Tara Calico Never Returns From Daily Bike Ride — Polaroid Found Years Later

On September 20, 1988, 19-year-old Tara Calico left her home in Belen, New Mexico for her daily bike ride south along Highway 47 — a route she had ridden countless times. She never came home. Her pink Sony Walkman was later found on the roadside. Despite extensive searches, no trace of Tara was found. Then, in June 1989, a woman in a Port St. Joe, Florida convenience store parking lot found a Polaroid photograph lying on the ground. It showed a young woman and a teenage boy lying in the back of a van, both bound with rope, both gagged with tape. The woman bore a striking resemblance to Tara Calico and the boy was believed to be a New Mexico teen who had also gone missing. The FBI confirmed the photograph was genuine and had not been tampered with. The van appeared to be a 1953-64 Ford Econoline. Despite national coverage of the photo, neither person was ever identified with certainty, and neither has ever been found. Tara Calico remains one of the most haunting unresolved disappearances in New Mexico history.