Tara Faye Grinstead: Dead Or Alive?

Tara Faye Grinstead was born on November 14th, 1974 in Pulaski County, Georgia to Faye and Bill Grinstead. She had a great personality, loved beauty pageants and was a beautiful singer. In 1999 she won the title of Miss Tifton and competed in the Miss Georgia pageant. Money from this pageant and many other she had entered had winnings that helped pursue her other passion, teaching. In 2003, she earned a master's degree in education at Valdosta State University. She began teaching 11th grade history at Irwin County High School in Ocilla. In her spare time she coached beauty pageant contestants.

She had just broken up with her boyfriend of six years, Marcus Harper, but she was still enjoying life. On Saturday, October 22nd, 2005, 30 year old Tara attended a beauty pageant. After the beauty pageant she went to a friend's barbecue. That was the last time Tara was seen by her family and friends.

The next day, Tara missed church, which was unlike her. And the following Monday when she didn't show up or call in sick for work, her co-workers called the police. When the police showed up Tara was car was there, but no one answered the door. The police noticed that there was a business card wedged in the door. When the police went to search her car, they found it unlocked. There was $100 in cash in the console, and there was clay on the tires. Police also noticed that the seat was pushed way back, to far back for Tara to reach the pedals. A latex glove was found in the yard. Once inside her house, that found Tara's cellphone and beads all over her bedroom floor. Her alarm clock was broken on the floor. Her keys and purse were nowhere to be found. She had also left her cat and dog behind.

Local police immediately called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and volunteers search the area for Tara. Three separate witnesses came forward stating that they saw a black truck in Tara's yard on multiple between Sunday night and Monday morning. A fourth witness said that not only did they see the truck, they saw a man sitting in it.

Remember the latex glove found in the yard? Police recovered male DNA from it, but didn't get any matches. Police decided to interview and collect DNA from male friends and acquaintances in her life. None of the DNA matched any of them, including her ex-boyfriend.a policeman who stuck his card in her door and a former student who was harassing her. They also had alibis.

The case went cold until 2009, when a random person decided to post some internet videos. This person's face and voice was disguised and they said that they were the "Catch Me" serial killer. This person went into great detail about what they claimed they did to women. Police thought that this may be their suspect in Tara's disappearance. Police eventually tracked him down and identified him as 27 year old Andrew Haley.

On February 23, 2017, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation  received a tip which led to the arrest of 33 year old Ryan Alexander Duke for Tara's murder. About three years before Tara's disappearance, Duke had attended Irwin County High School, where she was employed as a teacher. According to warrants read in court, Duke burgled Tara's home, and when she caught him in the act, he strangled her and removed her body from the house. 

On March 3, 2017, Bo Dukes, a former classmate of Ryan Duke,  no relation, was charged with attempting to conceal a death, hindering apprehension and tampering with evidence.

In August 2017, a grand jury filed four new charges against Bo Dukes: two counts of making false statements, one count of hindering apprehension of a criminal and one count of concealing the death of another. These additional charges are based on a Wilcox County indictment stating that Dukes had lied to a GBI official who questioned him in 2016 concerning the disappearance of Tara. Ryan Duke‘s murder trial is presently set for April 1, 2019.

Tara's remains are yet to be found.