VIGIL FOR MISSING DAUGHTER i I ' ?) 1 . 'V:.' ' ,i -V ' ' '. . li;..,,,..,,;.!,, ' ,'' .Wtvi.'.-'- Ji EIGHT YEARS OF ANGUISH: Pat and John Doel have kept a candle burning since their daughter, Tara Calico, disappeared along a stretch of NM 47 back In 1988. The photo shows Tara, center, flanked by her grandmother and brother. The angels In the paperweight, on the stone and In the statue are symbolic of Pat Doel's hope that a guardian angel Is looking over her daughter. y FT eres lara Calico? A Belen couple's nightmare began eight years ago when their daughter vanished on a bike ride. Balancing hope and heartache, they pray they '11 someday find the answer. Story by Toby Smith Photographs by STEPliNIE YAO Of the Journal BELEN Tara's inside a barn in Roswell, the psychic from Kentucky called to say. This barn, the psychic went on, stands on a Johnson Road and is surrounded by a chain-link fence. Behind the fence, the psychic said, is a dog. So Tara's mom, who would go to Earth's end to hunt for her daughter, headed for Roswell. She went with a couple of Belen detectives and when they found a barn and a chain fence on a Johnsori Road, their eyes grew wide. When they found behind that fence a Rottweiler, which just happened to be the $ame breed Tara had bought for her stepfather, their skin turned bumpy. But they didn't find Tara. Nobody has found Tara Calico. Nobody has found any sign of the girl who vanished like a sunbeam on Sept. 20, 1988. The case has put several lives on hold, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and caused countless tears. Still, there has been no trace of Tara. Hers has become the most famous missing-person story in New Mexico, a story that won't go away.;. Watching the Clock "Come and get me if I'm not back by noon." TARA CALICO TO MOTHER ' t's always beeii about time. Tara was supposed to be home from her daily bicy cle trip that Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. "Come and get me . if I'm not back by noon," 19-year-old Tara told her mother. f Tara's mom, Pat Doel, is a stickler for promptness. Pat has won ed for the Santa Fe Railway for 27 years, first as a clerk, now as assistant trainmaster. Tara's stepfather, i- , , .. ... , 'tV : L -'t V A RETRACINQ TARA'S RIDE: The Doels periodically walk along NM 47, the highway near Belen where their daughter vanished over eight years ago. John Doel, has put in 34 years with the Santa Fe, most recently as a conductor. It's second nature for the couple to inspect their watches; they're railroad people in a railroad town. Indeed, you can stand in the Doels' driveway in Rio Communities southeast of Belen and hear the train whistles at the city's rail yard. So, ever-vigilant of the hour, Pat set out at noon to search Tara's cycling route: NM 47, a hilly, two-lane blacktop that passes a half mile from the Doels' house and slices through a lonely bottom corner of Valencia County. Unsuccessful, Pat went back to the highway fhat afternoon, this time with Tara's friends, and once more she came up blank. Not even a sign of the pink Huffy 10-speed bicycle Tara had been riding. The next day, when a full-fledged search had been launched, someone found See WHERE'S on PAGE A10 pv..mii..( u. mm ex. CALICO: She was 19 when she vanished without a trace In 1988.
