Initially, the police thought Terra Ord could have escaped or been kidnapped. However, the local authorities began to conduct an extensive search operation in the area to find her until October of 2002 when they came to a cold case once her skeletal remains were found.

NBC Dateline is set to explore Tara’s murder mystery and will feature interviews with her siblings, who have said they felt powerless during the investigation. 

With renewed efforts from law enforcement and a closer look into Tara’s evidence files by Dateline, there is still hope that the case will be solved after 9 months of searching.

The case 

Tara Ord’s life was tragically cut short at the tender age of 19 when she was murdered by two men who had come to repair her family’s septic tank in October 2001. Foolishly trusting the strangers, Tara remained in her Florida home, alone and unsuspecting of the horror that lay ahead.

Her mother had recently moved their small family there from West Scranton, PA., seeking a chance for a new beginning.

Unfortunately for Tara, this opportunity for hope and renewal would never become hers to experience; instead, providing only dark closure in her untimely demise.

Her loving but ultimately helpless family was left with nothing but grief and despair following the discovery of her skeletonized remains, found ten months after her disappearance in a wooded area of Charlotte County.

As per sources, on that fateful day, she had gone out for ice cream with her friend but never returned home. When she disappeared, police were immediately suspicious of Philip Barr and David McMannis as they had been called to the Ord’s house earlier that day for a septic tank repair. 

A major search ensued and even extended to searching nearby septic tanks. Tragically, it wasn’t until eight months later that her remains were found which sparked an investigation into the grisly double murder that ended what could have been a bright future for Ord who was hoping to pursue Criminal Justice at Edison College in Fort Myers.

The family offered a $5000 reward

As Tara Ord-Sidarovich’s whereabouts remained a mystery, the concerned family had no choice but to turn to outside help in the form of a reward. They offered $5000 for anyone who could provide useful information on her disappearance. 

The investigators relentlessly followed every lead to locate clues, bringing in cadaver dogs and even searching a ranch home. Unfortunately, despite these efforts, they were unable to get any tangible evidence of Tara’s fate.

However, when some missing jewelry was found in the ranch house it piqued their interest and made them suspect a burglary case might be involved.

A cold case squad closed in on Barr and McMannis

For over a decade, justice seemed to have eluded the authorities regarding a certain case; however, they finally caught up with the killers in late October 2012.

The break in the case came when a Cold Case Squad was established in 2005 and managed to piece together enough evidence to implicate Barr and McMannis slowly.

McMannis had moved to Cumberland, Maryland, but was eventually arrested and extradited to Florida. Barr received a conviction and life sentence in 2015.

Still, it would take another couple of years before McMannis too was brought to trial and forced to plead guilty or risk getting murdered – ending in him being sentenced to life without parole.