Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • A7

most agonizing loss a parent can bear. Doel, her husband told me years ago, kept vigil at a window in their retirement home in Port Charlotte, where they had moved in 2003 when the ghosts and the memories back home became too much. Even though they were nearly 2,000 miles away then, Patty saw Tara in every cyclist who rode by. have to try to explain to her that it Tara, that it was a person too old or too John Doel told me in 2006, weeks after Patty had passed away that May at age 64. was looking for Tara right to the It might have seemed the end of the search for Tara.

The Doels, especially Patty, had been the driving force of that, becoming deputized so they could conduct their own searches, mailing out thousands of fliers, contacting law enforcement agencies around the globe, appearing on every national TV show that would have them, talking to reporters like me. Valencia County authorities repeatedly assured the public that the investigation was just a tip away from being solved. But that tip never came in. In 2013, a six-person task force of local and federal investigators was formed to put fresh eyes on what had happened to the University of New Mexico sophomore on Sept. 20, 1988.

A year later, the task force disbanded. Quietly, though, a new effort to find Tara had already begun to take shape, this time headed by Michele Doel, younger sister. Nine years ago, she joined forces with Melinda Esquibel, who had known Tara as a fellow member of the Belen High School marching band. mom had sent me an article from the Valencia County News-Bulletin in 2008 about how Tara had been missing for 20 years, and I just started Esquibel said. happening had traumatized the community and kind of changed how we felt about safety in our community.

We wrap our minds around what had happened to Esquibel, living in Los Angeles and working in the entertainment industry, said she was especially intrigued about a portion of the article relating how then-Valencia County Sheriff Rene Rivera, who had long investigated the case as a detective, believed he knew the boys responsible for disappearance. just waiting to get a little more evidence her bicycle, her clothing or Tara Rivera was quoted as saying in the article. Podcast, website While visiting family in the Belen area that Christmas, Esquibel said, she had dinner with old friends and brought up comment. Their response was jolting. said, Melinda, the whole town knows who did she said.

when she said she knew she needed to tell story, bring it back into the public eye, bring pressure to bear on the authorities who could bring about the justice Patty and John Doel had sought for so long. She received permission from John Doel, now in his late 70s and in poor health, and contacted Michele Doel in Albuquerque. Three months later, the two women were putting together evidence and information gathered by the Doels over the years and started investigating on their own. Esquibel began work on a documentary about case, which is still in progress. To get word out quicker, she launched The Tara Calico a podcast that has been downloaded over a million times around the world.

In addition, is also a website and Facebook page with more than 5,000 followers. The women are also working with a private investigator who is helping to put together a case that may finally force local law enforcement to act. A call to Sgt. Joseph Rowland, now in charge of the case for Valencia County, was not returned. The answers, Esquibel said, have been right in front of everybody all along.

know who did she said. Those who listen to the podcast, she said, will know who did it, too. Older-model pickup Looking back at my notes, I realize the Doels and investigators have always spoken about an older-model white or light pickup truck with a camper shell seen around N.M. 47, sometimes behind Tara on the return leg of her trip, sometimes just as she headed out on N.M. 47, headphones on, her Walkman playing a tape by Boston.

Witnesses say the passenger in front seat was the son of a powerful local law enforcement officer. He would have been about 18 when Tara vanished. Witnesses say he and Tara knew each other. In the 2008 News-Bulletin article, Sheriff Rivera said several witnesses told him that the two youths in the truck had been following Tara, grabbing at her, trying to talk to her, when the truck struck bike, knocking her to the ground. there, the individuals took he said.

There have been other reports. In November 2013, a member of the task force filed a police report that detailed the dying of a witness who identified three young men, including the son, as being involved in disappearance. The bike, the man said, was tossed in a junkyard in Belen. body was thrown into a pond. unclear what police did with that information.

Reports that Tara had been raped, then stabbed, then buried, covered with concrete slabs or, in one instance, stuffed into a freezer, have also surfaced. Possible gravesites across Valencia County have been dug up with no results. According to Journal articles, the son of the officer died in 1991 at age 21, the result of either suicide or a game of Russian roulette gone wrong. His father, who told the Journal he believed his son was murdered, died in 2017. And, then, the matter of the eerie Polaroid picture found in the parking lot of a Port St.

Joe, convenience store 10 months after Tara vanished. The photo depicts a long- legged young woman and a little boy in the back of a van, their mouths covered with duct tape and their hands bound behind their backs. Experts from Los Alamos to Scotland Yard have disagreed on whether the woman was Tara. Esquibel said she is not ready to dismiss the photo as integral to the case. How, though, she say.

Without a body, officials are likely unwilling to pursue the case further, Esquibel said. But that stopping her or Michele Doel, both possessing a tenaciousness, a fearlessness to finish what Patty Doel never gave up believing would happen one day that Tara would come home. Thirty years or 300, they insist Tara will come home, one way or another. UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter Go to www.

abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor. ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 A7 First debate on TV gets heated pated in previously when it seemed both candidates went out of their way to make it clear how much they respected each other. debate had a freewheeling format, with no time limits and the opportunity for the candi- dates to speak directly to each other. They sometimes avoided directly answering questions. One particularly heated moment came when Staley repeatedly pressed Pearce to say whether he would end promo- the practice of pass- ing students on to the next grade even if not proficient.

Pearce, like an Staley said at one point. Pearce, meanwhile, said he disagreed with the prem- ise of the question. Under his administration, he said, children would get early intervention to get them on the right track, with help from volunteers who would read to them. think every kid has inside of them, the abil- ity to really skyrocket and Pearce said. I just accept the idea of Lujan Grisham also took issue with question about social promotion, calling the phrase a bad But she said New Mexico should embrace pre- kindergarten programs and other early childhood education efforts aimed at ensuring children show up to school ready to learn, among other strategies.

need more time teaching, less time she said. Lujan Grisham and Pearce also clashed over raising the minimum wage, legalizing recreational marijuana and tapping more heavily into the New land grant per- manent fund to fund early childhood programs. In each case, Lujan Grisham was in favor, while Pearce was opposed. Pearce, in turn, said he supported a work require- ment for people who get their health care through Medicaid or use other public assistance programs. Lujan Grisham said Pearce had repeatedly voted against public benefit programs.

Staley directly asked if they had smoked marijua- na. Both candidates said they had not. Asked to describe where take a weekend Pearce mentioned the lovely views available on the drive from Santa Fe to Chama in northern New Mexico, while Lujan Grisham singled out White Sands. Each candidate offered a personal story as they addressed whether to increase the $7.50 minimum wage in New Mexico. Lujan Grisham said she would support boosting the minimum wage to $10 an hour, at first, and later to $12, with inflation adjust- ments after that.

The move would deliver an immediate raise to 110,000 residents, she said. Pearce said that a gov- ernment-mandated wage increase would hurt peo- ple, perhaps as businesses reduced hours. He started working outside the house when he was 9, he said, and slowly moved up the pay scale. I got my first he said, make minimum wage, because I worth Lujan Grisham might not understand, Pearce said, because she worked in gov- ernment or had a govern- ment contract, while his business had competition. Lujan Grisham, a former state Cabinet secretary and health care consul- tant, strongly disputed that and said a wage increase can help small businesses by giving people more to spend.

Raising the mini- mum wage is particularly important for women and families, she said. know what it takes as a single mom to raise a fam- she said. The two candidates have two more TV debates sched- uled: on Oct. 16, sponsored by KOB-TV, and on Oct. 24, co-hosted by KOAT-TV and the Journal.

The winner of the Nov. 6 election will succeed Gov. Susana Martinez, a Repub- lican who run this year because of term limits. From PAGE A1 From PAGE A1 Thirty years later, no sign of Tara Calico More information VANISHED: THE TARA CALICO INVESTIGATION PODCAST: audioboom.com/channel/ vanished, also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher. ON FACEBOOK: Vanished: The Tara Calico Story ONLINE: taracalico.com TWITTER: TO LEAVE COMMENTS OR TIPS: 575-201-7444.

JOURNA Patty and John Doel kept the bedroom of daughter Tara Calico the way she left it on Sept. 20, 1988, when she vanished while on a bike ride. Each year, they placed Christmas and birthday gifts on her bed. When the Doels moved from Rio Communities to Port Charlotte, in 2003, they took the gifts with them. mother, Tracy Ann Pena, 36, also faces several charges of child abuse, tampering with evidence and conspiracy for killing and the disposal of his body.

But she was not in court Wednesday. District Attorney Marco Serna has confirmed that a plea deal is in the works for Pena. Ferguson, boyfriend at the time of death, also faced charges and was previously pegged as the indi- vidual who carried out the killing. But he committed suicide at age 42 in the Santa Fe County jail in April. sister, nearly a year young- er than her brother, said in court Wednes- day that Nunez killed Jeremiah on Nov.

26 by flipping several times a dog crate that the boy was locked in. Court documents have said the boy was tortured with various implements and forced to stay in the dog cage wear- ing a diaper. Documents say Ferguson forced Nunez and Pena to help bury the body in a shal- low grave off N.M. 503 near Santa Fe County deputies learned of the kill- ing when Pena spoke about it while being held in the Santa Fe County jail in late January on unrelated charges. On the day in late November that Jer- emiah died, the girl said, she and Fergu- son were about to pick Pena up from jail when Ferguson got angry at Jeremiah and locked him in a dog cage.

Pena was being held for failure to make a court appearance on one of her almost routine minor criminal charges. Jeremiah eventually fell asleep, she said, and Nunez began flipping the cage to wake him up. She said that Nunez pulled Jeremiah out of the cage and that head kind of He never woke up. The girl said Jeremiah, who had alleg- edly been tortured with brass knuckles, a homemade spear, a 5-pound hammer and a shock collar, was in bad shape the day he died. was really skinny, and all his cuts were infected.

He had a black eye, and his tooth was knocked she said. The teen said that she had previously been forced to watch as Ferguson poked Jeremiah with the spear in bedroom. She also said Ferguson made Pena abuse her son he want to do The girl said Ferguson also made her take part in the abuse. would just tell me to do she said. was too afraid to tell him She said Ferguson would hit her if she talked back to him, but said that happen often because she was scared of him.

She said she has a hard time remember- ing her time at the house. tried to put it she said. Amanda Nunez, Jordan moth- er, also testified. She said she married Ferguson when she was 14 and was with him for 16 tumultuous years. was abusive, and I was an obses- she said.

even a person. I was just his thing he liked to beat on. When we had kids, it got even worse. It something I could Amanda Nunez said three pregnancies failed because Ferguson beat her so badly and that he left me for dead sev- eral She said that, after they no longer lived together, she changed her name from Julian to Jordan so that Fer- guson find him. For a period, a police officer went home with her every night to check underneath beds and in closets before she went in, to make sure Ferguson there.

Court docu- ments indicate Ferguson formerly lived in Texas. Amanda Nunez said Ferguson believe Jordan was his son because of skin tone and said Ferguson punched Jordan in the chest when he was only two months old. said he wished the little son of a bitch would she said, fighting back tears. Ferguson would make Jordan and his siblings hit one another, she said. He told her to beat the kids, as well or she would be hit even worse, she said.

But she was more willing to be beaten by Fer- guson than to hit her kids. Amanda said Jordan is quiet and is nothing like his father. a really good she said. the type of kid give you the shirt off his back. always tried to Although Judge Wilson acknowledged that Jordan Nunez was controlled and manipulated by Ferguson, he still found that he was a threat to the community, because he abused Jeremiah, helped dispose of the body and threatened to kill Pena if she told anyone about the murder.

Sister tells how Jeremiah died From PAGE A1 EDDIE A member of the household where 13-year-old Jeremiah Valencia was killed last year testified Wednes- day that Jordan Nunez, shown here at a Sept. 15 hearing, killed the boy by repeatedly flipping a dog crate that Jer- emiah was forced to stay in. Library Issues Prints Call 823-3490 1420031-17.