On September 20, 1988, 19-year-old Tara Leigh Calico disappeared while riding her bike near her home in Belen, New Mexico. Tara’s case received national attention in the 1990s when a series of Polaroid photographs surfaced that appeared to show her bound and gagged in the back of a van. However, the photographs were never definitively linked to Tara Calico.

Tara Calico’s disappearance remains one of the most heavily reported unsolved missing cases ever.

On the morning of September 20, 1988, Tara set out on her usual bike ride. She was last seen riding along Highway 47 in Valencia County at approximately 11:45 AM. She was wearing a white t-shirt with ‘1st National Bank of Belen’ on it, white shorts with green stripes, white ankle socks, and white and turquoise Avia tennis shoes. Her broken Walkman and the cassette tape she was listening to were later found abandoned in a field, but there was no sign of Tara or her bike.

Investigators searched for Tara Calico for months, but she was never found.

Tara had an active lifestyle and would normally begin her day with a 60-kilometer bicycle ride along New Mexico State Road 47. Sometimes she was accompanied by her mother, Patty Doel. However, Patty had lately stopped bicycling because she believed they were being stalked by a motorist. Patty had also suggested Tara carry a mace with her. Tara, on the other hand, thought her mother was being unduly protective.

Timeline of Tara Leigh Calico’s Disappearance

September 20, 1988
Tara gets ready for her daily bicycle ride. She asks her mother, Patty Doel, to pick her up if she does not return home by noon because she has plans to go on a tennis date with her boyfriend at 12:30 pm.

Around 9:30 AM, Tara bids her mom goodbye and leaves for the bicycle ride along New Mexico State Road 47. Patty wouldn’t know she bid her daughter goodbye for the last time.

She rode her mother’s bicycle, a neon pink Huffy Mountain bike, as her own was damaged.
Around 12:00 PM, Patty leaves home to pick up Tara as she has not returned. Patty drives back and forth twice along her usual biking route but there is no sign of Tara.

Panic sets in and Patty calls the Valencia County Sheriff’s Department to report her daughter missing.

Tara’s disappearance sparked a massive search. Investigators along with hundreds of volunteers searched the region for weeks but there was no trace of Tara or her bike. The only evidence they could discover was Tara’s shattered Sony Walkman and bike tracks.
Tara’s stepfather, John Doel, believed the track marks resembled skids, perhaps indicating a struggle.

Tara Leigh Calico’s final sighting and the van

The witnesses reported seeing her bicycling back toward her house at around 11:45 a.m. She was said to have her headphones on.

The witnesses also reported seeing an old van that was following Tara shortly before she disappeared. The van was reported to be a shell camper, dark in color with large windows but the driver was never identified. This was the only information that investigators had for the first few months after Tara vanished.

The case takes a strange turn with the mysterious appearance of a gruesome polaroid

On June 15, 1989, a woman in St. Joe, Florida, about 1200 miles from Belen, had gone to her neighborhood convenience store where she observed a white windowless Toyota cargo van in the adjacent parking space as she stepped out of her car. The driver of the van was a man in his thirties who had a mustache.

When she returned from the store after completing her shopping, she noticed a polaroid photograph lying in the parking space where the van was parked earlier.

She was shocked to see the photo as it depicted a teen girl and a young kid with their mouths covered with tape and hands bound behind their backs. The woman immediately reported the photo to the authorities.

The police immediately set up a roadblock in an attempt to stop the suspicious van, but they were unable to locate the van or its driver.

Factory analysis of the Polaroid confirmed that the photo was taken after May 1989 because the film used in the photo was not available earlier.

The polaroid causes a media frenzy

The discovery of the polaroid caused a media frenzy and the news was extensively covered in the national media. The news also reached Tara’s parents. They recognized the girl in the photo as Tara. The other boy in the photo was recognized as Michael Henley who had disappeared while camping with his father in the Zuni Mountains in 1988.

Patty believed that the girl in the photo was her daughter as Tara had a scar on her leg that matched the girl’s scar in the photo.

Seeing the book ‘My Sweet Audrina’ by V.C. Andrews in the photo, Patty became almost sure that the girl in the photo was her daughter as V.C. Andrews was Tara’s favorite author.

Polaroid is examined by Scotland Yard and the FBI

The Polaroid was examined by Scotland Yard, the FBI, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Scotland Yard analysis concluded that they were 85 per cent sure that the girl in the polaroid was Tara.

However, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, determined that the girl in the photo is not Tara.

The FBI analysis could not ascertain if the girl in the polaroid was Tara and remained inconclusive.

Tara Calico’s Disappearance features on America’s Most Wanted, Oprah, and Unsolved Mysteries

Calico’s parents shared their story on “America’s Most Wanted,” Oprah” and “Unsolved Mysteries,” and also dispatched thousands of fliers in the hopes of finding their daughter. However, their efforts did not yield much success.

The biggest theories behind Tara Calico’s disappearance

There are many theories surrounding the disappearance of Tara Calico. Some believe that she was abducted by a serial killer, while others believe she ran away from home. There are also those who believe she was taken by aliens. We discuss some of the prominent theories here.

Tara was a victim of a hit-and-run incident

Rene Rivera, a Valencia County Sheriff who joined the department just after Tara went missing, claimed to know what had happened. According to Rivera, two teenagers who knew Tara from school were driving behind Tara and accidentally hit her bike. They panicked and loaded Tara into the vehicle and hurriedly drove off. The teenagers were later joined by two other men who assisted the boys in killing Calico and disposing of her body.

Rivera said they were trying to collect evidence against the boys to put together the case.

Tara’s stepfather, John Doel slammed Rivera for his casual remarks and questioned why he would make a statement without sufficient evidence to make an arrest.

No arrests have been made as of yet, and Rivera has not named any suspects publicly. However, Rivera maintains this notion in this post on the Investigation Discovery website, even suggesting that the boys’ relatives may have been engaged in the cover-up.

Rivera stands by his claim though he has not named any suspects and no arrests have been made in the case so far.

She was killed by Lawrence Romero Jr.

In 2013, a man named Henry Brown made a deathbed confession to police that he was aware of the culprits involved in Calico’s abduction. Brown said that, shortly after Calico’s disappearance, he had been in the basement of a man named Lawrence Romero Jr. While there, he noticed what appeared to be a young woman’s body, wrapped in a blue tarp and buried in a makeshift grave.

Brown in his confession mentioned that Lawrence Romero Jr., Leroy Chavez, and Dave Silva informed him they hit Calico with a truck when she was riding her bike. They then drove her to a gravel pit and raped her in turns. When Calico threatened to report them to the police, Lawrence Romero, Jr. stabbed her to death while Chavez and Silva allegedly pinned her down.

Brown claimed that Lawrence Romero Jr. had also written his confession letter about his involvement in Calico’s disappearance. However, in a bid to save Lawrence, the written confession was destroyed by his father Rene Rivera, who was the Valencia County Sheriff Rene Rivera.

However, they were not considered a suspect and no arrests were ever made.

Reward

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for precise details leading to the identification or location of Tara Leigh Calico, and information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for her disappearance.

Tara Calico’s disappearance baffled the investigators and left her loved ones heartbroken. Nearly 33 years later, her case remains unsolved.

If you have any information about Tara Calico’s disappearance, please contact the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office at 505-866-2400 or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or online at tips.fbi.gov.