jun 6, 1979 - Tara Cosette Cossey DISAPPEARANCE

Description:

Tara Cosette Cossey was born on August 24, 1966 in San Pablo, Contra Costa County, CA. Tara is biracial (white and Native American); she is of Choctaw Indian descent, and is described as having a dark complexion. NamUs lists her "race/ethnicity" as "Hispanic/Latino," but this isn't backed up by any other sources and seems to be erroneous; she is correctly described as biracial, white & Choctaw further down the same page. At the time of her disappearance, Tara was 12 years old, 4'11, and 65lb. She has brown eyes and straight black hair that was worn past her shoulders and described as "very long."

Tara lived with her family at 221 Bonnie Drive in San Pablo, CA. Her mother, Patricia Standridge, was a housekeeper at Doctors Hospital in Pinole, CA, while Tara's stepfather, James Standridge, was an operator at the Chevron Refinery in Richmond, CA; both are located in Contra Costa County. Tara's biological father's name is Frieland E Cossey. He lived in an apartment in San Pablo at the time.

There are some more inconsistencies regarding basic info in her case across sources, as there is with her race/ethnicity. Tara's middle name is spelled differently across sources, so I am using the spelling that has been used most frequently. The various spellings of her middle name, along with which sources use them, are: "Cosette" (NamUs, Charley Project description, NCMEC); "Cossett" (Doe Network); "Lossett" (CharPro title, CA DOJ, Justice for Native People); and "Cossette" (Charley Project description).

Some sources, including NamUs, provide June 10, 1979 as Tara's date of last contact. However, the most widely used, and almost certainly accurate, date is actually June 6, 1979, as newspaper clippings at the time -- from June 8 and 9 1979 -- state that she disappeared on the 6th. It is unknown to me where the date of June 10 came from.


On Wednesday, June 6 1979, Tara Cossey, 12, left her family's home at 221 Bonnie Drive in Montalvin Manor, San Pablo, CA to run an errand for her mother, Pat Strandridge. At about 10:30am, Tara was seen for the last time by a clerk at Pirelli's Liquor Store in the Montalvin Shopping Center in San Pablo. There she purchased a bag of sugar for her mother. Tara never returned to her family's residence and has never been heard from again. Multiple/many people reported seeing a girl matching her description at the shopping center, but police were unable to trace her movements after she was there.

Tara has no history of running away, and reportedly had "no problems that would encourage her to run away." Her mother, Pat, stated that she believed that Tara would not have spoken to strangers. Tara was wearing cutoff Levi's jeans, a blue tank top, and thong sandals, as well as a red long-sleeved shirt tied around her waist, when she was last seen. She was a student at Juan Crespi Junior High School at the time. According to one clipping, as of June 8 1979, investigators could not locate the sugar that Tara had purchased. Bloodhounds were used in the Montalvin Manor district on June 7, but failed to pick up Tara's scent.

According to Charley Project, few details are available in Tara's case, which is classified as a Non-Family Abduction on Charley Project, and as Endangered Missing on Doe Network. Tara's dental X-rays are not available, and it is unknown if her fingerprints or DNA are available. She has four (4) UID rule-outs on NamUs, three of which are from VA; the only other one, from CA, is the former Rancho Cucamonga Jane Doe, who has since been identified as Karen Marie Heverley. Tara is not listed among the Bureau of Indian Affairs's Missing and Murdered Cases. However, the website states that, "While agents are working hundreds of cases, only those that next of kin and families have authorized are published here."

The following information had previously been available on Charley Project, but has since been removed. According to the site Justice for Native People, as well as Tara's wiki and WebSleuths pages, a man named Timothy Bindner is thought to be a possible person of interest in Tara's case. Tim Bindner came to the attention of police in the 1980s and 1990s for sending birthday cards and letters to young girls in the East Bay area; Bindner claimed the cards were "a kind gesture because the girls were 'lonely.'" Bindner was also known to visit the Oakmont Cemetery gravesite of Angela Bugay, a 5yo girl who was abducted and murdered in Antioch, CA in 1983. Bindner would insert himself into investigations and offer assistance to missing girls' mothers. He was, quite frankly, a general creepy weirdo, but he was never charged with any violent crimes, and in 1997 he successfully sued the town of Fairfield, CA for defamation of character.

Tim Bindner is thought to be possibly connected to Cossey's case because of this, but he did not insert himself into Tara's investigation like he did for the following other cases:
- Amber Swartz-Garcia, 8yo, Pinole CA, missing 6/3/88 (Wikipedia page available)
- In 2007, convicted kidnapper Curtis Dean Anderson confessed to kidnapping and killing Amber, but there are some doubts regarding his involvement.
- Michaela Garecht, 9yo, Hayward CA, missing 12/19/88 (Wikipedia page available)
- Ilene Misheloff, 13yo, Dublin CA, missing 1/30/89
- Amanda Nicole "Nikki" Campbell, 4yo, Fairfield CA, missing 12/27/91

There are other suspects at least in the case of Michaela Garecht, and there's nothing definitive against Tim Bindner in any of these cases.

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CONFIRMATION OF COMPLETION DATE: May 31, 2025
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JUNE 6 1979
LUNAR PHASE: waxing gibbous
ZODIAC SIGN: gemini
DAY OF WEEK: Wednesday
EVENTS:

JUNE 10 1979
LUNAR PHASE: full moon
ZODIAC SIGN: gemini
DAY OF WEEK: Sunday
EVENTS:

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