discovered a scar on her leg identical to the scar Calico received in a car accident. The boy in the photo has been identified as 9-year-old Micheal Henley, who went missing in April 1988. Henley’s mother and family members also believed he was the one in the photo.
Conclusion of Henley’s case
Henley’s remains were later found in June 1990 in the Zuni Mountains of New Mexico, about 7 miles from where he disappeared.
Further investigations
The woman’s striking resemblance to Tara Calico in the photo motivated the Metropolitan Police Service, also known as Scotland Yard, to conduct an analysis of the photo. The results of the analysis revealed that Calico was the woman in the picture. However, these results were dismissed after a second analysis by Los Alamos National Laboratory proved otherwise.
move
Endless searches and developments lead toPatty Doel and her husband not facing any great physical and mental challenge. After holding out for so long, they moved to Port Charlotte, over 2000 miles from their home in New Mexico. Most importantly, this should allow Patty to keep going.
Further developments
Further developments became apparent after the Doels moved. One of them was a claim by Valencia County Sheriff Rena Rivera in 2008 that Calico was murdered by two teenagers. According to him, the boys who followed her panicked after an accident; and killed and disposed of her body to avoid arrest. His claims were dismissed after he said the youths (men at the time) could not be arrested without a body.
Two other Polaroid photos, similar to Calico’s pictures, have also surfaced, but none have been identified as a missing woman. Tara Calico’s disappearance has remained a mystery.