Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / THE GIRL IN THE POLAROID: BOMBSHELL IN SEARCH FOR "POLAROID GIRL" WHO VANISHES ON BIKE

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THE GIRL IN THE POLAROID: BOMBSHELL IN SEARCH FOR "POLAROID GIRL" WHO VANISHES ON BIKE · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, the so called Girl and
0:06
Speaker 1: the Polaroid. There is a bombshell in the search for
0:10
Speaker 1: the polaroid girl who vanishes on her mom's huffy bike.
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Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. I want to
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Speaker 1: thank you for being with us.
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Speaker 2: Tara Calico a bright, energetic, nineteen year old college sophomore
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Speaker 2: studying psychology in Berlin, New Mexico, known for her love
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Speaker 2: of life in active campus involvement. With a promising future ahead,
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Speaker 2: everything changes.
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Speaker 1: Everyone saw Tara go that day on a thirty four
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Speaker 1: mile round trip bike ride, and it was in an
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Speaker 1: area that was believed to be very low crime. People
0:46
Speaker 1: moved there because their children could play outdoors until it
0:50
Speaker 1: was time for supper. What happened. Let's start at the beginning.
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Speaker 2: A sophomore at University of New Mexico, Tara is in
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Speaker 2: school full time while working at a bank. Nin September twentieth,
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Speaker 2: Tara takes her mom's pink coffee for her daily bike ride,
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Speaker 2: telling mom she is playing tennis with her boyfriend later,
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Speaker 2: so home by noon.
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Speaker 3: She worked at the bank. She went to school full time,
1:12
Speaker 3: so she was a very structured young lady. All we've
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Speaker 3: had her time scheduled out ahead of time. Very sweet girl, too,
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Speaker 3: very sweet, a good friend. Everybody loved her. Everyone thought
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Speaker 3: she was so beautiful and you know, very popular.
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Speaker 1: Interesting. All of that matters. Everything you just heard structured,
1:36
Speaker 1: always had a plan. You know, there are a lot
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Speaker 1: of people that just fly by the seat of their pants.
1:40
Speaker 1: They're like a frog that jumps from one lily pad
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Speaker 1: to the next, never really knowing where they're headed. But
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Speaker 1: not Tara. No, she was very organized, very well thought out.
1:51
Speaker 1: That was just her nature. That matters. Straight out to
1:55
Speaker 1: Chris mcdonne and joining me, Director Cole Case Foundation, former
1:59
Speaker 1: homicide detective. He's worked over three hundred homicides during his
2:04
Speaker 1: le law enforcement career. You can find him where I
2:08
Speaker 1: found him on the Interview Room to start the Interview
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Speaker 1: Room on YouTube. Chris, it matters because when someone has
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Speaker 1: a structured personality, when they say I'm going to go
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Speaker 1: on my bike ride mom, that's where they're going. They're
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Speaker 1: not going to suddenly go, hey, I'm going to jump
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Speaker 1: in the pickup and I'm going to go I don't know,
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Speaker 1: to the grocery store to fill in the blank, because
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Speaker 1: that would change the complexion of this search. Very structured.
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Speaker 1: She's always where she says she's going to be, and
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Speaker 1: she had a plan for after riding the bike, She's
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Speaker 1: going to go play tennis.
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Speaker 4: Remember, Yeah, absolutely, Nancy. And that structure is key to
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Speaker 4: beginning this investigation.
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Speaker 5: When it started.
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Speaker 4: And the reason for that is that's what they call
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Speaker 4: a pattern of life, meaning if this individual, to your point,
3:00
Speaker 4: is just kind of scattered in many directions, that opens
3:04
Speaker 4: up a lot of other lanes of investigative possibilities. But
3:08
Speaker 4: in this case, it sounded and looks very clear this
3:12
Speaker 4: girl had her act together with me.
3:14
Speaker 1: Melinda Escabel, a longtime friend of Tara Callico's, knows her
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Speaker 1: even back to childhood, and she's the host of a
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Speaker 1: hit podcast, Vanished, the Tarah Calico Investigation. She's still looking
3:30
Speaker 1: for her childhood friend Tara. Was Tara's personality like that
3:35
Speaker 1: even as a child, Yes, she.
3:38
Speaker 5: Was from the beginning. You know, she was very organized,
3:42
Speaker 5: very structured. You know, she had a good relationship with
3:45
Speaker 5: her mother. You know, if she said she was going
3:47
Speaker 5: to be somewhere, that's exactly where she was going to be.
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Speaker 1: You know, all of the psychologists and psychiatrist Dotor John
3:55
Speaker 1: Delatori joining me licensed psychologist and mediator. Doctor Delatory say
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Speaker 1: in this came from Freud. I believe that once you're
4:02
Speaker 1: four years old, it's done. Your personality is set and
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Speaker 1: it may not change, will likely not change. Do you
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Speaker 1: agree with that for.
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Speaker 6: The most part, You know, I think a lot of
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Speaker 6: parents can see what their child's personality is going to
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Speaker 6: be even from the moment that they're born. So it's
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Speaker 6: not you can get a sense of what kind of
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Speaker 6: person is going to what kind of person a person
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Speaker 6: is going to be from a very early age. Personality
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Speaker 6: characteristics don't really change. Behaviors change, but it sounds like
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Speaker 6: she was very structured and she likes things to go
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Speaker 6: a certain way, and that actually creates a vulnerability.
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Speaker 3: Right.
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Speaker 6: The more you stay the same, the more likely someone
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Speaker 6: else who has nefarious purposes can find out what you're
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Speaker 6: doing and when you're doing it.
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Speaker 7: Bilenn is a small town of about seven thousand people
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Speaker 7: thirty five miles south of Albuquerque. Dara grows up very active,
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Speaker 7: from cheerleading to softball, the marching. During physical therapy to
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Speaker 7: overcome a car accident, Tara becomes even more fitness focused,
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Speaker 7: riding a bike on a thirty four mile round trip
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Speaker 7: every day she.
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Speaker 3: Had gone to either it was either homecoming or prom
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Speaker 3: I don't remember which one. But her date had been
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Speaker 3: drinking and there was an accident and she was injured.
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Speaker 3: That was kind of the beginning of this physical fitness
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Speaker 3: craze that she adopted. And you know, she was very
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Speaker 3: conscious of her body. She was an exercise fanatic. And
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Speaker 3: you know, after she would go bike riding, then she
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Speaker 3: would go running, or then she would go play tennis.
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Speaker 3: So she was very physically fit.
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Speaker 1: That's Melinda speaking on her hit podcast, Vanished Melinda is
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Speaker 1: with us, Melinda Escabell face for being with us tonight, Melinda,
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Speaker 1: this is an uphill challenge. We hear there's a breakthrough
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Speaker 1: in the case, and I think that there is, and
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Speaker 1: what I don't understand is why authorities are not active
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Speaker 1: on it. But I want to circle back to the
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Speaker 1: fact that many people call her a fitness fanatic. I
6:08
Speaker 1: don't know that I would call it that. She went
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Speaker 1: through a traumatic experience, a major car crash because her
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Speaker 1: date was drinking and driving through no fault of her own,
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Speaker 1: and she ended up having to claw her way back,
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Speaker 1: claw her way back to physical fitness could you describe
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Speaker 1: what happened.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, the vehicle flipped, I believe, off the road and
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Speaker 5: she hurt her the back of her neck, the spine
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Speaker 5: area and so and she has a shit a scar
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Speaker 5: back there from her surgery. And so she had to
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Speaker 5: be put into physical therapy. And when she started physical therapy,
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Speaker 5: she really enjoyed it and it kind of, you know,
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Speaker 5: jump started what they called the physical fitness Cravens. She
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Speaker 5: became very conscious of healing and becoming strong and you know,
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Speaker 5: like you said, kleining her way back and she was,
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Speaker 5: you know, very conscious of it all and decided that,
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Speaker 5: you know, she really wanted to be physically active, and
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Speaker 5: so she would she would ride, she would go on
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Speaker 5: a twenty you know, twenty four mile bike ride. Then
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Speaker 5: she would go jogging, Then she would go play tennis.
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Speaker 5: Then she would go to school, and then she would
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Speaker 5: go to work. You know, she was a very busy individual.
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Speaker 1: You know, Melinda. A lot has been made of her
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Speaker 1: job at the bank. Because you're either inside the bank
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Speaker 1: branch or you are at the teller window where people
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Speaker 1: drive through they see you. You don't necessarily pay attention
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Speaker 1: to every customer that comes through the bank. And she
7:45
Speaker 1: came in contact with a lot of guys and just
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Speaker 1: you know, Chris mcdonna, hold on, let me throw this
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Speaker 1: to you. Let's just get real about what we're talking about.
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Speaker 1: She was not kidnapped by a woman. Statistically, it's virtually impossible.
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Speaker 1: We're looking for either one or more males. Would you agree, statistically.
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Speaker 4: Yes, statistically one percent. And one of the interesting things
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Speaker 4: about this particular case is one of those characters that
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Speaker 4: would come to the top is a guy named David
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Speaker 4: Parker Ray. He's one of the most sadistic serial killers
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Speaker 4: that ever existed of the United States, and he had
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Speaker 4: a ranch nearby.
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Speaker 1: Wow, okay, you're just full chock full of information. Would
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Speaker 1: you say that again, because that's an angle I have
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Speaker 1: not explored, and I'll circle back to the bank. Tell
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Speaker 1: me about him.
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Speaker 4: So, David Parker Ray actually was known as the toy
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Speaker 4: Box Killer. And what he did is he set up
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Speaker 4: a torture room where he would kidnap women and bring
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Speaker 4: them in there and hold them for much And so
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Speaker 4: in this particular investigation, because he was so close, I
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Speaker 4: would submit that the FBI was probably chasing him down
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Speaker 4: pretty clearly.
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Speaker 1: You know, Chrismally Donna. You and I have been on
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Speaker 1: a lot of murder investigations, with a lot of kidnapped investigations,
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Speaker 1: and it's like remember Dorothy and Wizard of Oz and
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Speaker 1: she's trying to figure out which path to take. Sometimes
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Speaker 1: there are so many avenues it can be overwhelming. But
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Speaker 1: that's that's a give me right there to check out.
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Speaker 1: David Parker Ray, I was going to talk about the
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Speaker 1: weirdos that come in and out of banks, all right.
9:29
Speaker 1: I remember in law school I worked at a sandwich
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Speaker 1: shop and we had customers that come in, and we
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Speaker 1: had customers that would come through a drive through. I
9:40
Speaker 1: don't remember any of their faces at the time. I
9:43
Speaker 1: was thinking about, you know, my next law school assignment,
9:46
Speaker 1: and just trying to make sandwiches as fast as I could.
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Speaker 1: But they would know all of our names, everybody that
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Speaker 1: worked there, and know things about us. I'm just thinking
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Speaker 1: about people going through that drive through teller all day
10:00
Speaker 1: along and looking at her. You know, that can be
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Speaker 1: a very dangerous situation when you're talking about stalkers. You
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Speaker 1: may not even know you've got a stalker.
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Speaker 4: Oh one thousand percent, Nancy, And think about this, right
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Speaker 4: if if let's say he's in play, not saying he is, okay,
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Speaker 4: but you not only have the locals that you have
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Speaker 4: to look at, but now you have this you know
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Speaker 4: individual that subsequently, you know, turns out to be one
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Speaker 4: of the most clorific serial killers in the country. And
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Speaker 4: so you got two tracks going in the investigation, a
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Speaker 4: local track and of course this national track if that
10:37
Speaker 4: guy was in play. So to your point, yeah, it's
10:40
Speaker 4: very dangerous.
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Speaker 3: He worked, They had a basement and where they were accounting.
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Speaker 7: Me.
10:46
Speaker 3: I know she would deliver money to the different branches.
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Speaker 3: I think she had like several jobs over there, but
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Speaker 3: I they had you know, she would get promoted or whatever.
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Speaker 3: So I think she like started count in doing some
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Speaker 3: kind of counting in the base, and then they moved
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Speaker 3: her to delivery and cash to the different branches. So
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Speaker 3: there was interaction with other people at like at least
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Speaker 3: two or three different branches within the Valencia County area.
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Speaker 1: Dave Matt, We know the FBI is now in on
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Speaker 1: the investigation, but she's not just at one branch. She
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Speaker 1: goes to multiple branches with multiple drive throughs.
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Speaker 7: Jeez. Obviously the FBI got involved because of the fact
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Speaker 7: that it is so spread out, Nancy, it is not
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Speaker 7: just a cut and dry simple She went and did
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Speaker 7: one thing and that's all they had to figure out.
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Speaker 7: We're talking about somebody who was seen all throughout the community,
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Speaker 7: and by the way, somebody who grew up there that
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Speaker 7: everybody knows. You've got a town of Savath people. Everybody
11:45
Speaker 7: knows everybody, They know everybody's business, and they know she's
11:48
Speaker 7: got cash and she's going from one place to the other.
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Speaker 7: So she is seen by countless people from every walk
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Speaker 7: of life on a daily basis.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm thinking about that aspect. But what we do
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Speaker 1: know is she went on that long track on her
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Speaker 1: mom's pink huffy bike. She says, Mom, I'll be back
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Speaker 1: at twelve, and really, in prophetic word, she says, Hey,
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Speaker 1: if I'm not back by twelve, come looking for me.
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Speaker 8: When Tara isn't back at twelve oh five, mother Patty
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Speaker 8: gets in her car to retrace Tara's bike route, expecting
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Speaker 8: to see Tara with her bike. Driving out to train
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Speaker 8: tracks where Tara normally turns around, Patty doesn't see Tara
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Speaker 8: and assumes she missed her and heads back home.
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Speaker 1: So let me understand, she had a regular trek and
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Speaker 1: I write about that in my book, Don't be a
12:37
Speaker 1: Victim Yet I still do it. It just must be habit.
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Speaker 1: She always took the same route Melinda Escabel's Star of
12:45
Speaker 1: a Vanish the Tara Calico Investigation podcast. Is that right?
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Speaker 1: Her track was always this long ride and then she'd
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Speaker 1: get to train tracks and turn around and come back. Absolutely,
12:57
Speaker 1: she used to.
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Speaker 5: She was the creature of a habit. So she would
13:01
Speaker 5: go out on this seventeen mile bike, right out to
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Speaker 5: the train tracks and back. And she didn't. I don't
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Speaker 5: think she realized right away that she was being tracked
13:10
Speaker 5: and followed, you know, and then you know, she was always,
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Speaker 5: you know, creature of habit. They saw her route, they
13:18
Speaker 5: watched it, they knew where to find her. It was,
13:21
Speaker 5: you know, it's all the things that you talk about
13:24
Speaker 5: that we're not supposed to do. We didn't realize how
13:27
Speaker 5: dangerous things were.
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Speaker 1: John Day is joining me, veteran criminal defense attorney at
13:32
Speaker 1: John Day Law. John, thanks for being with us. Let's
13:36
Speaker 1: talk about the bike. The bike was recovered, what forensic
13:40
Speaker 1: evidence could have been obtained from the bike.
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Speaker 9: Law enforcement could have gotten DNA from the bike if
13:50
Speaker 9: we had that technology, law enforcement could have gotten any
13:54
Speaker 9: kind of samples. If there had been some kind of
13:56
Speaker 9: a collision, that would have been something we would have seen.
13:59
Speaker 9: But there's no evidence at that point that there was
14:01
Speaker 9: anything like that. So we're looking at before DNA technology
14:05
Speaker 9: had advanced. Now, of course we can use it if
14:08
Speaker 9: there's anything available, but there didn't seem to be. So
14:11
Speaker 9: we have a bike. It's a clue, but it's a
14:14
Speaker 9: clue that doesn't get us anywhere in this investigation because
14:17
Speaker 9: there's nothing on the bike, at least at the time
14:20
Speaker 9: that's recoverable and traceable.
14:23
Speaker 1: Well, another issue, John Day, is how the bike has
14:25
Speaker 1: been stored since it was recovered. If it has been
14:28
Speaker 1: handled by a lot of people's probably destroyed any DNA evidence.
14:33
Speaker 1: But if the evidence is not destroyed, that can still
14:36
Speaker 1: be obtained off the bike. I don't care how many
14:40
Speaker 1: weeks or months have passed, she goes missing, it can
14:42
Speaker 1: still be obtained. DNA evidence doesn't just go away unless
14:46
Speaker 1: it's removed.
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Speaker 9: So many cases, so many cold cases, are solved by
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Speaker 9: going back in time getting the evidence if it's been
14:53
Speaker 9: stored properly, doing the analysis. We know that's possible in
14:57
Speaker 9: this case, though we don't have any sense of how
15:00
Speaker 9: it was stored, and you're exactly right. If this is
15:02
Speaker 9: sorted sort of haphazardly, there's nothing that can be done.
15:06
Speaker 9: Nobody anticipated the developments in DNA. Nobody could predict the future,
15:10
Speaker 9: and so anything that was on that pink coffee bike
15:13
Speaker 9: is probably lost to time.
15:15
Speaker 1: You know, John Day, I may have told you this
15:17
Speaker 1: story before, a true story regarding trying to put together
15:21
Speaker 1: a case in law school. There was a murder and
15:26
Speaker 1: an ag assault in Atlanta. I got through law school.
15:31
Speaker 1: I was a judicial law clerk then was in and
15:33
Speaker 1: I trust. I finally made it to the DA's office
15:36
Speaker 1: and I got called down to put together the case.
15:39
Speaker 1: It had been reversed, went all the way up to
15:41
Speaker 1: the eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, one step below the
15:44
Speaker 1: US Supreme Court, got reversed interlocking statements. Anyway, I go
15:49
Speaker 1: to the I had never heard of it. I go
15:51
Speaker 1: to the property room, the evidence room. Guess what was left?
15:56
Speaker 1: One X ray which meant nothing to me. I didn't
15:58
Speaker 1: even know what it was, and a baseball hat that
16:01
Speaker 1: said kiss my bass. I'm like, how does that fit
16:04
Speaker 1: in anywhere? Well, it later became apparent, but that was
16:09
Speaker 1: all the evidence left due to the way the storage
16:14
Speaker 1: room had been handled. It had been moved a couple
16:16
Speaker 1: of times. Evidence was actually lost through no one's nefarious intent.
16:22
Speaker 1: But it happened, and it happens a lot. We always
16:25
Speaker 1: hear about evidence being lost. Evidence was lost in the
16:29
Speaker 1: Seawn Combs case. There was a bombing of a car
16:32
Speaker 1: bomb a molotov of kid Cuddy's car. Guess what The
16:36
Speaker 1: fingerprints were lost within the LAPD I mean in a
16:41
Speaker 1: high profile case. Lost. Now, as I was saying, very
16:46
Speaker 1: often there is no nefarious intent, well sometimes there is.
16:50
Speaker 1: That said, what you're saying does not bode well about
16:54
Speaker 1: getting any evidence off that Huffy bike and John Day.
16:58
Speaker 1: You're right, Okay, let's move forward. Listen.
17:00
Speaker 7: Patti calls Tara's boyfriend, who says he hasn't seen Tara,
17:04
Speaker 7: then calls police in a panic. Police begin in a
17:07
Speaker 7: media's search as her disappearance is out of the ordinary.
17:10
Speaker 7: Sister Michelle joins the search with Tara's friends and boyfriend.
17:13
Speaker 7: A storm coming, temperature dropping, friends walking two feet apart,
17:18
Speaker 7: hand in hand, across both sides of the road, looking
17:20
Speaker 7: for any sign of Tara.
17:22
Speaker 1: When you don't get anything, with a shoulder to shoulder search.
17:26
Speaker 1: You're in trouble. Back to Melinda Escabel star avanis the
17:31
Speaker 1: Terra Callico investigation boyfriend. Okay, all sorts of alarm bells
17:39
Speaker 1: go off. Tell me about the boyfriend. Wasn't she supposed
17:43
Speaker 1: to play tennis with him after the bike ride?
17:46
Speaker 5: Correct, she was supposed to play with tennis with him,
17:49
Speaker 5: I think at twelve thirty. So she was expected back
17:52
Speaker 5: home at noon. And when she didn't get back at noon,
17:57
Speaker 5: Patty went looking for her because on the previous day
18:00
Speaker 5: she had a flat tire and they were concerned that
18:05
Speaker 5: maybe her tire might be flat if she didn't make
18:07
Speaker 5: it back by noon, because she had this appointment with
18:10
Speaker 5: her boyfriend at twelve thirty. And sure enough, you know,
18:13
Speaker 5: she didn't make it back.
18:15
Speaker 1: So the mom retraces the daughter's steps. She drives all
18:21
Speaker 1: the way to the train tracks where Tara normally turns around,
18:25
Speaker 1: doesn't see her, and mom assumes, well, I missed her,
18:29
Speaker 1: and she goes back home. Then she starts contacting the boyfriend.
18:35
Speaker 1: The boyfriend had not seen or heard from her. Mom
18:39
Speaker 1: calls police in a panic, but then two and a
18:44
Speaker 1: half miles down the search route.
18:48
Speaker 7: Evidence about two and a half miles down the search route,
18:52
Speaker 7: some tire tracks that look spun out are discovered on
18:55
Speaker 7: the side of the road. It looks like there was
18:57
Speaker 7: a scuffle and the bike marks are visible amongst the
19:01
Speaker 7: tire marks from the vehicle. Tara is known to use
19:04
Speaker 7: a distinctive bright yellow walkman on her bike ride, and
19:07
Speaker 7: when a broken piece of a bright yellow walkman is
19:10
Speaker 7: found in the area of the tire marks, her sister
19:12
Speaker 7: Michelle believes it is Tara leaving a trail to follow.
19:21
Speaker 1: Crime stores with Nancy Grace.
19:27
Speaker 2: One morning, Tara set out for a routine bike ride,
19:30
Speaker 2: but that day is different. As she borrows her mother's bike,
19:33
Speaker 2: she casually tells her call the police if I'm not
19:36
Speaker 2: back soon. Little did they know it would be the
19:39
Speaker 2: last time anyone saw her. Tara never returned home.
19:44
Speaker 1: Two. John Day joining us and he's joining us tonight
19:47
Speaker 1: because he's a veteran trial lawyer. He is a criminal
19:50
Speaker 1: defense turny. True, He's tried a lot of cases and
19:54
Speaker 1: one a lot of cases at John Daylaw dot Com.
19:57
Speaker 1: John that would be very hesitant to introduce something like
20:04
Speaker 1: that into court because hunches or something that's a little
20:12
Speaker 1: bit prophetic can be attacked by the defense, and you
20:17
Speaker 1: don't want to introduce anything that can be attacked because
20:21
Speaker 1: it could then taint your solid evidence. But I believe
20:26
Speaker 1: in hunches. I believe in gut instincts, and I think
20:30
Speaker 1: that they are developed over thousands and thousands of years
20:34
Speaker 1: of evolution. It was very interesting that when she leaves,
20:39
Speaker 1: she says, hey, mom, if I'm not home by name,
20:42
Speaker 1: come and look for me and lo and behold. You know,
20:45
Speaker 1: a couple of hours later, the mom is out searching
20:48
Speaker 1: for Tara.
20:51
Speaker 9: Yeah, you know, it's significant. Is that Is this something
20:54
Speaker 9: that she said to her mom every time she left?
20:57
Speaker 9: Or was this a singular, unique moment when she had,
21:01
Speaker 9: as you said, some hunches. You know, we all know
21:03
Speaker 9: to trust your instincts. And was this a moment when
21:06
Speaker 9: she thought, I better tell me this to my mom,
21:09
Speaker 9: or is this something that she said every single time
21:12
Speaker 9: she left it was sort of their routine. Significant because
21:16
Speaker 9: if that indicated that she had some foreshadowing, that there
21:20
Speaker 9: was some reason to be concerned, it wasn't enough to
21:23
Speaker 9: stop her from the bike ride.
21:24
Speaker 7: Though.
21:25
Speaker 1: You know, it's really interesting that you brought that up,
21:27
Speaker 1: and I think it's right. I think you're right, John
21:30
Speaker 1: Day to Melinda Escabelle. Melinda, you are friends with Tara,
21:37
Speaker 1: you know her. I mean, in my world, whenever anybody
21:42
Speaker 1: walks out the door, I say, if you're not Hume
21:44
Speaker 1: by six pm, I'm calling police. I mean, that's just
21:48
Speaker 1: a given, and I always say it, and it's true.
21:53
Speaker 1: But I don't get the sense that Tara and her
21:55
Speaker 1: mom were like that. I mean, is that prophetic? Was
22:00
Speaker 1: she worried about anything when she left that day? If
22:04
Speaker 1: I'm not home, come look for me.
22:07
Speaker 5: Well, it was because the previous day she had went
22:10
Speaker 5: out on a bike ride and her tire went flat,
22:13
Speaker 5: and I think her and Michelle walked home seven miles
22:18
Speaker 5: and so you always you know, Also, please remember that
22:21
Speaker 5: her life was very structured, so she was on a
22:25
Speaker 5: schedule for work, for school, you know, time with her
22:28
Speaker 5: boyfriend and doing different things. So as a structured person,
22:33
Speaker 5: she said I would be home at this time, you know.
22:35
Speaker 5: But I think specifically that day it was due to
22:38
Speaker 5: the fact that they were having issues with the tire
22:40
Speaker 5: on her bike.
22:42
Speaker 1: So there was a reason, got it. You cleared that
22:45
Speaker 1: up for me. He answered a lot of questions just then.
22:48
Speaker 1: So there's nothing to suggest she thought she was being stacked,
22:52
Speaker 1: or that anybody had been following her or threatening her
22:54
Speaker 1: all because of a tire the day before. Right, Okay,
22:58
Speaker 1: let's move what.
23:01
Speaker 5: So there was an incident, so Tara wasn't worried about whether,
23:07
Speaker 5: you know, something was going to happen to her. But
23:09
Speaker 5: there was an incident previously while her mom went on
23:11
Speaker 5: the bike ride with her, and they were followed by
23:14
Speaker 5: a van, and so that, you know, made Patty stop writing.
23:19
Speaker 5: She just didn't feel comfortable. But Tara said she wasn't
23:22
Speaker 5: going to live in fear, so she didn't think anything
23:24
Speaker 5: of it, and she wasn't worried about it. And so,
23:27
Speaker 5: you know, Patty knew that there were potential dangers, but
23:30
Speaker 5: you know, Tara lived her life like she wasn't going
23:33
Speaker 5: to live in fear. She wasn't going to be worried,
23:35
Speaker 5: and she wasn't concerned.
23:37
Speaker 1: So let me understand something. Dave Matt with US Crime
23:40
Speaker 1: Stories investigative reporter. About two and a half miles down
23:44
Speaker 1: the search route, there are tracks that looked spun out
23:49
Speaker 1: and on the side of the road it quote looked
23:52
Speaker 1: like there was a scuffle and there are bike marks
23:56
Speaker 1: visible among tire marks from a vehicle we know that
24:03
Speaker 1: Tara used one of those bright neon yellow walkmans, and
24:08
Speaker 1: there was a piece of broken bright yellow plastic found
24:13
Speaker 1: in that area where there were tire marks. I'm trying
24:17
Speaker 1: to determine how you can look down at the dirt
24:22
Speaker 1: and look at the asphalt and tell me that there
24:25
Speaker 1: had been a bike and vehicle scuffle and what does
24:30
Speaker 1: that mean?
24:31
Speaker 7: Okay, well, Nancy, think about this way. You've got people
24:34
Speaker 7: looking for Tara's bike or her anything they can find,
24:38
Speaker 7: and they're walking, as we mentioned, they're walking, you know,
24:40
Speaker 7: elbow to elbow. You're looking at the pavement and then
24:43
Speaker 7: into the dirt. And in the dirt right there you
24:46
Speaker 7: can see tire marks going to be what six eight
24:49
Speaker 7: inches wide, but a bike is going to be an
24:51
Speaker 7: inch and a half at the most. So you're going
24:54
Speaker 7: to be able to see tire tracks. And you would
24:57
Speaker 7: expect tire tracks on the shoulder just to be moving
25:00
Speaker 7: one way. You would not expect to see tire tracks
25:03
Speaker 7: going side to side, and then you certainly wouldn't expect
25:06
Speaker 7: to see a bicycle tire also in that same area.
25:11
Speaker 7: That's what that's the point that you can actually see
25:13
Speaker 7: the difference in the size of the tires, and you
25:16
Speaker 7: can see that there's something going on. It's not just
25:19
Speaker 7: simple travel where you're having to fix a flat. You've
25:22
Speaker 7: got tires that are making multiple marks in the same
25:25
Speaker 7: same area as you mentioned. You mentioned the bright yellow walkman,
25:31
Speaker 7: and I find this really really important, not just the
25:34
Speaker 7: fact that there was a piece of yellow walkman sitting there,
25:37
Speaker 7: but think about this. She's riding and she's focused on
25:41
Speaker 7: the ride, she's thinking about things, she's listening to music
25:44
Speaker 7: on the walkman, she's not thinking about anything else. She's
25:47
Speaker 7: looking straight ahead and she's got the music punk, so
25:50
Speaker 7: she's not even going to be totally aware of what
25:53
Speaker 7: may be behind her. Nancy. So when you see this
25:57
Speaker 7: area off the side of the road where all of
25:59
Speaker 7: a sudden you've got tire tracks going kind of crazy,
26:02
Speaker 7: a little wonky between the thin bike track and the thicker,
26:06
Speaker 7: the wider car track, Yes, you could see something took
26:11
Speaker 7: place in this one spot.
26:13
Speaker 1: You know, Chris McDonough, did you see the photos we're
26:17
Speaker 1: showing everyone right now, The vast nature of the terrain
26:22
Speaker 1: around where Tara disappeared. I mean, it goes on and
26:28
Speaker 1: on and on. We're showing you pictures of the area
26:34
Speaker 1: from where she disappeared. Look at that. Imagine being told, okay,
26:40
Speaker 1: you got to search this. You'd have to use overhead helicopters,
26:44
Speaker 1: you'd have to use cadaver dogs, scent tracking dogs, the works.
26:49
Speaker 1: Chris mcdonna, Yeah, Nancy.
26:53
Speaker 4: And this would also tell us, in what you're talking
26:56
Speaker 4: about as a geographical profile, right, what's theronment situation and
27:01
Speaker 4: the circumstance look like. And you would measure that against
27:04
Speaker 4: what they call a victim continuum. What that means is this,
27:08
Speaker 4: if the victim is at a high risk, there is
27:11
Speaker 4: a higher probability this was a situation of opportunity for
27:15
Speaker 4: the offender. So then you look at the environment and
27:18
Speaker 4: you say, okay, was the offender comfortable in this particular environment?
27:22
Speaker 4: And if you look at the terrain that you're showing here,
27:25
Speaker 4: the answer would be absolutely yes. This offender knows that area.
27:31
Speaker 4: And so you have to then reverse engineer that and go, hey,
27:35
Speaker 4: wait a minute, why does this offender know this area
27:38
Speaker 4: and is he nearby or is this a random situation?
27:42
Speaker 4: And the answer would be it's probably not random.
27:45
Speaker 8: You know.
27:45
Speaker 1: In another issue, Chris mcdonna, if she was struck, let's
27:51
Speaker 1: say my vehicle and animals came and took her body.
27:56
Speaker 1: We would know that cadaver dogs would find her immediately.
28:01
Speaker 1: Scent dogs would find her and at least try to
28:03
Speaker 1: follow her trail, you know, and the Lacy Peterson murder
28:08
Speaker 1: where Scott Peterson murdered her in their unborn child. Connor
28:13
Speaker 1: scent dog, a scent dog tracked her from her home
28:17
Speaker 1: on Cavina and Modesto all the way to that San
28:21
Speaker 1: Francisco Marina, and she was in a vehicle and the
28:24
Speaker 1: dog could fall it. Okay, So what I'm saying is
28:29
Speaker 1: if that had happened, a dog would have picked up
28:32
Speaker 1: on it. It tells me she was put in a
28:35
Speaker 1: vehicle and taken away.
28:38
Speaker 4: Yeah. Absolutely, to both of those points, the dogs would
28:42
Speaker 4: have at least picked up some type of scent. And
28:46
Speaker 4: so then you have to go back to your second
28:48
Speaker 4: thought there, Nancy, is if she was hit by a
28:51
Speaker 4: car and the bike doesn't have any indication of any
28:55
Speaker 4: type of damage or anything like that, the big question
28:59
Speaker 4: is if a a car, is it a truck? What
29:01
Speaker 4: kind of vehicle is it that could get that bike
29:04
Speaker 4: out of the area. So I'd be real curious where
29:06
Speaker 4: they found the bicycle.
29:07
Speaker 1: Well, you were hearing our guests say earlier that I
29:11
Speaker 1: believe it was Dave matt or Chris mcdonnough talking about
29:14
Speaker 1: how she Tara had her walkman, her bright yellow walkman,
29:18
Speaker 1: which somehow was destroyed during whatever happened to Tara. Bits
29:23
Speaker 1: of plastic were found that matched her bright yellow walkman.
29:28
Speaker 1: She was listening. We even know what she was listening
29:31
Speaker 1: to because of this.
29:34
Speaker 2: A cassette tape of the band Boston is discovered three
29:37
Speaker 2: miles from home on the side of Highway forty seven.
29:39
Speaker 2: Tara's mother, Patty, identifies the tape, saying that is what
29:42
Speaker 2: Tara was listening to on her bike ride. Two more
29:45
Speaker 2: polaroids surface over the next years, featuring women in similar distress,
29:50
Speaker 2: Though investigators can't confirm if these women were Tara. The
29:54
Speaker 2: chilling photos raised more questions than answers, a possibility that
29:58
Speaker 2: Tara may have been a did.
30:01
Speaker 1: A polaroid photo emerges of Tara and a little boy
30:06
Speaker 1: bound in the back of a van. Even Scotland Yard
30:12
Speaker 1: says that's Tara, and then I witnesses emerge and it's
30:19
Speaker 1: not good.
30:20
Speaker 7: Several witnesses come forward describing a similar type of older
30:24
Speaker 7: model Ford pickup truck following behind a girl riding her
30:27
Speaker 7: bike on the same day and time Tara was riding.
30:30
Speaker 7: The witnesses all said the truck was running half on
30:32
Speaker 7: the road, half in the shoulder, ten miles per hour
30:35
Speaker 7: and a fifty five miles per hour zone, following twenty
30:38
Speaker 7: feet directly behind the bike rider, indicating whoever was operating
30:41
Speaker 7: that Ford pickup truck was focused on doing something for
30:45
Speaker 7: or with the girl on the bike.
30:47
Speaker 3: She was on her way back home. She was about
30:49
Speaker 3: a mile and a half from the house, and she
30:51
Speaker 3: was last seen Christina Hill by the vineyards, and that's
30:55
Speaker 3: where they saw her last. You know, these four hunters
30:59
Speaker 3: who were riding into town. That's they looked. They had
31:02
Speaker 3: pulled over to the side of the road to unload
31:06
Speaker 3: their muzzle loading guns and they had actually passed Tara
31:10
Speaker 3: on the way previously.
31:13
Speaker 1: They say that they saw Tara just at the crest
31:17
Speaker 1: of the hill with this truck following closely behind her.
31:21
Speaker 1: Melinda Escabel joining us star Off vanished the Tara Calico Investigation. Melinda,
31:28
Speaker 1: that is so eerie. You've got this older model pickup
31:32
Speaker 1: following right behind her, and she didn't know because she
31:36
Speaker 1: was listening to Boston.
31:38
Speaker 5: Yeah, and what is strange is that multiple people had
31:42
Speaker 5: saw her on the road and saw this truck following her,
31:46
Speaker 5: but they had all convinced themselves that it was her
31:48
Speaker 5: father following her to make sure she was safe.
31:52
Speaker 1: Guys, Tara Kalico is missing. We've got an ID on
31:57
Speaker 1: the vehicle. And coincidentally, fortuitously, hunters were there. You heard
32:03
Speaker 1: about eight witnesses. Can they all be wrong? I don't
32:07
Speaker 1: think so. Listen, why were the hunters there?
32:10
Speaker 3: And they had tried to pull into a place to
32:13
Speaker 3: unload the guns, but there was a truck there staring
32:16
Speaker 3: at something ahead. They didn't know what it was, so
32:18
Speaker 3: they he was kind of blocking the entrance, so they
32:22
Speaker 3: pulled out instead of stopping. Their pulled out and went
32:25
Speaker 3: down further to unload their guns. And they unloaded their guns,
32:29
Speaker 3: and when they pulled back out, the driver looked back
32:32
Speaker 3: and saw Tara crusting the hill, an old mid fifties
32:35
Speaker 3: truck with two men in it, and they were staring
32:39
Speaker 3: directly ahead. And when they passed Tara, the guys thought, oh,
32:44
Speaker 3: that's probably what they were staring at. Maybe that's their daughter.
32:47
Speaker 1: To you, Dave Mac Crime Stories investigative reporter, tell me
32:51
Speaker 1: about the vehicle following right behind her with two mails
32:57
Speaker 1: in the mill and the older model.
33:01
Speaker 7: It's a nineteen fifty three Ford pickup truck, but it's
33:04
Speaker 7: a light gray or maybe just off white in color.
33:08
Speaker 7: But Nancy, on the back of it is a homemade shell.
33:12
Speaker 1: You see it in the drawing.
33:13
Speaker 7: But this is not something that they bought. This is
33:16
Speaker 7: something that was made and is obviously not what you
33:20
Speaker 7: would expect on the back of a nineteen fifty three
33:22
Speaker 7: pickup truck, but it stood out following between ten and
33:25
Speaker 7: twenty feet behind Tara, where again you pointed out, she's
33:29
Speaker 7: listening to music. She doesn't know they're but they're close
33:32
Speaker 7: enough that the hunters.
33:34
Speaker 9: Actually gave it a pass.
33:36
Speaker 7: I mean, we don't always think that this is the
33:37
Speaker 7: worst thing that could happen. We think, oh, it's her
33:40
Speaker 7: dad following her, you know, making sure she's okay. We
33:43
Speaker 7: don't always think the worst.
33:44
Speaker 1: And doctor John Delatory, with a psychologist specializing in forensic psychology,
33:50
Speaker 1: Doctor Delatory, why do our minds function that way? Is
33:56
Speaker 1: it because we don't want to think a violent crime
33:59
Speaker 1: is about to have? Are we insulating ourselves from it?
34:03
Speaker 1: We don't leap to the conclusion, Hey, those guys are
34:06
Speaker 1: following her, they're going to kidnap her.
34:09
Speaker 6: Well, it's because most of us don't have criminal thoughts, right.
34:12
Speaker 6: The only reason why you would think, you know, there's
34:15
Speaker 6: something nefarious is going to be happening, is because you've
34:17
Speaker 6: either been involved in an nefarious act previously or you've
34:21
Speaker 6: been the victim of a nefarious act previously. So our
34:24
Speaker 6: instinct isn't to assume that a bad thing is going
34:28
Speaker 6: to happen. I mean, you were talking about evolution earlier
34:32
Speaker 6: in the show, and that's because we have to assume
34:35
Speaker 6: that everyone around us has our same best interest the
34:39
Speaker 6: way that we would have in someone else. So thinking
34:41
Speaker 6: negatively is not going to be something that would be
34:44
Speaker 6: appropriate to proliferate the species unless you think something bad
34:50
Speaker 6: is going to happen. And unfortunately, because they weren't thinking
34:54
Speaker 6: that way, it sounds like something bad ultimately happened that
34:58
Speaker 6: could have been stopped.
35:00
Speaker 1: And Chris McDonough joining us store on the interview room
35:04
Speaker 1: on YouTube. Also, people are fed the line over and
35:08
Speaker 1: over stranger abduction that never happens, it does happen, So
35:12
Speaker 1: I'm sure at the beginning no one wanted to accept
35:16
Speaker 1: this is a stranger on stranger abduction. The boyfriend was cleared.
35:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, Nancy, I mean, and this goes back to what
35:24
Speaker 4: we were just talking about a little bit ago, right
35:26
Speaker 4: that the hid risk area that she was at, it
35:32
Speaker 4: puts her into that category of a victim of opportunity,
35:36
Speaker 4: and when you have a predator, they're going to take
35:39
Speaker 4: advantage of that and go for it.
35:42
Speaker 1: To Melinda Escabelt, star of Vanish the Tar Calico investigation,
35:46
Speaker 1: that number eight witnesses based on your work and investigation
35:52
Speaker 1: has expanded to fourteen witnesses. What did they see?
35:57
Speaker 5: The first thing that woman that was going to the
36:01
Speaker 5: doctor saw in the morning when Tara was riding out.
36:04
Speaker 5: They said that her face looked strained, and so I
36:09
Speaker 5: they previous to her scene or when Tara turned onto
36:13
Speaker 5: Highway forty seven or Highway six at the time, a
36:16
Speaker 5: friend of hers that went to school with her saw
36:18
Speaker 5: her turning and kind of waved it her and she
36:22
Speaker 5: waved and they she turned. But when she was getting
36:25
Speaker 5: ready to go, she had to slam on the brakes
36:27
Speaker 5: because a truck was coming and it was moving at
36:32
Speaker 5: a strange pace, like kind of slow and so that
36:36
Speaker 5: was the first witness and then but I don't think
36:39
Speaker 5: Tara was aware of what was going on. A little
36:42
Speaker 5: further down, another witness saw her and they said that
36:45
Speaker 5: her face looks strained. So we think that the stocking
36:48
Speaker 5: had started, you know, right as she got into the
36:51
Speaker 5: clearing where there's nothing out there. And then she went
36:55
Speaker 5: and continued her ride out, and then on the way
36:58
Speaker 5: back she was seen by more people, you know, coming
37:02
Speaker 5: and that's when the they saw the truck behind hers,
37:07
Speaker 5: following her and and everybody. It's just very strange that
37:12
Speaker 5: everyone convinced themselves that that was her father. You know,
37:16
Speaker 5: I think they were worried about it, and then somehow
37:18
Speaker 5: in their mind they balanced it out, you know, like
37:21
Speaker 5: we were going to stop, but you know, we just
37:23
Speaker 5: decided it was her father. So there were people who
37:27
Speaker 5: lived out there that had seen that bus.
37:29
Speaker 1: Me a clue as to who the purp is. A
37:31
Speaker 1: white male old enough to be Tara's father. We know
37:35
Speaker 1: that the bike was found, We know that there were
37:37
Speaker 1: skid marks that looked like a scuffle that was corroborated.
37:42
Speaker 1: But now we find more was found and it's not good.
37:47
Speaker 3: It was found between Mount Neer right outside of Mount Neir,
37:52
Speaker 3: which is a little over sixty miles from Bolen And
37:57
Speaker 3: there were also pieces of clothing like a bra, underwear
38:03
Speaker 3: and a shoe.
38:10
Speaker 1: Crime stores with Nancy Grace.
38:16
Speaker 2: After hours of searching, authorities were left with only one lead,
38:21
Speaker 2: a white truck may have been following her. Then a
38:23
Speaker 2: year later, a woman from Florida discovers a polaroid of
38:27
Speaker 2: a young woman bound and gagged in a truck who
38:30
Speaker 2: eerily resembles Tara.
38:34
Speaker 1: Is that Tara in the photograph? According to her mother
38:39
Speaker 1: and Scotland Yard.
38:40
Speaker 8: It is a photograph surfaces in Florida of a boy
38:44
Speaker 8: and a young woman, both facing the camera, their hands
38:47
Speaker 8: tied behind their backs and tape over their mouths, in
38:49
Speaker 8: the back of a van, lying down in distress.
38:52
Speaker 7: The picture is a colored polaroid photo in good shape.
38:55
Speaker 7: Patty believes the woman in the photo is her daughter Tara.
38:58
Speaker 7: Another family in New mex believes the boy is nine
39:01
Speaker 7: year old Michael Henley. He vanished while hunting with his father.
39:05
Speaker 7: Headline circle the world with the photo. The photo itself
39:08
Speaker 7: is analyzed at least three times by legitimate agencies, including
39:12
Speaker 7: the FBI and Scotland Yard.
39:15
Speaker 1: Melinda Escabel Star of vanis the Tara Callico Investigation podcast,
39:20
Speaker 1: which is amazing. By the way, Melinda Scotland Yard says
39:25
Speaker 1: this is her. Her mother says this is her. The
39:28
Speaker 1: FBI says, yeah, we don't know, but you actually interviewed
39:34
Speaker 1: the little boy in the photo. What happened? Correct?
39:40
Speaker 5: So he had reached out to me a number of
39:43
Speaker 5: years ago because he was looking into the photo kept
39:48
Speaker 5: popping up and he wanted to see what was happening.
39:52
Speaker 5: And he saw that I was working on an investigation
39:55
Speaker 5: and docusaries on Tara, and so he asked if I
39:59
Speaker 5: could in tear him because he was five at the time,
40:02
Speaker 5: to see what he didn't know, what he knew, but
40:05
Speaker 5: he wanted to see what I could pull out of
40:07
Speaker 5: him in regards to any information that might be helpful
40:11
Speaker 5: to Tara's case. So I went with my investigator, James Carston,
40:17
Speaker 5: he is the man who trained me to be an investigator,
40:20
Speaker 5: and we went and we interrogated him for a day
40:23
Speaker 5: and we pulled out some information. But he didn't know
40:29
Speaker 5: who the young lady was. But there there was a
40:31
Speaker 5: lot of you know, nefarious activities going on that he
40:35
Speaker 5: did tell us about. And but we weren't able to
40:39
Speaker 5: necessarily connect it to Tara.
40:42
Speaker 1: Okay, I got a question. You said, he mentioned a
40:45
Speaker 1: lot of nefarious activities.
40:46
Speaker 5: What so he was put in a van by his
40:51
Speaker 5: father and taken to Florida. He was held in a
40:54
Speaker 5: house where there was there were girls that were videotaped
41:01
Speaker 5: in those old VHS cameras, and then he said that
41:05
Speaker 5: there were decks that they would put this thing in
41:09
Speaker 5: and it would go into He didn't understand what he
41:12
Speaker 5: was explaining to me, But I don't know if you
41:14
Speaker 5: remember the internet. In the early days, in order to
41:16
Speaker 5: have internet, there were these decks of networks that you
41:19
Speaker 5: would plug into the phone the phone line, and what
41:22
Speaker 5: he described was something similar to that. And he said
41:25
Speaker 5: he even escaped the house, ran away, and the police
41:29
Speaker 5: brought him back to the house. And he said that
41:32
Speaker 5: he was upset because that's when he knew the police
41:35
Speaker 5: were in on it, Melinda.
41:37
Speaker 1: At first, a little boy named Michael Henley was believed
41:40
Speaker 1: to be the child in the photo with who we
41:43
Speaker 1: think is Tara Calico. But the boy in a photo
41:47
Speaker 1: was not Michael. His remains have been found. Do you
41:50
Speaker 1: believe correct the boy you interviewed was in the car,
41:55
Speaker 1: was in the vehicle with Tara. Yes, I do.
41:59
Speaker 5: And when we met with him, we took a lot
42:02
Speaker 5: of photos of his face, his side view, his front view,
42:07
Speaker 5: his back view, everything, And we have identified certain markings
42:11
Speaker 5: that are so imperceptible here on this photo that align
42:16
Speaker 5: with the photos of him as an adult.
42:19
Speaker 1: What did he say became of the girl with him
42:23
Speaker 1: in the vehicle?
42:26
Speaker 5: He doesn't remember. He knows he remembers being tied up
42:31
Speaker 5: with the thing on the tape, and he said that
42:35
Speaker 5: when that photo was taken, he had just woken up
42:38
Speaker 5: and he was shocked. He didn't know what was happening
42:40
Speaker 5: and why they were taking a photo of him. But
42:43
Speaker 5: he doesn't know what ultimately became of the girl because
42:46
Speaker 5: he became separated from her.
42:49
Speaker 1: Was the girl who we believed to be Tara ever
42:51
Speaker 1: in that house, he described with him.
42:56
Speaker 5: Yes, they were in the house together. And I believe
43:00
Speaker 5: that the girl was seen later by authorities at a
43:04
Speaker 5: market and they went up to her and looked at
43:07
Speaker 5: her and decided that it was not Tara. They found
43:11
Speaker 5: it like a farmer's market or some type of market.
43:13
Speaker 1: Much has been made about the polaroid Melinda, based on
43:19
Speaker 1: what you learn from the lab an los alamos. Do
43:22
Speaker 1: you believe that's Tara? Correct?
43:25
Speaker 5: I do not believe it's Tara. They did a whole
43:27
Speaker 5: analysis on the young lady in the photo and came
43:31
Speaker 5: to the determination that although it looks similar to Tara,
43:34
Speaker 5: that it was not. They even state that the girl's
43:37
Speaker 5: eyes are blue, and so you know that was their
43:41
Speaker 5: conclusion in like I said, Tara, not Tara.
43:45
Speaker 1: But in the last months, law enforcement claims they made
43:49
Speaker 1: substantial progress and they're ready to make an arrest.
43:53
Speaker 8: The investigation continues without success until the Sheriff's office issues
43:57
Speaker 8: a press release in June twenty twenty three substantial progress
44:01
Speaker 8: has been made, claiming they identified the offenders and are
44:04
Speaker 8: seeking to charge and arrest the offenders.
44:07
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't understand. That was in twenty twenty three.
44:11
Speaker 1: LA law enforcement says they've identified the offenders, Melenda, but
44:15
Speaker 1: there's not an arrest. Correct.
44:18
Speaker 5: So the the Sheriff's office turned over a case to
44:23
Speaker 5: the district Attorney's office, and the district attorney's office then
44:26
Speaker 5: has to do their due diligence. They had called me
44:30
Speaker 5: in to see what I had had in my files,
44:34
Speaker 5: because you know, we had put an entire investigation together
44:37
Speaker 5: along with data sets, and I started meeting with the
44:40
Speaker 5: investigators and we started from what was going on in
44:43
Speaker 5: Tara's life previous to her disappearance. There was an incident
44:47
Speaker 5: four days before she went missing, and then we went
44:50
Speaker 5: into the day she went missing, and then all of
44:53
Speaker 5: a sudden, the meetings stopped and I came to the
44:56
Speaker 5: understanding by my sources that they were not going to
44:59
Speaker 5: pursue charges, and so now it is in the hands
45:01
Speaker 5: of the Sheriff's office and the FBI.
45:04
Speaker 1: Melinda Escabel joining us. You mentioned an incident four days before,
45:11
Speaker 1: and when that incident was brought up during your Q
45:14
Speaker 1: and A with law enforcement, suddenly everything got shut down.
45:18
Speaker 1: What was the incident? There was a.
45:24
Speaker 5: Bust at a motel which was very close to Tara's
45:28
Speaker 5: route where she turned left onto Highway forty seven, and
45:32
Speaker 5: four days prior to her disappearance, there was a vehicle
45:36
Speaker 5: that police were watching that was associated with that hotel room,
45:41
Speaker 5: and one agency called another and asked him not to
45:44
Speaker 5: pull the vehicle over because they were watching it. But
45:47
Speaker 5: one agency actually did pull it over, and when they
45:50
Speaker 5: found when they pulled them over, they opened the trunk
45:53
Speaker 5: and they found zip ties, tape, guns, and you know
45:58
Speaker 5: a lot of things, rope, things you would carry to
46:02
Speaker 5: try to kidnap somebody. And they believe that someone in
46:06
Speaker 5: that vehicle got to a phone to tell the people
46:10
Speaker 5: at the motel room of what had happened, and they dispersed,
46:13
Speaker 5: so they weren't able to catch anyone there, but they
46:16
Speaker 5: think it was some type of drug deal going down
46:19
Speaker 5: in multiple you know, with people from multiple states.
46:22
Speaker 1: And in the back of the vehicle, zip ties, guns, tape,
46:28
Speaker 1: duct tape. Correct, isn't the suspect connected to that hotel room?
46:33
Speaker 1: And discussion of that hotel room shut down your Q
46:37
Speaker 1: and A. Regarding Tara's disappearance, that suspect was Lawrence Romero Junior,
46:46
Speaker 1: the son of the sheriff who think it's correct?
46:52
Speaker 5: Yes, correct, he was. We were able to connect him
46:55
Speaker 5: to that motel room, and previous to her disappearance, we
46:59
Speaker 5: can We found out that he had asked her out
47:03
Speaker 5: on a date. She had turned him down. He had
47:05
Speaker 5: gotten angry about it. He started following her, He started
47:09
Speaker 5: stalking her. He started leaving notes on her vehicle that
47:13
Speaker 5: were nice originally and then became violent over time. He
47:18
Speaker 5: sent her a bouquet of flowers with another note attached,
47:22
Speaker 5: and he was seen watching her, and in one of
47:25
Speaker 5: those notes, he said he was going to get her.
47:27
Speaker 1: As we all gather together this holiday season, whether it's
47:31
Speaker 1: around a manger scene, a Christmas tree, or a menora,
47:35
Speaker 1: we are together as a family. Not everyone has that blessing,
47:41
Speaker 1: that luxury to be together during the holidays. Tonight, please
47:47
Speaker 1: help us bring them home for Christmas. People across our
47:52
Speaker 1: country missing, sometimes for days, sometimes for hours, sometimes for years.
47:57
Speaker 1: Won't you help us bring them? I'm home for Christmas?
48:02
Speaker 1: Where is Tara Callico? What happened to her? Her family?
48:09
Speaker 1: Still looking for answers. Can you imagine that? Hell? If
48:14
Speaker 1: you know or think you know anything, please contact Valencia
48:17
Speaker 1: Sheriff's five zero five eight six six two four hundred
48:23
Speaker 1: or better yet, go to FBI dot gov. We remember
48:30
Speaker 1: an American hero officer, Roger Smith, wake Medcampus Police, North Carolina,
48:35
Speaker 1: shot in the line of duty, leaving behind his grieving daughters,
48:40
Speaker 1: Kelly and ALYSSA American hero officer Roger Smith. Nancy Gray
48:47
Speaker 1: sunning Off, goodbye friend,