Please dont let this be. True home alone on a sunny afternoon, she vanished. I said, oh my gosh, is this one of her earrings. Earrings in the carpet, 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 . It tore us apart for years they demanded answers. 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. Dont mess with a mother bear. Hello and welcome to dateline. I tara was just 19 with a beautiful young woman with big dreams. Then suddenly she vanished. Snatch from the safety of her own home. There was no evidence to Go On. No witness to review who took her and why. Force them investigators thought it would take years and a team of determine Cold Case detectives to uncover
Information that we had to review to determine if we could prosecute this case was the most i had ever seen. the idea worked. the grand jury indicted both phil barr and david mcmannis for terrorist murder. they were arrested in late 2012. 11 years after tower vanished from her home. david mcmannis was arrested in maryland, where he grew up. a u.s. marshal not run noted a man hunt for phil barr. we lost track of him we were actually able to locate fill in vermont area, very close to the canadian border. where we think he had fled with the intent possibly of leaving the country. 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 terry disappeared, the next door neighbor told investigators she saw barr and another man at tara s house that they. but she couldn t see much
Going to spend the rest of my life in jail. phil barr said something similar, because peewee is talking about, well i ve only seen the body. is not against the law to see the body. and barr tells him, hey, shut up were going all way to end up in prison. somebody with credibility? better than what we had before. yes. overall, a key problem remained. terrible witnesses. really? detective sport with other people who had also heard the men talking about the murder. but they were not the type a jury would like to believe much of what they say. so, drug and blue so gossip. it was an enough, certainly, to support charging peewee. but thought the prosecutor, maybe he could find a way to go after barr and mcmannis. and he had an idea. bring some of the key witnesses before a grand jury, just to see who passed credibility tests. and who didn t. i ve prosecuted over 100 homicide cases and the complexity and amount of
Her in the back of the truck and the here ribbons came loose as they were driving away. putting it in their. or something? that would be a pretty good explanation. well, well, well. this makes it all the more real when you see how close this must have been. the woman said she didn t actually see what the men were doing. because the cab of the truck blocked her view. but still, this was way more than they had before. finally, 14 years after tara vanished, barr and mcmannis we re going on trial for her murder. what had happened in the house that day. a jury finally here s the story. coming up we believe she confronted them. a mother s perseverance had brought the case this far. she fought and fought and fought. would a verdict bring justice at last? when dateline continues. ateline continues.
Her. and thinking about her where she would have been at my age, now. and the defendants now on trial phil barr owned a septic type repair business. david mcmannis was his helper. the detectives had learned that barr use his business as a cover for stealing from the homes of unsuspecting customers. and here s what happened, said the state, that 1st of october, 2001. towers landlord asked for barr repair estimate. barr and his helper mcmannis began their work day by smoking crack. around noon, for hours before verona cartwright home from school, the men most likely knocked on the door and tara let them in. unaware they had a robbery, not work, on their minds. dave mcmannis was taking the property while barr was couldn t distracting her in the bathroom. we believe she found out. she heard something or saw something that mr. mcmannis was doing, where he was in a place