The Tara Grinstead Mystery - True Crime Documentary

The Tara Grinstead Mystery - True Crime Documentary

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
When the sun goes down in a pecan orchards, it's
a little spooky. It's a lot like being in a
scary movie.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
They're majestic in one sense, but they are very creepy.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
What happened in this orchard was senseless. Tara Grinstead and
our best friends. Tara started wanting to being beauty pageants

(01:01):
only to help her raise money for college. Her inspiration
was to be a teacher.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Tara was a very well liked high school teacher.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
The students loved her.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
She was young, she was vibrant, she was very passionate.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
About what she did. On October twenty second, two thousand
and five, Tara began her day doing exactly what she loved,
dressing up the little girls for the Sweet Potato pageant
and Ocilla. After the pageant, she went to a cookout.
The last thing I know, she was on the phone,

(01:45):
went home, and then nobody's seen her.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Since there were so many stories, so much speculation.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
The possibilities were running through my head of what it
could be.

Speaker 4 (02:03):
My heart always hoped that she just needed a few
days to herself. And as the days and the months
and even the years went on, I knew something had happened.

Speaker 5 (02:15):
I covered this story for twelve years, and hardly anyone
thought this case would ever be sold in a town
that is as small as it is. How could someone
keep this a secret for so long?

Speaker 1 (02:31):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (02:34):
So you called the police department.

Speaker 6 (02:37):
This is John mcolaugh. I know who killed Tera Grinstead.

Speaker 5 (02:41):
Does anyone call you back? No?

Speaker 6 (02:45):
Hey man? How come nobody wants to listen to me?

Speaker 1 (02:47):
So many tips came in that some weren't followed up.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
They never actually called anyone a sesspect or even a
person adventuress.

Speaker 7 (02:56):
Nearly twenty seven years with the Georgia Beer of Investigation,
I've never encountered such a complex and difficult case.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
We literally got tips from all over the world.

Speaker 5 (03:08):
Then, in twenty seventeen, a woman came forward with a
remarkable story about her boyfriend.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
He said, I can't handle it anymore, and he starts
telling me everything. I made him take me to the orchard.

Speaker 5 (03:23):
You said, right then, we're going, We're going.

Speaker 8 (04:15):
And Osilla The word spreads in.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
A church pew.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
At the restaurant.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Over breakfast.

Speaker 5 (04:29):
The two thousand and five disappearance of Tara Grinstead, the
loved teacher and local beauty queen mystified the people of Oscilla, Georgia,
like Jennis Pulk, who lived just around the corner from
Terrace Gille.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Usilla is a big family. We all wanted to do
something that we could do to help. There were flyers,
there were billboards. We had search efforts like nothing you've
ever seen.

Speaker 5 (04:59):
Jennie, who ran a local web design company, became an
expert on the case, keeping a close watch since Tara
was reported missing. What were some of the theories as
to what had happened to Tara?

Speaker 1 (05:13):
There were people who believe she ran away, somebody has
abducted her and holding her somewhere hostage, and the one
we didn't want to think about was somebody killed her.

Speaker 5 (05:26):
But who would want to harm this vibrant thirty year
old woman. Maria Woods Harbor grew up with Tara, my
best friend.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Tara Grinstead was a beautiful person on the inside and
the outside. She was radiant. I mean, she had the
biggest smile. She could tell you anything to make you
feel better. This is where Tara Grinstead lived in two
thousand and five.

Speaker 5 (05:55):
What emotional impact does this have for you when you
see this have Well.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
It's very emotional. I don't like to come very often.
She loved this place. Can still see her standing at
the door.

Speaker 5 (06:10):
Maria says Tara was determined to live her dreams from
a young age, competing in beauty pageants to help earn
scholarship money for college.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
She was absolutely elegant on stage. Her main goal was
to win Miss Georgia, or at least to get to
Miss Georgia, and she did him.

Speaker 5 (06:32):
Tara didn't bring home to Miss Georgia crown, but just
competing was a huge achievement, says Dana Wilder, who grew
up in Oscilla.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
And as little girls we looked up to her.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
She was famous.

Speaker 5 (06:44):
After college, Tara got a job at Oscilla's Irwin County
High School, teaching eleventh grade history.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
She was an excellent teacher. She was dedicated to making
her students feel wonderful.

Speaker 5 (07:01):
And even when she no longer competed, she helped other
women like Dana break into that world.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
She just took me underneath her wing.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
She taught me the ins and out of interviews, hair
and makeup, wardrobe at night.

Speaker 5 (07:15):
Tara studied for a specialist degree in school administration, but
other parts of her life hadn't come together as she'd hoped.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Personal side, she was having a little bit of a
rough time. She was in her thirties and not married,
and I think she was a little down about that.
Tara had a boyfriend for a long time, and during
the summer of two thousand and five, they broke up.

Speaker 5 (07:42):
That boyfriend was Marcus Harper, a former cop from Mocilla.

Speaker 9 (07:47):
She obviously wanted to get married. It just wasn't what
I wanted. I definitely didn't want to settle down in
small town in America.

Speaker 5 (07:54):
Marcus enlisted with the Army Rangers and spent time overseas.

Speaker 9 (07:59):
It was like a it was something I felt late,
you know, I had to do.

Speaker 5 (08:03):
The couple broke things off, but stayed in touch.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Tara really did want to get back with Marcus. She
did not want to end it, and she was very distralled.

Speaker 5 (08:14):
This was the man she thought she'd build a life with.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah, she did. She was seeing other people, and I
think she was just trying to move on. In a
small town of Ocilla, everyone knew their situation.

Speaker 5 (08:31):
It was part of town gossip that they had gotten
into an argument after Marcus had come back to town
earlier than expected that October, but no one in Oscilla
knew what had happened when Tara seemingly vanished after leaving
that barbecue on Saturday night, October twenty second. What time

(08:51):
did she go home?

Speaker 3 (08:52):
About eleven o'clock.

Speaker 5 (08:55):
On Sunday. Tara's mom called her several times, but Tara
didn't answer.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
And the next morning I got a call saying that
I need to get to Ascilla.

Speaker 5 (09:07):
Tara had failed to show up at school.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
She would never do that, she would never leave her kids.

Speaker 5 (09:16):
Terra's car was parked in the driveway. Neighbors knocked on
her door but got no response. The Oscilla police were
called and entered TERA's home. Right behind them was Maria.
What did you see when you walked into her house?

Speaker 3 (09:36):
I wasn't quite sure what I was going to walk
in and see. Her dan was exactly the way it
always was, and there were a few things on the
floor like a hairdryer, and then her bed was unmade
like she had been in the bed.

Speaker 5 (09:49):
Terra's purse and keys were missing, her cell phone was
charging next to her bed. Maria noticed something out of place.
TERA's alarm clock was under her bed, and a bedside
lamp was broken, and then there was something else.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
So when I came back out of the house, I
saw right here, right out from the front door, there
was a latex glove.

Speaker 5 (10:15):
On the ground.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
On the ground.

Speaker 5 (10:17):
Also found was a business card from a police officer
in a nearby town. Authorities couldn't explain either and collected
them as evidence. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, known as
the GBI was called in It is one of.

Speaker 7 (10:33):
The most extensive investigations undertaken by the GBI.

Speaker 5 (10:37):
Back in two thousand and eight, I spoke with Special
Agent Gary Rothwell.

Speaker 7 (10:42):
It appeared that Tara may have left on her own. However,
we had a glove, a latex glove that we couldn't explain,
so that gave us a stronger indication that something bad
had happened.

Speaker 5 (10:52):
The GBI tested that glove and found not only Terra's
DNA on it, but the DNA profile of an unknown
mail The case generated hundreds of tips over the years.
Jennis Pulk even created a website to help authorities collect information.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Find Tara dot com.

Speaker 10 (11:15):
I built a message board because I thought that there
was a good chance that whoever knew what had happened
to her would potentially come and say something.

Speaker 5 (11:28):
As Jennis recalls, early on, suspicion focused on the men
in Tara's life she was dating.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
I think more than people realized that she was dating,
and that's nobody's business, but in this case it made
it tough.

Speaker 5 (11:48):
Rumors swirled about that cop whose card was found at
Terra's house. He was a family friend, married with kids,
who said he'd gone by that Sunday night and left
the card after Tara didn't answer the doorbell. He had
an alibi, but the whispers continued.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
There were several people, several men who got a lot
of scrutiny for a long time.

Speaker 5 (12:13):
Another was a former student who claimed he and Tara
had been secretly seeing each other, but when questioned about
her disappearance, he had an alibi and was never charged.
Then there was Tara's ex boyfriend, Marcus Harper.

Speaker 9 (12:30):
Somebody pulled me to the side and they were like, listen,
you know, uh, there's been some things said, bringing up
your military past, bringing up how you're trained to kill.

Speaker 5 (12:42):
Marcus always maintained his innocence but remained under suspicion. Investigators
chased down dozens of leeds across the country, but tips
emerged that led right back to the high school where
Tara was a teacher, and perhaps someone who had sat
in her classroom.

Speaker 4 (13:04):
I never thought it was somebody from our community, but
in the same sense, I always thought, well, it has
to be.

Speaker 5 (13:32):
For years, Marcus Harper lived under a cloud, some might say,
a thunderstorm of suspicion. He was the talk of Oscilla, Georgia,
and none of it was good.

Speaker 9 (13:43):
You know what they're saying at the local grocery store
and at the local restaurants. They don't think that it's
getting to someone who's my family or my friend, not
going to show a way to the fact that I
was bitter.

Speaker 5 (13:57):
Police never called him a suspect, but Arcas was more
closely investigated than anyone in the disappearance of his former girlfriend,
Tara Grinstead.

Speaker 9 (14:07):
I was swabbed for DNA, my truck was illuminaled, photographs
were taken. Had to tell my alibi, you know, or
where I was at, who I was around, and that
was corroborated.

Speaker 5 (14:20):
Year after year passed with no arrests. But back in
two thousand and five, authorities either missed or ignored a
tip that may have solved the case. Just weeks after
Tara vanished at a party in this very pecan orchard,
one of Janis Poulk's employees told her that he had
overheard two young men tell a disturbing.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Story that they had been at a party bragging about
their involvement in Tara's disappearance, and that ultimately they had
taken her body out to a pecan orchard and burn
it and a fire pit.

Speaker 5 (14:57):
It was a shocking statement. Did he have names of
who these two men were who claimed they had killed terror?

Speaker 1 (15:06):
It was BeO Dukes and Ryan Duke.

Speaker 5 (15:10):
The two who were friends, had similar sounding names but
weren't related. At the time. Ryan Duke and Bo Duke's
were twenty one years old. Ryan worked at a plastics
manufacturing plant, while Bo would occasionally work at his family's
pecan farm. Both had been students at Terrace High School.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
We shared that tip with the local sheriff's department.

Speaker 5 (15:37):
That tip went nowhere, and it wasn't the only one overlooked.

Speaker 6 (15:43):
It just brings up a lot, So it's kind of
crabby right now.

Speaker 5 (15:48):
I'm sorry. John McCullough says he is still haunted by
painful memories of being ignored by investigators fourteen years ago.
This really affects you though talking about him.

Speaker 11 (15:59):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (16:00):
McCullough, now a manager at a water company in Texas,
had met Bo Duke's at army boot camp in two
thousand and six. So two Southern boys meet in Oklahoma
in the Army.

Speaker 6 (16:11):
Yes, and you guys hit it off. Yeah, and we
were pretty close.

Speaker 5 (16:17):
Dukes invited McCullough to Oscilla to spend Christmas with his family.
It was a year after Tara's disappearance. As they were
driving around town, a billboard caught his eye.

Speaker 6 (16:28):
And had this very you know, attractive woman.

Speaker 5 (16:31):
On it, Sarah Grinstead.

Speaker 6 (16:33):
Yeah, Tara Grinstead, and said, you know missing.

Speaker 5 (16:37):
The two then went to a party. After a few drinks,
McCullough says, Bo began talking about Tara.

Speaker 6 (16:44):
He was like, yeah, do you remember that bulletin that
you had asked me about with that girl on it?
And I was like yeah, and he was like I
know what happened.

Speaker 5 (16:56):
McCullough wasn't ready for what Bau would say next.

Speaker 6 (17:00):
He had told me that his friend accidentally strangled her
and he needed help getting rid of the body. So
that way, there was nothing defined.

Speaker 5 (17:09):
Stunned as he was. McCullough was in a dilemma. Could
he betray his friend, his fellow soldier, the kind of
guy you want to share a foxhole with, right, Yeah,
you can trust with your life. Right. The weight of
what McCullough says Bo told him became unbearable. Two months later,
in February two thousand and seven, McCullough says he called

(17:30):
three police departments in Georgia, including Nocilla, where he left
a voice message saying.

Speaker 6 (17:36):
This is John McCullough. I know who killed Tara Grinstead
or had a part of it. It was told to
me when I was in Georgia. Here's my number. I'll
do whatever has to happen for y'all to take me serious.
I just got off the phone with another department that didn't.

Speaker 5 (17:53):
Do Incredibly, McCullough says, no one returned his calls or
this is the murder of terror Grinstead, and there was
seemed to be little interest. Is that right?

Speaker 6 (18:04):
Very little interest?

Speaker 5 (18:07):
But McCullough was determined to get the truth out. He
called the state's top law enforcement agency heading the investigation,
the GBI.

Speaker 6 (18:17):
I mean, nobody ever called me back ever, even whenever
I reached out to the GBI, which is the Georgia
Bureau of Investigation.

Speaker 5 (18:24):
How many times did you call the GBI over what
period of time and you still didn't get any.

Speaker 6 (18:31):
I would say from the year of two thousand and
seven until twenty sixteen, would probably say I reached out
nine or ten times to the GBI.

Speaker 5 (18:39):
Why do you think investigators ignored you?

Speaker 6 (18:43):
I have no idea. Maybe because I'm a nobody.

Speaker 5 (18:46):
I don't know. Jennis Polk also spoke to the GBI
in two thousand and eight as the agency was reviewing
the case, and she told them about her employee's tip
three years earlier regarding bo Duke's and Ryan Duke.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
So I sat down with an agent and we just
went through everything.

Speaker 5 (19:06):
But again, as far as she knew, it went nowhere.
Terra's family could do little but pray for a breakthrough.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
They've had a really hard time. I can't imagine the
loss of a child, but I think it's taken a
lot of toll on them mentally and physically.

Speaker 5 (19:27):
Then, more than eleven years after Tara disappeared, this woman
Brooks Sheridan came out of nowhere with her account about
not only bo Duke's but his friend, Ryan Duke.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
Ryan woke him up and that I killed Tara Grinstead.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
She was charismatic, determined, beautiful personality.

Speaker 5 (20:17):
What would anyone's motive be to kill Tera Grinstead?

Speaker 3 (20:21):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (20:28):
In twenty seventeen, more than eleven years after Tara vanished,
brook Sheridan came forward with a potential answer. This was
her first television interview.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
I had to tell them, I had to tell there
was no other option.

Speaker 5 (20:43):
And what she had to say implicated a man whose
name had repeatedly been given to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
How did you and Bo Dukes meet?

Speaker 2 (20:55):
We actually met on tender.

Speaker 5 (21:00):
Brook says she was studying in Savannah to become a
pharmacist when in twenty fifteen she came face to face
with her online date.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
It was love at first. I heard.

Speaker 5 (21:12):
Bo Dukes comes from a prominent family that owned a
huge pecan orchard in the Oscilla area. And what is
it about him that you love?

Speaker 2 (21:20):
He has a beautiful mind, He is extremely intelligent.

Speaker 5 (21:23):
Janis Paulk, who knows the family, paints a different picture
of Bo.

Speaker 12 (21:29):
So Bo was known in the community for being a
little over the top, unfiltered. One of those always showing
off and talking big and running his mouth.

Speaker 5 (21:42):
Bo got in big trouble while in the army. In
twenty twelve, he was charged and convicted of stealing more
than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of military supplies,
and Bo spent more than two years in federal prison.
He confessed all of this to Brooke, who stuck with him.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
I've never connected with somebody and had fun with somebody
like I have with him.

Speaker 5 (22:06):
But she says Bo was often moody.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
I said, you have to talk to me. He's very shut,
shut off emotions, feelings he doesn't talk about.

Speaker 5 (22:19):
As their relationship evolved, Brookes sensed that something seemed to
be eating away at Bulk.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
It was something very dark and I I talked it
up to, you know, serving his time in the military.

Speaker 5 (22:32):
And Brooke says she helped pull Bo back from taking
his own life. He had talked about that and you
weren't going to let that happen.

Speaker 11 (22:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (22:43):
Brooke kept encouraging Bo to open up, to talk about
this dark subject that was destroying him. Finally he cracked.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
He said, you've heard of the terragrinstead case. I was like, yeah,
he said, my roommate killed her.

Speaker 5 (23:01):
His roommate and close friend was Ryan Duke. Why would
Ryan Duke have murdered Tara Grinstead, He.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
Said, that's something that only God and Ryan know. He said,
I don't know why he did it, but.

Speaker 5 (23:18):
There was more. BO told Brooke about his own involvement
in the crime, saying, and I.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Helped him burn her body. I was I felt like
I was going to be sick. I didn't know who
I was staring at. I didn't know who he was.

Speaker 5 (23:36):
BO told Brooke that Ryan stole his pickup truck that
night and used it to transport TERA's body to a
remote part of this pecan orchard that was owned by
Bo's family.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
And Ryan looked at Bow and said, it's your truck,
your family's land. And he said he threw his arms
up just like this, what are you going to do?

Speaker 5 (23:58):
And by Ryan saying to him, he buddy, this is
your truck and this is your family's land. Basically that
was interpreted by Bo as a threat that you were
partners now in this. Bo told her they moved Terra's
body to a pit in the orchard, where it took
two days to burn, destroying all evidence.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
I kept thinking about her family, and I couldn't sleep
at night.

Speaker 5 (24:26):
Now it was Brooks's turn to be tormented by a
terrible secret.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
I had to tell them. I had to tell There
was no other options.

Speaker 5 (24:35):
Weeks later, she called the GBI to turn in the boyfriend.
She loved.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
That family's peace, to me, was more important than his freedom.

Speaker 5 (24:45):
But if you're ready for this, Bo had already been
interviewed by the GBI a year earlier, in twenty sixteen.

Speaker 6 (24:54):
They contacted me, tell me what you know.

Speaker 5 (24:56):
That was after investigators finally reached out to John McCullough.

Speaker 6 (25:02):
I'm glad somebody's finally listening. So I talked to him,
tell him everything I know.

Speaker 5 (25:07):
But back then Bo denied everything. With no hard evidence,
authorities couldn't make an arrest. But after he broke down
to brook she told Bo it was time to tell
the truth.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
I said, you need to confess. You need to own
up to what you've done and confess.

Speaker 5 (25:25):
What does Bo say?

Speaker 2 (25:27):
He says, I just want her family to know.

Speaker 11 (25:31):
I'm going to just kind of leave it open the
flooridae and just tell me about terror.

Speaker 5 (25:37):
Bo then told the GBI all the grisly details he still.

Speaker 3 (25:41):
See yeah, moody.

Speaker 11 (25:42):
Yeah, it's kind of like ch Yeah.

Speaker 5 (25:45):
The day after Bo's confession, his one time friend, Ryan
Duke was arrested. Nearly twelve years after Terra's disappearance, on
February twenty third, twenty seventeen, Ryan Duke appeared in court
charged with TERA's murder.

Speaker 9 (26:04):
I received a phone call and the voice on the
other end of the phone said, brother, you're twelve years
A hell is over. We've made an arrest.

Speaker 5 (26:16):
Investigators say Ryan confessed to killing Grinstead. According to notes
of Ryan's confession, which were written down by the GBI
and later leaked out, Ryan told investigators he was a
drug addict and quote broke into Grinstead's house and was
attempting to steal from her purse. When he believed she

(26:37):
came up behind him, he struck her with his fist.
Duke did not mean to strike at Grinstead, but he
was just reacting and scared. Duke said. Grinstead died when
he hit her. And remember that late text glove found
at the crime scene a DNA sample from Ryan Duke

(26:58):
was a perfect man. Was it an emotional moment for
you to realize someone had been arrested after all that time.

Speaker 3 (27:08):
Yes, I cried four days, couldn't sleep for days. It
was very hard to grasp.

Speaker 5 (27:20):
And the next month, Bo Dukes, who years earlier had
sat in Terra's class, was arrested and charged not with murder,
but with concealing a death, hindering the apprehension of a criminal,
and lying to investigators. Two years later, in March twenty nineteen,
Bo was the first to go to trial.

Speaker 9 (27:42):
This case is the Valiau's lies.

Speaker 8 (27:44):
It's Valos that his best friend Ryan.

Speaker 4 (27:48):
Had killed hers Minston and then they both earned a body.

Speaker 5 (27:53):
And for the first time everyone heard Bo's own account
when his GBI interview was played in court.

Speaker 7 (28:02):
Told me that he had killed Terastad and he asked
me to help him get rid of her body.

Speaker 5 (28:10):
But was Bo telling the whole story.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
I don't believe Ryan could have done it all by himself.

Speaker 5 (28:40):
In March of twenty nineteen, in a county courthouse about
thirty miles from where beloved teacher and beauty pageant mentor
Tara Grinstead was murdered, Bo Dukes went on trial on
charges relating to covering up her death. Prosecutor brad Rick
Bee lies.

Speaker 8 (29:01):
Lies that lasted from two thousand five.

Speaker 5 (29:06):
To two sixteen. Bo was facing a maximum twenty five
year sentence, so he went to trial, hoping jurors might
show mercy for a man who had already confessed to
his role in the crime. Prosecutors played that videotape of
Bo's interview with the GBI. He recounted what Ryan told

(29:29):
him the day after Tara disappeared, told me that he
had killed terrors. Did I believe it? When Ryan repeated
his story to Bo a couple of days later, again
I believe. He asked me to come with him out

(29:50):
to the Pigan Tree. So, with Ryan Duke behind the wheel,
the two men took Bo Duke's pickup truck and drove
out of town on this highway and pulled off on
this dirt road. And this is a pecan orchard that's
owned by Bo Duke's family. The two men drove about
two hundred yards up this road to where Tara Grinstead's

(30:13):
body had been placed.

Speaker 11 (30:19):
We drove back into the bag.

Speaker 5 (30:25):
And he showed me wherever it was. Of all the people,
why Tara? What's the connection farther than they didn't know her?
The agent aspo his first reaction when he went to
the orchard with Ryan, so you immediately.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
See this and you're like, what the hell did you do?

Speaker 5 (30:46):
Yeah? And why would you do it here? My family's
pig order? Really and what did he say? Help me?
Bo then gave his account of and then burning her body,
which began on a Wednesday and took two days.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
So by Friday, there's nothing plan, No.

Speaker 6 (31:11):
Spell your first in your last name for the court
John John, last name McCullough.

Speaker 5 (31:17):
It was now time at the trial for Bo's one
time army buddy, John McCullough to finally tell his story
of Bo's confession, and this time the whole world seemed
to be listening.

Speaker 6 (31:31):
The exact location didn't tell me, but had made the
comment of you know, we took her to the middle
of the pecan orchard and burned her body.

Speaker 5 (31:42):
He testified calmly, but inside was still seething at bow.

Speaker 6 (31:47):
If there wasn't multiple police officers that were inside the
courtroom on the day that I testified on the stand,
I probably would have ripped them apart with my hands.

Speaker 5 (31:56):
But McCullough wasn't the only witness who gave details of
about Tara's death.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Do you swear from TESTWAKA for the storing of vitry.

Speaker 5 (32:04):
Jennie Paulk's former employee, Garland Lott, told the court he
had overheard that two thousand and five conversation between Ryan
and Bo at a party in this same pecan orchard
where Tara's body had been burned. He wasn't sure who
said what.

Speaker 7 (32:22):
The statement that I recall was homely quelled and burned.

Speaker 10 (32:27):
Everybody basically ined out your mind, however, that you heard
these two people laughing about killing and burning the Chargrinstead's body.

Speaker 5 (32:38):
No, Garland says after he reported this to Jennis Pulk,
he was never formally interviewed by anyone from law enforcement.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Sounds like you're saying you assumed it was handled out.

Speaker 5 (32:50):
I assumed it was handled by law enforcement.

Speaker 6 (32:51):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (32:53):
And in this trial, Agent Gary Rothwell finally explained what
happened with those tips, that.

Speaker 7 (33:01):
That lead had been addressed by local law enforcement as
unfounded and did not follow up.

Speaker 5 (33:07):
In cross examination, Rothwell added that he takes responsibility for
the GBI lapse. It's something we should have followed up,
but we didn't. It took a jury less than an
hour to convict beau Duke's on all charges, his hope

(33:28):
for mercy was dashed. At his sentencing, Tara Grinstead's stepmother, Connie,
addressed the court.

Speaker 11 (33:36):
He knew she was never coming back. He could have
at least told us that, but he didn't. And the
reason he knew she wasn't coming back is because he
had put load after load of wood on her body
and burned her.

Speaker 5 (33:52):
And Bo Dukes himself spoke directly to Terra's family.

Speaker 6 (33:56):
The family, I'm truly sorry your long suffering has been unimagined.

Speaker 5 (34:06):
Bo was sentenced to twenty five years in prison, but
Maria and others still have questions as to what really
happened and whether Bo's statements were true. As Bo told it,
Ryan did the killing and all I did was help
him dispose of the body.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
I don't believe that.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
She points to discrepancies between Ryan's version of events and Bo's.
Ryan told the GBI he killed Tara by striking her.
Later he said it was possible that he choked her.
But Bo says Ryan was certain about what happened. You
jumped on her while she was into it and strangled

(34:53):
her right there. And there were other inconsistent and sees.
One said she had clothes on the other said she
did not. It's kind of odd.

Speaker 3 (35:05):
Yeah, very.

Speaker 5 (35:07):
Maria believes those discrepancies may have a sinister explanation that
bo Dukes had more to do with Tara's murder than
either he or Ryan have said.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
I believe that Ran and bou Duke were both in
this together.

Speaker 5 (35:25):
And She's not alone in believing bo Duke's helped burn
a body, not just to protect his friend. You believe
that Bo did this to protect himself.

Speaker 11 (35:34):
Oh.

Speaker 5 (35:35):
Absolutely. Even with bo Duke's behind bars for twenty five

(35:57):
years for his role in covering up Terror Grinstead's murder,
some people involved in this case believe he played a
much larger role. Maria Woods Harbor thinks Bo was with
his friend Ryan here at Terra's house than night of
her murder.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
I think they had more to do with it.

Speaker 5 (36:16):
Yes, so too does this man. Forensic investigator Maurice Godwin,
who was hired by Terra's sister in two thousand and six.
I'm headed to Tara Grinstead's house where she disappeared. Back then,
Godwin canvas Tara's neighborhood and found two teenagers who said

(36:40):
they saw strangers outside Terra's house the night she disappeared.

Speaker 6 (36:47):
Did they saw two men on the right side of
Terror's bedroom windows to the right side of.

Speaker 5 (36:55):
Her house.

Speaker 6 (36:57):
That it was just dark?

Speaker 5 (36:59):
It was dark, but two men were standing out here
by that bush, by that bush? And who do you
believe those two men were?

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Bo and Ryan?

Speaker 5 (37:09):
Police have never corroborated that sighting. Godwin speculates Tara was
targeted by the two men, but not for money. Do
you believe this was a planned sexual attack? Absolutely?

Speaker 6 (37:21):
I believe they sexually assaulted her in that bedroom.

Speaker 5 (37:27):
Which is why Godwin believes Tara's body ended up in
the pecan orchard and they head.

Speaker 9 (37:32):
The burned body in order to destroy to forensic evidence.

Speaker 5 (37:37):
Maria has also concluded that sexual assault was most likely
the motive.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
They both went in her house, they both assaulted her,
and they both planned it.

Speaker 5 (37:49):
In public statements. Bo's attorney has denied that, but Maria
believes that Bo was just as involved in Tara's death
as Ryan allegedly was.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
Do you look at Bo's history since that happened, Yes,
I definitely believe that Beau had more to do with
the planning and the execution.

Speaker 5 (38:10):
Maria is referring to an incident where Bo Dukes was
arrested for rape and kidnapping while he was free on
bond before his trial in the Grinstead case.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
The one Robbins Police Department says, on Tuesday afternoon, Dukes
brought two women to the house and threatened them with
a firearm.

Speaker 5 (38:27):
He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
Everything narcissistic, Everything revolves around what he wants and when
he wants it.

Speaker 5 (38:37):
But Jennis Pulk continues to believe what Ryan told the GBI.
Do you believe Ryan Duke acted alone?

Speaker 2 (38:45):
I believe what he said he did.

Speaker 5 (38:48):
Ryan's confession where he admitted killing Tera suggests his trial
will be an open and shut case. But and yet
another twist in this baffling murder, Ryan's attorneys have said
public that he will recant his confession at his upcoming trial,
claiming he was high on drugs and place all the

(39:09):
blame on Bow.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
I have been told that Ryan's defense team will argue
that he gave a false confession and that Bo was
actually responsible for Tara's stuff.

Speaker 5 (39:26):
For all that has transpired since two thousand and five,
closure is still elusive for everyone involved.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
Or I've had to come to a conclusion that I'm
just going to have to live the rest of my life,
not no one.

Speaker 5 (39:43):
But there is no question that in her short and
impactful life, Tara Grinstead touched people in rare ways, even
those who never met her, like John McCullough.

Speaker 6 (39:54):
I can't explain it, and wish I could have been
there whenever it happened, so that way I could do something.

Speaker 3 (40:08):
She's been an inspiration. She had a lot of life
ahead of her. She brought great things to Erwin County
High School, and I would hope that eventually the word
Tara grinstaid will be a bright spot because she did
bring a lot of good things.

Speaker 4 (40:24):
Tocilla Ocilla was Tarah's life. That's where she set her
roots and that's where she wanted to stay and where
she wanted to be.

Speaker 5 (40:51):
Forty eight hours. Don't miss an episode