Tara Calico vanished on a bike ride in New Mexico on September 30, 1988 – and her disappearance was soon linked to a disturbing Polaroid showing a girl and a boy gagged in the back of a van.
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The sinister snap was discovered in a Florida car park in August 1989, sparking an investigation – and the girl was theorised by many to be Tara.
After the harrowing picture was circulated, families came forward to claim they recognised the distressed-looking pair.
The Calico family were certain the girl in the image was Tara, meaning she would have to be alive months after her disappearance.
But law enforcement were divided over the photo – with different agencies turning up inconclusive results.
For decades, the Polaroid was a source of both hope and heartache.
Now nearly 35 years later, Valencia County Sheriff’s Office revealed there has been “substantial progress” made in the investigation.
Detectives said they enlisted the help of the FBI – and now believe there is enough evidence to arrest and charges the suspects in the case.
It marks a huge breakthrough in the decades-old mystery.
Lieutenant Joseph Rowland, the agent on the case for the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office, told The Sun: “Law enforcement believes they have identified the offenders associated with Tara Calico’s disappearance.
“We are seeking to charge and arrest the offenders.
“New evidence was found stemming from investigative work in October 2020 to the present.
“The District Attorney’s Office has assigned a team of prosecutors to review the investigation.
“This case has obvious challenges due to its age and circumstances.
“Legal experts are currently being briefed and caught up on 34 years of investigative work.”
At a bombshell press conference last week, it was revealed that the names and details on the “persons of interest” will remain sealed for now.
Lieutenant Rowland said detectives will continue to ask the public for any information on Tara’s disappearance.
Melinda Esquibel, Tara’s former classmate, has spent years investigating her disappearance – and described her case as “a huge misjustice”.
“I believe that Tara’s case has been a huge misjustice within the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office and hope that now the right people are working this case so justice can be served,” she said.
Melinda believes her friend was stalked by a group of local boys after rejecting one of the lads who had asked her out on a date.
I feel like me and my team have solved the caseMelinda Esquibel
And she thinks the teen was killed on the same night she disappeared and buried just 20 miles from where she was killed – rather than being kidnapped by whoever was behind the Polaroid.
Speaking to The Sun last year, Melinda said: “I know that the family believes it is or could be her, but the data I have gathered shows that it cannot be her.
“None of the data I have leads to that girl being Tara.”
Tara never returned after setting out on a bike ride near her home in the city of Belen, New Mexico.
She set off on the 36-mile route at 9.30am – a route she rode most mornings, often with her mum, Patty Doel.
But her mum had stopped cycling with her because she thought she was being stalked by a driver.
Patty encouraged Tara to begin carrying mace to defend herself, but she rejected the idea.
Tara was last seen riding along a highway at 11.45am – with witnesses claiming to have seen her being followed by a light-coloured Ford pickup truck.
She had asked her mother to come and pick her up if she hadn’t returned by 12pm that fateful day because she had plans to play tennis with her boyfriend that afternoon.
When she didn’t return, Patty went searching along the route and contacted the cops after failing to find her.
The 19-year-old was never seen again with only fragments from her Sony Walkman and cassette tape found along the trail.
Back in 2019, the FBI announced a £16,000 reward for information leading to Tara’s whereabouts.
Melinda came up with the theory about Tara’s disapperance after interviewing hundreds of people and pulling together a case file containing a whopping 25,000 items.
Melinda told The Sun: “I feel like me and my team have solved the case, but I am not the authorities and there is not much I can do about making arrests.
“Therefore, I have to leave that up to them. I have no idea if anyone will ever make any arrests in this case.”
From her years of detective work, she thinks the group of local boys knocked Tara off her bike before snatching her and killing her.
And Melinda thinks Tara is buried just 20 miles away from where she was brutally murdered.
My belief that this case is solvable comes from the large amount of people who have talked about it over the yearsLieutenant Joseph Rowland
“I have information that it was a possibility that this boy and his friends were going to grab her four days before the day she was actually taken on September 16, 1988,” she said.
“This would mean it was premeditated and thought out.”
Paying tribute to her much-loved classmate, Melinda said: “Tara had a bright light around her. She was fun, serious, smart, playful and kind.
“That is how I remember her. She was an upperclassman and we met in the marching band.
“She showed me kindness and I will never forget that. She showed me kindness when she didn’t have to.”
Last year, Lieutenant Rowland told The Sun that he believes the case could be solved.
But he said one of the challenges “is that there is very little physical evidence”.
And Mr Rowland said the FBI confirmed it is not Tara in the picture.
“A body has yet to be found. No DNA was recovered in the initial investigation. The investigation has been continuous for over thirty years now.”
But he added: “My belief that this case is solvable comes from the large amount of people who have talked about it over the years.
“Belen was a much smaller town in 1988 and almost everyone knew each other. I believe that the person or persons, responsible for her disappearance are local.”
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