Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Cold Case: Tara Calico's mysterious disappearance

Episode Date: July 28, 2017

Tara Calico disappeared during a bike ride 29 years ago, leaving behind few clues and many questions. Classmate Melinda Esquibel is hoping to revive the search for the 19-year-old University of Mexico student with a film documentary and podcast series titled "Vanished: The Tara Calico Investigation." Esquibel and journalist Rosalie Rayburn join Nancy Grace in this episode to discuss the case. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. student named Tara Calico went out on a 34-mile bike ride. Police department, I need to make a missing person report. Okay, who is it that's missing? Within hours, community members, friends, and family were looking for Tara, scouring every inch of the desert terrain. We believe she's alive. She's been seen. There's people who have seen her. Searches continued as hours turned into days, days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into long months. But there was no sign of Tara or the pink bike she was riding.

Many would argue the bond between mother and daughter was one of the closest they had ever seen. They did everything together, including exercising together, jogging, riding their bikes. One day, mom didn't go. She never saw her daughter again. She never saw Tara again. Tara Lee Calico has been missing ever since. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. I am not letting Tara Calico drop off the map. We are not letting her become just another statistic, just another name we read about.

We are keeping her disappearance alive until the case is cracked. I can't imagine day after day after day with no closure at all. Of course, any of us who have been crime victims know there is no such thing as closure. You just learn to live a different way. I've often compared it to, and this is lighthearted, breaking your arm but never getting it set and learning to flip a pancake anyway. You can do it, but it's never the same. It's kind of like life after becoming a crime victim. I imagine Tara's mom day after day day, wondering what happened to my daughter. Tara Lee Calco went missing.

She went missing out riding her bike on her favorite route that she took all the time. When she didn't get back from that morning's ride, mom goes looking, kicking herself, I'm sure, for not going along that day. No sign of Tara nor her bike were ever found to this day. Joining me right now, two very special guests, in addition to the Duke, Alan Duke, joining me out of L.A. First of all, Melinda Escobel, who has created a documentary, and we are anxiously awaiting its release, called Vanish, the Tara Calico story. She also has created a podcast, the tar calico investigation also with

me a well-known journalist from the albuquerque journal rosalie rayburn who has also studied the calico disappearance ladies thank you for being with us thank you for having us, Nancy. Thank you very much. You know, I'm so happy to finally get us all on the same page here. I met up with Melinda at CrimeCon, and it was fortuitous. And I want to start at the beginning. Melinda, Tara would go, from what I understand, biking with her mom. Biking with her mom. But then the mom quit going shortly before Tara went missing. What happened the day, as much as you know, the day that Tara Calico went missing and has never been seen again?

Okay, Tara took this ride often. It was 17 miles out to the railroad tracks and 17 miles back. And in previous rides, she had had an issue with one of her bicycle tires going flat. And so she had expressed to her mother that morning that if she wasn't back by noon to go and look for her because it was a possibility that maybe she had a flat tire and so she went out on her 17 mile uh or 34 mile bike ride out to the railroad tracks and it appears on her trip she had some trouble along the way um she was getting harassed by um what looked to be an older vehicle following her and a group of guys. What was the make?

Do we know the make and model on the vehicle? Yes. Well, there was two different vehicles that were seen on the road that day, and one was an International and one was a mid-'50s Ford. What's an International? An International was a Chevy, an old Chevy. Man, you just taught me something I didn't know. Okay, so one was a Chevy International.

Do we know a color? They were both primer gray, and one had yellow on it. And the other was a what? Did you say a pickup? Yes, they were both pickups. One was the Chevy International international and one was the the ford the mid-50s ford okay right there alan i find that a little too much of a coincidence that passer was by saw two vehicles harassing her they were both pickups with primer

that means to me there's probably one vehicle that was a pickup with primer. Well, in this area, I think a pickup with primer is kind of the normal mode of travel, especially at that time. Oh, here you go again with stereotyping a whole area. Well, no, I mean, I'm just saying that's what people drive there. Okay, so, all right, according to Alan Duke, everybody in the New Mexico area drives a pickup covered in primer. But, okay, I'll go with pickup with primer. There's a lot of them. Go ahead, dear.

There's a lot of them around in the area. Thank you. So, Melinda Escobel. Yes. When you say passersby observed her getting harassed, what do you mean by that? What did they say? They said that they saw a truck following directly behind her with several individuals in there. And one was running on the side of the vehicle of the Ford.

This is the specific Ford truck. And he was running out of the truck and coming up behind her and trying to tug at her shirt. Well why didn't anybody stop and help her for Pete's sake? I think in the beginning people thought they didn't really they said it looked like a giant ball and originally the number of people that passed her believed that it was her father following her um you know making sure that she was safe on her ride a giant ball yeah like a it was like a they saw like a what looked like a ball running up and coming back so they just assumed that they were you know escorting her on her ride is what okay like they were having fun is that what you're saying

like they were making sure she was okay, maybe giving her water. They just weren't really sure, and they thought that must be her father or her family following her, making sure she's okay on the ride. Okay, question. How many witnesses observed this? Yes, there was between four and five. Oh, okay. Well, in my mind, that seals it.

I think that that's how it started because one witness could be wrong. But when you start saying two, three, four, five people saw the same thing, no reason to believe all five of them are lying about it or mistaken okay i find that i nobody stopped but in the context in which you're saying it it makes a little more sense to me um my dad and i used to exercise all the time before he passed away and um i can see people imagining that. So why, why did the mom decide not to go that day? She had basically, she had stopped riding with her previously. There was notes that were left on the vehicle that contained threats. And I believe Patty Dole had an incident where a van had trailed too closely behind her.

And so she had gotten nervous about it. So she decided that she didn't want to ride anymore. And she told Tara that she shouldn't ride anymore. And subsequently, you know, Tara said that she wasn't going to live her life in fear. And she decided to continue to ride. You know, she's a beautiful young girl. Joining me is Melinda Escobel, who has created a documentary, Vanished, the Tara Calico story. She also has created a podcast, Vanished, the Tara Calico investigation. Also with me, Rosalie Rayburn.

What drew you to covering this case? Why are you interested in Tara Calico's disappearance? Well, I happened to meet Melinda by coincidence, and she talked about making this documentary, and I had heard about the case. The journal had written many stories over the years, both when it occurred many years ago, and also more recently, some anniversary stories. And I was just intrigued by what she was doing. And also by the fact she said that she had been a schoolmate of Tara's. And I thought that was a really unique angle. Wow, you know what? That fact had escaped me. Thank you for reminding me of that, Rosalie Rayburn.

Melinda Escobel with me, who has created a documentary and a podcast on Tara's disappearance. Tell me about knowing her at school. Tara was an upperclassman. She was a year older than me. We both went to Belen High School, and we were both in competitive marching band together. And I knew of her, and she knew of me. We both went to Belen High School and we were both in competitive marching band together. And I knew of her and she knew of me. You know, we had classes together, but it wasn't until this trip to Arizona where I was alone. I didn't have my friends with me and she really befriended me on this trip. And that's how we became friends and friendly. When you say she befriended you, tell me, what was her personality?

I hate to speak of her in the past tense, so I'm going to go with the present tense. What is her personality as you recall it? I mean, I just remember her being a very sweet girl. And, you know, she went out of her way to show me kindness when she didn't have to. And that's one thing that really always has stuck in my mind is that she went out of her way to make sure that I had a group to hang out with and to you know enjoy this trip that we took to Arizona and she was highly intelligent you know very smart girl she was very pretty and she was just a really sweet, sweet person.

You know, I've often asked this, Alan, and I know it's rhetorical. Why do the good people become victimized and all the rats, the really mean people, they just live on forever and ever? You know, nothing ever happens to them. It's always the nice people, like Tara Calico, that is inclusive and kind and befriends people. But that's a whole other can of worms. I'm just trying to imagine her out on her bike that day, getting tailed, seemingly friendly. With me, again, Rosalie Rabin from the Albuquerque Journal and Melinda Escobel, who has created a documentary and podcast. So to you, Melinda, that day, it was early in the morning, as I recall,

early in the morning, she goes on her bike ride. How long would it take her to do a turnaround, 17 miles one way, 17 miles on the way back? Well, she started about 9 a.m., and it would be noon when she got home, when she was expected home. She had a tennis date at 1230 with her boyfriend at the time. Now, it's always the boyfriend, the husband, the ex, the lover that everybody looks at to begin with. So did they rule out the boyfriend? They did very early on, they ruled out the boyfriend, the father, everybody had, you know, where, where they were supposed to be. And, you

know, they had reported the crime, but the sheriff's office stated that they needed to wait 24 hours before they could actually report her missing. And so I know Patty was very strong-handed about it and kind of somehow got the sheriff's office to comply after a number of hours. Wow. You know, I can't tell you how many times I've heard that, Rosalie Rayburn, and it really drives me crazy that still to this day in many police jurisdictions they go oh you know what that's a grown woman uh that that that's a juvenile she's probably a runaway or this one has a boyfriend she's run off we're gonna wait and they wait and they wait then 72 hours have passed

it's too late at that point to recreate the disappearance as well as you could have at the time. And the one thing we do have going for us with Tara Calico is it happened in broad daylight. What, Rosalie, are you there? Tell me about the police decision to wait. Why did they wait? You know, I really don't, I can't give a comment on that, but I have often heard, as you were just intimating there, in some cases, police have said, you know, hours are really significant, almost like, you know, they say a heart attack, minutes make a difference.

And so it seems as though any waiting in a case like this would mean that some valuable clues might be lost, valuable time is lost. And so it is surprising that there was any waiting at all. I mean, you're right about the minutes. Minutes count. As I always say to my husband, red lights count because those are minutes. They add up and then suddenly, you know, you're looking at a half an hour, an hour. And imagine a car going 60 miles an hour, okay? That's how much of a jump they have on you in a case like this. I want to pause very quickly and thank our partner. I want to thank our partner in our podcast today that's making our podcast possible in our efforts to solve the case

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the creator of a documentary and podcast about Tara's disappearance. Melinda, her bike. Her bike was never found, but as I recall, part of her headset was found there was a part of the um of her walkman that was found um on the side of the road there was a tape that was found there was a part of the walkman they were tire tracks uh and bicycle tracks where she was pushed off the side of the road um there was a marijuana pipe in the area that was found. So there were a number of items that were found that we have had to rebuild, you know, the evidence from the ground up. Well, I'm interested in the marijuana pipe because that's a new fact I didn't know about. I know Tara did not smoke marijuana. to the walkman, the tape, and the tire marks, that would suggest it was from somebody in the vehicle,

which we now believe was a pickup with primer on it. Was the pipe ever tested for DNA? Okay, so this is how that situation... Uh-oh, I don't like the way that's starting off. Whenever you say we have a situation, that's never good. Okay, so tell me, was the pipe tested? Well, it never got tested. The boyfriend and her parents were out looking at a certain area where a piece was found of the tape or the Walkman.

And so he noticed it was on a rock sitting straight up, not like someone threw it out a window, like someone actually placed it perfectly on a rock sitting straight up like not like someone threw it out a window like someone actually placed it perfectly on a rock and so he noticed it and he tried to pick it up barely touching it and he said to the sheriff um look what we found right here and the sheriff grabbed it in his hand and said oh thanks and he put it in his pocket. Okay, let me just process that for a moment. Where is it now? Is it in evidence? Oh, no, it disappeared.

Oh, dear Lord in heaven. Just like everything else. Well, what do you mean like everything else? There's a lot of evidence that was collected that day that has disappeared from the sheriff's office. There was also a cooler with ether and rag found. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait. Alan, did you know that part? A cooler with ether and a found. What? Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait. Alan, did you know that part?

A cooler with ether and a rag? No, no. This is bizarre. This is shocking. Okay, I've got to get my little big pen here. A cooler with ether and a rag. Okay, that's just way too much of a coincidence. Melinda Escobel, are you sure about that, or is that now folklore?

No, someone who found it came forward to me. He is now an elected official in the state, and he came forward, and he said, I've got to tell you something. And he said, myself and my brothers were out there searching, and this is what we found, and we turned it into the sheriff's office, and we want to know if it's still in there. And I said, no, it turned it into the sheriff's office and we want to know if it's still in there and I said no it is not what sheriff's office is this the Valencia County Sheriff's Office good gravy I mean if they've lost it they should at least come clean the Valencia

County Sheriff's okay because let me tell you something listen to this Ros Rosalie and Alan. Melinda, I recall, I can't remember the year exactly, but I had been in the DA's office for a couple of years already, and the elected DA, then Louis Slayton, who was the longest-serving DA in the country at that time, I think 34 years. Anyway, he came to me and said, a big case, well, it was a big case when it happened, has gotten reversed up in the 11th Circuit.

It had gone all the way up to one step below the U.S. Supreme Court. Reversed because there were two perpetrators that had gunned down a cop's son. Wait, hold on, a cop's son. Wait, hold on. A cop's brother. Okay. The brother had just gotten engaged and he and his fiance were on the patio toasting with champagne and these two thugs that had just gotten out of jail come creeping up to rob them, I guess, and gun the guy down. Okay, so they gave statements, and they were interlocking. In other words, they implicated the other. So that had come into evidence, and the whole thing had to be retried, and it was about 14 years later.

This had happened, I guess, when I was in undergrad. So I get the case 14 years after the conviction. I go to the evidence room to get the evidence to start rebuilding the case. There was one thing. One piece of evidence. It was the hat that said, kiss my bass. That was it. That was all the evidence.

And no, nobody went in the office and hid it or destroyed it. The property office room had just been moved a couple of times in 14 years, and the evidence was gone. No matter how much we looked, we couldn't find it. So I had to recreate the case. Can you only imagine this, Alan? With one hat, kiss my bass. That came into play because at some point, one of the perps had used one of the victim's ATM card, and you couldn't see his face, but he was at the bank, and he had on his

hat, kiss my bass. Or somebody was at the bank using the card with the hat on that was my evidence that was it so i know what it means to lose evidence um i'm interested in this that case was over and done with and had probably everybody had probably decided it's already been appealed, it's over with. But this case was still under investigation, Melinda Escobel. A cooler with an ether and a rag in it near where Tara goes missing. What about the other evidence? What? Jump in. There was a lot of other evidence that is missing from the sheriff's

office when patty dole and john dole tar's parents had become deputized is when they realized that files were missing from the sheriff's office reports were missing from the sheriff's office and that they actually believed that there was cover-up within the sheriff's office to cover up what happened in this case i'm just letting that sink in because typically I don't go for a conspiracy theory because I really think it's just too hard for human beings to keep a secret. But to lose a cooler with ether and a rag in it and a disappearance, that's a pretty big boo-boo. What other, I mean, convince me.

I want to hear about this. What other evidence do you believe has gone missing? There was all the, okay, so when the Valencia County News Bulletin moved offices in the 90s, all, you know, they have these books that contain all the news clippings of all the articles that they write. In the transfer into the new building, all the articles, the book containing all the articles

connected to Tara's case with all the evidence that they found and everything that was collected during that investigation has disappeared. Now that, you said, was the newspaper, right? found and everything that was collected during that investigation has disappeared. Now that you said was the newspaper, right? We also had people who came forward and were hypnotized and their reports from the hypnosis or from the doctor, the hypnotist, have gone missing. There are interviews, there are reports in the sheriff's office that allude to voice interviews that were conducted, and those interviews have gone missing.

The actual tapes are missing. When the last sheriff went out of the office, went out of office and the new sheriff came and took over, they called me because there was a safe in the sheriff's office and they said, we're going to open this safe. We want to see what's in there in case there's anything in regards to Tara's case. Well, what we found was some interviews that had never previously been heard. And there was a file of a young, well, a guy who should be now in his forties, except that he had passed away with his name on it but the file was empty and one of these boys was the son of a prominent politician and it was wrapped up with these tapes but the file was empty what about the walkman

is that missing too yes everything is gone the files when I got into the sheriff's office with files to rebuild their cases because over the years they had continually gone missing. And in my interview with Sheriff Rene Rivera, he talks about having to build the case from the ground up because either people were not turning in the reports that they were generating or they were taking them. You know, it really seems to me that this is a matter for the attorney general. Because, I mean, that's the state attorney general. Because when you are having issues with your police force or you're having issues with another government entity,

you go to the state attorney general. It's not that hard. You know, it sounds like a big deal. You go to their office and you file, you write a letter about what's going on. And then if you don't get an answer, you go there and you talk to them and they will look into it. Has that ever happened in this case? No, it is not. And I wasn't aware that we could do that. But now that I'm aware, I will definitely go to them because this has been an uphill battle for seven years. Does Tara's mother cope with all of this?

Well, she passed away in 2006. Gosh, I didn't know that. Yeah. And her biological father died before Patty died. So her siblings are left, her brothers, her stepsisters and her stepfather are the only ones who are left alive. So it's really up to you, I guess, all of us to try to keep the case alive. Right. And the other person, you know, another thing I want to go back. Go ahead, dear. The other person who's been helping me with this case is Tara Calico's

sister, stepsister, Michelle Dole. You know, sheriff's administrations have come and gone. We've had a task force that has come and gone. But the only thing consistent in this case is myself and Michelle. I want to talk about the Polaroid. I'm going to come back to the missing evidence, but I want to talk about the photos that were found. Photos were found all the way in Florida. Florida, as I recall it. In the photos, there are two unidentified people. It's a Polaroid. It was found in the hot weeks of June. It is suspected this female is Tara Calico.

There is a boy, a young boy, in the background. It looks like they're sitting on a bed. And there is a pale blue and white striped pillow between them. Sitting beside the girl is a book. It's a paperback copy of V.C. Andrews' My Sweet Adrena. And it has been said that it was one of Calico's favorite books. Now, Scotland Yard has analyzed this photo and concluded the

woman is Calico. A second analysis by the Los Alamos National Lab disagrees. The FBI is inconclusive. But what's very telling is that Calico's mom says it is her. What do you think about that one photo, Melinda, and where was it found? It was found in Port St. Joe, Florida, in a convenience store parking lot. A woman had drove in, and she had seen a white van parked next to her. She went inside into the convenience store, and when she came out, the van was gone, but turned upside down was this photo lying on the ground.

And she picked it up and looked at it and immediately took it to the police because she was horrified at what she saw. And, you know, one of the important things about what was found in that photo is not that it was Tara's favorite book but it was tar's favorite author and the important thing about that book is that there was a number um that had been etched into the side of the book a phone number and what what was the number i mean what did it go to um they had like over 200 conclusions of what that number could be and so they were never able to identify where it went or who it belonged to. There was over 200 different combinations. And now the mother, Calico's mother, insists that's her. Didn't she see a scar in the picture on the woman's leg that she says matches a scar?

Tara got in an accident? Correct. They matched a scar on tara exactly over time you know people can change pictures are not that great the mom could have been wrong about the id but a scar that's just too much of a coincidence for it to be anybody else plus the book by her favorite author uh now there's a boy in the picture as well, Michael Henley. It was believed to be. Cops later say they had found Henley's remains in the Zuni Mountains

about seven miles from where he went disappearing from a family campsite. Were those remains positively identified as Henley? Do we know that, Melinda? Well, I know that they found the remains. I don't think they were positively identified, and then he was cremated. Oh, dear Lord, and what I understand. So I don't know if they have. So we don't really know that that was him. Okay. All right. So that's kind of a non-starter right there. Also with me, Rosalie Rayburn from the Albuquerque Journal. Rosalie, I'm just amazed. I want to just touch back on all of the details about the disappearance and the vehicle following Tara. Those are all details that we've reported in stories. I

can't comment on the evidence being missing. She obviously has more details than that and maybe people have talked to her that would certainly not go on the record and and we would not use you know information that we couldn't put on the record but it has been a case that has really been followed by people even though it is now many years she originally went missing on September 20th, 1988. I'm very curious about the missing evidence and why it's missing and why it keeps becoming missing. And it really seems to me that Tara's family is in a horrible predicament because they've never gotten answers about her disappearance and they have to deal with the specter true or not that there was some type of a cover-up going on with me special

guest melinda escobel who has created a documentary vanished the tara calico story and a podcast vanished the tara calico investigation you can download that and hear many, many more details. Also with me, a renowned journalist from the Albuquerque Journal, Rosalie Rayburn, who has covered this story as well. I want to talk about the specter of a cover-up. The specter of a cover-up. Both Rosalie Rayburn and Melinda Escobel have alluded to it, but is there a cover-up? Rosalie Rayburn, Albuquerque Journal.

Well, you know, we've had many stories about this over the years, and all of the details about the disappearance and the vehicle following Tara. Those are all details that we've reported in stories. I can't comment on the evidence being missing. She obviously has more details than that, and maybe people have talked to her that would certainly not go on the record, and we would not use you know information that we couldn't put on the record um but it has been a case that has really uh been followed by people even though it is now many years uh she originally went missing on september 20th 1988 rosalie rayburn with the Albuquerque Journal. I don't really understand that. All this time after her disappearance,

Rene Rivera, the sheriff of Valencia County, claimed he knew what happened to Tara. And according to Rivera, a group of guys drove up behind her in a truck and an accident, as they say,

followed. Now, I don't know how that can be an accident when you're tailing a biker and then there's a crash. That doesn't really sound like an accident. But that she died and the people responsible covered up the crime. He also said he knows the names of the people involved, but without a body, could not make an arrest. He never released any evidence that led him to the conclusion. To this day, no arrest has ever been made. We did a story, one of my colleagues at the Albuquerque Journal wrote a story in 2008 on the 20th anniversary of her disappearance. And in the story, she had interviewed the sheriff, the former Valencia County Sheriff Rene Rivera,

whom Melinda has talked about. And she quoted him clearly saying that the individuals who did harm to Tara knew who she was. They knew who she was, and they're all local individuals. And he definitely says there, and we did have on the record in this story, essentially that there was people who had helped with what sounds like distinctly a cover-up. And there was a similar story in the

Valencia County News Bulletin that more or less said the same thing. So it certainly sounds as though there is information out there which has not been revealed for some specific purpose. Also, Calico's own stepfather, John Dole, he disputed all of that, saying the sheriff should never have stated that, made those comments, if he's not willing to make an arrest. Now, I want to go to Melinda Escobel, the creator of Vanish the Tara Calico Story and Vanish the Tara Calico Investigation Podcast. Why, I mean, you don't have to have a body to make a murder case. Melinda. Well, Sheriff Rivera had stated to me that, you know, at the time when I had first met him,

there was a statute of limitations on first degree felonies that was 15 years. What? Five months. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I've never heard of there being a statute on murder. A statute of limitations on murder. It was not exclusive to rape and murder, but there was a young girl who took her rape case all the way to the New Mexico

State Supreme Court, and in this historic and landmark ruling, she overturned the statute dating back to 1982. So currently there is no statute. But at that time, what the sheriff's office had told me is that even if the boys came in with her body and said that they did it, they couldn't do anything about it. Well, the statute has been overturned since then. I don't know the exact details of it, but the minute that statute was overturned, it was in the news. And the next day, people were showing up at my mother's property, threatening me, spray painting silent on her fence and things like that. Okay. And also, I'd like to go back to what happened to Tara on the road that day and what we have discovered through different interviews. We were told that people have come forward

stating that there was boys following her. They were catcalling her. They were trying to grab her, apparently claiming they wanted to take her to a party that was happening that day. They were drunk and high in this vehicle. And when they were trying to grab at her, they knocked her off her bike. Calico then got up and took off running. And when she took off running, one of the boys followed in the truck and one of the boys followed on foot running after her. They grabbed her. And then when they grabbed her, two other friends showed up in another vehicle. And I'm told that they raped her.

And when she, all the boys raped her and she got up and said, I'm going to tell, I'm going to call the police, I'm going to tell on all of you. And that's when they took her back down. And one of the boys ran to the truck, got a hunting knife and stabbed her to death. That's pretty detailed. And she wouldn't die. So they started kicking her in the head. Because as you know, I don't know, I mean, people say that it's not easy to kill someone, but that is what we've come to understand. And then everybody was looking for her immediately. So they started to move the body and they got scared. So they were moving her body to a bunch of different places. And that's when their friends got involved in diverting what was happening. What do you mean by diverting what was happening? You know, trying to hide the body, trying to, you know, throw people off the trail of what happened, trying to move the crime scene, things like that. I'm just trying to absorb what you're telling me right now.

No, it's a lot. It seems like with that many people involved, that somebody would come forward and tell the truth? Well, the boys that we believe did it, one of the boys, you know, has a family member that was a prominent politician, and the other boys had family members that were in powerful physicians in the county. And so they were able to, you know, people were threatened over the years that have come forward to me and told me they were threatened.

There was a young boy who was friends with Tara, and he had a friend, he had a relative in the neighboring county sheriff's office and he was asked to leave the search stating, you know too much, you're friends with these boys and you need to leave. Your life is in danger. There were powerful sources trying to cover up this crime. You know, I'm just overwhelmed at what I'm hearing and why this hasn't gone beyond the Valencia Sheriff's Office. Who's the current sheriff now, Melinda? The current sheriff is Louis Burkhardt, and he's really been trying to help us get this solved. He's not from the

county. He doesn't have relatives or, you know, inside the county, which has been helpful because even, you know, as far as the task force that was formed in 2013, it consisted of five agencies. It was Valencia County Sheriff's Office, it was Bernalillo County, Albuquerque Police Department, State Police, and led by Homeland Security. Well, after, you know, when they had started this task force, people were being interviewed, we discovered there was a leak and we couldn't figure out where it was. Well, the sister, Michelle, helped figure out where the leak was. And we found out it was in state police and they were excused from the task force. If you want to make a difference, you can contact Sheriff Louis Burkhardt at 505-866-2400. Louis Burkhardt, the New York County Sheriff there in Valencia County, 505-866-2400. Do you ever feel that you have heard something or something comes to your attention

on purpose for a reason? You are hearing the story today of Tara Calico. Her mom and dad are no longer here to continue the fight, to continue seeking justice for Tara Calico. But we can, through the Valencia County Sheriff's Office. They're at 444 Luna Avenue, P.O. Box 1119, Las Lunas, New Mexico. Again, phone number 505-866-2001. That is how to reach the Valencia County Sheriff's Office. And then, of course, there is the State Attorney General. Let me ask you, Melinda, who is left in her family that would be willing to do the State Attorney general? Her sister, Michelle Dole, who I work with on this case. And, you know, I just want to say something really quick.

There are a lot of people who are afraid to go to the sheriff's office because of everything that has happened over the years. And so if they're afraid to go to the sheriff's, they can go to the FBI. And because it is now an open case with the FBI. They have reopened this case. I didn't know the FBI had reopened it. Yes, it just happened recently because people were, you know, there's a lot of pressure from the media and people are scared to go to the sheriff's office. They know there's some type of cover up and, you know, they are fearful for their lives. Back to the attorney general it's

hector balderas and there's a toll-free number from uh in santa fe 1-844-255-9210 844-255-9210 albuquerque 844-255-9210 same thing thing. Same thing throughout. You can get through to the Attorney General Hector Balderas. Now, tell me, you were just saying that the FBI is now in on the case. How did that happen, Melinda Escobel? I was told by the sister she had received a phone call from them and I guess there's a lot of media pressure about solving this case and so they had stated that they that is why they decided to reopen it and I think there was a lot of speculation about the cover-up in the county wow and so they they decided to reopen the case and you know people are deaf they you know they tell us we don't want to go to the sheriff's office.

We are scared to death. Where else can we go? And, you know, when the task force was open, we told them go to the task force. But that, you know, had shut down for a number of reasons. But now the FBI is actively, you know, investigating. So they can definitely go to the FBI. It's amazing to me that it's gone this far, that now the FBI has to be in on it. What's the response of the family about the FBI now being involved in the case?

I think, you know, they're happy about it because we've, you know, been very frustrated. The Valencia County Sheriff's Office, they don't have a budget to, you know, really keep this going. So they do it in between everything else. Well, with the current crimes they've got, they're fighting. Let me give out the FBI number in the Albuquerque area. It is 505-889-1300. If you don't want to go through state channels, FBI number 505-889-1300. I want to thank Rosalie Rayburn from the Albuquerque Journal and Melinda Escobel.

Melinda Escobel has created a documentary and the podcast about Tara Calico, Vanished, the Tara Calico story, the Tara Calico investigation that you can download. We're not giving up in the search for the truth about what happened to Tara Calico. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast. Goodbye, friend.