Morbid - Tara Calico

Episode Date: July 29, 2021

The Tara Calico case is one that will have your mind going for days. This is a very prominent case in the true crime world, and for good reason: it’s still unsolved after 33 years. Tara Calico was 19 when she went missing after heading out on a routine bike ride. For years no one was entirely sure what to make of the case, especially when a polaroid showed up and the woman in the photo bore a striking resemblance to Tara. However, as this case unfolds, small town secrets start to surface and many are convinced the answer has been around for years but covered up by the very people claiming to want justice. https://www.taracalico.com/ https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/tara-leigh-calico As always, thank you to our sponsors: HelloFresh: Get up to fourteen free meals—including free shipping!—when you use code morbid14 at HelloFresh.com/morbid14 Betterhelp: Special offer for Morbid listeners: get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/MORBID HunterDouglas: Visit HunterDouglasdot.com/morbid TODAY for your free Style Gets Smarter design guide with fresh takes, creative ideas and smart solutions for dressing your windows. Edmunds: Shopping for a car can be overwhelming, but Edmunds is here to guide you to your perfect vehicle. Visit Edmunds.com to see their Best Car Rankings and search for vehicles near you. Rothy’s: Through August 1st, 2021, you can get $20 off your first purchase of $100 or more at Rothys.com/MORBID Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is morbid. It's still morbid. I think it might always be morbid. It's a little too late for rebranding these days. I'm fairly certain that it's going to stay. You know what?

I'm going to hear today. It's always going to be morbid. Hear you. You heard it here first. I rolled out this scroll and it says it will always be morbid, period. Yes. I like it. Please excuse me.

Please. Please excuse me. Did you hear it? My voice just slowly. I like, I like how we started out with like, hear you, hear you in a fancy scroll. And then it's like, please, excuse me. I don't know what we're into today, but it's happening.

The old times. The old times. We are into the old. Apparently that movie by M. Knight Chameleon, by the way, old. I heard it sucked. I heard it's like the worst thing ever. Yeah, it doesn't look good in my opinion. Somebody tweeted, uh, he,

um, night Chalong got out of the pool and looked at his wrinkly hands and was like, wait a minute. And that's where he came out with it. And I was like, maybe. That might be it. I don't know. Something about it. I was like, yeah.

I don't know. It didn't look very good in my opinion. Didn't strike, didn't tickle my fancy. No. But what's the one? Is it the village? I loved the village. Yeah.

The village, I feel like Drew and I were talking about that the other night. And he was like, you just can't beat that movie. That movie is great. Because even, like, I was so excited for split. Yeah. I saw that. It was amazing. The entire movie was fucking incredible until the very end when it became like,

I'm just not into like superhero villain shit. I'm sure you can all tell. And when that happened, I was like, you lost me. Because it connected to like the other ones. Like it was like a whole superhero story. That one I didn't mind. I liked that one. But again, if you don't like superhero stuff, I think it or that kind of ending.

And they didn't market it like that going into it. No. I thought I was going into something totally different. And you were like, I was for the entire fucking movie until the end. But, you know, that's not what we're here for. That's not. But this is not the M. Knight-Sharmelon, like, review podcast. We think we can do it better podcast.

Like, who are we? The guy who made the six sense. I'm like, yeah, I don't know. I can do it better. I don't know if you're really killed. Like, M-night, you're great. Yeah, you're always killing it. I mean, I think you got, I think people really like put pressure on you with that twist

ending thing that got like labeled on to you. Yeah, that is very true. But you know what? You're killing it. You're doing all right, man. And you know what? We should watch the old movie. I haven't watched it. So I shouldn't be judging it. Yeah. But I figured I just bring that up. Sometimes when people tell me that movie suck, I'm like, okay, like, and I go watch it and I'm like, no, that was an amazing movie. Yeah, that happens a lot. Yeah. So let's, we'll figure out. We'll figure out. Maybe we just, we just turned right around. Maybe we can. That's a good idea. But Caleb is like, no. If you don't watch, listen to it. If you don't do it. it. But that's not what we're talking about today. What we are talking about today is a case that I have

always been like pretty fascinated with because it comes along with this strange Polaroid photograph that I have seen forever and a lot of like true crime fans mostly will know this Polaroid photograph. Okay. Because it's just always floated around. And it's horrifying. It's not graphic. And it's not like bloody or anything. It's just horrifying. when you look at it because no one truly knows who the people in the photograph are or what the fuck is going on in this photograph. Awesome. We're going to get to the photograph, so don't worry.

What do I Google, though? So we're going to talk about Tara Calico. Writing that in. Tara Lee Calico was born February 28, 1969. She was 19 years old when she went missing. She left her home for a bike ride on September 20th, 1988, and this was in Belling, New Mexico. When she left, she was never seen again. What the fuck?

Now, she had left her house at around 9.30 a.m. that day. This wasn't just a bike ride down the street for a couple miles. You know, like this wasn't like me saying I'm going on a bike ride. Tara, who was like extremely intelligent, very smart, University of New Mexico, sophomore, I believe, at the time. She was a serious cyclist. She routinely, and when I say routinely, I mean every single day, rode three. 36 miles on her bike.

Holy shit. And this was what she was planning to do that day. She did it every day. This was her bike ride. Okay. And this is the day she disappeared. She was on that 36 mile bike ride. Aw. This bike ride was supposed to, it usually took around two hours. Okay. Usually she went with her mother, Patty. And her name is Patty Dole. And she, they usually went bike riding together. It was like their thing, which I think is like the coolest thing ever that her mom would bike ride 36 miles with her. Yeah. That's badass. Seriously, because I love my children, but that's not happening ever. Well, and it must have been, like, I was thinking about it. I was like, wow, that's like such a nice thing to do with your child. Like, a bike ride is always, especially, I mean, when you first start,

like, trust when I first got on, like, my exercise bike recently, I was like, who chooses to do this? Like, who chooses to get on a cycle and cycle? Like, who chooses to do this? It's horrific. But then when you get like a little more like you start working through those muscle pains and everything, you're like, wow, this is like very enjoyable. Yeah. And I just imagine like bike riding outside with your mom, just like chatting, seeing the sights, feeling the wind go by. Must be like such a nice time. You know what's funny? It's back when I liked my mom and she was married to my stepdad and he wasn't like such a shit yet.

We used to actually go on bike rides all the time. It's like a very nice thing. Yeah, I remember that. It was like a really fun thing to do. I have to be honest. See, it's like a positive memory. Yeah. It's like a nice thing to do.

Now, they'd been doing this for a while together, but her mom had actually stopped doing it in recent weeks because there was one ride where someone in a vehicle had followed them. And it was for a little too long and it freaked her mom out. And she wanted Tara to stop. But Tara was like, no, I'm going to keep bike riding. So she had tried to convince her like, you know, can you like carry Mace? Can you like do something? She was like, no, it's fine.

And she was like, okay, well, please. just stay in well-lit areas and go during the day and stay on the main path and like and I don't know if you already said this because I was looking at the photograph. Did she ride the same route every single day? She did. Okay. And she was 19 at the time. So it's not like there was much her mom couldn't be like, you're not allowed. Like she's like, I'm just getting on my back. But like I said, Tara was a University of New Mexico student. She was studying psychology. She has one sister, Michelle Dull, and a brother Chris. Her family has done, and she has a stepfather named John, she has, her family has done an amazing job keeping this case, like, fresh in the eyes and

the minds of everyone who will listen. I'm definitely going to say more about her family, so don't worry, like, stay tuned for that. But Tara herself was described as very intelligent, really funny, really outgoing, just like really enjoyable to be around. She would always help people out. She was never, like, if somebody was being picked on, she was the one that was going to go against the crowd and take care of that person. I love that. And she was also said to be like a huge bookworm. She also loved physical activity, obviously. She biked. She was a runner. She kept herself in really healthy shape. I mean, to bike that much per day, I can only imagine. And she loved it. Yeah. She just loved it. And she was also very organized and very self-sufficient. That's what a lot of people said.

her stepfather John said that even as a child, she was just very independent and, like, wanted to do everything herself. Yeah. And he said, like, she was always like a little firecracker. And that was her stepfather, but, like, he really raised her. Yeah. She was a list maker and she liked to keep a daily schedule. And when she went missing, she was actually working at a bank and was hoping to eventually become a psychiatrist someday after working her way through school. Okay.

And she was a huge listmaker. And that day, she had actually, like, written out a schedule, like, she would do that. during the day, like what she needed to do. So because her mother wasn't going that day, she asked her mom if she could use her bike, her mother's bike, because Tara's bike had something wrong with it. It was getting fixed. I think it had like a flat tire and something had bent on it. So her mother allowed her to use her own neon pink huffy mountain bike. I love it. It's like this is such like an 80s bike. I love it. It had the like bright yellow cables and like accents on it. Yes. If I were to have a bike, that would be it. And with her, she brought a bright yellow

Sony Walkman with a cassette tape of the band Boston. Iconic. Yeah. So it's just awesome. Now, according to the FBI, she was wearing a white t-shirt with First National Bank of Bellin on it, white shorts with green stripes, white ankle socks, and white and turquoise avia tennis shoes. She was also wearing a gold butterfly ring with a little diamond in it and a gold amethyst ring and half inch gold hoop earrings.

Okay. Just so you know exactly what she was wearing, it can be useful. Now, the last time she was seen that day, she, you know, she left for her bike ride. The last time any witnesses saw her was 1145 a.m. riding along Highway 47 in Valencia County. Now this is on her route and she was actually saying that she was planning to be, she was thinking she was going to be done around news. So this is right on target. And one of the things that had happened to her bike was, like I said, it got a flat tire. So she had jokingly said to her mother, if she didn't see her by noon, she should come looking for her because she might have another flat tire. Okay.

Again, her mother, Patty, saw this as a joke because she also had plans to meet her boyfriend at 1230 that day to play a tennis match. So she was like, she's definitely going to be back by noon. Tara is that kind of person. Timely. She's very timely, very scheduled. I have an appointment at 1230 with my boyfriend to play tennis. I'm going to be home at noon to change and be there on time. Right.

So she had even laid out her tennis gear and outfit in anticipation for it and had also organized her school stuff like her books and homework because she had a class at 4 p.m. Jesus, I strive to be as organized as her. Yeah, she was on that shit. Now noon rolls around and nothing. Nothing's happening. So she's like, okay, maybe she did get a flat tire or maybe, you know, So she takes off to go look for her.

So Patty goes along the route and doesn't see her. And she's starting to panic. She goes down the route and up the route. And she's like, she's nowhere. She wouldn't be anywhere else. She's nowhere. So then she's like, okay, maybe I just missed her. Maybe she's back home.

And I just missed her. So she goes back home. And when she gets back home, Tara isn't there either. So this is bad. This is really bad immediately because like we now know Tara is not one to fuck around with time. or anything like that. And she's just not going to tell you she's going to be there and not be there.

Her mom and her were close. She had all her stuff laid out for the rest of the day. So it's just, this is not a good thing at all. So the problem here was she was like, okay, I'm trying to think of anything that can make this, like, make sense. But if she's not on the route she took and she's not home, there's literally nowhere else. Like, the only answer to this is bad. Yeah, because she doesn't stray from her routine. ever. Exactly. So then her and her husband, John, were like, okay, maybe she got hurt. Maybe she got hurt. Maybe she's at a

hospital. Maybe somebody picked her up. She went to the hospital. So they call local hospitals first to see if they happened, you know, an accident happened, something. Nothing came of it. She wasn't in any of them. So they immediately called the Valencia County Sheriff's Department and filed a missing person's report right away. Now the search was extensive immediately. They went to work. on this. Now, according to the Albuquerque Journal, within five hours of Tara of, excuse me, Tara, being reported missing, her missing person status was entered into the National Crime Information Center. And a note was added saying that foul play was something they were considering already. Okay. Because, of course, the first thing they're going to look at is one, she's an adult.

Yep. But they're also going to look at, you know, could she have taken off? Is this something she's just going take off. No. There's just no, no. It's absolutely. There's no reason. There was no conflicts. There was no issues in the family. We've said it a million times she laid out her stuff for the rest of the day. Just no. And they all know that. So that's now the next thing they're thinking of is she's not in the hospital. She's not on that route. Something bad happened here. So her younger sister Michelle said she remembers that day really well. She said, quote, I was 15 a sophomore in high school. I remember one of my sister's best friends and her boyfriend came to get me from school. They picked me up and when we got home there was a bunch of cops. And she said they told,

basically told her what had happened that Tara had left for her normal bike ride and she had not come back at the scheduled time. She was told her mother had searched for her and that they couldn't find her. And she said that's when she started really getting nervous. And now she was told that people like volunteers are actively searching for her sister, which which I can't even imagine how horrifying that must have been? No. Like this isn't just she didn't come home. The police are involved now and actively searching for her. Right. Like you must feel so out of control. And just like helpless. Yeah. So she said, quote, I didn't understand what was going on. I just assumed that she maybe had gone a different way and that we were going to find her.

I didn't think that she was missing until later on that evening when I started to realize how serious it was. But I just kept thinking that she was going to come back. Right. Because like you have you ever like gotten separated from a parent in a store or something like that? Oh my God. Your first thought is like, oh my God, like I'm never going to find them. Like I'm going to be lost here forever. No, let's be real. Like let's be rational and you're like you always end up finding them. It's like that's probably how you feel in this situation I would assume. And it's always that kind of thought process that we all have as humans. It never happened to us. It can't happen to me. Right. This isn't happening to my family. No. She's going to come back in the door and we're all going to laugh about this and we're going to be like you're never going bike riding again. Yes. It's going to be a big joke. Like, no, we are not one of those families that somebody goes missing.

Right. That's just not something that happens. And I'm sure every single person who has ever gone through anything like this, that has to be one of the facts. Absolutely. No one's ever prepared for this. Ever. You also obviously don't want to be that. Of course not.

Like, lost somebody. You never want to think that they're just not coming back. You don't want to be in that position. They got on a bike, said goodbye, love you, and that's it. Right. You never see them again? Like, that's not how anything is supposed to go. go. And also, this is the middle of the day. In the morning, I mean, mid-afternoon morning.

Yeah. Middle of the day on a busy road that's pretty out in the open. Yeah. It's like desert. Right. So it's like, what the hell happened? And like you said she was like along the highway. Yeah, it's wild. So Patty and John, her parents joined in the search themselves, which included local and state police, volunteers like civilian and volunteers and other investigative outlets from all around the area. They were on foot. They had helicopters. They were on horseback. They were going all out. Nothing's coming out. Wow.

But then that same day, searchers did come across something. They stumbled upon that Boston cassette tape. Oh, no. On the road shoulder, soldier, on the road shoulder in the dirt, only about three miles from her home. Oh, no. Now, Patty looked at it, and she immediately was like, that's Tars. That's what was in her cassette. And later, during that same search, about,

19 miles east on the same route that she was taking, which was near the John F. Kennedy campground. There was a broken piece of her Sony Walkman. Oh, no. It was like the little plastic window where you can like see the tape inside. That's what was in there. That was, so while they were collecting these items, they noticed that there's tracks nearby and they're clearly bicycle tires. Now, that would be like, oh, okay, she's here. But it kind of appears. that the bike had gone off the road a little bit and that there appeared to be some kind of like struggle or like her fluffle that happened like it looked like there was it either looked like she had spun out off the road or that she was like shoved like the bike was shoved off the road right

like maybe even like hit and there well there was also car tire marks nearby so they were like okay so patty said she initially thought those items could have been left intentionally by her daughter to leave a breadcrumb trail for anybody who was investigating and how smart Tara was that's not out of the realm of possibility. I know that would have been like that's always so smart when anybody's able to do that. Of course. And to have the wherewithal. The presence of mind in that kind of situation to even think of that. I'm always so impressed by people's minds who can do that. In the most terrifying situation you could ever possibly be in. Exactly. And then of course there's also obviously the possibility that in a struggle, like a violent struggle, these were

fallen to the ground. Right. It's like, you know, if she was still holding the walkman and part of it fell. It is a little strange to me that only pieces, like a piece of the walkman. Yeah. Because it's like if the walkman fell and broke, it would have broken in one spot. Yeah. And like, where's the rest of it?

Right. It just doesn't. But I don't know. Like, it's very strange. So now they have all these items and they start talking to people in the area. Witnesses are suddenly coming forward with what, and they said that, you know what, we did see her. We saw her on her route. And they're saying that, you know, they saw her at the times that she was, like, she wasn't off the route.

She wasn't out of the time frame. But seven witnesses said that they saw her that day. And these are the ones who last saw her around 1145 a.m. Like they, like some of them had seen her along the route and the last one saw her at 1145. out of these seven witnesses, five of them said they saw something strange. Oh. So five witnesses said they saw an older pickup truck following her for a while along her route. Oh, I hate that.

This pickup truck had a camper shell, like one of the, I'm sure you can like picture it. It's like those old-timey looking ones. Yeah. It almost looks like an Oregon trail. I was trash thinking. You know, it always reminds me of that. And this pickup truck, so it had the camper shell, it was also light colored, possibly tan, or dirty white kind of thing. And was possibly a Ford pickup truck.

Okay. Now, and that's all they could say. They just saw it following her. They thought it was weird. They thought it was a little too close to her. Yeah. They just didn't like it. Now, the next day, there was some bad weather, so things kind of got, which bad weather can also ruin everything.

Really ruin everything for everybody. they kept searching though they kept searching for weeks and weeks they are not finding Tara they are not finding any more clues and they're not finding the bike which is strange volunteers came out in the hundreds to search tirelessly and her family never stopped for even a moment so for nine months nothing I can't even imagine what you go through as like a mother or a sister or any kind of family member or friend nine months like I can't imagine. No, I literally can't think, even fathom it. And I don't know, like, this just sticks out to me. Like, that's the time it takes to create a life. It is, like, very symbolic and, like,

really just like a fucked up thing. And it's, I, like, I, like, I say this every time. Everybody's probably like, shut the hell up, Elena, we get it. But I'm like, do you go to sleep? What do you do? What do you do during the night? It's just, it's one of those things where you probably just, like, nod off your body just shuts down, I think. Sitting there, yeah. And you just wake up and hell again. Because that's what, that's all I keep thinking. Because like, I think everybody can agree that like at nighttime a lot of times is when you like think about things. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Things come into your mind that normally don't during the day. Because you're so busy during the day usually and like things are going on that can distract you or take up your time. But at

night, you're always sitting there like thinking of these deep things or like going over something stupid you said in like seventh grade. I was literally just going to say something you said 22 years ago that you're still embarrassed about. And it's like so in this situation, at night to me would be the time when these horrific things and thoughts and images would just be flooding my brain. I can't imagine. I would be an absolute shell of a human being.

So whenever I see these like, but like when you find out like her parents badasses, like her family just never stopped. And it's like kudos to them. I always get like the victims, families who can like get up and move in the morning and like keep going. I'm like, damn. Like you are some strong. Because how? How?

You are some strong, strong stock. You're just motivated by like unconditional love. Yeah. That you just need to find your baby. Yeah. Your loved one, whatever it is, whatever it may be. Like, oh, it's just like, like, nine months. That's a very long time.

Nine months is brutal for nothing. And I mean, it turns into a lot longer than that, unfortunately. But for nine months, like, you're probably. probably right after it happens, thinking, okay, something's going to happen. We're going to find something. We're going to get something. And then it just must be so hard as each passing month goes. But it was just a cold trail that was leading nowhere.

And they're just left to wonder, you know, what happened? What could have happened? And they're trying everything they can to drum up leads. I mean, they went in front of cameras. They did everything they could then. On July 15th, 1989, so a little less than a year, something cool. crazy and weird happened. John Dole, which is Tara's stepfather, got a phone call.

And it was from a family friend who said they had something kind of weird to tell him. And they said that they had been watching a popular tabloid TV show at the time called A Current Affair. And I think it was probably like an almost like America's Most Wanted kind of thing or like something like that. Sure. During a recent episode, they had done a story about a Polaroid photo found that. that was very concerning. And he said, it might be of interest to you. John's like, why would, why?

Like, what are you talking about? Now, the Polaroid was found in Port St. Joe, Florida, at a convenience story. Remember, we're in New Mexico. Sure. A woman had been walking into the store and just noticed a guy sitting in a white van. And she only noticed it because white vans, I think, are creepy, and people usually notice. I was literally going to say. Like, you always notice a white van when they're out and about.

A gazillion per cent. It could be like a painter and you're still like, whoa, white van. Weird. Yeah, it's just, like, I'm sorry if you drive a white van. That's just like inherent. Weird choice, but okay. Weird choice, but all right. Just kidding.

But she just kept going with her day and she went into the store. Okay. When she came out of the store, she saw the van was gone. But when she looked down at the spot where the van was, she sees a Polaroid on the ground in the parking lot. The photo was really scary. It was showing a young woman and a young boy lying side by side in what appears to be a white van. They are both seemingly bound with their hands behind their backs and have duct tape over their mouths. It's terrifying.

They both look into the camera with the most tired and defeated eyes. It's horrifying when you look at it. And in my notes, I wrote, have Ash look at it. I looked at it before you even started and I'm terrified. And like you can describe what you see. Like so you, so what you're seeing here. A girl that looks a lot like Tara is in the front and she looks almost like angry and tired.

Like she looks like, fuck you. Yeah. Like she looks pissed. Yeah. And she has her arms behind her back and she's laying on a pillow. And then I can't even look at this little boy for too long because I'm going to lose my mind. Very young.

He's terrified. Absolutely terrified. He looks seven or eight years. He is clearly like crying. Yeah. It just wants whatever. is happening to be over. Yeah. It's really, really fucked up and scary. And I've seen this photo for years and years. Never knew the full story behind it because I think I just didn't want to. I was too

scared to. Yeah. But it's really, and you know, you look at it and there's several things you can look at here. And there's several theories that have been floated around. And obviously we're going to talk about the one that's linked to Tara. But there's also a theory that was this faked? Is this fake? Because when you look at it, their arms are behind their backs, but you don't see any ligatures. Right. You don't see anything like that. And their arms, and a lot of people have said this, I've seen in a ton of articles and stuff, they don't look like they're bound tightly behind their backs. Because if you look at how, like, I'm just going to act this out for Ash, I'm sorry, you're not of your same.

If my arms are bound behind their back. Yeah, you only see the tops of your arms, moved back. theirs are very relaxed, but again, it could be that they are loosely bound or it could be that they are bound in a different way or they're laying in a different way. But there is this question of like, because like spoiler alert, we have no fucking clue who these kids are. Right. If they were abducted kids, where's anybody coming forward to say that those are their kids? Are you going to get into the book? Yes. We are. So I, you know, everybody, if you you want to go look at that photo, you can find it by typing into Google, like Tara Calico

Polaroid. Yeah. So when this was found, obviously this woman called the police immediately, because this is a very distressing photo to find in a fucking parking lot after a white van, which looks like a white van in this photo. You can see a little bit of the, it would be the side door and like the paneling inside. Yep. That would be terrifying. So she calls the police. They're just trying to figure out who these literal kidnapping victims are at this point. Right. Because the girl in the photo looks like she's in her maybe mid to late teens. Yeah.

And she doesn't look, she looks a lot like Tara, but also not like Tara. Well, and it's hard because in the photo, her eyes look exhausted. She looks very defeated. And it's hard to look at Tara and pictures of her where she's vibrant and full of life and kind of try to compare her eyes with that. eyebrow is the eyebrows are literally her eyebrows. It looks pretty. It's a lot. So the woman who found the photo said the man in the white van she saw before finding this photo in the parking lot was maybe in his 30s and had a dark mustache. But that's really all she could say about him. Because again, she wasn't,

she just noticed him because he was in a white van. She wasn't taking note of who he was. Right. Because at that point, nothing weird was happening. So she could also say that the van she saw was a white Toyota cargo. van without windows. Now, they have nothing else. They try to search for this man in this van. They set up roadblocks because this is, this might be two kidnapping victims. Right. And at this point, they're thinking, likely these are two trafficking victims. If that's the case, they are the perfect, you know, subset of people. They are a young woman and a child. Those are the two people who get traffic the most. So they're doing roadblocks. They're asking people for possible witnesses. Nothing. Nothing. They don't find any of this. That's so crazy. Not one person recognized the people in these photos. Yes. And Port St. Joe was only consisting of about 10,000 residents at this point. So when you think that, like, you'd think they could maybe nab them at that point. You would think, yeah. So this is when they release the photo to all these different media outlets. They're just trying to get people to tell them who the hell these kids are in these photos. It was terrifying to this community. I mean, yeah. So a current affair, the tabloid TV.

show picked up the story and was circulating the photo trying to get people to ID these kids. So why was John's friend telling him about this? Because the girl looks like Tara. Well, he said he thought that woman in the photo looked a lot like Tara. And he was like, I was scared to tell you. I just feel like you need to look at this. It sucks. Like this is a really hard photo to look at if this is her. But like maybe this is a lead. Now, side note, the young boy in the photo when this aired, another family thought he resembled their missing child. Michael Henley, who was nine years old when he went missing in the Zuni Mountains of New Mexico,

he was hunting with his dad. They were on a camping trip in April 1988. Okay. It turned out, though, that Michael was later found dead in June 1990, only a few miles from his family's campsite. The autopsy revealed he had died of exposure. Oh, God. So he had just been lost.

It looks a lot like him. But he had just been lost in the woods and died of like dehydration and exposure. So that was not him in the photo. But it goes to show you that his mother did think that looked like her child. It's sometimes, I mean, obviously you do not wish to see your child in that situation. But you get so desperate. But when you think they're dead, it can be some kind of mind to be like they're alive. Maybe this is something.

So John and Patty and Michael's parents, because they looked at John and Patty looked at it. and Patty was like, that's her. Okay. So John and Patty and Michael's parents at this moment, because they didn't know at this moment it wasn't Michael. They were Michael Sr. and Marty Henley all went to Florida to meet with detectives and find out more about this since they all agreed that their children may be the ones in the photo. The FBI took over the case and they were ready to do like a full analysis on this photo. Now Patty at this moment says this is 100% Tara in this photo. Okay.

Michael's parents were not as sure. They were not like totally 100%. Well, and he's a little bit in the background. There is like a slight shadow. Yeah. The ear and the eyes are the same on Tara. The nose. The hair has a very specific cowlick that she has in the front.

And she said later, and this is very interesting, Patty said, quote, for one thing, Tara was in a bad car accident. In the photo, there's a scar on the woman's leg that is identical to the scar she received in the car accident. Oh, wow. That to me is pretty big. It's like a discoloration on the bottom or the top of her calf, I believe, or the middle of her calf.

Okay. Now, another thing that struck out as Tara with her mom was that book seen in that photo. Yeah. The book is right next to the girl in the photo. And it's a copy of My Sweet Audrina by V.C. Andrews. You might know V.C. Andrews from Flowers in the attic. So V.C. Andrews was Tara's favorite author. Oh, wow.

Now, there was a great author. And, I mean, to play devil's advocate in this scenario, she was big at this time. Yeah, she was huge. So it was probably a lot of teenage girls' favorite author, but still weird. And also, why is that book there? If these are abducted kids, why is that teenage girl book there? You know, like right next to her when she can't touch it or grab it? I don't know.

It didn't. I was like, I don't know. But what's weird too is that apparently there's a phone number. number on the spine of the book, but some of the, most of the numbers are not legible. According to the Charlie Project, it could be 300 possible phone numbers. Jesus. The FBI did a full analysis on the photo and it was inconclusive. It's so blurry in all the pictures that I'm looking at.

So they actually went as far as sending the photo to be analyzed by Scotland Yard. Wow. They analyzed it and concluded that the woman was definitely Tara Calico. Oh my. But then the love. Los Alamos National Laboratory analyzed it as well and said they didn't think it was Tara. Oh, fuck. I feel so bad for her parents.

I can't imagine to hear. Yep, definitely. For sure. No fucking way. And to hear from Scotland Yard that you're like, that they're like, yep. And then another one is like, nope. You just get nothing in between. It does look a lot like her.

It does. And the scar is very interesting to me. So they also spoke with Polaroid, like directly. Okay. And they confirmed that the. type of, because remember, she had gone missing a year earlier. Right. So they're thinking, okay, when was this taken? Right. Was this taken a year ago or was it taken now? Well, they confirmed with Polaroid that the type of film used for this photograph was not made until May 1989.

Okay. So that was only a few months ago. Right. Right. So it had to have been taken after that date. That's interesting because it would mean Tara was taken in September and this photo wasn't taken. until the following May. So she had been kept a lot. Of course, this makes it a little less believable that it's her because they, the two appear healthy. They appear distressed, but healthy. They're not like skin and bones.

They don't seem like, you know, exhausted but healthy. They appear tan, like their skin is tan. Not like they've been held captive, like underground or in a basement or somewhere for months. But who can really say? Maybe their captors fed them well and kept them healthy, like, while their sheners. I mean, look at like J.C. Lee Dugard and other cases that are similar. So there's Elizabeth Smart, you know? Exactly. So it's like you can absolutely look at it and say,

this might be fake because they don't look like they're being held for that much. You can 100% look at it the other way and say maybe they were fed every day and maybe they were taken out like you said. Right. There's no like either way to look at it. It's so hard. But, you know, her mother still believed 100% that it was her. And, and, And I feel like mothers know their kids. Like I, and in this scenario specifically, they were so close. Yeah, they were best friends. They went on 36 mile bike rides together.

Like that mama knows that face. And the scar. And the scar is really compelling. And then like when you put the book with the scar, with the everything else. Right. It's a lot of coincidences if that's the case. So nothing is happening though. They're just kind of, they know, they don't know what this photo is.

know who took it, they don't know where it was taken, they have, that's all they have. And so in 1991, John and Patty actually became deputized. What? They trained to become auxiliary Valencia County Sheriff's deputies. Wow. Bad ass. They did it so they could like get more involved in this. And John said, quote, we were both deputized after Tara's disappearance and were able to investigate

the case. It allows us to do two things to carry weapons and also to be able to contact. any other law enforcement agency on behalf of the sheriff's department regarding the case. Boom. We were both commissioned as auxiliary deputies. So this was huge. They went through all of that, and it is not an easy thing to do. It's not like you take a written exam, and that's it.

And then to go through that while you're experiencing the loss of your daughter, potentially. That's the thing. So they went through all of that just to be able to take a more hands-on, like, boots on the ground approach. It's honestly that's like so impressive to me. Like what badass is? Seriously. What fucking parents. Seriously.

That's some parent shit. It is. It was really hard though because nothing came from any of the investigations that were happening. It was just like little breadcrumbs that would just dissolve. And her mother Patty especially was always convinced that she was alive and they were going to find her. And even when she was starting to, she always really.

was convinced she was alive, but she always said, even if she's not, I just want to bring her home. Of course. I just have to give her a funeral. You deserve that as a family. So since they were working so closely with the police, they were actually being sent photos of unidentified bodies. Oh, God. To see if that was Tara. And she would look at every single one. And these were horrible crime scene photos for Patty to look at. She had to know. But what a toll that must have taken on her. I can't even. No one is prepared to look at that even when it's, you know, a victim you don't know. Right.

Like somebody who have no idea who they are. But for her to have to mentally and emotionally prepare each time for the possibility that she's going to open that photo and see her murdered. It must have been so heavy and so horrific. I can't even bring my brain to comprehend it. To anticipate that every time. Every time. Your body must go through. Like a cat.

catastrophic reaction every time you're about to open that thing. And then it's just a mixture of relief that you're not seeing your murdered child, but also devastation that this is not the one. And then probably like guilt for feeling relieved. That's the most traumatic thing I've ever heard of. The havoc that must have reeked on her nervous system. Body and soul. I can't even, and for her to like put herself through that every time, like just for her daughter. Like, what a fucking mom. Seriously. Like that's some shit. And Tara's brother, Chris, said, quote, the police would send photos of every possibility, including photos of bodies, dismembered bodies.

And every time mom got an envelope with the newest pictures, she had to look at them. She couldn't not, but it tore her up every time. Of course it did. And he told that to people, like People Magazine, not just people. But in 2003, John and Patty actually moved to Florida. Because that's where the last thing was happening. That's where they were, you know, they wanted to get a. away from New Mexico. They wanted to get away from where it happened. But they kept a bedroom for Tara

and put her Christmas gifts, her birthday gifts every year in there just waiting for her return. They just had it completely set up for her like she's going to come back and all this will be here for. You have to hold out hope, because then what do you have? If you don't have hope, what do you have? Yeah. And a friend told people magazine that about Patty, quote, she would see a young girl on a bicycle and would point and write down Tara because she went through several strokes. And at one point, she could only, like, communicate through writing. And she would write down Tara. And her friend said, quote, and John would tell her, no, that's not Tara.

And he would have to say it every time. Oh, my God. And they were in Florida. And he was like, that's, like, she's not here. Right. And even in her retirement home in Florida, when she got through these, like, series of strokes, and again, far away from where it initially happened, she would stare out the window waiting for Tara to come up on her bike.

I can't. And they said, quote, and John said, quote, I'd have to explain to her that it wasn't Tara. This is, this person was too old or too young. And he said this to the Albuquerque Journal in 2006. Patty passed away in 2006 from a series of strokes. And he said, quote, Patty was looking for Tara right to the end. Of course she was. And like I said, she died in 2006 of complications from multiple strokes.

she was brokenhearted. Absolutely. To say the least. There's not even words to describe. Yeah. I can't. And like we said the damage that she was having to inflict on herself every time that she was opening these photos, all of the, like, all of the disappointment and the grief.

I can't imagine. No. Like physically that toll it's going to take on you. But her sister, Tara's sister, Michelle, like, really took the lead after Patty passed away and was like, I'm going to keep this case going for my mom and for Tar. and she's a badass. So the Valencia County Sheriff at the time was Renee Rivera. And this is where things get really interesting. Because again, this case just went cold. Nothing was happening. Nothing's happening. Dead end. Patty passed away, not knowing what happened to her daughter.

That's so terrible. Nobody deserves that. So Sheriff Renee Rivera, he's starting to work on the case, or he said that he had been working on the case since he's been in the department in 89. He said he's always been interested in this case. And he does not believe the photo is of Tara. Okay. He said, quote, I don't think it's her. It does resemble her quite a bit, but I don't think it's her. And if the picture is of her, it could have been taken here and then transported somewhere else. So he followed up on every lead. He was digging up multiple locations where they thought Tara's body might be buried. But then in 2008, he comes on record and says, he knows what happened.

He says he knows what happened to Tara that day, and he knows who did it. Okay. He goes on record. But he says there's not enough solid evidence to put anyone away yet. And that's it. I'm not going to say anything else.

Who allowed him to do that? This family, he came forward and said, I know who did it, and I know what happened, but like, I can't say anything. Why would you even go as far as saying not then? Exactly. So he then said, so when pushed, he said he knows it was at the time, two teenage boys at the time, who he has names for, but he won't give them. And he said witnesses saw them driving that older model truck and that they were following her on her route and grabbing at her through the window. Holy fuck. That's the most terrifying thing to even picture. He said, quote, the information I have is that the truck accidentally ended up hitting her. I believe the truck bumped her bike at which. time she fell to the side of the road. From there, the individuals took her. And he says they panicked at one

point and killed her. And he also says Tara knew them, he believes. Okay. So what, like, first of all, enough evidence? This makes sense. Yeah, of course. This story 100% makes it, like, that all that scuffle off on the side of the road with like the tire marks and all that. It makes sense that she was bumped off the road. Then they pulled on and took her. Because immediately, when you said that there was that like bike tires, car tires and all that, I was like, oh, I wonder if somebody bumped her off of the road. Exactly. And going back to me saying, okay, but if she dropped that Walkman, where's the rest of the Walkman? Well, like I said, the only thing found was the little viewing window that you can see the tape through. Maybe they didn't see that. Maybe it dropped.

They picked up all the pieces. They didn't see that clear little thing that was on the ground in their panic. Right. And so they left that by accident. Right. So it's like, that makes sense. So then, Then he says, quote, we do have a case put together, but we want to make sure that the case is a concrete case to where we'll be able to effectively do our jobs. We're just waiting to get a little more evidence, her bicycle, her clothing, or Tara herself. So where are you going to get that? So he also said two other people besides these two teenagers that were in the car were involved and they likely know where she was buried.

Okay, so we're probably involved with it. And he said, quote, if Tara was killed, I would say her body is still within the county. I think that she's still in the same general area that she was taken. So let's take up everything. Now, he's saying he knows this all. He knows the men responsible. But after announcing this, he says, even though he has a case for these assholes, he's just not going to move forward because he wants more information. Uh-huh. So John, Tara's father, was not psyched about this. Obviously. He was like, how the fuck do you come forward saying that and not give us anything? Like, how dare you? Literally, how dare you? Like, who do you think you are?

That's insane. And he said, quote, I thought it was silly when I heard it. There's such a thing as circumstantial evidence. And I know in other places they've gotten a conviction on strong circumstantial evidence. Right. It should have never been said unless they, the sheriff's department, are willing to make an arrest and go forward with it. That's fucked. Because why would you give them that hope and then be like, yeah, but there's nothing we can do about it? Why would you ever say that? These people have been looking to like seek justice there for this entire time. Well, I have, I have a little, I have a little snippet for why I think maybe he's not saying the names. And we're going to get to it. Because when I first read it, I was like, what the fuck? Like, no, this doesn't make any sense.

And then you go further into it. And you're like, oh, does he have a connection to these teenagers? There might be, there might be some things going on that are covered up and things might be, there might be people involved that are retired sheriff's sons. I don't know. Maybe something like that. So the very next year in 2009, a couple of other photographs. I was. going to ask about those because I saw them on Google. So they appear in the, there's a couple that I'm like, that I didn't even want to mention because they don't think they have any real connection, but they're brought up a lot with this case. So there are two that came, that were found that one of them is a very blurry photo of a woman who has her mouth duct taped. Yeah. It looks like the, the fabric that she's

lying on is blue striped fabric, which is what the other Polaroid, the two kids are lying on blue striped fabric. It kind of looks like it could be the same woman. I don't think it does. Okay. It's really blurry. And they've all, I think everybody who's looked at it is kind of like, oh. Yeah, it's blurry and it's like really close up. It's just, yeah. It's too distorted to tell. And then there's another one that you might come across if you Google this case that is a woman and a man on a train. That doesn't look anything like her. And he's like holding her and she's like tied up with gauze and like it looks weird and they believe that's just a joke photo. Yeah, that's, they don't think that's funny. But there were other photographs that appeared.

And it was in the mill in St. Joe, Florida. And they caused quite a stir. So David Barnes, the chief of police there, received one of these photos. And it was just a photo of a boy. And this boy had black, it was black marker scribbled over the photo over his mouth to look like duct tape. So then they were like, it was a photo of the boy like a school photo. So it's like, are they trying to say this is the boy in the photo? Right. But like scribbling, like scribbled the duct tape over him to be like look familiar.

Right, right. So that was weird. And the same day, another photo was received the same time by a local newspaper and it was the same photo. Okay, that's weird. So they turned it into police, and that same day, a psychic called in and said that she had a vision and it was that Tara was buried in California. And she mentioned something to do with a blue oldsmobile, which they never really went further with this. But it's just a strange thing that she called on that day when those two. Random. Yeah. So they looked at this as like, again, they're not getting a photo of the woman or the young woman of the girl in that photo. photo, but they're getting a picture that might be connected to the boy.

Yeah. They still haven't figured out who this person is. Oh, that freaks me out. 2021 still don't know. Damn, that's scary. So October 2013, Tara's case is officially reopened. Good. They formed a task force to start really getting into the shit and getting closer to an

arrest or a discovery. It consisted of six people. They were from Homeland Security. Wow. State police, two sheriff's departments, and local police. So this task force spoke to former deputy Frank Mothola. He came forward and said he took a statement from a man named Henry Brown, who was a teacher. He took this statement while Brown was dying, like a legit deathbed talk.

Confession. He had said that back when Tara was missing, he hung out with some bad kids. He was like, I was in a bad crowd. Okay. He said one of these kids was Lawrence Romero Jr., who happened to be the son of of the sheriff at the time. Oh, wild. The sheriff was Lawrence Romero Sr. Now, Lawrence Romero Jr. was a bad kid. He got into a lot of trouble, but he used daddy's connections to always get out of it. He was dealing drugs. He was in just with a bad crowd, just bad stuff. And he knew Tara and was

said by some to have a crush on Tara, who was dating someone else. And he said at one point, so Henry Brown, the guy on the deathbed, he said, said once he was at a party with this kid, Lawrence Romero, it was in his trailer, which was on his father's property. And he said, we're in the basement. It was like this weird makeshift basement in this trailer. And he said, like, we used to party down there. Like, he always had people over there. And he said, there was a few other guys. And they were, and he said, I think there was like three other guys. And he said, all of a sudden, they start, he said, he noticed something in the corner that was under a tarp during one of these visits. And he said at one point,

they were joking about how they had accidentally hit Tara with their truck, and then they abducted, raped, and murdered her. Oh, no. It was Lawrence, some guy named Leroy, and another guy named David. They said they initially hit her body in some bushes, and they thought that would be fine. But then when everyone went crazy looking for her and searchers were coming out, they snuck her out of the bushes and held her body in Lawrence's trailer's basement. They then apparently later moved her from there and dumped her in a pond.

Oh my God. He said it took so long to come forward like this because of course they're like, uh, excuse me. Why are you waiting until now to say this? And he says, they threatened to kill me if I ever went to police and I was scared. And he said like, so I'm telling you now because they can't hurt me anymore. Right. Which is like, whoa.

How do you live with that your whole life? And actually, even though I just told you the story, I did find, the actual like police report, the interview with Henry Brown, that like they took down in the official record. Yeah. So you can hear exactly how he says it. It says Mr. Brown said on one occasion, they were all there drinking margaritas and making fajitas. He was in the basement with them and he had a weird feeling. So he looked down and noticed in quote, a grave wrapped up in a blue tarp of what he believed was a small body. He said they started talking about Tara Calico. They were searching and that they were searching for her, and then they began talking about how they raped and

killed her. Oh, my God. Mr. Brown said he knew the kids because he had worked at the school, because he was like older than them. And he knew these kids smoked weed and skipped school. Mr. Brown said one of them used to be her girlfriend, and one of them was jealous. They started talking about another friend that had been with them named Leroy, something. They started talking to him about what they had done and also warned him not to talk about it

or they would come get him. They then said they were driving one of the older, the guy's older truck that day. They all knew that Jeff and Tara, Jeff was her boyfriend, and Tara had broken up and they all knew she rode her bike down that highway. But they hadn't broken up.

She was planning to play tennis with him later. But it's also scary that he's saying they all knew that she rode her bike down that highway because she did every day. So that's like another thing. They said, we know that she does this every day. Right. Like, that's really scary.

They explained they hit her with the truck and then put her in the back of the truck with Leroy and then took her out to the gravel pits. And this is a trigger warning. Just give you a second. This is, they just mentioned rape. They then took her out to the gravel pits where they sodomized and raped her. Lawrence Romero Jr. said, quote, she got balzy. She stood up and said she was going to make sure they were all going to jail. Lawrence Ramiro Jr. went and got a knife from the truck, and David Leroy and the tall red-haired guy held her down while Lawrence Romero Jr. stabbed and killed her.

He said they drug her body and put her in a bush nearby until they got nervous when the search started for her. So that's what he put on the record. That is a very detailed account. And it all makes sense. It does. Now, another acquaintance of these guys came forward and he corroborated this and said, his name was Donald Dutcher, and he said, they also confessed this to him. Okay. Now, unfortunately, at this point, were they dead?

Lawrence was dead for 20 plus years. He had died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 21 years old. All that guilt. There were rumors that there was a suicide note in which he confessed to the murder, but that it was covered up and not ended. entered into evidence by his father, the sheriff. And his father went to great lengths and met in a few articles I read to try to get his death changed from a suicide. He did not want it labeled as suicide. He basically said he died while playing Russian roulette with his friends. Okay. Sometimes that can be like for religious purposes. Yeah. So for sure. But still in this case when you with everything else,

it's like. But just to play doubles. Yeah, of course. Because you have to look at both sides. Yeah. This is a weird case and there's a lot going on. Right. So Sheriff Renee Rivera, the one who's coming forward and being like, I know what happened. Right. He was likely keeping the real details covered and wouldn't name these names because they were connected to the former sheriff Romero. And people think that he has some kind of connection. Connection to covering it up. Okay.

And that he's like, this is like everybody back each other. And so he's saying, I hate that shit. I do. I hate. We are talking about lives, lives, human beings. Do you have a sister? Do you have a mother? Do you have a daughter?

Like anything. Do you know a human being that you actually like in some capacity? Seriously. Because what if that happened to them? Would you go to Great Lakes to cover their murder up? And I think it's literally him coming out and saying, I know what happened. I know. And so he looks like a, like he's doing good police from work because he knows what happened.

I know the guys who are responsible. But I don't know if behind the scenes he's trying to come up with some way to get this out, but like not get it out. And he's just trying to. give reassure it. I have no idea, but it's what? Like, what's your end game, bro? Now, basically the thought by everyone involved in this is that there was definitely a violent abduction and a murder, and that it was covered up by Romero Sr. and Jr., and that Renee Rivera may have potentially been involved in the cover-up as well, at a later date. Sure. So there's also a very weird thing

that came out later, too. All these different reports started leaking out when this task force got involved. So during the time when that photo, that Polaroid was found in Port St. Joe, Florida, on June 15, 1989, witnesses saw an unidentified teenage girl on a beach there. And she was accompanied by several older Caucasian males who appeared to be ordering the girl verbally along the beach. Uh-huh. Now, nobody can tell, like, what is happening with this situation if this was, like, staged if people are misinterpreting it. Right. People thought it was weird and they thought the girl looked just like the girl in the photo.

And they said they're like what she was wearing appeared close to what this girl was wearing in the photo. They were never, they're still trying to figure out that girl's identity. That's very strange. They haven't found anything. Now in 2019, the FBI put up a $20,000 reward for any information about Tara's disappearance. They also released an age progressed photo of Tara.

even now Michelle her sister says quote when people ask me is that her in the photo if I had to say yes or no definitively yes that is her wow okay and she said I still look at it and it still looks exactly like her exactly like her I can imagine having to look at that but it doesn't make sense and it does because if it was those three guys it not a lot of it doesn't none of it doesn't connect but like I said earlier Michelle really took the lead after her parents deaths and she's working tirelessly to find Tara and bring her to justice, bring her some justice, excuse me. So she started working closely with this woman named Melinda Escobel. She's the host of the podcast, vanished the Tara Calico investigation. She grew up with Tara. Oh, wow. Went to school with her

in New Mexico, and they were in marching band together. She said one time when they went on a trip with marching band to Arizona, Melinda was very shy and like kind of reserved. And she said Tara took her under her wing and made sure she was never alone. That's just who she was. And she said, so this just really struck her. And she said, together, Melinda, or excuse me, together, Melinda and Michelle have really done their own investigation into this and they're continuing to. It's a, it's, you should listen to the podcast. It gives a lot more like interviews with different people involved with this. But Melinda said that she started it because she went home during a holiday break in 2008. She lives in L.A. now. And she had some dinner with some old friends.

And of course the case came up, like, as it would. Yeah. And they said, and she was like, yeah, it's just crazy. Like, are we ever going to figure out what happened here? And everyone at the table looked at her, because they all lived in the community still, and they were all like, oh, Melinda, everyone knows who did it. Oh. And it was the same story.

Like, we know who did it. Everybody knows who did it. Like, just nothing's being done about it. So then if they did it, then that photograph is not hurt. Exactly. So it just throws such a whirlwind into all this. But Melinda was shook by that reaction. action. Like just hearing them all go like, oh, no, like casual. Like, honey, no, we know who did it.

Like, that's the real thing. And this is what made her want to start working on this. She started a documentary about it, a podcast. They knew they had to like get the shit cracked because if everyone knows who did it, but they just can't, like, we just need to make it happen. Well, in what pond? Can we like, like, dredge up the pond? That's the thing. It's like nobody's telling any details here. So they also made, there's a website called www. Tara Calico.com and it's C-A-L-I-C-O. It has tons of information on there. It has the podcast stuff. It also has like case files and stuff. And if anybody has any information about the disappearance of Tara Calico, anything, it said you should call the local Albuquerque FBI office at 505-889-130.

Wow. So that's in. And right now, nothing. We still just have this hanging in the wind. But the whole community really agrees. It seems like everybody knows what happened. And the sheriff Rivera, I mean, he came right out and said, we all know what happened. I know what happened. I know who was involved. I'm just not saying. Is the father who previously was the sheriff? Is he still alive? Lawrence Ramirez Sr. I don't, I don't know if he's still alive actually. Because I wonder if he is still alive, then when he dies, will people come forward? I'm going to look it up right now while we're doing this. Be boop, boop. Boop. Boop. He is not alive. He died May 1st, 2017, and we did not get any kind of information from him.

Right, because I'm like, if he, my thought was that if he kicked it, then people would come forward and say something. But then actually, now that I'm like sitting here pondering, maybe, I mean, to cover something like this up there with multiple parties involved. So maybe some of the parties involved are still alive. Oh, I think, yeah. The town doesn't come together. some of the teenage boys involved are probably still alive, the ones that were involved in the whole thing. Imagine living with that. Like, I hope you rot from the inside out. Yeah, like that is some serious shit.

If you did that, I hope you fucking rot from the inside out. It's to think, I mean, it becomes, this case like unravels very quickly while you're looking into it. Because at first it's a missing person's case. Sure. It's one of those that you think is going to be like almost like a, not like a Bryce Lus Pisa, but like one where you're like, What happened? Where did she go? The same feeling as the Molly Bish case.

Exactly. You're just like, what happened? Where did she go? She just vanished. And then when you start, then when it just opens up when you involve that Polaroid, when all of a sudden the sheriff comes out and says, I know exactly what happened. Right. When a deathbed confession comes out, it's like, whoa, now this just turned into an abduction,

rape and murder and cover up? Like in two minutes? Like, where did that come from? So, I mean, I swear, when I, when I, that I do these cases, I'm like, well, now I have a life's mission. Now we have to figure out who this, like, I want to help her family so bad. Well, and here's the thing. If you somehow did this and you're listening to this for some fucking reason. Yeah. Who are you to live your life? Yeah, exactly. When you took someone else's. Who are you to live like a fulfilled life and go about this and have a secret and a skeleton in your closet like that? Just tell someone. Who do you think you are? Just tell someone. You'll feel better. Turn yourself in. You'll feel better. You're this human in you somewhere. but it's yeah i just i don't understand how you can do something like that and then just walk around and think that you fucking deserve to exist and i hate that her mother had to had to die not knowing what happened and just sitting there had to deal with the shit of hearing the sheriff be like

oh we know exactly what happened to your daughter we know exactly who did it we're not going to tell you he should be fired like that is so wrong like dare i say well there's a lot of other things that I started looking into his scenario. Honey baby sweetie pie, there's a lot going on there. Yeah, he should be, you don't do that to a family. There's a lot going to. Like, where's the HR? Can I contact them?

I'll stay over here in my lane, but like, I won't. But there's a lot going on there. We're about to turn this off. Go ahead and Google him. Yeah. Just go ahead. I'm not going to say anything. Let's go ahead and go over this.

There's a lot going on, but it would be great if like he would just tell the truth. Yeah, maybe do you. Maybe do your job, Sheriff. Do your job. Fucking asshole. I'm pissedering. I'm like genuinely pissed right now. I got very angry doing this because I just want that family to get.

I want that family to get Tara because the other thing, one of the boys, I guess, said that they threw the bike in a junkyard. Oh. So it's like now we're not how do you find that? Like that's the thing. But it's like what's the pond? Like some, if that is the truth, some part of her still exists. Yeah. And Henry Brown was saying that when he was in that basement, he saw a tarp that looked like it had a person in it.

That's the most terrifying thing ever. And then imagine you have to get out of there. And deathbed confessions, especially when they're about other people, are strange. I don't feel like they're normally faked. No, because what's the point? You're going out of this world. You might as well tell all the shit you can tell. Why are you going to do that?

And usually people are like scared to die. So a death pet convention is usually because you're scared your conscience. You're not going to lie at the last moment. Right. I mean, of course, some people will. But like it doesn't seem like most people will. That's a lot of, one, it's a lot of detail. Two, it's a lot of names.

And somebody else came forward and confirmed that. Somebody confirmed it and said I heard the same exact thing. They said the same exact thing to me. And it also goes right along with the crime scene. It goes right along with what witnesses said they saw the pickup truck. They said it was following her. the skid marks, the shit on the ground, it all makes sense. It's weird that nobody, I mean, because you know somebody must have seen them dragging a girl into a pickup truck.

Yes, that's the thing. It's just weird that nobody came forward and was like, yeah, I saw that. Unless they pulled up in front of her and just blocked the road and nobody could see it. But even like it was along a highway, so like another lane of traffic. Yeah. Like going the opposite way, could have seen something. Just strange that nobody saw that whole thing go down. Yeah, exactly.

It's just wild. It's a wild case and I want it to be figured out. I also want to erase that Polaroid for my mind because if that's not her, which now I'm like, I'm hearing everything else, I'm like, that's not her then. And now I'm like, okay, so who the fuck is that? And that's another thing that's really going to sit on. I'm like, taunting. Who are these two kids?

Yeah, these children. This thing went out to everybody. How is no one coming forward and saying my child is missing? And I think that's them. That's what's weird to me. Unless it was like a joke or like a joke or a joke or if I'm, just like another fucked up situation where like that's somebody's own kids. Yeah, I guess. It's very strange. Yeah, I don't, I don't know. I need to go elsewhere in my brain. I need to wash my brain out.

Yeah, I think I'm going to go watch like my unorthodox life or something. I'm going to go watch old episodes of America's Next Top Model. I also go, wow. For Boston. Did you hear that? What did you say? I said unorthodox life. Unorthodox life. Why did I just sound so Boston? I never do that. It happens. If also, if you're not watching that on Netflix, do so. I will know. It's a great. No, bitch. You would love it. But yeah, that's a palate cleanser that we all need. Yeah, there you go. All right. So we do hope you keep listening.

We do. And we do also hope that you keep it weird. But not so weird that you run around your own fucking town acting like you can do whatever you want and killing and raping people because that's so fucked up. And not so weird that if your kid does that, you cover it up because that's also fucked up and that makes you just as bad as an actual murderer. And not so bad that if you're the sheriff, you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that I'm the sheriff. But like, I can't really tell you things because your whole entire job is to bring people

to justice. and I think you should probably do your fucking job. That was one of your best yet. Do you think so? It was. Bye everybody. Bye.