i had to grow up without one. in an instant she was gone. and it changed everything. she dreamed of a career solving crimes, but crime claimed her first. gut wrenching pain! my daughter, please, please don t let this be true! home alone on a sunny afternoon she vanished. we just said, oh my god! isn t 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? 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 bi
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? 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 was just 19. a beautiful young woman with big dreams. suddenly, she vanished. snatched from the safety of her own home. there was little evidence to go on, no witness to reveal who took tara or why. or so investigators thought. it would take years and a team of determined cold case detectives to uncover that long buried clue and the story that would blow this case wide open. here s k
Including myself. so detectives went back to the beginning. they reviewed all the witness statements they d taken over the course of the nine months tara had been missing. and there was a note about a man who d turned in some jewelry three days after tara went missing. a ring and bracelet, which turned out to belong to tara s family. it would had been in the possession of glen saint john. took a couple of pieces of jewelry to his probation officer. glen st. john, who went by peewee, was on probation for felony burglary. so, did peewee kill tara? he insisted, no, and he didn t take the jewelry, either, he said. somebody gave it to him. told him that he received that jewelry from phil barr, and phil barr told him it came from the missing girl s home. 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. what did he
Baking sun. a school bus made its methodical way among the residential streets of punta gorda, florida. stopped and started and stopped again. it was inland now, miles from the harbor, the peace river, the center of the town whose warmth had drawn them to the gulf coast. the bus stopped in the middle of a quiet neighborhood. driver opened the door. it was 3:45 p. m. we got off the bus and walked home. we means veronica ord, then almost 14 years old, and her younger brother, paul. and i remember halfway down the road, remembering that i forgot my key. but the closer we got to the house, i had seen my sister s car. so i said, oh, okay, cool. you know, i don t i don t need the key. you know, she s home. then she noticed the door wasn t quite closed.
Blocked by the fence like her relatives were. she d been sitting in full view not more than 15 yards from tara s front door, and she saw a lot. she did see a vehicle pull in a couple different times. and then the second time she saw the vehicle there, it was backed up to the front door. and the two guys got out, opened the tailgate, and we were walking back and forth inside the front door. wow. how important was that in the extremely important. she she identified david mcmannis as being at the house 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? 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,