cause that wasn t usual. so that s when i had called keith. reporter: keith was keith mcphillips, her mom s fiance. he was just leaving work, told veronica he was thinking of stopping for coffee with a friend on his way home. then veronica told him about tara, that her purse was home, but she wasn t. what did you think when she told you that? well, just something wasn t right. because if tara was gonna go somewhere, i knew she wouldn t leave her stuff or her car. she woulda said, i won t be here when the kids get here. that s how responsible she was. sure. reporter: keith canceled the coffee plan, drove straight home. as soon as i got home, it just didn t look right. there was all kinds of tracks on the floor and i said, what are these marks on the floor? and she said, i don t know. tracks? muddy footprints. reporter: muddy footprints in the living room and master bedroom. and something else, something only those who lived there would know. in the bedroom, li
he was the owner of the septic repair business that had been at tara s house the day she went missing. but, was pee wee 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 interviewed and he would change his story to where to the point where it made him an uncredible witness. he admitted that he had seen the body at some point. it was a little interesting in that that particular area, tara s bones were recovered was within a couple hundred yards of one of peewee s favorite fishing spots. isn t that your connection? that it was a great connection, but mr. saint john was a very incredible witness. reporter: that story about getting stolen jewelry from phil barr? no jewelry from tara s home was found in the possession of phil barr. reporter: and anyway, barr
ribbons on the ground. tire tracks on the lawn. there was evidence of a violent struggle. what had happened? and who was behind it? everything was a mystery. was she still alive? you know? was she not? it tore us apart. for years, they demanded answers, a struggle each day. then came the cold case squad with a new bag of tricks. i always felt that this was a case that could be solved. they wanted 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. welcome to dateline. tara ord was just 19. a beautiful young woman with big dreams and suddenly she vanished snatched from the safety of her
would be turned a certain way because when you lay in bed, you wanna see it. but when i looked in, it was straight. and then i notice stuff missing off the dresser. jewelry was gone, money was gone. what was going on in your head when you saw this, as you noticed things were missing? i knew something was something bad. reporter: oh, and it was. what happened to that grown-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 caring. caring, full of life. reporter: sharon ord mcphillips is tara s mother. she had dreams and ambitions. she was a cheerleader, a catcher for softball. she loved art. most of all we were a family. she loved her family and we
loved her right back. reporter: they were new to punta gorda. had moved, recently, from scranton, pennsylvania. tara, almost grown up, told them she d stay behind, make her own life. she didn t wanna come down, you know. i m re change, especially when you re older and but we had a bet going on how long it would be before she got here, because i m gonna stay here on my own. no, i m not. yeah. yes. yep, no. reporter: she got a job. made plans to start college. had already decided that she wanted to be a crime scene investigator. she had her books and everything. yeah. reporter: and though sharon s then-fiance keith wasn t officially tara s step-dad, they had a father-daughter sort of relationship. yeah, we were very close. yep. always always hung out together. she would make our famous peanut butter and jelly triple-decker sandwiches we would have. and she would be going to make