Tara Calico (Missing Person)

Tara Calico disappeared while riding her bicycle near the town of Belen, New Mexico, in September 1988. The 19 year old fitness enthusiast would go out every morning to complete a 35 mile round trip along the NM 47 highway taking in the vast open spaces of Valencia County. On the morning of September 20th she left her home as usual but never returned. Several witnesses saw Tara riding on the highway that morning listening to a personal stereo; unbeknownest to her, she was being followed by an old Ford truck. Over the ensuing decades the investigation has seen numerous leads come and go, culminating in a significant announcement by law enforcement in the summer of 2023.


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Transcript

Tara Calico

On the morning of Tuesday September 20th 1988 Tara Calico got up and was brimming with energy. The 19 year old quickly dressed for an activity packed day. She first put on underwear which had been personalised with her initials TC, then a medium size white t-shirt with “First national bank of Balen” written on it, (the teen had worked a part time job there) and a pair of white shorts with green stripes. To complete the outfit she added white ankle socks and white and turquoise Avia tennis shoes. For jewellery Tara wore a gold butterfly ring with a diamond insert, gold amethyst ring and half inch gold hooped earrings.

The University of New Mexico sophomore then prepared her tennis kit for a match she was due to play with her boyfriend, Jack, at 12.30pm. According to the Albuquerque Tribune reporting on 22nd September 1988, they had been dating for six months. Tara also collected the books she would need for her university classes which started later that afternoon at 4pm. 

Next it was time for her morning workout. Tara was a fitness enthusiast and every morning  would set out on a 56 km/35 mile cycle ride taking in the vast open spaces of Valencia County, New Mexico. Somewhere between 9 and 9.30am she left her home on Brugg Street in Rio Communities, Belen. Belen is a town of under 8000 people and lies 56 km/35 miles south of Albuquerque. Rio Communities is a subdivision east of Belen. Before leaving, her last words to her mother Patricia, Pat or Patty for short, were “come and get me if I’m not back by noon”.

Tara headed for the NM (New Mexico) 47 Highway (the old NM 6) which was just 1 km/ ½ mile away. The NM47 two lane highway is hilly in places and can be a challenging ride. The route took her southeast of Rio Communities and she would normally cycle as far as Highway 60 before turning back to head for home.

That day Tara was riding her mother’s bike as her own had a flat tyre in need of repair. The bike was a Huffy 12 possibly 10 speed with upright handlebars, Savannah model number K6698. It certainly stood out as it was a shocking neon pink in colour. It sported bright yellow tire sidewalls with matching break cabling. The seat cover was made of natural sheepskin. Tara took with her a yellow Sony walkman (some reports say it was black) and a pair of headphones so she could listen to music while pedalling. 

At around 11.30am some residents from the nearby neighbourhood of Scholle witnessed Tara riding south along NM47 as they passed in a car. This was a regular occurance; they saw her multiple times a week. Several people saw her that morning; the last confirmed report was at 11.45am. This was along a desolate part of the highway just east of Belen. 

Tara's mother Patty began to get worried when Tara wasn’t home by her usual time of around 11:30. Her first thought was that Tara must have had another flat tyre and been forced to walk the rest of the way home. Five minutes after midday Patty decided to go out and look for her daughter. Patty drove the route twice but Tara was nowhere to be seen. In the 20 minutes since Tara was last seen riding along the highway, the teenager had vanished. 

With a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach Patty got on the phone and called the local hospital to see if Tara had been in an accident. No one matching Tara’s description had been admitted and no accidents had been reported. Fearing Tara may have diverted from her normal route and become lost she then contacted the local search and rescue centre.

At this point Patty’s thoughts must have turned to  a worrying series of recent occurrences. Over the past few months Tara had received a number of threatening notes on the windshield of her car. Could there be a connection? 

After this, at around 3.00pm, an extremely anxious Patty called the Valencia County Sheriff Department and reported her daughter's disappearance. (As a note a report from the Albuquerque Tribune 22nd September 1988 suggests this call didn't happen until much later at 10pm). Within five hours of the phone call Tara’s details were registered with the National Crime Information Centre. This is a computerised database of Criminal Justice information. Tara was immediately listed as a missing person, with an added note that foul play was suspected.

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Tara Leigh Calico was born on February 28th 1969 to parents David and Patty Calico. She was the couple's third child and Tara had two older brothers. The pregnancy had been very difficult and doctors thought the baby wouldn't survive. Little Tara beat the odds and came into the world kicking and screaming. Her name was inspired by the book “Gone with the Wind”. Tara is the name of the fictional Georgia plantation where the story takes place and the middle name “Leigh” was chosen for the actress Vivian Leigh who played Scarlet O’Hara in the classic 1939 film adaptation. 

When Tara was still small her parents divorced. Patty then went on to meet John Doel, a fellow divorcee with two daughters of his own. Both Patty and John worked for Santa Fe Railway. John was a train conductor and Patty a clerk, later she became an assistant train master. The pair fell in love and married in the mid 70’s. Tara was close with her stepfather, who raised her from the age of 6. They had a great relationship, symbolised by Tara buying John a Rottweiler puppy shortly before she disappeared. Father and daughter had a shared love of animals. I don’t know a lot about Tara’s relationship with her birth father David. He died of a heart attack following a mugging in 2002.

Tara was always fiercely independent, at times to the point of stubborness. As a little girl she would cook her own breakfast and loved to organise things in the kitchen, for example she would stand on a stool and ensure the spice rack was properly ordered. As she grew up Tara’s intelligence was obvious to all. Tara was very bright and started taking college courses during her senior year at high school. While in high school Tara was involved in an automobile accident and took some time to recover. She had several scars on her body as a result.

After graduating Belen High School Tara moved on to the University of New Mexico where she was based at the Valencia campus in Tome. She majored in Psychology and was hoping to have a career as a psychiatrist or psychologist. At the time of her disappearance Tara was in her second year and averaging a 3.9 grade point average. She was fluent in French and played several musical instruments including the violin.

From an early age Tara displayed  an entrepreneurial spirit.  At five she was selling homemade paperweights around the neighbourhood. She had worked regularly since she was 14 and bought her own clothes from age 15. In the past she had been employed as a grocery bagger, waitress and most recently from September 1986 until August 1988 Tara had worked as a part time employee at First National Bank of Belen. (Hence the t-shirt she was wearing that morning). Tara’s boss described her as very pleasant but a little shy. Several articles mention Taras shyness and one states that because of this she could appear younger than her age. 

Despite her shyness Tara had lots of friends, all of whom spoke very highly of her. Close friend Bernard, aged 18, said Tara was everything one could wish for in a friend. Another friend, Cynthia, whom she worked alongside in the bank, told the press that Tara had good instincts and was good at giving advice. Melinda Esquibel was a little younger than Tara but they met in marching band at high school. Melinda told The Sun newspaper in 2022 that Tara was very kind and had a playful character.

As I have already touched upon, Tara was physically fit, strong and enjoyed a healthy lifestyle. She was good at sports, especially tennis, and as I’ve mentioned she loved to cycle. At one point Tara’s mother Patty used to accompany her daughter on the regular daily cycle rides. Patty stopped doing this after a couple of unsettling encounters with male motorists. There was even one man who Patty felt was stalking her. Patty encouraged her daughter to stop the rides too but she refused. Tara wouldn’t back down and would not run away and hide from any challenges she faced. Tara’s good friend Bernard tried to persuade her to arm herself if she insisted on continuing the rides. He wanted Tara to carry a knife or can of mace to use in self defence. Tara would have none of it and remained resolute. She told her boyfriend Jack, who was also worried about her cycling alone, that whatever happens, happens. 

At the time of her disappearance Tara was 5 foot 7, 170 cm, (the FBI page says  5-5 to 5- 7) 115-120 lbs/ 52-54 kg. She had green/hazel eyes. (They would change colour depending on her clothing) and in one eye had Amblyopia (lazy eye). Tara had light brown, shoulder length, curly hair. This was the result of a perm. Tara had freckles across her nose and thick eye lashes. She had a large scar on the back of her right shoulder and a dime-sized brown-coloured birthmark on one of her legs. She also had a scar on one of her legs. Tara had worn braces when she was younger and she had sealants on most of her posterior teeth.

In the immediate aftermath of the missing person's report iInvestigators searched the Doel residence and in particular Tara’s bedroom for clues that might point to her whereabouts. Her room was in many ways a reflection of what she loved in life. It was adorned with soft toys, rock posters, books, bottles of vitamins and inspirational spoken word cassettes. A portrait of Albert Einstein had pride of place on the wall. Nothing gave away where they might find Tara and there was no evidence that she had planned to run away. Tara had not taken her purse with her or any spare clothing. Tara’s parents left her bedroom untouched for many years in the hope she would return and be able to carry on where she had left off. 

On Wednesday September 21st searches along the NM47 began early. They were undertaken by the Valencia County Sheriff's Department, the State police, search and rescue groups and dozens of volunteers. At least 60 officers and volunteers were involved. 

At 9am a cassette tape of the band “Boston”, was found in some mud about 90 metres from the roadside. The item was actually discovered by Patty. She believed it belonged to her daughter who must have been listening to it on her cycle ride. The location of the find was 6.5km/4 miles south/southeast of Tara’s home in Rio Communities and very close to the spot where she had last been seen riding along the highway. Footprints led from the road to the area where the cassette tape was found. On the opposite side of the road investigators noticed scuff marks and what looked like drag marks made by a bike tire going up the embankment. It looked as though some kind of scuffle had taken place. It was reported that searchers also found a broken tail light lens or reflector which may have possibly come from a bike. The Albuquerque Journal reported on September 23rd 1988 that a recent oil slick and car tracks were discovered on the road near to where the tape had been found. 

A Santa Fe Railway crew found a bike near Mountainair, 40 km/25 miles southeast of Belen. For a while it was thought this could be the one Tara had been using but it was proven not to be. A few days later a bike water bottle was found discarded in the front yard of a house a few streets away from Tara’s Brugg Street home. Again it was a red herring as the pink Huffy bike Tara had been riding did not have a bottle carrier.the pink Huffy bike has never been found.

Search efforts were hampered by heavy rains and wind which worsened during the first day. Visibility was very poor and prevented aircraft from being used to aid efforts. On Thursday September 22nd conditions did allow for the Air Force to become involved. They conducted flights over the Manzano Mountains which lay just to the east of Belen. Elsewhere State troops searched the cottonwood forest known as “The Bosque” which is 11km/7 miles south of Belen. Footprints were found there which caused some interest but were ultimately deemed not to belong to Tara. Local desert land was gone over by 4x4s and officers on horseback. Bloodhounds were also used in the search. A local rancher provided a helicopter so long stretches of Sante Fe railways south of Rio Communities could be covered quickly and efficiently.

In truth, within four days State police and the New Mexico search and rescue team were asked to stand down. By this time investigators were convinced Tara had been abducted. Patty Doel shared this belief and believed her daughter had deliberately discarded the Boston cassette tape in an attempt to aid the police. Patty believed Tara would have the presence of mind to do this in the midst of an abduction. It was at this point that Valencia County Sheriff Lawrence Romero, who was leading the operation, recognised the investigation needed more support and expertise. The FBI were contacted and asked to assist.

A day or so later a report came in of some newly disturbed ground on a stretch of road between NM47 and the John F Kennedy campground in the Manzano Mountains. This location was 30 km/19 miles from where Tara was last sighted. The disturbed ground turned out not to be a shallow grave but the result of animal activity. However, near the entrance to the campground  pieces of plastic were found. Investigators said that these could belong to Tara's walkman. I believe these pieces were from the clear plastic window on the device. As a note, the Albuquerque Journal September 22nd 2013 says part of the window from Tara’s cassette player was found at a different location within 5 km /3 miles of where she was last seen. From my research a question mark hangs over the physical evidence in this case. I will come back to this when I discuss some comments made by a Valencia law enforcement officer many decades later. 

The family were very much clinging to the belief that Tara was alive as they had no proof to the contrary. Tara’s older brother, 22 year old Chris, believed that she was physically fit and mentally strong and could cope with the stress of an abduction. Of course the whole ordeal was shattering for the family and they were finding it difficult to eat or sleep. Extended family living in Florida offered support and were in constant contact, hoping and praying for good news.  

The family were also dealing with constant questions from  journalists. Pat and John were too distraught to speak and the bulk of the media interviews were left to older brother Chris. Friends  in the local community rallied around. Volunteers, including students from a local high school, helped to distribute thousands of posters and went door to door in Belen and neighbouring Los Lunas, asking for donations towards a reward fund. One couple in particular, Billie and Shorty, helped Patty and John on a daily basis. The family was grateful for this support. 

Less than a week after Tara went missing three hunters were said to be undergoing hypnosis in an effort to help them remember something they had seen on Tuesday morning. The three men had been driving along NM47 when they witnessed a truck following Tara. The problem was that they could not agree on a description of the man they saw driving the truck. Investigators were hoping hypnosis may improve their recollections. After the sessions the hunters were due to sit down with a police sketch artist but this was delayed as another witness came forward who had also seen this man. Eventually a sketch was produced and distributed of the suspect.

He is depicted as a white male, or person with light skin, 35-40, 5 ft 9 to 6 ft 175 -183cm. 190 to 210 lbs 86-95 kg. He had reddish brown hair with blue or hazel eyes. He had a deep wrinkle between his eyes and temples. In the sketch he is wearing a truckers cap and has small lips and what looks like a beard under his chin. Another sketch was put together in June 1990. In this image the man looks younger and does not have a hat.

The vehicle he was driving was a mid 1950s (probably 53-55)  Ford Pickup, white or light in colour. A 1953 model F.150 has been put forward. It had a custom made red Ford emblem on the bonnet and possibly had an old manufactured removable camper shell. It had a New Mexico number plate (this might have been from Sandoval County) with the letters WBY or WBZ and the last number 6. The plate was either displayed on the rear centre or rear driver's side (assuming it was a left hand drive). Also on the rear of the vehicle, in the top driver’s side was a red and yellow sticker or decal. This may have been from one of the following companies: T A Grants, Tierra Amarilla Land Grants or the coffee liqueur “Tia Maria”.

The driver may not have been alone and there may have been a passenger.

Altogether 7 witnesses came forward to say they saw this truck following Tara at various points along the NM47. All of them said Tara was wearing headphones and they thought she was unaware that she was being followed. 

Tara’s disappearance saw a lot of interest from psychics. One tip came in via telephone to say Tara was still alive and being held captive in a cabin near a stream in the foothills of the Manzano mountains. Another psychic from Albuquerque took investigators to several locations in the north of neighbouring Socorro County near a game and fishing reserve. One location was a cattle ranch about 8 miles/12 km south from where Tara was last seen. Valencia County Sheriff Lawrence Romero was sceptical of psychics but said he was prepared to listen to what the woman had to say. She seemed genuine in her attempts to help and was not interested in any financial reward. The area was searched but nothing of note turned up. 

There was a lot of talk of budget restraints hampering the investigation, but in November 1988 Sheriff Romero announced that he was employing a full time detective, Captain Ray Flores, to work Tara’s case and that of another missing woman from Belen.

Debra Lee Lansdell, 29, disappeared on September 21st 1985. She was last seen driving her rust coloured Porsche in Belen. The car was later found abandoned. Authorities emphasised  that Debra’s and Tara’s cases were not connected. In 1988 investigators said they had a suspect in mind for Debra's case but as of November 2024 Debra Lansdell remains missing and the case is unsolved. 

The investigation into Tara’s disappearance went on with the Valencia County Sheriff's Department saying they were continuing to work on concrete leads from the last person believed to have seen Tara. This was one of the witnesses who saw the man following Tara in the pickup truck. At this juncture investigators said they believed at least two people were involved in her abduction and they had a good description of both suspects. Local TV reported that investigators were also following up on a new lead: a man was said to have threatened Tara before she went missing. (I'm unsure if this was connected to the series of notes said to have been left on Tara's car) Regardless, Sheriff Romero denied this was true. Very mysterious and an angle that does not surface a lot in contemporary reporting, though this thread does crop up much later in the narrative.

A lead that was acknowledged by investigators concerned a tip given to them by a female informant. She had heard from a friend that two men had  killed Tara and dumped her body in a drainage canal near Arenal and Coors in Albuquerque. The informant gave the names of the supposed killers and detectives had their addresses, but for some reason had not been able to trace the men. I don't know what became of this lead.At this stage investigators said they were continuing to work another lead, I think they were referring to the man in the pickup truck. They had still not positively identified him. 

1988 ended with Valencia County investigators seemingly no closer to the truth. The previous 12 months had seen nine murders in the county, three times the previous year, so resources had been fully stretched. The bottom line was that after three months of inquiries, interviews  and searches, Tara was still missing.

“A Current Affair" was a popular American news magazine television program that aired from 1986 to 1996. It was known for its tabloid-style approach, focusing on sensational news stories, celebrity gossip, scandalous events and human-interest pieces. On Friday July 28th 1989 the show aired a story about a mysterious and disturbing poloroid photograph. The image showed a young woman or older teen girl and boy of about nine or ten lying in what looked like the back of a van with their arms behind their backs, as if bound. Gags were across their mouths. They were lying on sheets and a blue and white striped pillow. Both the young woman and the boy looked scared and afraid. Aso visible in the image was a plastic cup, water pistol and a book. More on the book in a moment.

The polaroid had been found 6 weeks earlier, on June 15th 1989, in the Florida panhandle city of Port St Joe. A woman had stumbled upon it in the car park of a Junior Food store. (It later became an Express lane store). The woman may have been an employee at the store. Just before she picked up the photograph a white Toyota cargo van from the late 1980s had been parked in the spot. The van had no windows in the rear and had been driven by a man in his 30’s with a moustache. Finding such a distressing and concerning image the woman contacted the police straight away. Roadblocks were set up around the city but the van and the man were never traced. It must be said here, there is no definitive proof that the polaroid came from the van. 

Reports came in that the young woman in the photograph had been seen on a nearby beach earlier in the day. She was with several white males and they had been giving her verbal orders. 

Newsday (Nassau County edition) reported on July 31st 1989 that after seeing the image on “A Current Affair” relatives of Tara Calico called in to say they believed the young woman in the polaroid could be Tara.

So was this bound young woman Tara? At first Patty Doel wasn’t sure. She was used to seeing her daughter with wavy, coloured hair and wearing makeup. The woman in the image had neither. She rushed to Port St Joe with family photographs to compare them with the polaroid. After studying the image close up Patty was convinced it was her missing daughter. The girl in the photograph had a visible cowslick on the right side of her forehead just like Tara.The girl in the photograph also had a scar on her leg identical to the one Tara had sustained following a car accident some years prior.

Tara’s friend Cynthia was convinced it was Tara because of the young woman’s features. On top of that she noticed that in the photo next to the young woman was a copy of the book “My Secret Audrina” by VC Andrews. The friends both loved Virginia Andrews' work and would swap her books with each other. It is said VC Andrews was Tara’s favourite author and in some reports that particular title was named as her favourite book. On the spine of the book appeared to be written a phone number. Not all the numbers were legible but analysts worked out that there was a combination of 300 possible numbers. 57 of those numbers corresponded with actual valid telephone numbers. 

In terms of the response of law enforcement to the Poloroid, Valencia County Sheriff Lawrence Romero told the press the woman certainly looked like Tara and if it was not her she could be her twin sister. 

Experts agreed that the film used to create the Polaroid was not manufactured until April 1989 so it was thought the photo could not have been taken earlier than probably May 1989. 

The Charley Project website states that over the years two other photographs have cropped up  that could depict the same young woman. One was found near a residential construction site in Montecito, California. It showed just a girl's face with duct tape over the mouth. Some blue striped fabric, similar to the pillow in the 1989 image is visible. The film used to make the photograph was manufactured from June 1989. Patty Doel believed this to be Tara as the girl had a cowslick and Amblyopia in one eye just like her daughter. Another photograph surfaced produced on film made in February 1990 that showed a woman loosely bound with gauze. The gauze covers her eyes and she is wearing dark glasses. In the image there is a man sitting next to her on the passenger seat of an Amtrak train. Patty Doel was not convinced this was Tara and thought it was likely a hoax.

As an aside I will briefly touch on the question over the identity of the young boy in the photograph. It was first suspected he could be missing 10 year old Michael Paul Henley JR from Milan, New Mexico. Michael vanished on April 21st 1988 while on a camping trip with his father Michael senior in the Zuni Mountains. This location is south of Grants and 112km/70 miles west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The pair had been out hunting turkeys when Michael Jr disappeared. He had not been seen since and police suspected he had become lost and died of exposure somewhere in the wild. There had been no thought of abduction. This photograph now changed everything. Michael's mother Marty thought it was her lost son. Though Michael Senior was initially more sceptical, he began to have less doubts. Police were unsure but tried as best they could to investigate further.  

Twelve months after the polaroid came to light a rancher working on land in the Zuni mountains southwest of Grants, New Mexico came upon human remains. They were soon confirmed to be that of the missing boy Michael Henley. There was no sign of foul play and the evidence revealed that, as first suspected, Michael had gotten lost and died of exposure. It now seemed extremely unlikely that the boy in the photograph was Michael. While other names have been suggested over the years the boy in the polaroid has never been identified.

The mystery surrounding whether the young woman was Tara was more complex. Tests carried out by the FBI were inclusive but two independent studies said it was her. Bear in mind the same studies had also said the boy in the photo was Michael Henley. Scotland Yard did tests which said they were 85% sure the woman was Tara. Forensic tests carried out by scientists at Los Alamos National laboratory in the early 1990s indicated it was not Tara. The FBI confirmed as recently as 2023 that it is not Tara. 

A series of letters written twenty years later during the summer of 2009 to the Port St Joe Police Department and city media outlets rekindled interest in the Polaroid.

The first letter arrived on June 12th and contained a photo printed on copy paper of a young boy. A black marker pen had been used to make it look like the boy had tape across his mouth. The Port St Joe Chief of Police made the connection to the 1989 polaroid straight away as he and some other detectives had recently been looking over the old case file. The boy in this recent photo looked very similar to the boy in the 1989 image. It seemed more than coincidence that this had been sent almost exactly twenty years after the first Polaroid was found (June 15th 1989).

On August 10th 2009 the police received another letter which contained an original image of the boy. I think this means the photo was without the black pen markings. Another letter was sent to a local media outlet two days later on August 12th. This contained a photo of the same image but with the black pen markings. All the letters were postmarked Albuquerque, New Mexico and none had a return address. The letters were sent to a lab in Pensacola for fingerprint and DNA analysis.

While this certainly caused a stir there was not a lot authorities could do. They had no idea if they were a hoax or real. Intriguingly the same day the Port St Joe police were told about the August 12th letter sent to the media outlet they received a mysterious telephone call. It came from a woman who claimed to have visions and dreams about Tara Calico. She told authorities in these visions she saw an image of a light coloured blue oldsmobile and the words Tara Calico. She believed Tara was dead and buried in California. She also told police a story about how she herself had worked alongside a young woman in a stripclub who was later murdered and buried. The woman had been a runaway. It's unclear what relevance this story had and Californian authorities dismissed the claims that Tara was buried there.

To this day the identities of the individuals featured in the photographs has never been established. It is unknown if they have any connection with Tara Calico’s disappearance. There is a theory that the photo is a complete hoax. Proponents of this say the hands of the young women and boy do not appear to be tightly bound. This is evidenced by their shoulders not looking stressed in any way. There is also no redness around the mouths where the gags are. For what it is worth, Gulf County Sheriff Joel Nugent, whose department dealt with the photograph, believed it was real and not a fake. The teen girl and boy were not acting; they looked genuinely scared. According to People magazine in 2018 the Valencia County Sheriff's Department never actively pursued the image.

As we shall see many modern investigators, official and amateur alike,  think the 1989 Polaroid and the other photographs a red herring in Tara’s case.Patty Doel remained convinced her whole life that it was her daughter in the1989 Polaroid. 

Tara’s case remained open during the 1990s. In 1991 John and Patty Doel took the step of becoming licensed deputies as a way of having more tools and leverage to find their daughter. Whenever human remains were found in the local area they were on tenterhooks. Between 1988 and 1996 three unidentified bodies were found in Valencia county but none of them turned out to be Tara. Without evidence to the contrary, Patty in particular continued to believe her daughter was alive. In fact reports came in from time to time of potential sightings of Tara. In 1990 a former police chief was sure he had seen Tara pleading for help from the back window of a car. The man was so convinced he quit his job and became a long haul truck driver in the hope he would find her again.

The Doels didn't want to risk missing Tara if she ever tried to contact them. The couple's home answering phone had a message which said “Operator we will accept call charges from Tara”.  They even bought a 1979 Gold Porsche 928, Tara’s dream car, as a present for when she returned.

The family sent out tens of thousands of information packets and posters about Tara to US Border Patrol, Coast Guard, port authorities and all manner of law enforcement agencies. The funds for this were raised by donations; more material would be printed and distributed when money allowed. Many tips came in as a result of the mailing drive. Unfortunately it appears possibly 20 audio tapes of phone calls listing tips were lost and never made it to the investigative team in Valencia County.

In April 1993 Tara’s story featured on “America's most wanted”. 250 calls came in response and each one was chased down by investigators. The case went on to be spotlighted on other TV shows like “Oprah”, “48 hours”, and “Unsolved Mysteries”. 

At 7.30-8am on August 30th 1993 John and Pat Doel received a call from a woman who said she knew where Tara could be found. According to the woman, she was buried in a field 11 km/7 miles south of Belen, just west of the NM116 in Bosque. This area consisted of farmland with only a handful of homes dotted around. The woman did not specify an exact location but did say the area had been searched before. She told investigators this time they needed to dig deeper. The woman claimed she had heard the sound of digging the day after Tara disappeared. This would suggest the women had lived very close to the spot at the time. Teams moved in and excavated the area, digging ten feet into the earth. They found nothing.

By now the Doels had tried just about everything but they didn't want to leave a stone unturned in their search. At one point a “water witch” hired for $150 told the family that Tara was in the Rio Grande river which runs through  Belen. It was dragged twice but nothing was found.

All sorts of theories were put to Patty and John by detectives and they listened to all of them, no matter how outlandish, in the hope that one would be the truth. These included the following: Tara had been kidnapped and was now a drug courier taking illicit substances to and fro across the Mexico border. The idea was floated that Tara had been trafficked to the near east. Another, that a Satanic cult had taken Tara and tortured and killed her. A further theory put forward that Tara had been knocked down by a drunk driver and her body buried. One theory even alleged Tara had run away from home because she didn't like her mother. This was obviously particularly hard for Patty to hear. Still she was willing to listen to even the most bizarre theory if it meant there was any chance it would lead to her seeing Tara again.

From 1993 the Valencia District Attorney’s office began to take a look at the case as the Sheriff's Department was overburdened. Jay Eschenberg, an investigator from the DA’s office, told media he was convinced that Tara had been abducted, raped and murdered. He did not believe the young woman in the 1989 polaroid was Tara. In 1996 he told the Albuquerque Journal he suspected that at least three people were involved. Tara was strong and fit and it would have taken several individuals to subdue her. From the evidence indicating a scuffle by the highway he believes Tara resisted her attackers. In his mind this was not a planned event and there was no premeditation. It had been a crime of opportunity. The guilty individuals had since blended back into society and believed they were safe. For Eschenberg the answers to the mystery lay in the town of Belen.

An article published in the Albuquerque Journal in November 1996 outlined some of the suspects who had appeared on the radar over the previous eight years. Tara’s stepfather John Doel says he was questioned very early on. He acknowledged this was understandable and in accordance with standard protocol. Investigators were satisfied he played no part in Tara’s disappearance. Other suspects included three men who were seen drinking beer whilst sitting on the tailgate of a truck close to the NM47 highway. According to the aforementioned article some empty cans of “Old Milwaukee” brand beer were found near the spot on the highway where a scuffle looked like it had taken place. However, these men had been seen drinking Budweiser beer and so it seems this lead was abandoned. Several deer hunters who regularly travelled along NM47 were  brought in for an interview. For a time suspicion fell on a rowdy group of ranch hands who had been staying at a motel in Rio Communities. Another man became a suspect after attempting to snatch a young girl in Connecticut. He was crossed off as he had been in prison when Tara went missing. Then there was the man in the pickup who was seen following Tara. He had never come forward and the truck had not been identified. There were other suspects besides this, three of whom died by suicide in the years following the disappearance. 

The stress finally took its toll on the Doels. In August 1996 Patty had to take long term sick leave. Everything had come to a head after yet another set of remains were found, this time near Amarillo.  A tennis shoe like the one Tara had worn was found nearby. In the end it was proven not to be her daughter but Patty had hit a mental and physical wall. The Doels had spent in the region of $200,000 dollars on the search and they were exhausted. After nearly a decade Patty finally went to therapy to help her process the awful thing she had been forced to live through. John on the other hand carried on without therapy. He found his own ways to cope. In 2003 the family moved to Port Charlotte in Florida, something they had always planned to do. It was a hard thing for them to leave Belen and all it symbolised but it felt like it was the right time to do so. Their drive to find out what happened to Tara did not diminish. 

In the late 1990s early 2000s rumours circulated that suspected serial killer David Parker Ray could be responsible for Tara’s disappearance. In 1999 the then 59 year old was arrested on charges of kidnapping and torture after a woman survivor escaped his premsies in Elephant Butte, New Mexico. For decades Ray had been kidnapping women and holding them captive for months. He would drug, sexually abuse and torture them on his premises, in a trailer he called the “Toy box”. On occasion some family members even aided in his crimes. Due to lack of evidence he was never charged with murder but police suspected Ray could have killed as many as 60 people. He was given a long sentence in 2001 but died in prison just a year later. David Parker Ray’s ranch was only about an hour and a half’s drive from Belen and many wondered if Tara Calico could be one of his victims. The FBI looked into this but decided he was not involved.

In the latter half of 2003 a new lead developed. It came about following a tip given directly to the Doel family. Few details were released publicly but it seems the information came to light following a conversation between an acquaintance of the Doels and a person in a store in Northeast Heights, Albuquerque. A name of a suspect was mentioned and passed on to the Valencia County Sheriff's Detective Rene Rivera who at this stage had been working on the case for almost seven years. This tip was new to investigators but was said to be credible. While they said little about this suspect, investigators did say they were currently exploring three possible avenues in the case.

A few months later an individual  named in connection with an unrelated crime was being tentatively linked to Tara’s case. I don’t know if this is the same person named in the tip from the Northeast Heights store. A Lieutenant in the State Police, had just been indicted for first degree murder relating to the mysterious death of his 24 year old wife in 1995. The officer denied the charges and claimed his wife had died in an accident. According to the lieutenant he was taking his wife, who was ill with cancer, to the hospital when the car went off the road and crashed. Emergency responders found his wife dead in the back seat of the car but it was believed she had been deceased before the crash.

In the autumn of 2003 rumours circulated that Tara had gone out on some dates with this police Lieutenant. Prosecutors building a case against the officer for the murder of his wife asked to have access to the Tara Calico case file. The accused’s attorney dismissed any notion that his client was involved in Tara’s disappearance and, according to Patty Doel, Tara had never mentioned this police officer. Valencia County Sheriff Rene Rivera said the lieutenant’s name had not come up within the investigation. Charges relating to his wife’s death were eventually dismissed against the lieutenant, though questions remained. He passed away in 2017. 

I have already related how much the relentless search for their daughter took out of the Doels. Patty in particular struggled with her health. Very sadly in 2006, following complications arising from a series of strokes, Patty passed away at the age of just 64. There is little doubt that the stress she had been under over the past 18 years had contributed to her early death. A couple of years later in 2008 Tara Calico was officially declared dead. A decision that could not have been easy for John Doel and the family but one that was necessary in order for them to move forward in their grief.

Shortly after this came the biggest revelation in Tara’s case so far. In September 2008 Valencia County Sheriff Rene Rivera gave an interview to the Albuquerque Journal in which he stated there was no mystery to the case and he believed he knew what had happened to Tara and the names of the individuals responsible. They were all local people and had been given support by their family members to hide what they had done. 

Rivera had worked on the case since 1989, was promoted to Detective in 1996 and elected as Sheriff in 2006. According to Rivera those responsible were teenagers at the time. They were boys from Tara’s high school, though they were younger than her and in a different school year.

That morning they had seen Tara on her bike. They knew who she was and were attracted to her because she was pretty and athletic. The boys approached her in a vehicle, possibly with the intention of chatting her up or maybe grabbing her. Tara was then hit by the vehicle. Tara threatened to go to the authorities and two of the boys panicked and killed her. This was then covered up with the assistance of the teens' parents.

Rivera said he had enough information to get arrest warrants for the two boys who killed and buried her. He also knew the names of two other accomplices who were in the vehicle. This was because after twenty years people were beginning to come forward and talk about what they knew. In the early days people had been threatened not to talk and were scared but were now opening up. The problem for Rivera was he still didn't have a body and without one he knew a successful prosecution was highly unlikely. He believed Tara’s body and the pink Huffy bike were buried close to Belen. Until they were found no further action was possible. 

At this juncture Rivera encouraged potential witnesses to the murder to come forward and intimated that he would be willing to work with them if they gave information that led to the recovery of the body. Without proof to make arrests John Doel was perturbed that Sheriff Rivera had gone public with information.

In the autumn of 2013 Tara’s case was officially reopened by local and federal agents. A six person task force was put together from Federal Homeland Security Investigations, New Mexico State Police, Valencia County Sheriff's Department, Albuquerque police and the Bernalillo Sheriff's Department cold case unit (Valencia County didn't have one). The whole thing came about after Bernalillo Sheriff Dan Housten bumped into Tara's half sister Michele Doel while out jogging. Michele had taken over the mantle from her mother and was leading family efforts to solve her sister's case. 

 Michele was working with a former classmate of Tara, Melinda Esquibel. Melinda had moved away from Belen but on the twentieth anniversary of her friend's murder she read an article about the case. Shortly after this she moved back to Valencia County and within a couple of years she had started her own investigation. She had felt compelled to do this following conversations with friends when out for dinner in Belen. 

When the topic of Tara’s disappearance came up Melinda was shocked to find the consensus was that everyone knew what happened and who was responsible. However, there was an awful lot of rumour and speculation going around and uncovering truth from gossip was difficult. Melinda was moved to action by the injustice and set about asking questions and going over every scrap of information about the case. Not everyone in Belen appreciated Melinda poking around and I've read some sources that suggest her life was threatened. Indeed Melinda moved back to Los Angeles for a time and worked on the case from there. It was a tough process, as is detailed by Melinda on her blog at TaraCalico.com. She says that powerful people didn't want the case to be solved. However, some influential people who had prevented people from coming forward with what they knew had now passed. Perhaps things were beginning to change in this regard.

All the work Melinda and Michele put in did contribute to the case being re-examined by the task force.

The task force chased up numerous possible leads including one brought to their attention from a retired County Deputy in Georgia. This man had worked the case of an unidentified murder victim who was found by the side of Interstate 59 in December 1988. At the time the retired County Deputy was unaware of Tara Calico. He had recently heard about her case after searching a missing persons website. He thought it was worth checking to see if the unidentified victim was Tara. Authorities had Patty Doel’s DNA on record as she had provided a sample to investigators before her death. It was not a match.

The task force was disbanded after twelve months but before it concluded a report was filed concerning the confession of a Belen resident. It’s unclear exactly when this confession was first given.  I was surprised to find that this report is a matter of public record and was available to read online, though I am being selective in what I repeat here. 

The account is a little rambling but it seems a man contacted the police to say he was dying and wanted to get something off his chest. 

His story goes that the day Tara went missing he went over to a neighbour’s trailer to drink and get high. Here he overheard a conversation between three individuals who admitted raping and killing Tara Calico. They implicated a fourth person in the crime. In the confession the man identified one of the three individuals in the trailer as the son of a local law enforcement officer. 

This individual's involvement in the disappearance had been a long-standing rumour. In an article from the Albuquerque Journal on September 20th 2018 it states that a witness had identified a man sitting in the front passenger seat of the pickup that was following Tara as the 18 year old son of a influential local law enforcement officer.

The man's confession went on to say that Tara’s body had been disposed of in a pond and her bike dumped in a junkyard in Belen. 

The son of the law enforcement officer died in 1991, either as the result of killing himself or a game of russian roulette gone wrong. An article in the Albuquerque Journal from July 20th 1991 states he was shot dead on May 19th and that the father, a law enforcement officer, believed his son was murdered. A brief interview with an individual who was present when the death occurred said it had been an accident. This witness added that the deceased man  had played a part in front of his dad but was no goody two shoes. In the aforementioned article the father acknowledged his son was no angel and he had even been forced to arrest him in the past for possession of marijuana. The father lamented his son's passing. He believed his son had turned his life around as he had gotten a good job as a welder and had been positively influenced by a pastor.

The father of the deceased man, the law enforcement officer, passed away in 2017.

Quite a story. The confession went on saying the whole thing had been connected to drug dealing and finished with accusations of police corruption and alleged cover-ups.

What is interesting is that Uncovered.com mentions another version of this man's confession taken in 2006. The details vary markedly. In this version a different set of individuals are said to be responsible for Tara's death. The son of the law enforcement officer is not mentioned at all. 

I have found other public records detailing a story by another Belen resident and person of interest in the case. I am not going to go into detail as it's impossible to distinguish hearsay from fact but this individual does name the son of the law enforcement officer, alongside another individual as being involved in Tara's death. This second individual was also deceased. In addition two further people were said by this man to be complicit in Taras disappearance but he did not know their names, although he said he said they were dead too. 

These records also deal with rumours suggesting Tara was killed and her body hidden under concrete slabs or even stored in a freezer.It's unclear exactly what investigators did with all this information but none of this could be proven in 2013 which is why no arrests were made and the task force was disbanded.  

While in operation the task force had not been without controversy. On the website taracalico.com, Melinda Esquibel alleges there were leaks amongst the task force. Some details got out to certain individuals in the community who used this information to threaten those who had spoken to the task force. 

The closing of the task force did not mean the investigation was over. It certainly did not prevent  Michelle Doel and Melinda Esquibel continuing thier own work on the case.  

Over the next few years Michelle and Melinda discovered information long forgotten and found the original case files to be in disorder. Melinda continued working on a documentary film about the Tara Calico investigation which she had started back in 2010. Actor RJ Mitte who played Walt Jr on Breaking Bad became an executive producer. He had gotten to know some of Tara’s family during years of filming the show in New Mexico. Melinda also went on to make a podcast in 2017 about the case called Vanished:The Tara Calico investigation.

Following the podcast a private investigator approached Melinda and began working with her on the case. He trained her in investigative techniques which enabled her to produce a data set and case notes to rival the efforts of professional local law enforcement agencies.

Melinda developed a case file with over 25,000 items and conducted hundreds of interviews with residents of Belen. When Melinda came across information she would share it with the Valencia Sheriff's Department. It was difficult,  as while a lot of information came into her there was a lot of rumour and hearsay to weed out. 

Melinda is confident she has solved the case. She does not believe the young woman in the polaroid is Tara and suspects  Tara never left the local area. Her theory is similar to the one shared by then Valencia County Sheriff Rene Rivera in 2008. Melinda has shared her thoughts in numerous places including The Sun newspaper in 2022. She believes that Tara was knocked over, abducted and killed. Her body was then buried 32 km/20 miles away. This was no accident and Melinda says she has information which suggests premeditation; that the person who killed her planned to do it four days prior on September 16th. The motive for the killing came when Tara had rejected the boy after he asked her on a date. People Magazine reported in 2018 and again in 2021 that police reports confirmed something I mentioned right at the beginning of this episode, that Tara had received threatening notes in the months before she disappeared.

Melinda passed on her detailed investigative case file direct to the FBI. She refused to give it to the Valencia Sheriff's Department as she claimed they were not interested in going through it with her. They just wanted her to send it to them. In 2019 the FBI announced that they were offering a $20,000 reward in conjunction with Tara’s case. 

Two years later in April 2021 a search warrant was made for a home in Valencia County. The judge sealed the warrant so that any names and addresses were kept out of the public sphere. 

Just a few months later in July 2021, 55 year-old convicted sex offender Paul Apodaca was taken to a police station in Albuquerque for a parole violation. Astonishingly he then confessed to the 1988 murder of 21 year-old University of New Mexico student Althea Oakley. He also admitted to killing 13 year-old Stella Gonzales in 1988 and the 1989 murder of 18 year-old Kaitlyn Arquett. All three cases had been cold for thirty years. In the wake of this there was speculation that Apodaca could be connected to Tara’s disappearance. By September 2021 authorities had ruled out any link. In January 2024 Podaca was sentenced to 45 years in prison for his crimes.

The summer of 2023 witnessed the biggest development to date in the Tara Calico investigation. Valencia County Sheriff Denise Vigil called a news conference on Tuesday June 13th 2023 at Los Lunas Courthouse. She announced there was sufficient evidence to submit the investigation to the District Attorney's Office for review of potential charges. No further information was given and details concerning the persons of interest in the case are sealed.

That is currently the state of play. The entire 35 year old casefile needs to be gone through by the District attorney's office and any other suspects need to be ruled out. We are awaiting further news.

In the meantime Lieutenant Joseph Rowland, an investigator with the Valencia County Sheriff's Department has shared some thoughts on the investigation. Talking with KOB, a New Mexico news outlet, in 2023 he addressed the physical evidence in the case.

In 2013 when the task force was launched the media reported that part of the process was going to see evidence reexamined in light of technological developments at a federal facility in Mesa del Sol. 

Lieutenant Rowland, who started working on the case in 2016, claimed there is no physical evidence to rely on. From his work he was unsure if the Sheriff's Department had ever collected or tested the items said to have been found shortly after Tara went missing, i.e the Boston cassette tape, and  fragments from the Sony Walkman. He even questions whether they ever existed at all. He also confirms that there was no DNA evidence from the original investigation. 

There are also some questions over whether other evidence connected to the case may have gone missing or been destroyed. In the aforementioned piece from KOB, Lieutenant Ray Flores says some evidence has been lost. Flores was the detective who was recruited by Sheriff Lawrence Romero to work the Tara Calico and Debra Lansdell cases back in November 1988. He was third in command of the investigation.

Flores says early in the investigation a car and a suitcase were discovered. The suitcase contained telephone wire that looked like it may have been used to restrain a person. Years later Flores discovered that the suitcase had never been forensically tested and was later destroyed. 

At the time of Tara’s disappearance Flores had been trying to bust a local drug ring. He suspected this drug ring could be connected to Tara’s case. Again, evidence he had collated on the drug ring had gone missing.

Flores was aware of local rumours concerning a cover up in Tara’s case. However, he spoke against any notion of a cover up and said when he was working the case he would never have allowed that to happen. Lieutenant Rowland said he couldn't comment on the initial investigation. He is doing all he can now to solve the case. He believes he knows what happened to Tara and who is responsible. 

Melinda Esquibel believes a huge injustice was done to Tara but the right people are now working on the case. It is in the hands of the 13th Judicial District Attorney's Office and a team of top lawyers. 

As of the recording of this podcast in November 2024 1.Melinda Esquibel’s documentary film about the investigation into Tara Calico’s case has not aired. IMDB lists it as still under development. 

If you have any information regarding the 1988 disappearance of Tara Calico you can contact Valencia County Sheriff’s department on 505 865 9604 or the FBI, New Mexico Office on 505 224 2000.

Sources 

https://tinyurl.com/2fbdh29s