by Seamus McGraw

March 15, 2006

Un-manned arial vehicle and the men who operate them

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OCILLA, GA (Crime Library)  —   In the weeks after schoolteacher and former beauty queen Tara Grinstead vanished, experts from Texas EquuSearch, aided by aerial drones provided by RP Flight Systems, combed the countryside around Ocilla, searching for clues to the young woman's disappearance.

Gene Robinson

Though the searches yielded little, they were detailed and diligent, says Gene Robinson of the Texas based RP Flight Systems, and at every step along the way, the Irwin County Sheriff's Department was on hand. "Let me tell you," Robinson said in a telephone interview Wednesday, "those folks bent over backwards for us. We've been on a lot of searches and those people did more for us than a lot of other agencieshave ever done."

Marcus Harper

Robinson's comments came as tension has mounted in recent days between the family and friends of the missing woman and the Irwin County Sheriff's Department over the progress of the search. Those tensions came to a head last weekend when family members, accompanied by volunteers, showed up to scour roughly 100 acres surrounding the home of Marcus Harper's parents. Harper, a former Ocilla police officer and Iraq War veteran who dated Tara for six years, is one of several men who have been questioned in connection with the case. Authorities have never identified him, or any of the other men, as suspects in what remains officially a missing person case.

But that hasn't stopped gossip and speculation, and in recent weeks, tensions have mounted between Harper and Grinstead's family. Those strains were apparent during last weekend's search. That search turned contentious when members of Harper's family, who believed that they were being harassed, according to Harper's lawyer Thomas Pujadas, contacted the sheriff's department. According to Pujadas, the sheriff's department responded appropriately and was on hand to maintain order.

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Tensions Mount as Search for Tara Grinstead Drags On

Wild Rumors Tar Kin of Missing Georgia School Teacher

EquuSearch Plans Hi-Tech Search This Weekend For Tara Grinstead

Beauty Queen & Teacher Tara Grinstead Goes Missing