Interesting Reddit thread on the Tara Calico Poloroid Photo

[PKB]

As you may or may not recall, Tara Calico was a University of New Mexico student that disappeared on a bike ride in 1988.

Almost a year later a disturbing poloriod photo was found in the parking lot of a convenience store.

http://www.reddit.com/r/creepy/comme...lorida/ck4rd8h

This is probably going to be lost in the comments, but that photo has haunted me for decades. I was working as a manager Egghead Software, and the police sent us a special packet containing that picture in our weekly managers mailings. The girl in the picture is wearing an Egghead Software tshirt. We sold those in all our stores. We were asked to look at her and see if we recognized her or the boy in the picture. The police were looking for any link or clue to help them id the children. None of us remembered anything or recognized them.

Sometimes in life, something happens, and you immediately think "this just got burned into my memory - I'm going to remember this for the rest of my life." This was one of them. Sitting at my desk, in the back office. Looking at that picture of the girl in the Egghead T-shirt. The terrified look of the boy, and the resigned look of the girl. decades later - with kids of my own now, I still remember exactly where I was sitting, exactly what I was feeling. And now I know exactly what their parents must have been feeling - to feel so helpless and know there was nothing I could do to rescue my child.

I'm going to go to my grave with that picture as clear in my head as the day I saw it.

[MegtheEgg86]

Very interesting post. I wonder how many locations the company had by 1989 and where those stores were. Apparently the company had only been around for five years then.

[PKB]

Another very interesting post and what sounds, to me, like a very cogent theory:

Twenty years after her disappearance, Rene Rivera, sheriff of Valencia County, announced that he knew what happened to Calico. According to Rivera, boys who knew her from school drove up behind her in a truck and some form of accident followed. Calico 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.[2] Calico's stepfather, John Doel, has disputed these claims, saying that the sheriff should not have made these comments if he was not willing to arrest anyone and that strong circumstantial evidence should be enough for a conviction.[2]

In addition, personally I don't see a very strong resemblance between the girl in the photo and Tara other than they are about the same age and have similar build and hair color which would match a million girls across the country.

[wiseguy182]

^ That theory came about in 2009 or thereabouts and was discussed in length on here. I personally think the "accident" theory is really far-fetched. If they were following her, they were probably harrassing or accosting her and I don't think what happened was an accident.

[PKB]

I find it plausible that they were harassing her and accidentally killed her. I can see it: Tara's riding her bike and she's a decent looking girl. A not insignificant portion of mainly younger males think that the best way to swoon a young woman is to honk and yell and generally harass her. I believe I remember that she was listening to a walkman at the time so it's possible that she may not have returned the affections or simply, like my wife does when she walks to the store, ignored them.

The male ego is fragile thing and the unrequited horn honking/cat calling may set off an aggressive response. Maybe they/he tried to scare or impress her by driving closely to her. Maybe they chased her a bit, maybe they bumped her off her bike and she went under the tires or maybe they knocked her off her bike.

In any case, I can see a variety of situations that are not far fetched in which the young lady could have been killed when murder was not the objective.
In a panic he/they disposed of the body. New Mexico is a rather sparely populated joint. Try driving that stretch of I-5 between Deming and Lordsburg. That is one desolate joint and not too far away from where she went missing.

Far more plausible than that someone kidnapped her and a young boy and decided to take a photo of them bound and gagged and somehow let the incriminating photo fall out of their hands clear across the country from where she was snatched.

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by PKB

Far more plausible than that someone kidnapped her and a young boy and decided to take a photo of them bound and gagged and somehow let the incriminating photo fall out of their hands clear across the country from where she was snatched.

There is another pretty recent thread that goes real in-depth about all of this and I basically spell out my theory that the photo is a remnant from someone's kiddie porn collection.

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/...d.php?t=325404

I think the photo was either discarded accidentally, or, more likely, some sicko threw it out to mess with people's heads, as it is a disturbing picture.

The Egghead info is new to me though. Thanks for posting it. There is yet another thread about this case on Websleuths where some folks were trying to identify the characters on the shirts as possible clues to the childrens' identities.

[PKB]

Thanks very much. I must have read that thread but for some reason didn't retain anything. Thanks very much for the link.

I think the photo could be child porn (great, now I'm on some NSA list!) or it could simply be a prank or kids just screwing around. The kids in the picture look like they could be siblings and I could see someone messing around like that to freak out their parents or something. In any case, I don't believe that it is related to Tara's disappearance.

In 1989 I was too busy being about 6 and having a crush on Cyndi Lauper to be messing around with computers. Was Egghead a popular or common thing? According to wikipedia they seemed to have tons of stores at big-box stores. I remember back when computers were for geeks an older cousin worked for a chain in Utah. It seems they had plenty of stores across the country.

[TracyLynnS]

WARNING - The photo of the boy and girl (from the Albuquerque Journal article) in the van is posted at the very bottom of this post below my comments and a couple other normal pics. Just want to let you know ahead of time in case you want to hurry and scroll past it if viewing it is too disturbing.

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I vaguely remember Egghead and Babbage's back in the early days of computers. Pretty sure I had an Egghead mousepad at some point. lol

In another thread about Tara, we were discussing the girl's shirt and trying to figure out what it said or what it could be (cartoon characters, disney shirt, etc) so this is new info to me that it's an Egghead shirt.

Here are some samples of the Egghead shirt to compare to the one the girl in the photo is wearing. They are gray with red lettering and have the little egghead cartoon guy under the writing.

From the angle we see in the girl's photo the red lettering would be up closer to her neck, impossible for us to read, but the design across her chest looks very much like the Egghead cartoon.

I wonder why the police knew of that lead at the time, but only asked Egghead employees if they recognized the children. If that info was more widely known, they could have cropped the pic to make it show less skin, if that was an issue, and other customers might remember seeing the kids in one of the stores.









http://www.abqjournal.com/273917/abq...ppearance.html

[PKB]

Thanks very much for the photos. That indeed appears to be the same shirt.

I find it somewhat odd that a young girl in 1989 would seek and wear that shirt out. It looks more like she wore it at home or to sleep or that it wasn't hers.

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by PKB

I think the photo could be child porn (great, now I'm on some NSA list!) or it could simply be a prank or kids just screwing around. The kids in the picture look like they could be siblings and I could see someone messing around like that to freak out their parents or something. In any case, I don't believe that it is related to Tara's disappearance.

I used to subscribe to the prank theory. I think what killed it for me is the bruising on the boy's neck as was pointed out by someone on WS. Also, the location of the bruises makes it appear as if he was choked manually as the bruising is somewhat symmetrical and on the left and right side of the neck. A sick thought in any event.

Originally Posted by PKB

I find it somewhat odd that a young girl in 1989 would seek and wear that shirt out. It looks more like she wore it at home or to sleep or that it wasn't hers.

Yeah, the Egghead shirt certainly adds a new dimension to the case. I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Sadly, if the photo is a remnant of kiddie porn, the shirt might not be her own.

[TheCars1986]

Doesn't the boy in the photo have a similar shirt on? Just what exactly was Egghead software, and how could people buy these shirts? The poster says it was sold in "their stores", were these retail stores? I still don't see how the shirts make any difference in whether or not it was a prank...the children could have had parents that worked for the company, or a relative that worked for it.

[Finnegan]

I vaguely remember Egghead. I also kind of remember that Egghead cartoon design. I don't think I ever went into any of their stores, so I don't know whether or not they sold those shirts to the public.

This picture has always freaked me out. The theory that the boys following Tara accidentally killed her sounds most plausible to me, but that still leaves those poor kids in the picture. Ugh. That picture! I hope that one of these days, the FBI will be able to figure out the origin of it.

[TracyLynnS]

I'd say it's definitely possible that shirt isn't hers. It very long and almost completely covers her shorts. The sleeve on her left arm is very long, but the sleeve on her right arm is pushed up and initially gives the appearance of being the correct size.

If the police were able to figure out that her shirt was an Egghead, they must know what kind of shirt the other child is wearing. (I can't tell what it is, does anyone else know?) And if the police know what that shirt is, they must have done the same kind of investigation that they did with the Egghead stores, contacting retail outlets and trying to identify who may have purchased it, etc.

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

Just what exactly was Egghead software, and how could people buy these shirts? The poster says it was sold in "their stores", were these retail stores?

Yep, they were retail stores that sold software, games, computer related stuff like those great big 5 1/4 inch floppy disks as well as merchandise like coffee mugs and pens with their logo. I couldn't find an Egghead one, looks like this one is from Radio Shack. By the time the 3.5 disks came along, our local Egghead shop closed and I was getting my computer stuff at a different place that is now out of business and I can't even remember what it was called.

[PolyesterSuit]

Maybe whoever was driving that commercial van worked in software or the IT industry? And thus had access to Egghead t-shirts?

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by TracyLynnS

Yep, they were retail stores that sold software, games, computer related stuff like those great big 5 1/4 inch floppy disks as well as merchandise like coffee mugs and pens with their logo. I couldn't find an Egghead one, looks like this one is from Radio Shack. By the time the 3.5 disks came along, our local Egghead shop closed and I was getting my computer stuff at a different place that is now out of business and I can't even remember what it was called.

Thank you for the info. Since they were a store similar to Radio Shack, it wouldn't be that uncommon for a girl and her brother to own shirts, would it?