Profiling Tara Calico's "abductor"

[justins5256]

This case has been on my mind recently, more specifically, the Polaroid photo found in Port St. Joe, Florida of the two children. Obviously, a lot of people believe the girl in the photo is Tara Calico. There was speculation that the boy was Michael Henley, but considering his remains were found not far from where he originally disappeared in the Zuni Mountains in New Mexico, it is highly unlikely.

What do you guys think of the Polaroid?

I should say I'm a huge believer in Occam's Razor, and using plausible deductions and inferences to lead to the most likely explanation. I like trying to "profile" who the most likely culprit is. I think that applying these axioms is a good way of disentangling some of the more "out there" theories, which UM certainly gave us a dose of....

That being said, I'm having a hard time figuring the angle on this one...

In terms of explaining the Polaroid, lets examine the possibilities...

First, I think it's necessary to point out that the photo was found face up in the parking lot of a gas station in Port St. Joe, Florida. Considering the nature of the photo, to me, this indicates that the person who "dropped" it...

A. wanted it to be found.
B. was going for "shock value" - really, two young kids bound with tape on their mouths. Its pretty "out there"...it reminds me of a case recently where a photo of a dead and mutilated woman was found at a gas station. Upon further investigation, it turned out it was a photo from Afghanistan and depicted a war atrocity.

That being said, there are a few directions to go with the Polaroid from 1989...

1. A criminal mastermind who gets his (women rarely commit these crimes) kicks abducting children and left behind a photo to taunt authorities.

Unlikely. Most stranger abductions of children are for sexual purposes. The perp is usually an adult male, and the children are typically dead and disposed within 48 hours. In addition, most pedophiles have a sex and age preference. Yet, the Polaroid depicts a girl and a boy. Age is up for grabs, but suffice to say there is a pretty significant age gap between the two...kinda unique for a pedophile. Two sexes..different ages...
Not to mention the people who commit these types of crimes are usually solitary and act alone, and typically don't advertise their crimes in this fashion...the whole thing seems highly unlikely to me.

2. The photographer is a parent or guardian of these children, has sexually abused them and the photo was taken either for self gratification, or for resale.

Unlikely. While the scenario is plausible, these types of offenders typically don't advertise their crimes in public (i.e., photos left face up in a gas station). Also, any buyer of the photos is unlikely to leave them in a similar state.

3. Human trafficking, The photo is a remnant of that.

Unlikely. Organized crime is involved here. They don't advertise either.

Ultimate conclusion, - the photo is a hoax perpetuated by kids, and they have feared to come forward over the years due to the publicity generated by the Polaroid.

Thoughts?

[SheRaaa]

I've always thought the photo was a hoax. Was the perp just rifling through old photo albums in a gas station parking lot, and one just happened to fall out?

I mean it COULD happen, but I don't know...

I think the actual photo was either a hoax perpetrated by bored kids, some creepy pedophilic remnant of a different crime entirely, or some sort of bizarre practical joke.

[WishfulDreamer]

I've gone back and forth on the photo over the years. I feel the same way, SheRaa. It could be fake either as a joke or hoax, but it could be an actual crime in progress. Tara's mother stated she recognized a scar on the girl's leg as Tara's according to one article, but I failed to see it in the photograph.

I think part of what keeps me thinking it could be real is the boy's face. He just looks so scared and petrified. It could be a joke, but looking at his face is just so disturbing. Something about the girl's expression also really bothers me- I find it so genuine. She seems bitter and resentful of the person taking the picture.

It could all just be really good acting, of course. But the photo will still always creep me out. I think whoever the girl is, she is probably not Tara.

[wiseguy182]

I think I probably would have found the idea of kids playing a practical joke of this magnitude unfathomable. But after having learned that the photos sent to Noreen Gosch were traced back to kids playing a practical joke in Florida in 1979, it is possible. My first thoughts were what Wishful said, the kids look legit afraid though.

United States seems to be the only country that has a website with a good chunk of its missing people profiled on it. I have to wonder about the possibility of the kids being originally from outside the U.S. and brought here, that might help explain why nobody identified them. This case got a heavy dose of publicity within the 50 states.

Not to keep rehashing things I've recently said, but I still think Nyleen Kay Marshall may have been one of a series of at least 4 abductions from people who dipped in from Canada. -- I've looked at every case on the Charley Project and don't immediately recall anyone that looks like these 2. Though I'm going through them again and up to 1987, right near the time frame, so I'll keep an eye out. Meaghan, owner of CP, says there are a lot of cases she can't profile because there are no photos of the missing person, she once estimated that number to be "in the thousands". There's also a lot of old cases (people who went missing in the 80's for example) that have just surfaced on the site within the last few years. Mind-boggling to think how many of these cases don't attract that much attention.

[dynoguy88]

I was "iffy" on the picture being Tara until I read the article online of the lead investigator saying she was killed by 2 boys she had gone to high school with, who were driving the green van along the highway she was riding her bike. Their parents helped cover the crime, arrest warrants for the boys (now men) were made but couldn't be processed without the body or the bike.

So while I don't think the photo is of Tara, I'm still debating as to whether or not the picture is fake or not. I think the boy looks scared but the girl looks more annoyed.

[soilentgreen]

I lean towards the photo being a prank that got out of hand; the police have a pretty solid theory and suspects tied to Tara's disappearance. Who knows if the sightings at the beach of the young woman had any connection to the polaroid.

At least one of the other pair of images that have been written off was found at a construction site. More recently someone else got their kicks off of sending images of a boy in regards to the case: http://www.crimelibrary.com/blog/art...ory/index.html

In August, 2009, Port St. Joe, Florida, police received two pieces of mail from Albuquerque. The Port St. Joe Star got one too. Each envelope contained a photo of a brown-haired young boy, with the mouth area of the photo crossed in blank ink—it seemed to be an imitation of that 1989 Polaroid, in which a boy had tape over his mouth. Detective Jake Richards said these photos went to other police departments and to several churches, but that investigators were unable to get DNA evidence or other useful information from the mail.

No mention if they attempted to date the film that the images were made from or analyzed the facial features against the boy in the Port St. Joe photo.

[bigsir58]

Originally Posted by soilentgreen

At least one of the other pair of images that have been written off was found at a construction site. More recently someone else got their kicks off of sending images of a boy in regards to the case: http://www.crimelibrary.com/blog/art...ory/index.html

What is with that horrendous age progression pic of Tara in the link above???

[cordwainer1453]

The fact that both people in the picture (it has been debated in the past wheather the younger person is a boy or girl) are wearing clothes, pretty much rules out the possibility of this being genuine "pedophile pornography" in my opinion.

[DarkDante]

Originally Posted by justins5256

This case has been on my mind recently, more specifically, the Polaroid photo found in Port St. Joe, Florida of the two children. Obviously, a lot of people believe the girl in the photo is Tara Calico. There was speculation that the boy was Michael Henley, but considering his remains were found not far from where he originally disappeared in the Zuni Mountains in New Mexico, it is highly unlikely.

What do you guys think of the Polaroid?

I should say I'm a huge believer in Occam's Razor, and using plausible deductions and inferences to lead to the most likely explanation. I like trying to "profile" who the most likely culprit is. I think that applying these axioms is a good way of disentangling some of the more "out there" theories, which UM certainly gave us a dose of....

That being said, I'm having a hard time figuring the angle on this one...

In terms of explaining the Polaroid, lets examine the possibilities...

First, I think it's necessary to point out that the photo was found face up in the parking lot of a gas station in Port St. Joe, Florida. Considering the nature of the photo, to me, this indicates that the person who "dropped" it...

A. wanted it to be found.
B. was going for "shock value" - really, two young kids bound with tape on their mouths. Its pretty "out there"...it reminds me of a case recently where a photo of a dead and mutilated woman was found at a gas station. Upon further investigation, it turned out it was a photo from Afghanistan and depicted a war atrocity.

That being said, there are a few directions to go with the Polaroid from 1989...

1. A criminal mastermind who gets his (women rarely commit these crimes) kicks abducting children and left behind a photo to taunt authorities.

Unlikely. Most stranger abductions of children are for sexual purposes. The perp is usually an adult male, and the children are typically dead and disposed within 48 hours. In addition, most pedophiles have a sex and age preference. Yet, the Polaroid depicts a girl and a boy. Age is up for grabs, but suffice to say there is a pretty significant age gap between the two...kinda unique for a pedophile. Two sexes..different ages...
Not to mention the people who commit these types of crimes are usually solitary and act alone, and typically don't advertise their crimes in this fashion...the whole thing seems highly unlikely to me.

2. The photographer is a parent or guardian of these children, has sexually abused them and the photo was taken either for self gratification, or for resale.

Unlikely. While the scenario is plausible, these types of offenders typically don't advertise their crimes in public (i.e., photos left face up in a gas station). Also, any buyer of the photos is unlikely to leave them in a similar state.

3. Human trafficking, The photo is a remnant of that.

Unlikely. Organized crime is involved here. They don't advertise either.

Ultimate conclusion, - the photo is a hoax perpetuated by kids, and they have feared to come forward over the years due to the publicity generated by the Polaroid.

Thoughts?

Hey Justin Welcome back!

I've always been a subscriber to the hoax theory as well. I mentioned somewhere on the forums awhile back it seems like something the older girl (perhaps the younger child's babysitter?) could have been doing as a bit of a prank and didn't consider the consequences. After how the story took on a life of it's own after the discovery of the photograph perhaps they didn't want to come forward back in the day for fear of creating a massive false alarm and after all these years quite possibly have the attitude in line with "why dredge up ancient history?"

[UMFaninMD]

Funny you should make this post because I just finished watching an episode of The New Detectives on the forbidden site called Without a Trace and at the end, they did a little blurb on the picture and showed it.

Kidnappers and serial killers do photograph and videotape their captors. Most don't purposefully allow their stuff to be seen, so it could be a totally different kidnapping and the perp is sadistic and daring enough to have thrown the picture out, as a taunt. It could be a hoax. Whatever you believe, you can't deny the picture is creepy.

[justins5256]

Wiseguy - I agree with your assessment to a point. I'm with you on thinking that about the possibility of these kids being from outside the US. I think a lot of folks have some fixed assumptions about the case, such as the kids are American, the photo was taken in the US, or even that the photo was taken in Port St. Joe, FL. The bottom line is though we just don't know any of those things. The photo was found in Port St. Joe, and the film was from June 1989(?) Otherwise, we know nothing else about the photo's origins.

All that being said, I think another assumption a lot of folks make is that these are missing children. It's easy to do, as the case originally presented to the world was about Tara Calico and Michael Henley, both were missing, abduction was a possibility, the photo is found, the girl looks so much like Tara, and the boy looks so much like Michael, so it must be them. Now, we know the boy isn't Michael. Is the girl still Tara? My whole point is, again, that we don't know - the kids could be anyone, and I don't know that they were necessarily abducted and/or missing to begin with. Assuming for the sake of argument that the photo is a hoax, or some kind of pornography, these kids (now adults) could still be out there alive and well, and searching through missing person’s databases for matches to the subjects in the Polaroid might be a moot point. Though, interestingly, some think the boy could be David Michael Borer - another UM case subject.

soilentgreen - thanks for posting that article about the photos sent to the papers and the police in 2009. I forgot to mention it. My gut feeling always was that this was either some crank, or someone fixated on the case who wanted to breathe some life in to it again. The New Mexico postmarks and delivery to Port St. Joe are somewhat intriguing, but, again, I think this could just be some unbalanced person who followed the coverage locally. Oddly enough, this June will make 25 years. I wonder if anything more will surface.

cordwainer1453 - I don't think the fact that the kids are clothed rules out pornography. Last year, I attended a week-long conference for crime analysts. While there, I attended a presentation about child pornography - specifically how analysts use contextual clues in the photos/videos to identify locations, victims, and offenders. I don't mean to be graphic, and I certainly hope this doesn't offend anyone, but I think it's necessary to discuss since it might permit us to get a handle on what kind of perp we might be dealing with here. The truth is, there are different levels of explicitness in child pornography and different variations. In some ways, it’s analogous to legal adult pornography. Believe me when I say, there are pedophiles who would be turned on by images of children tied up and bound in this manner, clothed or not. Not to mention (and again this is pretty nauseating to think about) the photo found might be one in a "series" of images. How many exposures were in a pack of Polaroid film back in the 80s? This is only one picture from that pack.

DarkDante - thanks for the welcome! While I think the photo is likely a hoax, someone on Websleuths pointed out a rather grisly detail that I had missed. Apparently, enlargements of the photo revealed what appeared to be bruising on the boy's neck. It's sick to think about, but such a detail could lend credence to the abduction or at least the abuse angle that this photo could be a remnant of.

[88keys]

Why did they connect the picture to Tara Calico in the first place? Wasn't it found pretty far away from where she disappeared?

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by justins5256

Ultimate conclusion, - the photo is a hoax perpetuated by kids, and they have feared to come forward over the years due to the publicity generated by the Polaroid.

Thoughts?

Sums up my feelings exactly. I believe Tara was struck by a vehicle while riding her bike, and her death was covered up. The photo, IMO, was a joke amongst kids. They may not even know the publicity the photo has got, which may be another reason why they never came forward.

[wiseguy182]

No offense to Tara or anyone, but bicycling with a Walkman is quite unsafe. It's not like a car radio where you can still here police sirens and such (assuming it's not cranked up too loud), those headphones completely cover your ears and prevent you from hearing everything you need to on the road.

When I was a senior in high school, there was a freshman who died crossing the road...wearing a Walkman. Never heard the truck that barreled through him. I went to his funeral. It was quite sad.

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

No offense to Tara or anyone, but bicycling with a Walkman is quite unsafe. It's not like a car radio where you can still here police sirens and such (assuming it's not cranked up too loud), those headphones completely cover your ears and prevent you from hearing everything you need to on the road.

When I was a senior in high school, there was a freshman who died crossing the road...wearing a Walkman. Never heard the truck that barreled through him. I went to his funeral. It was quite sad.

This is why I don't go running with earbuds in or headphones on. You can't hear anything behind you.

I don't think the girl in the photo is Tara Calico, but I've never been so sure the photo is a hoax. Whatever it is, it's clear someone wanted it to be found, as justin mentioned.

As for Tara, the story about being struck on her bike makes sense and seems likely. I know one investigator in particular was nearly absolutely certain that's what happened.