Explore Ryan Duke’s relationship with Tara Grinstead below in this post. Ryan has been charged with the disappearance and murder of Tara Grinstead.
After 17 years, the long-awaited trial will be begin for a man charged in the murder of Tara Grinstead.
Channel 2′s Tony Thomas is in Irwin County Monday where 400 jurors are being summoned to appear at the Ocilla County Courthouse
According to the arrest warrant, Ryan Duke broke into Tara Grinstead’s home in an effort to burglarize, and when Tara returned home from a late-night Saturday cookout, he “used his hands” to murder her.
According to the warrant, he then took her corpse with the goal of disposing of it.
Grinstead disappeared in late October 2005. She was a teacher and beauty queen, and apparently snatched from her small town home.
For weeks, there were large scale searches around south Georgia for clues. In 2017, the GBI charged Ryan Duke with her murder and he confessed, but now says that was false.
What Was Ryan Duke’s Relationship With Tara Grinstead?
There is no source to confirm the relationship between Ryan Duke and Tara Grinstead.
We have known about the Tara Grinstead case and the two men involved for more than a decade.
Grinstead was a south Georgia teacher and beauty queen who vanished in October 2005 from her home in Ocilla, Irwin County.
The case against one of the men, Ryan Duke, who is suspected of murdering Grinstead, will be reopened at a hearing on Friday.
Jury selection begins Monday in the trial of Ryan Duke for the murder of Tara Grinstead. The former Miss Georgia contestant and high school teacher in Ocilla, Georgia, was reported missing in 2005. https://t.co/tcKlsAeJcM
— FOX 5 Atlanta (@FOX5Atlanta) May 2, 2022
Tara Grinstead Murder Trial Update
Jury selection began this week in the trial of a man accused of murdering Tara Grinstead, a south Georgia beauty queen, and teacher who has been missing for over 17 years.
Philip Holloway, a Metro Atlanta attorney from the Irwin county area, is watching the case closely and said the case has a big impact on the town.
“This case has certainly captivated the hearts and minds of this town. This community needs to know the truth, it’s important for Irwin County,” said Holloway. “This is why I hope they do get a jury from Irwin County,.
Jury selection could take a while, and another 400 jurors will be summoned next week.
Potential jurors are expected to arrive at the Irwin County Courthouse on Monday morning for a selection process that the court expects to last a week and a half.
More than a decade after Grinstead went missing, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported that Ryan Duke had been apprehended and charged with murder.
Grinstead’s body has yet to be found at this point. Bo Dukes, the man accused of assisting in the disposal of his body, was apprehended in Ben Hill County in March of that year and charged with three counts.
More than 40 people began scouring the Hudson Pecan Company pecan orchard near Fitzgerald for Grinstead’s remains a few days later.
A gag order was also granted by Judge Melanie Cross, prohibiting police officers and others engaged in the case from speaking to the media.
Ryan Duke charged with murder in #TaraGrinstead case. pic.twitter.com/Q3KvjAel0m
— Liz Jarvis Fabian (@liz_lines) February 23, 2017
Ryan Duke’s Age And Family Details
Ryan Duke’s age is estimated to be around 33 years.
But his family details are still under review. His parents’ information isn’t revealed to the public yet.
According to oxygen.com, he graduated from Irwin County High School. But his other professional details aren’t available online.
Ryan Alexander Duke, 36, is charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, burglary, and concealing a death in connection with Grinstead’s disappearance.
A second man, Bo Dukes, was sentenced in 2019 to 25 years in prison for his part in helping conceal her murder.
The case has received national attention partly due to the being featured in the podcast, “Up and Vanished,” and to the unlikely setting of the crime. Ocilla is located in rural south Georgia, about 180 miles south of Atlanta with a population of less than 4,000 people.
Tara Grinstead (Family photo)
Who was Tara Grinstead?
Tara Faye Grinstead was the youngest child of Bill and Faye Grinstead. Born in 1974, she, and her older sister Anita had a pretty typical childhood in the small south Georgia town of Hawkinsville. Described as a natural beauty, at 25 she won the title of Miss Tifton and competed in the Miss Georgia beauty pageant. Grinstead’s talent was singing. Her winnings paid for her real passion in the education field.
Grinstead graduated from Middle Georgia College and began teaching at Irwin County High School in Ocilla in 1998. Having fallen in love with the small town of Ocilla, she jumped at the chance for a full-time position teaching history at the area high school.
She was beloved by her students and was known to give her cell phone number to her class. She also made sure every girl got to go to prom by loaning them money to buy dresses if they could not afford it.
The former beauty queen was the force behind the high school Miss Red and Black Pageant, which was held for many years.
A banner of love and support hung outside Irwin County High School expresses love for teacher Tara Grinstead shortly after her disappearance in 2005. (FOX 5)
Grinstead would go on to earn her masters in education from Valdosta State University in 2003.
By the fall of 2005, Grinstead was teaching by day and taking classes at night. She had been applying for a doctoral program and was filling in as an assistant principal from time-to-time. She had ambitions of possibly being a principal herself one day.
Grinstead continued to coach young ladies who participated in beauty pageants across south Georgia. Her stepmother told several news outlets the 30-year-old was even helping several girls prepare for the “Miss Georgia Sweet Potato” the weekend she went missing.
Grinstead’s mother died three years after her daughter’s disappearance, never knowing what happened to her and never seeing justice be served.
Tara Grinstead would be declared dead in absentia in December 2010 by an Irwin County Probate judge.
Tara Grinstead’s home in Ocilla shortly after her disappearance in 2005. (FOX 5) (FOX 5 Atlanta)
Tara Grinstead disappearance: “The largest case in the history of the GBI”
October 24, 2005, was a typical Monday during the fall semester. But as the bell rang to start the day at Irwin County High School, something was missing. Tara Grinstead had not reported for work and had not called out sick. Her fellow educators, knowing she lives alone, called the Ocilla Police Department to perform a welfare check on the 11th grade teacher’s home.
From the outside, officer’s didn’t find anything unusual. Her car was in the driveway and the door was locked. However, a search of Grinstead’s home revealed that her cellphone was still connected to a charger by the nightstand, her keys and purse were missing and her bedside clock was on the floor and was six hours off. A lamp was also broken into two pieces and was propped against the wall of her nightstand. Her pearl white Mitsubishi 3000 GT was in the carport, but its doors were unlocked and the driver’s seat was pushed back way too far from the steering wheel for someone who was about 5-feet-3-inches tall. Police said they found an envelope full of $100 in cash on the dashboard. Clay also coated the tires.
Tara Grinstead with her dog, Dolly Madison (Family photo) (Provided by family / FOX 5 Atlanta)
Grinstead’s dog and cat were also abandoned, something her friends and family said she would never do.
Her next-door neighbors told police they heard nothing out of the ordinary.
Feeling something was off, Ocilla Police Chief Billy Hancock called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to help. The case would become the largest in GBI’s history.
Investigators combed over the home and found no signs of a struggle or forced entry. They found a latex glove near her front stoop and a business card wedged in her front stoop. Investigators began to retrace Grinstead’s movements from over the weekend. They found around 8 p.m. that Saturday she attended a barbeque with friends not far from her home. She left shortly after 10:30 p.m. Earlier in the day, she had stopped at a beauty pageant in Fitzgerald and helped to coach some of the young ladies competing. There was a 34-hour gap between when she was last seen and when officers performed that welfare check on Monday morning.
A massive search was launched. Volunteers were organized to search areas of the county on foot, on horseback and using ATVs without much return. A command center was established in Ocilla. A $100,000 reward was also established for tips for her safe return with another $100,000 being offered for tips leading to the arrest of anyone responsible in her disappearance. A website devoted to generating tips in the case was set up. Still, nothing definitive surfaced.
While there were theories she just walked away from the drama of her life or even took her own life, foul play was never fully ruled out. In fact, family and friends maintain she was abducted.
