There is just something about this story that just seems to haunt me whenever I think about it. With the new Unsolved Mysteries DVD's coming out - I wanted to see if there had been any updates on the case. When I do a google search I find numerous stories - but no new stories / updates. I'm also looking for sites that have the original photo in color and also the 2 additional reported photos as mentioned in numerous stories. If anyone has any info - please reply. Thank you!!

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/c/calico_tara.html

Here's a link to the Tara Calico page on The Charley Project. The picture of the young woman in the Polaroid is at the bottom of the page. Additionally, here is a link to an article which shows the entire picture, rather than just the faces of the two people:

http://www.tabloidbaby.com/Book/Companion/bound.html

As far as I know, there have been no updates to the case. :( Hope this helps.


103056

I offered to set up a website (no charge of course) to Tara's family and at first they agreed, but I never heard from them again about it. Too bad, I was really looking forward to doing that project for them. I hope this case is solved some day.

It was pretty stupid of the abductors to take pictures of their victims.

Any updates?

Yeah it was quite stupid they took the photos although they are either really sick or purposely planted the photo underneath their car to make the victims family squirm even more so i'd imagine!
More likely the second 1 i think.

It's interesting that the boy was still alive even though they captured the girl 5 months later. They could be alive although probably quite unlikely!

-Ben

Well the boy is actually dead...His name was Michael Henley Jr. and he was found dead in the Zuni Mountains sometime after the segment first aired.

So its 100% not him pictured in the photograph.

why does his body being found eliminate the boy in the picture being Henley? Who's to say that he wasn't kidnapped, murdered, and then later disposed of near where he was abducted after the photo was taken?

^ Its possible but its also highly unlikely

Maybe this is just me but I never thought the boy in the photograph looked like Michael Henley. Their head shape seems a little different...probably because of the different hair cuts. The boy in the photo also looks like he was a little younger than Henley.

As far as the girl in the photo, I think that is for sure Tara Calico.

yeah it's unlikely, for sure.

I also think the girl is Tara Calico. However, like Awsi Dooger says, the odds are astronomically against it being her. I'd really like to see that second photo. It was found by some construction folks and the photo was the same type available near the same time as the first one. It also had the same background the girl was lying on in the first photo. The third one, I don't need to see although it sounds creepy. They never mentioned where they found it, it was probably sent in to police by a prankster. It was film not available until about a year after the other two photos which have a lot of similarities, so I hear, whether it's Tara or not....both photos were on film avaliable in May/June of '89 and same features in the pictures, person and background. And if it is Tara Calico, what was that photo doing in Florida?

And if it's not her, then who is she? and who is that boy?

I don't think I said the odds were astronomically against in this case. My position has been that most likely it is not Tara Calico in the photo, but I can't discount it.

There's a longer Tara Calico thread with plenty of interesting analysis. I think DarkDante started that thread.

yeah it's unlikely, for sure.

I also think the girl is Tara Calico. However, like Awsi Dooger says, the odds are astronomically against it being her. I'd really like to see that second photo. It was found by some construction folks and the photo was the same type available near the same time as the first one. It also had the same background the girl was lying on in the first photo. The third one, I don't need to see although it sounds creepy. They never mentioned where they found it, it was probably sent in to police by a prankster.

The other two "Tara Calico photos" have not been released publicly to my knowledge. In my Newsbank research, I found articles suggesting that there were not just three but DOZENS of photos turned into police departments around the country following the publicity of this case. The articles didn't mention the specifics of these other photos, save one that showed a teenage girl being buried alive, but the implication was that they were all hoaxes. I think the three we keep bringing up were the most credible. However, you have to keep in mind that even the FBI was skeptical of the validity of these pictures and that includes the first one.

The third one, I don't need to see although it sounds creepy.

What does the 3rd one consist of?

The other two "Tara Calico photos" have not been released publicly to my knowledge. In my Newsbank research, I found articles suggesting that there were not just three but DOZENS of photos turned into police departments around the country following the publicity of this case. The articles didn't mention the specifics of these other photos, save one that showed a teenage girl being buried alive, but the implication was that they were all hoaxes. I think the three we keep bringing up were the most credible. However, you have to keep in mind that even the FBI was skeptical of the validity of these pictures and that includes the first one.

^ Well the third one was for sure because I've seen it. It displayed a frightened looking woman on a train her hands bound with gauze and she was wearing glasses in which the frames seemed to be too big for her face.

A man was beside her, leering at her with this really goofy look on his face the kind that parents make to their very young children when they are talking "baby-talk" to them which is about the only way I can describe it.

^ Well the third one was for sure because I've seen it. It displayed a frightened looking woman on a train her hands bound with gauze and she was wearing glasses in which the frames seemed to be too big for her face.

A man was beside her, leering at her with this really goofy look on his face the kind that parents make to their very young children when they are talking "baby-talk" to them which is about the only way I can describe it.

Do you have a link to the train photo? I'd like to see it.

^ No I don't - sorry :(

I'd like to see it too. Not sure I'd sleep afterward, it sounds incredibly CREEPY. But I am curious to see if it looks fake or real.

^ Well the third one was for sure because I've seen it. It displayed a frightened looking woman on a train her hands bound with gauze and she was wearing glasses in which the frames seemed to be too big for her face.

A man was beside her, leering at her with this really goofy look on his face the kind that parents make to their very young children when they are talking "baby-talk" to them which is about the only way I can describe it.

Did the woman look like Tara? Was it on a site pertaining to Tara? I've seen a few websites about her, and a few of them have the first picture, but I've never seen the other two.

It was on a website pertaining to Tara and from memory (its been almost two years since I saw the thing) the girl has darker and somewhat curlier hair than Tara Calico. There was also a bit of a blurb underneath the picture that said something like "Authorities at first thought it just might be tape around her wrists of some sort but later determined these to be plastic handcuffs" or something to that extent.

Also as I recall this particular site had a larger color capture of the first picture as well.

There is an episode from the 2nd. season of Quantum Leap with the title "Another Mother" originally broadcasted on January 10th. 1990, that I´ve always have thought was loosely based on this case, but with a happy ending. In that particular episode the main character Sam, in a mom's role, and Al "the ghost" prevent one of Sam´s children from been abducted by thugs who were driving a very similar van, to the one under which the 1st. photo was found at the Florida convenience store. The victim (male in the episode) was taking a bike ride, before been abducted and even appears bound and gagged in the back of the van, with (in my opinion) a resemblance to how Tara appears in the 1st. photo, before the "heroes" of the series rescue him.There wasn´t a second child in the van, as was the case for the 1st. photo found in Florida. Do any of you guys remember this particular episode?

No, but Quantum Leap was the BOMB, yo! ;) My favorite was when Sam was transported into a woman's body... :)

No, but Quantum Leap was the BOMB, yo! ;) My favorite was when Sam was transported into a woman's body... :)

Lol! I always think of the one where he gets transported into the secretary's body, and he has to save his roommate from committing suicide!

But that "Another Mother" episode (though the title sounds EXTREMELY familiar) I can't picture it right now.

A certain video sharing website has this segment now. FYI

Looking around unidentified victims on Doe Network, I found this reconstitution of the boy on the polaroids. Since we now know that he was not Michael Henley, authorities are looking to identify this child whose face they have reconstituted.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/96umfl.html

Looking around unidentified victims on Doe Network, I found this reconstitution of the boy on the polaroids. Since we now know that he was not Michael Henley, authorities are looking to identify this child whose face they have reconstituted.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/96umfl.html


Thanks for the link, Drakken!

When did they figure out it wasn't Michael in the picture? I must have been sleeping that day. I never knew that. How did they know it wasn't Michael?

The things I miss when I don't check this board enough... :lol:

Thanks for the link, Drakken!

When did they figure out it wasn't Michael in the picture? I must have been sleeping that day. I never knew that. How did they know it wasn't Michael?

The things I miss when I don't check this board enough... :lol:



Michael Henley's body was later found in the Zuni Mountains near where he was last seen. I do not think the boy in the picture with the unidentified girl was him. However, I do think this is an interesting theory. There is talk that Amy Bradley was kidnapped off of a cruise ship and sold into a slavery/prostitution ring. I don't see why this couldn't happen in the U.S. as well.

I really hope what's described in "Slow Death" didn't happen to Tara. Think I'll pass on reading the book! I don't take the death penalty lightly, but in David Parker Ray's case, I think I could flip the switch very easily.

I know this is more than a year later, but I'm just now reading this. I think I know exactly which episode of "Quantum Leap" you're talking about. Did this particular episode take place in the early 80s? The episode I'm thinking of had a teenager who was humiliated at something that happened to him and he took a bike ride to get away from it and was kidnapped while out riding. There was a lot of great music in the episode (if you like 80s music -- Blondie, George Benson, the Cars), and I remember in one scene the guy who was eventually kidnapped asked his sister to turn the channel from "Magnum P.I." because Tom Selleck was such a "geek."

It was a good episode, although it's sad it may have been based on the Calico disappearance.

Yeah, David Parker Ray was one nasty SOB. :(

However, neither he nor her GF co-criminal, Cynthia Hendy, ever recognized Tara Calico among their victims. And IIRC it wasn't in their modus operandi to take polaroids and scatter them all the way down to Florida. On the contrary, their victims were shut down in the torture room and sequestrated until they got rid of them, dead or alive.

Sadly, I think this is one of those cases that might never be solved. The picture still gives me nightmares.

they did take videos and pictures of the torture sessions though. As well as voice recordings

Well the boy is actually dead...His name was Michael Henley Jr. and he was found dead in the Zuni Mountains sometime after the segment first aired.

So its 100% not him pictured in the photograph.

The boy in the photo looks much older than 10 years old so I can't figure out how they even thought that it could be Michael to begin with.

I hate to say this but one reason i think the photo is fake is that the two kids look to be "in too good condition" :(

No brusies, signs of crying. No lacerations.

They look like a brother and sister playing at being kidnapped by their friends for a joke.


The only reason i can imagine anyone would want to kidnapp both and keep them hostage is to either make a kiddie porn tape or for some satanic ritual death.

That is why i tend to think that both victims are separate incidents.

1. I think an attractive girl like Tara, probably got rapped & killed and her body was dumped somewhere

2. Not sure aboy the boy, though.

Elizabeth Smart, Shawn Hornbeck, and Shasta Groene were all seen in public with their abductors. They appeared normal and not injured or frightened although they had been terrorized in the worst possible ways. I think it could be real, but don't know who the photo depicts. And no one has come forward admitting to posing for it as a prank.

Just last week one of the news stations in Albuquerque did an interview with the Socorro police chief who is retiring. He said that the case still haunts him and he wishes he could have found Tara. He still has hope. Both of Tara's parents are dead. There still David Parker Ray theories in her case.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of Tara's disappearance. It is also the 19th anniversary of UM's second season premiere when Tara's story was originally shown.

I don't know if this link will work, but I found an old post that Tara's mom wrote:

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?p=1156008#post1156008

I'm not saying these cases are actually related, but there are some interesting similarities.

Angela Hammond
Abducted 1991 (3 years after Tara Calico)
State Missouri
Age 20
Time of Abduction 11:15 PM
Suspect Vehicle Old Green Pickup Truck with unusual full back window fish decal


Tara Calico
Abducted 1988 (3 years before Angela Hammond)
State New Mexico
Age 19
Time of Abduction doenetwork.org say both "before noon" and "11:45 PM"
Suspect Vehicle UM reenactment shows Old Green Pickup Truck with white home made camper top, doenetwork says 1953 Ford pick up, dirty white or light gray, with home made white shell

I believe Tara Calico was abducted at 11:45AM during her morning bike ride if my memory serves me correctly.

I'm not saying these cases are actually related, but there are some interesting similarities.

Angela Hammond
Abducted 1991 (3 years after Tara Calico)
State Missouri
Age 20
Time of Abduction 11:15 PM
Suspect Vehicle Old Green Pickup Truck with whit home made camper top


Tara Calico
Abducted 1988 (3 years before Angela Hammond)
State New Mexico
Age 19
Time of Abduction 11:45 PM
Suspect Vehicle Old Green Pickup Truck with unusual full back window decal

Tara was last seen riding her bike in the morning, and witnesses reported her being followed by a white older-model truck with no decal on the back window, if I recall correctly.

Yep, I'll fix that goof.

I believe Tara Calico was abducted at 11:45AM during her morning bike ride if my memory serves me correctly.

Mercy,

I also thought that Tara was abducted in the morning, but I got my info from the doenetwork.org site.

I went back to double check the stats, and apparently doenetwork has gotten this wrong. Here's what they say:

>>>>Tara Leigh Calico was abducted just before noon on September 20, 1988 while on her daily 36 mile bike ride just south of Belen, New Mexico.
Around 11:45 pm, witnesses observed a 1953 Ford pick-up truck, dirty white or light gray -in color, with a white homemade shell, following Tara...<<<<

In the UM reenactment, they used a green truck, very similar in color to the color of the truck in the Angela Hammond case.

I'll go edit the info in my post.

i remember awhile back a thread linked to webslueths, that showed a photo found at a gas station, which showed a older woman who was dead in a small confined space. There was speculation it might have been Tara and many people were trying to help analyze the picture, and it must have had 40 pages of replies. Sadly tho, the photo was dropped by a man whos son took the picture in Iraq. If anyone has that link and could post it here i remember there were some interesting links related to Tara on it for those who are curious but I have lost that link unfortunately.

There was also a post that had a discussion with the sherriff from Tara's home town that suggested that she may have been ran over by some younger guys who she knew and that they hid the body but I did not find his story convincing.

The origional photo supposedly shows a obscure book who happened to be Tara's favorite author, which makes it a rather disturbing conincidence or another reason to believe it was her in the photo.

Forgive me for correcting you, but the book in the picture was not obscure. That author (V. C. Andrews) was very popular with the YA (young adult) reading crowd in the late 1980s. I can remember most of the girls in my junior high class reading V C Andrews and discussing the various titles. "Flowers in the Attic" was made into a movie in 1987. I've always thought that too much stock was put into the novel being in the picture.

I do, however, understand how the parents could have held onto that as a sign.

Forgive me for correcting you, but the book in the picture was not obscure. That author (V. C. Andrews) was very popular with the YA (young adult) reading crowd in the late 1980s. I can remember most of the girls in my junior high class reading V C Andrews and discussing the various titles. "Flowers in the Attic" was made into a movie in 1987. I've always thought that too much stock was put into the novel being in the picture.

I do, however, understand how the parents could have held onto that as a sign.

I always thought there was too much stock put into the book in the photo as well, but it's a little eerie, considering the subject matter of My Sweet Audrina (which was the Andrews book in the photo, I believe)....or any of those books, actually. Weird stuff.

Thank you for the correction about the book, the whole idea of the photo seems a little less disturbing now.

I'm almost tempted to read "My Sweet Audrina". Isn't it about some kids being held against their will in an attic? I've often wondered if the photo has something to do with the subject matter of the book and not necessarily Tara Calico.

Although, it is is odd that a second similar photo turned up in California. I have not seen this picture, but from the descriptions I have read it was taken in the same setting. Not sure if the book was visible though.

I'm almost tempted to read "My Sweet Audrina". Isn't it about some kids being held against their will in an attic? I've often wondered if the photo has something to do with the subject matter of the book and not necessarily Tara Calico.

Although, it is is odd that a second similar photo turned up in California. I have not seen this picture, but from the descriptions I have read it was taken in the same setting. Not sure if the book was visible though.

Flowers in the Attic, also by V.C. Andrews, was about three (or four? Something like that) children being held in the attic for three years by their grandmother. My Sweet Audrina was an even weirder story about a young girl who's forced by her father to essentially "become" her dead older sister (who, like herself, was named Audrina). To make a long story short, the reader finds out that there had actually been no deceased sister at all---that Audrina had repressed memories of a violent gang-rape she suffered years ago and that her father had subjected her to "shock" (electroconvulsive) therapy after she attempted suicide. The therapy had erased her memory.

Overall, all of those V.C. Andrews books are, in my opinion, a garish menagerie of badly done grotesques. There's always a tidal wave of weird sex, child abuse, incest, dysfunctional families, delivered one right after the other--bam bam bam--in no intelligible logical order. The stories are so incredible that they're almost sophomoric. I have no idea why they ever enjoyed the popularity that they did---but stranger things have happened. Look at Twilight. :D Enough literary criticism, though..

I read the book years before I heard of the Tara Calico case, and then finding it in the photo made me shiver a little bit. I sometimes wonder whether it had anything to do with the photo as well, but I lean towards the idea that it probably didn't in and of itself. There were a lot of weird things in that picture. I think there was even a squirt gun or something there. The entire collection of objects stands a pretty good chance of maybe meaning something, perhaps, if to no one else than the abductors (or whoever took the photo).

I've heard of the picture you mention. Wasn't the fabric from the pillow in the "original" photo clearly visible in it? I think I remember reading something like that.

Thanks for a synopsis on the V.C. Andrews books, Meg.

Yes, I think the blue and white stripped fabric was in the second picture. I believe the photo was found at a construction site in California. I had also read that a squirt gun was visible in the first photo but I've never been able to spot it. Who knows if the version of the photo that was made available to the public was cropped in any way.

I wonder what the purpose of the picture was in the first place. The Polaroid was found in the same spot where the van had been parked, and it likely originated from that same van since a van interior can be seen in the photo. I could see it almost being a joke toward the people who saw the van earlier that day like "look what was in our van this whole time that you didn't know about".

I find it hard to believe someone would be that careless and accidentally lose track of such an incriminating picture. The fact that a second one was found would also lead me to believe that these placements were intentional.

Agreed; I definitely believe the placement was intentional. Assuming that the re-enactment in the segment is entirely accurate, the fact that the photo was left facedown is significant to me. It's as though whoever put it there was wanting to thoroughly shock the person who happened upon it.

I'm not saying these cases are actually related, but there are some interesting similarities.

Angela Hammond
Abducted 1991 (3 years after Tara Calico)
State Missouri
Age 20
Time of Abduction 11:15 PM
Suspect Vehicle Old Green Pickup Truck with unusual full back window fish decal


Tara Calico
Abducted 1988 (3 years before Angela Hammond)
State New Mexico
Age 19
Time of Abduction doenetwork.org say both "before noon" and "11:45 PM"
Suspect Vehicle UM reenactment shows Old Green Pickup Truck with white home made camper top, doenetwork says 1953 Ford pick up, dirty white or light gray, with home made white shell

I guess I'm not seeing the similarities. Different state, three years apart, different time. The only similarity is the truck, and, well, there are a lot of green trucks in the world. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Calico

Tara Calico
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Tara Leigh Calico (born February 18, 1969) disappeared near her home in Belen, New Mexico on September 20, 1988. Her case, believed to be a kidnapping, received extensive coverage on A Current Affair , Unsolved Mysteries, and America's Most Wanted. It was also profiled on The Oprah Winfrey Show and 48 Hours. The Unsolved Mysteries segment on Tara's disappearance is available for viewing on You Tube.

Contents [hide]
1 Disappearance
2 The photograph
3 Later Developments
4 Footnotes
5 External links



[edit] Disappearance
On September 20, 1988 Tara left her home at about 9:30 in the morning to go on her customary bike ride. She told her mother, Patty Doel, to come and get her if she wasn't home by noon. Patty went searching for Tara along her usual bike route but could not find her and contacted the police. Part of her Sony Walkman and a Boston cassette tape were discovered along the route and Patty believed that Tara may have left these items in an attempt to mark her trail. Several people saw Tara riding her bicycle, which has also never been found. No one witnessed her presumed abduction, although several witnesses did observe a 1953 or 1954 Ford pickup following her, but it is not known if this vehicle was connected to her disappearance. All efforts to locate the pickup have failed.


[edit] The photograph

Unidentified boy and girl, bound and gagged. The girl is believed to be Tara CalicoOn June 15, 1989, a Polaroid photo of an unidentified young girl and boy, both bound and gagged, was found in the parking lot of a convenience store in Port St. Joe, Florida. It was theorized that the girl in the photo was Tara and that the boy was Michael Henley, also of New Mexico, who had disappeared in April 1988. The book that is next to the girl in the photo is the gothic horror novel "My Sweet Audrina" by V.C. Andrews which was published in 1982. According to investigators the picture had to have been taken after May 1989 because the particular film used in the photograph was not available until then. Despite much conjecture, the identification of the boy in the photograph as Michael Henley seems unlikely because his remains were discovered in 1990 in the Zuni Mountains where he had disappeared. (Foul play is not suspected in his death). The Zuni mountains are about 75 miles from where Tara disappeared. Nonetheless, her mother believed the girl in the photo was indeed her daughter due in part to what appeared to be a scar on the girl's leg similar to one Tara received in a car accident. However, the FBI was unable to conclusively prove that it was Tara in the photograph.

Two other Polaroid photographs, possibly of Tara, have surfaced over the years, but they have yet to be released to the public.

There were several reported sightings of her in 1988 and 1989, mostly in the southern half of the U.S. However, none of these sightings could be confirmed.


[edit] Later Developments
Twenty years after her disappearance, Rene Rivera, sheriff of Valencia County announced that he knew what happened to Tara Calico. According to Rivera, boys who knew her from school drove up behind her in a truck and some form of accident followed. Tara later died and those responsible covered up the crime. Rivera states he knows the names of those involved, but that, without a body, he cannot make a case. He has not released whatever evidence has led him to this conclusion. No arrests have been made, and the case remains open.[1]


Patty Doel died in May 2006 due to a complications from a series of strokes. She had been in poor health for several years prior to her death.

Tara's biological father, David Calico, died of a heart attack in 2002.

Tara Leigh Calico would today be 39 years old.


[edit] Footnotes
^ Linthicum, Leslie (2008-09-20). "Mystery of Tara Calico: What Happened To Woman Missing 20 Years? Sheriff Says He Knows". Albuquerque Journal

[edit] External links
http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2006/Jun/08/joline-gutierrez-krueger-patty-doel-waited-for/
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/c/calico_tara.html
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Calico"
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Sorry. Double posted.

That's okay, 88Keys, because after I found out that doenetwork had the time of day of the disappearance wrong and that unsolved used a green truck in the re-enactment, when the truck was really white or gray... I'm not seeing any similarities either.

But, I figured that I'd correct those errors in my post, rather then delete the whole darn thing.

Originally, the time of the abductions were both about 11:30pm, suspect vehicle was an old green truck, both victims were about 20 year old brunettes in isolated locations.

With the distance geographically and the 3 years between abductions, I was thinking how easy it would be for the guy to move around and commit the crimes, while driving the same old raggedy truck without being recognized.

But the corrections to the descriptions totally blows that theory.

Twenty years after her disappearance, Rene Rivera, sheriff of Valencia County announced that he knew what happened to Tara Calico. According to Rivera, boys who knew her from school drove up behind her in a truck and some form of accident followed. Tara later died and those responsible covered up the crime. Rivera states he knows the names of those involved, but that, without a body, he cannot make a case. He has not released whatever evidence has led him to this conclusion. No arrests have been made, and the case remains ope

Some one in the area needs to give us more details!!