The Skeleton Key Chronicles

16 hours ago

Twenty-five years ago this week, 11-year-old Bethany Leanne Markowski went missing from Old Hickory Shopping Mall in Jackson, Tennessee, or at least that’s the story that was told to police.

Bethany was spending time with her father, Larry Markowski, during a scheduled visitation amid her parents’ separation. At some point that afternoon, he told investigators he dropped her off at a local mall and remained in the parking lot, where he said he fell asleep in his car while she went inside by herself. He later claimed he woke up about an hour later, went into the mall to look for her, and could not find her anywhere.

But when investigators reviewed the mall’s surveillance footage, they found something that changed the case entirely. Bethany never appeared on any of the security cameras inside the building.

Bethany Markowski would now be 36 years old. In the years since Bethany disappeared, her mother, Jonnie Carter, turned outward instead of inward by establishing Tennessee Missing Children’s Day in her daughter’s honor. A day focused not only on Bethany, but on the many other families still searching, waiting, and still hoping for answers to the same unanswered questions.

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

22 hours ago

Authorities in West Valley City, Utah are asking for help in locating 31-year-old Shianne Turner, who has been reported missing just before Valentine’s Day.

On February 13, Shianne called her mother and said she was heading out of town, possibly to Las Vegas or Arizona. During that conversation, her mother, Jennifer Turner said she could hear a man in the background. At one point, he reportedly was overheard saying they were going to Las Vegas to get married.

By the morning of February 14th, there was another call. This time, Shianne told her mom she was in Arizona. Later that same day, someone else answered her phone. A male acquaintance told her family she had left with another man while in Arizona.

After that, communication stopped. There have been no returned calls, no messages, and no activity on her social media accounts. The man she initially traveled with has since returned to the Salt Lake City area without her.

Shianne is 5’4” and about 145 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. She has distinctive tattoos, including moons across her knuckles, an anchor on her ankle, the name “Karson” on her back, and floral designs on her hip and shoulder.

Anyone with information is urged to contact West Valley City Police.

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

2 days ago

Tara Leigh Calico would be turning 57 today. On the morning of September 20, 1988, the 19-year-old left her home in Belen, New Mexico around 9:30 a.m. for a 36-mile bicycle ride along Highway 47. She was training for a triathlon. Before she left, she told her mother that if she wasn’t home by noon, to come look for her.

She was seen riding her bike that morning because witnesses later reported a light-colored pickup truck that had been following her along parts of the highway. The last confirmed sighting of her was around 11:45 a.m.

When noon came and she had not returned, her mother drove the route herself. Along the shoulder of the road she found Tara’s Sony Walkman and a cassette tape. Her bicycle was never recovered. Ten months later, the case moved beyond New Mexico.

In July 1989, a Polaroid photograph was found in the parking lot of a convenience store in Port St. Joe, Florida. The image showed a young woman and a young boy in the back of a van. Both appeared bound. Tara’s family believed the woman resembled her. The photograph was analyzed multiple times, including by the FBI, which could not make a definitive identification. Scotland Yard reportedly concluded the woman in the image was likely Tara. No official confirmation was ever made.

As coverage of the image expanded, it spread far beyond New Mexico. The photograph was shown on national programs including A Current Affair, Unsolved Mysteries, and America’s Most Wanted, and was later discussed on The Oprah Winfrey Show and 48 Hours. It became one of the most widely circulated unidentified photographs connected to a missing-person case.

Another New Mexico family initially believed the boy in the photograph resembled Michael Henley, who had disappeared in April 1988 during a hunting trip in the Zuni Mountains. In 1990, his remains were located in the area near where he had vanished, and authorities later stated he was not the child in the Polaroid. The identities of the two individuals in that photograph remain unknown.

Over the years, different theories have surfaced publicly. Many were surprised in 2021 when investigators served a search warrant at a residence in Valencia County connected to the case, but officials released few details.

Then in June 2023, the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office announced what they described as “substantial progress.” Investigators stated they believed they had identified the offenders associated with Tara’s disappearance and had submitted evidence to the district attorney for review. To this day no arrests have been made and nearly four decades after that morning ride, the case of Tara Calico remains unresolved.

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