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

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those out all right that's enough of the business everybody gather around grab a
chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime her courage and her smile just the way
she's so happy and the way she interacts with people it's just it's amazing Tera grinstead Irwin County High
School teacher and former beauty pageant contestant had a huge impact on the Tiny
Town of osilla population 3,300 so much so that her disappearance almost 2 weeks ago has galvanized this
community tera'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 lasting in 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 six 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 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 like Miss
Tara she is beautiful she is somebody everybody wants to be like so that might have something to do with them 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 [Music] gone Tera feay grinstead was born in Hawkinsville Georgia on November 14th
1974 from an early age terara was involved in the beauty pageant circuit she was Miss tiffon 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 o illa a small town of about 3,000 people osilla 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 terara earned her bachelor's and then she's eventually going to go on to earn her Masters at valdosa
University she moved to osilla as a student te teacher and fell in love with the town in 2005 Tara was an 11th grade
history teacher at irn County High School where she had taught for eight 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 she attended night classes at various campuses of VSU including campuses in the towns of Way
Cross 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 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 at the 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 terara was
close with her neighbors and enjoyed gardening when she could find the time and 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 terara was a wonderful outgoing giving person who stood out in the small
town of illa 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 huet 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
Tera had received several cell phone calls while she was at the party at approximately 11:00 p.m. Dr Davis walks
terara 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 terara 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 poror tiers 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 Tera car which is a pearl colored Mitsubishi 3000 GT it was parked in the carport at tera's
house when they had returned from their out of town stay the next day on Monday morning October 24th Joe portier noticed
that Tera car was still at her house but there didn't seem to be any sign of Terror herself he wed 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 terara 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 osilla 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 believed something could have happened to her at
the very least terara 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 reps 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 terara was only
about 5' 3 in tall so on a good day Captain I'm 6 foot one 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 in all
the way back seat guy so there you're saying 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 that's shocking you know unless maybe she moved the seat to look for
something or 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 6ot 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 Offroad at some point but now 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 M on 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 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 too she did go to this pageant and I I know sometimes when a 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 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 poor 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 uh 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 portiers because they are made aware that terara 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 s 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 it was a fencon area I'm guessing everybody lives different lives um the
important thing here though Captain is that would tera'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 tera's front door
with the name Heath dkes 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 tera's family however disagreed with this ter T'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 tera'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
terara was wearing that day which her friend Miss Davis recalled having seen terara 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 terara 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 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 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 different yeah I mean it could be six 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
and interrupting her and then at some course she is abducted during that evening well and 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 terara police discovered that
terara was in a fragile emotional state after the breakup of a very long-term relationship with her boyfriend this is
Marcus Harper right terara 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 was so widely believed that terara was under a lot of stress I mean she's
working two jobs and studying for a very demanding degree her mother was Ill perhaps the theory went it was all just
too much for her and she wanted to escape well on top of that she's a family person and she's a socialable
person and she's trying 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
B yes on this Theory as we said Anita pointed out that terara would never go anywhere without her phone she would
never leave Dolly and Herman defend 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 question 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 re receive tips about the missing person's case but nothing panned out investigators said
they weren't ruling out the possibility that terara 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 osilla and more remote areas of the 358 square mile Irwin County looking for signs of Terror or Clues as
to what may have happened Searchers use horses ATVs helicopters and underwater scanning equipment a week after The
Disappearance of terara there's going to be a bombshell that drops in the news the neighbor Joe portier he had found a
latex glove in Terra front 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 osilla 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 dishwash Wasing 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
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GameChanger all right we're back cheers mates I got a mouth full of chips Golden Crisp from
masselin Ohio yeah cheers to uh 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 Tera gred's family set up a Command Center in
downtown osilla 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 terara 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
tera's disappearance so two 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 in 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 tera's disappearance as the result of Foul Play
tera's friends and family were beginning to give up hope that she would ever return home safely tera'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 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 terara command center pushing
the osilla PD and the gbi for more searches they were also passing out buttons with tera'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 tera's 31st birthday which took place in November of 2005 yeah and by December 2005 the 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 Equis search 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 tera's colleague and friend Wendy
McFarland put it quote 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 osilla police told the Atlantic 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 tera's family was
increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress in the case they brought in an investigative psychologist this is Dr
Maurice Godwin when Godwin's helped the family concluded that Tera 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 a 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 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 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 they 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 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 M 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 [ __ ] 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 in 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 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'm 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 I get where they're
coming from they're they are going to the Sheriff's Department there saying look the things that we saw at her home
just don't add up to us 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 Tera 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 parked outside of tera's
home around 5: 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: a.m. on
this dat 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 the 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 Tera probably return the following day or at
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 return 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 Tera 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 MH but no match to any one 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 tera'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 believe 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 starts from Saturday Saturday night
after 11: p.m. and it goes through all day Sunday right so there are the lives of several of these men and they 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 illa police officer who had been Tara's boyfriend for um about 5 to six 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 terara were 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 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 terara they were very much in love but after 911 Marcus joined the mil 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 osilla obviously Al terara was not happy about Marcus's decision to
continue in the independent contractor role 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 terara
went missing in 2005 uh their relationship continued to be volatile finally terara 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 continue 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 it's
probably past uh past the state of no return yeah uh I think in in Tara's defense it sounds like she might have
been close with Marcus's mother um and that they had known each other for years 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 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 just contact your ex just because you got
back because technically that's ex right now I actually though I I'm I'm going to
go the different Direction with it that's fine I actually think it was weird that he didn't contact her why
because there's like 3,000 people live in this town 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 want 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
and 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 terara found out that he had in
fact returned and he was hating 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 terara 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 this 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 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 Dr
Davis's house M 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 terara know 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 up loser in my 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 terara 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 and 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 Tera 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 stepsister and her boyfriend friend and some other friends at a local Tavern in
Fitzgerald which is 10 Mi away on the night of September October 22nd a friend's 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 osilla police department to find his
buddy Shane Fletcher who was a active osilla 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 at a 24-hour gas station which concluded around 4:28 a.m. apparently this I found this to be
strange apparently in osilla uh this is a small enough town that X 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 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 any way
involved in what happened to Tara they spoke with nine different Witnesses this included police officers the dispatcher
and civilians who all back 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 terara 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 terara right and that would make sense why we found a 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 rumors flew that Marcus had been jealous of of terara 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 inuendo being leveled at him on social media and as the investigation
dragged on 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 seem 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 now 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 terara 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 suicide depressive person well I mean his claims early on were they
were 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 in 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 tera'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 terara 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 Terrace family brought kadaver 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
which buts right up to Marcus's but apparently the the irn county sheriff showed up and they were threatening to
arrest The Searchers this was in order to keep 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 on on to 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 so it's it's strange to me how long he was the number one suspect and it 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 because what I mean by that is his actions I actually
could not see him a way to be more Cooperative MH okay I can understand not have wanting a random group of people
showing up searching your property 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 well he trusted the police and he trusted the system you
know 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 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 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 kolola 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 two weeks after terror's disappearance there was some kind of strange big fire that took place on a
nearby property this is on Snap Dragon Road the fire destroyed a home and an SUV the house for whatever reason was
supposedly being car taken by Marcus's buddy this is Michael Langford uh who was an active osilla police officer
police took kadaver 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 kadav dogs did go to the scene of this fire
mhm um they stated that nothing was found in relation to Tera 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 terara went missing did not improve the the 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 teror disappearance 20-year-old former student of Terror 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 and Anthony vicker's 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 uh actual accounts of them hanging out so it's weird because 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 terara 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 Tera house was Heath Dykes who is a Perry County detective osilla PD was called
and Anthony cursed out the arresting officers Terror pressed charges against Anthony he was charged with the
disorderly conduct and later the charges were dropped now that's not the story he
tells people the story he tells people that he was over there hanging out they got in an argument one of the neighbors
calls cuz they hear hears them arguing mhm the cops show up and then he continues you 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 osilla police department is
relatively close to Tera grin 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 this is 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 tera's disappearance
Anthony also agreed to take a polygraph and the vicker's family property was searched Anthony maintained that he and
Tara had some type of longterm romantic relationship those are his words that they were keeping Under Wraps because it
would damage tera'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 is that regarding that incident of Anthony
Vickers being arrested one of the osilla PD Officers responding to that situation
at Tera home was none other than sha Fletcher remember we said that this Sean Fletcher was Marcus Harper's cop buddy
right they hung out the night that that she disappeared and terara 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 marus at a later time stud that hey we showed up to your ex's house one night and there
were two people over there Heath dkes was there 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 dikes and he's probably the
most uh interesting suspect I think yeah Captain Heath dkes he was a married Perry Georgia police officer who had
dated Tera 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 tera's
Neighbors that Heath was a regular visitor to tera'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 dkes and asked him to check on Tara Heath left Tara many voicemails that day and called her cell
phone close to like 30 times times over the course of the day eventually not hearing from Tara he drives out to
osilla he knocks on her door I don't know how long he's there for and we now know obviously Tara
didn't 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 osilla Police Department reports of the Anthony vicker
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 um
Tara's family's account he's described as a friend of the family okay so um like you said it 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 dikes right now Heath Alibi for that Saturday night when she was last seen he was with his wife uh who said
that he was at home with her all night long but he was also one of the people who had stopped by teras 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 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 Le did he reach into his wallet and accidentally pull out this glove mhm um so I thought long and hard
about this uh heat dkes character and what his could his involvement have been so
my first thought is this if look he's he's not just a police officer 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
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 'l um I would imagine you know duh they have your meaning law
enforcement they have your fingerprints on file and they have 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 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 I witness accounts of him being at the
house before then so does a does a fingerprint mean that this guy's guilty right so there that leads you to want to
know the situation with DNA and that's why I say if he were innocent he would get a lawyer well even
if he was guilty 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 dikes if the glove don't fit you must AC quit 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 person's 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 if had it
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 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 MH and so I just said look what's the chances of a detective or a crime scene Tech 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 that never happens that 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 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 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 that's right 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' 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 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 DK's business
card two things 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 Tera 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 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 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 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'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 MH you know like uh I've I've had a 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 with 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 na a man by the name of Jared luk
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 or or pet sitted 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 here's what I wonder
so because is there there's two doors right let's just we're assuming there's two doors 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 the majority of the time right so if I if somebody said hey Nick went
missing you go checking on them I'd say no U no but then I'd go over and check on them 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 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 a 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 like 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 right 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 with inside 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 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 talk about
three guys that knew Tera 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 I'm doing a little
speculating here Captain but my guess is maybe the reason why this 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 some yeah male under the age of 18 and another strange twist in 2010 a former student
of terce committed suicide and left behind a note listing 12 names who he claimed were involved in killing terara
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
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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, a teacher, vanished in 2005, leading to a complex investigation involving multiple suspects and community support.

Key points

Tara Grinstead's Disappearance. Tara Grinstead, a beloved teacher, goes missing after a local pageant. Her family and community are deeply affected.
The Last Known Sighting. The last confirmed sighting of Tara was after a barbecue party. She seemed in good spirits.
The Mysterious Disappearance of Tara. Tara Grinstead goes missing under mysterious circumstances, leaving family and investigators puzzled.
The Search Efforts Intensify. Massive search operations are launched, but no signs of Tara are found.
The Latex Glove Discovery. A latex glove found in Tara's yard raises concerns about foul play.
The Stormy Relationship. Tara and Marcus had a volatile relationship, filled with love and conflict.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Her courage and her smile, just the way she's so happy.

Describing Tara Grinstead's impact on her community.

4:03WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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