hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." >> i'm craig melvin. veronica ord: i was, what happened to my sister? hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." i had to grow up without one.

>> and this is "dateline." >> i was robbed of my sister. 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 came for her first. >> i prayed, my daughter, please don't 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. don't mess with a mother bear. >> hello and welcome to "dateline." 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 that long buried clue and the story that would blow this case wide open. here is keith morrison with the knock at the door. >> it was a monday afternoon. a baking sun. a school bus made its methodical way around the medical streets of punta gorda, florida. stopped and started, stopped again. it was inland now. miles from the harbor, the peace river, the center of town. who would warmth header on them to the golf course. the bus stop to in the middle of a quiet neighborhood. the driver opened the door. it was 3:45 pm. >> we got off the bus and walk home. >> we, means veronica ord, then almost 14 years old. and her younger brother paul. >> i remember halfway down the road, remembering i had forgotten my key. the closer we got to the house, i saw my sister's car, so i said oh, okay i don't need the key. she's home.

>> then she noticed the door wasn't quite closed. >> it was closed but it wasn't latched. you could just pull in the and the door was open. i remember walking in and oprah was on the tv. >> what did you assume when you saw the door open and the tv on? >> i thought, you know, maybe she left in a hurry. maybe she went with a friend. and she didn't close the door all the way. >> she was tara, veronica's older sister, not quite 20 then. veronica called out, no answer. she walked through the house. bathroom light was on. >> i went looking in the bathroom and and i went away our bedroom and i saw her purse and everything. a top of her dresser, so i'm like, where would she be without her purse? because that was unusual. so that's when i called keith.

>> keith was keith mcphillips, her mom's fiance. he was just leaving work until 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 me that? >> that something wasn't right. because if tara who is going to go somewhere, i knew she wouldn't leave her stuff for her car. she's would be at home when the kids got here. that's how responsible she was. >> sure. keith canceled the coffee plan. drove straight home. >> as soon as i got home, it just didn't look right. there were these trucks on the floor. so i said what are these marks on the floor? she said i don't know. >> tracks? >> muddy footprints in the living room. >> and something else. something only those who live there would know. >> in the bedroom, it would be turned a certain way. because when you turn this when

i looked and it was straight. and i noticed stuff was missing off the dresser. jewelry was gone, money was gone. >> what was going on in your head when you saw? this because you notice things were missing? >> i knew something was dramatic. >> oh, and it was. what happened to that grew 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 hearing her whole life. >> sharon mcfarland is tara's mother. >> she had dreams and ambitions. he was a cheerleader, a catcher for softball. she loved art. most of all we were a family. >> yes. >> she left her family and we loved her right back. >> they were new to punta gorda. had moved recently from scranton, pennsylvania. tara, almost grown up, told them she would stay behind and make her own life. >> she didn't want to come down. i'm sure it was, you know, it's a change. especially when you are older. and we had a bet going on how

long it would be before she got here. because we are so close. >> yeah. >> because we are close and i think she lasted three weeks. >> i will stay here on my own. no i'm not. >> yes. >> she got a job and make plans to start college. had already decided that she wanted to be a crime scene investigator. >> she had the books and everything. >> yeah. >> and those sharon's then fiancã©e keith wasn't officially carat terrorist set that, they had a father daughter sort of relationship. >> we were very close, yes. always hung up together. she would make her famous jelly, triple decker sandwiches. we would have them. she was my buddy. >> and now he didn't know where she was. right away that afternoon, keith called it sharon, just finishing her workday in her office. >> i'll never forget that call. i remember saying i have to leave now. it was a 40-minute ride. and i cried that whole way home. to please don't let anything be wrong. please, please.

>> i remember my mother pulling up. >> how did she look? >> oh, panicked. >> keith had called 9-1-1. an officer was there when she arrived. >> my first thing was you need to do something. my daughter is not here. i just knew. >> coming up. what had happened to tara? >> why wasn't anybody taking action and figuring out where she was? >> earrings in the carpet. ribbons on the ground. tire tracks on the lawn. >> it was obvious that we had a serious problem. >> gut wrenching pain. please, please don't let this be true. >> when "dateline" continues. no fingersticks needed. now the world's smallest and thinnest sensor... sends your glucose levels directly to your smartphone. manage your diabetes with more confidence, and lower your a1c. the number one cgm prescribed in the us. try it for free at

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keith morrison (voiceover): so they were, as evening depended, gamechanger for my patients- pacing around the little house, frantic about tara. what happened? as evening deepened of, piecing around the little house. frantic about tara. what happened? where was she? >> it was getting late. you know, why was she home? >> the policeman who came to help them only seeming that concern about the jewelry and cash that here to be taken. not sharon's missing daughter. >> they were concentrating on the burglary. >> they didn't seem to hear what she was saying. didn't understand her panic. >> they just weren't getting us, what was going on. they were trying to say maybe she's out at a football game. >> a football game? >> yeah. and then they went through her

friends. and then actually, they called one friend and this person was dating tara. >> sharon almost shouted it was in her tara. the officer tried a different tara. >> they put a b. o. l. o. out. >> b. o. l. o.? >> yes, be on the lookout. >> tara new family knew if you've gone to the football game, if you don't anywhere, she would've told them. deputy said since tara was an adult they would wait 24 hours before calling her a missing person. maybe she just left on her own. >> if my daughter was a runaway or a troubled trialed, or whatever the case may have been, i would have told you that. i know my child. >> how frustrated were you? >> i owe so, very frustrated. >> veronica, not quite 14, remember she was terrified. >> why wasn't anybody taking action and figuring out where she was? >> keith and sharon called everybody they knew in town.

their best friends offered moral support and came to the house. and one of them noticed something on the floor. >> we just said, oh my god. we walked in and she was bending over pulling it out of the carpet. we knew it was embedded in the carpet. >> it wasn't just laying there. >> she pulled out and said, sharon isn't this one of her earrings. >> so then? >> then eventually we found the another one. >> and then the third one. >> ground into the carpet? >> oh yes, we had to pull them out. >> they also notice swamp the small palm tree in the front yard had been damaged along with the decorative bricks surrounded. >> and then there were tire tracks. >> across the line? >> yes. >> how close did those tire tracks come to the house? >> it was in a big yard but it went up to the --

>> they found to ribbons, the kind tower war in her here, outside the front door. and scoff marks on their bedroom dresser. >> tell me about what those scoff marks look like? like somebody moved it or run something against it? >> if you took your shoe and you kick something and you left a mark. like if -- it was on the dresser drawers in our bedroom. >> one of the missing pieces of jewelry was a ring tower had given to keith. >> that ring she bought me. i didn't care about anything else but that. >> the officers left the house with nothing learned, nothing resolved, and still no tara.

sharon and keith didn't sleep a wink that night. >> what goes on in here? when you're sitting up all night? >> gut wrenching pain. praying that please, please don't let this be true. >> before the sun came up, sharon called 9-1-1 again. and a new officer arrived. >> a woman deputy, i'll never forget that. she came and i remember saying to her, please help me. and she did. she got the ball rolling. she listened to me. >> the deputy called and crime scene investigators. >> remember my mom or mother waking me and my brother up and we -- remember seeing so many people there. and the crime scene van outside. >> now deputies were taking towers disappearance seriously. mike gandy was the captain of the charlotte county sheriff's office back then. >> sometimes you respond to a scene or call where someone is missing and you can tell from the family interaction that it is not a big deal. this was not the case with terrorism. it was obvious that we had a serious problem. >> first thing, find out the last time anyone had seen or

spoken to tara. they knew by the time veronica got home, just before 4 pm, tara was gone. they learned that towers last phone call began at 11:49 pm and ended at 12:05. she had talked to a colleague at the mall jewelry kiosk where she worked. said she would be by to pick up her paycheck and go shopping. but first, their landlord had arranged for a septic repair company to drop by the house. so, had terrence stayed and wait? maybe the owner of the repair company knew something. >> one of our criminal investigation sergeants on his way to work stopped by this guy south and ask him had he been to tara's home. yes he had. yes he had contact with a female there.

>> and he said she was perfectly fine when she he left the house for the afternoon. so, assuming that was true, who else came to that little house on the afternoon of october 1st? and took away their tara? >> coming up -- >> something needed to happen. >> a frustrated family reaches out to someone you. >> if you met sharon, you wouldn't tell her. no i looked around in the eye and i told her i would do everything to try to help them. >> a turn in the case was coming. when dateline continues.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> how to explain how a mother

keith morrison (voiceover): how to explain how a mother feels when her child has vanished and all signs point to something feels when her child is vanished and all signs point to something bad. keith, what it is due to her? >> it tore her apart. it's just like watching somebody crumble. >> although the family appeared to be very close and surly

sincerely distraught, investigators believed they still needed to be looked at as possible suspects. >> you know, it's a cruel reality that of the detective business that they start close and widen out. and they always start with members of the family to eliminate them. >> right. >> it reminds up tragically in horribly, being somebody very close to them. >> i actually asked that my quite self. did you check us out? >> they said they did. >> they said don't worry, we did. >> meanwhile, sharon and keith pushed through their fear and anxiety. and did what they could. >> we looked in garbage bags. >> we will go everywhere and anywhere. you dumpsters. >> i would do it every day. >> we will go in the woods so far we didn't even know where to come out have the time. >> captain gandy's investigators search for terror as well. >> deputy searching 500 acres of pasture. >> someone called and said hey

we saw a spacious person in this area. or there is buzzwords over here. we were always doing a search. we do have a couple of different times where we use dogs in certain areas. >> four weeks after tara vanished, she turned 20. and they try to stay positive. you had a birthday party? >> had to. and we had the presidents. and i'll never forget this, i went to open one and my son said you're not opening that. he said, she's coming back. and i didn't open it. >> months went by. they couldn't accept what their heads kept telling them. that tara had been snatched away and murdered. but nobody was telling them. the investigation seemed to have stall. wasn't going anywhere. >> something needed to happen. >> and it didn't feel like it is happening? >> exactly. >> not at all. >> so, out of sheer desperation, about six months after tara

vanished, they hired a civil attorney. a woman named amanda downing. what do they want you to do? >> they wanted anyone's help. a lawyer's help. the medias help. civilians. help neighbors help. anybody's help in finding their daughter. and i think by hiring a lawyer they believed that i could somehow assist them in fact finding. finding their daughter, searching for her. anything. they were grasping. >> what did you tell them? >> i let her eye in the eye, i look to keep in the eye, i told them i would do everything i could possibly could to try to help them. >> you know, you would be perfectly within the rights to see look, i'm sorry. but that's not what i do. >> if you met sharon you wouldn't tell her no. [laughs] >> well, did they want you to sue somebody? or just get information? >> i don't think that their

goal was to sue anyone. i think their goal was to find tara. >> and then, nine months after tara disappeared, a man traveling on a desolate road on the outskirts of punta gorda, pulled over for a pit stop. walked into the woods and saw -- not a girl, bones. >> we actually sat on the steps of the crime scene van. >> out there at the scene? >> yes, we did. >> we want to find her. >> but not like this. >> you don't want it to be like this. you know? you just hope and pray every day that she's alive. >> but it was her. it was tara. >> enough of the teeth were day there to make a positive identification that it was terror. >> biden, sharon and keith were at home waiting for the

results. detective gandy went to tell them. >> it's never easy? >> it's the hardest thing you have to do. >> and then when they come to your door, with clergy -- >> you see them coming? >> yes. and then the reality is. that is it. you're never going to see her again. it was devastating. it was the worst pain ever. she didn't belong out there. >> 284 days after tara vanished, they knew finally she was never coming back. but there were no closer to knowing how she wound up out there in the woods. >> coming up -- >> now what, find the killers and make them pay for the crime. >> new leads at last. >> isn't that your connection? >> it was a great connection. >> and new questions for someone who had been at the house that day. >> it's been very stressful. but otherwise the police are

doing their jobs and looking into things. but nonetheless, i do feel like i have been, you know, harassed. >> when dateline continues. [ tense music ] one aleve works all day so i can keep working my magic. just one aleve. 12 hours of uninterrupted pain relief. aleve. who do you take it for? and for fast topical pain relief, try alevex.

>> welcome back to dateline.

welcome back to "dateline," i'm craig melvin. who do you take it for? nine months after tara ord disappeared, her bones were found in the woods just outside town. i'm craig melvin. nine months after tara met disappeared. her woods bones were found in the woods just outside time. as her family absorb the news, detectives began to calm the site searching for any clue that could lead them to tears

killer. here again is keith morrison with the knock at the door. >> in the end, bones, and a few teeth, were all they found. there was every reason to think tara was murdered and then dumped in the woods. but murdered how? by whom? sharon's attorney called her as soon as she heard the news. >> she was obviously distraught, devastated, hysterical. crying. now what? find out the colors and make them pay for the crime. >> prosecutor dan feinberg got the autopsy results. they were not helpful. >> only half of the bones in her body were recovered. and some of the more important bones like the -- which would show whether or not they right have been a choking or strangulation, we're not recovered. >> the medical examiner though found evidence that four of towers ribs were fractured. >> a perry more turn fracture, he at the time of desk. >> so there is a big slam into her ribs somehow? ? >> the medical examiner found

there was evidence of a violent struggle. there was evidence of blunt force trauma. and that would contribute to her death. >> detectives scoured the woods, looking for anything that might tell them something. they found a belly button ring in the bones. the kind tara wore, sharon confirmed. and the remnants of only one piece of clothing that belonged to her. a pair of panties. but no here, no fiber, no dna of any kind at the scene that would help them i. d. the color. >> it was frustrating for the family. it was frustrating for the detectives. and it was frustrating for the prosecutors that worked on the case, including myself. >> so, detectives went back to the beginning. they reviewed all the witness statements they had taken over the course of the nine months tara had been missing. and there was a note about a man who turned in some jewelry three days after tehran went missing. a ring and a bracelet. which turned out to belong to tara's family. >> it had been in the possession of glenn st. john. took a couple pieces of jewelry to his probation officer. >> glenn saint john, who went

by peewee, was on probation for felony burglary. so, did he kill tara? he insisted no. and he didn't take the jewelry either. he said somebody gave it to him. >> we told him that he received him from phil barr. and phil barr told him it came from the missing girls. >> and 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 peewee 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 interview. and he changed his story to the point where it made him an and credible witness. he admitted that he had seen the body at some point. i was a little interesting in that particular area. terror spoons were recovered within a couple hundred yards of one of these favorite fishing spots. >> isn't that your connection? >> that was a great connection.

but mr. st. john was a very incredible witness. >> that story about getting stolen jewelry from phil barr -- >> no jewelry from towers home was found in the possession of phil barr. >> anyway, barr investigators tower was fine when he and the his help her left her house that afternoon. the questions went on and on. and phil barr with, the business to run, didn't appreciate that kind of attention. complain to a local nbc reporter -- >> it's been fiery stressful. i realize the police are doing their job and looking into things. but nonetheless, i do feel like i have been, you know, harassed. >> several times he himself confronted the detectives, insisted he was innocent. all the talk was unfair. >> i am telling you the truth. i have nothing to do with this girl's disappearance. i'm getting the -- out of here. >> it was a problem. detective certainly had their suspicions but, evidence, there was none. and most everyone they questioned knew barr was, well,

a bit shady. hard to believe. prosecutor feinberg concluded he simply didn't have enough to make a charge stick. >> dna evidence in this case that was collected from the residents either came back to the family, or was not relevant to this case. there was no indication that the perpetrators had left blood or a body fluid at the home. >> so -- >> cases typically go cold when you run out of leads and information. and you run out of ideas. >> tara's mother, sharon, the again and again demanded to know what, if anything was going on. prosecutor feinberg had no choice, he said, he couldn't tell her. >> the frustration was clear. you could see it on her face. here it in her voice. the family was devastated. and they wanted answers. and i can understand that. you can't as a prosecutor just say detective, give all those answers. you can't put that information

out there. >> still, sharon continued to ferret out what she could. >> boy just never gave up. there was no stopping. >> as did her attorney. >> she would hear a piece of information from a neighbor or a new source, or detective that was supposed to tell her, and then she would confirm it, run with it, call me. she fought and fought and fought for justice. justice for tara. as showered with 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 is no getting around it. justice for tara just was not happening. in fact, the case was going cold. stone cold. eventually mike gandy retired. as did these two cops way up north. retired and move to sunny florida. and -- >> got very board. >> oh, oh. >> coming up. >> i always felt that this was a case that could be solved. >> enter a cold case squad.

could they do what no one else had? >> how important was that? >> extremely important. >> when dateline continues. >> tara's family struggled. this time went on without answers and without their tara. distort things. and something serious may be behind those itchy eyes. up to 50% of people with graves' could develop a different condition called thyroid eye disease, which should be treated by a different doctor.

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keith morrison (voiceover): tara's family's struggled. as time went on without answers and without their tara. veronica ord: it was hard. i was robbed of my sister. this time went on without answers and without their tara. >> it was hard. i was robbed of my sister. i had to grow up without one. >> in 2003, after six years together, sharon and keith finally got married. >> when i was getting ready to walk down the aisle, it was very sad. because my baby girl wasn't going to be in that wedding party. but she was there. we made sure she was there. >> we had a big picture made up of her. >> but the anger remained. and intense frustration. as year after year sharon demanded answers and didn't get them. in 2008, almost seven years after towers murder, sharon appeared in a crime stoppers video.

spoke directly to the killers, whoever they were. >> i want to know how they wake up in the morning? how do they go on with her life knowing that they did this to a person? don't take it for a minute that you got away with this, because one day, and i truly believe this, one day there is going to be a knock at their door. and they are going to be with incarcerated. and that is what i want. >> the whole world had moved on. forgotten, apparently. but then, a year later, 2009, punta gorda got a new sheriff. and he thought some of the unsolved cases in town needed a new look. and he called upon the retired detective, mike gandy. and these two, who have been

detectives up north before they to retired and move to punta gorda. mike vogel and kurt mehl. >> i moved to florida and came down here to hurt, hunt, fish and play golf, and go boating, and go to the beach. and just relax. and that lasted a couple months. got very board. >> so, three board ex detectives put on badges again to form the sheriff's very first official called case unit. they decided early on they would work on tara's case. prosecutor feinberg was finally optimistic. sort of. >> i always felt that this was a case that could be solved. if it had a new set of eyes and had somebody that could put the case together, connect all of the dots. >> what requests did you make of them? >> we wanted to know more about every piece of evidence. we had to rule out every piece of dna in that house. so, it was closing doors and excluding other people. >> you're going to learn from looking in these files. >> so, that is what these three

did. as a large photo of tara kept watch. again, there was no danny to help. all they had really or lingering suspicions about the work men who went to towers house the day she vanished. phil barr, the guy who owned the septic time tank business. his helper that day, david mcmannis and their buddy peewee st. john. but nothing in this huge trove of investigative material proved anything. >> -- he organized it in such a way that it was easier to understand. >> what happened in difficult understand? >> it was confusing to the point where you didn't know what we were able to get in court. >> so the context was in there but. you can figure it out because it was a mess. >> the majority of the majority of it was. we have to track the analysis, that was what took so long. >> an awful lot of detective work amounts to reading thousands of pages of reports and witness statements. and this in that.

all were followed up, every one of. them detective mehl chased down a 2001 walmart literacy and found a purchase, except the times now are the receipt cast serious doubt on phil barr's alibi. didn't exactly rocket. but cocked him in a significant lie. that's >> how detailed we are getting. >> and then, they just happened to run into a guy who said he knew him barr and mcmannis and peewee. >> and he overheard them talking about killing this girl. he heard them ask -- say we shouldn't have done that girl that way. if i don't get out of town i'm 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 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 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 because her view was blocked by a fence. so, that went nowhere then. except the neighbor happened to mention that her sister in law had been visiting that day. but no one had ever followed up with her >> i found her name and said who's this person? mike said, oh i, know someone by that name. so mike then went out and

located her spoke to her. >> why does she have to say? >> she floored me. >> why? that visitor was not blocked by the fence like her relatives were. she had been sitting in full view, not more than 15 yards from towers front door. and she saw a lot. >> she did see the vehicle pull out a couple different times. and then the second time that she saw the vehicle, it was backed up to the front door. and two guys, open to tailgate a walking back inside the front door. >> wow. how important was that. >> extremely important. >> she identified david mcmannis as being at the house with barr. she identified him there at the time the pick up truck was backed up to the front door. what are the reason was the pick up truck backed up to the front door then to take terror outhouse. >> we went up to the house to get a better idea of where this woman was sitting. what she could've seen. >> so she is sitting right here. >> righ. so that's one, two, three, four,

five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten -- maybe a dozen steps away where the structure is parked. that is close. >> yes, very close. >> so if the back of the truck -- how far from the door would it have been. >> in this general area on the outside track, tire track, was found the hair ribbons. >> way out here? >> right out here. >> okay. so, suggesting that they put 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. respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. rsv can be serious for those over 60, including those with asthma, diabetes, copd, and certain other conditions. but i'm protected. arexvy is proven to be over 82% effective in preventing lower respiratory disease from rsv and over 94% effective in those with these health conditions. arexvy does not protect

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keith morrison (voiceover): it was october 2015 when the trials began.

dan feinberg was joined by a co- prosecutor named jennifer garczewski trials began. dan feinberg was joined by a cool prosecutor name jennifer, 14 years almost through the day since tires life ended. >> she's only a year younger than me. so when i think back to where i was in 2001, i was just finishing college. and obviously, that was a goal of hers. so i did feel a connection to 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 he shouldn't have been. and she confronted him. and to people with impaired minds do things that normal people wouldn't do.

and their solution to that was to kill her. >> the woman who had been sitting out in the front yard told the jury how the two men had been laughing and joking when they arrived. but later when she saw them backing their truck up interest front yard, breaking that small palm tree in the process -- >> it was almost like they had a mission. that they had a plan. and one run streak to the tailgate and put the tailgate down on the truck. and the other went straight to the front door. >> all business? >> all business. >> that said the prosecutor is when they cleaned up, took tara's body individually and loaded into a truck and waited for dark. when one or both of them dumped

her body in the woods. but to tell that story took too long trials. each people to buy witnesses the jury might not think are credible. people who supposedly heard barr and mcmannis say things like -- >> we raped and killed the girl. >> they are not going to find her. >> i am going to kill you like i did the girl in florida. the girl i killed was 20. >> one witness testified about overhearing a conversation between barr and mcmannis. >> philip barr and with saying two mcmannis i didn't want to kill her. and she overheard david mcmannis respond, she had today. >> not very believable, said the defense attorneys. just people making things up said barr's lawyer mark de sisto. >> we contended that these conversations never took. place >> some of these

witnesses were inmates to. sketchy. >> i've never met a convict -- just because he wants to be a nice guy or nice citizen. there's always something in it for. and >> that woman the, star witness found by the cool case team who said he she saw the truman coming going from terrace house. >> she made herself believe this after all the time to make sure the bad guy goes away. >> david but mcmannis's attorney said those detectives focus on the wrong. man and said phil barr's accomplice must of been peewee st. john. the man who turned in jewelry three days after tehran went missing. >> there's enough circumstantial evidence to believe that he was involved. if not in the murder, but definitely in the complicity to govern it up. >> the only thing that dave mcmannis was guilty of, was being a sarcastic guy. >> the majority of the statements that were made were sarcasm at best. >> that's kind of an easy out for saying terrible things. isn't it? >> well, it was an inappropriate statement. if said at all, david is known

to be a joke stir and sarcastic. even during the course of the trial, he would say things that were sarcastic. >> the trials, two of them, dragged on. for more than 15 days. with delays after delay, and a case that had taken more than 15 years to get to. sharon and keeps marriage didn't make it that long. but they attended both trials together. >> we started this together, we're going to finish it together. no matter what. >> and after all of that time? in each case deliberations took less than 90 minutes. the verdicts, guilty. both men were sentenced to life in prison without parole. >> i think everybody would agree that but for sharon, neither travel would have taken place. she fought and fought and fought for justice. >> tara's little sister veronica has two children of her own now. >> they know their and tara. they have necklaces with her pictures on it. my daughter, you would think that she had met her. she dreams about her. >> never met her. but they love her. that warms my heart. >> a few weeks after the trials were over, the prosecutors, detectives and their spouses got together for dinner with sharon and keith and veronica. detective mehl made a presentation. >> she was a fighter and she kept us fighting for her, for you and your family. >> dave had the picture hanging in their office for a very long time. and they passed it on to me. i can look at it now and go, we did it. we did it.

>> you've given us a new chapter to our life. >> the family gave the cold case detectives and the prosecutors gifts as well. each was engraved, justice for tara. >> here's to tara. cheers. >> they put in so much hard work and time, and respect, compassion. so, we wanted to give a little token of our appreciation and love for everything they have done. they gave terror peace and justice. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. >> she was the love of my life, always. >> she was daddy's girl. debutante and tomboy. the free spirit with fiery hair and a wide open heart.

>> she was a vy,