Tara Calico lived with her mother and stepfather, Patty and John Doel, in Belen, New Mexico, a town of approximately 7,200 in the center of the “Land of Enchantment.” The nineteen-year-old was a student at the University of New Mexico at Valencia and worked part-time as a bank teller at the 1st National Bank of Belen.
Per her custom, the active Tara went for a bicycle ride on the morning of September 20, 1988. She was last seen at approximately 11:45 a.m., approximately two miles from her home. Sometime afterwards, Tara Calico vanished.
For nine months, police had no solid clues in Tara’s disappearance, until the finding of a disturbing photograph from across the country. The haunting image drew national publicity and made the disappearance of Tara Calico one of America’s most infamous missing person cases.
Thirty-six years later, it is one of the most notorious cold cases. A recent announcement, however, suggests that major developments may soon be forthcoming.
Tara Calico
When the always punctual Tara had not returned home by noon, as scheduled, Patty set out to look for her. After searching in vain for several hours along Tara’s usual bike route, Patty contacted the police. Their search, as well, produced no clues.
The following day, as Patty again searched along Tara’s bike route, she found her daughter’s cassette tape strewn along the side of the road. Tara was last seen approximately two miles from her home; the cassette was found three miles from her home and on the opposite side of the highway.
Patty again called the police. Searching the area near where she found the tape, they found bike tracks resembling skid marks, suggesting a scuffle.
The Area of State Road 47
From Which Tara Vanished
Later, part of Tara’s Sony Walkman was recovered nineteen miles east of Highway 47 near the remote John F. Kennedy campground.
As Tara’s bicycle was broken, she was riding her mother’s neon pink Huffy mountain bicycle with sidewalls and yellow control cables. It was never found.
The signs were ominous. It appeared Tara had been abducted and was attempting to leave a trail.
The Bicycle Tara Was Riding
Several people saw Tara riding along Highway 47 in Valencia County. Some noticed her being closely followed by a dirty white or gray Ford pickup.
Some articles from the time state the witnesses believed it was a 1953-55 model possibly having a camper shell; other articles shortly after the incident say it may have been from any year from the mid-50s to the early-60s. Contemporary articles also state the vehicle had New Mexico license plates with the letters “WBY” or “WBZ” with the last of the three numbers on the plate being 6.
A Drawing of the Pickup Seen Following Tara
Photo from the Albuquerque Journal
The truck was driven by a white male who appeared between thirty-five to forty years old. Witnesses thought a second man was also in the vehicle.
Composite Drawing of the Driver
Few substantive leads surfaced in the disappearance of Tara Calico until nine months later, when the potential trail surprisingly picked up in a chilling manner nearly 1,500 miles away. On June 15, 1989, an alarming Polaroid photo was found in a convenience store parking lot in Port St. Joe, Florida.
The photo showed a young female who appeared to be in her teens and a younger boy, both with black duct tape around their mouths and with their hands appearing to be tied behind their backs. They were lying on a bed with a blue striped pillow.
The picture was featured in local newspapers and broadcast on television stations. Although no one recognized the bound duo, several area residents reported having seen the female walking along the Port St. Joe beach shortly before the photograph was discovered. She was accompanied by several adult Caucasian males who appeared to be giving her verbal orders. Police could not find anyone who could recall seeing anyone resembling the boy in the photograph.
Also visible in the photograph were a plastic cup, a squirt gun, and the novel My Sweet Audrina by V.C. Andrews, Tara’s favorite author. A phone number was written along the book’s spine. After photo enhancements made the numbers legible, police determined three-hundred possible combinations of the phone number, fifty-seven of which were in use. None of the phone numbers, however, produced any clues to Tara’s whereabouts or to the identity of the youths in the image.
The Polaroid Found in Port St. Joe, Florida
The Polaroid appeared to have been taken inside a white van, and the woman found it where a white windowless Toyota cargo van had been parked when she arrived at the store. The van was gone when she had exited the store.
The woman said the van was driven by a man with a mustache who appeared to be in his thirties. The man and the van were never located.
The Van May Have Been Similar to This One
The photo was broadcast on several national television shows. After seeing the picture on A Current Affair, in July 1989, some of Tara’s friends believed the gagged girl resembled the missing woman. Patty Doel concurred.
After seeing the photo, Michael and Marty Henley, also of New Mexico, believed the gagged boy was their missing son, Michael Jr.
New Mexico Disappearances Receive National Attention
Nine-year-old Michael Henley, Jr. had disappeared on a hiking trip with his dad and a family friend in New Mexico’s Zuni Mountains on April 21, 1988, five months before and seventy-five miles from where Tara Calico had disappeared.
Michael Henley, Jr.
The hairline and ears of the woman in the Polaroid were similar to Tara’s, but what convinced Patty was a mark on the gagged woman’s right leg that was similar to a scar her daughter had sustained in a car accident.
The Girl Had a Leg Scar Similar to Tara’s
Forensic artists at Scotland Yard compared photographs of Tara to the gagged woman and concluded with 85% certainty the woman in the Polaroid was she.
The Polaroid film used to take the photo was not available until May 1989. If she is Tara, it meant she was alive eight months after her disappearance.
Unidentified Female with Tara Calico
Duct Tape Removed
Scotland Yard analysts felt equally certain the boy in the photograph was Michael Henley, Jr.
Michael Henley, Jr. Unidentified Boy
FBI analysts, however, were not as certain as their British counterparts, particularly with regard to Tara. After studying the photograph, they could not definitively say she was the gagged woman.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory went a step further, concluding the woman in the Polaroid is not Tara, citing the discrepancies below.
A Resemblance, But Also Differences
Two other Polaroid photographs of girls resembling Tara Calico surfaced shortly afterwards but were made public only a few years ago.
The second photograph, found in a residential construction site in Montecito, California, in July 1989, is a blurry image of a girl with her mouth, similar to the first photograph, covered by duct tape. It had been taken with film not made available until June 1989, the month the first Polaroid was found. In this photo, the girl is lying on blue-striped fabric similar to the pillow in the first photo. She has a cowlick on her right temple and a lazy eye, both characteristic of Tara.
Although the image is not great, Patty Doel believed this photo, too, was of Tara.
Second Photo
The third photograph, discovered in April 1990, was shot on film not made available until February of that year. It was taken aboard an Amtrak train and shows a woman who is loosely bound in gauze and wearing large black-framed glasses. A man is sitting next to her.
Patty was less certain this girl is Tara and this photo is largely now dismissed as a gag photo. As far I could find, the man in the photo has also not been identified.
Third Photo
As awful as the image in the first Polaroid was, it gave the parents of Tara Calico and Michael Henley, Jr. hope that their children could still be alive. It was possible that two young people from New Mexico could have been abducted by the same people and transported across the country to Florida.
A grizzly discovery, however, soon established the boy in the photograph was not Michael and, subsequently, diminished the likelihood of the woman in the photo being Tara.
The Picture is Haunting, But It Provides a Ray of Hope
In June 1990, over two years after he disappeared, Michael Henley, Jr.’s remains were discovered in the Zuni Mountains, not far from where he had vanished. It was determined he had become lost after wandering away from camp and eventually succumbed to the elements, dying of natural exposure.
Foul play is not suspected in the death of Michael Henley, Jr.
Michael’s Remains Are Found
Following the discovery of Michael’s remains, investigators officially ruled he was not the gagged boy in the Polaroid.
Not Michael
With Michael Henley ruled out as the boy in the first Polaroid, the likelihood of Tara Calico being the woman in the photograph lessens, but it cannot definitively be ruled out.
False Hope?
The trail of Tara Calico went cold for the following two decades, until another crude Polaroid heated up her case again.
In 2009, shortly after the twenty-year anniversary of the discovery of the first Polaroid, Port St. Joe, Florida, police chief David Barnes was mailed two unsigned letters, postmarked from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The first letter, postmarked August 10, contained a photo, printed on copy paper, of a young boy with sandy brown hair. The boy’s mouth had a black band in ink drawn over it, as if it were covered in duct tape as in the 1989 picture. The second letter, also postmarked August 10, contained an original image of the boy.
On August 12, the Port St. Joe Star received a third letter, also postmarked from Albuquerque on August 10, depicting the same image of another boy with black marks drawn over his mouth.
Investigators cannot confirm the 1989 and 2009 photos are of the same boy, but due to the similarities in appearance and because all three letters were mailed from New Mexico, they believe the newer photos may be connected to the disappearance of Tara Calico.
No fingerprints or DNA were obtained from any of the photographs or letters, and I could not find any source stating if the police could determine when the photographs mailed in 2009 were taken.
New Photos of a Similar Nature
All three letters were mailed at the time a self-proclaimed psychic stated that she had worked with a runaway in a California strip club. The physic claimed the girl had been murdered and said she had dreams indicating the girl may have been Tara Calico and that she was buried in California. Searches conducted in the area the physic claimed to see in her visions did not lead to any discoveries.
One article reported a man seeing a woman he believed to be Tara dancing in a California strip club in 1994, six years after her disappearance, when she would have been twenty-four or twenty-five years old. Investigators, however, believe the sighting and the psychic’s claims are both unreliable.
Psychic Claims and an Alleged Sighting Are Dismissed
At the time of Tara’s disappearance, Rene Rivera was a deputy with the Valencia County Sheriff’s Department. He was part of the initial team investigating the case and continued to do so after he became a detective and later as Valencia County Sheriff from 2007-11.
Rivera initially believed the girl in the Polaroid was Tara. However, he now says information he received when Sheriff changed his opinion. In 2010, he went public with that information.
The following is what the former Sheriff of Valencia County believes happened to Tara Calico.
Rene Rivera
Former Valencia County Sheriff
Former Sheriff Rivera says he received information that while riding her bicycle, Tara was approached by a truck containing two teenage boys she knew. These boys, both minors and one of whom sought a relationship with Tara, followed and harassed her for several minutes before hitting her bicycle with their truck, either intentionally or accidentally. The impact seriously injured Tara. The boys panicked and put her body and her bicycle into the vehicle.
After an injured Tara threatened to go to the police, the panicked youths killed her. Rivera believes several other individuals, possibly including the boys’ parents, were involved in covering up the murder and disposing of Tara’s body and her bicycle, probably not far from where she was last seen.
Rivera did not say what evidence led him to this conclusion and refuses to publicly identify the suspects.
Killed in an Accident?
In a 2013 deathbed confession, a man named Henry Brown told a similar but more sinister story than the former sheriff’s, and with a major twist. Brown claimed that several people, including Rivera when he was a Valencia County Deputy, and other law enforcement officials, covered up the disappearance and murder of Tara Calico.
Shortly after Tara’s disappearance, Brown said while he was in the basement of the home of Lawrence Romero, Jr., son of then-Valencia County Sheriff Lawrence Romero, Sr., he saw what appeared to be a young woman’s body, wrapped in a blue tarp lying in a makeshift grave. Brown claimed Romero, Jr., a man named Dave Silva, and another man whom he did not know told him the woman was Tara Calico.
According to Brown, these men, along with a man named Leroy Chavez, were in a truck when they saw Tara riding her bicycle. They rammed her bike, knocking her down and injuring her. They then abducted her and took her to a gravel pit where they raped her. Afterwards, Brown said Romero, Jr. stabbed Tara to death, while Silva, Chavez, and the other man held her down.
Or Brutally Murdered?
Brown went on to say the trio told him they initially hid Tara’s body in a nearby bush but moved it to Romero’s basement after the searches began. Brown told investigators the men threatened to kill him if he went to the police and that Deputy Rivera helped cover the crime by destroying a note written by Lawrence Romero Jr., confessing to Tara’s murder, apparently to protect Sheriff Romero from shame.
Brown also told investigators he believed the men later placed Tara’s body in a pond near one of their houses and that her bicycle had been disposed of at a junkyard. Another man also told police one of the suspects had confessed to him as well. All of the suspects were deceased by the time this information came to light.
Searches of several properties were undertaken, but Tara’s body was not found. Authorities say they have no evidence to support any of Brown’s claims.
A Terrible Tale of Tara’s Demise is Told
But is it Believable?
Lawrence Romero Jr. died at age twenty-one in 1991, three years after Tara Calico’s disappearance.
Some reports state he committed suicide while others say his death may have been an accident resulting from a game of Russian Roulette going awry. An article from the Albuquerque Journal quotes his father, the former Valencia County Sheriff, as contending his son was murdered.
Lawrence Romero, Jr.
The thirty-five years since Tara Calico rode her bicycle into oblivion have produced plenty of twists and turns with none leading to a resolution.
The young woman in the Port St. Joe, Florida, Polaroid is no longer believed by law enforcement to be Tara. Those who still believe it is Tara contend it is more than a coincidence that a novel from her favorite author, V. C. Andrews, is lying next to her Skeptics, however, emphasize that Andrews was popular with many teenage girls and young women of the time.
The gagged youths remain unidentified. The photo could be suggestive of something sinister, or it could merely be a prank.
Who Are The Gagged Youths?
Some believe the gagged boy in the photograph resembles eight-year-old David Borer, who disappeared from Alaska in April, 1989, seven months after Tara Calico vanished and two months before the Polaroid was found.
Could the Boy Be Missing Alaskan David Borer?
Click on the link to read about David’s disappearance.
Tara Leigh Calico has been missing since September 20, 1988. At the time of her disappearance, she was nineteen-years-old, five-feet-seven inches tall and weighed one-hundred-twenty pounds. She had brown hair, green eyes, scars on the back of her right shoulder and right calf, and a dime-sized brown birthmark on the back of her left leg. She also had a lazy eye and a cowlick on her right temple. Tara had previously had braces on her teeth, and both of her ears were pierced. Her face was freckled.
Tara enjoyed many outdoor physical activities, especially bike-riding and playing tennis. She was very active and in excellent physical shape.
Tara Taken
Tara Calico was declared dead in 1998, with a judge ruling her death a homicide. She would today be fifty-four-years-old.
If you have any information on her disappearance, please contact the Valencia County, New Mexico, Sheriff’s Department at 505-865-9604 of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Albuquerque, New Mexico, Office at 505-224-2000.
Age Progressions
In 2019, the FBI announced a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to the identification or location of Tara’s remains and for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for her disappearance.
In September 2021, the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office and the New Mexico State Police issued a statement saying a new lead had been received and that the focus of a sealed warrant for an unknown private residence located within Valencia County has been issued in relation to Tara Calico’s case.
No further information was provided.
Not Found but Not Forgotten
In June 2023, Valencia County Sheriff Denise Vigil announced her department’s investigation into the disappearance of Tara Calico has been completed and that the report has been submitted to the District Attorney’s office.
The D. A. will review the findings and determine if they warrant any charges filed against the persons of interest named in the report, but not publicly named.
Investigation Completed and Report Submitted
Could Charges Be Imminent?
SOURCES:
- Albuquerque Journal
- America’s Most Wanted
- Charley Project
- Doe Network
- FOX News
- KRQE CBS Channel 13 Albuquerque
- NamUs
- People Magazine
- Unsolved Mysteries
- “Vanished: The Tara Calico Story
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