Missing
Tara Leigh Calico
Calico, approximately 1988; Age when reported missing: 49 (approximately 2018); Unidentified girl; Unidentified boy; Tara Calico's bicycle
Date and time person was reported missing : 09/20/1988
Missing location (approx) :
Belen, New Mexico
Missing classification : Endangered Missing
Gender : Female
Ethnicity :
White
DOB : 02/28/1969 (52)
Age at the time of disappearance: 19 years old
Height / Weight : 5'7, 120 pounds
Description, clothing, jewerly and more : A white t-shirt with "1st National Bank of Belen" written on it, white shorts with green stripes, white ankle socks, turquoise and white Avia sneakers, a gold butterfly ring with a diamond insert, a gold amethyst ring, and half-inch gold hoop earrings.
Distinguishing characteristics, birthmarks, tattoos
: Caucasian female. Brown hair, green eyes. Calico has a large scar on the back of her right shoulder and a scar on her calf. She has a dime-sized brown birthmark on the back of one of her legs. She has a lazy eye and has a cowlick on her right temple. She has previously had bEthnicity : s on her teeth, and her ears are pierced.
Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : Calico left her house on Brugg Street in Belen, New Mexico to go on a bike ride at 9:30 on the morning of September 20, 1988. She took her mother's bicycle because her own bike had a flat tire. She was last seen riding her mother's neon pink Huffy mountain bike with yellow control cables and sidewalls on Highway 47 in Valencia County, at approximately 11:45 a.m. This location is approximately two miles from her home. She has never been seen again.
Calico biked the route daily during her routine 36-mile ride. Witnesses saw a dirty white or light gray-colored 1953 Ford pickup truck with a white handmade shell following Calico during her ride. It is not known if the truck is connected to her presumed abduction. She was apparently unaware of the truck's presence. Her mother's bicycle has never been located. A photo of it is posted with this case summary. Foul play is suspected in Calico's disappearance.
Calico is described as an efficient, independent person who liked to make lists scheduling her days. She enjoys running. On the day she vanished, she was concerned about staying on schedule and asked her mother, Patty Doel, to come get her if she was not home by 12:00 p.m.
Calico had plans to play tennis with her boyfriend at 12:30 p.m., and a class at 4:00 p.m. that day. She graduated from Belen High School and was enrolled as a sophomore at University of New Mexico at Valencia at the time of her disappearance. She had a high grade point averAge at the time of disappearance: and planned to become a psychiatrist or psychologist. She also held a job at a local bank. When Calico vanished, she left behind her sneakers and equipment, school books, and purse.
Doel went to look for her at 12:05 p.m. the day she was last seen. When she could not find her along her usual bike route, she contacted police. The next day, Doel found a Boston cassette tape belonging to Calico by the side of the road. It was three miles from her home, and on opposite side of the highway, as if she had dropped it while riding away from her residence.
Later, part of Calico's Sony Walkman was recovered nineteen miles east of Highway 47 near the remote John F. Kennedy campground. Doel believed her daughter deliberately dropped those items to mark her trail. Near the cassette tape were some bike tracks and marks resembling a scuffle or skids.
Rumors have persisted for years that Calico was the unidentified female in a Polaroid photo discovered in Port St. Joe, Florida on June 15, 1989, nine months following her disappearance. A white Toyota cargo van had been parked in the spot prior to the discovery of the picture.
The photo was located on the ground in a convenience store's parking lot in St. Joe. It depicted a long-legged young woman and a smaller boy lying on some sheets and a blue striped pillow. Their mouths were covered with duct tape and their hands tied behind their backs. The photograph was taken in the back of a white Toyota cargo van with no windows, manufactured in the late 1980s.
Interactive Missing Person Search Map
