Tara Suzette Breckenridge -- Missing from Houston Since 1992

Paraphrased details from government source**: Tara was last seen leaving her place of employment at The Men's Club in the 3300 block of Sage in southwest Houston, TX, where she worked as a waitress. She was returning home at the time of her disappearance. Her vehicle, a red 1986 Pontiac Fiero was found abandoned and locked in the 1200 block of West Loop North near 12th street, on her route home. The car's alternator belt was missing, there was no sign of a struggle, but she has never been seen since. Foul play is suspected.

Missing Person: Tara Suzette Breckenridge
Last-contact date: August 4th, 1992 (Tuesday) at about 1am (this would have felt like the night of August 3rd)
The area where the MP was last seen: Houston, Texas
Link to government source: NamUs MP914

VITAL DETAILS

Ethnicity: Caucasian
Sex: Female
Age at time of disappearance: 23 years old
Birthdate: September 30th, 1968 in Kern, California
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Scar: None known
Height/weight: 5-foot-4 to 5-foot-10 and 110 to 125 pounds; journalism from August 1992 said 5'5" and 115 pounds
BMI*: Using the upper height and upper weight for the ranges above, in this case, the missing person was underweight by BMI at the time of the disappearance. However, she would have been in the normal range using lower values from the ranges. She looks thin in her pictures.
Tattoos: Tara Suzette Breckenridge did not have any tattoos associated with her profiles.

Objects associated with the missing person: a light-colored shirt, blue shorts, sandals, contacts or glasses, Del Rio High School class ring from 1991 (I read she graduated in 1987, however), a red Pontiac Fiero.

Distinctive characteristics: a scar on the left side of the lower lip, long red-painted fingernails, a scar under her left arm, and a scar on the left side of the body

By: Shane Lambert

Tara Suzette Breckenridge has not been seen since August 4th, 1992 when she was 23 years old. This individual has now been missing for about 29 years as of the original publication date of this blog post.

This is a case that I looked at previously in comparison to several other similar cases. After working on scores of cases, I've noticed that one pattern common to a lot of missing person cases is a found vehicle where the driver of the vehicle is the missing person.

In some of these cases, I think that the abandoned vehicle was sabotaged by the person that disappeared the missing person. I think Tara Breckenridge's case is one such case with other similar cases worth noting. I've written on such disappearances more broadly in another blog post called "Women With Car Troubles Go Missing."

My advice to any female motorist is to be skeptical of the help that arrives if your vehicle suddenly starts behaving oddly. It could be that the person that arrives to help had a hand in sabotaging your vehicle. Perhaps, the widespread use of mobile phones will have helped curb this kind of modus operandi since the time of Breckenridge's disappearance. However, I think the first person on the scene is a risky person to trust if your vehicle breaks down.

The earliest journalism I found on this case dated to August 15th, 1992. The meat of this early journalism is as follows.

15 Aug 1992, Sat Del Rio News Herald (Del Rio, Texas) Newspapers.com

One oddity in the disappearance of Tara Breckenridge is that an 18-year old man seemed to interject himself into the case, a man named Robert Beaty who was 18 years old as of April 1st, 1993. He would have been born in 1974 or 1975, however, I wasn't able to find him in Ancestry.

NamUs #MP914 01 Apr 1993, Thu Del Rio News Herald (Del Rio, Texas) Newspapers.com
Tara Breckenridge has at least one landing page within Ancestry's files. Within that site, her date of disappearance is considered to be her date of death. That can be true or false.

Tara's boyfriend at the time of her disappearance was considered a suspect in this case. In my opinion, I think the guilt is elsewhere (ie. men at the club she worked at, whether staff or patrons).

What stands out with this case is that Tara was lovely and she was working in a kind of place (a strip club) that would attract some questionable characters, I think. She had a boyfriend, Tara was religious and not likely to cheat, and so I think she was the gorgeous waitress that the amorous men at the club could not get. That would have made her frustrating to someone who was edgy.

Her alternator belt had been removed from her car, this is a known fact of the case. I am thinking that the belt was in the car when she drove to work, hence, the car didn't break down during that trip. But I think the belt may have been removed during her shift and then she may have been followed. That her car was able to travel to work is a big clue in this case: it says to me that her vehicle was sabotaged at work. Thus, I think those that think her boyfriend did this crime need to prove that he was at her place of employment that night.

The removal of the alternator belt, I read, would affect the car's electrical system:

"The serpentine belt is also known as an alternator belt, fan belt, or accessory drive belt.  It is powered by a car’s engine to spin or 'drive' several mechanical components in the engine, and is responsible for providing power to vital systems, such as the electrical system, the power steering system, the cooling system and the A/C system. Some vehicles’ water pumps, radiator fans, and power brakes are also dependent on the serpentine belt.

If your serpentine belt wears out, becomes damaged or contaminated, or breaks, engine accessories will not be able to spin at the proper speed, leading to decreased power to the electrical system. This can lead to a sudden lost of power assist for the steering system, leading to the steering wheel all-of-a-sudden becoming very hard to turn. A broken serpentine belt may stop the water pump from circulating coolant through the cooling system, causing the engine can overheat. And it may stop the alternator from generating power to operate the vehicle’s electric/electronic systems and recharge the battery - the headlights will dim, the radio will not work, and the battery will die." (Source: streetautorepair.com)

Tara may have had no choice but to accept the help of whoever arrived at the scene when her car broke down on her way home. This person who arrived to help her may have been the same person that caused the damage to the vehicle as part of a premeditated attack. Importantly, this kind of modus operandi is well known for the time period that we are looking at. When a woman's car is sabotaged and then the person that sabotaged the vehicle follows her in order to abduct her when she needs help has been called "The Good Samaritan's Ruse." Many women fell victim to it in the 1980s, 90s, and even beforehand.

I don't picture the boyfriend's timeline as fully supporting him being the one that sabotaged Tara's vehicle in the parking lot of her work. Also, it's hard to picture him happening on Tara as she drove. If the boyfriend planned to attack her after her shift, that would require some predictability out of Tara, I think. However, her shift ended earlier than expected the night she went missing and she was leaving her place of employment at a bit of a surprise time. I can't say that I don't 100% discount the boyfriend as a suspect but, in my opinion, I don't think he is guilty.

What I think makes the most sense is this:

1. Tara drove to work without problems because her vehicle was in good running order.
2. During Tara's shift, someone with access to her vehicle removed the alternator belt.
3. That person lay in waiting for Tara to leave work, whether in the parking lot or parked curbside.
4. Tara left work an hour early, something I don't think the boyfriend knew about.
5. Her car broke down because of the vehicle sabotage.
6. The man that arrived on the spot to help her had actually caused the damage.
7. Tara may have trusted him to an extent if she knew him from the club, which explains why there is no sign of a struggle at the found vehicle as she went with him voluntarily.
8. Tara locked her car doors, believing she would be back at a future time.
9. This mystery person disappeared Tara.

This mystery was covered in the February 10th, 1995 episode of Unsolved Mysteries, hosted by Robert Stack. I've embedded that episode below. The segment on Tara starts at 10:20. Please comment if the embedding no longer works as Youtube videos are often deleted. There are a lot of pictures of Tara in the video.

 

Author: Shane Lambert

All articles are subject to editing after the original posting.

Shane Lambert is not a Private Investigator, however, he is currently studying to be one as of April 2021.

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*For BMI values, I use the UPPER or HIGHER ranges that are given for height and weight.
**Might not be the exact meaning that NamUs or Canada's Missing conveys. I improve upon their descriptions with my research.
Disclaimer: To determine whether a person is missing or not, this site relies heavily on government sources. If you are described as missing when you are not, I recommend simply having your missing person report updated or removed. When that happens, updates at this site can follow.

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