Several years ago, Tara Calico was discovered dead at age 22 in a car wreck in California. Her family is seeking information about her whereabouts and what happened to her.
Polaroid photos of Tara Calico
Polaroid photos of Tara Calico have been baffling investigators for decades. After 19 year old Tara disappeared, the case was thought to be over. She had vanished while on a bike ride in New Mexico. Her parents had sent thousands of fliers in hopes of finding their daughter. However, nothing ever came of it.
It was nine months after Tara disappeared that a Polaroid photo of a girl and a boy appeared in a convenience store parking lot in Port St. Joe, Florida.
Tara’s family believed the photo was of their daughter. The girl in the picture looked similar to Tara, with similar hair and eye color. Her mother noted that the scar on the leg of the girl in the photo was similar to Tara’s. This scar had been there when Tara was younger.
A family friend told Patty Doel that the girl in the photo looked like Tara. Patty didn’t believe the image of a girl on a train was her daughter, but she did believe the image of a girl in Montecito, California was her daughter.
A witness saw a white van in a parking lot near the photo’s location. After contacting local law enforcement, the driver of the van was arrested. The van was later found to be windowless.
Investigators concluded that the two children in the photo were captive. They generally look sickly and pale, and have been bound. The child in the photo has a mouth covered with duct tape.
Paul Apodaca’s death bed confession
Almost 30 years after a 21-year-old University of New Mexico student was shot and killed, Paul Apodaca has confessed to her killing. Apodaca has also confessed to killing Stella Gonzales, a 13-year-old girl found shot to death near Tingley Beach in 1988.
Apodaca was convicted of rape and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 1995, but he’s been free for the past few months. He was recently charged with murder in the first degree in the death of a woman who would have turned 55 on August 19.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that Apodaca confessed to killing Arquette in 1989. Apodaca’s mother visited him in prison years ago, but she died before he came forward. The story also says that Apodaca confessed to murdering other women in the late 1980s. However, this has not been confirmed by police.
Apodaca has also confessed that he raped several women during the late 1980s. These women were picked at random, and Apodaca says that he was targeting women who were alone. The cases were also allegedly related to his mother’s death. He was sentenced to supervised probation for three years in March.
Apodaca has also confessed his role in the killing of two more women. His confession to the second woman’s death is alleged to have been a ruse to get him sent to prison.
Melinda Esquibel’s journey into the past
Having worked on many of the biggest names in film and television, Melinda Esquibel is a filmmaker that’s attempting to shed light on a long standing mystery. Her latest endeavor is a podcast called Vanished: The Tara Calico Investigation. You can find the first episode on Google Play, Stitcher Radio or even iTunes. This is a multi-part documentary series that features an expert’s take on the case.
In 2010, Esquibel received exclusive access to the case file of Tara Calico, a former student of the Belen High School marching band. She spent months sifting through the files and interviewing law enforcement officers. She also traveled to a remote location on NM 47 where Calico was last seen. She hopes that those who hear the podcast will contribute to the case’s resolution.
Melinda’s quest to unearth the facts in the case of Tara Calico has taken her to unexpected places. She’s had her life threatened on numerous occasions. She hopes that the podcast will be the first of many in the quest to find out the truth.
The Tara Calico case has been a mystery for more than two decades. She went missing while on a bicycle ride in the Belen area. Her parents and her Sheriff were known to be complicit in a crime that went unsolved. It’s unclear what happened to Tara, but she had a promising future ahead of her.
