Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Teen girl disappears during bike ride, photo surfaces of woman bound and gagged. Is it Tara Calico?

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Teen girl disappears during bike ride, photo surfaces of woman bound and gagged. Is it Tara Calico? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The FBI now offering twenty
0:16
Speaker 1: thousand dollars reward for a teen girl that seemingly disappears.
0:21
Speaker 1: And another question, was there an image of her? A
0:26
Speaker 1: photo found inadvertently of her bound and gagged in the
0:32
Speaker 1: back of a vehicle. Is that Tera Calico Crime Stories
0:45
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace? How did it all start? Listen? My
0:54
Speaker 1: name is Michelle Doll. I am Tara Callico's sister, and
0:58
Speaker 1: I've been searching for her. September twentieth, nineteen eighty eight.
1:03
Speaker 1: We lived in a town called Glen, New Mexico. It's
1:06
Speaker 1: a small town. You never were concerned about your neighbors
1:10
Speaker 1: or letting your kids go out and play. Tara was
1:13
Speaker 1: a very active person. She had been her entire life
1:17
Speaker 1: from the time she was little. She was in peewee cheerleading,
1:21
Speaker 1: She did softball, she was part of the ski club.
1:25
Speaker 1: She loved playing tennis. Tara is a sophomore at the
1:29
Speaker 1: University of New Mexico and enjoys riding her bike on
1:32
Speaker 1: the same route almost every day. She would ride seventeen
1:36
Speaker 1: miles out and seventeen miles back. It was a very
1:39
Speaker 1: isolated area and it was very serene. It was time
1:42
Speaker 1: to herself. But on the morning of September twentieth, nineteen
1:46
Speaker 1: eighty eight, something goes wrong. She told her mom that
1:50
Speaker 1: she was going to go out for her normal bike
1:52
Speaker 1: ride and that she'd be back because she was going
1:55
Speaker 1: to go play tennis with her boyfriend. But she never
1:58
Speaker 1: made it back. Happened to Tera Callica. She did not
2:03
Speaker 1: just disappear into thin air again. I'm Nancy Grace. This
2:07
Speaker 1: is crime story. Thank you for being with us. You
2:10
Speaker 1: were just hearing her sister, Michelle Doel with our friends
2:15
Speaker 1: at ID. Let me introduce you an all star panel
2:18
Speaker 1: joining me the former Montour County District Attorney, former president
2:23
Speaker 1: of the Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association, Bob Buner, Doctor Jory Krausen,
2:30
Speaker 1: psychologist faculty Saint Leo University, consultant and author of s
2:35
Speaker 1: O S Officers Suicide. Doctor Tim Gallagher, the medical examiner
2:41
Speaker 1: for the entire state of Florida. You can find me
2:43
Speaker 1: atpathcaremed dot com. Not only that, Lecturer University of Florida
2:48
Speaker 1: Medical School, Forensic Science and founder and host of the
2:51
Speaker 1: International for Medicine Death Investigation Conference. Cheryl McCollum founder and
2:58
Speaker 1: director of the Cold Case Research Institute Forensic Expert and
3:01
Speaker 1: you can find her at Coldcasecrimes dot org. But first
3:05
Speaker 1: to Melinda Escobell podcast or filmmaker. You can find her
3:10
Speaker 1: at Tara Callico dot com. She's the creator of Vanished,
3:16
Speaker 1: the Tara Callico Investigation. To all of you, thank you
3:21
Speaker 1: for being with us. Melinda Escobell. What do we know
3:25
Speaker 1: about Tara Callico as a person other than she would
3:29
Speaker 1: take a seventeen mile bike ride and she used the
3:34
Speaker 1: same route every day, which I advise strongly against in
3:38
Speaker 1: a new book, Don't be a victim. You got to
3:42
Speaker 1: change up your route, be a walking, jogging, biking. You
3:45
Speaker 1: have to tell me what we know about her as
3:48
Speaker 1: a person. Well, it was more like a thirty four
3:52
Speaker 1: mile bike ride and yeah, I guess, so seventeen out
3:57
Speaker 1: and seventeen back, right. Yeah, So she was previously in
4:02
Speaker 1: an accident and she had, you know, been in physical
4:07
Speaker 1: therapy and that was kind of the beginning of this
4:09
Speaker 1: physical fitness craze that she adopted. And you know, she
4:13
Speaker 1: was very conscious of her body. She was an exercise fanatic,
4:18
Speaker 1: and you know, after she would go bike writing, then
4:20
Speaker 1: she would go running, or then she would go play tennis.
4:23
Speaker 1: So she was very physically fit, very active. She was.
4:27
Speaker 1: She worked at the bank, She went to school full time,
4:31
Speaker 1: so she was a very structured young lady. Always had
4:35
Speaker 1: her time scheduled out ahead of times. Very sweet girl, too,
4:40
Speaker 1: very sweet, a good friend. Everybody loved her. Everyone thought
4:45
Speaker 1: she was so beautiful and you know, very popular. And Melinda,
4:49
Speaker 1: you were a friend of Tara's. Correct, correct, Yes, we
4:53
Speaker 1: got to know each other when I was in junior
4:56
Speaker 1: high in marching band. She was also in the marching
5:00
Speaker 1: and and that's how we originally knew each other, and
5:04
Speaker 1: we got closer on a specific trip that we went
5:06
Speaker 1: to compete in Arizona. What instrument did she play? I
5:10
Speaker 1: played the clarinet, and at that time she was a
5:12
Speaker 1: flag girl, but then she went on to play the flute,
5:15
Speaker 1: and then she went into the trombone section later, so
5:17
Speaker 1: she had moved around. But when we met, she was
5:19
Speaker 1: a flag girl, so very talented. What type of accident
5:23
Speaker 1: was she in? She had gone to either it was
5:27
Speaker 1: either homecoming or prom. I don't remember which one, but
5:30
Speaker 1: she her date had been drinking and there was an
5:34
Speaker 1: accident and she was injured. You know, Chary McCollum, I'm hearing,
5:38
Speaker 1: I'm really drinking from the fire hydrant right now, hearing
5:41
Speaker 1: Melinda Escabell speaking, Because so much information it's hard to
5:45
Speaker 1: take it all in at once. So this is a
5:48
Speaker 1: young girl, just nineteen years old when she goes missing,
5:51
Speaker 1: who was devoted to physical activity number one, but to
5:58
Speaker 1: her job. She had a schedule she always followed, and
6:03
Speaker 1: to a fault when you take the same route. And
6:08
Speaker 1: this is not about victim shaming or blaming the victim.
6:12
Speaker 1: This is about predators out there that see a young
6:17
Speaker 1: beautiful girl taking the same thirty four mile bike ride
6:22
Speaker 1: every day. That's a danger. But I'm hearing she worked
6:26
Speaker 1: at a bank, she was in school. That really widens
6:30
Speaker 1: the pool of suspects. Oh, it definitely does. So again,
6:35
Speaker 1: the route she took, it looked like she took one
6:37
Speaker 1: because it was less traveled by automobiles and it was
6:40
Speaker 1: like a straight shot out to these railroad tracks, and
6:43
Speaker 1: that's what she would turn around and come back. So
6:46
Speaker 1: she probably took it because she thought it was safer
6:48
Speaker 1: from vehicles. But again, Cheryl McCollum, right there, right there,
6:52
Speaker 1: railroad tracks, now, hold on just a moment, Cheryl McCollum. Okay,
6:57
Speaker 1: I remember running in upstate New York. It wasn't at
7:01
Speaker 1: near my apartment where I lived in Manhattan, and I
7:05
Speaker 1: was running and I ran, and I ran and I ran,
7:10
Speaker 1: and then suddenly something came over me. I was running
7:14
Speaker 1: alongside train tracks in the middle of nowhere, and I went, Wow,
7:20
Speaker 1: this is everything I tell everybody else not to do.
7:23
Speaker 1: I just got a horrible feeling, and I turned around
7:27
Speaker 1: and went back. So when you say a safer route,
7:32
Speaker 1: I don't know if hanging out down by the train
7:35
Speaker 1: tracks is really a safe area. Cheryl, Well, let me
7:38
Speaker 1: be clear. I didn't mean safer as far as somebody
7:41
Speaker 1: that might kidnap her. I meant safer in her mind
7:45
Speaker 1: from traffic where, yes, he might have a taccident and
7:48
Speaker 1: get hit. Yes, that I see. I understand that. So
7:54
Speaker 1: what was her job at the bank, Melinda Escobell? He worked.
7:58
Speaker 1: They had a where they were counting me. I know
8:01
Speaker 1: that she would deliver money to the different branches. I
8:04
Speaker 1: think she had like several jobs over there, but I
8:08
Speaker 1: they had you know, she would get promoted or whatever.
8:12
Speaker 1: So I think she started counting in, doing some kind
8:15
Speaker 1: of counting in the basement, and then they moved her
8:17
Speaker 1: to delivery and cash to the different branches, so there
8:20
Speaker 1: was interaction with other people at like at least two
8:23
Speaker 1: or three different branches within the Valencia County area. So
8:27
Speaker 1: there you go, right there, Bob, beat are joining me.
8:29
Speaker 1: You know, it's his way around a courtroom. Former Monta
8:32
Speaker 1: County District Attorney, Bob. She is exposed to so many
8:38
Speaker 1: different people, so many different men, because you know, whoever
8:42
Speaker 1: took her is a man. Sorry, guys on the panel,
8:45
Speaker 1: but it's like looking for a Neil in a haystack. Well,
8:50
Speaker 1: I'm not so sure it is Nancy because bnd, New
8:53
Speaker 1: Mexico is a very small town and it's kind of
8:58
Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere. The less a census population
9:03
Speaker 1: had it belinded about seven thousand people. Oh gosh, you're
9:07
Speaker 1: totally right. So you're totally and completely right. Go ahead.
9:11
Speaker 1: So when you this is a place where there's one
9:14
Speaker 1: high school that everybody in the community attends, either as
9:18
Speaker 1: a student or a family member, and whether it's cheering
9:21
Speaker 1: the high school football team. This is a community that's
9:25
Speaker 1: pretty well isolated in New Mexico itself, which is we
9:29
Speaker 1: know is a pretty thought outside of a couple of cities,
9:32
Speaker 1: very sparsely populated. So the group of people that she
9:37
Speaker 1: interacts with, whether in the bank or passing her on
9:40
Speaker 1: this roadway where she rides your bike, is quite a
9:44
Speaker 1: small number. You know, you're absolutely right, and typically that's
9:48
Speaker 1: one of my very first questions, tell me about the area.
9:51
Speaker 1: But you're right, that is a very low population. And
9:55
Speaker 1: even though she's traveling from bank to bank it's part
9:57
Speaker 1: of her job, that's still a very minor suspect pool.
10:03
Speaker 1: Cheryl jump in. It's a very soft, you know, small
10:06
Speaker 1: suspect pool. Again, Nancy. The route she took, you know,
10:10
Speaker 1: it is pretty off the beaten path, but so is
10:13
Speaker 1: her town. So this is not somewhere where people travel
10:17
Speaker 1: through from like one big city to another big city.
10:20
Speaker 1: It's kind of off by itself. It's beautiful, but there's
10:23
Speaker 1: a lot of desert, there's a lot of open space.
10:27
Speaker 1: But you know, it's not like she's going to meet
10:29
Speaker 1: a whole lot of people outside that very tight knit community.
10:45
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we are talking about
10:50
Speaker 1: the disappearance of Terra Callico, a teen girl just nineteen
10:55
Speaker 1: years old. He goes missing and Melinda doesn't she go
10:59
Speaker 1: missing on the bike ride? Yeah, she does. She went
11:04
Speaker 1: missing approximately between eleven thirty and eleven forty. I've done
11:08
Speaker 1: a lot of data sets, so we've I've ridden her.
11:11
Speaker 1: I rode her bike route on my bike to get
11:14
Speaker 1: an idea of what it was like like several times.
11:19
Speaker 1: We have fourteen witnesses along the route who saw her.
11:23
Speaker 1: And these include people who came Goward back then and
11:26
Speaker 1: made witness statements and then people who have heard my
11:29
Speaker 1: podcast and contacted me. So we have identified fourteen people
11:33
Speaker 1: who saw her on the road. Guys, take a listen
11:36
Speaker 1: to our friend Colton shown a KOA TV four, the
11:39
Speaker 1: last photo taken of her the day before she went missing,
11:43
Speaker 1: and these never before seen documents from the case file.
11:46
Speaker 1: Michelle shows us a timeline of Tara's day. On September twentieth,
11:50
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight, at nine thirty am, she left for
11:53
Speaker 1: her ride. She was last seen by a woman named
11:55
Speaker 1: Annie between eleven fifteen am and noon. Her Boston cassette
12:00
Speaker 1: tape was found your mile marker sixteen. And I just thought,
12:03
Speaker 1: you know, she was coming back, Like there was no
12:05
Speaker 1: doubt in my mind, Like we just hadn't figured out
12:07
Speaker 1: where she was yet determined. Michelle and Tara's high school friend,
12:11
Speaker 1: Melinda Escaville, are seeking justice for Tara. She was very
12:15
Speaker 1: fun loving, she liked to laugh. Conducting their own investigation,
12:19
Speaker 1: going through hundreds of uncovered documents themselves. I think we
12:23
Speaker 1: have a general understanding of what happened. I just think
12:25
Speaker 1: some of the details are missing, just a few of
12:28
Speaker 1: the details that we would like to learn back to you.
12:31
Speaker 1: Melinda Escovelle was her bike recovered, so that's interesting. The
12:36
Speaker 1: bike has been seen in many different places. We had
12:39
Speaker 1: to do a separate link chart for the bike. I
12:43
Speaker 1: understand that it was originally found in Mountaineer by the
12:48
Speaker 1: Torrence County Sheriff's departments. It was transferred to Valencia County
12:54
Speaker 1: and went missing from evidence, and then somehow it made
13:00
Speaker 1: its way back into Valencia County and then went missing again.
13:04
Speaker 1: So this is the bike that has been everywhere and nowhere.
13:07
Speaker 1: So right now the bike is not in an evidence
13:10
Speaker 1: locker somewhere, No, it's gone missing again. Why in the
13:14
Speaker 1: world would anybody get rid of a piece of evidence
13:17
Speaker 1: that valuable? And if that is in fact her bike,
13:21
Speaker 1: where did you say it was first found and how
13:23
Speaker 1: far away was that from her bike rout. So it
13:26
Speaker 1: was found between Mount Near right outside Abount Near, which
13:32
Speaker 1: is a little over sixty miles from valenn And there
13:36
Speaker 1: were also pieces of clothing found like a braw underwear
13:42
Speaker 1: and a shoe. Was that taken into property that was
13:45
Speaker 1: taken in by Torrence County Sheriff's Department. And what I
13:49
Speaker 1: was told is that there was paperwork and that evidence
13:53
Speaker 1: was transferred to Valencia County, But that paperwork is nowhere
13:57
Speaker 1: to be found, and neither is the evidence correct. The bra,
14:01
Speaker 1: panties and shoe are missing as well. Guys, take a
14:04
Speaker 1: listen to our cut eight our friends at ID. Tara
14:07
Speaker 1: leaves at nine thirty am. Tara actually did tell my
14:10
Speaker 1: mom that morning that if I'm not back by noon,
14:14
Speaker 1: come looking for me. It was kind of just like
14:16
Speaker 1: checking in and letting you know, this is what I'm
14:18
Speaker 1: doing today, see you later. I believe it was about
14:20
Speaker 1: twelve or five my mother realized that she hadn't been
14:23
Speaker 1: back yet. She jumped in her vehicle and went to
14:25
Speaker 1: go look for Tara and expected to find her walking
14:28
Speaker 1: on the side of the road with her bike. She
14:31
Speaker 1: drove all the way out as far as the fourteen miles,
14:34
Speaker 1: goes to the train tracks where she would turn around
14:36
Speaker 1: and come back, and didn't find her. She thought, well,
14:41
Speaker 1: maybe I just missed her. You know, there wasn't the
14:44
Speaker 1: same technology that there is nowadays. There wasn't cell phones.
14:48
Speaker 1: There wasn't even pagers. It's not like Tara to do
14:51
Speaker 1: something different than what she said she's going to do. Panicked,
14:55
Speaker 1: Tara's mom calls Tara's boyfriend and police. This wasn't a
15:00
Speaker 1: town where there was crime. Something had to have passed it.
15:02
Speaker 1: Something did happen to Tara Callica and Melinda Escabell joining us.
15:07
Speaker 1: They created her and Star of vanish To Tara. Callico
15:09
Speaker 1: Investigation and you can find her at Melinda escabe dot com. Melinda,
15:15
Speaker 1: when she was last spotted, was she on her way
15:19
Speaker 1: back home or was she still on her way away
15:22
Speaker 1: from home? She was on her way back home. She
15:25
Speaker 1: was about a mile and a half from the house,
15:26
Speaker 1: and she was last seeing Crestina Hill by the vineyards,
15:31
Speaker 1: and that's that's where they saw her last. You know,
15:34
Speaker 1: these four hunters who were riding into town ups they
15:38
Speaker 1: looked they had pulled over to the side of the
15:40
Speaker 1: road to unload their muzzleloading guns. And they had actually
15:46
Speaker 1: passed Tara on the way previously and they had tried
15:50
Speaker 1: to pull into a place to unload the guns, but
15:53
Speaker 1: there was a truck there staring at something ahead. They
15:56
Speaker 1: didn't know what it was, so they he was kind
15:59
Speaker 1: of blocking the end Trens, So they pulled out instead
16:03
Speaker 1: of stopping there, pulled out and went down further to
16:05
Speaker 1: unload their guns. And they unloaded their guns, and when
16:09
Speaker 1: they pulled back out, the driver looked back and saw
16:12
Speaker 1: Tara crusting the hill. Are you telling me that there
16:14
Speaker 1: was a truck there that was pulled over watching Tara. Yeah,
16:18
Speaker 1: an old mid fifties truck with two men in it,
16:23
Speaker 1: and they were staring directly ahead. And when they passed Tara,
16:26
Speaker 1: the guys thought, oh, that's probably what they were staring at.
16:30
Speaker 1: Maybe that's their daughter. Were they ever identified the people
16:34
Speaker 1: in the truck? So, yes, there is a witness that
16:37
Speaker 1: identified one of the drivers back in nineteen eighty eight,
16:43
Speaker 1: and we have witness statements that put four other boys
16:50
Speaker 1: on that road and they've been identified. Correct. Yea to
16:53
Speaker 1: doctor Tim Gallagher Medical Exam' joining us out of Florida.
16:57
Speaker 1: If the bike had been accessed correctly to determine if
17:02
Speaker 1: in fact it was Tara's bike, what would you have
17:06
Speaker 1: expected to find on the bike. Well, certainly you know
17:10
Speaker 1: you would have to inspect the bike for DNA evidence.
17:13
Speaker 1: You would have to look on the handlebars, because that's
17:16
Speaker 1: obviously where her hands would be, and then her DNA
17:19
Speaker 1: from her skin on her hands would transfer to the handlebars.
17:22
Speaker 1: You could also look for other populations of DNA or
17:27
Speaker 1: someone else's DNA on the bike as well, and hopefully
17:30
Speaker 1: that can help you develop a list of suspects or
17:33
Speaker 1: at least eliminate somebody from the suspect partake a list
17:36
Speaker 1: to more from our friends at Idity saw somebody run
17:39
Speaker 1: from the front of the truck into the passenger side
17:42
Speaker 1: and jump in, and thence when he saw Tara on
17:45
Speaker 1: her bike and had the earphone from and as she
17:49
Speaker 1: hadn't wouldn't even aware of the truck behind her, it
17:51
Speaker 1: didn't see. Over the next five days, a fast search
17:55
Speaker 1: started happening throughout Dan night search of horseback on foot dogs.
18:00
Speaker 1: We took clothes out on the Rio Grand River, which
18:03
Speaker 1: is nearby. Recontacted Albuquerque Resources and got ROTC students out
18:08
Speaker 1: there to help us search on foot. In the days
18:12
Speaker 1: following her disappearance, the Sheriff's Department releases a sketch of
18:15
Speaker 1: the driver, but it generates no leads. Tara's family is desperate.
18:21
Speaker 1: Tart became like a myth, like don't go out there,
18:24
Speaker 1: or you know, the same thing will happen to you
18:26
Speaker 1: that happened to Tart Calico and also take a listen
18:29
Speaker 1: to our cut ten from the missing at ID two
18:32
Speaker 1: and a half mile south of Rio Communities are some
18:35
Speaker 1: tire tracks that look spun out on the side of
18:38
Speaker 1: the road. It looked like there was a scuffle, but
18:40
Speaker 1: you could clearly see the bike marks and the tire
18:42
Speaker 1: marks from the vehicle. There's a broken piece of the
18:45
Speaker 1: yellow walkman which she was reported to have had a
18:47
Speaker 1: walkman when she went on her bike ride to find
18:50
Speaker 1: the exact cassette player that she had. It was bright yellow.
18:53
Speaker 1: It was very distinctive. It felt like Tara was smart
18:56
Speaker 1: enough to leave a trail of things. The search also
19:00
Speaker 1: turns up a cassette tape. The teepe itself was also
19:03
Speaker 1: found along Highway forty seven, within three miles of Rio Communities.
19:06
Speaker 1: Car's mom stated that it belonged to her daughter. Multiple
19:10
Speaker 1: witnesses come forward, all describing a similar scene. They'd seen
19:14
Speaker 1: a girl riding her bike and a Ford pickup truck
19:17
Speaker 1: trailing behind. If there's a car running half on the road,
19:21
Speaker 1: half off ten miles an hour and a fifty five
19:24
Speaker 1: mile an hour zone in a remote location and it's
19:27
Speaker 1: being reported sometimes it's twenty feet directly behind, it certainly
19:30
Speaker 1: shows an indication that whoever was operating that Ford pickup
19:34
Speaker 1: truck was intent on the young lady riding that bicycle,
19:37
Speaker 1: and it really had to base someone with a truck
19:40
Speaker 1: or a van to get the bike in it quickly
19:45
Speaker 1: and officially before they're spotted right there on the road.
19:48
Speaker 1: Sheryl McCollum. There are tire tracks, there are bike tracks,
19:53
Speaker 1: there are bits of broken yellow plastic that match her
19:58
Speaker 1: recording device or to player, that's the crime scene, no question.
20:03
Speaker 1: And this is a young woman again that would ride
20:05
Speaker 1: thirty four miles on a bike before, you know, then
20:08
Speaker 1: go play tennis, so she would have been able to
20:11
Speaker 1: fight her assailant. Nancy. I would want to know was
20:14
Speaker 1: there any injury to that bike? In other words, did
20:17
Speaker 1: they bump her off the road? Is that how they
20:20
Speaker 1: got her? Stop yellin to ask a bell do you
20:22
Speaker 1: feel confident in the bike that was found? Is in
20:26
Speaker 1: fact Terence, I do, and I'm going to tell you
20:30
Speaker 1: to answer her question. A bike after, you know, like
20:34
Speaker 1: a couple of years later, was found on a property.
20:38
Speaker 1: There was this guy who lived on a large property
20:41
Speaker 1: and a guy came to his house asking if he
20:45
Speaker 1: had any scrap metal and he said, well, go into
20:47
Speaker 1: the yard and if you find anything, you can have it.
20:50
Speaker 1: So this guy goes into the yard and he finds
20:53
Speaker 1: a pink bike buried on the property and he asked
20:56
Speaker 1: the guy if he could dig it up and take it,
20:59
Speaker 1: and the guy said, yeah, go ahead. They dig it up.
21:03
Speaker 1: It was a pink bike and it looked like it
21:05
Speaker 1: had been hit, and so the guy took it. This
21:10
Speaker 1: guy hadn't been in Valencia County for a while, so
21:12
Speaker 1: he had no idea about Tara. He called his brother
21:14
Speaker 1: who was the property owner, and said, hey, you know,
21:17
Speaker 1: this is what happened. And they found a pink bike
21:19
Speaker 1: on the property that looked like he had been in
21:21
Speaker 1: an accident. And his brother said, a pink bike, that's
21:24
Speaker 1: what the that's what the Calico girl was riding. And
21:27
Speaker 1: so they immediately went to police. The police to report it,
21:31
Speaker 1: but they could no longer find where the guys, so
21:33
Speaker 1: the bike kind of disappeared. I thought you told me
21:36
Speaker 1: it was taken into police property, then transferred, then lost, right,
21:40
Speaker 1: it was lost, and then it was found on a
21:44
Speaker 1: property in Vegita, the Vegita area, and then picked up
21:51
Speaker 1: and taken out, and I guess somewhere over the years
21:54
Speaker 1: it was found again and brought into custody and disappeared
21:57
Speaker 1: from custody again. To doctor joy Cross, I don't know
22:00
Speaker 1: the You can't unravel the mystery surrounding the pink bike.
22:04
Speaker 1: But let me talk to you, doctor Jory, about when
22:07
Speaker 1: people are exercising, especially with earbuds or a headset on,
22:11
Speaker 1: or they're listening to music, they're really in a zone.
22:15
Speaker 1: They're not really aware of what's going on around them.
22:20
Speaker 1: I just confronted this with Karina Vatranto, a gorgeous and
22:24
Speaker 1: brilliant young woman who was jogging with earbuds in in
22:29
Speaker 1: Long Island. Her father, phil Form, a firefighter, confirms that
22:35
Speaker 1: she did have earbuds in the day that she was
22:37
Speaker 1: attacked and murdered. So you're in a zone, you're not
22:41
Speaker 1: thinking that any any harm can befall you. You know,
22:43
Speaker 1: that's part of the enjoyment runners have is getting in
22:47
Speaker 1: that zone, especially long distant runners. You know, in a
22:50
Speaker 1: seventeen mile bike ride out in seventeen mile back, you're
22:54
Speaker 1: definitely going to develop a you know, getting in that zone,
22:58
Speaker 1: you're just going to get into the flow of things,
23:00
Speaker 1: it's called and you're going to be a vivious to
23:02
Speaker 1: anything going on. Plus with the ear pods, that's you know,
23:06
Speaker 1: that that cuts down a lot of the auditorial coming in,
23:09
Speaker 1: especially a car coming up behind you or somebody you
23:12
Speaker 1: know Pauler and that you're talking to you trying to
23:14
Speaker 1: get your attention, and what does it tell us about
23:17
Speaker 1: the perp that was so brazen they would actually kidnap
23:22
Speaker 1: her off a public road. You know. One of the
23:24
Speaker 1: things that I noticed was, and this goes for predators
23:28
Speaker 1: and stalkers. You know, they really like a routine because
23:32
Speaker 1: you know, they can they can stop, they can hunt,
23:34
Speaker 1: they can predict you know, the behavior, and then they
23:38
Speaker 1: can you know, look for the vulnerabilities of when to attack,
23:42
Speaker 1: and that's all part of their psychic build up. And
23:45
Speaker 1: knowing that she's on that ride out in that distance.
23:49
Speaker 1: You know, the vulnerability is just you know, it's right there.
23:53
Speaker 1: For the prime stories with Nancy Grace, because we were
24:10
Speaker 1: talking about the disappearance of Terra Calico jump in Cheryl McCollum,
24:15
Speaker 1: I think a significant thing is that the assailant took
24:18
Speaker 1: the bike with him. In other words, she was the target.
24:21
Speaker 1: She's what he wanted. He took that bike to ensure
24:26
Speaker 1: they wouldn't know a place to start looking for her.
24:29
Speaker 1: He wasn't counting on the tire tracks. But again, he
24:32
Speaker 1: didn't want them to know that it was a hit
24:34
Speaker 1: and run right here. So he did everything that would
24:39
Speaker 1: benefit him, and he took the extra time to do that,
24:42
Speaker 1: and he really did. He must have disabled her completely
24:46
Speaker 1: when she was hit and bumped off the road because
24:50
Speaker 1: she couldn't run for it. The bike, which suffered damage,
24:54
Speaker 1: was taken away at the same time. And then a
24:58
Speaker 1: very unexpected twist in the Hey take a listen to
25:00
Speaker 1: our cut five from id find June fifteenth, nineteen eighty nine,
25:04
Speaker 1: a Polaroid was found faced down in a convenient store
25:08
Speaker 1: at Port Saint Joe, Florida. A lady coming out of
25:11
Speaker 1: the store who was doing business there, she noticed it
25:13
Speaker 1: picked it up out of curiosity current affairs airs. A
25:17
Speaker 1: photograph of a lady and a young man tied up
25:20
Speaker 1: misser duct taped in the back of a van. I
25:23
Speaker 1: had pictures that, look, I didn't think I would. I
25:26
Speaker 1: had to say yet to know I would. Right now,
25:29
Speaker 1: we're just trying to desnate this picture and hope so
25:33
Speaker 1: somebody who's kind of identify those two children. FBI comes
25:37
Speaker 1: down and then becomes the lead investigative agency for this
25:41
Speaker 1: and a large scale media frenzy America's Most Wanted Oprah
25:45
Speaker 1: Winfrey Show, and we get flooded with a ton of tips,
25:50
Speaker 1: a ton of information from all over the United States.
25:54
Speaker 1: That's right, all the way across the country. At Port
25:57
Speaker 1: Saint Joe, Florida, a lady is coming out of a
26:00
Speaker 1: store and notices a photo on the ground, picks it up.
26:06
Speaker 1: Is there a horrifying image of Tera Callico bound and
26:14
Speaker 1: her mouth duct tape in the back of a van.
26:19
Speaker 1: Melinda Escabell joining me, the creator of vanish the Tara
26:23
Speaker 1: Callico Investigation. What does the photo depict? The photo depicts
26:30
Speaker 1: a young teenage girl and young boy bounding dag in
26:34
Speaker 1: the back of a toyo to cargo van. You've looked
26:37
Speaker 1: at it. I'm sure she's wearing a gray tshirt and
26:41
Speaker 1: black running shorts. The little boy has on a white
26:45
Speaker 1: t shirt. Do you remember Tara having anything like that outfit? No,
26:50
Speaker 1: I don't, and I to be frank with you, I
26:53
Speaker 1: don't believe it's her. Is this photo Tara Calico? And
26:57
Speaker 1: if so, who's the little boy? Also pictured? Bound and
27:01
Speaker 1: duct tape at the mouth and the back of the van?
27:04
Speaker 1: I mean, Bob Buner. This is a type of photo.
27:08
Speaker 1: This is very incriminating and how did it get all
27:11
Speaker 1: the way to Port St. Joe, Florida? If this is her?
27:14
Speaker 1: If it's her, then you've got some person who is
27:21
Speaker 1: abducting people across the country. And it incredibly widens the
27:28
Speaker 1: list of suspects to thousands and thousands of men. Frankly,
27:33
Speaker 1: and it also to doctor Jerry crossin Faculty Saint Leo University,
27:39
Speaker 1: doctor Jorry. This adds another layer to the psychopathy of
27:44
Speaker 1: the purp because you now have a guy that's not
27:47
Speaker 1: just grabbing her to rape her. There's also obviously a murder,
27:51
Speaker 1: but he's taking photos of her. I remember when that
27:55
Speaker 1: photo was found Because Port Saint Joe's like twenty miles
27:58
Speaker 1: from where I live. And yeah, that's that was really
28:02
Speaker 1: scary because then you're starting to think, well, who's the
28:05
Speaker 1: boy now? You know? Is he I remember? Looking locally?
28:09
Speaker 1: You have all the law enforcement we're involved trying to
28:11
Speaker 1: find the boy. Where was he missing from? So yeah,
28:15
Speaker 1: it widens to the whole birth of your investigation. So
28:21
Speaker 1: is this photo that's very disturbing photo of a girl
28:27
Speaker 1: who resembles Tara and a young boy bound and gagged
28:31
Speaker 1: in the back of a van. Is this really Tara?
28:36
Speaker 1: Take a listen to Nancy Laughlin KOA seven. At one
28:41
Speaker 1: point a year after her disappearance, a photo of a
28:44
Speaker 1: little boy and a young woman who looked like Tara,
28:46
Speaker 1: both bound and duct taped, was found in the parking
28:49
Speaker 1: lot of a store in Florida. We examined it and
28:52
Speaker 1: scientifically looked at it. We felt pretty confident saying that
28:56
Speaker 1: we don't think that's Tera. Callico. In recent years, huge
28:59
Speaker 1: rewards were for information about Tara's case. Cold case detectives
29:03
Speaker 1: from multiple agencies have even taken bulldozers and cadaver dogs
29:07
Speaker 1: out to areas where they believed Tara might have been buried.
29:10
Speaker 1: They go out and check an area out and see
29:12
Speaker 1: if there's any kind of hit with the dog. And
29:14
Speaker 1: we have not had any results. Thirty years later, she
29:17
Speaker 1: is not forgotten, her case still generating national attention. In June,
29:22
Speaker 1: an article about Tara's disappearance was featured in People magazine.
29:25
Speaker 1: Every little piece can make a difference, to Cheryl McCollum,
29:29
Speaker 1: director of the Cold Case Research Institute, we recently investigated
29:34
Speaker 1: a case of a woman out of Alaska who found
29:39
Speaker 1: a simcard at a store outside a store on the
29:45
Speaker 1: sidewalk at Zari Call. She picked up the simcard to
29:48
Speaker 1: figure out who it belonged to to return it. She
29:51
Speaker 1: plugged it in and it was of a woman being
29:56
Speaker 1: assaulted and murdered. And she takes to the cops and
30:01
Speaker 1: they manage believe it or not to identify what happened
30:06
Speaker 1: based on the background in the hotel room where the
30:11
Speaker 1: woman was attacked. I've also had a case like that
30:15
Speaker 1: built around a little girl who was assaulted horribly and
30:22
Speaker 1: she was ultimately identified based on the background and the
30:28
Speaker 1: bedspread and the wallpaper in a hotel room. So how
30:33
Speaker 1: much can we learn from this van photo? You can
30:37
Speaker 1: learn a ton looking at the sheets and the comforter.
30:40
Speaker 1: Somebody might recognize that combination. It's really unusual. You can
30:44
Speaker 1: see the female victim's legs really well, so you can
30:47
Speaker 1: see that there are no tattoos, there's no bruising, there's
30:50
Speaker 1: no cuts, she's not bound by her ankles. And in
30:54
Speaker 1: the little boy's face, he's also on the bed land down,
30:57
Speaker 1: but he almost looks like he's in more fear, whereas
31:00
Speaker 1: the female to me looks like she has an understanding
31:05
Speaker 1: of what's happening, if that makes sense. Now, it's my
31:07
Speaker 1: understanding that Tara's mother believes that is Tara correct based
31:11
Speaker 1: on a scar on her legs similar to one of
31:14
Speaker 1: Tara's correct she does, and it does look like her
31:17
Speaker 1: a lot. I don't think you could see that photograph
31:21
Speaker 1: and not one at least somehow you know, determined for
31:26
Speaker 1: sure if that's her. And I know the FBI as
31:29
Speaker 1: well as scotland Yard has worked on the photograph, and
31:32
Speaker 1: what do they think, Chary, The FBI says it's not her,
31:35
Speaker 1: and scotland Yard believes that it is. Crime Stories with
31:52
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace doctor Tim Gallagher. If you can identify a
31:59
Speaker 1: body based on bones and teeth alone, and here we've
32:04
Speaker 1: got a photo of a girl and Scotland Yard disagrees
32:08
Speaker 1: with the FBI. I mean, well, right, so the identication
32:11
Speaker 1: via the photograph, you know, is not an exact science
32:16
Speaker 1: as determined by two places disagree, you know, so it
32:21
Speaker 1: depends on the education and the experience of the person
32:25
Speaker 1: analyzing the photographs, you know. But there are parts of
32:29
Speaker 1: this case that could use further investigation. For instance, when
32:32
Speaker 1: the bicycle was discovered and it was damaged, you know,
32:35
Speaker 1: where was the damage. Was the damage on the back
32:38
Speaker 1: part of the bike indicating it was struck from behind?
32:41
Speaker 1: Or is the damage on the front part of the
32:43
Speaker 1: bike indicating it may have been run off the road
32:45
Speaker 1: and hit a tree? You know? So, um, could evidence
32:51
Speaker 1: from the bike, for instance, pink chips from the bike
32:55
Speaker 1: that can go under forensic analysis and you can actually
32:58
Speaker 1: determine the main and model of the vehicle that struck
33:03
Speaker 1: that bicycle based just on the pink chips. Yeah, so
33:08
Speaker 1: you know that loss of evidence is very detrimental in
33:13
Speaker 1: this case, obviously, but more so than we would initially
33:16
Speaker 1: have thought. And Bob Uner, a former Montara County District attorney,
33:20
Speaker 1: it happens all the time. I remember prosecuting in Inner
33:24
Speaker 1: City Atlanta, all felonies. The district attorney called me down
33:28
Speaker 1: to his office and I didn't know what it was about.
33:32
Speaker 1: He wanted me to retry a case that had been
33:36
Speaker 1: tried when I was a first year law student, and
33:40
Speaker 1: I of course took it. It It had gone all the
33:42
Speaker 1: way up to the eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and
33:45
Speaker 1: been sent back down. You know why because there were
33:49
Speaker 1: interlocking statements by two codefendants and they brought the statements
33:54
Speaker 1: in so which as a big, big no, no, long
33:58
Speaker 1: story short. I went to the evidence. Guess what I had.
34:02
Speaker 1: I had one X ray and I had a hat
34:09
Speaker 1: that said kiss my bass. That's all the evidence that
34:16
Speaker 1: was left. Nobody had tampered with it, nobody stole anything
34:19
Speaker 1: the evidence. The property room had moved a couple of
34:22
Speaker 1: times since this case was tried the first time, and
34:27
Speaker 1: it got lost and it was never found. I had
34:30
Speaker 1: to completely rebuild the case. So we're coming down and yes,
34:36
Speaker 1: it's wrong, of course it's wrong, but properties lost every day.
34:41
Speaker 1: The issue is was it properly processed before I was lost?
34:45
Speaker 1: And were photographs taken of the bicycle when it was
34:49
Speaker 1: first found and delivered to police custody, what detail of
34:53
Speaker 1: the photographs. Photographs are available and it could be analyzed. Yes,
35:01
Speaker 1: And you know, Nancy, when you go to court, you
35:04
Speaker 1: present the evidence. It gets turned over to the court reporter.
35:08
Speaker 1: Hopefully she doesn't lose it and give it back to
35:10
Speaker 1: the police, or it ends up in the prosecutor's office
35:13
Speaker 1: and they forget it to send it back to the
35:16
Speaker 1: evidence room in the police department. There's a whole lot
35:19
Speaker 1: of chain of custody that can get and does get interrupted.
35:22
Speaker 1: Timland Escabell joining us the creator a vanished the Tara
35:26
Speaker 1: Calico investigation. What about the guys in the truck? Okay,
35:33
Speaker 1: So several the guys were young guys that we all
35:39
Speaker 1: knew from school. One of them was in love with
35:42
Speaker 1: her and had asked her out on a date, and
35:45
Speaker 1: she had declined that invitation, and from what I understand,
35:50
Speaker 1: was emotional about it, and you know, was not okay
35:54
Speaker 1: with it and wanted to teach her lesson. He was
35:57
Speaker 1: one of the people in the truck, and so they
36:00
Speaker 1: were following her and taunting her throughout her ride. They
36:04
Speaker 1: were taunting her on the way out, and they waited
36:06
Speaker 1: for her to come back around and they were taunting
36:08
Speaker 1: her on the way back, and from an ex girlfriend
36:12
Speaker 1: that came forward, what we were told is that they
36:16
Speaker 1: had they were cat calling her at one point, inviting
36:21
Speaker 1: her to a party, you know, just tormenting her, and
36:25
Speaker 1: she did have the music in her But I do
36:27
Speaker 1: believe that she could have heard them, because there are
36:31
Speaker 1: different witnesses that say they saw her face stressed on
36:36
Speaker 1: the way going out, not necessarily the way back, but
36:39
Speaker 1: on the way going out, her face looked already stressed.
36:42
Speaker 1: And and then they you know, she was last seeing
36:47
Speaker 1: on the hill and we believe she was hit after that,
36:50
Speaker 1: and she took off running to the left because there
36:53
Speaker 1: was a sense on the right, and that is where
36:56
Speaker 1: they got her. That you know, she ran, They caught
36:59
Speaker 1: up with her, were in the truck following to catch
37:03
Speaker 1: up with her. One on foot. They caught her and
37:06
Speaker 1: then two other boys showed up, and that's where they
37:09
Speaker 1: raped her and made a comment something to the effect
37:14
Speaker 1: of if you don't want to be with him, you
37:16
Speaker 1: can be with all of us. And she got up
37:20
Speaker 1: and she was fighting for her life and said that
37:23
Speaker 1: she was going to tell the police, and that's when
37:25
Speaker 1: they took her back down and one of the boys
37:27
Speaker 1: stabbered pretty much to death, and then that's when other
37:31
Speaker 1: people got involved. So when they started moving her in
37:34
Speaker 1: the body, Melinda, if you know all of this, then
37:39
Speaker 1: what is the district attorney waiting on exactly? That's a
37:44
Speaker 1: great question. What I can tell you is the investigation
37:48
Speaker 1: has been really busy since last fall. They've been aggressively
37:52
Speaker 1: questioning people because I'd been contacted by those people and
37:57
Speaker 1: asked if they should talk to the FBI or the
38:00
Speaker 1: Sheriff's office and so, and then they call me to
38:04
Speaker 1: tell me what happened after. So I know they're aggressively
38:07
Speaker 1: interviewing people. They've threatened one of my sources, and to
38:12
Speaker 1: be honest, it feels like it's not going in a
38:14
Speaker 1: direction it should be. But I guess we'll just have
38:17
Speaker 1: to wait and see. If you have any information on
38:20
Speaker 1: the disappearance of Tera Calico, let me remind you there
38:25
Speaker 1: is a twenty thousand dollar reward twenty thousand dollars for
38:31
Speaker 1: information on her disappearance. Please dial this number one eight
38:36
Speaker 1: hundred eight four three five six seven eight one eight
38:40
Speaker 1: hundred The Lost one eight hundred eight forty three five
38:44
Speaker 1: six seven eight We pray that justice un falls. Nancy
38:51
Speaker 1: Grace Crime Story, signing off goodbye friend,