48 Hours - The Tara Grinstead Mystery

Episode Date: August 21, 2022

A former beauty queen vanishes. One man said he had answers. Why didn’t anyone listen?. "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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ConstantContact.ca When the sun goes down in a pecan orchard, it's a little spooky. It's a lot like being in a scary movie. They're majestic in one sense, but they are very creepy. What happened in this orchard was senseless. Tara Grinstead and I were best friends. Tara started wanting to be in beauty pageants only to help her raise money for college. Her inspiration was to be in beauty pageants, only to help her raise money for college. Her inspiration was to be a teacher. Tara was a very well-liked high school teacher. The students loved her. She was young, she was vibrant, and she was very passionate about what she did.

On October 22, 2005, Tara began her day doing exactly what she loved, dressing up the little girls for the sweet potato pageant in Osceola. After the pageant, she went to a cookout. The last thing I know, she was on the phone, went home, and then nobody's seen her since. There were so many stories, so much speculation. The possibilities were running through my head of what it could be. 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.

I first reported on this story in 2008, almost three years after Tara had gone missing. Back then, hardly anyone believed this case could ever be solved. In a town that is as small as it is, how could someone keep this a secret for so long? I don't know. So you call the police department. This is John McCullough. I know who killed Tara Grinstead. Does anyone call you back? No. Hey, man, how come nobody wants to listen to me?

So many tips came in that some weren't followed up. I never actually called anyone a suspect or even a person of interest. Nearly 27 years with the Georgia Beard investigation, I've never encountered such a complex and difficult case. We literally got tips from all over the world. But then, in 2017, a woman came forward with a remarkable story about her boyfriend. But could it be trusted? He said, I can't handle it anymore. And he starts telling me everything.

I made him take me to the orchard. You said right then, we're going? We're going. Thank you. In Ocella, the word spreads. In a church pew. At the restaurant. Over breakfast. The 2005 disappearance of Tara Grinstead, beloved teacher and local beauty queen, mystified the people of Osceola, Georgia,

like Janice Polk, who lived just around the corner from Tara. Osceola 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. Janice, 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? There were people who believed 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.

But who would want to harm this vibrant 30-year-old woman? Maria Woods-Harbour grew up with Tara. My best friend 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 2005. What emotional impact does this have for you when you see this house? Well, it's very emotional. I don't like to come very often. She loved this place. You can still see her standing at the door. Maria says Tara was determined to live her dreams from a young age, competing in beauty pageants to help earn scholarship money for college. 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. I am Tara Grinstead, Miss Tipton. Tara didn't bring home the Miss Georgia crown, but just competing was a huge achievement, says Dana Wilder, who grew up in Osceola. As little girls, we looked up to her. She was famous. After college, Tara got a job at Osceola's Irwin County High School, teaching 11th grade history. She was an excellent teacher. She was dedicated to making her students feel wonderful.

And even when she no longer competed, she helped other women like Dana break into that world. She just took me underneath her wing. She taught me the ins and outs of interviews, hair and makeup, wardrobe. At night, Tara studied for a specialist degree in school administration, but other parts of her life hadn't come together as she'd hoped. Tara had a boyfriend for a long time, and during the summer of 2005, they broke up. That boyfriend was Marcus Harper, a former cop from Osceola. She obviously wanted to get married. It just wasn't what I wanted. I definitely didn't want to settle down in small-town America.

Marcus enlisted with the Army Rangers and spent time overseas. It was like a calling. It was something I felt like, you know, I had to do. The couple broke things off, but stayed in touch. Tara really did want to get back with Marcus. She did not want to end it. And she was very distraught. This was the man she thought she'd build a life with. Yeah, she did. She was seeing other people, and I think she was just trying to move on. In a small town of Osceola, everyone knew their situation. 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 Osceola knew what had happened when Tara seemingly vanished after leaving that barbecue on Saturday night, October 22nd. What time did she go home? About 11 o'clock. On Sunday, Tara's mom called her several times, but Tara didn't answer. And the next morning, I got a call saying I needed to get to Osceola. Tara had failed to show up at school.

She would never do that. She would never leave her kids. Tara's car was parked in the driveway. Neighbors knocked on her door but got no response. The Osceola police were called and entered Tara's home. Right behind them was Maria. What did you see when you walked into her house? I wasn't quite sure what I was going to walk in and see. Her den was exactly the way it always was.

But something stuck out to Maria. Tara's alarm clock was under her bed, and a bedside lamp was broken. And then her bed was unmade, like she had been in the bed. Tara's cell phone was charging inside the house, but police noted that her purse and keys were missing. By her front door, they found a business card from a police officer in a nearby town. And then, an important discovery. So when I came back out of the house, I saw right here, right out from the front door, there was a latex glove. On the ground? On the ground. 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 the most extensive investigations undertaken by the GBI. Back in 2008, I spoke with Special Agent Gary Rothwell. 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. The GBI tested that glove and found not only Tara's DNA on it, but the DNA profile of an unknown male. The case generated hundreds of tips over the years.

Janice Polk even created a website to help authorities collect information. Findterra.com. 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. As Janice recalls early on, suspicion focused on the men in Tara's life. She was dating, I think, more than people realized that she was dating. And that's nobody's business, but in this case, it made it tough. Rumors swirled about that cop, whose card was found at Tara's house. He was a family friend, married with kids, who had later testified that he and Tara were having an affair.

He said they had talked about getting together that Sunday, but Tara never answered her phone. Worried, he went to her house Sunday night and left the card after Tara didn't answer the doorbell. He had an alibi, but the whispers continued. There were several people, several men who got a lot of scrutiny for a long time. 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. Somebody pulled me to the side and they were like,

Listen, you know, there's been some things said, bringing up your military past, bringing up how you're trained to kill. Marcus always maintained his innocence, but remained under suspicion. Investigators chased down dozens of leads across the country. 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. I never thought it was somebody from our community, but in the same sense, I always thought, well, it has to be. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near

Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most

dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defence attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop.

Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. For years, Marcus Harper lived under a cloud. Some might say a thunderstorm of suspicion. He was the talk of Osceola, Georgia, and none of it was good. 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. I'm not going to shy away to the fact that I was bitter.

Police never called him a suspect, but Marcus was more closely investigated than anyone in the disappearance of his former girlfriend, Tara Grinstead. I was swabbed for DNA. My truck was luminoled. Photographs were taken. I had to tell my alibi, you know, or where I was at, who I was around, and that was corroborated. Year after year passed with no arrests. Year after year passed with no arrests. But back in 2005, 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 Janice Polk's employees told her that he had overheard two young men tell a disturbing story.

two young men tell a disturbing 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 in a fire pit. It was a shocking statement. Did he have names of who these two men were who claimed they had killed Tara. It was Bo Dukes and Ryan Duke. The two who were friends had similar sounding names but weren't related. At the time, Ryan Duke and Bo Dukes were 21 years old. Ryan worked at a plastics manufacturing plant, old. Ryan worked at a plastics manufacturing plant, while Beau would occasionally work at his family's pecan farm. Both had been students at Terrace High School. We shared that tip with the local Sheriff's Department. That tip went nowhere and it wasn't the only one overlooked. It just brings up a lot.

So it's kind of crappy right now. I'm sorry. John McCullough says he is still haunted by painful memories of being ignored by investigators. This really affects you, though, talking about this. McCullough, now a manager at a water company in Texas, had met Bo Dukes at Army boot camp in 2006. So two Southern boys meet in Oklahoma in the Army. Yes. And you guys hit it off.

Yeah, we were pretty close. Dukes invited McCullough to Osceola 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. And it had this very, you know, attractive woman on it. Tara Grinstead. Yeah, Tara Grinstead, and said, you know, missing. The two then went to a party.

After a few drinks, McCullough says Bo began talking about Tara. 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. McCullough wasn't ready for what Bo would say next. 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 to find. 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? Yes. You can trust with your life. Right. The weight of what McCullough says Bo told him became unbearable. Two months later, in February 2007, McCullough says he called three police departments in Georgia, including Osceola, where he left a voice message saying, 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 do s***. Incredibly, McCullough says no one returned his calls. This is the murder of Tara Grinstead, and there seemed to be little interest. Is that right? Very little interest. But McCullough was determined to get the truth out. He called the state's top law enforcement agency heading the investigation, the GBI. I mean, nobody ever called me back, ever. Even whenever I reached out to the GBI, which is the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

whenever I reached out to the GBI, which is the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. How many times did you call the GBI over what period of time and you still didn't get any? I would say from the year of 2007 until 2016, I would probably say I reached out nine or 10 times to the GBI. Why do you think investigators ignored you? I have no idea. Maybe because I'm a nobody. I don't know. Janice Polk also spoke to the GBI in 2008 as the agency was reviewing the case, and she told them about her employee's tip three years earlier regarding Bo Dukes and Ryan Duke. So I sat down with an agent, and we just went through everything. But again, as far as she knew, it went nowhere.

Tara's family could do little but pray for a breakthrough. 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. I think it's taken a lot of toll on them mentally and physically. Then, more than 11 years after Tara disappeared, this woman, Brooke Sheridan, came out of nowhere with her account about not only Bo Dukes, but his friend Ryan Duke. Ryan woke him up and said, I killed Tara Grinstead.

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to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that

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What would anyone's motive be to kill Tara Grinstead? I don't know. I don't know. Tara Grinstead? I don't know. In 2017, more than 11 years after Tara vanished, Brooke Sheridan came forward with a potential answer. This was her first television interview. I had to tell them. I had to tell. There was no other option. 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?

We actually met on Tinder. Brooke says she was studying in Savannah to become a pharmacist when, in 2015, she came face-to-face with her online date. It was love at first sight. Bo Dukes comes from a prominent family that owned a huge pecan orchard in the Osceola area. And what is it about him that you love? He has a beautiful mind. He is extremely intelligent. Janice Polk, who knows the family, paints a different picture of Bo. 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. Bo got in big trouble while in the army. In 2012, he was charged and convicted of stealing more than $150,000 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. I've never connected with somebody and had fun with somebody like I have with him. But she says Bo was often moody. I said, you have to talk to me. He's very shut, shut off. Emotions, feelings, he doesn't talk about. As their relationship evolved, Brooke sensed that something seemed to be eating away at Bo. It was something very dark.

And I chalked it up to, you know, serving his time in the military. Brooke says she kept encouraging Bo to open up, to talk about this dark subject that was destroying him. Finally, he cracked. He said, you've heard of the terror grinstead case i was like yeah he said my roommate killed her his former roommate and close friend was ryan duke why would ryan duke have murdered tara grinstead he said that's something that only God and Ryan know. He said, I don't know why he did it. But there was more. Brooke says Bo then admitted his own involvement in the crime, saying. And I 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 felt like I was going to be sick. I didn't know who I was staring at. I didn't know who he was. Bo told Brooke that Ryan stole his pickup truck that night and used it to transport Tara's body to a remote part of this pecan orchard farmed by Bo's family. Ryan looked at Bo 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? And by Ryan saying to him, hey, buddy, this is your truck and this is your family's land, basically that was interpreted by Bo as a threat, that we're partners now in this. Yes. Bo told her they then moved Tara's body to a pit,

where it took two days to burn, destroying all evidence. I kept thinking about her family, and I couldn't sleep at night. Now it was Brooke's turn to be tormented by a terrible secret. I had to tell them. I had to tell. There was no other option. Weeks later, she called the GBI to turn in the boyfriend she loved. That family's peace to me was more important than his freedom. But if you're ready for this, Bo had already been interviewed by the GBI a year earlier in 2016. They contacted me. Tell me what you know.

That was after investigators finally reached out to John McCullough. I'm glad somebody's finally listening. So I talked to him, tell him everything I know. But back then, Bo denied everything. With no hard evidence, authorities couldn't make an arrest. But after he broke down to Brooke, she told Bo it was time to tell the truth. I said, you need to confess. You need to own up to what you've done and confess. What does Bo say? He says, I just want her family to know.

I'm going to just kind of leave it open the floor to you and just tell me about you knowing about Tara. In this interview with the GBI, Bo Duke said he was ready to end the secret he had kept for years and went into detail. You can still see the body. It's kind of like charred. The day after Beau's confession, his one-time friend, Ryan Duke, was arrested. Nearly 12 years after Tara's disappearance, Ryan, can you do it? on February 23, 2017, Ryan Duke appeared in court, charged with Tara's murder. I received a phone call, and the voice on the other end of the phone said,

Brother, your 12 years of hell is over. We have made an arrest. Investigators say Ryan confessed to killing Grinstead in a voluntary interview shortly before his arrest. Quote, I used to break into people's houses just to steal money. I was a drug addict. I'd been drinking. I was high. I don't remember everything clearly. I was stealing from her purse and she snuck up on me and I hit her. I didn't mean to. didn't mean to. And remember that latex glove found at the crime scene? A DNA sample from Ryan Duke was a perfect match.

Was it an emotional moment for you to realize someone had been arrested after all that time? Yes. I cried for days. couldn't sleep for days. It was very hard to grasp. And the next month, Bo Dukes, who years earlier had sat in Tara's class, was arrested and charged not with murder, but with concealing a death, hindering the apprehension of a criminal, and lying to investigators in his original GBI interview.

In March 2019, Bo was the first to go on trial. This case is about Bo's lies. It's about Bo's concealment that his best friend Ryan had killed Tara Grinston. And then they both burned the body. had killed Tara Grinstead, and then they both burned the body. And for the first time, everyone heard Bo's own account when his GBI interview was played in court. He told me that he had killed Tara Grinstead, and he asked me to help him get rid of her body.

But could Bo's story be trusted? in march of 2019 in a county courthouse about 30 miles from where beloved teacher and beauty pageant mentor tara grinstead was murdered beau dukes went on trial on charges relating to covering up her death prosecutor Prosecutor Brad Rigby. This case is about Bo's lies. Lies that lasted from 2005 to 2016. Bo was facing a maximum 25-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. Bo began with what he says Ryan told him the day after Tara disappeared. Bo says Ryan then repeated that admission a couple of days later. According to Bo Dukes, the two men took Bo'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 Dukes' family. The two men drove about 200 yards up this road to where Tara Grinstead's body had been placed. We drove back into the bag. And he showed me where her body was.

Of all the people, why Tara? What's the connection? As far as I know, they didn't know her. The agent asked Bo his first reaction when he went to the orchard with Ryan. So you immediately see this and you're like, what in the hell did you do? Yeah, and why the f*** would you do it here on my family's pig ant orchard? What did he say? Help me. Bo then gave his account of moving and then burning her body, which began on a Wednesday and took two days.

So by Friday, there's nothing left. No. Spell your first and your last name for the court. John, J-O-H-N, last name McCullough. 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. 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. He testified calmly, but inside was still seething at Bo. 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. But McCullough wasn't the only witness who gave details about Tara's death. Do you swear from testimony before the jury? Janice Polk's former employee, Garland Lott, told the court he had overheard that 2005 conversation between Ryan and Bo at a party in the same pecan orchard where Tara's body had been burned. He wasn't sure who said what. The statement that I recall was

we killed and burned her body, basically. Any doubt in your mind, however, that you heard these two people laughing about killing and burning Tara Grinstead's body? No. Garland says after he reported this to Janice Polk, he was never formally interviewed by anyone from law enforcement. Sounds like you're saying you assumed it was handled by law enforcement? I assumed it was handled by law enforcement, yes. And in this trial, agent Gary Rothwell finally explained what happened with those tips. We thought that that lead had been addressed by local law enforcement as unfounded and did not follow up.

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. 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 Bo Dukes on all charges. His hope for mercy was dashed. At his sentencing, Tara Grinstead's stepmother, Connie, addressed the court. 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. And Bo Dukes himself spoke directly to Tara's family.

To the Tara Huffett family, I'm truly sorry. Your long suffering has been unimaginable. Bo was sentenced to 25 years in prison. But questions remained about discrepancies between Ryan's version of events and Bo's. In Ryan's interview with the GBI, he said he had hit Tara, but Bo said Ryan told him otherwise. He jumped on her a lot. She was into it and strangled her right there. And there were other inconsistencies. One said she had clothes on. The other said she did not. It's kind of odd, isn't it? Yeah, very. And it was about to get even more unsettled when at Ryan's murder trial, he took the stand and recanted his confession. Did you murder Tara Grinstead? I did not.

Saying it was really Bo Dukes who killed Tara. See more photos from the Tara Grinstead case on Facebook at 48 Hours. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman? Now, we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear.

But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're going to talk to the people who were there. And we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder,

wherever you get your podcasts. She was such a good person. She just didn't deserve it. I don't understand the disregard of human life. For those who love Tara Grinstead, Bo Duke's 25-year sentence for covering up her death was only partial justice. And they've gotten away with it for this many years anyway. They've lived so many years without being punished.

Now, the man accused of murdering Tara, Ryan Duke, would go on trial for murder, almost 17 years after she went missing. In May 2022, at this Osceola courthouse just up the road from Tara's home, Ryan Duke's attorneys argued that the state had the wrong man. Bo Dukes should be on trial for the murder of Tara Grinstead, not Ryan. But the prosecution said they had hard evidence, audio and video of Ryan confessing to killing Tara when he spoke to the GBI back in 2017. I can't lie. I can't live with myself. I'm so sick of this.

Stealing from a purse. She snuck up on me and I hit her. I don't remember everything clearly. The defense said Ryan was under the influence of painkillers at the time and only took the blame because he was afraid of Bo. Ryan Duke, now clean-shaven and looking very different from his 2017 arrest, took the stand. Mr. Duke, did you murder Tara Grinstead? I did not.

He testified that Bo Dukes told him he had killed Tara Grinstead. But Ryan did not know how she died. Did you see Ms. Grinstead's body after she died? I did. Where did you see it? In the pecan orchard. Did somebody take you to the body? They did.

Who took you to the body? Bo Dukes. Ryan admitted he was asked by Bo to help dispose of Tara's body in the orchard and moved her to the burn pile. He recalled that moment. Dry, even I'm crying. Does Bo say anything? He starts laughing at me.

He lit her on fire. What was his expression, his demeanor when that happened? It was like he wasn't there. Ryan said he was afraid Bo would hurt him or his family. But what about that latex glove with Ryan's DNA on it found in Tara's front yard? Ryan testified he had never even gone to Tara's house, and the glove was only discovered there on Monday by Tara's neighbors, over a day after she went missing.

Ryan's lawyers argued that gave Bo plenty of time to plant it. We know the state hasn't brought a single witness to tell you that it was on the ground before Monday morning. Not a one. In closing, as Tara's family looked on, the prosecution held to their argument that Ryan had told the truth back in 2017. The man in that chair confessed to the murder of Tara Grinsey.

They burned her body, full skeleton, down to about 20 fragments of bone. Bones that were so degraded, no official cause of death could be determined. The jury was left to decide if they believed what Ryan said in 2017 or

his new version of events. Ryan steeled himself before the verdict was read. Count one malice murder, not guilty. The moment became all too much. Not guilty. And he was acquitted of all charges relating to Tara's murder, convicted only of concealing her death.

At his sentencing hearing, Tara's stepmother Connie expressed how Tara's family felt about Ryan Duke. His confession in 2017 seemed genuine and sincere and he looked remorseful. He looked like a person who was ready to do the right thing. But his testimony on the witness stand only seemed coached, well-rehearsed, and sought self-serving benefits. We pray that people will remember that the defendant was not the victim. Tara was. For all that has transpired, there's one question that troubles Maria Woods Harbor. What really happened to Tara on the night she disappeared?

I've had to come to a conclusion that I'm just going to have to live the rest of my life, not know one. 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. I can't explain it and wish I could have been there whenever it happened so that way I could do something.

She's been an inspiration. She had a lot of life ahead of her. She brought great things to Irwin County High School. And I would hope that eventually the word Tara Grinstead will be a bright spot because she did bring a lot of good things to Osceola. Osceola was Tara's life. That's where she set her roots, and that's where she wanted to stay and where she wanted to be. A young girl murdered. The case goes cold.

Now, 45 years later, I have a voice again. Can a Twitter campaign finally resolve the crime? Linda is going to help us find this man who did this to her. 48 Hours, Saturday on CBS. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.