LOCATION UNKNOWN
The Case of Tara Leigh Calico
An unresolved mystery of a missing woman
Tuesday, September 20, 1988, was — to all outward appearances — an ordinary, late summer day in Rio Communities, New Mexico. Situated thirty-five miles south of Albuquerque, the western edge of town abuts the Rio Grande River for which the city is named.
Tara Calico, a busy, ambitious, and athletic nineteen-year-old woman had just begun her sophomore year at the nearby University of New Mexico, Valencia Campus. She lived at 403 Brugg Drive with her mother and step-father, and that morning she was preparing to go on a 35-mile round-trip bike ride before an early afternoon tennis date.
It was a ride Tara made whenever time and weather permitted, but on her previous trip, the bike she had ridden had gotten a flat tire. As a result, she had walked herself and the bike more than seven miles back to her home. Along the way, she had declined multiple offers of help. But because of that recent experience and her upcoming tennis date, Tara asked her mom to come looking for her if she weren’t home by noon. Tara then borrowed her mother’s bright pink Huffy 10-speed bicycle, grabbed her yellow Sony Walkman, and headed off toward a popular and picturesque railroad crossing just over seventeen miles from her home.
