Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / BONUS: Did police ignore lead that could've solved Tara Grinstead murder decade ago?

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BONUS: Did police ignore lead that could've solved Tara Grinstead murder decade ago? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Saturday, October twenty second.
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Speaker 1: In two thousand and five, Tered Grinstead went missing from
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Speaker 1: her residence. As the hours turned into days, days into weeks,
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Speaker 1: weeks into months, and eventually months into years, the search
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Speaker 1: efforts never ceased. A few days ago, an individual came
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Speaker 1: forward and reported that they had information into Terry's disappearance.
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Speaker 1: Enough probable cause was discovered so we could swear out
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Speaker 1: and a restaurant charging Ryan Alexander due with the murder
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Speaker 1: of Tered Grinstead. We always believe that it would be sold.
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Speaker 1: We just did not know when the disappearance of a
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Speaker 1: beautiful young teacher, not only beautiful on the outside, but
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Speaker 1: beautiful on the inside, smart too, trying to obtain her
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Speaker 1: master's degree. I remember what Tera Grinstead went missing. I
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Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for being
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Speaker 1: with us right now. A development in the case of
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Speaker 1: Tara Grinstead, who we now know was taken from her
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Speaker 1: home in a tiny town in Georgia, Oscilla and murdered.
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Speaker 1: The man charged with helping conceal the body of the
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Speaker 1: Georgia Beauty Queen High school teacher Tara Grinstead also wanted
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Speaker 1: for raping and kidnapping two women. Much later, while he's
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Speaker 1: awaiting trial and hiding Tara's body is in court, bow
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Speaker 1: Dukes charged with rape sodomy. Thoughts imprisonment on the run
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Speaker 1: was returned back to the law, and now he's answering
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Speaker 1: up to charges he helped conceal the body of high
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Speaker 1: school teacher Tara Grinstead. I remember when Tara went missing.
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Speaker 1: She disappeared after she left a cookout party thrown by
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Speaker 1: people involved at the school where she taught. These two
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Speaker 1: Ryan Alexander Duke and Boat Dukes no relation, stayed under
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Speaker 1: the radar, although they had been students of Terra's many
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Speaker 1: years before. Then they opened their apps. They bragged about
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Speaker 1: their murder mm then one confessed to murdering Terra after
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Speaker 1: going to her home to steal money. Joining me right
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Speaker 1: now at the scene visit Hill, former cock turned PI,
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Speaker 1: author of playbook to a Murder. Vincent tell me about
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Speaker 1: jury selection, Nancy. First, let me say yesterday was a
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Speaker 1: very long day. Potential jurors had to arrive at eight
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Speaker 1: thirty am. The judge took the bench and around nine
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Speaker 1: twenty three and jury selection began immediately after that. Now,
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Speaker 1: the problem with the eye selection, Nancy, and why it
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Speaker 1: took so long, and I'll get to how long it
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Speaker 1: took is most of the people inside the courtroom either
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Speaker 1: knew bow Dukes, they knew of Ryan Dukes Duke, they
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Speaker 1: knew bow Duke's mom, they knew his family. There was
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Speaker 1: also a lot of relatives that were potential jurors inside
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Speaker 1: the courtroom, so the prosecution and the defense had to
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Speaker 1: weed through that. At one point, juror number nine a
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Speaker 1: mail was asked, is there anything that would prevent you
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Speaker 1: from being fair and impartial? And he basically said, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: he's already convinced of bow Duke's guilt, so he was
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Speaker 1: excused immediately. So at around three twenty the judge excused
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Speaker 1: the potential jurors, at which point the prosecution in the
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Speaker 1: defense got the jury list, They did their strikethroughs, and
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Speaker 1: then they picked their jury. That lasted about twenty five
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Speaker 1: minutes until about four o'clock when a jury was decided
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Speaker 1: yesterday seven women, five men, three alternates, two alternates being male,
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Speaker 1: one alternate being female. Opening statements were set to begin,
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Speaker 1: but before that, Nancy, the judge excluded or excuse their
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Speaker 1: jury rather so that the GBI agent Jason Shadell, who
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Speaker 1: is the lead investigator, could give testimony. Now that testimony,
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Speaker 1: Nancy was regarding the miranda rights of bow Dukes and
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Speaker 1: whether his statement will be admissible, because there was some
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Speaker 1: back and forth between the prosecution and the defense on
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Speaker 1: whether bow Dukes was read his miranda when he should
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Speaker 1: have been, versus when they called him in for an interview.
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Speaker 1: So once that was determined or once that was concluded,
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Speaker 1: rather the judge called the jury back in four opening statements. Now,
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Speaker 1: the prosecution, Nancy led with a pretty powerful opening sentence,
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Speaker 1: twelve hundred degrees to burn human bones. And he went
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Speaker 1: on to say, those are the words of this defendant,
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Speaker 1: the words of bow Dukes, twelve hundred degrees to burn
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Speaker 1: human bones. He described Tara Grinstead, He said, those bones
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Speaker 1: belonged to Tara Grinstead. Take a listen to what the
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Speaker 1: prosecution had to say, Nancy, this age is about Bozeker
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Speaker 1: Bozek that he kept for Ryan. It's about this seer
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Speaker 1: that he kept Ryan destroyed, burned, and dispose of the
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Speaker 1: moment the secret that he kept here in Willcox's telling,
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Speaker 1: when he spoke of as Shadel two thousand and sixteen,
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Speaker 1: this case is about bowse lies lies that lasted from
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Speaker 1: two thousand and five to two thousand and sixteen. It's
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Speaker 1: about those cover up. It's about those that sealed that
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Speaker 1: his best friend Ran had killed Terry Winston and then
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Speaker 1: they both burned the ball. It's about those economy and
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Speaker 1: his family's economid that burns hot at twelve rooms where
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Speaker 1: burned the bombs, burns the flesh, and burn the boss.
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Speaker 1: After you've heard the edens in this case, saying will
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Speaker 1: prove of you beyond the reason that it's built of
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Speaker 1: all Now, Nancy, one of the other things that came
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Speaker 1: up during jury selection was to talk about the pie
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Speaker 1: cast in any other times that Tera Grinstead's case had
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Speaker 1: made it on the news, because the prosecution and the defense,
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Speaker 1: Nancy wanted to see if anybody's mind would already have
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Speaker 1: been made up regarding this case now. The defense, of
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Speaker 1: course told the jury that, hey, this case is not
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Speaker 1: bou Duke's on trial for the murder of Tara Grinstead.
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Speaker 1: This case is about him concealing the death of Tara Grinstead.
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Speaker 1: He also pointed out the fact that bou Dukes is
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Speaker 1: facing other charges in another county and that it is
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Speaker 1: the jury's duty not to pay attention to those charges
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Speaker 1: and only focus on the evidence in the facts of
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Speaker 1: this trial. Here's what the defense had to say in
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Speaker 1: his opening statements. Nancy, this Staiels saves on Jesus. Team
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Speaker 1: choices the issue of whether he burned or body concealed
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Speaker 1: her death himper meds hinder Ryan Dukes apparition. Those specific
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Speaker 1: acts are charged and in human And again that is
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Speaker 1: a job for Gler jury toueg of a different day,
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Speaker 1: in different trial, the same night of real l of
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Speaker 1: any one. The Duke comin is that this case is
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Speaker 1: not about some allegation that bow Does murdered Tara Favorites.
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Speaker 1: This is not Ryan Jings murder trual. That against able
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Speaker 1: one for reasoning. You know, Vincent, he'll joining me at
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Speaker 1: the beginning of the trial. For Bow Dukes, he's answering
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Speaker 1: up to charges he helped conceal the body of high
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Speaker 1: school teacher Tara Grinstead. What questions are being asked, Vincent, Nancy.
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Speaker 1: The first witness to take the stand was a very
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Speaker 1: emotional witness. It was kim Allan Sheridan. Now she is
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Speaker 1: the mother of bow Duke's girlfriend. That's right, Nancy, the
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Speaker 1: mother of bow Duke's girlfriend. Now she testified to learning
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Speaker 1: knowledge of what bow Duke's claims occurred to Tera Grinstead,
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Speaker 1: she also talked about and she got very cheerful when
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Speaker 1: she talked about this. Nancy, she also talked about the
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Speaker 1: riff it calls between her and her daughter because she
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Speaker 1: said her and her husband decided not to let bow
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Speaker 1: Dukes back into their home because he's not the type
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Speaker 1: of guy she wants around her daughter. But she said
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Speaker 1: she eventually let bow Dukes back into the home because,
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Speaker 1: as she put it, Nancy, she loves her daughter and
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Speaker 1: she knew if she didn't let bow Dukes in the home,
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Speaker 1: she wouldn't have a relationship ship with her daughter. But
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Speaker 1: she also testified Nancy that she knew a prosecutor in
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Speaker 1: the county, a local prosecutor that she actually called to
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Speaker 1: get help to get advice on what to do about
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Speaker 1: what she heard second hand from her daughter that bo
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Speaker 1: Dukes claim. Take a listen, she was very frazzled, just
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Speaker 1: and very angry. Now, don't want to get into the
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Speaker 1: specifics of what Burt told you on that occasion, but
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Speaker 1: did you come to learn information that she felt need
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Speaker 1: to accord into law enforcements. Yes, I did. And that
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Speaker 1: singular information did it relate to what you used to
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Speaker 1: be an awbloy in case? Yes? And what was that
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Speaker 1: abode the taste of the case of Tera Grinstead when
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Speaker 1: Burke told you this information, Was there ever any doubt
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Speaker 1: in her mind as you reported to law enforcement? No?
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Speaker 1: And how quickly was it that she did require that
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Speaker 1: evening we started making reaching out out to Tim Vaughan.
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Speaker 1: He's a district attorney here in the southern areas of Georgia.
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Speaker 1: He's also a lifelong friend of mine. Did you know
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Speaker 1: at that time Tim Vaughn connection to the disappearance of
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Speaker 1: the case in all the disappearance of his riss day No,
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Speaker 1: I had no idea. I didn't know that there was
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Speaker 1: a task force or anything. I just was looking for
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Speaker 1: someone to guide me, to point me in the right direction,
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Speaker 1: and I thought that Tim would be a good place
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Speaker 1: to start. Did you have concerned about The only concerns
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Speaker 1: that I actually had were that we get it to
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Speaker 1: the right person, and that it concerned me that Brooke
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Speaker 1: had known for a couple of weeks and I needed
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Speaker 1: to make sure that my daughter didn't need legal counsel
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Speaker 1: as well. Do you're called what month I was in
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Speaker 1: twenty seventeen or that conversation took place with Brook that
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Speaker 1: was in February I believe after speaking with mister Vaughn.
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Speaker 1: Did you ever come into contact with anyone who if
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Speaker 1: you are with gbium Jason contacted me based on that.
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Speaker 1: Do you know you Jason had a meeting with your
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Speaker 1: daughter Brook sharing he did. Were you present for that?
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Speaker 1: I was not. Have you ever heard the reporting of
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Speaker 1: that meeting? I have not. Do you have any personal
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Speaker 1: knowledge as to what your daughter told on the GBI? Goay,
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Speaker 1: I do not now At the time that your daughter
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Speaker 1: met with a GBI, what was the status of her
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Speaker 1: relationship with thefenaskase Bejings. They were broken up subsequent to that.
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Speaker 1: Do you know if your daughter ever reinitiated or started
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Speaker 1: a relationship back with the defend She did, and as
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Speaker 1: of today's date, what is the size of their relationship?
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Speaker 1: They are still in a relationship. No, we go into
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Speaker 1: you here specific conversations with the Let me kind back
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Speaker 1: up and talk to you, he said, broke us again. Sorry,
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Speaker 1: I have thirty four ish? Is she the oldest, she's
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Speaker 1: the baby, She's the baby you talked to us earlier
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Speaker 1: about her to her job? Where does she get her degree?
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Speaker 1: In South University in Savannah? After you learned about the
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Speaker 1: situation in all Eva his friend instead they ever lie
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Speaker 1: back in your home? Not for a while. Wow. It
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Speaker 1: was devastating. Um her father and I didn't approve of
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Speaker 1: her continued alliance with Bou Um it had it broke
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Speaker 1: us that that situation just broke the family and had
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Speaker 1: caused so much just emotional stress and turmoil, and there
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Speaker 1: were so many we didn't want him back at We
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Speaker 1: we wanted to get out of the limelight. It wasn't
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Speaker 1: our battle to fight, and we wanted to step away
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Speaker 1: as much as we could. And we just didn't think
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Speaker 1: that Bo was the kind of man that we wanted
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Speaker 1: around our family. But did you allow back? We did, Wow,
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Speaker 1: because I love my daughter and if we didn't allow
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Speaker 1: Bo back in, then she wouldn't come around and I
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Speaker 1: wasn't going to have that. I love my kids. After
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Speaker 1: a time period when you had allowed Day back, did
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Speaker 1: you speak with him directly about the situation of Um.
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Speaker 1: It was it was a while after that. Um. Mostly
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Speaker 1: the original time had been UM at family gatherings and
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Speaker 1: it just wasn't the place to bring it up. We
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Speaker 1: just kind of avoided the situation. But then Brooke moved
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Speaker 1: into we had moved Brook while they were broken up,
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Speaker 1: into a home she had rented a home, and I
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Speaker 1: went over there and to kind of break the ice
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Speaker 1: because at this point, if I'm not mistaken, this was
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Speaker 1: during the time when maybe even before he was allowed
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Speaker 1: back in our home. I was going over to visit
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Speaker 1: Brooke and see her, and he was there, and we
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Speaker 1: had some conversations, and um, I asked some questions, you know,
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Speaker 1: said this conversation may have taken place before he was
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Speaker 1: a little back. It may have. I don't I'm not
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Speaker 1: real good with dates. First it was me and oh, yes,
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Speaker 1: especially with my husband, I can't tell us well, I
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Speaker 1: mean it was. It finally got to him too, and
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Speaker 1: we had to have that discussion that if we were
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Speaker 1: gonna if we wanted to see our daughter, if we
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Speaker 1: wanted to celebrate holidays, if we wanted to be around her,
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Speaker 1: we had to allow about Bou back in the house
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Speaker 1: because those were her stipulations that bo was the love
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Speaker 1: of her life and he was part of her life,
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Speaker 1: and if we didn't want him in her home. She
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Speaker 1: would not come into our home. We did. He had
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Speaker 1: this conversation to say, what did you have basically was
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Speaker 1: what Brook told us true? Had he helped to dispose
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Speaker 1: of terrorist body? And he said yes, Why didn't he
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Speaker 1: tell people? And he said that he had told people
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Speaker 1: over the years, but not in not law enforcement. And
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Speaker 1: I asked him specifically why Ryan killed her? Was sad?
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Speaker 1: He said he never asked him why he was the
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Speaker 1: burgers or um maybe not in so many words, kind
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Speaker 1: of like, are you sure that's all there is to it? Um?
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Speaker 1: It was just so hard for me to fathom the
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Speaker 1: whole thing anyway. It was like living in a surreal
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Speaker 1: bubble but um. But he assured me otherwise and said
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Speaker 1: that you essentially asked, had been the things that Brogan
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Speaker 1: told you were true? What was his response to that?
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Speaker 1: Was that it was true? And based on the conversation
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Speaker 1: that you were having, you had a grown and then
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Speaker 1: you had with the defendant. What was your understanding of
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Speaker 1: the role that he played as a relating to disappearance
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Speaker 1: and terror? Instead? Um, things that he told me were
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Speaker 1: that he had helped to dispose of the body that
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Speaker 1: had they had burned it in the pecan orchard, um
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Speaker 1: that he had been there that night when it all happened,
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Speaker 1: or you know, when when they burned the body, and
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Speaker 1: that it had been his truck that was used to
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Speaker 1: transport the body. And I think he mentioned doesn't make
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Speaker 1: sure that I asked him specifically. Did the defendant indicate
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Speaker 1: whether or not he ever asked Bryan dud why had
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Speaker 1: murdered Taris. He said he did not ask him. Bow
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Speaker 1: Dukes charged with rape, sodomy, faults, imprisonment. Now he's answering
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Speaker 1: up to charges he helped conceal the body of high
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Speaker 1: school teacher Tiara Grinstead. Bow Dukes just apparently helped get
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Speaker 1: rid of the body. Never said a word about it
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Speaker 1: to Lea bragged. How does the defendant Dukes appear in court?
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Speaker 1: I guess he's dressed up all in a tailor sued
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Speaker 1: with a manicure and a haircut, sitting flanked by all
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Speaker 1: of his lawyers. Right, Nancy, bow Dukes had on a
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Speaker 1: suit and tie. He looked very professional. He was very
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Speaker 1: attentive to the jury, Nancy. He listened to every question
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Speaker 1: that was asked during jury selection. He made a lot
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Speaker 1: of eye contact and he took his own notes about
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Speaker 1: potential jurors. There was a lot of back and forth
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Speaker 1: whispering between he and his attorney, mister Fox, but bow
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Speaker 1: Dukes was very attentive during jury selection. Had there been
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Speaker 1: any outbursts in the courtroom, Nancy, Surprisingly, there were no
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Speaker 1: outbursts in the courtroom. I did, however, notice that after
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Speaker 1: the jury was picked, Tara Grinstead's father and her stepmother
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Speaker 1: were seated in the front row, and during testimony from
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Speaker 1: bow Duke's girlfriend's mother, the stepmother of Tara Grinstead actually
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Speaker 1: started crying during that testimony, Nancy vincaid, He'll joining me
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Speaker 1: at the beginning of the trial is Tara Grinstead's at
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Speaker 1: family in court. The father and the stepmother of Tara
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Speaker 1: Grinstead were seated in the front row, just like they
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Speaker 1: were during the bond hearing for Ryan Duke, the co defendant.
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Speaker 1: In this case, it's all the focus been on the defendant,
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Speaker 1: or focus on Tara Grinstead in this case, Nancy, all
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Speaker 1: of the attention has been focused on bou Dukes now.
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Speaker 1: Although Grinstead's name has come up, the focus in this
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Speaker 1: case for now has all been on bou Dukes. What
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Speaker 1: he told GBI investigators and what his involvement was and
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Speaker 1: the disposal of Tara Grinstead's remains. Is there a lot
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Speaker 1: of media, Nancy, I lost count of how many news
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Speaker 1: trucks were outside the courtroom. When I arrived here Sunday,
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Speaker 1: there was already the local Albany NBC truck parked at
20:52
Speaker 1: the courtroom. Of course, many of us pulled from their
20:56
Speaker 1: news truck, but I lost count, honestly, Nancy, of how
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Speaker 1: many local media and even national media because CNN was
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Speaker 1: here as well. During the jury selection. Where are they
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Speaker 1: keeping the jury pool in the courthouse, I mean, they've
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Speaker 1: got to be kept away from the cameras in the media, Nancy.
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Speaker 1: I don't know if it's small town USA or what
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Speaker 1: it is. But during the break, the jurors were free
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Speaker 1: to roam the hallways, and during the lunch break they
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Speaker 1: just walked out the same front door as everyone else.
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Speaker 1: So there's really no seclusion, at least during jury selection,
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Speaker 1: of any potential jurors from anyone just walking down the hall. Now,
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Speaker 1: what the judge did instruct once the jury was selected,
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Speaker 1: don't talk about this case outside in the hall because
21:48
Speaker 1: you never know who is who, and you never know
21:52
Speaker 1: who may be a potential witness in this case. It's
21:55
Speaker 1: been a long and winding road to justice for the
21:58
Speaker 1: family of Tera Grinstead. What a long row they've had
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Speaker 1: to hoe. It all started the night she went to
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Speaker 1: a cookout, like a barbecue pool type party with a
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Speaker 1: lot of other teachers, the principal people from the community
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Speaker 1: in her small town of Ousilla, not too far from
22:17
Speaker 1: where I grew up, where there's nothing but tall pine
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Speaker 1: trees and soybean fields as far as the eye could see.
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Speaker 1: She goes home that night and she's never seen again,
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Speaker 1: dead or alive. Special guests joining us is Tara Grinstead's
22:33
Speaker 1: best friend, Maria Harbor. Maria, when you talk about Tara Grinstead,
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Speaker 1: what effect does that have on you, Well, it's just
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Speaker 1: a lot of years of missing her and just remember
22:46
Speaker 1: the good things that happened, and it's just seen a
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Speaker 1: lot of healing and trying to recover from what happened. Maria,
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Speaker 1: Let's go back in your mind to then the day
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Speaker 1: that she went missing. That night what happened, Well, all
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Speaker 1: the last thing we knew is that she had gone
23:02
Speaker 1: to the pageant, which she had planned on going to.
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Speaker 1: The whole week she had helped the girls get ready
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Speaker 1: for that, and then she'd gone to the pageant. After that,
23:10
Speaker 1: she went to a party, you know, no big deal.
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Speaker 1: She was leaving going home. Nobody thought anything out of
23:16
Speaker 1: the ordinary. She went home, what I thought, she probably
23:19
Speaker 1: got in the bed and then you know, so we
23:21
Speaker 1: didn't know anything after that. No one talked to her
23:24
Speaker 1: or saw her after that. She was supposed to come
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Speaker 1: home the next day, so obviously we knew something was
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Speaker 1: going on when she didn't come home and we couldn't
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Speaker 1: get her on the phone. Okay, wait wait wait wait wait,
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Speaker 1: back it up, back it up. She wasn't at her home.
23:36
Speaker 1: When you say home, what do you mean by that? Okay,
23:39
Speaker 1: she lived in Osilla, which is a very small town
23:43
Speaker 1: about fifty minutes from where she has originally home. So
23:46
Speaker 1: when I say home, I mean Hawkinsville because that's where
23:49
Speaker 1: we grew up, you know, that's where her mom lived. Yep, yep,
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Speaker 1: she lived in Osilla. So the next day she was
23:54
Speaker 1: coming home to see her mom and me, and she
23:57
Speaker 1: she did that often because she's very close to her mother.
24:01
Speaker 1: As you remember, she's very you know, she watched over
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Speaker 1: her mother even even though she was fifty miles away.
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Speaker 1: And she's planning the whole week to come there on
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Speaker 1: that Sunday and bring her dog. And when she didn't come,
24:15
Speaker 1: you know, we knew something was going on, and her
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Speaker 1: mother and I were we're worried, but it was it
24:20
Speaker 1: was like, well, maybe you know, there's something to him.
24:22
Speaker 1: She is old enough to make her own decisions and
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Speaker 1: go shopping some you know, one day, or do something
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Speaker 1: that she doesn't have to call and tell us. So
24:30
Speaker 1: we kind of brushed off. Maybe it was just something
24:34
Speaker 1: she had planned. You know, we didn't know. Um that night,
24:38
Speaker 1: we definitely got more worried, and her mother was just
24:43
Speaker 1: beside herself and worry, and um, we just really didn't
24:49
Speaker 1: know what to do. I wish now we had we
24:51
Speaker 1: had called the police then. I mean, obviously I wish
24:54
Speaker 1: we had done things differently, but I mean, you know,
24:56
Speaker 1: she was old enough to make her own decisions, and
24:58
Speaker 1: we just really thought there's no way something wrong. I mean,
25:02
Speaker 1: you know, there's just no way. And I get it.
25:05
Speaker 1: You know, she's a grown woman. You don't want to
25:07
Speaker 1: call her and go why aren't you here? Yeah with me?
25:09
Speaker 1: As Tera Grin Said's best friend Maria Harbor. Maria, that afternoon,
25:13
Speaker 1: you said she was at a what a pageant or
25:16
Speaker 1: prepping people for a pageant or what she had helped Saturday,
25:19
Speaker 1: she was helping girls get ready. She was all into
25:22
Speaker 1: pages as you know, so she was helping them get ready.
25:25
Speaker 1: So that afternoon she was actually helping the girls at
25:27
Speaker 1: a pageant and then she went what was this grill
25:30
Speaker 1: out she went to that evening. It was with some
25:32
Speaker 1: of her co workers. Like I said, it's a very
25:34
Speaker 1: small town. So in the school, you know, you think
25:37
Speaker 1: about the high school has about three hundred kids in it,
25:39
Speaker 1: so as very small school. With the faculty that's very
25:42
Speaker 1: tight knit. So it was a lot of faculty members,
25:45
Speaker 1: you know, just kind of had a cookout. It was
25:47
Speaker 1: just cooking out on a Saturday night. And then she
25:50
Speaker 1: went home. Then she went home. How do you know that, Well,
25:55
Speaker 1: we don't know that. That's the thing. After she left
25:58
Speaker 1: that cookout, we really don't know what happened. I mean,
26:00
Speaker 1: it really comes out of the speculation. Now. I know
26:04
Speaker 1: that at some point during the night or during the day,
26:06
Speaker 1: she had been watching someone's dog, so she had taken
26:10
Speaker 1: them the dog. And I want to say that may
26:12
Speaker 1: have been how they'd established she had gotten to the house.
26:16
Speaker 1: But either way, you know, her car was at home.
26:18
Speaker 1: Tell me about the dog and how they established it.
26:21
Speaker 1: She made it to her home. I know her car
26:22
Speaker 1: was there all muddy R. Tell me about the dog
26:25
Speaker 1: she had was like taking care of someone's dog, and
26:30
Speaker 1: it was somebody in the neighborhood, you know, as a
26:32
Speaker 1: younger boy, but she knew the family, so she had
26:35
Speaker 1: met up with him to give him the dog back. Okay,
26:38
Speaker 1: at some point I think I think a lot of
26:40
Speaker 1: it is just assumption, because you know, her car was
26:43
Speaker 1: back at her home. Didn't they find the clothes that
26:46
Speaker 1: she was wearing that night, Yes, because we had a
26:49
Speaker 1: picture of her that night, which obviously they didn't come
26:52
Speaker 1: to a little later because you know, like this was
26:54
Speaker 1: years ago, so we didn't have cameras on phones and
26:57
Speaker 1: text messaging and all that kind of stuff, so we
26:59
Speaker 1: didn't have a imediately what she had had on. We
27:01
Speaker 1: just knew about what we thought. So yeah, we did
27:04
Speaker 1: end up finding out that she had come home and
27:06
Speaker 1: changed and her bedroom to me, was there obviously that
27:10
Speaker 1: she had been in the bed because it was unmade,
27:13
Speaker 1: and I know she wouldn't have had her room unmade
27:16
Speaker 1: with her with people in and out of her house
27:17
Speaker 1: like she was gonna have it very neat and clean.
27:21
Speaker 1: So she had gotten into the bed, but we could
27:24
Speaker 1: we never found her pocketbook. Her pocketbook was gone. Her
27:27
Speaker 1: phone was there, but her pocketbook was was gone. And
27:31
Speaker 1: she all expect her on Sunday. On Sunday, she doesn't
27:34
Speaker 1: show up. Then what happened? Well, um, Monday morning, we
27:38
Speaker 1: were gonna her mother and I was just gonna call
27:42
Speaker 1: school and you know, check on her like that. Well
27:44
Speaker 1: before I could even do that, they called me and said,
27:46
Speaker 1: she didn't show up. We're going in the house. So
27:49
Speaker 1: I left immediately and went down and met them at
27:52
Speaker 1: the house and we went in and obviously couldn't find her.
27:59
Speaker 1: Wasn't she wasn't trace. I mean, she was gone. Nobody
28:02
Speaker 1: knows what happened. Nobody, no ransom note, no clues, no nothing,
28:10
Speaker 1: just gone. I'm talking about Tera Grinstead. Maria Harbor with us,
28:16
Speaker 1: Tara's best friend. Maria. What did they ask you? What
28:19
Speaker 1: type of questions did the police first ask you? Immediately
28:23
Speaker 1: they started thinking that she had just run off, you know,
28:25
Speaker 1: maybe she's shopping. Maybe shopping, I know, I said, but wait,
28:30
Speaker 1: did you have to be at work on Monday? Morning.
28:32
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah, and she would have never you
28:34
Speaker 1: can't when you're a school teacher, you can't just not
28:36
Speaker 1: show up. I mean, you know you can't do that.
28:39
Speaker 1: Like that's not gonna happen. And that's what I told
28:42
Speaker 1: on the suppresion. No way she would have just not
28:44
Speaker 1: gone to work. So that was in their mind. You know, oh,
28:47
Speaker 1: maybe she's just not wanting to be here. You know,
28:50
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, that's not it. But immediately that's there,
28:52
Speaker 1: you know, she would have at least called in a sub.
28:55
Speaker 1: She would have at least called for a sub, I know.
28:57
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. So then when did it at you? She
29:00
Speaker 1: really was gone. I mean, this whole idea that she
29:02
Speaker 1: would just leave and go shopping, that doesn't even make
29:04
Speaker 1: sense to me. It was ridiculous. I mean, they called
29:08
Speaker 1: around to see if it was if there was any
29:10
Speaker 1: identified someone you know, at the hospitals, and you know,
29:13
Speaker 1: they checked that kind of thing. But you know, for
29:16
Speaker 1: several hours, they were just convinced that she just didn't
29:20
Speaker 1: want to be here anymore because her pocket book was
29:23
Speaker 1: gone and her phone was there. Let me ask you
29:27
Speaker 1: a question with me as Tera Grinsdad's best friend, Maria
29:32
Speaker 1: Woods Harbor Maria. Many people have does just say capitalized
29:41
Speaker 1: on TERA's disappearance and investigated it and written about it.
29:46
Speaker 1: You know, a lot, a lot of investigation has gone on.
29:52
Speaker 1: Many people have speculated she was in some kind of
29:55
Speaker 1: a sex relationship with her killers, who we now believed
29:59
Speaker 1: to be two of her former students at her high school.
30:02
Speaker 1: That she was in a state of mind that night
30:05
Speaker 1: where she wanted to walk on the wild side and
30:09
Speaker 1: ended up at some bonfire out and a pecan orchard
30:13
Speaker 1: and then things went sideways. Basically, what they're saying is
30:17
Speaker 1: because she put herself in a bad situation. To me,
30:21
Speaker 1: that's a victim shaming. There's no evidence of any of
30:26
Speaker 1: that whatsoever that I know of. Maybe somebody knows something
30:30
Speaker 1: I don't know. But what you're her best friend, could
30:32
Speaker 1: you speak to what has been said about Terra since
30:36
Speaker 1: her death? When it happened, she was just gone. I mean,
30:39
Speaker 1: we had nobody, no clues, nothing, and it was very,
30:43
Speaker 1: very upsetting. There's been a million theories about what she
30:47
Speaker 1: did and like she said, what she did to deserve this,
30:49
Speaker 1: and it's been years of defending that and you can't
30:53
Speaker 1: you know, I had to take a lot of time
30:55
Speaker 1: away from it because it was just I constantly try
30:58
Speaker 1: to defend her because there's you know, it was just
31:01
Speaker 1: so silly. Some of the stuff was just so ridiculous.
31:04
Speaker 1: But like what oh, I mean, it was like, you know,
31:07
Speaker 1: she had a conspiracy and that she paid these people
31:10
Speaker 1: to come do this so she could get attention. And
31:12
Speaker 1: you know, there was one so silly that you know,
31:15
Speaker 1: we were that I helped her plan this getaway and
31:18
Speaker 1: you know, and the reason they weren't finding hers because
31:21
Speaker 1: I was paid. Oh my goodness, Really every boyfriend she
31:24
Speaker 1: had from the time she was fifteen sixteen on up
31:28
Speaker 1: to when she was missing, I had to tell them
31:31
Speaker 1: everything about and they had the jerk and it was
31:34
Speaker 1: so it's been so bad that anyone that was in
31:37
Speaker 1: her life has been drug through mud and everything. It's
31:41
Speaker 1: just ridiculous. What do you make of the theories that
31:45
Speaker 1: have been put out there that the night she went
31:47
Speaker 1: missing she was in a state of mind that she
31:52
Speaker 1: wanted to go to some crazy alcohol slash drug fueled
31:58
Speaker 1: bonfire out at a peak orchard or something to that effect.
32:02
Speaker 1: I've never heard anything like it in my life. Well,
32:04
Speaker 1: it is silly, and it's really extremely stupid because it's
32:08
Speaker 1: just you know, first of all, I don't believe she
32:10
Speaker 1: would do that. She's just not like that. But even
32:12
Speaker 1: if she did, I mean, who cares. But the point
32:15
Speaker 1: is she's not here anymore. That's just like saying, if
32:18
Speaker 1: you go to a bar, you know, and you get
32:21
Speaker 1: you know, taken or keeled or whatever, then you deserve
32:23
Speaker 1: it because you're at a bar. I mean, it doesn't
32:25
Speaker 1: make sense. I mean, do you really think she went
32:28
Speaker 1: out to some party with a bunch of kids in
32:31
Speaker 1: a pecan orchard? I mean, that's the last thing I
32:33
Speaker 1: want to do at one o'clock in the morning is
32:35
Speaker 1: go out with some former students at a pecan orchard
32:39
Speaker 1: and watching them drink out of a kid. If you
32:41
Speaker 1: got a rain, you'd understand. That's ridiculous. A school teacher
32:44
Speaker 1: would be fired the next day, you know, because it
32:47
Speaker 1: was It would not be like you could keep that
32:48
Speaker 1: a secret. I mean she would be fired, Like why
32:51
Speaker 1: herself and her in her career in that position because
32:55
Speaker 1: she works so hard. It's not like her parents paid
32:57
Speaker 1: for her college tuition. She worked to pay that. There's
33:00
Speaker 1: no way she lives on her career way for just
33:03
Speaker 1: a night like that there's just no way. That's stupid. Well,
33:07
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, I hear you, John Limley, Crime Story's
33:11
Speaker 1: contributing reporter. Finally, what is the break? Well, let's go
33:15
Speaker 1: back to two thousand and eight. The case received renewed
33:19
Speaker 1: attention at that time with a report on the CBS
33:23
Speaker 1: news show forty eight Hours Mystery, which noted a similarity
33:27
Speaker 1: in the case to the disappearance of another young woman
33:30
Speaker 1: in Orlando, Florida. In connection with that news story, police
33:34
Speaker 1: at that time revealed that they had found DNA on
33:38
Speaker 1: a latex glove in the front yard in Grinstead's front yard,
33:44
Speaker 1: just a stone's throw away from her front door. Now,
33:48
Speaker 1: in February two thousand and nine, some videos surfaced on
33:53
Speaker 1: the Internet featuring a self proclaimed serial killer who called
33:57
Speaker 1: himself the Catchme Killer. The man in the videos details
34:02
Speaker 1: what he claims are sixteen female victims that he has murdered,
34:06
Speaker 1: and one of these women he sort of hints at,
34:09
Speaker 1: is Tara Grinstead. Though the man's face and voice were
34:13
Speaker 1: digitally obscured, police eventually determined the videos were that of
34:18
Speaker 1: twenty seven year old Andrew Hailey, and a police investigation
34:22
Speaker 1: ultimately revealed the videos to be part of a bizarre,
34:25
Speaker 1: elaborate hoax, and Haley was ultimately eliminated as a suspect. Then,
34:31
Speaker 1: in two thousand eleven, twenty eleven, the chief GBI, that's
34:35
Speaker 1: the Georgia Bureau of Investigation investigators, said that the case
34:40
Speaker 1: had gone cold, adding that leads still come in on
34:44
Speaker 1: a weekly basis. Then on February twenty third, twenty seventeen,
34:50
Speaker 1: after a lengthy investigation, the Georgia Bureau of the Investigation
34:55
Speaker 1: announced that they had received a tip. And this is
34:58
Speaker 1: the big break that Marie was talking about that led
35:01
Speaker 1: to the arrest of Ryan Alexander Duke for murder. About
35:07
Speaker 1: three years before Tara's disappearance, Ryan Duke had attended Irwin
35:11
Speaker 1: County High School, the same school where Grinstead was employed
35:15
Speaker 1: as a history teacher. According to warrants read in court,
35:20
Speaker 1: Duke had burglarized Tara's home and when discovered, he strangled
35:25
Speaker 1: her and removed her body from the house. Another arrest
35:30
Speaker 1: fairly quickly after this, on March third, twenty seventeen, was
35:34
Speaker 1: made public in connection with Tara's disappearance. Dukes and this
35:39
Speaker 1: is Duke with an S on the end, and there's
35:41
Speaker 1: no relation between the Duke and the Dukes. Bou Dukes,
35:45
Speaker 1: a former classmate of Ryan Alexander Duke, was charged with
35:49
Speaker 1: attempting to conceal a death, hindering apprehension, and tampering with evidence.
35:55
Speaker 1: At this time, Tara's sister, Anita Gaddis, said she had
35:59
Speaker 1: known bou Duke's family for years, but had never connected
36:03
Speaker 1: him with any part of her sister's disappearance. Nancy, as
36:07
Speaker 1: we continue to cover the trial of Bow Dukes going
36:09
Speaker 1: on in a Wilcox County, Georgia courtroom, more than thirteen
36:13
Speaker 1: years after the Georgia beauty queen and teacher Tara Grinstead vanished,
36:17
Speaker 1: we learned, despite this being the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's
36:21
Speaker 1: biggest case ever, they could have solved it a decade
36:25
Speaker 1: earlier if only police had responded to one major lead
36:30
Speaker 1: called into them. On the second day of the trial,
36:33
Speaker 1: the prosecution called as a witness a former army buddy
36:36
Speaker 1: of Bow Dukes, who says Bow told him about his
36:40
Speaker 1: role in covering up Tara's murder in two thousand and six,
36:45
Speaker 1: just a year after she was killed. They played a
36:48
Speaker 1: recording of John McCullough's interview with the GBI. Did he
36:52
Speaker 1: say that they burned the body? He told right he
37:00
Speaker 1: would ever find anything in all this stuff, you know,
37:02
Speaker 1: like talking to McCullough told the GBI that it weighed
37:06
Speaker 1: on his mind for years. It's uh, it sucks. Well.
37:11
Speaker 1: I remember, I remember when you called it in. You
37:13
Speaker 1: were like, you know, I don't know if this is
37:15
Speaker 1: true or not, you know, you know, I just I
37:19
Speaker 1: need to get this off my chest, says you've been
37:21
Speaker 1: you know. And then because you told me that you
37:23
Speaker 1: saw something on the internet and you looked it up
37:25
Speaker 1: and you were like, wow, I thought that case would
37:27
Speaker 1: have been solved way back then and it wasn't. That's
37:30
Speaker 1: what prompted you to call the first time, you know.
37:32
Speaker 1: I mean so I originally I originally called, you know
37:38
Speaker 1: way or like waiting for hey, you know what, what
37:43
Speaker 1: what's going on with this? And you know stuff like that,
37:46
Speaker 1: you know, And that was properly and uh two eight
37:52
Speaker 1: or late two eight, early of the night got out
37:57
Speaker 1: and where in two thousand and eighty nine police department
38:04
Speaker 1: do you remember who what police apart? I want to
38:07
Speaker 1: say it was the one that was in Oscila. It
38:09
Speaker 1: will do their Ostilver and Fitch you but it was
38:11
Speaker 1: a local police department, and I was just asking questions
38:16
Speaker 1: and then it kind of went and nowhere, and I
38:18
Speaker 1: was just like, okay, well I get things since nobody
38:21
Speaker 1: wants to talk to me, and just so you shall
38:24
Speaker 1: asking and to get somebody to call you. But nobody
38:27
Speaker 1: ever called you back. Yeah, and nobody ever called me,
38:30
Speaker 1: nobody ever did anything. Okay, well I guess you know whatever,
38:34
Speaker 1: I can't do anything about it, you know. And and
38:39
Speaker 1: then that's whenever I started, you know, calling again. And
38:43
Speaker 1: then you know, it was the weirdest shit ever. Like
38:46
Speaker 1: I had to cread the Edge Dream, and I mean
38:48
Speaker 1: that's what I called you. Whenever I called you, I
38:49
Speaker 1: was like, man, you know, I had just read the
38:51
Speaker 1: Age Dream, and I just I gotta call man. I gotta,
38:55
Speaker 1: you know, do all this stuff because if I don't,
38:57
Speaker 1: it's just gonna eat away in my damn brain, of
39:00
Speaker 1: which a man still kind of did anywhere. It's been
39:03
Speaker 1: a long and winding road to justice for the family
39:06
Speaker 1: of Tera Grinstead. Nancy Grace Crimestory signing off goodbye friend,