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NBC's Dateline: The Knock at the Door aired on July 7, 2017. The episode delves into details of the 2001 chilling murder of Tara Ord-Sidarovich in Florida by two septic workers. The nineteen-year-old girl went missing from her Florida home on October 1, 2001.
It took nine months for the investigators to find Tara's missing body from a makeshift grave in a woody area near Burnt Store Road. The case went cold for several years until true crime coverage led to the arrest of the real culprit.
After nearly six years, a man named Michael Artell saw the case on a television show in 2007. He believed Phillip Barr, the man he met in the jail pod in 2004, was related to the case. While Artell was arrested for a check fraud case, Barr was a suspect in a different case; it seemed like Barr confided in Artell about Tara's brutal murder.
Upon further investigation, it was found out that the two men, Phillip Bar and David Ray McMannis, were the last ones to see Tara alive. On that day, they went to the Sidarovich household to give an estimate of the required septic work and brutally killed her. They were indicted by a grand jury in 2012 by a jury for murdering Tara Ord-Sidarovich.
Phillip Barr was convicted of the first-degree murder of Tara Ord-Sidarovich and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2015. Two years later, David McMannis was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in 2017.
Who was Tara Ord-Sidarovich? What happened to her in October 2001? Here's what we know.
Who was Tara Ord-Sidarovich as per the Dateline episode?
Nineteen-year-old Tara Ord Sidarovich was a young and lively girl who lived in Punta Gorda, Florida, with her mother, Sharon, and two siblings, Veronica and Paul Ord. Tara worked at the Golden Isle Jewelry store located in Port Charlotte Town Centre. Their family relocated to Florida from Scarton, Pennsylvania, for a better life. Tara also enjoyed cheerleading and loved shopping. Her mother was engaged to Keith McPhillips, who was quite close to the family.
A missing daughter, a brutal murder, sucked away all the happiness from the Sidarovich's family
What happened to Tara Ord-Sidarovich as per the Dateline episode?
Tara, 19, went missing from her Florida home on Monday, October 1, 2001. When her sister Veronica (14) and her younger brother, Paul Ord, returned home from school, they saw no traces of Tara in the house. However, they found her car parked outside the house.
Veronica noticed that the door was open and the TV was on. She found Tara's purse inside the house. Alarmed, she quickly rang up their mother's fiancé, Keith. As soon as he reached the scene, he found marks of tracks on the floor and muddy footprints. Tara's mother, Sharon, informed the police about her missing daughter.
Tara's earrings from the carpet, a damaged small palm tree, her ribbons in the garden, and tire marks in the yard were found from their house. They also discovered scuff marks on their bedroom dresser and some missing jewelry. Even though the investigators tried to locate Tara, they failed to do so. As per her colleagues' statements, they found she went to collect her paycheck but never came back. The case went cold after not getting any proper leads.
Nine months later, in June 2001, her body remains were found in a secluded area on Burnt Store Road in Florida. The investigators reopened the case, with evidence such as collapsed ribs and neck suggesting she was brutally hit. Although the case was shelved again. Nearly six years later, the case was reopened by Charlotte County Sheriff's Cold Case Unit after they got a heads-up from Michael Artell's tip about Phillip Barr, a septic company owner.
On October 1, 2001, Phillip Barr and David McMannis went to Tara's home for some septic repair work when they brutally killed her. The detectives confirmed that Tara was killed by a blunt force to her ribs. As per the reports, Tara was abused and hit hard; the bend on the earrings suggested that they were violently taken out.
Later they took Tara's lifeless body in their truck to dump it in a secluded area. Meanwhile, Charlotte County Sheriff Lt. Brian Harrison also noticed the unusual movement of Barr's truck on October 2, 2001. Finally, the culprits dumped Tara's body. As per reports by Wink, Barr's former girlfriend, Linda Dillie, told the court that Barr acted quite weird on October 2, 2001. She even revealed that Barr was trying to change his appearance and asked her how to get rid of DNA by using bleach.
As per the court, the pieces of evidence were enough to prove Phillip Barr and David McManis guilty of murdering Tara Ord-Sidarovich in October 2001.
Currently, Barr is serving his life imprisonment sentence at Dade Correctional Institution in Homestead. On the other hand, he is locked in with David McManis in the Northwest Florida Reception Center in Washington County.
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