The Mysterious Disappearance of Tara Grinstead
Men Quizzed
Within days, a reward now grown to $80,000 was offered and, motivated by a real desire to see Tara's safe return, an army of professional and volunteer searchers, on horseback, in helicopters, on foot and aboard ATV's began coming the more than 350-square miles of Irwin County looking for any sign of the missing woman. From time to time, they would stumble across something, and for a moment, the searchers would hold their breaths in wary anticipation. In one instance, a woman's t-shirt emblazoned with the logo "Irwin County Women's Softball" was found, bagged and sent for testing. The results have not yet been released, but authorities have said they hold out little hope that it will ultimately be linked to Tara. For nearly two weeks, as national media attention began to be focused on the case, the search continued.
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And in the meantime, authorities said, they aggressively pursued other avenues in the investigation. Almost immediately after her disappearance, investigators began talking with Harper, Dykes, and others, among them Rhett Roberts, the son of the couple who rented the house to Tara, whom she had dated briefly following her breakup with Harper. They also quizzed young Anthony Vickers, a 20-year-old former student who had, by all accounts, developed an unhealthy attachment to the young teacher, and was once arrested on a disorderly person's charge after banging on Tara's door repeatedly.
All of the men cooperated with the probe. At least two of them agreed to submit to polygraph tests. In fact, Harper, who had retained a family friend as his attorney, arranged to have his done by a private polygrapher when his attorney was unable to be present out of a prior commitment on the day the authorities had scheduled his test.
Nothing in those interviews, authorities have said, provided them with any information to suggest that Tara Grinstead had been the victim of foul play.