detective give all those answers. you can t put that information out there. still, sharon continued to ferret out what she could. we just never gave up. there was no stopping. as did her attorney. she would hear a piece of information from a neighbor or a news source or a detective that wasn t supposed to tell her. and then she would confirm it, run with it, call me. she fought and fe. justice for tara. and as sharon would say, my tara. she s always said, my tara. but none of these efforts turned up anything useful. and the sheriff s case wasn t going anywhere either. there was no getting around it. justice for tara just was not happening. in fact, the case was growing cold. stone cold. eventually mike gandy retired, as did these two cops, way up north. retired and moved to sunny florida. and i got very bored. oh oh. coming up i always felt this was a
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 keith morrison with the knock at the door. it was a monday afternoon. a 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 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
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, nine, 10, like maybe a dozen steps away where this truck is parked. yes. so, that s close, yeah. it s very close. 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 thi
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 keith morrison with the knock at the door. reporter: it was a monday afternoon. a 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 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. reporter: we means veronica
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