Popular, bubbly young woman vanishes from Ocilla, a tiny South Georgia town, after helping at beauty pageant.
By Steve Huff
Oscilla, GA, — (Crime Library)
"This lady is a wonderful person and great friend..." ~ a colleague of Tara Grinstead's at Irwin County High School.
According to the daily schedule for Irwin County High School, located in South Georgia, about 180 miles down Interstate 75 from Atlanta, first bell would have rung at 8:05 a.m. the morning of October 24, 2005. Around 8:10, first announcements would have been made over the school intercom.
Sometime that morning, perhaps right away, people noticed that Miss Grinstead was missing.
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| Tara Grinstead |
By lunchtime, at 11:40 that morning, as students and faculty began to dig into their choice of quesadillas or pizza, they were likely quite worried. Teachers just don't fail to show up one day, without securing a substitute, without calling someone. Teachers like Tara Grinstead would doubtless find such a thing unthinkable.
The Hawkinsville, GA native, age 30, was a ninth-grade social studies teacher and administrator. The former Miss Tifton, GA of 1999 and 1998 Miss Charisma in the Georgia Miss Sweet Potato Pageant was noted for her bubbly personality and her dedication to her job. Tara Grinstead was a teacher because she wanted to help people.
The last night anyone saw Tara, Saturday, October 22, 2005, that's just what Tara Grinstead was doing — helping people. She attended the Miss Sweet Potato Pageant held at the Grand, a 1930's-era restored Art Deco Movie Theater in downtown Fitzgerald, GA, 9 miles north of Tara Grinstead's home in tiny Ocilla, and assisted contestants with hair and makeup. An interview Tara gave about the Miss Tifton pageant to the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College paper, The Stallion, in 2002, might explain why she remained involved in local beauty contests:
"...Miss Tifton symbolizes great achievement for women. Miss Tifton is a role model and it is a job. This is a scholarship pageant, not a beauty pageant. Miss Tifton is a local franchise of the Miss America Pageant. Miss America is the largest provider of scholarships to women in the world..."
After Tara Grinstead was reported missing to local, Ocilla, GA authorities and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, it was discovered that she'd made it home that Saturday from Sweet Potato Pageant. The clothes she was last known to wear were at the house, as were her car and cellphone. All that seemed to be missing at the time was Tara Grinstead, her purse, and keys.
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