Tara Calico: Disappeared in 1988 (Belen, NM) | Part One

SEQUESTERED Podcast

Road Trip Studios

True Crime, Society & Culture

4.6 • 640 Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

EPISODE 04: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF TARA CALICO

On a bright September morning in 1988, 19-year-old Tara Calico left her home in Rio Communities, New Mexico, for her usual bike ride—and never came back. Hours later, fragments of her Walkman and a cassette tape were found scattered near the road. Witnesses reported a suspicious white pickup truck trailing her. But no body. No bike. No arrests.

In Part 1 of this gripping two-part case, we take you back to that morning: Tara’s final known moments, the chilling eyewitness reports, and the desperate search that swept through her small desert town. What began as a routine ride on Highway 47 became one of the most haunting unsolved disappearances in New Mexico history.

Tara Calico was smart, vibrant, and full of life. This is her story.
And it starts with a pink Huffy bike… and a vanishing.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Tara Calico, please contact the Valencia County Police Department at (505) 866-2400.
Or call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or online at tips.fbi.gov.

See pictures and more source links at our website: SEQUESTEREDpod.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's a Tuesday, September 20th, 1988, a high desert morning in Boulin, New Mexico.
0:16.6	The sun is already warming the pavement when Tara pulls her ponytail tight, slips on her headphones, and presses play on her yellow Sony Walkman.
0:26.7	Boston.
0:28.6	She steps onto the petals of the bright pink huffy she borrowed from her mom, the one with the squeaky brakes and the yellow cables.
0:36.6	It's not her favorite, but it'll do for today.
0:39.3	This road is her rhythm.
0:42.3	She's ridden it for years.
0:44.3	She knows every curve, every mile marker, every shift in the wind.
0:49.3	What she doesn't know is that someone else would be out on that road with her today.
0:55.2	In just a few hours, her Walkman would be broken, her Boston cassette laying in the dirt,
1:01.9	and Tara Calico, just 19 years old, will be gone.
1:07.4	No 911 call, no bloody scene, just a girl on a bike, and a mystery that still haunts New Mexico.
1:16.6	My name is Sarah Reed, and this is sequestered, season two.
1:21.6	Case 3, The Disappearance of Tara Calico, Part 1. On February 28, 1969, Tara Lee Calico was born in New Mexico to David and Patty Calico.
2:03.6	Patty would later marry John Dole, a kind and steady man who became Tara's devoted stepfather.
2:11.6	Tara wasn't just another kid on the block.
2:13.6	She was magnetic, vibrant, quick-witted, and fiercely adventurous. She had an easy laugh,
2:22.3	a fearless streak, and a deep bond with her family. From the start, she seemed destined to make
2:29.3	an impression on the world around her. After her parents' divorce, Tara and her mom moved to a quiet neighborhood just outside of
2:38.2	Berlin, a small residential community known as Rio communities. It was the kind of place where
2:45.5	everyone knew everyone, where bikes littered front yards and desert winds brushed through the cottonwoods.
2:54.2	It felt safe, familiar. It was a good place to grow up. But even the quietest towns can keep
	...

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