Case file 0018

Tara Calico: The Bicycle Route That Ended in a Missing-Person Appeal

The FBI’s account places the last sighting on a New Mexico highway in September 1988.

Tara Leigh Calico left her home on Brugg Street in Belen, New Mexico at about 9:30 a.m. on September 20, 1988. She was nineteen. According to the FBI, she borrowed her mother's bicycle because her own was damaged. She has not been seen or heard from since that day. ^[S1]

The route and the bicycle

The FBI describes a neon-pink Huffy mountain bicycle with yellow control cables and yellow-sided tires. It places the last sighting of Tara at approximately 11:45 a.m. on Highway 47 in Valencia County. The trip was part of a daily thirty-six-mile bicycle ride. ^[S1]

The time and route narrow the public appeal to a particular morning and stretch of road. They do not, by themselves, show what happened after the last reported sighting.

A continuing official request

The FBI offers up to $20,000 for precise information identifying or locating Tara, or information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for her disappearance. Its listing directs tips to an FBI office, an American embassy or consulate, or its anonymous online service. ^[S1]

A reward is an invitation to provide information, not an announcement that a particular theory has been proved. The listing remains centered on finding Tara and establishing responsibility.

The known endpoint

The route was ordinary enough to be described as a daily ride. The disappearance made one morning permanently different. The surviving public account identifies the borrowed bicycle, the highway and the approximate final sighting; it does not supply a verified ending for Tara.

Anyone with information about that morning should use the official appeal. This remains an unresolved missing-person file, rather than a verdict against a named defendant.