Tara Grinstead /// Part 1 /// 215 | Forensic Files

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a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. Her courage, her smile, just the way
she's so happy. And the way she interacts with people, it's just it's amazing. Tara Grinstead, Irwin County High School
teacher and former beauty pageant contestant, had a huge impact on the tiny town of Ocilla, population 3,300.
So much so that her disappearance almost 2 weeks ago has galvanized this community. Tara's older sister, Anita.
I cannot even express how my family and our friends, I mean, the outpouring of love for Tara. We knew they loved her.
30-year-old Tara Grinstead was last seen October 22nd when she attended a local pageant. Her home sits locked, car in
driveway, even her dog left outside. Only her purse and keys are missing, leading many to suspect she left with
someone she knew. The GBI has interviewed Tara's ex-boyfriend of 6 years, as well as a former student who
broke into her home recently. Yes, they've talked to these people and and you know, they're talking to several
people. All the friends, uh families, uh work acquaintances. But those who knew the beautiful,
generous young woman say if someone did snatch Tara, it could be almost anyone. All the guys in our school liked Miss
Tara. And she is beautiful. She is somebody everybody wants to be like, so that might have something to do with
her. If someone had come there and said one of your students is in trouble, or one
of your teachers needs your help, she would have gone. Tara Faye Grinstead was born in
Hawkinsville, Georgia on November 14th, 1974. From an early age, Tara was involved in
the beauty pageant circuit. She was Miss Tifton in 1999, and one year she made it
all the way to the Miss Georgia pageant. Her talent for these shows was singing.
Tara's parents were separated at the time of her disappearance, which took place in 2005.
Tara's mother, who still lived in Hawkinsville, was suffering from an illness. Tara was very close with her sister
Anita and her sister's husband Larry. She was also very close to her father Bill and stepmother Connie. She was a
family person. And although she was from Hawkinsville, Tara lived and worked in Ocilla, a small
town of about 3,000 people. Ocilla is about an hour's drive from her hometown of Hawkinsville. Despite her
love for the pageant life, Tara was not satisfied with being a beauty queen. She
had goals. She had career goals. And she used her pageant winnings to fund her quest for a higher education.
Tara earned her bachelor's and then she's eventually going to go on to earn her master's at Valdosta University.
She moved to Ocilla as a student teacher and fell in love with the town. In 2005,
Tara was an 11th grade history teacher at Irwin County High School, where she had taught for 8 years and by all
accounts she was well-liked by her students. In addition, she was attending night
school four nights a week to get her PhD in history and administration. Mhm. She attended night classes at various
campuses of VSU, including campuses in the towns of Waycross and Tifton. Her ambition, according to friends and
family, was to work her way up to high school principal or to be a college history professor.
Tara loved being an educator. She was known to go above and beyond for her students. And on occasion, she helped
pay for prom dresses or yearbooks for some of the students who could not afford such things.
What which is very nice and also we know that teachers do not make what what they
should make. So, she's doing this on a teacher salary. She also had a supplemental job at a
makeup counter at a local department store. And she also volunteered in the pageant circuit and at homecoming to
help students and their friends get ready for competitions or dances by doing hair and makeup.
time of her disappearance, Tara lived in a meticulously decorated small rental house on Park Street. She had a dog
named Dolly and a cat named Herman. Tara was close with her neighbors and enjoyed gardening when she could find
the time in her busy schedule. Tara also attended church regularly and she was incredibly social, but she did not
drink. She also took self-defense classes. By all accounts, Tara was a wonderful, outgoing, giving person who
stood out in the small town of Ocilla. Now, let's get to the day of her disappearance. This was a Saturday. The
date, October 22nd, 2005. Tara had some students over to her house to help them prepare for the Miss Sweet
Potato Pageant, which was taking place in Fitzgerald, a nearby town. This was around 3:00 p.m. that afternoon.
According to one of the students who was there, Dana Wilder, Tara was in a great
mood. Nothing about Tara's behavior seemed odd. Then Tara attended the pageant. After attending the pageant
that evening, Tara stopped by a neighbor's house to visit for about half an hour.
Now, the name of this neighbor has not been released, and this would have been around 8:00 p.m.
She then went to a barbecue at the home of the former school superintendent. This is Dr. Troy Davis and his wife,
Missy. This was a party. I don't know how many people were in attendance, but a get-together nonetheless. On the menu
for that evening, watching the mighty Georgia Bulldogs football game, socializing, and enjoying some good old
southern barbecue. Her friend, Maria Hewlett, is going to be able to confirm that not only did
they watch the game, but they also had dinner that evening. Friends later told police that Tara had
received several cell phone calls while she was at the party. At approximately 11:00 p.m., Dr. Davis walks Tara to the
door as she gets ready to leave. She tells Dr. Davis that she is going home for the evening. In fact, she said she
was going to go home and watch a video of the pageant from earlier that day. That is the last known sighting of Tara
Grinstead. Now, Tara was really close with her neighbors. Well, specifically, Myrtle and Joe
Portier. Mhm. So much so with the Portiers that they had a key to Tara's home. And Tara's
family knew that the Portiers looked out for Tara. Joe and Myrtle knowing that Tara lived alone and having to drive
long distances many nights a week to attend her night classes, they had established some kind of system with
Tara to make sure that she had arrived home safely in the evenings. They would look for her bedroom lamp to come on and
seeing it they would know that she was home safe and sound. This system didn't seem to apply on the weekends though
because Joe and Myrtle were often they often left town to go to their weekend home.
Right. And on Sunday, October 23rd, this is around midnight, Tara's mother called
the Portiers at their home. This is roughly 24 hours after the last sighting of Tara. Her mother had told them that
she was unable to reach her daughter and asked them if they had seen her that day. They said that they had not seen
her, however, because they were out of town, this wouldn't have been unusual. Right.
But that her car, Tara's car, which is a pearl colored Mitsubishi 3000 GT, it was
parked in the carport at Tara's house when they had returned from their out-of-town stay.
The next day on Monday morning, October 24th, Joe Portier noticed that Tara's car was still at her house, but there
didn't seem to be any sign of Tara herself. He walked to Tara's house, knocked on
the door. There was no answer. He knocked several more times. He checked the door, the door was locked. Joe was
concerned. He called the high school and he asked about Tara. Had they seen her?
Had they heard from her? He was told that Tara had not come into work that morning, which was extremely rare, and
they had not even heard from the young woman. Joe then decided to use his key to open
the door and enter the home. Inside he found no one. Tara was not there. There were some things that caused concern.
Joe noted that Tara's bedroom lamp was broken and propped up in two pieces and her alarm clock was lying on the floor.
The alarm clock they found is not the right time. It's actually off by 6 hours. And strangely Tara's cell phone was in
the house. This is odd because obviously this is something you would expect for her to take with her, but it was at the
house and it was still resting on the charger. Right. Joe who had entered the home is an
Ocilla city councilman. So he had the chief of police's phone number at his disposal and he decided to call chief
This is Mr. Billy Hancock directly and told him that he had spoken to Tara's mother and to her work. No one had seen
or heard from Tara. Her car was parked at her house, her cell phone was inside and Tara was nowhere to be found. Joe
believes something could have happened to her at the very least. Tara was missing.
So a missing person's report was filed at that time and at 8:50 a.m. police arrived at the scene at Tara's home. By
11:00 a.m. police had called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Investigators noted a few things right
away. The house had been found by Joe to be locked. So there was no signs of forced entry.
Although Tara's cell phone was still at the house, her purse and car keys were nowhere to be found.
There are conflicting reports about Tara's car. This is whether or not it was locked or unlocked at the time that
the authorities found it. Right. Tara's sister Anita says that the vehicle was unlocked which she also goes
on to say was completely out of character for her sister. Another curious thing about the car,
investigators noted that the driver side seat was pushed all the way back as though a
tall person had been driving it. Although Tara was only about 5 ft 3 in tall. So, on a good day, Captain, I'm 6-ft
1-in, and I have never driven a Mitsubishi 3000 GT, but in most cars, uh specifically cars, not like big
trucks or anything, practically all of them, when it comes to cars, I'm an all the way back seat guy. So, there
you're a suspect. I'm Yes, and not only am I a suspect, but I'm guilty. So, unless there was some other reason
for this, Well, that's shocking. you know, unless maybe she moved the seat to look for something or
Right. I I can't think of why the seat would have been moved other than I would be expecting a person to have
been operating this vehicle to have been about 6-ft or maybe taller. Well, I think you lean more towards
somebody operating this vehicle because the keys are gone. Yeah, and furthermore, there was $100 in
cash on the dashboard or console of the car, and I say dashboard or console because it's been reported both ways.
Right. There was also found to be clay or mud on the tires of the vehicle. And this
would be as if someone had driven it off-road at some point. we did talk about her going to a
barbecue earlier, so is it possible that she parked in somebody's grass and maybe
got a little bit of mud on her tires there. Yeah, you and I specifically talked about that, meaning that it could it
could have nothing to do with her disappearance. It could be from the events of that evening before she went
missing. I mean, you know, there's a a bonfire that you and I used to go to regular attendance. It was once or twice
a year, and people were instructed to park in the person's yard. You know, the person
lived out in the country, and you only have so much driveway. They would say, "Just park in the yard."
Right. And so, you would leave there, and you might have mud on the tires or or in
this situation clay on the tires. I did look up, you know, we talked about the barbecue. I did look up to find where
that person, the host of the barbecue, lived. Right. And it didn't seem to me to be like out
in the country, out in the sticks. It looked to be to be more of a traditional neighborhood. Now, that's not to say
that she didn't park on the street and end up with two tires in somebody's yard.
Well, and then to go back to, she did go to this pageant and I I know sometimes when a high high school or school or or
any place would like host a big event, you know, such as possibly this um pageant would be, maybe she parked her
car in the grass during that as well. So, again, don't know, but to me I'm leaning more towards it has something to
do with her disappearance because car keys are gone. This was the sweet Miss Sweet Potato
Pageant. Yeah, I won in 1996. That's funny because in 2006, Columbus named me Mr. Potato Head.
There is some There's also some confusion as to the whereabouts of Tara's dog, Dolly. Now,
Dolly was a from my understanding, like a large German Shepherd. This was not a small
dog. Uh not like Frank. Yeah. Uh some articles say that the dog was found outside in the backyard and
then other articles just say that the dog and cat were found, but no specifics as to where they were found.
Yeah, you'd think that maybe the neighbors would report seeing the dog outside for multiple days.
I don't know how the Portiers So, from the Portiers' house, you can see Tara's home. And you can see most of her yard
because the way that they're situated, you you should be able to see the front and backyard of her home from some of
their windows. Right, but they wouldn't know this because they were out of town. I'm just
wondering if there was other neighbors that would have noticed the dog being out for multiple days.
It seems to me that people just lean towards the idea that the dog was outside. If the dog were to be outside, though,
that's where I question what's going on with the poor Tiers because they are made aware that Tara has not been heard
from on Sunday evening. They would have seen the dog outside. They don't report that to her mother. Hey, we saw the
vehicle outside. Right. But they don't state that hey, we everything must be fine. She's clearly
let the dog out. But by this time, by the time she was found on Monday morning, then that dog would have been
out all night long, which would have seemed suspicious to me unless that was a regular thing for her. Who knows? I
mean, every it was a fenced in area, I'm guessing. Everybody lives different lives.
Um the important thing here, though, Captain, is that would Tara's abductor or would-be
abductor put the dog outside to, you know, because German Shepherds are by nature aggressive dogs.
Right. This is a dog that probably would have eagerly protected her should she have
been attacked or abducted from inside the home or near the home. Finally, the other strange thing about
the crime scene is a business card was found tucked into Tara's front door with the name Heath Dykes on it.
Now, police were quick to state that they did not suspect foul play saying that nothing they had found
uh led them to the conclusion that something had happened to Tara. Her disappearance would continue to be
investigated as a missing person's case. Tara's family, however, disagreed with this. Tara's sister, Anita, said Tara
would have never gone anywhere without her phone, would never leave her pets alone for a long period of time,
presumably over 30 hours or so by the time Joe entered the home, and she would have never just not have shown up to
work. It was just totally out of character for her sister. Now, Anita said it looked like someone had
attempted to make Tara's bed. Apparently, Tara was quite particular about how she made the bed or how the
bed was made and it was not found in the manner that her sister would have expected to find
her bed. And there were clothes on her bedroom floor. Anita said that Tara made the Had she made the bed, she would have
never left the clothes on the floor. Now, the clothing that was found on the floor, this is the clothes that Tara was
seen wearing on that Saturday evening at the barbecue. Anita also identified a few more missing things. There were
earrings Tara was wearing that day which her friend Miss Davis recalled having seen Tara wearing them at the barbecue.
These earrings were not found. Uh also missing were a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. These are
items that are believed that Tara would usually wear to bed and had slept in. Also, after further searching the house,
pieces of a necklace Tara had been wearing on that Saturday were found under the bed.
Anita later went on Fox News and the CBS Early Show to bring attention to her sister's disappearance and ask the
public for help. All right, so it seems to me that she Tara went to this barbecue.
She comes home. She possibly lets her dog out. Changes her clothes, gets out of the
barbecue clothes, the daytime clothes, and she's going to slip into something more comfortable, but maybe she leaves
the hoop earrings on cuz those are not found. At some point this we think that she was possibly wearing
that that necklace this day and so that somehow came off and it's broken. Yeah, there were pieces of it found
underneath her bed. So then we have this alarm clock that is 6 hours off. So does that tell us
something? Is there was there a attack that happened and then the power went out on the clock and
then it was plugged back in and and does that give us a time frame of when possibly she was attacked?
It should, but there's no report on what time the clock was reading when found. Just that it was 6 hours difference.
Yeah, I mean it could be 6 hours earlier or after Right. you would expect to find it. Tara's
sister's theory in the early days was that Tara had got home from the barbecue and she was getting ready for bed and
had been interrupted by someone possibly that she knew perhaps a friend, student,
or another teacher had possibly knocked on the door interrupting her and then at
some course she is abducted during that evening. Well, the investigators are going to
look at all possible angles of this and it seems, you know, one did somebody, you know, there's no
sign of breaking and entering so so it's like did somebody do that or did she leave on her own?
Yeah, the possibility of could she have just left? And this comes up because in the course of some interviews with
people close to Tara, police discovered that Tara was in a fragile emotional state after the breakup of a very
long-term relationship with her boyfriend. This is Marcus Harper. Right. Tara had apparently been distraught over
aspects of this emotionally charged situation. One day becoming so overcome while driving that she had to pull over
and call a friend for help. The next day she called in sick to work, which was unusual for Tara.
We'll discuss the former boyfriend Marcus Harper and their relationship in just a bit.
But it was so widely believed that Tara was under a lot of stress. I mean she's working two jobs and studying for a very
demanding degree. Right. Her mother was ill. Perhaps the theory went it was all just too much for her
and she wanted to escape. Well, and on top of that, she's a family person and she's a sociable person and
she tried to be a a pillar of the community. So, you're talking about a lot of things that are weighing on her
shoulders. Well, Tara's family would call BS on this theory. As we said, Anita pointed
out that Tara would never go anywhere without her phone. She would never leave Dolly and Herman to fend for themselves.
And it looks like she was just weeks away from completing her studies for another graduate degree, which would
have meant a bump in salary of up to 10 grand for her. So, why would she abandon
all of her hard work? And furthermore, her family questioned, how would she have left in the middle of the night
without her car in a town with little to no public transportation? It just It just didn't make any sense.
Police quickly began to receive tips about the missing person's case, but nothing panned out. Investigators said
they weren't ruling out the possibility that Tara had been abducted or had voluntarily took off with someone she
knew. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation or GBI was brought in very early in this case and within days a
massive search operation was underway. Hundreds of searchers and volunteers conducted daily searches of Ocilla and
more remote areas of the 358 square mile Irwin County looking for signs of Tara or clues as to what may have happened.
Searchers used horses, ATVs, helicopters, and underwater scanning equipment. A week after the disappearance of Tara,
there's going to be a bombshell that drops in the news. The neighbor, Joe Portier, he had found
a latex glove in Tara's front yard on the day that he had went over to check on her. Police tried to keep the
discovery of this glove a secret, presumably in order to keep some evidence under wraps so they could use
the information as they saw fit down the road. Nevertheless, Ocilla was a small town and word had got out about the
glove. Joe Portier told Nancy Grace that the glove was the type used in a medical
setting and not a glove that would be typically used for things like dishwashing or gardening.
Right. Reports conflict as to whether the glove was white or whether it was blue in
color. But of course, either way the presence of a latex glove at the scene of a possible abduction made Tara's
friends and family very concerned. All right, we're back. Cheers, mates. I got a
mouthful of chips Golden Crisp from Massillon, Ohio. Yeah, cheers to Jesse and Mary, our
friends over at Golden Crisp. You know what they say, Captain, the old the old famous saying? The best potatoes come
from Idaho. The best potato chips come from Ohio. Well, all I know is they're good with
beer. Well, back to the search efforts, Captain. Tara Grinstead's family set up a command center in downtown Ocilla to
help coordinate volunteers and disseminate flyers and posters. Within 2 weeks, there was a reward for
information in the case. This was of $30,000. One thing that was not addressed at all
was whether police used scent dogs to try to track Tara's scent to determine whether she had left the
house. What we do know is that search and rescue dogs were brought in about a week after Tara disappeared and searched
areas near her home. This including ponds and wooded areas. Presumably nothing was found. A woman's t-shirt was
found during a search, but investigators ruled this out saying it had nothing to
do with Tara's disappearance. So, 2 weeks after the last known sighting of Tara, news reports revealed that the
police had interviewed scores of people who knew or who were connected to Tara. They were pouring over Tara's phone
records and checking her home and school computers. And by this point they had polygraphed at least one person and were
following up on undisclosed leads. But police still refused to categorize Tara's disappearance as the result of
foul play. Tara's friends and family were beginning to give up hope that she would ever return home safely. Tara's
family hired a private detective to look into the case. This investigator believed the car seat being found pushed
back was a big red flag. As do I, as do you. Mhm. Fears began to arise that Tara had been
the victim of some inexplicable random attack by a stranger and that she was dead. Even so, the Grinstead family
persisted and manned the Tara command center, pushing the Ocilla PD and the GBI for more searches.
Mhm. They were also passing out buttons with Tara's picture on them and they even
decorated Tara's house as if she were coming home. They decorated for Halloween and they put up a happy
birthday banner for Tara's 31st birthday, which took place in November of 2005. Yeah, and by December 2005, law
enforcement's going to have all their ground searches. They're going to declare those done.
Yeah, and this would still have no signs of Tara. A press conference was held around that same time revealing that the
reward money in Tara's case had jumped up to $200,000. A large portion of this amount of money
was donated anonymously. Then in January of 2006 with Tara having been missing for 3 months, her family helped organize
a large-scale search conducted by Texas EquuSearch and 150 volunteers. The focus
of the ground search in Irwin and surrounding counties was the hundreds of wells sprinkled throughout the marshy
countryside. Searchers also used boats to access shallow swamps. As Tara's colleague and friend Wendy
McFarland put it, "On one hand, you pray to God to find her. On the other hand, you pray to God
you don't find her." Yeah. In February of 2006, the Ocilla police told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
quote, "It does seem to be kind of an overwhelming and baffling case. We've had missing persons before, but usually
those turn up in a few days. Usually juveniles who come back to their homes. Nevertheless, the GBI claimed that the
Grinstead case was still a very active investigation with active leads being pursued. Tara's family was increasingly
frustrated by the lack of progress in the case. They brought in an investigative psychologist. This is Dr.
Maurice Godwin. With Godwin's help, the family concluded that Tara had been the victim of foul play and was likely dead.
The family also became publicly critical of the Irwin County Sheriff's Department
and its handling of the investigation. So now, Captain, we see the family begin to take matters into their own hands and
at one point even attempting to conduct a search on private property. Well, okay. So, I agree why they'd be
frustrated. But, as far as law enforcement goes, this is a frustrating case because
if somebody is responsible for her going missing, if this is foul play, let's look at a couple things. One,
she's a teacher. Now, the graduating class is it's a small town. It's under normally 100, but she taught for some
years. So, now you have all the students that she's come in contact with, all the
people through the beauty pageants that she's come in contact with. She's in night classes, so all the people that
she's taken night classes with. This is somebody that is um heavily involved in her um
in in her local community, and there's going to be a lot of people that you have to question. So, as much as it's
frustrating for the family, I can see where it's frustrating for law enforcement as well.
This is my my head kind of goes back to the Barry Sherman and Honey Sherman case
that we recently covered. And I'm going to kind of just echo something today that I said when we covered that case. I
don't I've never understood why a police officer or a detective or police chief will come out so early on when they have
no clue what happened. Right. And go, "Well, we don't see any signs of foul play. We're going to investigate this as
a missing person's case." Why even bother to say that? You're just you're you're throwing yourself to the fire
there. Well, I I think it's a ignorance as far as an investigative uh tactic. I mean,
you have to basically have no blinders, right? You have to be open to any possibility. And I think when somebody
comes out and makes statements like that, I question their ability to investigate any crime because you can't
come up with a theory and then try to make that theory stick. You need to be letting the evidence, you know, it's
almost like a funnel. Let the evidence lead you down the path to the truth. I think what happens is when when when
the cameras turn on and they have to stand in front of people and give some kind of explanation as to what's going
on or the direction of the investigation. Mhm. I think they get nervous and I think
that maybe they say things that had they taken some time to think it through, they would have said something
differently and I think it's maybe a portion of of the investigation part, but more so the the public appeal or or
appealing to the public, I should say. What what I'm getting at is just with the just like with the Sherman case.
Mhm. Here's the thing. You and I both know that so many cases get solved because of
of a confession. If somebody out there is feeling super guilty or if they're super scared that law enforcement are on
to them or somebody knows what they did, they may come forward to try to save their own butt.
Well, more likely if they feel there's some heat on them, yes. Right. And if I'm at the crime scene and
I'm the chief the chief of police and I'm going, "We don't see any foul play." and I'm watching that on TV, I'm going,
"Shit, they don't they don't have anything on me. They don't even know that a crime's been committed."
Right. Just keep my mouth shut. So, again again, I would have the same statement for every situation. When
approached by the media, I would say, "Look, we have a lot of evidence to sort through.
Mhm. We will let the investigation and the leads take us where it may." We have a lot of eyewitnesses.
We have witnesses to statements to go through and we are going to work this case morning, noon, and night until it's
solved." And I just leave it at that. We're not stating that any foul play happened. We're not stating that any
foul play did not happen. Yeah, but I'd also throw in there as well, "We're getting closer to knowing
the truth." And just saying that that's not a wrong statement even if you're in the dark about whatever is happening.
Yeah, the more the more work you're going to do, the closer you're going to get to the truth is and I think by
making those statements like you said, you give yourself a chance of somebody coming forward and and and confessing to
this. Yeah, if I am if I'm watching the news and I hear the Sheriff Department or the
Police Chief state to the news, we have a lot of evidence to go through, a lot of witnesses to talk to.
I'm sitting at home going, [ __ ] what did I leave at the crime scene? Who saw me? Somebody must have saw me. And then
you start getting scared and then you do things that don't make sense. If you don't decide to come forward and
confess, maybe those around you are going, wait a second, this guy's not acting right. He could have been
involved and point the police in his direction. Now, I do understand the Grinstead family's frustration here
because you know, while they're not investigators, I I get where they're coming from. They're
they are going to the Sheriff's Department and they're saying, look, the things that we saw at her home just
don't add up to us. All right. We're telling you it doesn't make sense to us that she just walked away. And now
months into this, that's that's going to back up their gut feeling. Well, no, and it's also a small town, so
what rumors are they hearing uh from people in the community? Well, we know this, that Tara's sister
Anita told the media that the Sheriff's Office had failed to convey important leads to the GBI. And this she was
citing two witness reports of a black pickup truck, likely a Chevy, Mhm. parked outside of Tara's home around
5:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, October 23rd. So, she is last seen late Saturday night and
then there's a possible black pickup seen at her home very early Sunday morning. Actually, this takes place
under the cover of darkness. Mhm. We won't start to see the rise of of the sun there till just after 6:00 a.m. on
this day. So, at roughly at 5:00 a.m., this is under the cover of night. Now, another witness came forward, too,
stating that they had seen a similar truck not so much at her home or park near her home but in the area around
this same time and said that they had had some kind of verbal exchange with a man that was either standing next to the
truck or possibly driving the truck. So, we have two separate witnesses coming forward regarding this strange black
pickup truck possibly a Chevy. Yeah, but Tara's sister is also going to state in this interview that the family
believes that whoever was responsible for taking Tara probably returned the following day or at some point to kind
of clean up the scene and try to take care of whatever evidence was left. This could be when the latex glove was
dropped. So, the abductor or abductors returned to the home and at some point drops the latex glove. The weird thing
here, too, is that the glove had not been seen by two people who had who had stopped by Tara's house
Right. on that Sunday looking for her even though later we learn it was found in
plain sight. So, the glove was found in the front yard near the front stoop but not until
Monday when the police were on the scene. Yeah, but some sometimes people just don't pay attention. So,
Well, also I guess you know, this would lead the family to believe that this meant that the person who took Tara
that they returned not only did they return but it was probably possibly Sunday night because people had
been there through the course of Sunday and not seen this glove. In May of 2006, the media began to
report that investigators had recovered a DNA sample from the Grinstead crime scene. Nearly 150 people connected to
Tara had been swabbed in a search for a match to the DNA sample. The GBI refused
to confirm the existence of the DNA or address this part of the investigation at all. But by 2008,
as the case was in danger of growing cold, they were desperate for a break. GBI special agent Gary Rothwell revealed
on CBS's 48 Hours that the DNA sample was found on the latex glove. And the sample belonged to a male. And he I I
question my notes here, but I do have in my notes that at some point it's reported that the DNA belonged to an
unknown white male. But no match to anyone who knew Tara had been made at this point, and the sample
received no hits from the Georgia or the national DNA databases. And you're probably thinking that
they're testing the ex-boyfriend at this point. I would imagine anyone that's willing to
participate, uh, unless they go and get a court order. After a very intense investigation and a
lot of rumors in the community, there's going to become three major suspects. Through the course of the investigation,
authorities were obviously looking into Tara's personal life for any indication that anyone that she knew or was
involved with could be a suspect in this case of her disappearance. And there were some suspects, and few Here's the
thing. Few if any that they looked at had a concrete alibi that covered what the
police believed to be the disappearance window. And the problem with that is this window
is it's large. The the the time frame here is large. It starts from Saturday night Saturday night after 11:00 p.m.
And it goes through all day Sunday. Right. So, there are the lives of several of
these men, and they're they're all men that were considered to be the top three suspects, whether it be in the eyes of
the public or through investigators. And I say they're all men because there seems to be no indication that at any
point investigators ever seriously considered that a woman could have been responsible. This probably from the DNA
sample that they were they found on the glove. So, the first person of interest that I think we should discuss, Captain,
is somebody that I've referenced and that you've mentioned as well. And this is Marcus Harper. Marcus Harper was an
ex-Ocilla police officer who had been Tara's boyfriend for um about 5 to 6 years. There's some kind
of conflicting reports on how long or how strong, let's say, the relationship was for over the course of that time
frame. But, Marcus and Tara were by some by some accounts inseparable. Uh they were a typical small-town love story.
And I guess Tara assumed that one day they might get married, according to her friends, anyway.
Some people have stated that Marcus had a key to her home. Mhm. But, after So, okay. So, the two of
them, from what I can gather, is this. Their their relationship is a strange one from somebody looking this
from the outside in this far away, right? And somebody who's had some strange relationships, yeah.
From what is reported is that the two of them, Marcus and Tara, they were very much in love. But, after 9/11, Marcus
joined the mili- military and served in Afghanistan and Iraq in the Rangers. After his tour, Marcus became an
independent contractor in Iraq. Because of this job, Marcus didn't spend much time in Ocilla, obviously. Now, Tara was
not happy about Marcus's decision to continue in the independent contractor role.
Yeah. But, those guys make a lot of money, though. She became increasingly aware that
Marcus was not interested in marriage. So, the two began to bicker and to disagree. Although friends said that
things never got violent at any point. Now Connie Grinstead, this is Tara's stepmother,
who was very close with her, said that the relationship was stormy for the final two years of the relationship and
that they both at times dated other people, but they would always come back to each other.
Uh I guess they broke up in October of 2004, this according to Marcus, but they continued to see each other and in a
brief uh reconciliation, the two vacationed together in Florida. So, a few months before Tara went
missing in 2005, uh their relationship continued to be volatile. Finally, Tara sent Marcus a letter when
he was stationed abroad, essentially breaking things off, but then she appears to have changed her mind and
wanted to rekindle their relationship. Marcus, however, said that they would remain broken up. Tara did not accept
this and by all accounts, she was devastated by Marcus's decision. So, it seems like one thinks they're on
a break and the other doesn't think they're on a break. Somebody might consider there to be a
break, the other one's not on the same page, and then you can flip it and reverse it almost that the the other one
seems to think they're on a break and the other does not seem to agree. I guess she and Marcus continued to go
back and forth about the state of things of their actual relationship and at some
point, Tara even emailed Marcus's mother with some strange comments about something possibly happening to her or
to him because of the breakup. Let me just put this out there. If you're in a relationship, adult adult
relationship, once you start reaching out to friends and family members, uh it's probably
probably past uh past the state of no return. Yeah. Uh I think in the in Tara's defense, it sounds like she might have
been close with Marcus's mother. Mhm. Um, and that they had known each other for years, uh, possibly five or six
years at this point. And I from what I can gather I know, I'm just saying that the chances
of you talking to a guy's mother and then getting things turned back around because of that are probably slim to
none. Oh, no, I 100% agree. I think she was trying to confirm that Marcus had received her communications
because he was not he was not replying to her. He was not saying anything back to her.
People think this is a big red flag because he actually returns to town without any communication to her. And I
kind of wonder if it's one of those situations where they they talked multiple times after she, you know, at
some point broke it off while he's over there. And then there maybe there was a conversation where he's like, "Look,
this is just not going to work out. I'd like to remain friends." And then she's contacted him again going, "Hey, no, I
really want this to work out." And he's like, "Hey, it's not going to work out. I just want to remain friends." And then
when he went back to town, he just thought, "You know what? What's the point of contacting her?" I mean
you wouldn't necessarily disconnect your ex just because you got back because it's technically that's your ex.
Right. Now, I actually though I I'm I'm going to go in a different direction with it.
That's right. I actually think it was weird that he didn't contact her. Why? Because there's like 3,000 people live
in this town. Mhm. You're going to bump into the other person maybe even relatively quick
upon your return. Mhm. You obviously cared for this person for years. In my opinion, I would at least say,
"Hey, look, I'm going to be back in town. I wanted to let you know. I don't really want to see you, but I wanted to
let you know in advance because I don't I don't want things to be weird. Right. So, because in Am I wrong here though?
Because things do get weird because he's back in town and she's unaware of his return.
No, I just think it's a difference of opinion. I mean, I I just don't find it that strange. I mean, if you guys broke
up, then what's the point of contacting your ex when you when you return? At some point Tara found out that he had
in fact returned and he was dating someone. And according to Connie Grinstead, Marcus had told Tara that
they were over for good. And remember, this is what we talked about before. This is when the situation happens that
Tara is so emotionally distraught about the end of their relationship that she had to pull her car over when she was
driving. She called a friend to come pick her up and eventually she called in sick to work the next day. She also left
work early at some point over the course of that week. And her sister Anita, who
spoke uh with her daily and knew all about the situation with Marcus said on CBS's Early Show that Marcus and Tara
had a huge public fight the week before Tara disappeared and this was about the relationship being over and about Marcus
uh apparently seeing someone at that time. There are also some reports that one of
the phone calls that Tara received during the course of the barbecue the night that she had disappeared at at uh
Dr. Davis's house, Mhm. uh this would be around 10:30 p.m. was from a friend of hers who was at a local
bar who had saw Marcus there and was just calling to let Tara know. Yeah. Why do people do that?
Hey, I'm out having a couple drinks and I saw your ex with his new girlfriend and then called the person.
That's a that's a uppity loser. It's just weird in my opinion. I mean I I I don't know. I I feel like that's
like throwing fuel on the fire of her her sadness, you know? Well, it's stirring the pot for both
Marcus and Tara. It's somebody that's sitting at a bar. And And keep in mind, we're going off of just this very simple
statement of I'm sitting at a bar, I see your ex-boyfriend here, I'm going to call you just so you know that he's
here. Right. There could be a lot more involved in this situation. But in my opinion, it's
just somebody stirring the pot, throwing themselves into a situation that at least one of the two that were in the
relationship didn't want to be in a situation where they had to have communication with one another.
Right. So, to jump in there seems to be ill-advised at best. So, this Marcus guy, he doesn't have a
alibi or a solid alibi for the night that Tara went missing? Well, that's that's actually not the
case. Apparently, he has an alibi for that night. Marcus told police, and this was backed up by witnesses, that he was
with his step sister and her boyfriend and some other friends at a local tavern in Fitzgerald, which is 10 miles away,
on the night of September October 22nd. A friends band was playing there that night. Now, we know this is very likely
because one of Tara's friends saw him and then called her and told her, right? Right.
So, sometime after 1:00 a.m., he leaves this bar and he went to the Ocilla Police Department to find his buddy
Shane Fletcher, who was a active Ocilla police officer. The police dispatcher notified Fletcher
that Marcus was there and was looking for him. This was around 1:49 a.m. They met up and Marcus worked Fletcher's beat
with him. During this time, they were seen by and spoke to several other people. Police records of the calls that
came in that evening show that Fletcher and Marcus were responding to calls together including a last call. The last
call of that evening was at a 24-hour gas station which concluded around 4:28 a.m. Apparently,
this I found this to be strange. Apparently in Ocilla, this is a small enough town that ex-cops
can go to a bar and then follow it up with hanging out with a you know, with an active police officer and there's
some reports that state that it almost gives the impression that Marcus was behaving as an active officer that
night. Right. So, after this ride-along Marcus says that he then went home and he it's time
to go to bed, you know, it's it's almost 5:00 in the morning. So, while he can't
account for his time after 5:00 a.m. on October 23rd, investigators have they had no evidence that he was anyway
involved in what happened to Tara. They spoke with nine different witnesses. This included police officers, the
dispatcher, and civilians who all backed up Marcus's story. So, his alibi up until 5:00 a.m. is airtight. Now, his
family, this being his mother and father, told investigators that he was with them on Sunday and according to his
lawyer, Marcus accounted to GBI for every minute of his time during the time from when Tara was last seen until she
was reported missing on Monday morning. Despite the alibi though, Captain, Marcus was the leading suspect in the
eyes of the public. In their eyes, Marcus could have conspired with his police officer buddies to cover up the
murder of Tara. Right, and that would make sense why we found the glove. Well, further, he was trained in stealth
tactics as a member of the special forces. So, one could assume he could likely kill
someone and possibly dispose of them, maybe even permanently. Mhm. Rumors flew that Marcus had been jealous
of Tara dating other men and so that he had killed her. Now, on the advice of his attorney, Marcus appeared on TV as
the subject of interviews. This was to clear up rumors and innuendo being leveled at him on social media and as
the investigation dragged on. Mhm. He was filmed in profile so as not to compromise his security in Iraq. Uh in
one interview, Marcus said that he and Tara never had the huge argument that Tara's sister Anita had referred to.
This being about another woman that Marcus was dating. He said that the last time that he had seen Tara was about
9:00 a.m. on October 14th, so more than a week before she disappeared. This was when Tara had turned up at his house.
Marcus said that Tara had threatened to commit suicide. Though he added that she
had returned later that same day and they seemed to work things out. She asked him for a hug and they both parted
and went their separate ways with the understanding that that would be the last time that they hung out together.
Mhm. according to a report that would that I found in Crime Library, Tara's friends
and family dispute Marcus's allegations that Tara was suicidal. They say that after Tara left Marcus's on the 14th,
she then went to a tanning salon and then hung out with relatives and they state that that behavior
was hardly, in their opinion, that of a suicidal depressive person. Well, I mean, his claims early on were
they're pretty pretty harsh. I mean, he was basically saying she pulled a Gone Girl, you know, that she you know,
that he did not believe that she was dead and they would have to actually, you know, show him a body to
to prove that she was actually murdered. Well, and by all accounts, too, Marcus was helpful and cooperative with the
investigation, even giving police a DNA sample, and it was determined he was not
a match to the sample that they found on the latex glove. And he says he spoke to
GBI four or five times, and he even let them search his truck using Luminol. Now, Marcus not being named a suspect by
authorities did not deter Tara's family from being convinced that he was somehow
involved in her disappearance or murder. Right. According to Marcus, Anita outright
accused him of harming Tara. The search that the Grinstead family members attempted of the private property, this
is what we discussed earlier, was in fact on Marcus's property. This was in March of 2006. Tara's family brought
cadaver dogs and volunteers to search the 100-acre area of land surrounding Marcus's home, which had not been
searched by the sheriff's department. They did not have permission to be there. However, a neighbor of Marcus's
had given searchers some permission to access his property, Right. which butts right up to Marcus's. But
apparently, the the Irwin County Sheriff showed up, and they were threatening to
arrest the searchers. This was in order to them off of Marcus's private property. Marcus did, however, agree to
a subsequent search of his property, but he wanted this to be conducted by actual
law enforcement. This did take place. He later declined to press any charges against the people that were trespassing
onto his land. Now, this is a very tough situation to be in because you have a relationship
that didn't work out. Now, who knows why, right? But you did care about this person at
some point. So, even if they're acting a little distraught or you're not in favor of how they're acting towards
you, you still have feelings towards them and they go missing. But, now it gets a little weird because everybody's
pointing the finger at you. It seems like time and time again, he's at least being cooperative.
Mhm. So, it's it's strange to me how long he was the number one suspect and and seemed like in the public's uh
opinion. Well, I it seems to me like he was always the number one suspect in the
public's opinion. I question how long he was a suspect in the police's opinion. And And because what I mean by that is
his actions, I actually could not see him a way to be more cooperative. Mhm. Okay, I can understand not have wanting
a random group of people showing up searching your property. Mhm. What if somebody were to plant
something? You don't know who these people You don't trust them. Right. And him being former police, I can
understand the Well, he trusted the police and he trusted the system, you know what
And what he's going to do is say, "Look, I don't know who you people are, so you
can't search my property. However, in in the in the course of being fully transparent toward the investigation of
this missing woman, I will allow law enforcement to search my property." The only thing that I There was one
thing that I found weird here. Well, I I should be I should be fair to Marcus because this is This is the shoe on the
other foot kind of thing, right? Mhm. So, he did agree to take a polygraph test, but this was not administered by
uh local law enforcement. This was he had through his attorney hired his own person to administer the test.
Mhm. And that was the test that was submitted to law enforcement. I That seems a
little strange, but saying that, if I were if I were under the microscope, I wouldn't even agree to
Even if I were Somebody asked me this a month ago. Um What What if you were 100%
innocent and you were being looked at in a murder investigation? I said, "Well, first thing first, I would get a lawyer,
and second thing, I would not take a polygraph test." And they said, "Well, why not?" I said,
"Because you have nothing to gain by taking the polygraph test. If you're completely innocent, you have nothing to
gain from taking the polygraph test." Yeah, but some sometimes lawyers will have their clients do it just just so
the lawyer gets a read on the client. Yeah, and gets to charge the client a little extra cashola. Uh one final
element that contributed to the public speculation about Marcus and gave rise to even more conspiracy theories. This
would have been about 2 weeks after Tara's disappearance, there was some kind of strange big fire that took place
on a nearby property. This is on Snapdragon Road. The fire destroyed a home and an SUV. The house, for whatever
reason, was supposedly being caretaken by Marcus's buddy. This is Michael Langford.
Mhm. Uh who was an active Ocilla police officer. Police took cadaver dogs through the burned-out scene. I have
police listed in here, and I I I question if this was police or if it was an outside source. But at some
point, search dogs or cadaver dogs did go to the scene of this fire. Mhm. Um they stated that nothing was found in
relation to Tara. There are reports out there that one of these dogs hit on something.
Um apparently, that was most likely a septic line or some sewage. Um needless to say, this connection
between Marcus and this suspicious fire right after Tara went missing did not improve the
the court of public opinion, right? Right. Right. And then let's go on to suspect number two, shall we?
This is a man named Anthony Vickers. Who is Anthony Vickers? He was a 20-year-old
at the time of Tara's disappearance, 20-year-old former student of Tara's who by all accounts had some kind of
There All right. I I say all accounts, but this is a strange thing because there are some small reports out there
that state he was obsessed with her. There are other reports out there in Anthony Vickers' own words that they
were having an actual relationship at the time of her disappearance or shortly before.
An intimate relationship. Yeah. Right. So and there is actual accounts of them hanging out. So it's weird cuz
you get kind of two sides of the story, but in the middle you do have this scenario where she is hanging out with
one of her former students. Yes. Well, and then you also have this strange thing with Anthony Vickers that
took place in March of 2005 when Anthony was arrested for showing up at Tara's home, and apparently he's
banging on the door demanding to speak with her. She's inside the home at the time, but refusing to answer the door.
Inside the home with Tara was a male visitor, and I guess she finally opened the door.
Right. And at that time Anthony Vickers tried to forcibly enter the home. Let me in. Like fear.
And at one point he grabs her arm. The male visitor at Tara's house was Heath Dykes, who is a Perry County detective.
Mhm. Ocilla PD was called, and Anthony cursed out the arresting officers. Tara pressed charges against Anthony. He
was charged with disorderly conduct. And later the charges were dropped. Now, that's not the story he tells
people. The story he tells people is that he was over there hanging out, they got in an argument, one of the neighbors
calls because they hear that hears them arguing. Mhm. The cops show up, and then he continues,
you know, because he's angry, continues to argue with the police officers, and then they have to arrest him.
I don't know. I must have missed the part where he said that they were hanging out. But what what I recall him
stating to kind of clarify the situation is that he lived relatively close to Okay, so the the police department,
Ocilla Police Department, is relatively close to Tara Grinstead's home that she's renting.
And that at some course the neighbor Like you said, the neighbors called the police. So, he
would be unaware that the police were on their way. Right. But whatever happened while he was
there, according to Anthony Vickers, it was kind of over and done with in his mind. He felt like he had said what he
wanted to say, whether regardless of how loudly he said it, that he was he was preparing to leave her home. That he
wasn't It was not going to escalate further. That he was going to leave her home, and before as he was walking to
his vehicle, the police showed up because they were so close. Right. Had they had she not lived in that close
proximity to the police department, he would have been well on his way, and these charges would have never been
brought in the first place. relatively close in time from when she went missing, right?
No, this was in March of 2005. So, I mean, it's the same year. It's seven seven months before. Authorities did
interview Anthony very quickly after Tara's disappearance. Anthony also agreed to take a polygraph, and the
Vickers family property was searched. Anthony maintained that he and Tara had some type of long-term romantic
relationship. Those are his words. that they were keeping under wraps because it
would damage Tara's career and reputation to be involved with a young ex-student. Keep in mind, at this time,
he would have been one of her students just years before. Right. Now, none of Tara's friends or family
support this thought that the two were involved together. And another wrinkle in this whole case
Mhm. is that regarding that incident of Anthony Vickers being arrested, one of the Ocilla PD officers responding to
that situation at Tara's home was none other than Shawn Fletcher. Remember we said that this Shawn Fletcher was
Marcus Harper's cop buddy. Right. They hung out the night that that she disappeared.
And Tara later filed an official complaint against Fletcher because he violated his duty to protect
her privacy regarding information that he learned during the course of performing his duties as an officer.
So so he told his friend about this uh student. Yes. Well, yeah, he tells Marcus at a
later time yeah. that hey, we showed up to your ex's house one night and there were two
people over there. Heath Dykes was there Mhm. and Two men. and Anthony Vickers was outside and the
result was we arrested Anthony Vickers. I guess now would be the appropriate time to talk about Heath Dykes.
And he's probably the most uh interesting suspect, I think. Yeah, Captain Heath Dykes, he was a
married Perry, Georgia police officer who had dated Tara Grinstead when they were attending Hawkinsville High School
together. So a former relationship with this person. He was also close with Tara's
family. Now, it was Heath who was at Tara's home when Anthony Vickers was arrested for
that disorderly conduct. We know that. In the course of of their investigation, police heard from Tara's neighbors
that Heath was a regular visitor to Tara's home, even though he had lived over an hour away. Some say
uh that Heath would deliberately park He would deliberately not park his vehicle
in Tara's driveway as though trying to avoid people noticing that he was there. Right.
Uh when Tara's mother could not reach her on that Sunday in October 2005, she did call Heath Dykes and asked him to
check on Tara. Heath left Tara many voicemails that day and called her cell phone close to like 30 times over the
course of the day. Eventually, not hearing from Tara, he drives out to Ocilla. He knocks on her
door. I don't know how long he's there for. And we now know, obviously, Tara did
never answer the door. Uh perhaps he Presumably, he saw her car there. And he decided that she was probably not
interested in any visitors or she was not home and didn't want to take his phone calls. So, he then tucks his
business card into her front door and he leaves. And I'm kind of unclear about this.
Maybe you can clear this up. Are they romantic at this time? I I don't think anybody has a clear
picture of what their involvement was together. Okay. What is weird is that he would be
responding to her mother not knowing where she is. And we do know that at least on one occasion, regardless of
what the neighbors say, whether he parked in her driveway or would park down the street and walk over,
regardless of what they say, we know from Ocilla Police Department reports of the Anthony Vickers situation that at
least on one occasion, he was at her home. Right. For an unknown reason. It seems
But they could just be friends. I mean, they could have just Well, by all accounts by his account and
by Tara's family's account, he's described as a friend of the family. Okay. So, like you said, he could be he could
just be friends with her. But of course, you know, regardless the public has a field day with the gossip
surrounding Heath Dykes. Right. Now, his alibi for that Saturday night when she was last seen, he was with his
wife who said that he was at home with her all night long. But he was also one of
the people who had stopped by Tara's on Sunday and yet you know, we don't know what time or
when or why that latex glove was dropped at the scene. Yeah. But if it were to be there when he
arrives to check up on her, well, he doesn't see this glove that's in plain sight.
See, I always wondered that sometimes these law enforcement officers will carry latex gloves in their back pocket. I
always wondered if he, you know, reached out because he left his business card. You know, did he
did he reach into his wallet and accidentally pull out this glove? Mhm. Um so, I thought long and hard about this
Heath Dykes character and what his could his involvement have been. So, my first thought is this, if
he look, he's he's not just a police officer. He's He's He's listed as a captain and a detective. So, he has some
very good inside knowledge of the way that these things work and the way to conduct yourself during the course of an
investigation, especially if you're being looked at. And what I mean by this is I think if he
had been at considered a strong suspect and if he was getting a lot of heat for this
I would have suspected that he would lawyer up very quickly and that he would probably submit DNA and that they could
clear him very quickly in this. I did ask a um detective, he's not active in the sense that he's out in
any crime scenes actively to this day, but he would have been 10 years or so ago. And that's roughly about the time,
you know, that's when she disappeared. Right. And I asked him, I said, "Look, um I
would imagine, you know, duh, they have your meaning law enforcement, they have your fingerprints on file."
And they had they have people's fingerprints on file for any number of reasons, but if you're in law
enforcement, they have your fingerprints on file. There is some thought that there was a
fingerprint found at the scene. They didn't report on it because it seems to be it seems to be sketchy if that is in
fact true. Right. But But we also have eyewitness accounts of him being at the house
before then, so does a does a fingerprint mean that this guy is guilty? Right. So there that leads you to want
to know the situation with DNA. Mhm. And that's why I say if he were innocent, he would get a lawyer, well,
even if he was guilty, he'd get a lawyer, but if he were innocent, he would submit his DNA very quickly and
they could clear him and say that glove at least didn't belong to Heath Dykes. If the glove don't fit, you must acquit.
So I asked this officer, I said, "You know, 10 years ago or even today, do you think that they would have crime scene
technicians, detectives, police officers, if they would have those persons' DNA on file?" And he said he
didn't think that they would, and he knew that 10 years ago they did not. Well, this is also a very small
community as well, so Well, and he brought up he brought up something that that we should point out
is that it would be expensive to have everyone's DNA on file, first of all. Right. And second of all, I said, "Well,
I said, how do I know that because I told him, I said, here's my concern with this latex glove. I'm
putting a whole lot of weight and a lot of people other people are putting a whole lot of weight into the evidentiary
value of this latex glove where it could just be have left it was found outside.
Right. It hadn't been found inside inside, I would put more weight to it, but outside, you wonder, is this just
something that happens to be there and it's screwing up the whole investigation?
Right, because people could be checking the DNA against that glove and it doesn't match and they go, okay,
well, you're cleared. And this glove could have just came from a neighbor's house or this glove could have came from
who knows where. Well, and what I was doing when I was talking with this person was I said, you
know, I don't give him the name of the victim or the name of the case, that way he doesn't he's not answering my
questions with any preconceived thoughts or notions of his own. Mhm. And so, I just said, look,
what's the chances of a detective or a crime scene technician dropping a glove at the scene?
He said, first off, it it would be in his career and in his understanding and his his experience, it never
happens. Right. It never happens. And I said, well, I said, how do we make certain that it didn't
belong to any of those people that showed up on Monday and that's why nobody saw it until that Monday, that
nobody saw it on Sunday? Right. And he said, well, the first way that they would do it
was that they would typically wear latex gloves that aren't, you know, you don't
just go to Home Depot and buy the brand that the law enforcement's using. He said, the fastest and the cheapest way
to clear it from being anybody involved in law enforcement would be to check the
brand and the make of the latex glove. And he said, they had never he had never worked a scene where they were using a
glove that was common to anything else in the scene. So, I found that to be interesting. Now,
what he did bring up immediately after after that thought had passed, he said, "Who would leave the glove there would
be medical technicians." You know, people showing up in an ambulance, EMTs. He said, "They
constantly leave things at crime scenes." Yeah, but they have a different different concern. They're there to save
someone's life, while police are there to pres- preserve the scene. Right, but it's not out of the realm of
possibilities that it could happen. You know, somebody dropped a glove and felt stupid about it and just never
brought it to anybody's attention. But, you think if they're checking DNA off that glove, somebody'd say, "Hey, by the
way, that's my glove. I dropped that." Yeah. Yeah, if they're going to the point of eliminating suspects using the
DNA found on that glove. Now, the interesting thing But, we don't know that for sure.
The interesting thing though here, Captain, is that with his comment about EMTs constantly
leaving things at the scene, we know that that couldn't be the case here because
the ambulance was never called. Right. It never There was no need for EMTs to arrive on the scene. So, that didn't
happen then. But, what I find curious here about the glove and about Heath Dykes' business card
are two things. Mhm. One, how does a detective show up to that scene and not notice a latex glove
in plain sight? That seems very strange to me. They That That is what they are exactly trained
for, to detect and deduce things that the average man or woman would not at any given scene. And he's not just
showing up to a friend's house, he's showing up to a friend's house where he's been called, he's been alerted by
her relative stating, "I'm concerned. I've not heard from Tara." Right, but that glove could have been
somewhere outside where he couldn't see it and then moved by you know, the the weather, a dog, could have been
moved at some point where it's in plain sight. So, people go, "Oh man, how can you not see this glove?" Well, it's
like, well, it might have moved. You know, doesn't mean that the perpetrator came back in between that time or
anything. Uh it the glove itself could have just moved. Mhm. I also wonder about the his
business card being found in the door. And I state that because we by the accounts that I stated on our
show, the door, or at least a door, to the home was open prior to police arriving
on the scene. All right, so what you're saying is that at some point he comes by to check on
her, she doesn't answer the door, he takes his card and he puts it in the door. Yeah.
Then at some point that door is open, but when they come to investigate his card is still in that door.
Well, so I'm kind of going down two roads with this. One being what you just mentioned, that the door was open prior
to police arriving, and then they're saying, "We found this card stuck in the door."
Mhm. Where if the door was open, it would not presumably would not have still remained
stuck in the door. Unless they're talking about like a screen door, and then so the screen door
was open, but his door his card was stuck in the house door. I'm not really for sure.
No, what I mean is that the home was entered. Right? Like, so somebody entered the
home. So, regardless if there's one door there or two at that particular entrance
exit to the home, both would have had to been opened to enter the home. So, somebody entered and then then
possibly put the card back. What I'm What I'm getting at though is I I'm I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm
saying that there's there's cause to believe that potentially a different door was accessed
by by the neighbor who entered the home before police arrived on the scene. Mhm.
You know, like I've I've had I've lived in a residence before where the front door and the back
door had different keys to them. And maybe he only had a key to the back door because he was a
neighbor or to a side door, whatever. But but the other thing I'm getting at is we have the detective who does not see
the glove if it is in fact in the yard at the time that he was present at the house when checking on Tara. We also
have a a man by the name of Jared Luke. This was a colleague of Tara who had dropped by the house sometime on that
Sunday. He was there to retrieve a forgotten water bowl. I guess at some point she had watched her pet sit it for
him. Right. And so he drops by to retrieve this water bowl that was forgotten. He
doesn't see the glove there either. Here's what Here's what I wonder. So, uh because
is there there's two doors, right? Let's just We're assuming there's two doors. Two doors where?
In her house to get in and out of her house. Okay. But the neighbor is friends with her.
The the guy retrieving the bowl is friends with her. The cop is friends with her.
Mhm. Some people's houses, like, you know, I'd visit your house, your old house a
bunch. And I'd probably use your back door majority of the time. Right. So, if I if somebody said, "Hey, Nick
went missing. Can you go check in on him?" I'd say, "No." No, but then I'd go over and check on
him and then I'd probably knock on your back door. Right. So, I just wonder if depending on which
door these people checked or didn't check or knock on, is that one of the reasons why they
didn't see the glove? No, and I get what you're saying. But, the the route that I'm going down with this
is that a lot of people are saying, "Hey, look. The glove ended up there after these two
people went to the house." That That's what a lot of people would suggest that the evidence would show. That because
the detective didn't see the glove and because this guy that she worked with or or colleague of hers didn't see the
glove, that that that somebody came The thought is that whoever took her came back sometime that Sunday night, cleaned
up the scene, and in the course of that action dropped the glove upon leaving the area.
Right. What I'm What I'm getting at is if you want to argue that it's likely that
that's when the person cleaned the scene, my argument would be, "Okay, if if that's your one bit of evidence that the
scene was cleaned after those two events took place of the people dropping by the
home." My other argument would be, "Well, if the person came to clean the scene after those two people had been
there, the card The detective's card was still stuck in the door. If that person
accessed the house through that particular door, the the card likely would not have been stuck in the door."
Right. What I'm getting at is I believe they cancel each other out. And I think that
it's I don't think that the glove not being seen by either of those two people points me to believe that the person
returned on Sunday night. I do think that there are certainly some things that show that somebody cleaned up the
scene, that they manipulated the crime scene. I personally just think that it happened
sometime much earlier than that. Right. And I think that the things that were most manipulated in this situation are
things within side of the home that would not have been seen by either the detective or the colleague returning to
collect the water bowl. Maybe some things with the car, but I think those are debatable.
And I think you and I agree on those being debatable, the seat and the clay or the mud on the tires.
Right, correct. Do you Do we have time real quick for there are a couple of other potential
persons of interest that I want to make sure that we mention before we get to tomorrow's show.
Mhm. So, the thought being that there are also some theories. We talked about three guys that knew Tara very well.
There were also some theories that Tara could have been killed by someone that she was not dating or was not involved
with. Maybe possibly an obsessed stalker. So, I want to make sure that we bring up a situation that took place in
2001. Tara had been a victim of a stalker and she had actually pressed charges against
an individual. The stalker was unnamed and also only received probation for their actions.
Mhm. I'm doing a little speculating here, Captain, but my guess is maybe the reason why the stalker is
never named either one of two things took place. Either the stalker just pled guilty to
the charges with the agreement that his name would not be publicized Right. or two
it with her being a teacher, it might have been a minor. Yeah. It might have been somebody Yeah, a male
under the age of 18. And another strange twist, in 2010, a former student of Tara's committed suicide and left behind
a note listing 12 names who he claimed were involved in killing Tara. The list of names has never been released, but we
can assume that law enforcement vetted the names on this list pretty carefully. This, according to Dr. Maurice Godwin.
He says that the 12 people on the list all gave DNA samples and were cleared. These are the suspects and these are the
theories that people would ponder over and debate for years. Until recently, there's been a break in the case.
Until tomorrow, everybody out there, be good, be kind, and don't litter.

Tara Grinstead /// Part 1 /// 215

Part 1 of 2

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Saturday night, October 22, 2005. Ocilla, Georgia. 30 year old Tara Grinstead, a popular high school history teacher and former Miss Georgia contestant, attends a BBQ with friends at the home of the former Ocilla school superintendant Dr. Troy Davis and his wife Missy. The party has gathered to watch the Georgia football game, socialize and enjoy some Southern barbecue. At approximately 11 pm, Davis walks Tara to the door as she gets ready to leave. She tells him that she is heading home. She gets into her car and drives away. That was the last known sighting of Tara Grinstead. What happened to Tara that night? How could she have just disappeared into thin air? Over the years there have been several strong persons of interest, but in 2017 this case took a twist that no one saw coming.

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Brief Summary

Tara Grinstead disappeared in 2005, raising suspicions about her ex-boyfriend and former students amid a complex investigation.

Key points

Tara Grinstead's Disappearance. Tara Grinstead, a beloved teacher, vanished after attending a local pageant.
Strange Findings at Tara's Home. Upon entering Tara's home, her friend found broken items and no sign of her.
The Mystery of Tara's Dog. Questions arise about the whereabouts of Tara's dog, Dolly, during her disappearance.
The Search Intensifies. A large-scale search is organized, involving hundreds of volunteers and advanced equipment.
Family's Frustration Grows. As time passes, Tara's family becomes increasingly frustrated with the investigation's lack of progress.
DNA Evidence Emerges. Investigators recover a DNA sample from the crime scene, leading to new leads.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The alarm clock they found is off by 6 hours.

Discovery of a broken alarm clock at Tara's home.

11:38WatchNov 25, 2022

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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