The Dateline episode “The Knock at the Door” investigates the 2001 disappearance and murder of Tara Ord Sidorovich, who was 19 years old when she was taken from her home in Punta Gorda, Florida. Her remains were discovered one year later. Ten years later, two men were arrested for her murder– David McMannis and Phillip Barr. Prosecutors claimed the men showed up at the house pretending to give an estimate for plumbing work while planning to burglarize the home until Sidarovich caught on and that’s when a struggle ensued.
As Dateline correspondent Keith Morrision says, it was the “incredible determination” of Tara’s family (led by her mother Sharon McPhillips) that helped reopen the cold case. After McMannis and Barr were arrested in 2012, Sharon started the Facebook page Justice for Tara to keep family and friends up-to-date on the case and court proceedings. One month after McMannis and Barr received their life sentences, McPhillips wrote that she had to delete one comment left by an angry reader for “vulgarity.” Dateline airs Fridays at 10pm on NBC.
