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[Music] [Applause] e [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:43
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those out all right that's enough of the business everybody gather around grab a
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chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime her courage and her smile just the way
00:04:05
she's so happy and the way she interacts with people it's just it's amazing Tera grinstead Irwin County High
00:04:17
School teacher and former beauty pageant contestant had a huge impact on the Tiny
00:04:22
Town of osilla population 3,300 so much so that her disappearance almost 2 weeks ago has galvanized this
00:04:30
community tera's older sister Anita I cannot even express how my family and our friends I mean the outpouring of
00:04:38
love for Tara we knew they loved her 30-year-old Tara grinstead was lasting in October 22nd when she attended a
00:04:44
local pageant her home sits locked car in driveway even her dog left outside only her purse and keys are missing
00:04:52
leading many to suspect she left with someone she knew the gbi has interviewed Tara's ex-boyfriend of six years as well
00:05:00
as a former student who broke into her home recently yes they've talked to these people and and you know they're
00:05:06
talking to several people all the friends families uh work acquaintances but those who knew the beautiful
00:05:13
generous young woman say if someone did snatch Tara it could be almost anyone all the guys in our school like Miss
00:05:20
Tara she is beautiful she is somebody everybody wants to be like so that might have something to do with them if
00:05:27
someone had come there and said one of your students is in trouble or one of your teachers needs your help she would
00:05:32
have [Music] gone Tera feay grinstead was born in Hawkinsville Georgia on November 14th
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1974 from an early age terara was involved in the beauty pageant circuit she was Miss tiffon in 1999 and one year
00:05:57
she made it all the way to the Miss Georgia pageant her talent for these shows was singing Tara's parents were
00:06:03
separated at the time of her disappearance which took place in 2005 Tara's mother who still lived in
00:06:10
Hawkinsville was suffering from an illness Tara was very close with her sister Anita and her sister's husband
00:06:17
Larry she was also very close to her father Bill and stepmother Connie she was a family person and although she was
00:06:26
from Hawkinsville Tara lived and worked in o illa a small town of about 3,000 people osilla is about an hour's drive
00:06:35
from her hometown of Hawkinsville despite her love for the pageant life Tara was not satisfied with being a
00:06:42
beauty queen she had goals she had career goals and she used her pageant winnings to fund her quest for a higher
00:06:49
education terara earned her bachelor's and then she's eventually going to go on to earn her Masters at valdosa
00:06:56
University she moved to osilla as a student te teacher and fell in love with the town in 2005 Tara was an 11th grade
00:07:04
history teacher at irn County High School where she had taught for eight years and by all accounts she was
00:07:11
well-liked by her students in addition she was attending night school four nights a week to get her PhD in history
00:07:18
and administration she attended night classes at various campuses of VSU including campuses in the towns of Way
00:07:26
Cross and Tifton her ambition according to friends and family was to work her way up to high school principal or to be
00:07:35
a college history Professor Tara loved being an educator she was known to go above and beyond for her students and on
00:07:43
occasion she helped pay for prom dresses or yearbooks for some of the students who could not afford such things which
00:07:51
is very nice and also we know that teachers do not make what what they should make so she's doing this on a
00:07:57
teacher salary she also had a supplemental job at a makeup counter at a local department store and she also
00:08:05
volunteered in the pageant circuit and at homecoming to help students and their friends get ready for competitions or
00:08:12
dances by doing hair and makeup at the time of her disappearance Tara lived in a meticulously decorated small rental
00:08:19
house on Park Street she had a dog named Dolly and a cat named Herman terara was
00:08:24
close with her neighbors and enjoyed gardening when she could find the time and her busy schedule Tara also attended
00:08:31
church regularly and she was incredibly social but she did not drink she also took self-defense classes by all
00:08:38
accounts terara was a wonderful outgoing giving person who stood out in the small
00:08:44
town of illa now let's get to the day of her disappearance this was a Saturday the date October 22nd 2005 Tara had some
00:08:54
students over to her house to help them prepare for the miss sweet potato pageant
00:08:59
which was taking place in Fitzgerald a nearby town this was around 3:00 p.m. that afternoon according to one of the
00:09:07
students who was there Dana Wilder Tara was in a great mood nothing about Tara's
00:09:13
Behavior seemed odd then Tara attended the pageant after attending the pageant that evening Tara stopped by a
00:09:20
neighbor's house to visit for about half an hour now the name of this neighbor has not been released and this would
00:09:26
have been around 8:00 p.m. she then went to a barbecue at the home of the former
00:09:31
school superintendent this is Dr Troy Davis and his wife Missy this was a party I don't know how many people were
00:09:39
in attendance but a get together nonetheless on the menu for that evening watching The Mighty Georgia Bulldogs
00:09:46
football game socializing and enjoying some good old southern barbecue her friend Maria huet is going to be able to
00:09:53
confirm that not only did they watch the game but they also had dinner that evening friends later told police that
00:09:58
Tera had received several cell phone calls while she was at the party at approximately 11:00 p.m. Dr Davis walks
00:10:05
terara to the door as she gets ready to leave she tells Dr Davis that she is going home for the evening in fact she
00:10:14
said she was going to go home and watch a video of The Pageant from earlier that
00:10:19
day that is the last known sighting of Tara grinstead now terara was really close with her neighbors well
00:10:26
specifically Myrtle and Joe portier mhm so much so with the portiers that they had a key to Tara's home and Tara's
00:10:34
family knew that the portiers looked out for Tara Joe and Myrtle knowing that Tara lived alone and having to drive
00:10:41
long distances many nights a week to attend her night classes they had established some kind of system with
00:10:48
Tara to make sure that she had arrived home safely in the evenings they would look for her bedroom lamp to come on and
00:10:57
seeing it they would know that she was home safe and sound this system didn't seem to apply on the weekends though
00:11:03
because Joe and Myrtle were often they often left town to go to their weekend home right and on Sunday October 23rd
00:11:12
this is around midnight Tara's mother called the poror tiers at their home this is roughly 24 hours after the last
00:11:19
sighting of Tara her mother had told them that she was unable to reach her daughter and asked them if they had seen
00:11:26
her that day they said that they had not seen her however because they were out of town this wouldn't have been unusual
00:11:34
right but that her car Tera car which is a pearl colored Mitsubishi 3000 GT it was parked in the carport at tera's
00:11:43
house when they had returned from their out of town stay the next day on Monday morning October 24th Joe portier noticed
00:11:52
that Tera car was still at her house but there didn't seem to be any sign of Terror herself he wed walked to Tara's
00:11:59
house knocked on the door there was no answer he knocked several more times he checked the door the door was locked Joe
00:12:06
was concerned he called the high school and he asked about Tara had they seen her had they heard from her he was told
00:12:13
that Tara had not come into work that morning which was extremely rare and they had not even heard from the young
00:12:20
woman Joe then decided to use his key to open the door and enter the home inside
00:12:26
he found no one terara was not there there were some things that caused concern Joe noted that Tara's bedroom
00:12:34
lamp was broken and propped up in two pieces and her alarm clock was lying on the floor the alarm clock they found is
00:12:40
not the right time it's actually off by 6 hours and strangely Tara's cell phone was in the house this is odd because
00:12:48
obviously this is something you would expect for her to take with her but it was at the house and it was still
00:12:54
resting on the charger right Joe who had entered the home is an osilla city councilman so he had the chief of
00:13:03
police's phone number at his disposal and he decided to call Chief this is Mr Billy Hancock directly and told him that
00:13:12
he had spoken to Tara's mother and to her work no one had seen or heard from Tara her car was parked at her house her
00:13:20
cell phone was inside and Tara was nowhere to be found Joe believed something could have happened to her at
00:13:27
the very least terara was missing so a missing person's report was filed at that time and at
00:13:33
8:50 a.m. police arrived at the scene at Tara's home by 11:00 a.m. police had called in the Georgia Bureau of
00:13:41
Investigation investigators noted a few things right away the house had been found by Joe to be locked so there was
00:13:48
no signs of forced entry although Tara's cell phone was still at the house her purse and car keys were nowhere to be
00:13:56
found there are conflicting reports reps about Tara's car this is whether or not
00:14:01
it was locked or unlocked at the time that the authorities found it right Tara's sister Anita says that the
00:14:07
vehicle was unlocked which she also goes on to say was completely out of character for her sister another curious
00:14:15
thing about the car investigators noted that the driver side seat was pushed all
00:14:20
the way back as though a tall person had been driving it although terara was only
00:14:26
about 5' 3 in tall so on a good day Captain I'm 6 foot one and I have never driven a Mitsubishi 3000 GT but in most
00:14:37
cars uh specifically cars not like big trucks or anything practically all of them when it comes to cars I'm in all
00:14:44
the way back seat guy so there you're saying you're a suspect I'm yes and not only am I a suspect but I'm guilty so
00:14:53
unless there was some other reason for this that's shocking you know unless maybe she moved the seat to look for
00:15:00
something or I can't think of why the seat would have been moved other than I would be expecting a person to have been
00:15:07
operating this vehicle to have been about 6ot or maybe taller well I think you lean more towards somebody operating
00:15:14
this vehicle because the keys are gone yeah and furthermore there was $100 in cash on the dashboard or console of the
00:15:24
car and I say dashboard or console because it's been reported both ways right there was also found to be clay or
00:15:31
mud on the tires of the vehicle and this would be as if someone had driven it Offroad at some point but now we did
00:15:39
talk about her going to a barbecue earlier so is it possible that she parked in somebody's grass and maybe got
00:15:45
a little bit of M on on her tires there yeah you and I specifically talked about
00:15:50
that meaning that it could it could have nothing to do with her disappearance it
00:15:54
could be from the events of that evening before she went missing you know there's
00:16:00
a a bonfire that you and I used to go to regular attendance it was once or twice
00:16:05
a year and people were instructed to park in the person's yard you know the person lived out in the country and you
00:16:12
only have so much driveway they would say just park in the yard right and so you would leave there and you might have
00:16:18
mud on the tires or or in this situation Clay on the tires I did look up you know
00:16:23
we talked about the barbecue I did look up to find where that person the host of
00:16:29
the barbecue lived right and it didn't seem to me to be like out in the country out in the sticks it looked to be to be
00:16:37
more of a traditional neighborhood now that's not to say that she didn't park on the street and end up with two tires
00:16:43
in somebody's yard well and then to go back too she did go to this pageant and I I know sometimes when a high school or
00:16:51
school or or any place would like host a big event you know such as possibly this
00:16:57
um pageant would be maybe she parked her car in the grass during that as well so
00:17:03
again don't know but to me I'm leaning more towards it has something to do with her disappearance because car keys are
00:17:10
gone this was the sweet miss sweet potato pageant yeah I I won in 1996 that's funny because in 2006 Columbus
00:17:20
named me Mr Potato Head there is some there's also some confusion as to the whereabouts of
00:17:27
Tara's dog Dolly now dolly was a from my understanding like a large German Shepherd this was not a small dog uh not
00:17:37
like Frank yeah uh some articles say that the dog was found outside in the backyard and then other articles just
00:17:44
say that the dog and cat were found but no specifics as to where they were found
00:17:50
yeah you'd think that maybe the neighbors would report seeing the dog outside for multiple days I don't know
00:17:57
how the poor so from the portiers house you can see Tara's home and you can see most of her
00:18:04
yard because the way that they're situated you you should be able to see the front and backyard of her home from
00:18:12
some of their Windows right but they wouldn't know this because they were out of town I'm just wondering if there was
00:18:17
other neighbors that would have noticed the dog being out for multiple days uh it seems to me that people just lean
00:18:23
towards the idea that the dog was outside if the dog were to be outside though that's where I question what's
00:18:30
going on with the portiers because they are made aware that terara has not been heard from on Sunday evening they would
00:18:38
have seen the dog outside they don't report that to her mother hey we saw the vehicle outside right but they don't
00:18:44
state that hey we s everything must be fine she's clearly let the dog out but by this time by the time she was found
00:18:49
on Monday morning then that dog would have been out all night long which would have seemed suspicious to me unless that
00:18:55
was a regular thing for her who knows I mean it was a fencon area I'm guessing everybody lives different lives um the
00:19:05
important thing here though Captain is that would tera's abductor or would be abductor put the dog outside to you know
00:19:14
because German Shepherds are by Nature aggressive dogs right this is a dog that probably would have eagerly protected
00:19:23
her should she have been attacked or abducted from inside the home or near the home finally the other strange thing
00:19:31
about the crime scene is a business card was found tucked into tera's front door
00:19:37
with the name Heath dkes on it now police were quick to state that they did not suspect Foul Play saying that
00:19:44
nothing they had found uh LED them to the conclusion that something had happened to Tara her disappearance would
00:19:51
continue to be investigated as a missing person's case tera's family however disagreed with this ter T's sister Anita
00:19:59
said Tara would have never gone anywhere without her phone would never leave her
00:20:04
pets alone for a long period of time presumably over 30 hours or so by the time Joe entered the home and she would
00:20:11
have never just not have shown up to work it was just totally out of character for her sister now Anita said
00:20:19
it looked like someone had attempted to make tera's bed apparently Tara was quite particular about how she made the
00:20:27
bed or how the bed was made and it was not found in the manner that her sister would have expected to find her bed and
00:20:35
there were clothes on her bedroom floor Anita said that Tara made the had she made the bed she would have never left
00:20:44
the clothes on the floor now the clothing that was found on the floor this is the clothes that Tara was seen
00:20:49
wearing on that Saturday evening at the barbecue Anita also identified a few more missing things there were earrings
00:20:57
terara was wearing that day which her friend Miss Davis recalled having seen terara wearing them at the barbecue
00:21:05
these earrings were not found uh also missing were a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt these are items that are
00:21:12
believed that Tara would usually wear to bed and had slept in also after further
00:21:17
searching the house pieces of a necklace terara had been wearing on that Saturday
00:21:21
were found under the bed Anita later went on Fox News and the CBS early show to bring attention to her sister's
00:21:29
disappearance and ask the public for help all right so it seems to me that she Tara went to this barbecue she comes
00:21:38
home she possibly lets her dog out changes her clothes gets out of the barbecue clothes the daytime clothes and
00:21:47
she's going to slip into something more comfortable but maybe she leaves the hoop earrings on cuz those are not
00:21:54
found at some point this we we think that she was possibly wearing that that necklace this day and so that somehow
00:22:04
came off and it's broken yeah there were pieces of it found underneath her bed so
00:22:09
then we have this alarm clock that is 6 hours off so does that tell us something
00:22:14
is there was there attack that happened and then the power went out on the clock
00:22:20
and then it was plugged back in and and does that give us a time frame of when possibly she was attacked it should but
00:22:28
there's no report on what time the clock was reading when found just that it was
00:22:33
6 hours different yeah I mean it could be six hours earlier or after right you would
00:22:40
expect to find it Tara's sister's theory in the early days was that Tara had got
00:22:45
home from the barbecue and she was getting ready for bed and had been interrupted by someone possibly that she
00:22:52
knew perhaps a friend student or another teacher had possibly knocked on the door
00:22:57
and interrupting her and then at some course she is abducted during that evening well and investigators are going
00:23:03
to look at all possible angles of this and it seems you know one did somebody you know there's no sign of breaking and
00:23:11
entering so so it's like did somebody do that or did she leave on her own yeah the possibility of could she have just
00:23:19
left and this comes up because in the course of some interviews with people close to terara police discovered that
00:23:25
terara was in a fragile emotional state after the breakup of a very long-term relationship with her boyfriend this is
00:23:32
Marcus Harper right terara had apparently been distraught over aspects of this emotionally charged situation
00:23:40
one day becoming so overcome while driving that she had to pull over and call a friend for help the next day she
00:23:47
called in sick to work which was unusual for Tara we'll discuss the former boyfriend Marcus Harper and their
00:23:55
relationship in just a bit but it was was so widely believed that terara was under a lot of stress I mean she's
00:24:02
working two jobs and studying for a very demanding degree her mother was Ill perhaps the theory went it was all just
00:24:12
too much for her and she wanted to escape well on top of that she's a family person and she's a socialable
00:24:18
person and she's trying to be a a pillar of the community so you're talking about
00:24:23
a lot of things that are weighing on her shoulders well Tara's family would call
00:24:27
B yes on this Theory as we said Anita pointed out that terara would never go anywhere without her phone she would
00:24:34
never leave Dolly and Herman defend for themselves and it looks like she was just weeks away from completing her
00:24:41
studies for another graduate degree which would have meant a bump in salary of up to 10 grand for her so why would
00:24:49
she abandon all of her hard work and furthermore her family question how would she have left in the middle of the
00:24:56
night without her car in a town with little to no public transportation it just it just didn't make any sense
00:25:03
police quickly began to re receive tips about the missing person's case but nothing panned out investigators said
00:25:10
they weren't ruling out the possibility that terara had been abducted or had voluntarily took off with someone she
00:25:17
knew the Georgia Bureau of Investigation or gbi was brought in very early in this
00:25:22
case and within days a massive search operation was underway hundreds of Searchers and volunteers conducted daily
00:25:30
searches of osilla and more remote areas of the 358 square mile Irwin County looking for signs of Terror or Clues as
00:25:40
to what may have happened Searchers use horses ATVs helicopters and underwater scanning equipment a week after The
00:25:49
Disappearance of terara there's going to be a bombshell that drops in the news the neighbor Joe portier he had found a
00:25:56
latex glove in Terra front front yard on the day that he had went over to check on her police tried to keep the
00:26:02
discovery of this glove a secret presumably in order to keep some evidence under wraps so they could use
00:26:09
the information as they saw fit down the road nevertheless osilla was a small town and word had got out about the
00:26:17
glove Joe portier told Nancy Grace that the glove was the type used in a medical
00:26:23
setting and not a glove that would be typically used for things like dishwash Wasing or gardening right reports
00:26:29
conflict as to whether the glove was white or whether it was blue in color but of course either way the presence of
00:26:36
a latex glove at the scene of a possible abduction made Tara's friends and family
00:26:43
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GameChanger all right we're back cheers mates I got a mouth full of chips Golden Crisp from
00:29:04
masselin Ohio yeah cheers to uh Jesse and Mary our friends over at Golden Crisp you know what they say captain the
00:29:12
old the old famous saying the best potatoes come from Idaho the best potato chips come from Ohio well all I know is
00:29:19
they're good with beer well back to the search efforts Captain Tera gred's family set up a Command Center in
00:29:26
downtown osilla to help coordinate volunteers and disseminate flyers and posters within 2 weeks there was a
00:29:34
reward for information in the case this was of $30,000 one thing that was not addressed
00:29:40
at all was whether police used scent dogs to try to track Tara's scent to determine whether she had left the house
00:29:49
what we do know is that search and rescue dogs were brought in about a week after terara disappeared and searched
00:29:56
areas near her home this including ponds and wooded areas presumably nothing was
00:30:03
found a woman's t-shirt was found during a search but investigators ruled this out saying it had nothing to do with
00:30:11
tera's disappearance so two weeks after the last known sighting of Tara news reports revealed that the police had
00:30:18
interviewed scores of people who knew or who were connected to Tara they were pouring over Tara's phone records and
00:30:26
checking her home in school computers and by this point they had polygraphed at least one person and were following
00:30:33
up on undisclosed leads but police still refused to categorize tera's disappearance as the result of Foul Play
00:30:41
tera's friends and family were beginning to give up hope that she would ever return home safely tera's family hired a
00:30:49
private detective to look into the case this investigator believed the car seat being found pushed back was a big red
00:30:57
flag as do I as do you fears began to arise that Tara had been the victim of some inexplicable random attack by a
00:31:06
stranger and that she was dead even so the grinstead family persisted and manned the terara command center pushing
00:31:13
the osilla PD and the gbi for more searches they were also passing out buttons with tera's picture on them and
00:31:21
they even decorated Tara's house as if she were coming home they decorated for Halloween and they put up a happy
00:31:28
birthday banner for tera's 31st birthday which took place in November of 2005 yeah and by December 2005 the law
00:31:37
enforcement's going to have all their ground searches they're going to declare those done yeah and this would still
00:31:43
have no signs of Tara a Press Conference was held around that same time revealing
00:31:48
that the reward money in Tara's case had jumped up to $200,000 a large portion of this amount
00:31:55
of money was donated anonymously then in January of 2006 with Tara having been missing for 3 months her family helped
00:32:03
organize a large scale search conducted by Texas Equis search and 150 volunteers
00:32:10
the focus of the ground search in Irwin and surrounding counties was the hundreds of Wells sprinkled throughout
00:32:16
the marshy Countryside Searchers also used boats to access shallow swamps as tera's colleague and friend Wendy
00:32:24
McFarland put it quote on one hand you pray to God to find her on the other hand you pray to God you don't find her
00:32:33
yeah in February of 2006 the osilla police told the Atlantic Journal Constitution quote it does seem to be
00:32:41
kind of an overwhelming and baffling case we've had missing persons before but usually those turn up in a few days
00:32:49
usually juveniles who come back to their homes nevertheless the gbi claimed that
00:32:55
the grinstead case was still a very active investigation with active leads being pursued tera's family was
00:33:02
increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress in the case they brought in an investigative psychologist this is Dr
00:33:10
Maurice Godwin when Godwin's helped the family concluded that Tera had been the victim of Foul Play and was likely dead
00:33:18
the family also became publicly critical of the Irwin County Sheriff's department
00:33:22
and its handling of the investigation so now Captain we see the family begin to take matters into their own hands and at
00:33:30
one point even attempting to conduct a search on private property well okay so I agree why they'd be frustrated but as
00:33:40
far as law enforcement goes this is a frustrating case because if somebody is responsible for her going missing if
00:33:48
this is Foul Play let's look at a couple things one she's a teacher now the graduating class is it's a small town
00:33:56
it's under normally a 100 but she taught for some years so now you have all the students that she's come in contact with
00:34:04
all the people through the beauty pageants that she's come in contact with she's in night classes so all the people
00:34:10
that she's taken night classes with this is somebody that is um heavily involved
00:34:16
in her um in in her local community and there's going to be a lot of people that
00:34:21
you have to question so as much as it's frustrating for the family I can see where it's frustrating for law
00:34:26
enforcement as as well this is my my head kind of goes back to the Barry Sherman and honey Sherman case that we
00:34:33
recently covered and I'm going to kind of just Echo something today that I said when we covered that case I don't I've
00:34:40
never understood why a police officer or a detective or police chief will come out so early on when they have no clue
00:34:48
what happened right and go well we don't see any signs of Foul Play we're going to investigate this as a missing
00:34:55
person's case why even bother to say that you're just you're you're throwing yourself to the fire there well I I
00:35:02
think it's ignorance as far as an investigative uh tactic I mean you have to basically have no blinders right you
00:35:09
have to be open to any possibility and I think when somebody comes out and makes
00:35:14
statements like that I question their ability to investigate any crime because you can't come up with a theory and then
00:35:20
try to make that theory stick you need to be letting the evidence you know it's almost like a funnel let the evidence
00:35:26
lead you down the path to the truth I think what happens is when they when the cameras turn on and they have to stand
00:35:33
in front of people and give some kind of explanation as to what's going on or the
00:35:38
direction of the investigation I think they get nervous and I think that maybe they say things that had they taken some
00:35:45
time to think it through they would have said something differently and I think it's maybe a portion of of the
00:35:51
investigation part but more so the the public appeal or or appealing to the public I should say what what I'm
00:35:59
getting at is just with the just like with the Sherman case M here's the thing you and I both know that so many cases
00:36:06
get solved because of of a confession if somebody out there is feeling super guilty or if they're super scared that
00:36:13
law enforcement are on to them or somebody knows what they did they may come forward to try to save their own
00:36:19
butt well more likely if they feel there's some heat on them yes right and if I'm at the crime scene and I'm the
00:36:24
chief the chief of police and I'm going we don't see any Foul Play and I'm watching that on TV I'm going [ __ ] they
00:36:29
don't they don't have anything on me they don't even know that a crime's been committed right just keep my mouth shut
00:36:35
so again again I would have the same statement for every situation when approached by the media I would say look
00:36:42
we have a lot of evidence to sort through mhm we will let the investigation in the leads take us where
00:36:49
it may we have a lot of eyewitnesses we have witnesses to statements to go through and we are going to work this
00:36:57
case morning noon and night until it's solved and I just leave it at that we're not stating that any Foul Play happened
00:37:04
we're not stating that any Foul Play did not happen yeah but I'd also throw in there as well we're getting closer to
00:37:10
knowing the truth and just saying that that's not a wrong statement even if you're in the dark about whatever is
00:37:17
happening Yeah the more more work you're going to do the closer you're going to get to the truth is and I think by
00:37:23
making those statements like you said you give yourself a chance of somebody coming forward and and and confessing to
00:37:29
this yeah if I'm if I'm watching the news and I hear the sheriff department or the police chief state to the news we
00:37:37
have a lot of evidence to go through a lot of witnesses to talk to I'm sitting at home going [ __ ] what did I leave at
00:37:44
the crime scene who saw me somebody must have saw me and then you start getting scared and then you do things that don't
00:37:50
make sense if you don't decide to come forward and confess maybe those around you are going wait a second this guy's
00:37:56
not acting right he could have been involved and point the police in his Direction now I do understand the
00:38:03
grinstead family's frustration here because you know while they're not investigators I I I get where they're
00:38:10
coming from they're they are going to the Sheriff's Department there saying look the things that we saw at her home
00:38:15
just don't add up to us we're telling you it doesn't make sense to us that she just walked away and now months into
00:38:22
this that's that's going to back up their gut feeling well no and it's also a small town so what rumors are they
00:38:30
hearing uh from people in the community well we know this that Tera sister Anita
00:38:35
told the media that the Sheriff's Office had failed to convey important leads to
00:38:40
the gbi and this she was citing two witness reports of a black pickup truck likely a Chevy parked outside of tera's
00:38:49
home around 5: a.m. on Sunday morning October 23rd so she is last seen late Saturday night and then there's a
00:38:59
possible black pickup seen at her home very early Sunday morning actually this takes place under the cover of Darkness
00:39:07
mhm we won't start to see the rise of of the sun there till just after 6: a.m. on
00:39:13
this dat so at roughly at 5:00 a.m. this is under the cover of night now another
00:39:18
witness came forward too stating that they had seen a similar truck not so much at her home or park near her home
00:39:26
but in the area around the same time and said that they had had some kind of verbal exchange with a man that was
00:39:34
either standing next to the truck or possibly driving the truck so we have two separate Witnesses coming forward
00:39:41
regarding this strange black pickup truck possibly a Chevy yeah but Tara's sister is also going to state in this
00:39:48
interview that the family believes that whoever was responsible for taking Tera probably return the following day or at
00:39:56
at some point to kind of clean up the scene and try to take care of whatever evidence was left this could be when the
00:40:03
latex glove was dropped so the abductor or abductors return to the home and at some point drops the latex glove the
00:40:13
weird thing here too is that the glove had not been seen by two people who had who had stopped by Tara's house right on
00:40:21
that Sunday looking for her even though later we learn it was found in plain sight
00:40:27
so the glove was found in the front yard near the front stoop but not until Monday when the police were on the scene
00:40:34
yeah but some sometimes people just don't pay attention so well also I guess you know this would lead the family to
00:40:42
believe that this meant that the person who took Tara that they returned not only did they return but it was probably
00:40:50
possibly Sunday night because people had been there through the course of Sunday
00:40:54
and not seen this glove in May of 2006 the media began to report that investigators had recovered a DNA
00:41:02
sample from the grinstead crime scene nearly 150 people connected to Tera had been swabbed in a search for a match to
00:41:11
the DNA sample the gbi refused to confirm the existence of the DNA or address this part of the investigation
00:41:19
at all but by 2008 as the case was in danger of growing cold they were desperate for a break gbi special agent
00:41:28
Gary Rothwell revealed on cbs's 48 hours that the DNA sample was found on the latex glove and the sample belonged to a
00:41:38
male and he I I question my notes here but I do have in my notes that at some point it's reported that the DNA
00:41:45
belonged to an unknown white male MH but no match to any one who knew Tara had been made at this point and the sample
00:41:53
received no hits from the Georgia or the national DNA databases and you're probably thinking that they're testing
00:42:01
the ex-boyfriend at this point I would imagine anyone that's willing to participate uh unless they go and get a
00:42:08
court order after a very intense investigation and a lot of rumors in the community there's going to become three
00:42:17
major suspects through the course of the investigation authorities were obviously
00:42:21
looking into tera's personal life for any indication that anyone that she knew or was involved with could be a suspect
00:42:30
in this case of her disappearance and there were some suspects and few here's the thing few if any that they looked at
00:42:39
had a concrete Alibi that covered what the police believe to be The Disappearance window and the problem
00:42:46
with that is this window is it's large the the the time frame here is large starts from Saturday Saturday night
00:42:54
after 11: p.m. and it goes through all day Sunday right so there are the lives of several of these men and they they're
00:43:02
all men that were considered to be the top three suspects whether it be in the eyes of the public or through
00:43:10
investigators and I say they're all men because there seems to be no indication that at any point investigators ever
00:43:16
seriously considered that a woman could have been responsible this probably from
00:43:21
the DNA sample that they were they found on the glove so the first person of interest that I think we should discuss
00:43:28
Captain is somebody that I've referenced and that you've mentioned as well and this is Marcus Harper Marcus Harper was
00:43:34
an ex illa police officer who had been Tara's boyfriend for um about 5 to six years there's some
00:43:43
kind of conflicting reports on how long or how strong let's say the relationship
00:43:49
was for over the course of that time frame but Marcus and terara were by some accounts inseparable
00:43:56
uh they were a typical small town love story and I guess Tara assumed that one day they might get married according to
00:44:04
her friends anyway some people have stated that Marcus had a key to her home but after so okay so the two of them
00:44:13
from what I can gather is this their their relationship is a strange one from somebody looking this from the outside
00:44:21
in this far away right and somebody who's had some strange relationships yeah from what is reported is that the
00:44:28
two of them Marcus and terara they were very much in love but after 911 Marcus joined the mil military and served in
00:44:36
Afghanistan and Iraq in the Rangers after his tour Marcus became an independent contractor in Iraq because
00:44:45
of this job Marcus didn't spend much time in osilla obviously Al terara was not happy about Marcus's decision to
00:44:53
continue in the independent contractor role those guys make a lot of money though
00:44:58
she became increasingly aware that Marcus was not interested in marriage so the two began to bicker and to disagree
00:45:07
although friends said that things never got violent at any point now Connie grinstead this is Tara's stepmother who
00:45:15
was very close with her said that the relationship was stormy for the final two years of the relationship and that
00:45:21
they both at times dated other people but they would always come back to each other uh I guess they broke up in
00:45:28
October of 2004 this according to Marcus but they continued to see each other and
00:45:34
in a brief uh reconciliation the two vacationed together in Florida so a few months before terara
00:45:43
went missing in 2005 uh their relationship continued to be volatile finally terara sent Marcus a
00:45:52
letter when he was stationed abroad essentially breaking things off but then she appears to have changed her mind and
00:45:59
wanted to rekindle their relationship Marcus however said that they would remain broken up Tara did not accept
00:46:07
this and by all accounts she was devastated by Marcus's decision so it seems like one thinks they're on a break
00:46:14
and the other doesn't think they're on a break somebody might consider there to be a break the other one's not on the
00:46:19
same page and then you can flip it and reverse it almost that the the other one seems to think they're on a break and
00:46:24
the other does not seem to agree I guess she and Marcus continue to go back and forth about the state of things of their
00:46:31
actual relationship and at some point Tara even emailed Marcus's mother with some strange comments about something
00:46:38
possibly happening to her or to him because of the breakup let me just put this out there if you're in a
00:46:47
relationship adult adult relationship once you start reaching out to friends and family members uh it's probably it's
00:46:55
probably past uh past the state of no return yeah uh I think in in Tara's defense it sounds like she might have
00:47:04
been close with Marcus's mother um and that they had known each other for years possibly five or six years at this point
00:47:14
and I from what I can gather I know I'm just saying that the chances of you talking to a guy's mother and then
00:47:23
getting things turned back around because of that that are probably slim to none oh no I 100% agree I think she
00:47:30
was trying to confirm that Marcus had received her Communications because he was not he was not replying to her he
00:47:39
was not saying anything back to her people think this is a big red flag because he actually returns to town
00:47:46
without any communication to her and I kind of wonder if it's one of those situations where they they talked
00:47:53
multiple times after she you know at some point broke it off while he's over there and then there maybe there was a
00:48:00
conversation where he's like look this is just not going to work out I'd like to remain friends and then she's
00:48:06
contacted him again going hey no I really want this to work out and he's like hey it's not going to work out I
00:48:10
just want to remain friends and then when he went back to town he just thought you know what what's the point
00:48:16
of contacting her I mean you wouldn't necessarily just contact your ex just because you got
00:48:23
back because technically that's ex right now I actually though I I'm I'm going to
00:48:29
go the different Direction with it that's fine I actually think it was weird that he didn't contact her why
00:48:36
because there's like 3,000 people live in this town you're going to bump into the other person maybe even relatively
00:48:45
quick upon your return mhm you obviously cared for this person for years in my opinion I would at least say hey look
00:48:53
I'm going to be back in town I want wanted to let you know I don't really want to see you but I wanted to let you
00:48:58
know in advance because I don't I don't want things to be weird right so because
00:49:03
and am I wrong here though because things do get weird because he's back in town and she's unaware of his return no
00:49:11
I just think it's a difference of opinion I mean I I just don't find it that strange I mean if you guys broke up
00:49:17
then what's the point of contacting your ex when you when you return at some point terara found out that he had in
00:49:23
fact returned and he was hating someone and according to Connie grinstead Marcus
00:49:29
had told Tara that they were over for good and remember this is what we talked about before this is when the situation
00:49:36
happens that terara is so emotionally distraught about the end of their relationship that she had to pull her
00:49:42
car over when she was driving she called a friend to come pick her up and eventually she called in sick to work
00:49:49
the next day she also left work early at some point over the course of that week
00:49:55
and her sister Anita who spoke uh with her daily and knew all about this situation with Marcus said on cbs's
00:50:03
early show that Marcus and Tara had a huge public fight the week before Tara disappeared and this was about the
00:50:12
relationship being over and about Marcus apparently seeing someone at that time there are also some reports that one of
00:50:20
the phone calls that Tara received during the course of the barbecue the night that she had disappeared at Dr
00:50:26
Davis's house M uh this would be around 10:30 p.m. was from a friend of hers who
00:50:32
was at a local bar who had saw Marcus there and was just calling to let terara know why do people do
00:50:40
that hey I'm out having a couple drinks and I saw your ex with his new girlfriend and then called the person
00:50:49
that's a that's a up loser in my in my opinion I mean I I I don't know I I feel like that's like throwing fuel on the
00:50:58
fire of her her sadness you know well it's stirring the pot for both Marcus and terara it's somebody that's sitting
00:51:05
at a bar and and keep in mind we're going off of just this very simple statement of I'm sitting at a bar I see
00:51:12
your ex-boyfriend here I'm going to call you just so you know that he's here right there could be a lot more involved
00:51:17
in this situation but in my opinion it's just somebody stirring the pot throwing
00:51:22
themselves into a situation that and at least one of the two that were in the relationship didn't want to be in a
00:51:29
situation where they had to have communication with one another right so to jump in there seems to be ill advised
00:51:36
at best so this Marcus guy he doesn't have a alibi or a solid Alibi for the night that Tera went missing well that's
00:51:43
that's actually not the case apparently he has an alibi for that night Marcus told police and this was backed up by
00:51:51
witnesses that he was with his stepsister and her boyfriend friend and some other friends at a local Tavern in
00:51:58
Fitzgerald which is 10 Mi away on the night of September October 22nd a friend's band was playing there that
00:52:07
night now we know this is very likely because one of Tara's friends saw him and then called her and told her right
00:52:15
right so sometime after 1:00 a.m. he leaves this bar and he went to the osilla police department to find his
00:52:21
buddy Shane Fletcher who was a active osilla police officer the police dispatcher notified Fletcher that Marcus
00:52:31
was there and was looking for him this was around 1:49 a.m. they met up and Marcus worked Fletcher's beat with him
00:52:39
during this time they were seen by and spoke to several other people police records of the calls that came in that
00:52:47
evening show that Fletcher and Marcus were responding to calls together including a last call the last call of
00:52:53
that evening was at at a 24-hour gas station which concluded around 4:28 a.m. apparently this I found this to be
00:53:03
strange apparently in osilla uh this is a small enough town that X cops can go to a bar and then follow it up with
00:53:11
hanging out with a you know with an active police officer and there's some reports that state that it almost gives
00:53:19
the impression that Marcus was behaving as an active officer that night right so after this ride along Marcus
00:53:28
says that he then went home and he it's time to go to bed you know it's it's almost 5 in the morning so while he
00:53:35
can't account for his time after 5:00 a.m. on October 23rd investigators have they had no evidence that he was any way
00:53:45
involved in what happened to Tara they spoke with nine different Witnesses this included police officers the dispatcher
00:53:52
and civilians who all back backed up Marcus's story so his Alibi up until 5:00 a.m. is
00:54:00
airtight now his family this being his mother and father told investigators that he was with them on Sunday and
00:54:09
according to his lawyer Marcus accounted to gbi for every minute of his time during the time from when terara was
00:54:17
last seen until she was reported missing on Monday morning despite The Alibi though Captain Marcus was the leading
00:54:25
suspect in the eyes of the public in their eyes Marcus could have conspired with his police officer buddies to cover
00:54:33
up the murder of terara right and that would make sense why we found a glove well further he was trained in stealth
00:54:40
tactics as a member of the Special Forces so one could assume he could likely kill someone and possibly dispose
00:54:49
of them maybe even permanently rumors flew that Marcus had been jealous of of terara dating other
00:54:56
men and so that he had killed her now on the advice of his attorney Marcus appeared on TV as the subject of
00:55:04
interviews this was to clear up rumors and inuendo being leveled at him on social media and as the investigation
00:55:12
dragged on he was filmed in profile so as not to compromise his Security in Iraq uh in one interview Marcus said
00:55:23
that he and Tara never had the huge argument that Tara's sister Anita had referred to this being about another
00:55:30
woman that Marcus was dating he said that the last time that he had seen Tara was about 9:00 a.m. on October 14th so
00:55:38
more than a week before she disappeared this was when Tara had turned up at his house Marcus said that Tara had
00:55:44
threatened to commit suicide though he added that she had returned later that same day and they seem to work things
00:55:51
out she asked him for a hug and they both parted and went their separate ways with the understanding that that would
00:55:58
be the last time that they hung out together now according to a report that would that I found in Crime Library
00:56:05
Tara's friends and family dispute Marcus's allegations that Tara was suicidal they say that after terara left
00:56:13
Marcus's on the 14th she then went to a tanning salon and then hung out with relatives and they state that that
00:56:20
behavior was hardly in their opinion that of a suicide depressive person well I mean his claims early on were they
00:56:29
were pretty pretty harsh I mean he was basically saying she pulled a Gone Girl you know that she you know that he did
00:56:37
not believe that she was dead and they would have to actually you know show him a body to to prove that she was actually
00:56:44
murdered well and by all accounts too Marcus was helpful in Cooperative with the investigation even giving police a
00:56:52
DNA sample and it was determined he was not a match to the sample that they found on the latex glove and he says he
00:57:00
spoke to gbi four or five times and he even let them search his truck using luminol now Marcus not being named a
00:57:09
suspect by authorities did not deter tera's family from being convinced that he was somehow involved in her
00:57:16
disappearance or murder right according to Marcus Anita outright accused him of harming terara the search that the
00:57:24
grinstead family members attempted of the private property this is what we discussed earlier was in fact on
00:57:31
Marcus's property this was in March of 2006 Terrace family brought kadaver dogs and volunteers to search the 100 Acre
00:57:40
area of land surrounding Marcus's home which had not been searched by the sheriff's department they did not have
00:57:47
permission to be there however a neighbor of Marcus's had given Searchers some permission to access his property
00:57:55
which buts right up to Marcus's but apparently the the irn county sheriff showed up and they were threatening to
00:58:04
arrest The Searchers this was in order to keep them off of Marcus's private property Marcus did however agree to a
00:58:12
subsequent search of his property but he wanted this to be conducted by actual law enforcement this did take place he
00:58:20
later declined to press any charges against the people that were trespassing on on to his land now this is a very
00:58:27
tough situation to be in because you have a relationship that didn't work out now who knows why right but you did care
00:58:33
about this person at some point so even if they're acting a little distraught or
00:58:38
you're not in favor of how they're acting towards you you still have feelings towards them and they go
00:58:42
missing but now it gets a little weird because everybody's pointing the finger at you it seems like time and time again
00:58:49
he's at least being cooperative so it's it's strange to me how long he was the number one suspect and it seemed like in
00:58:59
the Public's uh opinion well I it seems to me like he was always the number one suspect in The public's opinion I
00:59:08
question how long he was a suspect in the police's opinion and because what I mean by that is his actions I actually
00:59:18
could not see him a way to be more Cooperative MH okay I can understand not have wanting a random group of people
00:59:27
showing up searching your property what if somebody were to plant something you don't know who these people you don't
00:59:33
trust them right and him being former police I can understand well he trusted the police and he trusted the system you
00:59:40
know and what he's going to do is say look I don't know who you people are so you can't search my property however in
00:59:47
in the in the course of being fully transparent toward the investigation of this missing woman I will allow law
00:59:53
enforcement to search my property the only thing that I there was one thing that I found weird here well I I should
01:00:01
be I should be fair to Marcus because this is this is the shoe on the other foot kind of thing right so he did agree
01:00:08
to take a polygraph test but this was not administered by uh local law enforcement this was he had through his
01:00:16
attorney hired his own person to administer the test and that was the test that was submitted to law
01:00:23
enforcement I that seems a little strange but saying that if I were if I were under the microscope I wouldn't
01:00:33
even agree to even if I were somebody asked me this a month ago um what what if you were 100% innocent and you were
01:00:40
being looked at in a murder investigation I said well first thing first I would get a lawyer and second
01:00:46
thing I would not take a polygraph test and they said well why not I said because you have nothing to gain by
01:00:51
taking the polygraph test if you're completely innocent you have nothing to gain from taking the polygraph test yeah
01:00:57
but some sometimes lawyers will have their clients do it just just so the lawyer gets a read on the client yeah
01:01:04
and gets to charge the client a little extra kolola uh one final element that contributed to the public speculation
01:01:11
about Marcus and gave rise to even more conspiracy theories this would have been
01:01:16
about two weeks after terror's disappearance there was some kind of strange big fire that took place on a
01:01:22
nearby property this is on Snap Dragon Road the fire destroyed a home and an SUV the house for whatever reason was
01:01:33
supposedly being car taken by Marcus's buddy this is Michael Langford uh who was an active osilla police officer
01:01:42
police took kadaver dogs through the burned out scene I have police listed in here and I I I question if this was
01:01:50
police or if it was an outside Source but at some point search dogs or kadav dogs did go to the scene of this fire
01:01:58
mhm um they stated that nothing was found in relation to Tera there are reports out there that one of these dogs
01:02:06
hit on something um apparently that was most likely a septic line or some sewage
01:02:13
um needless to say this connection between Marcus and this suspicious fire right
01:02:19
after terara went missing did not improve the the of public opinion right right right and then let's go on to
01:02:29
suspect number two shall we this is a man named Anthony Vickers who is Anthony Vickers he was a 20-year-old at the time
01:02:36
of teror disappearance 20-year-old former student of Terror who by all accounts had some kind of there all
01:02:45
right I I say all accounts but this is a strange thing because there are some small reports out there that state he
01:02:52
was obsessed with her there are other reports out there and Anthony vicker's own words that they were having an
01:02:58
actual relationship at the time of her disappearance or shortly before an intimate relationship yeah right so and
01:03:06
there is uh actual accounts of them hanging out so it's weird because you get kind of two sides of the story but
01:03:12
in the middle you do have this scenario where she is hanging out with one of her
01:03:16
former students yes well and then you also have this strange thing with Anthony Vickers that took place in March
01:03:22
of 2005 when Anthony was arrested for showing up at Tara's home and apparently he's banging on the door demanding to
01:03:30
speak with her she's inside the home at the time but refusing to answer the door
01:03:36
inside the home with terara was a male visitor and I guess she finally opened the door right and at that time Anthony
01:03:45
Vickers tried to forcibly enter the home let me in like fear and at one point he
01:03:51
grabs her arm the male visitor at Tera house was Heath Dykes who is a Perry County detective osilla PD was called
01:04:02
and Anthony cursed out the arresting officers Terror pressed charges against Anthony he was charged with the
01:04:10
disorderly conduct and later the charges were dropped now that's not the story he
01:04:16
tells people the story he tells people that he was over there hanging out they got in an argument one of the neighbors
01:04:23
calls cuz they hear hears them arguing mhm the cops show up and then he continues you because he's angry
01:04:31
continues to argue with the police officers and then they have to arrest him I don't know I must have missed the
01:04:36
part where he said that they were hanging out but what what I recall him stating to kind of clarify the
01:04:44
situation is that he lived relatively close to okay so the the Police Department osilla police department is
01:04:52
relatively close to Tera grin home that she's renting and that at some course the neighbor like you said the
01:05:00
neighbors called the police so he would be unaware that the police were on their
01:05:05
way right but whatever happened while he was there according to Anthony Vickers it was kind of over and done with in his
01:05:13
mind he felt like he had said what he wanted to say whether regardless of how loudly he said it that he was he was
01:05:21
preparing to leave her home that he wasn't it was not going to escalate further that he was going to leave her
01:05:28
home and before as he was walking to his vehicle the police showed up because they were so close right had they had
01:05:35
she not lived in that close proximity to the police department he would have been
01:05:40
well on his way and these charges would have never been brought in the first place this is relatively close in time
01:05:46
from when she went missing right no this was in March of 2005 so I mean it's the
01:05:53
same year it's seven seven months before authorities did interview Anthony very quickly after tera's disappearance
01:06:01
Anthony also agreed to take a polygraph and the vicker's family property was searched Anthony maintained that he and
01:06:08
Tara had some type of longterm romantic relationship those are his words that they were keeping Under Wraps because it
01:06:16
would damage tera's career and reputation to be involved with a young ex student keep in mind at this time he
01:06:24
would have been one of her students just years before right now none of Tara's friends or family support this thought
01:06:32
that the two were involved together and another Wrinkle in this whole case is that regarding that incident of Anthony
01:06:42
Vickers being arrested one of the osilla PD Officers responding to that situation
01:06:48
at Tera home was none other than sha Fletcher remember we said that this Sean Fletcher was Marcus Harper's cop buddy
01:06:57
right they hung out the night that that she disappeared and terara later filed an
01:07:04
official complaint against Fletcher because he violated his duty to protect her privacy regarding information that
01:07:12
he learned during the course of performing his duties as an officer so so he told his friend about this uh
01:07:21
student yes well yeah he tells marus at a later time stud that hey we showed up to your ex's house one night and there
01:07:30
were two people over there Heath dkes was there and two men and Anthony Vickers was outside and the result was
01:07:37
we arrested Anthony Vickers I guess now would be the appropriate time to talk about Heath dikes and he's probably the
01:07:43
most uh interesting suspect I think yeah Captain Heath dkes he was a married Perry Georgia police officer who had
01:07:53
dated Tera grinstead when they were attending Hawkinsville high school together so a former relationship with
01:08:01
this person he was also close with Tara's family now it was Heath who was at Tara's home when Anthony Vickers was
01:08:09
arrested for that disorderly conduct we know that in the course of of their investigation police heard from tera's
01:08:17
Neighbors that Heath was a regular visitor to tera's home even though he had lived over an hour away some say uh
01:08:27
that Heath would deliberately Park he would deliberately not Park his vehicle in Tara's driveway as though trying to
01:08:34
avoid people noticing that he was there right uh when Tara's mother could not reach her on that Sunday in October 2005
01:08:43
she did call Heath dkes and asked him to check on Tara Heath left Tara many voicemails that day and called her cell
01:08:52
phone close to like 30 times times over the course of the day eventually not hearing from Tara he drives out to
01:08:59
osilla he knocks on her door I don't know how long he's there for and we now know obviously Tara
01:09:07
didn't never answer the door uh perhaps he presumably he saw her car there and he decided that she was probably not
01:09:15
interested in any visitors or she was not home and didn't want to take his phone calls so he then tucks his
01:09:21
business card into her front door and he leaves and I'm kind of unclear about this maybe you can clear this up are
01:09:28
they romantic at this time I I don't think anybody has a clear picture of what their involvement was together okay
01:09:36
what is weird is that he would be responding to her mother not knowing where she is and we do know that at
01:09:43
least on one occasion regardless of what the neighbors say whether he parked in her driveway or would park down the
01:09:49
street and walk over regardless of what they say we know from osilla Police Department reports of the Anthony vicker
01:09:56
situation that at least on one occasion he was at her home right for an unknown reason it seems but they could just be
01:10:04
friends I mean they could have just well by all accounts by his account and by um
01:10:11
Tara's family's account he's described as a friend of the family okay so um like you said it he could be he could
01:10:20
just be friends with her but of course you know regardless the public has a field day with the gossip surrounding
01:10:27
Heath dikes right now Heath Alibi for that Saturday night when she was last seen he was with his wife uh who said
01:10:35
that he was at home with her all night long but he was also one of the people who had stopped by teras on Sunday and
01:10:42
yet you know we don't know what time or when or why that latex glove was dropped
01:10:48
at the scene yeah but if it were to be there when he arrives to check up on on her well he doesn't see this glove
01:10:55
that's in plain sight see I always wondered that sometimes these Law Enforcement Officers will carry latex
01:11:03
gloves in their back pocket I always wondered if he you know reached out because he left his business card you
01:11:10
know did he Le did he reach into his wallet and accidentally pull out this glove mhm um so I thought long and hard
01:11:18
about this uh heat dkes character and what his could his involvement have been so
01:11:25
my first thought is this if look he's he's not just a police officer he's he's listed as a captain and a detective so
01:11:33
he has some very good inside knowledge of the way that these things work and the way to conduct yourself during the
01:11:41
course of an investigation especially if you're being looked at and what I mean by this is I think if he had been
01:11:50
considered a strong suspect and if he was getting a lot of heat for this I would have suspected that he would
01:11:58
lawyer up very quickly and that he would probably submit DNA and that they could
01:12:05
clear him very quickly in this I did ask a um detective he's not active in the sense that he's out in any crime scenes
01:12:15
actively to this day but he would have been 10 years or so ago and that's roughly about the time you know that's
01:12:21
when she disappeared right and I asked him I said 'l um I would imagine you know duh they have your meaning law
01:12:30
enforcement they have your fingerprints on file and they have they have people's
01:12:35
fingerprints on file for any number of reasons but if you're in law enforcement they have your fingerprints on file
01:12:41
there is some thought that there was a fingerprint found at the scene didn't report on it because it seems to be it
01:12:48
seems to be sketchy if that is in fact true right but but we also have I witness accounts of him being at the
01:12:55
house before then so does a does a fingerprint mean that this guy's guilty right so there that leads you to want to
01:13:03
know the situation with DNA and that's why I say if he were innocent he would get a lawyer well even
01:13:10
if he was guilty get a lawyer but if he were innocent he would submit his DNA very quickly and they could clear him
01:13:15
and say that glove at least didn't belong to Heath dikes if the glove don't fit you must AC quit so I asked this
01:13:21
officer I said you know 10 years ago or even today do you think that they would have crime scene technicians detectives
01:13:29
police officers if they would have those person's DNA on file and he said he didn't think that they would and he knew
01:13:36
that 10 years ago they did not well this is also a very small community as well so well and he brought up he brought up
01:13:43
something that that we should point out is that it would be expensive to have everyone's DNA on file first of all
01:13:50
right and second of all I said well I said how do I know that because I told him I said here's my concern with this
01:13:56
latex glove I'm putting a whole lot of weight and a lot of people other people are putting a whole lot of weight into
01:14:02
the evidentiary value of this latex glove where it could just be have left it was found outside right if had it
01:14:10
been found inside inside I would put more weight to it but outside you wonder is this just something that happens to
01:14:16
be there and it's screwing up the whole investigation right because people could
01:14:20
be checking the DNA against that glove and and it doesn't match and they go okay well you're cleared and this glove
01:14:27
could have just came from a neighbor's house or this glove could have came from who knows where well and what I was
01:14:33
doing when I was talking with this person was I said you know I don't give him the name of the victim or the name
01:14:39
of the case that way he doesn't he's not answering my questions with any preconceived thoughts or Notions of his
01:14:45
own MH and so I just said look what's the chances of a detective or a crime scene Tech technician
01:14:53
dropping a glove at the scene he said first off it it would be in his career and in his understanding and his his
01:15:04
experience that never happens that never happens and I said well I said how do we
01:15:10
make certain that it didn't belong to any of those people that showed up on Monday and that's why nobody saw it
01:15:15
until that Monday that nobody saw it on Sunday and he said well the first way that they would do it was that they
01:15:23
would typically wear latex gloves that aren't you know you don't just go to Home Depot and buy the brand that the
01:15:29
law enforcement's using he said the fastest and the cheapest way to clear it from being anybody involved in law
01:15:35
enforcement would be to check the brand and the make of the latex glove and he said they had never he had never worked
01:15:43
a scene where they were using a glove that was common to anything else in the scene so I found that to be interesting
01:15:50
now what he did bring up immediately after after after that thought had passed he said who would leave the glove
01:15:57
there would be medical technicians you know people showing up in an ambulance EMTs he said they constantly leave
01:16:06
things at crime scenes that's right yeah but they have a different different concern they're there to save someone's
01:16:13
life while police are there to pres preserve the scene right but it's not out of the realm of possibilities that
01:16:19
it could happen you know somebody dropped a glove and felt stupid about it and just never brought it to anybody's
01:16:26
attention but you think if they're checking DNA off that glove somebody' say hey by the way that's my glove I
01:16:31
dropped that yeah yeah if they're going to the point of eliminating suspects using the DNA found on that glove now
01:16:38
the interesting thing we don't know that for sure the interesting thing though here Captain is
01:16:45
that with his comment about EMTs constantly leaving things at the scene we know that that couldn't be the case
01:16:52
here because the ambulance was never called right it never there was no need for EMTs to arrive on the scene so that
01:16:58
didn't happen then but what I find Curious here about the glove and about Heath DK's business
01:17:06
card two things one how does a detective show up to that scene and not notice a latex glove in plain sight that seems
01:17:15
very strange to me they that that is what they are exactly trained for to detect and deduce things that the
01:17:24
average man or woman would not at any given scene and he's not just showing up to a friend's house he's showing up to a
01:17:31
friend's house where he's been called he's been alerted by her relative stating I'm concerned I've not heard
01:17:39
from Tera right but that glove could have been somewhere outside where he couldn't see it and then moved by you
01:17:48
know the the weather a dog could have been moved at at some point where it's in plain sight so people go oh man how
01:17:57
can you not see this glove well it's like well it might have moved you know doesn't mean that the perpetrator came
01:18:05
back in between that time or anything uh the glove itself could have just moved mhm I also wonder about the his business
01:18:13
card being found in the door and I state that because we by the accounts that I stated on our
01:18:21
show the door or at least a door to the home was open prior to police arriving on the scene all right so what you're
01:18:30
saying is that at some point he comes by to check on her she doesn't answer the door he takes his card and he puts it in
01:18:37
the door yeah then at some point that door is open but when they come to investigate his card is still in that
01:18:44
door well so I'm kind of going down two roads with this one being what you just mentioned that the door was open prior
01:18:52
to to police arriving and then they're saying we found this card stuck in the door mhm where if the door was open it
01:19:00
would not presumably would not have still remained stuck in the door unless they're talking about like a screen door
01:19:06
and then so the screen door was open but his door his card was stuck in the house
01:19:10
door I'm not really for sure no what I mean is that the home was entered right like so somebody entered
01:19:20
the home so regardless if there's one door there or two at that particular entrance exit to the home both would
01:19:27
have had to been opened to enter the home so somebody entered and then then possibly put the card back what I'm what
01:19:34
I'm getting at though is I'm I'm not saying it's impossible I'm saying that there's there's cause to believe that
01:19:42
potentially a different door was accessed by by the neighbor who entered the home before police arrived on the
01:19:50
scene MH you know like uh I've I've had a I've lived in a residence before where
01:19:56
the front door and the back door had different keys to them and maybe he only had a key to the back door because he
01:20:03
was a neighbor or to a side door whatever with but but the other thing I'm getting at
01:20:10
is we have the detective who does not see the glove if it is in fact in the yard at the time that he was present at
01:20:17
the house when checking on Tara we also have a na a man by the name of Jared luk
01:20:23
this was a colleague of Tara who had dropped by the house sometime on that Sunday he was there to retrieve a
01:20:30
forgotten water bowl I guess at some point she had watched or or pet sitted for him right and so he drops by to
01:20:37
retrieve this water bowl that was forgotten he doesn't see the glove there either here here's what I wonder
01:20:46
so because is there there's two doors right let's just we're assuming there's two doors doors Two Doors where in her
01:20:55
house to get in and out of her house okay but the neighbor is friends with her the the guy retrieving the bowl is
01:21:03
friends with her the cop is friends with her mhm some people's houses like you know I'd visit your house your old house
01:21:12
a bunch and I'd probably use your back door the majority of the time right so if I if somebody said hey Nick went
01:21:22
missing you go checking on them I'd say no U no but then I'd go over and check on them and then I'd probably knock on
01:21:29
your back door right so I just wonder if depending on which door these people checked or didn't check or knock on is
01:21:38
that one of the reasons why they didn't see the glove no and I get what you're saying but the the route that I'm going
01:21:44
down with this is that a lot of people are saying hey look the glove ended up there after
01:21:51
these two people went to the the house that that's what a lot of people would suggest that the evidence would show
01:21:57
that because the detective didn't see the glove and because this guy that she worked with or a colleague of hers
01:22:02
didn't see the glove that that that somebody came the thought is that whoever took her came back sometime that
01:22:09
Sunday night cleaned up the scene and in the course of that action dropped the glove upon leaving the area right what
01:22:18
I'm what I'm getting at is if you want to argue that it's like that that's when the person cleaned the
01:22:25
scene my argument would be okay if if that's your one bit of evidence that the scene was cleaned after those two events
01:22:32
took place of the people dropping by the Home my other argument would be well if
01:22:36
the person came to clean the scene after those two people had been there the card
01:22:40
the detective's card was still stuck in the door if that person accessed the house through that particular door the
01:22:48
the card likely would not have been stuck in the door right what I'm getting at is I believe they cancel each other
01:22:56
out and I think that it's I don't think that the glove not being seen by either of those two people points me to believe
01:23:05
that the person returned on Sunday night right I do think that there are certainly some things that show that
01:23:10
somebody cleaned up the scene that they manipulated the crime scene I personally
01:23:15
just think that it happened sometime much earlier than that right and I think that the things that were most
01:23:20
manipulated in this situation are things with inside of the home that would not have been seen by either the detective
01:23:27
or the colleague returning to collect the water bowl maybe some things with the car but I think those are debatable
01:23:34
and I think you and I agree on those being debatable the seat and the clay or the mud on the tires right correct do do
01:23:41
we have time real quick for there are a couple of other potential Persons of Interest that I want to make sure that
01:23:48
we mention before we get to tomorrow's show mhm so the thought being that there are also some theories we talk about
01:23:57
three guys that knew Tera very well there were also some theories that Tara could have been killed by someone that
01:24:03
she was not dating or was not involved with maybe possibly an obsessed stalker so I want to make sure that we bring up
01:24:11
a situation that took place in 2001 Tara had been a victim of a stalker and she had actually pressed charges against an
01:24:20
individual the stalker was unnamed and also only received probation for their actions I'm doing a little
01:24:29
speculating here Captain but my guess is maybe the reason why this stalker is never
01:24:36
named either one of two things took place either the stalker just pled guilty to the charges with the agreement
01:24:43
that his name would not be publicized right or two it with her being a teacher it might have been a
01:24:50
minor yeah it might have been some yeah male under the age of 18 and another strange twist in 2010 a former student
01:24:59
of terce committed suicide and left behind a note listing 12 names who he claimed were involved in killing terara
01:25:08
the list of names has never been released but we can assume that law enforcement vetted the names on this
01:25:14
list pretty carefully this according to Dr Maurice Godwin he says that the 12 people on the list all gave DNA samples
01:25:23
and were cleared these are the suspects and these are the theories that people would ponder over and debate for years
01:25:30
until recently there's been a break in the case until tomorrow everybody out there
01:25:42
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