Disappearance of Tara Calico

No one witnessed her presumed abduction, although several witnesses observed a light-colored pickup truck (possibly a 1953 Ford) with a camper shell following closely behind her.

Tara Leigh Calico (born February 28, 1969) is an American woman who disappeared near her home in Belen, New Mexico, on September 20, 1988.

She is widely believed to have been kidnapped.

On Tuesday, September 20, 1988, Calico left her home at about 9:30 A.M. to go on her daily bike ride along New Mexico State Road 47.

She rode that route almost every morning and was sometimes accompanied by her mother, Patty Doel.

However, Doel stopped riding with Calico after she felt that she had been stalked by a motorist.

She advised her daughter to think about carrying mace, but Calico rejected the idea.

On the morning of Calico's disappearance, she had told Doel to come and get her if she was not home by noon, as she had plans to play tennis with her boyfriend at 12:30.

When her daughter did not return, Doel went searching for her along Calico's usual bike route but could not find her; she then contacted the police.

Pieces of Calico's Sony Walkman and a cassette tape were later discovered along the road.

Doel believed that she might have dropped them in an attempt to mark her trail.

Several people saw Calico riding her bicycle, which has never been found.

Relatives of Michael Henley, also of New Mexico, who had disappeared in April 1988, saw the episode and said that they believed he was the boy in the photo.

Doel and Henley's parents both met with investigators and examined the Polaroid.

Doel said that she was "convinced" it was Calico.

She also noted that a scar on the woman's leg was identical to one that Calico had received in a car accident.

In addition, a paperback copy of V.C. Andrews' My Sweet Audrina, said to be one of Calico's favorite books, can be seen lying next to the woman.

Scotland Yard analyzed the photo and concluded that the woman was Calico, but a second analysis by the Los Alamos National Laboratory disagreed.

An FBI analysis of the photo was inconclusive.

Henley's mother said that she was "almost certain" it was Michael in the Polaroid.

In July 1989, a Polaroid photo of an unidentified young woman and boy, gagged and seemingly bound, was televised to the public after it was found in a convenience store parking lot in Port St. Joe, Florida.

Family friends thought the woman resembled Calico and contacted her mother, who then met with investigators and examined the Polaroid.

She believed it was her daughter after taking "time, growth and lack of makeup" into consideration, and noted that a scar on the woman's leg was identical to one that Calico had.

Scotland Yard analyzed the photo and concluded that the woman was Calico, but a second analysis by the Los Alamos National Laboratory disagreed.

An FBI analysis of the photo was inconclusive.

Calico's case received extensive coverage on television programs such as A Current Affair, Unsolved Mysteries, and America's Most Wanted.

It was also profiled on The Oprah Winfrey Show and 48 Hours.

On June 15, 1989, a Polaroid photo of an unidentified young woman and a boy, both gagged with black duct tape and seemingly bound, was discovered in the parking lot of a convenience store in Port St. Joe, Florida.

The woman who found the photo said that it was in a parking space where a white windowless Toyota cargo van had been parked when she arrived at the store.

She said that the van was being driven by a man with a mustache who appeared to be in his 30s.

Police set up roadblocks to intercept the vehicle, but the man has never been identified.

According to Polaroid officials, the picture had to have been taken after May 1989 because the particular film used in the photograph was not available until then.

The photo was broadcast on A Current Affair in July, and Doel was contacted by friends who had seen the show and thought the woman resembled Calico.

Someone had drawn a black band in ink on the photo, over the boy's mouth, as if it were covered in tape as in the 1989 picture.

The second letter contained an original image of the boy.

The identification of the boy in the photograph as Henley is considered highly unlikely: his remains were discovered in June 1990 in the Zuni Mountains, about 7 mi from his family's campsite from which he had disappeared and 75 mi from where Calico disappeared.

Police believe that Henley wandered off and subsequently died of exposure.

In 2009, twenty years after the Polaroid photo was found and shared by the media, pictures of a boy were sent to the Port St. Joe police chief, David Barnes.

He received two letters, postmarked June 10 and August 10, 2009, from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

One letter contained a photo, printed on copy paper, of a young boy with sandy brown hair.