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[This story first aired on January 2. It was updated on September 4.]
Tara Grinstead was a trainer and former magnificence queen when she disappeared in October 2005. However almost 12 years would go earlier than investigators lastly realized what occurred — and now current revelations point out native regulation enforcement and state investigators could have been in a position to remedy the case quickly after she vanished.
John McCullough, who maintains he tried to provide investigators a key tip in 2007 that might have cracked the case, speaks out on tv for the primary time to “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant. . McCullough mentioned a buddy named Bo Dukes instructed him he knew who killed Grinstead. McCullough mentioned he referred to as authorities, however they by no means adopted up.Â
“He instructed me that his buddy by chance strangled her, and he wanted assist eliminating the physique,” McCullough tells Van Sant.
The small city of Ocilla, Georgia has been consumed with suspicion and theories in regards to the disappearance of Grinstead. On the morning of Oct. 22, 2005, Grinstead helped some teenagers put together for a neighborhood magnificence pageant. She later went to a cookout and was final seen heading residence.Â
“I coated this story for 12 years, and hardly anybody thought this case would ever be solved,” Van Sant experiences.
THE MYSTERY BEGINS
For greater than 15 years, the disappearance of Tara Grinstead — beloved trainer and native magnificence queen — mystified the folks of Ocilla, Georgia, like Jannis Paulk, who lived simply across the nook from Tara.
Jannis Paulk: Ocilla is a giant household. … all of us wished to do one thing that we might do to assist … There have been flyers. There have been billboards. … We had search efforts like nothing you have ever seen.Â
Jannis, who ran a neighborhood internet design firm, turned an knowledgeable on the case — retaining a detailed watch since Tara was reported lacking.Â
Peter Van Sant: What have been a few of the theories as to what had occurred to Tara?
Jannis Paulk: There have been individuals who believed she ran away. … Any individual has kidnapped her and holding her someplace hostage. And … the one we did not need to take into consideration was anyone killed her.Â
However who would need to hurt this vibrant 30-year-old lady? Maria Woods Harber grew up with Tara.
Maria Woods Harber: My greatest buddy, Tara Grinstead, was a stupendous individual on the within and the surface. … She was radiant. I imply, she had the most important smile. She might inform you something to make you are feeling higher.
Maria Woods Harber:Â That is the place Tara Grinstead lived in 2005.
Peter Van Sant:Â What emotional impression does this have for you once you see this home?Â
Maria Woods Harber: Nicely, it’s extremely emotional. I do not like to come back fairly often … she cherished this place. … I can nonetheless see her standing on the door.Â
Maria says Tara was decided to reside her goals from a younger age, competing in magnificence pageants to assist earn scholarship cash for school. Â
Maria Woods Harber: She was completely elegant onstage. … her most important aim was to win Miss Georgia or at the very least to get to Miss Georgia, and he or she did. Â
Tara did not carry residence the Miss Georgia crown, however simply competing was an enormous achievement says Dana Wilder, who grew up in Ocilla.Â
Dana Wilder: As little ladies, we seemed as much as her … she was well-known. Â
After faculty, Tara acquired a job at Ocilla’s Irwin County highschool, instructing eleventh grade historical past. Â
Maria Woods Harber: She was a wonderful trainer. …  was devoted to creating her college students really feel fantastic.
And even when she now not competed, Tara helped different girls, like Dana, break into that world.Â
Dana Wilder: She simply took me beneath her wing … She taught me the ins and outs of interviews, hair and make-up, wardrobe.  
At night time, Tara studied for a specialist diploma in class administration, however different elements of her life hadn’t come collectively as she’d hoped. Â
Maria Woods Harber: Private facet — she was having somewhat little bit of a tough time. … she was in her 30s and never married, and I believe she was somewhat down about that. … Tara had a boyfriend for a very long time … And in the course of the summer time of 2005, they broke up.
That boyfriend was Marcus Harper, a former cop from Ocilla.Â
Marcus Harper: She clearly wished to get married. … It simply wasn’t what I wished. … I undoubtedly did not wanna cool down in small city America.   Â
Marcus enlisted with the Military Rangers and hung out abroad. Â
Marcus Harper: It was like a calling. It was somethin’ I felt like, you recognize, I needed to do. Â
The couple broke issues off however stayed in contact.Â
Maria Woods Harber: Tara actually did need to get again with Marcus. She didn’t need to finish it. And he or she was very distraught.
Peter Van Sant: This was the person she thought she’d construct a life with.Â
Maria Woods Harber: Yeah, she did. … she was seeing different folks. And I believe she was simply attempting to maneuver on … in a small city of Ocilla, everybody knew their scenario. Â
It was a part of city gossip that they’d gotten into an argument after Marcus had come again to city sooner than anticipated that October. However nobody in Ocilla knew what had occurred when Tara seemingly vanished after leaving that barbecue on Saturday night time, October 22.
Peter Van Sant: What time did she go residence? Â
Maria Woods Harber: About 11 o’clock.
On Sunday, Tara’s mother referred to as her a number of occasions, however Tara did not reply.Â
Maria Woods Harber: And the subsequent morning … I acquired a name saying that I have to get to Ocilla.
Tara had failed to point out up in school.Â
Maria Woods Harber: She would by no means try this. She would by no means depart her youngsters. Â
Tara’s automotive was parked within the driveway. Neighbors knocked on her door however acquired no response. The Ocilla police have been referred to as and entered Tara’s residence, and proper behind them was Maria.
Peter Van Sant:Â What did you see once you walked into her home?
Maria Woods Harber [outside Tara’s house]: I wasn’t fairly positive what I used to be going to stroll in and see, … her den was precisely the way in which it at all times was,  … and there have been a number of issues on the ground, like a hair dryer … after which her mattress was unmade, like she had been within the mattress. Â
Tara’s purse and keys have been lacking; her mobile phone was charging subsequent to her mattress. Maria observed one thing misplaced: Tara’s alarm clock was beneath her mattress. And a bedside lamp was damaged. After which, there was one thing else
Maria Woods Harber: So, once I got here again out of the home, I noticed … proper out from the entrance door, there was a latex glove. Â
Peter Van Sant: On the bottom? Â
Maria Woods Harber: On the bottom.
Additionally discovered was a enterprise card from a police officer in a close-by city – authorities could not clarify both and picked up them as proof. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, generally known as the GBI, was referred to as in. Again in 2008, Van Sant spoke with Particular Agent Gary Rothwell. 
Gary Rothwell [2008]: It is without doubt one of the most in depth investigations undertaken by the GBI. Â
Gary Rothwell [2008]: It appeared that Tara could have left on her personal. Nonetheless, we had a glove, a latex glove that we could not clarify. In order that gave us a stronger indication that one thing dangerous had occurred.Â
The GBI examined that glove and located not solely Tara’s DNA on it, however the DNA profile of an unknown male. The case generated lots of of suggestions over time. Jannis Paulk even created an internet site to assist authorities accumulate data.Â
Jannis Paulk: FindTara.com. … I constructed a message board as a result of I believed that there was probability that whoever … knew what had occurred to her would probably come and say one thing. Â
As Jannis recollects, early on, suspicion centered on the boys in Tara’s life. Â
Jannis Paulk: She was courting, I believe, greater than folks realized that she was courting. … and that is no one’s enterprise, however on this case, it made it powerful. Â
Rumors swirled about that cop whose card was discovered at Tara’s home. He was a household buddy — married, with youngsters — who mentioned he’d passed by that Sunday night time and left the cardboard after Tara did not reply the doorbell. He had an alibi, however the whispers continued. Â
Jannis Paulk: … there have been a number of folks, a number of males, who acquired a variety of scrutiny for a very long time …
One other was a former pupil who claimed he and Tara been secretly seeing one another. However when questioned about her disappearance, he had an alibi and was by no means charged. Then, there was Tara’s ex-boyfriend, Marcus Harper.
Marcus Harper: Any individual pulled me to the facet, and so they have been like, “Hear, you recognize, there’s been some issues mentioned … bringin’ up your navy previous, bringin’ up the way you’re … Skilled to kill” …
Marcus at all times maintained his innocence however remained beneath suspicion.
Investigators chased down dozens of leads throughout the nation, however suggestions emerged that led proper again to the highschool the place Tara was a trainer and maybe somebody who had sat in her classroom.Â
Dana Wilder: I by no means thought it was anyone … from our group. However in the identical sense, I at all times thought, “Nicely, it must be.”  Â
A DISTURBING STORY EMERGES
For years, Marcus Harper lived beneath a cloud — some would possibly say a thunderstorm — of suspicion. He was the discuss of Ocilla, Georgia, and none of it was good.
Marcus Harper: What they’re sayin’ on the native … grocery retailer, and on the native eating places— They do not assume that it is gettin’ to somebody who’s my household or my buddy? …  I am not gonna draw back to the truth that I used to be— I used to be bitter.
Â
Police by no means referred to as him a suspect, however Marcus was extra intently investigated than anybody within the disappearance of his former girlfriend, Tara Grinstead.
Marcus Harper: I used to be swabbed for DNA. My truck was Luminoled … pictures have been taken. … Needed to inform my alibi, you recognize, or the place was I at, who I used to be round. And that was corroborated.
12 months after yr handed with no arrests. However again in 2005, authorities both missed or ignored a tip which will have solved the case. Simply weeks after Tara vanished at a celebration in a pecan orchard, certainly one of Jannis Paulk’s staff instructed her that he had overheard two younger males inform a disturbing story.
Jannis Paulk: That they’d been at a celebration bragging about their involvement in Tara’s disappearance and that finally, they’d taken her physique out to a pecan orchard and burn it in a firepit.
It was a stunning assertion. Â
Peter Van Sant: Did he have names of who these two males have been who claimed they’d killed Tara?
Jannis Paulk: It was Bo Dukes and Ryan Duke.
The 2 — who have been pals— had comparable sounding names however weren’t associated. On the time, Ryan Duke and Bo Dukes have been 21 years previous. Ryan labored at a plastics manufacturing plant, whereas Bo would often work at his household’s pecan farm. Each had been college students at Tara’s highschool.
Jannis Paulk: We shared that tip with the native sheriff’s division.
That tip went nowhere. And it wasn’t the one one neglected.
Jannis Paulk [emotional]: It simply brings up lots. So, it is type of crappy proper now.
Peter Van Sant: I am sorry.
John McCullough says he’s nonetheless haunted by painful reminiscences of being ignored by investigators 14 years in the past. Â
Peter Van Sant: This actually impacts you, although, speaking about this.
John McCullough: Sure.
McCullough, now a supervisor at a water firm in Texas, had met Bo Dukes at Military boot camp in 2006.Â
Peter Van Sant: So, two Southern boys meet in Oklahoma within the Military.
John McCullough: Sure.Â
Peter Van Sant: And also you guys hit it off?
John McCullough: Yeah … and we have been fairly shut.
Dukes invited McCullough to Ocilla to spend Christmas along with his household. It was a yr after Tara’s disappearance. Â And as they have been driving round city, a billboard caught his eye.
John McCullough: And it had this very, you recognize, engaging lady on it.
Peter Van Sant: Tara Grinstead.
John McCullough: Yeah, Tara Grinstead, and mentioned, you recognize, “lacking.”
The 2 then went to a celebration. After a number of drinks, McCullough says Bo started speaking about Tara.
John McCullough: He was like, “yeah, do you keep in mind that bulletin that you just had requested me about with that woman on it?” And I used to be like, “yeah.” And he was like, ‘I do know what occurred.”
McCullough wasn’t prepared for what Bo would say subsequent.
John McCullough: He had instructed me that his buddy … by chance strangled her and he wanted assist eliminating the physique in order that means there was —nothing to search out.
Surprised as he was, McCullough was in a dilemma. Might he betray his buddy? His fellow soldier?
Peter Van Sant: The type of man you need to share a foxhole with, proper? Who you possibly can belief along with your life?
John McCullough: Sure. Proper.
The load of what McCullough says Bo instructed him turned insufferable. Two months later, in February 2007, McCullough says he referred to as three police departments in Georgia— together with Ocilla, the place he left a voice message saying:
John McCullough: “That is John McCullough. I do know who killed Tara Grinstead or had part of it. It was instructed to me once I was in Georgia. … Here is my quantity … I am going to do no matter has to occur for y’all to take me critical. I simply acquired off the telephone with one other division that had — did not do sh—.”
Extremely, McCullough says, nobody returned his calls.
Peter Van Sant: That is the homicide of Tara Grinstead … and there gave the impression to be little curiosity, is that proper?
John McCullough: Little or no curiosity.
However McCullough was decided to get the reality out. Â He referred to as the state’s prime regulation enforcement company heading the investigation, the GBI.
John McCullough: I imply, no one ever referred to as me again, ever, even at any time when I reached out to the GBI, which is the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Peter Van Sant: What number of occasions did you name the GBI over what time frame and you continue to did not get any …Â
John McCullough: I might say from the yr of 2007 till 2016 … I might most likely say I reached out 9 or 10 occasions to the GBI.
Peter Van Sant: Why do you assume investigators ignored you? Â
John McCullough: I do not know. Perhaps as a result of I am a no one. I do not know.
Jannis Paulk additionally spoke to the GBI in 2008 because the company was reviewing the case. And he or she instructed them about her worker’s tip three years earlier relating to Bo Dukes and Ryan Duke.Â
Jannis Paulk: So, I sat down with an agent and we simply went by means of every part.
However once more, so far as she knew, it went nowhere. Tara’s household might do little however pray for a breakthrough.
Maria Woods Harper: They’ve had a extremely arduous time. I am unable to think about the loss of a kid. However I believe it is taken a variety of toll on them mentally and bodily.
Then, greater than 11 years after Tara disappeared, Brooke Sheridan got here out of nowhere along with her account about not solely Bo Dukes – however his buddy Ryan Duke.
Brooke Sheridan: Ryan … Woke him up and mentioned, “I killed Tara Grinstead.”
FINALLY, A CONFESSION
Maria Woods Harber: She was charismatic, decided, a stupendous character.Â
Peter Van Sant: What would anybody’s motive be to kill Tara Grinstead?
Maria Woods Harber: I do not know.
In 2017, greater than 11 years after Tara vanished, Brooke Sheridan got here ahead with a possible reply.
Brooke Sheridan: I needed to inform some— I needed to inform. There was no different choice.
And what she needed to say implicated a person whose identify had repeatedly been given to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Peter Van Sant: How did you and Bo Dukes meet?Â
Brooke Sheridan: We truly met on Tinder.Â
Brooke says she was learning in Savannah to develop into a pharmacist when, in 2015, she got here face-to-face along with her on-line date. Â Â
Brooke Sheridan: It was love at first sight.
Bo Dukes comes from a distinguished household that owned an enormous pecan orchard within the Ocilla space.
Peter Van Sant: And what’s it about him that you just love?
Brooke Sheridan: He has a stupendous thoughts. He’s extraordinarily clever.
Jannis Paulk, who is aware of the household, paints a distinct image of Bo.Â
Jannis Paulk: So, Bo was identified locally for being somewhat excessive, unfiltered. … A kind of at all times exhibiting off and speaking large and working his mouth.
Bo acquired in large hassle whereas within the Military. In 2012 he was charged and convicted of stealing greater than $150,000 price of navy provides. And Bo spent greater than two years in federal jail. Bo confessed all of this to Brooke, who caught with him.
Brooke Sheridan: I had by no means related with anyone and had enjoyable with anyone like I’ve with him.
However she says Bo was typically moody.Â
Brooke Sheridan: I mentioned, “You need to discuss to me. …he is very shut— shut off feelings, emotions he would not discuss.
As their relationship advanced, Brooke sensed that one thing gave the impression to be consuming away at Bo.
Brooke Sheridan: It was one thing very darkish and I— I chalked it as much as, you recognize, serving his time within the navy.
And Brooke says she helped pull Bo again from taking his personal life.
Peter Van Sant: He had talked about that?
Brooke Sheridan: Sure.Â
Peter Van Sant: And you were not gonna let that occur.
Brooke Sheridan: No.                            Â
Brooke saved encouraging Bo to open up —to speak about this darkish topic that was destroying him. Lastly, he cracked.Â
Brooke Sheridan: He mentioned, “You have heard of the Tara Grinstead case?” And I used to be like, “Yeah.” He mentioned, “My roommate killed her.”
His roommate and shut buddy was Ryan Duke. Â
Peter Van Sant: Why would Ryan Duke have murdered Tara Grinstead?Â
Brooke Sheridan: He mentioned, “That is one thing that solely God and Ryan know.” He mentioned, “I do not know why he did it.”
However there was extra— Bo instructed Brooke about his personal involvement within the crime, saying:
Brooke Sheridan: “And I helped him burn her physique.”
Brooke Sheridan: I used to be— felt like I used to be gonna be sick. I did not know who I used to be looking at. I did not know who he was.
Bo instructed Brooke that Ryan stole his pickup truck that night time and used it to move Tara’s physique to a distant a part of a pecan orchard that was owned by Bo’s household.Â
Brooke Sheridan: Ryan checked out Bo and mentioned, “It is your truck. Your loved ones’s land.” And he mentioned he threw his arms up identical to this [shrugs her shoulders], “What are you gonna do?”Â
Peter Van Sant: And by Ryan saying to him, “Hey, buddy. That is your truck, and that is your loved ones’s land,” principally that was interpreted by Bo as a risk that – we’re companions now on this? Â
Brooke Sheridan: Sure.
Bo instructed her they moved Tara’s physique to a pit within the orchard, the place it took two days to burn, destroying all proof.
Brooke Sheridan [emotional]: I saved fascinated with her household and — I could not sleep at night time.Â
Now, it was Brooke’s flip to be plagued by a horrible secret.
Brooke Sheridan: I needed to inform some— I needed to inform. There was no different choice.
Weeks later she referred to as the GBI to show within the boyfriend she cherished.
Brooke Sheridan: That household’s peace to me was extra essential than his freedom. Â
However in the event you’re prepared for this —Bo had already been interviewed by the GBI a yr earlier in 2016.  That was after investigators lastly reached out to John McCullough.
John McCullough: I am glad anyone’s lastly listening. … so, I discuss to him, inform him every part I do know.
However again then, Bo denied every part. With no arduous proof, authorities could not make an arrest. However after he broke right down to Brooke, she instructed Bo it was time to inform the reality. Â
Brooke Sheridan: I mentioned, “It’s worthwhile to confess. It’s worthwhile to personal to what you have achieved and confess.”
Peter Van Sant: And what does Bo say?
Brooke Sheridan: He says, “I simply need her household to know.”Â
GBI AGENT to BO DUKES: I am gonna simply kinda depart it – open the ground to you, and simply inform me about you understanding about Tara …
Bo instructed the GBI all of the grisly particulars:
GBI AGENT: You may nonetheless see the physique?Â
BO DUKES: Yeah. Yeah.Â
GBI AGENT: Simply kinda like charred?Â
BO DUKES: Yeah.Â
The day after Bo’s confession, his one-time buddy Ryan Duke was arrested. Practically 12 years after Tara’s disappearance, on February 23, 2017, Ryan Duke appeared in courtroom, charged with Tara’s homicide. Â He pleaded not responsible and is awaiting trial.
Marcus Harper: I acquired a telephone name … And the voice on the opposite finish of the telephone mentioned, you recognize, “Brother, your 12 years of hell is over. … we now have made an arrest.”
Investigators say Ryan confessed to killing Grinstead.
Based on notes of Ryan’s confession taken by the GBI — which leaked out— Ryan instructed investigators he was a drug addict and: “… broke into Grinstead’s home and was trying to steal from her purse when he believed she got here up behind him … he struck her along with his fist. Duke didn’t imply to strike Grinstead, however he was simply reacting and scared …  Duke … mentioned Grinstead died when he hit her.”Â
And keep in mind that latex glove discovered on the crime scene? A DNA pattern from Ryan Duke was an ideal match. Â Â
Peter Van Sant: Was it an emotional second so that you can notice somebody had been arrested in any case that point?
Maria Woods Harber: Sure. I cried for days, could not sleep for days. It was very arduous to know.
And the subsequent month, Bo Dukes – who years earlier had sat in Tara’s class — was arrested and charged — not with homicide, however with concealing a demise, hindering the apprehension of a prison, and mendacity to investigators.  Two years later, in March 2019, Bo was the primary to go on trial.
PROSECUTOR OPENING: This case is about Bo’s lies … it is about Bo’s concealment that his greatest buddy, Ryan, had killed Tara Grinstead after which they each burn the physique.Â
And for the primary time, everybody heard Bo’s personal account when his GBI interview was performed in courtroom:
BO DUKES [GBI video interview]: He instructed me he had killed Tara Grinstead. … And he requested me to assist him do away with her physique.
However was Bo telling the entire story?Â
Maria Woods Harber [standing at Tara’s house]: I do not consider Ryan might have achieved all of it by himself.
JUSTICE SERVED?
In March 2019, in a county courthouse about 30 miles from the place beloved trainer and sweetness pageant mentor Tara Grinstead was murdered, Bo Dukes went on trial on costs referring to protecting up her demise.
BRAD RIGBY | PROSECUTOR: This case is about Bo’s lies, lies that lasted from 2005 to 2016.
=Bo was dealing with a most 25-year sentence. So, he went to trial hoping jurors would possibly present mercy for a person who had already confessed to his function within the crime.
Prosecutors performed that videotape of Bo’s interview with the GBI. Bo recounted what Ryan instructed him the day after Tara disappeared:
BO DUKES [GBI interview]: He instructed me that he had killed Tara Grinstead. I did not consider him. I believed he was out of his thoughts. I instructed him, you recognize, depart me alone …
When Ryan repeated his story to Bo a few days later…
BO DUKES [GBI interview]: Once more, I did not consider him … he requested me to come back with him out to —to the pecan orchard.
So, the 2 males took Bo Dukes’ pickup truck and drove out of city onto a freeway and pulled off on a dust street resulting in the pecan orchard that is owned by Bo Dukes’ household. The 2 males drove about 200 yards up the street to the place Tara Grinstead’s physique had been positioned.
BO DUKES [GBI interview]: We drove again into the again, and he confirmed me the place her physique was.
GBI AGENT: Of all of the folks, why Tara, what is the connection?
BO DUKES: No connection.
BO DUKES: So far as I do know, he did not know her. Â
The agent asks Bo his first response when he went to the orchard with Ryan. Â
GBI AGENT: So, you instantly see this and you are like “what within the hell did you do?”
BO DUKES: Yeah. And why the f-— would you do it right here on my household’s pecan orchard? I imply…
GBI AGENT: What did he say?Â
BO DUKES: “Assist me.”
Bo then gave his account of shifting after which burning her physique, which started on a Wednesday and took two days.Â
GBI AGENT: So, by Friday, there’s nothing left?
BO DUKES: No.Â
It was now time on the trial for Bo’s one-time Military buddy, John McCullough, to lastly inform his story of Bo’s confession. And this time, the entire world gave the impression to be listening.  Â
JOHN MCCULLOUGH: The precise location, he did not inform me, however had made the remark of, you recognize, we took her to the center of the pecan orchard and burned her physique.
He testified calmly, however inside was nonetheless seething at Bo. Â
John McCullough: If there wasn’t a number of cops that have been contained in the courtroom on the day that I testified on the stand, I most likely would have ripped him aside with my palms.
However McCullough wasn’t the one witness who gave particulars about Tara’s demise. Jannis Paulk’s former worker, Garlan Lott, instructed the courtroom he had overheard that 2005 dialog between Ryan and Bo at a celebration in the identical pecan orchard the place Tara’s physique had been burned. He wasn’t positive who mentioned what.
GARLAN LOTT: The assertion that I recall was, ‘We killed and burned her physique.”
LAWYER: Any doubt in your thoughts, nevertheless, that you just heard these two folks laughing about killing and burning Tara Grinstead’s physique?
GARLAN LOTT: No.
Garlan says after he reported this to Jannis Paulk, he was by no means formally interviewed by anybody from regulation enforcement.
LAWYER: It sounds such as you’re saying you assumed it was dealt with correctly?
GARLAN LOTT: I assumed it was dealt with by regulation enforcement, sure.
And on this trial, Agent Gary Rothwell lastly defined what occurred with these suggestions.
AGENT GARY ROTHWELL: We thought that that lead had been addressed by native regulation enforcement as unfounded and didn’t observe up.
In cross-examination, Rothwell added that he takes accountability for the GBI lapse.
AGENT GARY ROTHWELL: It’s one thing we should always’ve adopted up, however we —we did not.
It took a jury lower than an hour to convict Bo Dukes on all costs. His hope for mercy was dashed. At his sentencing, Tara Grinstead’s stepmother Connie addressed the courtroom:
CONNIE GRINSTEAD: He knew she wasn’t ever coming again. He might have at the very least instructed us that, however he did not. And the explanation he knew she wasn’t coming again, is as a result of he had put load after load of wooden on her physique and burned her.
And Bo Dukes himself spoke on to Tara’s household”
BO DUKES: To the Tara Grinstead household, I am actually sorry. Your lengthy struggling has been unimaginable.
Bo was sentenced to 25 years in jail. However Maria and others nonetheless have questions as to what actually occurred. And whether or not Bo’s statements have been true.  As Bo instructed it:
Peter Van Sant: “Ryan did the killing. And all I did was assist him eliminate the physique.”
Maria Woods Harber: I do not consider that.
She factors to discrepancies between Ryan’s model of occasions and Bo’s. Ryan instructed the GBI he killed Tara by hanging her. Later, he mentioned it was potential that he choked her. However Bo says Ryan was sure about what occurred: Â
BO DUKES [GBI interview]: He jumped on her, whereas he was —she was in mattress and strangled her proper there in her mattress.
And there have been different inconsistencies.
Peter Van Sant: One mentioned she had garments on, the opposite mentioned she didn’t. It is type of odd, is not it?
Maria Woods Harber: Yeah, very.
Maria believes these discrepancies could have a sinister rationalization — that Bo Dukes had extra to do with Tara’s homicide than both he or Ryan have mentioned.Â
Maria Woods Harber: I consider that … Ryan and Bo Duke have been each on this collectively.
And he or she’s not alone in believing Bo Dukes helped burn a physique not simply to guard his buddy.
Peter Van Sant: You consider that Bo did this to guard himself?
Maurice Godwin: Oh, completely.
WHO REALLY KILLED TARA GRINSTEAD?
Even with Bo Dukes behind bars for 25 years for his function in protecting up Tara Grinstead’s homicide, some folks concerned on this case consider he performed a a lot bigger function. Maria Woods Harber thinks Bo was along with his buddy Ryan right here at Tara’s home the night time of her homicide.
Maria Woods Harber: I believe Bo had extra to do with it. Sure.
So too does forensic investigator Maurice Godwin, who was employed by Tara’s sister in 2006.
Again then, Godwin canvassed Tara’s neighborhood, and located two youngsters who mentioned they noticed strangers exterior Tara’s home the night time she disappeared.
Maurice Godwin: That they noticed two males on the proper facet of Tara’s bed room home windows to the proper facet of her home. … mentioned it was simply darkish.
Peter Van Sant: It was darkish. However two males have been standing out right here by that bush?
Maurice Godwin: By that bush.
Peter Van Sant:Â And who do you consider these two males have been?
Maurice Godwin: Bo and Ryan.
Police have by no means corroborated that sighting, however Godwin speculates Tara was focused by the 2 males —however not for cash.
Peter Van Sant: Do you consider this was a deliberate sexual assault?
Maurice Godwin: Completely. …  I consider they sexually assaulted her in that bed room.
Which is why, Godwin believes, Tara’s physique ended up within the pecan orchard.
Maurice Godwin: They usually needed to burn to physique with a view to destroy the forensic proof.
Maria has additionally concluded that sexual assault was most probably the motive.
Maria Woods-Harber: They each went in her home. They each assaulted her, and so they each deliberate it.
In public statements Bo’s lawyer denies that, however Maria believes that Bo was simply as concerned in Tara’s demise as Ryan allegedly was.
Maria Woods-Harber: If you happen to have a look at Bo’s historical past since that occurred, sure. I undoubtedly consider that Bo had extra to do with the planning and the execution.
Maria is referring to an incident the place Bo Dukes was arrested for rape and kidnapping whereas he was free on bond earlier than his trial within the Grinstead case.
NEWS REPORT: The Warner Robbins Police Division says on Tuesday afternoon, Dukes introduced two girls to the home, and threatened them with a firearm.
He pleaded not responsible and is awaiting trial.
Maurice Godwin: Every little thing narcissistic. Every little thing revolves round what he desires and when he desires it.
However Jannis Paulk continues to consider what Ryan instructed the GBI.
Peter Van Sant: Do you consider Ryan Duke acted alone?
Jannis Paulk: I consider what he mentioned he did.
Ryan’s confession — the place he admitted killing Tara — suggests his trial will probably be an open-and-shut case. However in yet one more twist on this baffling homicide, Ryan’s attorneys have mentioned publicly that he’ll recant his confession at his upcoming trial — claiming he was excessive on medication and place all of the blame on Bo.
Jannis Paulk: I’ve been instructed that Ryan’s protection workforce will argue that he gave a false confession and that Bo was truly chargeable for Tara’s demise.
For all that has transpired since 2005, closure continues to be elusive for everybody concerned.
Maria Woods Harber: I’ve needed to come to a conclusion that I am simply gonna need to reside the remainder of my life not understanding.
However there is no such thing as a query that in her brief and impactful life, Tara Grinstead touched folks in uncommon methods —even those that by no means met her, like John McCullough.Â
John McCullough: I am unable to clarify it [emotional].  … And want I might have been there at any time when it occurred in order that means, I might do one thing [emotional].
Maria Woods-Harber: She’s been an inspiration. She had a variety of life forward of her. …  She introduced nice issues to Irwin County Excessive College …  And I might hope that finally the phrase Tara Grinstead will probably be a brilliant spot as a result of she did carry a variety of good issues to Ocilla.
Dana Wilder: Ocilla was Tara’s life. … that is the place she set her roots. And that is the place she wished to remain and the place she wished to be.
Produced by Alec Sirken and Lauren Clark. Michelle Feuer is the event producer. Shaheen Tokhi and David Dow are the affiliate producers. Greg Kaplan, Phillip J. Tangel and Marcus Balsam are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior broadcast producer.
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