by Seamus McGraw

March 14, 2006

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OCILLA, GA (Crime Library)  —  Frustrated over what they see as a lack of real progress in the nearly five-month-old investigation into the disappearance of high school teacher and former beauty queen Tara Grinstead, friends and family members are taking aim at Irwin County Sheriff Donnie Youghn, accusing him of throwing up roadblocks, physically and literally in their investigation.

Tara Grinstead

Repeated telephone calls to Youghn were not returned, but according to family members, the tensions surfaced last weekend when Tara's family, accompanied by cadaver dogs and several volunteers, turned up to search a roughly 100-acre swath of land surrounding the home of Tara's longtime former boyfriend.

Marcus Harper

The boyfriend, Marcus Harper a former Ocilla police officer and Iraq War veteran, has not been identified as a suspect, nor has anyone else, according to an official with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, adding that the investigation remains a missing person case.

Harper's attorney, Thomas Pujadas, has noted that Harper has been a subject of speculation, both among Tara 's supporters and on nationally televised talk shows, and authorities have privately fretted that the focus on him by what some officials describe as "amateur sleuths" could compromise the probe.

But Tara 's supporters, including her brother-in-law Larry Gattis, have argued that law enforcement officials, most notably Youghn's office, have failed to aggressively pursue key leads.

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