so close to realizing her dreams. debbie's tennis friends say they miss her every day. syrett schook-kelly: i think debbie is all around us and supporting us. and we find hints of that constantly in our lives. she was a wonderful presence. betty pace: and we're blessed to have known her as a friend. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [theme music] hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." 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. in an instant, she was gone. and it changed everything.

craig melvin (voiceover): she dreamed of a career solving crimes. but crime claimed her first. the gut wrenching pain. sharon ord: my daughter, please, please, don't let this be true. craig melvin (voiceover): home alone, on a sunny afternoon, she vanished. keith mcphillips: we just said, oh, my god, isn't this one of her earrings? craig melvin (voiceover): earrings on the carpet, ribbons on the ground, tire tracks on the lawn. there was evidence of a violent struggle. craig melvin (voiceover): what had happened and who was behind it? veronica ord: everything was a mystery. was she still alive? you know, was she not? it tore us apart. craig melvin (voiceover): 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. amanda downing: as a mother, she fought and fought and fought. we just never gave up. don't mess with a mother bear.

[theme music] hello and welcome to dateline. tara ord was just 19, a beautiful young woman with big dreams. then 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 keith morrison with a "knock at the door." [music playing] keith morrison (voiceover): 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, stopped again.

it was inland now, miles from the harbor, the peace river, the center of town whose warmth had drawn them to the gulf coast. the bus stopped in the middle of a quiet neighborhood. the driver opened the door. it was 3:45 pm. we got off the bus and walked home. keith morrison (voiceover): we means veronica ord, then almost 14 years old, and her younger brother paul. and i remember halfway down the road remembering that i had forgot my key. the closer we got to the house, i'd seen my sister's car. so i said, oh, ok, you know, i don't-- i don't need the key. you know, she's home. keith morrison (voiceover): then she noticed the door wasn't quite closed. veronica ord: it was closed. it wasn't latched. like you could just pull on it 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, you know. and she just didn't cause the door all the way.

keith morrison (voiceover): 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. veronica ord: and i went and looked in the bathroom. then i went our bedroom and i seen her purse and everything on top of her dresser. so then i'm like, where would she be without her purse, because that wasn't unusual. so that's when i had called keith. keith morrison (voiceover): 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. keith morrison: what did you think when she told you that? well, just something wasn't right. because if tara was going to go somewhere, i knew she wouldn't leave her stuff on her car. she would have said i won't be here when the kids get here. that's how responsible she was. keith morrison: sure. keith morrison (voiceover): keith canceled the coffee plan, drove straight home. keith mcphillips: as soon as i got home,

it just didn't look like. there was all kinds of tracks on the floor and stuff. and i said, well, what are these marks on the floor? and she said, i don't know. tracks? muddy footprints. keith morrison (voiceover): muddy footprints in the living room and master bedroom. and something else, something only those who lived there would know. keith mcphillips: in the bedroom, like our tv would be turned a certain way because when you lay in bed you want to see it. yeah. keith mcphillips: but when i looked in, it was straight. and then i noticed like stuff missing off the dresser. and jewelry was gone. money was gone. what was going on in your head when you saw this, as you noticed things were missing? i knew something was-- something something bad. keith morrison (voiceover): oh, and it was. what happened to that grownup 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, caring full of life. keith morrison (voiceover): sharon ord

mcphillips is tara's mother. sharon ord: she had dreams and ambitions. she was a cheerleader, a catcher for softball. she loved art. most of all we were a family. she loved her family. and we loved her right back. keith morrison (voiceover): they were new to punta gorda, had moved recently from scranton, pennsylvania. tara, almost grown up, told them she'd stay behind, make her own life. she didn't want to come down, you know. i'm sure it was-- it's a change, especially when you're older. but we had a bet going on how long before she got here, because we are so close. so we had a bet going. and i think she lasted three weeks. i'm going to stay here on my own. no, i'm not. yeah. keith morrison (voiceover): she got a job, made plans to start college, and already decided that she wanted to be a crime scene investigator.

she had her books and everything. keith morrison (voiceover): and though sharon's then fiance keith wasn't officially tara's step-dad, they had a father daughter sort of relationship. yeah, we were very close. you know, we always hung out together. she would make her famous peanut butter and jelly triple decker sandwiches we would have. she would be going to make them all. she was my buddy. keith morrison (voiceover): and now he didn't know where she was. right away that afternoon, keith called sharon, just finishing her work day at 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 nothing be wrong, please, please. i remember my mother pulling up. how did she look? oh, panicked. keith morrison (voiceover): kieth had called 911 as sharon rushed home. an officer was there when she arrived. sharon ord: my first thing was you need to do something. my daughter's not here. i just knew.

i just knew. craig melvin (voiceover): coming up. what had happened to tara? why wasn't anybody taking action and figuring out where she lives? craig melvin (voiceover): 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. craig melvin (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. health comes first. >> and it starts with cosequin. >> for athletes. >> in the. >> ring and. >> at home. >> trust cosequin. >> trust cosequin. >> cosequi we're in a limestone cave, letting extreme residue build up to put finish jet dry to the test. dishwashers are designed to use jet dry to defend against tough residues for a practically spotless shine. the freestyle libre 3 plus sensor tracks your glucose in real time,

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keith morrison (voiceover): so they were, as evening depended, pacing around the little house, frantic about tara. what happened? where was she? veronica ord: it was getting late. you know, why wasn't she home? keith morrison (voiceover): the policeman who came to help them only seemed concerned about the jewelry and cash that appeared to be taken, not sharon's missing daughter. they were concentrated on the burglary. keith morrison (voiceover): they didn't seem to hear what she was saying, didn't understand her panic. they just weren't getting us or what was going on. they were trying to say, well, maybe she's at a football game and then they-- there a football game that night? yes. and then it went through her friends. and then actually they called one friend and this person was dating a tara. keith morrison (voiceover): sharon almost shouted it wasn't her tara. the officer tried a different tactic. we'll put a bolo out. bolo? yes be on the lookout.

keith morrison (voiceover): tara's family knew if she'd gone to the football game, if she'd gone anywhere, she would have told the. deputy said since tara was an adult, they'd wait 24 hours before calling her a missing purse. maybe she just left on her own. if my daughter was a runaway or a troubled child or whatever the case may have been, i would have told you that. i know my child. how frustrated were you? oh, so very frustrated. keith morrison (voiceover): veronica, not quite 14, remember, was terrified. why wasn't anybody taking action and figuring out where she was? keith morrison (voiceover): keith and sharon called everybody they knew in town. their best friends offered moral support, came to the house. and one of them noticed something on the floor. keith mcphillips: we just said, oh, my god. and we walked in and she was bending over, pulling it out of the carpet, like it was embedded in the carpet.

it wasn't just laying there. she pulled it out and she said, sharon, isn't this one of her earrings? she said, yeah. so then? eventually we found another one. and then the third one. ground into the carpet? oh, yeah, we had to pull them out. keith morrison (voiceover): 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. what? across the lawn? sharon ord: across the lawn. keith morrison: how close did those tire tracks come to the house? sharon ord: it wasn't a big yard, but they went up to the door. keith morrison (voiceover): and they found two ribbons, the kind tara wore in her hair, outside their front door and scuff marks on their bedroom dresser. keith morrison: tell me about what those scuff marks looked like. like somebody moved it or rubbed something against it? if you took your shoe and you kicked something and you left the mark. you know, if you walk on the floor and you drag your feet, it leaves a mark.

that was on the dresser drawers in our bedroom. keith morrison (voiceover): one of the missing pieces of jewelry was a ring tara had given to keith. that ring she bought me. i didn't care about anything else but that. keith morrison (voiceover): the officers left the house with nothing learned, nothing resolved, and still no tara. sharon and keith didn't sleep a wink that night. keith morrison: what goes on in here as you're sitting up all night? got wrenching pain. big hole. praying that, oh, please, please, don't let this be true. keith morrison (voiceover): before the sun came up, sharon called 911 again. and a new officer arrived. a woman deputy, i'll never forgot that. and she came and i remember saying to her, please, help me. and she did. she got the ball rolling. she listened to me. keith morrison (voiceover): the deputy called in crime scene investigators. i remember my mother waking me and my brother up.

and i remember seeing so many people there and the crime scene van outside. keith morrison (voiceover): now deputies were taking tara's disappearance seriously. mike gandy was a captain of 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. keith morrison (voiceover): 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 pm tara was gone. they learned that tara's last phone call began at 11:49 am, ended at 12:05. she had talked to a colleague at the mall jewelry kiosk where she worked, said she'd 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 did tara stay and wait?

maybe the owner of the repair company knew something. one of our criminal investigation division sergeants on his way to work stopped by this guy's house and asked him had he been to tara's home? he said, yes, he had. had he seen tara? yes, he had had contact with a female there. keith morrison (voiceover): and he said she was perfectly fine when he left the house early that afternoon. so assuming that was true, who else came to that little house on the afternoon of october 1 and took away their tara? craig melvin (voiceover): coming up. something needed to happen. craig melvin (voiceover): a frustrated family reaches out to someone new. if you met sharon, you wouldn't tell her no. i looked her in the eye and i told them i would do everything i possibly could to try and help them. craig melvin (voiceover): a turn in the case was coming when "dateline" continues. do your dry eyes still feel gritty, rough,

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days. it's a critical time for our country. and rachel maddow is on five nights a week. >> now is the time. so we're. >> going to. >> do it. settle in. >> the rachel maddow show weeknights at 9:00 on msnbc. stay up to date on the biggest issues of the day with the msnbc daily newsletter. get the best of msnbc all in one place. sign up for msnbc daily at msnbc. up for msnbc daily at msnbc. com. keith morrison (voiceover): how to explain how a mother feels when her child has vanished and all signs point to something bad? keith morrison: keith, what did this do to her? keith mcphillips: tore her apart. its just like watching everything crumble. keith morrison (voiceover): though, the family appeared to be very close and loving and sincerely distraught, investigators believed they still needed to be looked at as possible suspects. keith morrison: you know, its a cruel reality of the detective business that they start close and widen out, and they always start with members of the family

to eliminate them-- sharon ord mcphillips: yes. keith mcphillips: right. keith morrison: --and it winds up tragically and horribly often being somebody very close to them. sharon ord mcphillips: i actually asked them myself did you check us out? keith morrison: whatd they say? sharon ord mcphillips: they said they did. keith mcphillips: they said, oh, dont worry. we did. keith morrison (voiceover): meanwhile sharon and keith pushed through their fear and anxiety and did what they could. sharon ord mcphillips: you look through garbage bags-- keith mcphillips: and you go everywhere and anywhere and in the woods, dumpsters. keith morrison: really? sharon ord mcphillips: i would do it every day. keith mcphillips: we would go in the woods so far, we didnt even know where we came out half the time. we didnt even know where we were. keith morrison (voiceover): captain gandys investigators searched for tara as well. unidentified woman: the investigation shifted this morning with deputies searching five hundred acres of pasture. mike gandy: if someone called and said, hey, we saw a suspicious vehicle in this wooded area, or theres buzzards and vultures over here, and we would always go and search. we did have a couple of different times where we used cadaver dogs in certain areas. keith morrison (voiceover): four weeks after tara vanished she turned twenty, and they tried to stay positive

keith morrison: you had a birthday party? sharon ord mcphillips: had to. and we had the presents. and ill never forget this. i went to open one, and my son said youre not opening that. keith mcphillips: yeah. sharon ord mcphillips: he said shes coming back. and i didnt open it. keith morrison (voiceover): months went by, they couldnt accept what their heads kept telling them, that tara had been snatched away and murdered. but nobody was telling them anything. the investigation seemed to have stalled, wasnt going anywhere. sharon ord mcphillips: something needed to happen. keith morrison: and it didnt feel like it was happening. sharon ord mcphillips: exactly. keith mcphillips: not at all, right. sharon ord mcphillips: not at all. keith morrison (voiceover): and so out of sheer desperation, about six months after tara vanished they hired a civil attorney, a woman named amanda downing. keith morrison: what did they want you to do? amanda downing: they wanted anyones help, a lawyers help,

the medias help, civilians help, neighbors help, anybodys 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-- anything. they were-- they were grasping-- keith morrison: what did you tell them? amanda downing: i looked her in the eye, i looked keith in the eye, and i told them i would do everything i possibly could to try and help them. keith morrison: you know, you wouldve been perfectly within your rights to look at them and say, look, im sorry, but thats not what i do. amanda downing: if you met sharon, you wouldnt tell her no. keith morrison: wow. did they want you to sue somebody or-- or just get information, or what? amanda downing: i dont think that their goal was to sue anyone. i think their goal was to find tara. keith morrison (voiceover): 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.

sharon ord mcphillips: we actually sat on the steps of the crime scene van while they were out there. keith morrison: out there at the scene. sharon ord mcphillips: yes, we did. (recording): you want to find her. keith mcphillips (recording): but not like this. sharon ord mcphillips: but then you-- you dont want it to be like this, you know? you just hope and pray every day that shes alive. keith morrison (voiceover): but it was her. it was tara. mike gandy: enough of the teeth were there to make a positive identification that it was tara. keith morrison (voiceover): by then sharon and keith were at home, waiting for the results. detective gandy went to tell them. keith morrison: thats never easy, huh? mike gandy: hardest thing you ever have to do. sharon ord mcphillips: and then when they come to your door with clergy-- keith morrison: you see them coming? sharon ord mcphillips: yeah. then the reality is-- thats it, youre never going to see her again.

its so devastating. its the worst pain ever. she didnt belong out there. keith morrison (voiceover): two hundred eighty-four days after tara vanished, they knew, finally, she was never coming back. but they were no closer to knowing how she wound up out there in the woods. craig melvin (voiceover): coming up-- amanda downing: now what, find the killers and make them pay for the crime. craig melvin (voiceover): --new leads, at last. keith morrison: isnt that your connection? dan feinberg: it was a great connection craig melvin (voiceover): and new questions for someone whod been at the house that day. phil barr (recording): it's been very stressful. i realize the police are doing their job and they're, you know, looking into things. but nonetheless, i-- i feel like ive been, you know, harassed. craig melvin (voiceover): when dateline continues touch can mean so many things. even for children with moderate-to-severe eczema.

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>> hi, i'm richard lui with a news update. the philadelphia eagles flying to victory against the kansas city chiefs, avenging their super bowl loss last year and squashing kansas city's hopes for a historic three peat. the 40 to 22 blowout victory earned the birds their second lombardi trophy in franchise history. and president trump says he will announce reciprocal tariffs this week, plus a 25% blanket tariff on steel and aluminum imports. the united steelworkers union did not respond to a request. respond to a request. >> welcome back to "dateline," i'm craig melvin. nine months after tara ord disappeared, her bones were found in the woods just outside town. as her family absorbed the devastating news, detectives began to comb the site, searching for any clue that could lead them to tara's killer. here again is keith morrison with "a knock at the door." keith morrison (voiceover): 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. amanda downing: she was obviously distraught, devastated, hysterical, crying. now what? find out the killers and make them pay for the crime. keith morrison (voiceover): prosecutor dan feinberg got the autopsy results. they were not helpful. dan feinberg: only half of the bones in her body were recovered. and some of the more important bones, like the hyoid bone, which would show whether or not there might have been a choking or strangulation was not recovered. keith morrison (voiceover): the medical examiner, though, found evidence that four of tara's ribs were fractured. a perimortem fracture, a fracture that occurred at the time of the death. so there's a big, big slam into her ribs somehow. the medical examiner clearly found that there was evidence of a violent struggle. there was evidence of blunt force trauma. and that would contribute to her death.

keith morrison (voiceover): detectives scoured the woods, looking for anything that might tell them something. they found a bellybutton ring near 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 hair, no fiber, no dna of any kind at the scene that would help them id a killer. it was frustrating for the family. it was frustrating for the detectives. and it was frustrating for the prosecutors that worked on a case, including myself. keith morrison (voiceover): so detectives went back to the beginning. they reviewed all the witness statements they've taken over the course of the nine months tara had been missing. and there was a note about a man who had turned in some jewelry three days after tara went missing, a ring and a bracelet, which turned out to belong to tara's family. it had been in the possession of glen st. john. he took a couple of pieces of jewelry to his probation officer.

keith morrison (voiceover): 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. keith morrison (voiceover): phil barr? he was the owner of the septic repair business that had been a 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 interviewed. and he would change his story 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 particular area where tara's bones were recovered was within a couple of hundred yards of one of peewee's favorite fishing spots.

isn't that your connection? that it was a great connection, but mr. st. john was a very incredible witness. keith morrison (voiceover): that story about getting stolen jewelry from phil barr-- no jewelry from tara's home was found in possession of phil barr. keith morrison (voiceover): and anyway, barr told investigators tara was fine when he and his helper left her house that afternoon. but questions went on and on. and phil barr, who had a business to run, didn't appreciate that kind of attention. barr complained to a local nbc reporter about it. it's been very stressful. i realize the police are doing their job and they're looking into things. but nonetheless, i feel like i've been harassed. keith morrison (voiceover): and several times, he himself confronted the detectives, insisted he was innocent. all the talk was unfair.

keith morrison (voiceover): it is a problem. detectives certainly had their suspicions. but evidence? there was none. and most everyone they questioned who knew barr was a bit shady, hard to believe. prosecutor feinberg concluded he simply didn't have enough to make a charge stick. the dna evidence in this case that was collected from the residence 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. keith morrison (voiceover): and so-- mike gandy: cases typically go cold when you run out of leads and when you run out of information and you run out of ideas. keith morrison (voiceover): tara's mother sharon, 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. you could hear her in her voice.

the family was devastated. and they wanted answers. and i can understand that. you can't, as a prosecutor, and you can't as a detective give all those answers. you can't put that information out there. keith morrison (voiceover): still, sharon continued to ferret out what she could. sharon ord: we just never gave up. there was no stopping. keith morrison (voiceover): as did her attorney. amanda downing: she would hear a piece of information from a neighbor or 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 fought and fought for justice. justice for tara. and as sharon would say, my tara. she always said, my tara. keith morrison (voiceover): 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-- got very bored. keith morrison (voiceover): uh, oh. craig melvin (voiceover): coming up. i always felt that this was a case that could be solved. craig melvin (voiceover): enter a cold case squad. could they do what no one else had? how important was that? extremely important. craig melvin (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. >> people always ask for pet tips. for us, joint health comes first. >> and it. >> starts with cosequin. >> our dogs are like. athletes in. the ring. >> but at home they're our companions, just like yours. >> our veterinarian. recommends giving them cosequin. >> every day. >> for the moments. >> that matter. >> trust cosequin. >> cosequin. >> the number one veterinarian recommended retail joint health brand, an official joint health

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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. i had to grow up without one. keith morrison (voiceover): in 2003, after six years together, sharon and keith finally got married. when i was getting ready to walk down aisle, i 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. keith mcphillips: we had a big, big picture made up of her. keith morrison (voiceover): but the anger remained, an intense frustration, as year after year, sharon demanded answers and didn't get them. in 2008, almost seven years after tara's murder, sharon appeared in a crime stoppers video and 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 their life knowing that they did this to a person? don't think for a minute that you got away with this because one day, and i truly, truly believe, that one day there's going to be a knock at that door. and they're going to be in cuffs. and that's what i want. keith morrison (voiceover): nothing came of it. 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 called upon the retired detective, mike gandy, and these two who had been detectives up north before they too retired and moved to punta gorda, mike vogel and kurt mayle. i moved to florida and came down here to hunt and fish and play golf and go boating and go to the beach and just relax. and that lasted a couple of months.

got very bored. keith morrison (voiceover): and so three bored ex-detectives put on badges again to form the sheriff's very first official cold case unit and decided early on they'd 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, it 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. it was excluding other people. you're going to learn from looking at these files-- keith morrison (voiceover): so that's what these three did as a large photo of tara kept watch. but again, there was no dna to help them. all they had really were lingering suspicions about the workmen who went to tara's house the day she vanished; phil barr, the guy who

owned the septic tank business, his helper that day, dave mcmanus, and their buddy, peewee st. john. but nothing in this huge trove of investigative material proved anything. kurt, we call him the scribe, he organized it in such a way that it was easier to understand. what had been difficult to understand? it was confusing to the point where you didn't know what we're going to be able to get into court. so the context was in there. you couldn't figure it out because it was a mess? the majority of it was in there, yes. we had to try to do the analysis on it. and that's what took so long. keith morrison (voiceover): an awful lot of detective work amounts to reading thousands of pages of reports and witness statements and this and that. all were followed up, every one of them. detective mayle chased down a 2001 wal-mart receipt, a minor, forgettable purchase except that the time stamp on the receipt cast serious doubt on phil barr's alibi. didn't exactly wreck it, but caught him in a significant lie. that's how detailed we were getting.

keith morrison (voiceover): and then they just happened to run into a guy who said he knew barr and mcmanus and peewee. and he overheard them talking about killing this girl. he heard david mcmanus 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. philip barr said something similar, because peewee is talking about, well, i've only seen a body. it's not against the law to see a body. and barr tells him, hey, shut up, we're all going to end up in prison. and somebody with credibility? better than what we had before, yeah. keith morrison (voiceover): but overall, a key problem remained. terrible witnesses. keith morrison (voiceover): meaning detectives spoke with other people who had also heard the men talk about the murder, but they were not the type a jury would likely believe. much of what they'd say sounded like drug and booze soaked gossip. there wasn't enough certainly to support charging peewee. but thought, the prosecutor, maybe he could find a way to go after barr and mcmanus.

and he had an idea. bring some of the key witnesses before a grand jury just to see who passed the credibility test and who didn't. i've prosecuted over 100 homicide cases. and the complexity and the amount of information that we had to review to determine if we could prosecute this case was the most i'd ever seen. keith morrison (voiceover): the idea worked. the grand jury indicted both phil barr and dave mcmanus for tara's murder. they were arrested in late 2012, 11 years after tara vanished from her home. dave mcmanus was arrested in maryland, where he grew up, where us marshals mounted a manhunt for phil barr. kind of lost track of him and we were actually able to locate phil in the vermont area, very close to the canadian border, where we think he had fled with the intent possibly of leaving the country. keith morrison (voiceover): 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. except the neighbor happened to mention that her sister-in-law had been visiting that day. but no one had ever interviewed her. kurt, i think, had found her name said, hey, who is this person. and mike said, oh, i know someone by that name. so mike then went out and located her and spoke to her. what she have to say? she floored me. keith morrison (voiceover): 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 tara's front door. and she saw a lot.

she did see the vehicle pull in a couple of different times. and then the second time that she saw the vehicle there it was backed up to the front door. and the two guys got out, opened the tailgate, and were walking back and forth inside the front door. wow. how important was that in the-- extremely important. she identified david mcmanus 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 to the front door other than to take tara out of that house? you realize how close it isl. is. keith morrison (voiceover): 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 like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, like maybe a dozen steps away where this truck is parked. yes. so it's close. it's very close. so if the back of the truck-- it would have

been how far from the door? like right up to the door like that? that's correct. and in this general area, on the outside, track, tire track was found the hair ribbons. way out here? right out here. ok, so suggesting that they put her into the back of the truck and the hair ribbons came loose as they were driving away or putting her there 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. keith morrison (voiceover): 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. and finally, 14 years after tara vanished, barr and mcmanus were going on trial for her murder. what had happened at the house that day? a jury finally hears the story.

craig melvin (voiceover): coming up. we believe she confronted him. craig melvin (voiceover): a mother's perseverance had brought the case this far. she fought and fought and fought. craig melvin (voiceover): would a verdict bring justice at last? when "dateline" continues. on medicare? living with diabetes? progress is having your coffee like you like it without an audience. ♪♪ [silence] the freestyle libre 3 plus sensor can help lower your a1c over time. covered by medicare for more people managing diabetes with insulin. ♪♪ this is progress. ask your doctor about the freestyle libre 3 plus sensor. ♪♪ hi. i use febreze fade defy plug. and i use this. febreze has a microchip to control scent release so it smells first-day fresh for 50 days. 50 days!? and its refill reminder light means i'll never miss a day of freshness. ♪

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fourteen years almost to the day since taras life ended. jennifer garczewski: shes 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 and where she would have been at my age now. keith morrison (voiceover): and the defendants now on trial? phil barr owned a septic tank repair business. dave mcmannis was his helper the day tara disappeared. the detectives had learned that barr used his business as a cover for stealing from the homes of unsuspecting customers. and heres what happened said the state that first of october 2001. taras landlord asked barr for a repair estimate. barr and his helper, mcmannis, began their work-day by smoking crack. around noon, four hours before veronica arrived home from school, the men most likely knocked on the door and tara let them in, unaware they had robbery,

not work, on their minds. dan feinberg: dave mcmannis was taking the property while barr was distracting her in the bathroom. we believe she found out. she-- she heard something or saw something that mister mcmannis was doing where he was in a place he shouldnt have been and she confronted him. and two people with impaired minds do things that normal people wouldnt do. and their solution to that was to kill her. keith morrison (voiceover): the woman whod 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 to taras front door breaking that small palm tree in the process. jennifer garczewski: it was almost like they had a mission, that they had a plan. and one went straight to the tailgate and put the tailgate down of the truck and the other went-- went straight to the front door. keith morrison: all business. jennifer garczewski: all business. keith morrison (voiceover): that said the prosecutor is when they cleaned up and took taras body in a bed

sheet and loaded it into the truck and waited for dark when one or both of them dumped her body in the woods. but to tell that story took two long trials, each peopled by witnesses the jury might not think were very credible, people who supposedly heard barr and mcmannis say things like-- jennifer garczewski: "we raped and killed the girl." dan feinberg: "theyre not going to find her." jennifer garczewski: "im going to kill you like i did the girl in florida." "the girl i killed was twenty." keith morrison (voiceover): one witness testified about overhearing a conversation between barr and mcmannis. jennifer garczewski: phillip barr was saying to david mcmannis, "i didnt want to kill her." and she overheard david mcmannis respond, "she had to die." keith morrison (voiceover): not very believable, said the defense attorneys just people making things up, said barrs lawyer, mark desisto. mark desisto: we contended that those conversations never took place. keith morrison (voiceover): some of those witnesses were inmates, too, snitches. mark desisto: i never met a confidential informant

thats going to inform just because he wants to be a nice guy or a good citizen. theres always something in it for him. keith morrison (voiceover): that woman, the star witness found by the cold case team, who said she saw the two men coming and going from taras house? mark desisto: could it be she made herself believe this over so much of a time to make sure the bad guy goes away? keith morrison (voiceover): dave mcmannis attorney, michael bross, said his view those detectives focused on the wrong man. said phil barrs accomplice must have been peewee st. john, the man whod turned in jewelry three days after tara went missing. michael bross: theres enough circumstantial evidence to believe that he was involved if not in the murder, but definitely in the complicity to cover it up. keith morrison (voiceover): the only thing that dave mcmannis was guilty of, said bross, was being a sarcastic guy. michael bross: the majority of the statements that were made were sarcasm at best. so if hes guilty-- keith morrison: its a claim. yeah. and-- but its-- thats kind of an easy out for saying terrible things, isnt it? michael bross: well, it was inappropriate statements,

if said at all. david is known to be a jokester and sarcastic. even during the course of the trial, he would say things that were sarcastic. keith morrison (voiceover): the trials, two of them, dragged on for more than fifteen months with delay after delay in a case that had taken more than fifteen years to get to this point. sharon and keiths marriage didnt make it that long but they attended both trials together. keith mcphillips: we started this together. were going to finish it together, no matter what. keith morrison (voiceover): and after all that time? in each case, deliberations took less than ninety minutes. the verdicts: guilty. both men were sentenced to life in prison without parole. amanda downing: i think everybody would agree that but for sharon, neither trial would have taken place. she fought and fought and fought for justice. keith morrison (voiceover): taras little sister veronica has two children of her own now. veronica ord: they know their aunt tara.

they have necklaces with her pictures on it. my daughter, you would think that she had met her. she dreams about her. sharon ord mcphillips: never met her, but they love her. that warms my heart. keith morrison (voiceover): 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. kurt mehl: she was a fighter and that-- and she kept us fighting for her and for you and your family. sharon ord mcphillips: theyve had the picture hanging in their office for a very long time. and-- and they passed it on to me. i could look at it now and go, we did it. we did it. youve given us a new chapter in our life. keith morrison (voiceover): the family gave the cold case detectives and the prosecutors

gifts as well. each was engraved: justice for tara. crowd (in unison): heres to tara. sharon ord mcphillips: tara. cheers. sharon ord mcphillips: they put in so much hard work and time and respect, compassion. so we want to give them a little token of our appreciation and love for everything theyve done. they gave tara peace and justice. craig melvin: that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. this sunday, the trump doctrine. >> the u.s. will take over the gaza strip. >> president trump stuns the world with his proposal to take over gaza. >> i do see a long-term ownership position, and i