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True Crime Documentary - The Tara Grinstead Mystery · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:16
  Speaker 1: When the sun goes down in a pecan orchard, it's
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: a little spooky. It's a lot like being in a
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: scary movie.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: They're majestic in one sense, but they are very creepy.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: What happened in this orchard was senseless. Tara Grinstead and
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: I were best friends. Tara started wanting to be in
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: beauty pageants, only to help her raise money for college.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Her inspiration was to be a teacher.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Tara was a very well-liked high school teacher. The students
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: loved her. She was young, she was vibrant, she was
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: very passionate about what she did.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: On October 22, 2005, Tara began her day doing exactly
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: what she loved, dressing up the little girls for the
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: sweet potato pageant in Osceola. After the pageant, she went
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: to a cookout. The last thing I know, she was
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: on the phone, went home, and then nobody's seen her since.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: There were so many stories, so much speculation.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: The possibilities were running through my head of what it
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: could be.
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: My heart always hoped that she just needed a few
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: days to herself. And as the days and the months
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: and even the years went on, I knew something had happened.
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: I covered this story for 12 years, and hardly anyone
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: thought this case would ever be solved. In a town
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: that is as small as it is, How could someone
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: keep this a secret for so long?
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: So you call the police department.
• 2:37
  Speaker 6: This is John McCullough. I know who killed Tara Grinstead.
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: Does anyone call you back?
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: No.
• 2:44
  Speaker 6: Hey, man, how come nobody wants to listen to me?
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: So many tips came in that some weren't followed up.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: They never actually called anyone a suspect or even.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: a person of interest.
• 2:56
  Speaker 7: Nearly 27 years with the Georgia Beard investigation, I've never
• 3:00
  Speaker 7: encountered such a complex and difficult case.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: We literally got tips from all over the world.
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: Then in 2017, a woman came forward with a remarkable
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: story about her boyfriend.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: He said, I can't handle it anymore, and he starts
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: telling me everything. I made him take me to the orchard.
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: You said right then, we're going?
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: We're going.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Thank you. In Osceola, the word spreads.
• 4:18
  Speaker 8: In a church pew, at the restaurant, over breakfast.
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: The 2005 disappearance of Tara Grinstead, beloved teacher and local
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: beauty queen, mystified the people of Osceola, Georgia, like Janice Polk,
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: who lived just around the corner from Tara.
• 4:43
  Speaker 9: Osceola.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: is a big family. We all wanted to do something
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: that we could do to help. There were flyers, there
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: were billboards. We had search efforts like nothing you've ever seen.
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: Janice, who ran a local web design company, became an
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: expert on the case, keeping a close watch since Tara
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: was reported missing. What were some of the theories as
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: to what had happened to Tara.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: There were people who believed she ran away. Somebody has
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: abducted her and holding her somewhere hostage. And the one
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: we didn't want to think about was somebody killed her.
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: But who would want to harm this vibrant 30-year-old woman?
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: Maria Woods-Harbour grew up with Tara.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: My best friend, Tara Grinstead, was a beautiful person on
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: the inside and the outside. She was radiant. I mean,
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: she had the biggest smile. She could tell you anything
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: to make you feel better. This is where Tara Grinstead
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: lived in 2005.
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: What emotional impact does this have for you when you
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: see this house?
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: Well, it's very emotional. I don't like to come very often.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: She loved this place. You can still see her standing
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: at the door.
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: Maria says Tara was determined to live her dreams from
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: a young age, competing in beauty pageants to help earn
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: scholarship money for college.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: She was absolutely elegant on stage. Her main goal was
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: to win Miss Georgia, or at least to get to
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: Miss Georgia. And she did.
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: Tara didn't bring home the Miss Georgia crown, but just
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: competing was a huge achievement. says Dana Wilder, who grew
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: up in Osceola.
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: As little girls, we looked up to her.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: She was famous.
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: After college, Tara got a job at Osceola's Irwin County
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: High School, teaching 11th grade history.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: She was an excellent teacher. She was dedicated to making
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: her students feel wonderful.
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: And even when she no longer competed, she helped other women,
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: like Dana, break into that world.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: She just took me underneath her wing.
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: She taught me the ins and outs of interviews, hair
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: and makeup, wardrobe.
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: At night, Tara studied for a specialist degree in school administration,
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: but other parts of her life hadn't come together as
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: she'd hoped.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: Personal side, she was having a little bit of a
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: rough time. She was in her 30s and not married,
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: and I think she was a little down about that.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Tara had a boyfriend for a long time, and During
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: the summer of 2005, they broke up.
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: That boyfriend was Marcus Harper, a former cop from Osceola.
• 7:47
  Speaker 10: She obviously wanted to get married. It just wasn't what
• 7:49
  Speaker 10: I wanted. I definitely didn't want to settle down in
• 7:53
  Speaker 10: small-town America.
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: Marcus enlisted with the Army Rangers and spent time overseas.
• 7:59
  Speaker 6: It was like a calling.
• 8:00
  Speaker 10: It was something I felt like, you know, I had
• 8:02
  Speaker 10: to do.
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: The couple broke things off but stayed in touch.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: Tara really did want to get back with Marcus. She
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: did not want to end it. And she was very distraught.
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: This was the man she thought she'd build a life with.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she did. She was seeing other people, and I
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: think she was just trying to move on. In a
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: small town of Osceola, everyone knew their situation.
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: It was part of town gossip that they had gotten
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: into an argument after Marcus had come back to town
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: earlier than expected that October. But no one in Osceola
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: knew what had happened when Tara seemingly vanished after leaving
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: that barbecue on Saturday night, October 22nd. What time did
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: she go home?
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: About 11 o'clock.
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: On Sunday, Tara's mom called her several times, but Tara
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: didn't answer.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: And the next morning, I got a call saying that
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: I need to get to Osceola.
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: Tara had failed to show up at school.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: She would never do that. She would never leave her kids.
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: Tara's car was parked in the driveway. Neighbors knocked on
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: her door but got no response. The Osceola police were
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: called and entered Tara's home. Right behind them was Maria.
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: What did you see when you walked into her house?
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: I wasn't quite sure what I was going to walk
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: in and see. Her den was exactly the way it
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: always was. And there were a few things on the floor,
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: like a hairdryer. And then her bed was unmade, like
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: she had been in the bed.
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: Tara's purse and keys were missing. Her cell phone was
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: charging next to her bed. Maria noticed something out of place.
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: Tara's alarm clock was under her bed. and a bedside
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: lamp was broken. And then there was something else.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: So when I came back out of the house, I
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: saw right here, right out from the front door, there
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: was a latex glove.
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: On the ground?
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: On the ground.
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: Also found was a business card from a police officer
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: in a nearby town. Authorities couldn't explain either and collected
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: them as evidence. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, known as
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: the GBI, was called in.
• 10:33
  Speaker 7: It is one of the most extensive investigations undertaken by
• 10:36
  Speaker 7: the GBI.
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: Back in 2008, I spoke with Special Agent Gary Rothwell.
• 10:42
  Speaker 7: It appeared that Tara may have left on her own. However,
• 10:45
  Speaker 7: we had a glove, a latex glove, that we couldn't explain.
• 10:48
  Speaker 7: So that gave us a stronger indication that something bad
• 10:51
  Speaker 7: had happened.
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: The GBI tested that glove and found not only Tara's
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: DNA on it, but the DNA profile of an unknown male.
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: The case generated hundreds of tips over the years. Janice
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: Polk even created a website to help authorities collect information.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: FindTara.com. I built a message board because I thought that
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: there was a good chance that whoever knew what had
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: happened to her would potentially come and say something.
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: As Janice recalls early on, suspicion focused on the men
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: in Tara's life.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: She was dating, I think, More than people realized that
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: she was dating. And that's nobody's business, but in this case,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: it made it tough.
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: Rumors swirled about that cop whose card was found at
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: Tara's house. He was a family friend, married with kids,
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: who said he'd gone by that Sunday night and left
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: the card after Tara didn't answer the doorbell. He had
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: an alibi, but the whispers continued.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: There were several people, several men who got a lot
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: of scrutiny for a long time.
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: Another was a former student who claimed he and Tara
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: had been secretly seen each other. But when questioned about
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: her disappearance, he had an alibi and was never charged.
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: Then there was Tara's ex-boyfriend, Marcus Harper.
• 12:30
  Speaker 10: Somebody pulled me to the side and they were like, listen,
• 12:33
  Speaker 10: you know, uh, There's been some things said, bringing up
• 12:37
  Speaker 10: your military past, bringing up how you're trained to kill.
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: Marcus always maintained his innocence but remained under suspicion. Investigators
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: chased down dozens of leads across the country. But tips
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: emerged that led right back to the high school where
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: Tara was a teacher and perhaps someone who had sat
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: in her classroom.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: I never thought it was somebody from our community, but
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: in the same sense, I always thought, well, it has
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: to be.
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: For years, Marcus Harper lived under a cloud. Some might
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: say a thunderstorm of suspicion. He was the talk of Osceola, Georgia,
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: and none of it was good.
• 13:44
  Speaker 10: What they're saying at the local grocery store and at
• 13:48
  Speaker 10: the local restaurants, they don't think that it's getting to
• 13:50
  Speaker 10: someone who's my family or my friend. I'm not going
• 13:53
  Speaker 10: to shy away to the fact that I was bitter.
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: Police never called him a suspect, but Marcus was more
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: closely investigated than anyone in the disappearance of his former girlfriend,
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: Tara Grinstead.
• 14:07
  Speaker 10: I was swabbed for DNA. My truck was luminoled. Photographs
• 14:11
  Speaker 10: were taken. Had to tell my alibi, you know, or
• 14:13
  Speaker 10: where I was at, who I was around, and that
• 14:15
  Speaker 10: was corroborated.
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: Year after year passed with no arrests. But back in 2005,
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: authorities either missed or ignored a tip that may have
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: solved the case. Just weeks after Tara vanished, at a
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: party in this very pecan orchard, one of Janice Polk's
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: employees told her that he had overheard two young men
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: tell a disturbing story.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: That they had been at a party bragging about their
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: involvement in Tara's disappearance and that ultimately they had taken
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: her body out to a pecan orchard and burned it
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: in a fire pit.
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: It was a shocking statement.
• 14:59
  Speaker 6: Did he.
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: have names of who these two men were who claimed
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: they had killed Tara.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: It was Bo Dukes and Ryan Duke.
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: The two, who were friends, had similar sounding names but
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: weren't related. At the time, Ryan Duke and Bo Dukes
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: were 21 years old. Ryan worked at a plastics manufacturing plant,
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: while Bo would occasionally work at his family's pecan farm.
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: both had been students at Terrace High School.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: We shared that tip with the local sheriff's department.
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: That tip went nowhere, and it wasn't the only one overlooked.
• 15:43
  Speaker 6: It just brings up a lot. So it's kind of
• 15:46
  Speaker 6: crappy right now.
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: I'm sorry. John McCullough says he is still haunted by
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: painful memories of being ignored by investigators 14 years ago.
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: This really affects you, though, talking about this.
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: McCullough, now a manager at a water company in Texas,
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: had met Bo Dukes at Army boot camp in 2006.
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: So two Southern boys meet in Oklahoma in the Army.
• 16:11
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: And you guys hit it off.
• 16:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah, we were pretty close.
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: Dukes invited McCullough to Osceola to spend Christmas with his family.
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: It was a year after Tara's disappearance. As they were
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: driving around town, A billboard caught his eye.
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: And it had this very, you know, attractive woman on it.
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: Tara Grinstead.
• 16:33
  Speaker 6: Yeah, Tara Grinstead, and said, you know, missing.
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: The two then went to a party. After a few drinks,
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: McCullough says Bo began talking about Tara.
• 16:44
  Speaker 6: He was like, yeah, do you remember that bulletin that
• 16:47
  Speaker 6: you had asked me about with that girl on it?
• 16:50
  Speaker 6: And I was like, yeah. And he was like, I
• 16:53
  Speaker 6: know what happened.
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: McCullough wasn't ready for what Bo would say next.
• 17:00
  Speaker 6: He had told me that his friend accidentally strangled her,
• 17:03
  Speaker 6: and he needed help getting rid of the body, so
• 17:06
  Speaker 6: that way there was nothing to find.
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: Stunned as he was, McCullough was in a dilemma. Could
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: he betray his friend, his fellow soldier? The kind of
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: guy you want to share a foxhole with, right?
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: You can trust with your life.
• 17:19
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: The weight of what McCullough says Bo told him became unbearable.
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: Two months later, in February 2007, McCullough says he called
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: three police departments in Georgia, including Osceola, where he left
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: a voice message saying.
• 17:36
  Speaker 6: This is John McCullough. I know who killed Tara Grinstead
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: or had a part of it. It was told to
• 17:43
  Speaker 6: me when I was in Georgia. Here's my number. I'll
• 17:46
  Speaker 6: do whatever has to happen for y'all to take me serious.
• 17:49
  Speaker 6: I just got off the phone with another department that
• 17:53
  Speaker 6: didn't do shit.
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: Incredibly, McCullough says no one returned his calls. This is
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: the murder of Tara Grinstead, and there seemed.
• 18:03
  Speaker 6: To be little interest.
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: Is that right?
• 18:04
  Speaker 6: Very little interest.
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: But McCullough was determined to get the truth out. He
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: called the state's top law enforcement agency heading the investigation,
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: the GBI.
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: I mean, nobody ever called me back, ever. Even whenever
• 18:21
  Speaker 6: I reached out to the GBI, which is the Georgia
• 18:23
  Speaker 6: Bureau of Investigation.
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: How many times did you call the GBI over what
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: period of time and you still didn't get any?
• 18:31
  Speaker 6: I would say from the year of 2007 until 2016.
• 18:36
  Speaker 6: I would probably say I reached out nine or ten
• 18:38
  Speaker 6: times to the GBI.
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: Why do you think investigators ignored you?
• 18:43
  Speaker 6: I have no idea. Maybe because I'm a nobody. I
• 18:46
  Speaker 6: don't know.
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: Janice Polk also spoke to the GBI in 2008 as
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: the agency was reviewing the case. And she told them
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: about her employee's tip three years earlier regarding Bo Dukes
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: and Ryan Duke.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: So I sat down with an agent and we just
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: went through everything.
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: But again, as far as she knew, it went nowhere.
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: Tara's family could do little but pray for a breakthrough.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: They've had a really hard time. I can't imagine the
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: loss of a child. but I think it's taken a
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: lot of toll on them mentally and physically.
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: Then, more than 11 years after Tara disappeared, this woman,
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: Brooke Sheridan, came out of nowhere with her account about
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: not only both Dukes, but his friend, Ryan Duke.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Ryan woke him up and said, I killed Tara Grinstead.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: She was charismatic, determined, beautiful personality.
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: What would anyone's motive be to kill Tara Grinstead?
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: In 2017, more than 11 years after Tara vanished, Brooke
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: Sheridan came forward with a potential answer. This was her
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: first television interview.
• 20:39
  Speaker 6: I had to tell someone.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: I had to tell.
• 20:41
  Speaker 6: There was no other option.
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: And what she had to say implicated a man whose
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: name had repeatedly been given to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: How did you and Bo Dukes meet?
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: We actually met on Tinder.
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: Brooke says she was studying in Savannah to become a
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: pharmacist when, in 2015, she came face-to-face with her online date.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: It was love at first sight.
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: Bo Dukes comes from a prominent family that owned a
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: huge pecan orchard in the Osceola area. And what is
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: it about him that you love?
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: He has a beautiful mind. He is extremely intelligent.
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: Janice Polk, who knows the family, paints a different picture
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: of Bo.
• 21:29
  Speaker 11: So Bo was known in the community for being a
• 21:32
  Speaker 11: little over the top, unfiltered, one of those always showing
• 21:36
  Speaker 11: off and And talking big and running his mouth.
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: Bo got in big trouble while in the Army. In 2012,
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: he was charged and convicted of stealing more than $ 150, 000
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: worth of military supplies. And Bo spent more than two
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: years in federal prison. He confessed all of this to Brooke,
• 22:00
  Speaker 5: who stuck with him.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: I had never connected with somebody and had fun with
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: somebody like I.
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: Have with him. But she says Bo was often moody.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: I said, you have to talk to me. He's very
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: shut off. Emotions, feelings, he doesn't talk about.
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: As their relationship evolved, Brooks sensed that something seemed to
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: be eating away at Bo.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: It was something very dark. And I chalked it up to,
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: you know, serving his time in the military.
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: And Brooks says she helped pull Bo back from taking
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: his own life. He had talked about that?
• 22:37
  Speaker 12: Yes.
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: And you weren't going to let that happen?
• 22:40
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: Brooke kept encouraging Bo to open up, to talk about
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: this dark subject that was destroying him. Finally, he cracked.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: He said, you've heard of the Terrigan's dad case? I
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: was like, yeah. He said, my roommate killed her.
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: His roommate and close friend was Ryan Duke. Why would
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: Ryan Duke have murdered Tara Grinstead.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: He said that's something that only God and Ryan know.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: He said, I don't know why he did it.
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: But there was more. Bo told Brooke about his own
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: involvement in the crime, saying.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: And I helped him burn her body. I was I
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: felt like I was going to be sick. I didn't
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: know who I was staring at. I didn't know who
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: he was.
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: Bo told Brooke that Ryan stole his pickup truck that
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: night and used it to transport Tara's body to a
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: remote part of this pecan orchard that was owned by
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: Bo's family.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: And Ryan looked at Bo and said, it's your truck,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: your family's land, and he said he threw his arms
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: up just like this. What are you going to do?
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: And by Ryan saying to him, hey buddy, this is
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: your truck and this is your family's land, basically that
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: was interpreted by Bo as a threat, that you're, we're
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: partners now in this. Bo told her they moved Tara's
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: body to a pit in the orchard where it took
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: two days to burn, destroying all evidence.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: I kept thinking about her family and I couldn't sleep
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: at night.
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: Now it was Brooke's turn to be tormented by a
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: terrible secret.
• 24:31
  Speaker 6: I had to tell them.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: I had to tell.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: There was no other option.
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: Weeks later, she called the GBI to turn in the
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: boyfriend she loved.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: That family's peace to me was more important than his freedom.
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: But if you're ready for this, Bo had already been
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: interviewed by the GBI a year earlier in 2016.
• 24:52
  Speaker 6: They contacted me. Tell me what you know.
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: That was after investigators finally reached out to John McCullough.
• 25:02
  Speaker 6: I'm glad somebody's finally listening. So I talked to him,
• 25:05
  Speaker 6: tell him everything I know.
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: But back then, Bo denied everything. With no hard evidence,
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: authorities couldn't make an arrest. But after he broke down
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: to Brooke, she told Bo it was time to tell
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: the truth.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: I said, you need to confess. You need to own
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: up to what you've done and confess.
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: What does Bo say?
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: He says, I just want her family to know.
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: I'm going to just kind of leave it open the
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: floor to you and just tell me about you knowing
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: about Tara.
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: Bo then told the GBI all the grisly details. You
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: can still see the body.
• 25:42
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: Just kind of like charred.
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah. The day after Bo's confession, his one-time friend, Ryan Duke,
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: was arrested. Nearly 12 years after Tara's disappearance.
• 25:54
  Speaker 9: Ryan, can you do it?
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: On February 23, 2017, Ryan Duke appeared in court. charged
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: with Tara's murder.
• 26:04
  Speaker 10: I received a phone call and the voice on the
• 26:07
  Speaker 10: other end of the phone said, brother, your 12 years
• 26:11
  Speaker 10: of hell is over. We have made an arrest.
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: Investigators say Ryan confessed to killing Grinstead. According to notes
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: of Ryan's confession, which were written down by the GBI
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: and later leaked out, Ryan told investigators he was a
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: drug addict.
• 26:31
  Speaker 6: End quote.
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: Broke into Grinstead's house and was attempting to steal from
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: her purse when he believed she came up behind him.
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: He struck her with his fist. Duke did not mean
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: to strike Grinstead, but he was just reacting and scared.
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: Duke said Grinstead died when he hit her. And remember
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: that latex glove found at the crime scene? A DNA
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: sample from Ryan Duke was a perfect match. Was it
• 27:04
  Speaker 5: an emotional moment for you to realize someone had been
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: arrested after.
• 27:07
  Speaker 6: All that time?
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: Yes. I cried for days, couldn't sleep for days. It
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: was very hard to grasp.
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: And the next month, Bo Dukes, who years earlier had
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: sat in Tara's class, was arrested and charged, not with murder,
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: but with concealing a death, hindering the apprehension of a criminal,
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: and lying to investigators. Two years later, in March 2019,
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: Beau was the first to go to trial. This case
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: is about Beau's lies.
• 27:44
  Speaker 10: It's about Beau's concealment that his best friend, Ryan, had
• 27:49
  Speaker 10: killed Terry Grinston, and then they both burned the body.
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: And for the first time, everyone heard Beau's own account
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: when his GBI interview was played in court.
• 28:02
  Speaker 6: Told me that he had killed Terry Branstad, and he
• 28:05
  Speaker 6: asked me to help him get rid of her body.
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: But was Beau telling the whole story?
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: I don't believe Ryan could have done it all by himself.
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: In March of 2019, in a county courthouse about 30
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: miles from where beloved teacher and beauty pageant mentor Tara
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: Grinstead was murdered, Bo Dukes went on trial on charges
• 28:53
  Speaker 5: relating to covering up her death. Prosecutor Brad Rigby.
• 28:57
  Speaker 6: This case is about Bo's lies.
• 29:01
  Speaker 10: Lies that lasted from 2005 to 2016.
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: Bo was facing a maximum 25-year sentence, so he went
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: to trial hoping jurors might show mercy for a man
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: who had already confessed to his role in the crime.
• 29:23
  Speaker 5: Prosecutors played that videotape of Bo's interview with the GBI.
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: He recounted what Ryan told him the day after Tara disappeared.
• 29:32
  Speaker 6: He told me that he had killed Tara Gristead.
• 29:35
  Speaker 12: I didn't believe him.
• 29:37
  Speaker 10: I thought he said it was my uncle.
• 29:39
  Speaker 12: Nope.
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: Out of town on this highway and pulled off on
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: this dirt road. And this is a pecan orchard that's
• 30:04
  Speaker 5: owned by Beau Duke's family. The two men drove about
• 30:08
  Speaker 5: 200 yards up this road to where Tara Grinstead's body
• 30:14
  Speaker 5: had been placed.
• 30:16
  Speaker 6: We drove back into the back.
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: And he showed me where her body was.
• 30:32
  Speaker 9: Of all the people, why Tara?
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: What's the connection?
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: As far as I know, they didn't know her.
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: The agent asked Bo his first reaction when he went
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: to the orchard with Ryan.
• 30:43
  Speaker 6: So you immediately see this and you're like, what in
• 30:45
  Speaker 6: the hell did you do?
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and why the f * * * would you.
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: Do it here on my family's big end orchard?
• 30:54
  Speaker 8: What did he say?
• 30:55
  Speaker 6: Help me.
• 30:57
  Speaker 5: Bo then gave his account of moving and then burning
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: her body. which began on a Wednesday and took two days.
• 31:06
  Speaker 9: So by Friday, there's nothing left?
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: No.
• 31:11
  Speaker 9: Spell your first and.
• 31:12
  Speaker 6: Your last name for the courtroom. John, J-O-H-N, last name McCullough.
• 31:17
  Speaker 5: It was now time at the trial for Bo's one-time
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: army buddy, John McCullough, to finally tell his story of
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: Bo's confession. And this time, the whole world seemed to
• 31:30
  Speaker 5: be listening.
• 31:31
  Speaker 6: The exact location didn't tell me, but had made the
• 31:34
  Speaker 6: comment of, you know, we took her to the middle
• 31:37
  Speaker 6: of the pecan orchard and burned her body.
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: He testified calmly, but inside was still seething at Bo.
• 31:47
  Speaker 6: If there wasn't multiple police officers that were inside the
• 31:50
  Speaker 6: courtroom on the day that I testified on the stand,
• 31:52
  Speaker 6: I probably would have ripped them apart with my hands.
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: But McCullough wasn't the only witness who gave details about
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: Tara's death. Janice Polk's former employee, Garland Lott, told the
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: court he had overheard that 2005 conversation between Ryan and
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: Beau at a party in the same pecan orchard where
• 32:17
  Speaker 5: Tara's body had been burned. He wasn't sure who said what.
• 32:22
  Speaker 7: The statement that I recall was, we.
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: Killed and burned her body, basically.
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: Any doubt in your mind, however, that you heard these
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: two people laughing about killing and burning Terry Grinstead's body?
• 32:38
  Speaker 6: No.
• 32:40
  Speaker 5: Garland says after he reported this to Janice Polk, he
• 32:43
  Speaker 5: was never formally interviewed by anyone from law enforcement.
• 32:47
  Speaker 9: Sounds like you're.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Saying you assumed it was handled by law enforcement?
• 32:50
  Speaker 5: I assumed it was handled by law enforcement, yes. And
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: in this trial, Agent Gary Rothwell finally explained... what happened
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: with those tips.
• 32:59
  Speaker 7: We thought that that lead had been addressed by local
• 33:03
  Speaker 7: law enforcement as unfounded and did not follow up.
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: In cross-examination, Rothwell added that he takes responsibility for the
• 33:12
  Speaker 5: GBI lapse. It's something we should have followed up, but
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: we didn't. It took a jury less than an hour
• 33:23
  Speaker 5: to convict Bo Dukes on all charges. his hope for
• 33:28
  Speaker 5: mercy was dashed. At his sentencing, Tara Grinstead's stepmother, Connie,
• 33:34
  Speaker 5: addressed the court.
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: He knew she was never coming back.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: He could have at least told us that, but he didn't.
• 33:43
  Speaker 8: And the reason he knew she wasn't coming back is
• 33:46
  Speaker 8: because he had put load after load of wood on
• 33:49
  Speaker 8: her body and burned her.
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: And Bo Dukes himself spoke directly to Tara's family.
• 33:56
  Speaker 9: This is the Tara Grinstead family.
• 33:58
  Speaker 6: I'm truly sorry.
• 34:00
  Speaker 10: Your long suffering has been unimaginable.
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: Bo was sentenced to 25 years in prison. But Maria
• 34:12
  Speaker 5: and others still have questions as to what really happened
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: and whether Bo's statements were true. As Bo told it,
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: Ryan did the killing and all I did was help
• 34:23
  Speaker 5: him dispose of the body.
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: I don't believe that.
• 34:30
  Speaker 5: She points to discrepancies between Ryan's version of events and Bo's.
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: Ryan told the GBI he killed Tara by striking her. Later,
• 34:42
  Speaker 5: he said it was possible that he choked her. But
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: Bo says Ryan was certain about what happened. He jumped
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: on her while she was in bed and strangled.
• 34:53
  Speaker 11: Her right there in her bed.
• 34:57
  Speaker 5: And there were other inconsistencies. One said she had clothes on,
• 35:01
  Speaker 5: the other said she did not. It's kind of odd,
• 35:04
  Speaker 5: isn't it?
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, very.
• 35:07
  Speaker 5: Maria believes those discrepancies may have a sinister explanation, that
• 35:13
  Speaker 5: Bo Dukes had more to do with Tara's murder than
• 35:16
  Speaker 5: either he or Ryan have said.
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: I believe that Ryan and Bo Duke were both in
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: this together.
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: And she's not alone. in believing Bo Dukes helped burn
• 35:28
  Speaker 5: a body, not just to protect his friend. You believe
• 35:32
  Speaker 5: that Bo did this to protect himself?
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: Oh, absolutely.
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: Even with Bo Dukes behind bars for 25 years for
• 35:58
  Speaker 5: his role in covering up Tara Grinstead's murder, some people
• 36:02
  Speaker 5: involved in this case believe he played a much larger role.
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: Maria Woods-Harbour thinks Bo was with his friend Ryan here
• 36:11
  Speaker 5: at Tara's house the night of her murder.
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: I think Bo had more to do with it, yes.
• 36:19
  Speaker 5: So too does this man, forensic investigator Maurice Godwin, who
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: was hired by Tara's sister in 2006.
• 36:26
  Speaker 12: I'm headed to Tara Grinstead's house where she disappeared.
• 36:35
  Speaker 5: Back then, Godwin canvassed Tara's neighborhood and found two teenagers
• 36:40
  Speaker 5: who said they saw strangers outside Tara's house the night
• 36:44
  Speaker 5: she disappeared.
• 36:47
  Speaker 12: They saw two men on the right side of Tara's bedroom.
• 36:53
  Speaker 12: windows to the right side of her house. Said it
• 36:57
  Speaker 12: was just dark.
• 36:59
  Speaker 5: It was dark, but two men were standing out here
• 37:01
  Speaker 5: by that bush?
• 37:02
  Speaker 6: By that bush.
• 37:03
  Speaker 5: And who do you believe those two men were?
• 37:06
  Speaker 6: Bo and Ryan.
• 37:09
  Speaker 5: Police have never corroborated that sighting. Godwin speculates Tara was
• 37:14
  Speaker 5: targeted by the two men, but not for money. Do
• 37:17
  Speaker 5: you believe this was a planned sexual attack?
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 37:21
  Speaker 12: I believe they sexually assaulted her. in that bedroom.
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: Which is why, Godwin believes, Tara's body ended up in
• 37:31
  Speaker 5: the pecan orchard.
• 37:32
  Speaker 12: And they had to burn the body in order to
• 37:35
  Speaker 12: destroy the forensic evidence.
• 37:37
  Speaker 5: Maria has also concluded that sexual assault was most likely
• 37:41
  Speaker 5: the motive.
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: They both went in her house, they both assaulted her,
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: and they both planned it.
• 37:49
  Speaker 5: In public statements, Bo's attorney has denied that, But Maria
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: believes that Beau was just as involved in Tara's death
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: as Ryan allegedly was.
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: If you look at Beau's history since that happened, yes,
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: I definitely believe that Beau had more to do with
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: the planning and the execution.
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: Maria is referring to an incident where Beau Dukes was
• 38:13
  Speaker 5: arrested for rape and kidnapping while he was free on
• 38:17
  Speaker 5: bond before his trial. in the Grinstead case.
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: The Warner Robins Police Department says on Tuesday afternoon, Dukes
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: brought two women to the house and threatened them with
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: a firearm.
• 38:27
  Speaker 5: He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
• 38:31
  Speaker 12: Everything narcissistic, everything revolves around what he wants and when
• 38:35
  Speaker 12: he wants it.
• 38:37
  Speaker 5: But Janice Polk continues to believe what Ryan told the GBI.
• 38:42
  Speaker 5: Do you believe Ryan Duke acted alone?
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: I believe what he said he did.
• 38:48
  Speaker 5: Ryan's confession, where he admitted killing Tara, suggests his trial
• 38:52
  Speaker 5: will be an open and shut case. But in yet
• 38:55
  Speaker 5: another twist in this baffling murder, Ryan's attorneys have said
• 38:59
  Speaker 5: publicly that he will recant his confession at his upcoming trial,
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: claiming he was high on drugs and place all the
• 39:09
  Speaker 5: blame on Beau.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: I have been told that Ryan's defense team will argue
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: that He gave a false confession in that Beau was
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: actually responsible for Tara's death.
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: For all that has transpired since 2005, closure is still
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: elusive for everyone involved.
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: I've had to come to a conclusion that I'm just
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: going to have to live the rest of my life,
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: not know one.
• 39:43
  Speaker 5: But there is no question that in her short and
• 39:46
  Speaker 5: impactful life, Tara Grinstead touched people in rare ways, even
• 39:51
  Speaker 5: those who never met her, like John McCullough.
• 39:54
  Speaker 6: I can't explain it and wish I could have been
• 39:58
  Speaker 6: there whenever it happened. So that way I could do something.
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: She's been an inspiration. She had a lot of life
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: ahead of her. She brought great things to Irwin County
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: High School. And I would hope that eventually the word
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: Tara Grinstead will be a bright spot because she did
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: bring a lot of good things to Osceola.
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: Osceola was Tara's life. That's where she set her roots,
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: and that's where she wanted to stay and where she
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: wanted to be.
• 40:30
  Speaker 9: 48 hours.
• 40:53
  Speaker 6: Don't miss an episode.