Tara Leigh Calico

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Valencia County Sheriffs Office (NM)

Missing From:

Belen, New Mexico

Summary:

Tara Leigh Calico was a young woman who went missing from Belen, New Mexico on September 20, 1988. The 19-year-old college student went missing during her daily 36-mile bike ride on the desolate N.M. 47 south of Rio Communities. She is widely believed to have been kidnapped. In June 2023, Valencia County Sheriff Denise Vigil declared there had been a break in the cold case investigation that warranted sending the entire case file to District Attorney Barbara Romo for potential prosecution.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

Tara left her home at approximately 9:30 a.m. on September 20, 1988 to go on a bike ride. Her bike had a flat tire, so she used her mother's bike. Tara was last seen riding her mother's bike on Highway 47 at approximately 11:45 a.m. During Tara's bike ride, witnesses stated they saw a white or light gray-colored 1953 Ford pickup truck with a white handmade shell following Tara. On the morning of Tara's disappearance, she had told her mother to come and get her if she was not home by noon, as she had plans to play tennis with her boyfriend at 12:30. Doel went to look for her at 12:05 p.m. the day she was last seen. When she could not find her along her usual bike route, she contacted police.

Additional Details:

When searching for her the next day, Tara's mother found one of Tara's cassette tapes on the side of the road three miles from her home on the opposite side of the highway. Later, a part of Tara's Walkman was found 19 miles east of the highway she was riding on near the John F. Kennedy campground. There were also signs of a scuffle or skids near where Tara's cassette tape was found. In July 1989, a Polaroid photo of an unidentified young woman and boy, gagged and seemingly bound, was televised to the public after it was found in a convenience store parking lot in Port St. Joe, Florida. Doel said that she was "convinced" it was Calico. Scotland Yard analyzed the photo and concluded that the woman was Calico, but a second analysis by the Los Alamos National Laboratory disagreed. An FBI analysis of the photo was inconclusive. The boy was identified by his parents as nine year-old Michael Henley, who had been abducted in 1988 from the same part of New Mexico as Tara. Henley's remains were subsequently found buried in the Zuni mountains in 1990. Perhaps no one felt Tara's loss more acutely than her mother, Patty Doel, who died in 2006 without ever learning what happened to her daughter. Valencia County and FBI investigators have declared probable cause to arrest a group of suspects they believe kidnapped and killed Calico, but a potential criminal prosecution remains in limbo at the 13th Judicial District Attorney's Office. Investigators are exploring an abandoned mine leased by the family of David Parker Ray, who once owned a ranch nearby, as a potential lead in the search for Calico's body, after numerous searches in other locations have yielded no results.

Case Last Updated:

Jul 27, 2026