by Seamus McGraw

March 30, 2006

advertisement

OCILLA, GA (Crime Library)  —   Another tip, another search, one more chance to put an end to the now five-month-old mystery of what happened to beauty queen turned high school teacher Tara Grinstead.

Tara Grinstead

This time, as family members and volunteers prepared to scour the remote swamps and shallow lakes outside Ocilla this weekend, they are keeping their destination a secret, in part, they say to avoid tipping off any potential suspects. Instead, they will disclose the targeted site, a small patch of land known to only a few in town, and then only as a kind of hidden haven, only on Saturday morning when the searchers convene.

As many as six dog teams are expected to join, the search, said Larry Gattis, which was prompted by what he would describe only as a "hot tip."

Gattis also said he is certain that the search will not trigger the kind of contentious confrontation that occurred last week when teams of searchers fanned out to scour property owned by the family of Tara's former boyfriend, Marcus Harper, a man who has been the target of rumors since the young woman vanished on Oct. 22. Authorities have not identified Harper, or any of the other men in Tara 's life as suspects, and are still treating the matter as a missing person's case.

Maurice Godwin

But family members have long since given up hopes of finding Tara alive. In recent weeks, they have been working with a criminologist, Dr. Maurice Godwin, whom they brought in, and have also been talking with psychic profiler and Court TV personality Carla Baron. They have come to the conclusion, Gattis said, that Tara was the victim of foul play, and now are looking only for her body or clues to the identity of her killer.

But Gattis contends that the psychic and the criminologist have also helped them get a clearer picture of what happened in the hours around Tara 's disappearance.

Next Page

Return to full Tara Grinstead coverage

Photo Gallery

Video Clips

For more daily crime news