i looked and it was straight. and i noticed stuff was missing off the dresser. jewelry was gone, money was gone. what was going on in your head when you saw? this because you notice things were missing? i knew something was dramatic. oh, and it was. what happened to that grew up girl in this modest house in the little city by the sea? on the 1st of october, 2001,? a mystery for so many years. she was such a sweet, loving, kind hearing her whole life. sharon mcfarland is tara s mother. she had dreams and ambitions. he was a cheerleader, a catcher for softball. she loved art. most of all we were a family. yes. she left her family and we loved her right back. they were new to punta gorda. had moved recently from scranton, pennsylvania. tara, almost grown up, told them she would stay behind and make her own life. she didn t want to come down. i m sure it was, you know, it s a change. especially when you are older. and we had a bet going on how
friends. and then actually, they called one friend and this person was dating tara. sharon almost shouted it was in her tara. the officer tried a different tara. they put a b. o. l. o. out. b. o. l. o.? yes, be on the lookout. tara new family knew if you ve gone to the football game, if you don t anywhere, she would ve told them. deputy said since tara was an adult they would wait 24 hours before calling her a missing person. maybe she just left on her own. if my daughter was a runaway or a troubled trialed, or whatever the case may have been, i would have told you that. i know my child. how frustrated were you? i owe so, very frustrated. veronica, not quite 14, remember she was terrified. why wasn t anybody taking action and figuring out where she was? keith and sharon called everybody they knew in town.
keith morrison (voiceover): so they were, as evening depended, gamechanger for my patients- pacing around the little house, frantic about tara. what happened? as evening deepened of, piecing around the little house. frantic about tara. what happened? where was she? it was getting late. you know, why was she home? the policeman who came to help them only seeming that concern about the jewelry and cash that here to be taken. not sharon s missing daughter. they were concentrating on the burglary. they didn t seem to hear what she was saying. didn t understand her panic. they just weren t getting us, what was going on. they were trying to say maybe she s out at a football game. a football game? yeah. and then they went through her
a struggle each day. then came the cold case file with a new bag of tricks. i always felt that this was a case to be solved. they wanted us justice just as bad as we did. as a mother, she fought and fought and fought. we just never gave up. don t mess with a mother bear. hello and welcome to dateline. tara was just 19 with a beautiful young woman with big dreams.
by peewee, was on probation for felony burglary. so, did he kill tara? he insisted no. and he didn t take the jewelry either. he said somebody gave it to him. we told him that he received him from phil barr. and phil barr told him it came from the missing girls. and phil barr? he was the owner of the septic repair business that had been at tara s house the day she went missing. but was peewee telling the truth? would he ever tell the truth? he told multiple different stories. what did he say? he said a little more each time he was interview. and he changed his story to the point where it made him an and credible witness. he admitted that he had seen the body at some point. i was a little interesting in that particular area. terror spoons were recovered within a couple hundred yards of one of these favorite fishing spots. isn t that your connection? that was a great connection.