Investigators had two key pieces of evidence when South Georgia teacher Tara Grinstead disappeared in 2005.
There was a call from a payphone just blocks away from Grinstead’s home. And there was a latex glove found in the front yard of the home, a now-retired GBI agent testified Wednesday. The GBI didn’t plan to release those details to the public, Gary Rothwell said from the witness stand.
But Grinstead’s disappearance quickly made national headlines, making it harder to keep some details quiet. Too many people knew about the glove, Rothwell said. Grinstead’s home became not just a potential crime scene, but the spot where the media descended in the small town of Ocilla.
“It was something that we were not expecting and we had a lot of difficulty handling,” Rothwell said. “We had a lot of information coming in and we did not know how to handle it for quite some time.”
The trial continued Wednesday for Ryan Alexander Duke, charged with murder in the death of Grinstead. She was reported missing when she failed to show up to teach her Irwin County High School history classes. A former beauty pageant winner, Grinstead 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.
But prosecutors contend that when Duke confessed, he discussed the payphone call he allegedly made to Grinstead’s home. The call showed up on Grinstead’s caller ID, Rothwell testified, but not on her phone records due to the technology available at the time.
“Call detail records are not reliable in so far as capturing all calls or capturing all calls completely,” he said. “Local calls were not revenue calls so they did not really capture them.”
When the latex glove was located and taken to the GBI crime lab, investigators weren’t sure it would provide any evidence. Body fluids, rather than what is called “touch” DNA, were easier to examine for evidence, Rothwell said.
“I was hopeful but doubtful,” he said. “But I had confidence in our lab that if it could be done, they would be able to do it.”
The glove allowed forensic scientists to find two separate DNA profiles, including Grinstead and a then-unidentified man, Rothwell said. Numerous other men were swabbed during the investigation. Years later, the second DNA profile was identified as belonging to Duke.
The names of Duke and Dukes, along with information about their possible roles in Grinstead’s disappearance, had been told to local law enforcement years before the GBI announced arrests in the case. That information was later sent to the GBI, which maintained a massive investigative file in the case.
But the GBI never followed up on that information, Rothwell testified. Why? It’s possible the local police report indicated the tip was not credible, he said.
“That is a question that has bothered me for years,” he said. “It happened and it was my fault.”
After a lunch break, the jury was dismissed until Thursday, when the trial will resume at 9 a.m.
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