www.justiceforchandra.com

[gozgals]

If you are interested on what the paranormal investigators have discovered, tune in and check your listing hours for Court TV tonight.



"Missing Teacher"
When a popular high school teacher and former beauty queen goes missing, police retrace her steps, but an exhaustive search yields few clues. The investigation goes cold and a team of paranormal investigators are called in to help. With few leads, the team tries a new approach. Will their work begin to uncover even more haunting mysteries from the past?


Crime Library Tara Grinstead Message Board
Crime Library Tara Grinstead Full Coverage


http://www.courttv.com/onair/shows/haunting_evidence/episodes/106.html

[rd]

An update on Tara Grinstead from WALB News

from www.walb.com (fair use)

http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=6266555&nav=5kZQ

The search for Tara Grinstead continues
Brent Solomon
WALB News
March 22, 2007

Ocilla -- A year and five months ago, a popular Ocilla school teacher disappeared. Ocilla Police continue to work with the GBI to search for Tara Grinstead.

There are no solid leads in the case, but police still hang a sign with Tara's picture outside their building. Officers say they aren't giving up hope.

"The case is still being actively pursued. Were still hoping that somebody out there has some information that would help resolve this matter," said Ocilla Police Chief Billy Hancock.

Hancock says he's frustrated because he believes someone out there has information that can help them solve this case. Police continue to work with Tara's family for leads.

Feedback: news@walb.com?subject=SearchForTara/BS

© Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and WALB

[gozgals]

I too believe someone out there has information on Tara and just won't give it up.

My thoughts go out to Tara and her family that there will be a break in this case soon. I'm glad LE has not given up on Tara or tracking leads.

Thanks for the update Rd

Gozgals

[rd]

At some point I think Theresa Parker's disappearance (see Theresa Parker, LaFayette,GA- Missing 3/21/07) will bring some attention to Tara's case as well, although I don't think any media dares draw out the similarities too clearly.

rd

[rd]

It's officially a cold case when the newspaper runs a "What ever happened to" piece on it.

rd

from ajc.com (fair use)
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2007/06/17/0618where.html

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO ...
Disappearance of Tara Grinstead got attention, few clues
By BILL MONTGOMERY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
June 18, 2007

(snip)

Investigators found her cellphone in her house, along with her dog and cat, both unharmed. Her purse and car keys were gone but her white Mitsubishi was in the driveway, unlocked.

There were no conclusive signs of a struggle inside the house, although a broken lamp was found in her bedroom.

"We believe had there been an altercation, there would be more signs than a broken lamp," said GBI spokesman John Bankhead. "Her credit cards haven't been used since she went missing, but no contact was ever made with any family member.

"It was uncharacteristic of her not to contact anybody. That's why it doesn't look good."

Investigators have looked at the possibility she was forced at gunpoint from her home, but have no evidence to support that theory, Bankhead said. "We don't know what happened to her ... she didn't travel in a crowd that would have made her a high-risk victim. She wasn't involved in the drug culture or the nightclub culture.

"Most of her time was devoted to education, and the risk factors we find in many missing person cases were not there."

The GBI has interviewed "anyone that we could associate with her, including past boyfriends and acquaintances," said Rothwell. The case file, "adding up all the contacts of people who knew her and the research and interviews involved," is more than 5 feet thick, he said.

"We're not just sitting by the phone, waiting for it to ring," said Bankhead. "We're generating our own leads, and the major way to do that is to reassess everything we've done to see what we've overlooked."

Rothwell said Grinstead's relationship with an Army Ranger who had served in Iraq had broken up "some time previously and had left her distraught." The former boyfriend has been questioned by the GBI, as has a former student who once broke into her house. Neither has been linked to her disappearance, he said.

"The key word is 'evidence,' and a lot of people confuse 'suspicion' with evidence," Rothwell said.

Tara's mother, Faye Grinstead of Hawkinsville, said the boy who broke into her daughter's home "had an obsession of some kind about her."

She said her daughter always let her know when she returned home safely from Valdosta and her night graduate classes. "She knew I was a worrier, so she always called that she was OK."

Tara's father, Billy Grinstead, is an executive in Birmingham with Liberty National Insurance, which has put up $50,000 of the reward fund. His wife Connie, Tara's stepmother, said she still gets calls of possible sightings and keeps in frequent contact with the GBI.

"Some feel she just ran away, but I don't think so," Connie Grinstead said. "She was planning a future, and she was the kind to always think ahead. There were too many things going for her."

Tara's stepmother said she had a call once suggesting the young woman had been spotted at a [Birmingham] truck stop. "We talked to people on every shift, who described a very attractive girl with long brown hair ... it turned out not to be her.

"People might think that would be annoying, but I'm grateful that people are willing to call. ... We get very sad and discouraged, but we have not completely shut the door on hope."

click to read rest
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2007/06/17/0618where.html

© 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

[rd]

Why did the search for Tara stop so suddenly? I posted at the time that it was clearly a predetermined two week search.


Still no suspects in missing woman case
By Tim Sturrock
TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER
Thu, Nov. 03, 2005

[Ocilla Police Chief Billy Hancock] said progress has been made in searching areas of the county. But he said searches have not turned up any trace of Grinstead. He said it will be more than a week before a search of the county will be over.

Searches have been conducted every day in various ways including on foot, by horse, with helicopters and with all-terrain vehicles; Wednesday, cadaver dogs were used, Hancock said.

"That's not because of any indication that we're looking for a body. We're looking for any possibility," he said.

Irwin County Sheriff Donnie Youghn said once the land search of the county is complete, searches will be based on leads and tips.

end quote


Ocilla police call off search for missing teacher
By Tim Sturrock
TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER
Wed, Nov. 09, 2005

More than two weeks after the search began for missing Irwin County teacher Tara Grinstead, volunteers and public safety officials have completed their search of the county, Ocilla Police Chief Billy Hancock said.

"Essentially, we are through unless we get any additional leads that would call us back," he said.

end quote


Nov. 12, 2005

The search ended after two weeks, and now they wait. It will take a turtle hunter to turn up a skull someday apparently. I did see something about private searches continuing, but LE is officially finished for now.

I looked at the map I posted above and wondered how well all that can be searched, especially in all that water. I saw the quotes from the sheriff and realized they had said all along when they would be done, and they were.

Clearly this was a prescheduled, two week timebased ending, not a "we've searched everywhere in the county, nowhere else to search" based ending. And of course nothing says that she wasn't taken out of the county.

But unlike the DC and Aruba police in Chandra's and Natalee's cases, I have faith this town will not stop working on finding one of their own.

rd

[rd]

It is really upsetting for some scumbag that a woman knew and trusted to hide her body and have people talk for years about a wonderful person running away because they "haven't seen the body".

Basically nothing worse could be done to a woman after she is murdered. Oh my, I said murdered and I haven't seen the body.

It's no wonder men keep doing this. It works real well. I can't wait for another post about where Tara probably ran off to, or Theresa, or Laci before her body washed up, or Chandra before her remains were found, and on and on.

Oh, I think she bought a ticket for Timbuktu and said screw Ocilla and my students and my family and my church and Dolly and my cat and everyone I love and loves me, I'm going to run away to Timbuktu!!!

To compare Tara and these other missing women to some brow beaten ministers wife who escaped from a church conference or to some ditzy Runaway Bride is about as low as it gets. I'll tell you where most of these women run off to - a nice quiet spot in the woods.

Sheesh.

rd

[gozgals]

RD stated:

[rd]

thanks. It really is a disgrace to a woman who had so much to live for, and all of that hidden away with her remains.

But no body, no crime. What a racket.

rd

[gozgals]

It seems many of our recent cases are the type where there is "No body, no crime!" It makes it difficult when it comes arresting and prosecuting these criminals. What a shame. Seems to be the latest trend in missing, disappearing women. At least if the bodies were recovered, there would be a better chance of getting justice for these women but to blame the victim is outrageous.

I look forward to seeing the outcome in a case such as Han's.

Goz

[rd]

Concerning internet discussion of determining Tara's attendance at school on a Friday, first, the employer is not going to release confidential information about an employee. You couldn't call up my employer and ask them if I took a day off or left early. And you can't call Tara's employer up and ask.

The police can ask, and if remotely relevant to her disappearance, I would hope that her attendance at work on Oct. 14, and for that matter, her attendance in preceding weeks should have been asked about, and I'm sure they did.

The answer was that Tara's absence on Monday was totally out of character and alarming, and any insinuation otherwise is just that, insinuation of a character the employer found out of character, and made immediate inquiries.

She was said to have came in late, scheduled the day off, and/or left early. I saw some sources, others I didn't see.

When we know source is family or friends of Tara or family or friends, or a writer, or a reporter, then we can take the source into account when considering what is being said. For example, the only quoted slandering of Tara's emotional stability was from the ex, and I've seen nothing to indicate that other similar anonymous statements are from any other camp, or from anyone that cared about Tara.

It was the same in Chandra's case. People with no names said she frequented Rock Creek Park and jogged there, people with names who were her close friends said she wouldn't even consider it, it wasn't even discussed.

You can say friends have an agenda, but at least they also have names. People slandering a missing women's character never have names, except for a brief statement a silent ex sometimes will make after she disappears to call her a suicidal runaway.

rd

[rd]

I would say for the most part people really believe in what they are saying, or perhaps just care so much more for their own flesh and blood that they overlook things which shakes the belief in others.

I think it's a given you're going to have a Scott Peterson family type support in many cases, unbelievable as that is. It just shouldn't surprise us, nor should we expect unbiased information from those who are aggressively attempting to undermine suspicion of their beloved.

I have a simple consideration - who observed the rumored event? If it's just "it's well known", it isn't.

rd

[jane]

I don't think it's just families believing or wanting to believe in their relative - I think it's that killers frequently come from sick families.
_________________
"There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known."
Christ

[rd]

Concerning those who write accounts of true crime such as on Tara's case and post it the web, I would not call them reporters, I would call them true crime writers.

I have read articles such as on Tara on the web and found them interesting, but contrast that with my writing on Chandra in Murder on a Horse Trail. I supplied sources for every factual statement, which were various news articles and media interviews.

But I also analyzed the anonymous sources in news articles and the same sort of spinning went on as in Tara's case. It does require a great deal of comparative analysis laid out with reasoning to spin dry the truth from the fluff.

rd

[rd]

the silent ex.

Here's my reply to a recent email asking what is a silent ex:

Silent ex is I guess an original of mine that came to describe what remained when women disappeared. If, for example, they cooperated with an investigation and took a lie detector test to help the police clear them, being the primary suspect based on experience, then they wouldn't be a silent ex.

But they don't. They make one statement about the missing women being suicidal or a runaway, and then are silent as her family and loved ones search for her with broken hearts and we do what we can here on the internet.

rd