Former Beauty Queen and Ocilla, GA High School Teacher Tara Grinstead Still Missing.
By Steve Huff
Ocilla, GA, — (Crime Library)
October, 2005 in Ocilla, Georgia, ended with celebrations, for some. The weekend starting October 29, 2005, saw the beginning of the 45th annual Georgia Sweet Potato Festival. It started with a parade Saturday morning at the Ocilla Community House on Irwin Avenue, and at 1:30 that afternoon, entertainment began in the old elementary school auditorium.
The Miss Georgia Sweet Potato Queen, Kari Pujadas, had been elected the weekend before at the Miss Sweet Potato Queen Pageant held in Fitzgerald, GA, about 9 miles north of Ocilla.
The Saturday of the pageant, some of the hopefuls gathered at a home on West Park Street in Ocilla, the residence of the woman who was elected Miss Charisma in the same competition in 1998, 30-year-old Tara Grinstead. Tara helped them with their hair and makeup, and sometimes she provided encouragement afterwards, sending a kind note to someone disappointed in their first time out. Tara Grinstead seemed to take a more modern view of pageants. For her, they provided scholarship money for women who might not otherwise necessarily have a chance at such money.
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| Tara Grinstead |
When the newest Sweet Potato Queen rode down Irwin Avenue on Saturday the 29th, Tara Grinstead had been gone for a week, and no one knew where she was. If someone did know, they weren't talking.
Sunday the 23rd, Tara didn't show up at her church in her hometown of Hawkinsville, GA, but everyone has a Sunday off now and then, even the preachers. It was when Tara Grinstead wasn't greeting students with her welcoming smile on Monday morning, October 24, that co-workers and friends of the former cheerleader and Miss Tifton, GA of 1999 realized something was wrong. By 8:50 that morning, Ocilla Police had been notified about the missing teacher. By Wednesday, October 26, Tara Grinstead's photogenic smile was beginning to be seen in newscasts and pulled up by internet searches for "Ocilla" and "Tara"+"Irwin County."
Soon enough a reward was being offered. It started at $10,000 for information leading to Tara's safe return. As Sunday, October 30 rang in with churchbells and murmured prayers for Tara and her family in Ocilla and the surrounding municipalities of Douglas, Tifton, the smaller towns of Alapaha, Ambrose, and Enigma, the reward doubled to $20,000. In the afternoon on the 30th the din undoubtedly stirred up by the previous day's festivities was replaced with barking K-9 dogs trolling through fields, helicopters overhead, and all-terrain-vehicles motoring beneath the trees. Everyone was looking for Tara.
A website was created to assist in organizing information about the search for the young woman, www.findtara.com. Webmaster Jannis Paulk worked until 4 in the morning setting it up, concentrating on making the pages easy to navigate for young people, in particular.
Page 2
Tara Grinstead on Emotional Roller Coaster
Tara Grinstead Publicity Mixed Blessing
Tara Grinstead's State of Mind
Beauty Queen & Teacher Tara Grinstead Goes Missing
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