with barr. she identified him there at a time when the pickup truck was backed up to the front door. what other reason was that pickup truck backed up the front door other than to take tara out of that house? reporter: we went out to the house to get a better idea of where this woman was sitting and what she could have seen. so, she s sitting right here. wow. so that s one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, like maybe a dozen steps away where this truck is parked. yes. reporter: so that s close. yeah. it s very close. reporter: huh. so if if the back of truck, it would ve been, how how far from the door? like, right up to the door like that? that s correct. and and in this general area, on the outside track, tire track, was found the hair ribbons. reporter: way out here? right out here. reporter: okay. so suggesting that they put her in the back of the truck and the hair ribbons came loose as they were driving away or putting her there
people there, and the crime scene van outside. reporter: now deputies were taking tara s disappearance seriously. mike gandy was a captain at the charlotte county sheriff s office back then. sometimes you ll respond to a scene or a call where someone s missing and you can tell from the family interaction that it s not a big deal. this was not the case with tara s mom. it was obvious that we had a serious problem. first thing, find out the last time anyone had seen or spoken with tara. they knew by the time veronica got home just before 4:00 p.m., tara was gone. they learned tara s last phone call began at 11:49 a.m. ended at 12:05. she d talked to a colleague at the mall jewelry kiosk where she worked. she said she d be by, pick up her paycheck, and go shopping. but first, their landlord had arranged for a septic repair company to drop by the house. so did tara stay and wait? maybe the owner of the repair company knew something. one of our criminal investigation division sergeant
review to determine if we could prosecute this case was the most i d ever seen. reporter: the idea worked. the grand jury indicted both phil barr and dave mcmannis for tara s murder. they were arrested in late 2012, 11 years after tara vanished from her home. dave mcmannis was arrested in maryland, where he grew up, while u.s. marshals mounted a manhunt for phil barr. kinda lost track of him. we were actually then able to to locate phil in the vermont area, very close to the canadian border, where we think he had fled with the intent possibly of of leaving the country. reporter: but the case against the men needed more, and so the cold case team kept investigating. and in 2014, one of them came across a name buried deep in an old file. right after tara disappeared, a next door neighbor told investigators she saw barr and another man at tara s house that day, but she couldn t see much because her view was blocked by a fence. so that went nowhere then,
we found another one. yeah. and and then the third one. reporter: like, ground into the carpet? yeah, right oh, yeah, just we had to pull them out. reporter: they also noticed a small palm tree in their front yard had been damaged along with the decorative bricks around it. and then there was tire tracks. reporter: what, across the lawn? across the lawn. reporter: how close do those tire tracks come to the house? it wasn t a big yard, but no, it wasn t a big yard. reporter: they went up to the door. and they found two ribbons, the kind tara wore in her hair, outside their front door, and scuff marks on their bedroom dresser. tell me about the what those scuff marks look like. like somebody moved it or rubbed something against it? if you took your shoe and you kicked something and you left a mark. reporter: okay. like, if, you know, if you walk on a floor and you drag your feet, it leaves a mark? reporter: yeah. well, that was o
reporter: 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 pee wee telling the truth? would he ever tell the truth? he told multiple different stories. reporter: 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 told investigators, tara was fine when he and his helper left her house that afternoon. but q