The front door wasn’t damaged and no windows were broken when officers arrived at Tara Grinstead’s home. But her bed wasn’t made, the bedroom was in disarray, and her cordless phone was on the bathroom floor, a detective testified Tuesday.
“I saw what I thought was suspected blood on the underside of that white comforter,” Jeff Roesler, a GBI special agent in charge, told the jury. Testing later confirmed that.
The trial continued Tuesday for Ryan Duke, the man accused of killing 30-year-old Grinstead in October 2005. The first two people called to the witness stand were a former Ocilla detective and Roesler, who both photographed the teacher’s home when she disappeared.
Grinstead was reported missing when she failed to show up to teach her Irwin County High School history classes. A former beauty pageant winner, she had spent part of the weekend helping girls prepare for a local pageant.
Despite a massive search to find Grinstead, she was never seen alive again. The case would seem to go cold until February 2017, when the GBI announced an arrest. After questioning him for several hours, Duke was arrested and he confessed, according to the GBI investigators. He later changed his story and said he didn’t kill Grinstead, but was only involved in covering up her death.
Bo Dukes, who isn’t related to Duke, was also charged in the case. In March 2019, Dukes was sentenced to 25 years in prison for concealing Grinstead’s death. Dukes initially claimed he didn’t know anything about the disappearance and death. Months later, Dukes confessed. He didn’t kill Grinstead but helped dispose of the body, according to evidence at his trial.
Jurors on Tuesday also heard around 30 messages left on Grinstead’s answering machine by those trying to reach her, including her mother and Heath Dykes, who was romantically involved with her.
“Please give me a call. I’m starting to get worried about you now,” Dykes said in one message. “It’s not like you to not call all day. Please let me hear from you.”
But one call is key evidence, prosecutors said. It was a phone call made from a nearby payphone, but the caller hung up, according to Bill Bodrey, a GBI special agent in charge. That call was “guilty knowledge,” in the case, Bodrey said.
“It’s basically someone knows something about the case that the public doesn’t know, only law enforcement,” he said.
When Duke was interviewed by investigators, he knew about that phone call, according to prosecutors.
On Monday, prosecutors told the jury that Duke confessed multiple times to killing Grinstead. The defense argued it was a false confession and one he was coerced into making.
During her opening statement, attorney Ashleigh Merchant told the jury there is no evidence her client is responsible for killing Grinstead.
“Ryan did not harm Ms. Grinstead, and at the end of this trial you will agree with us,” Merchant said.
The trial will resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
