by Seamus McGraw

OCILLA, GA (Crime Library) —

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Ashes to Ashes

In the days since, there have been moments when the searchers believed they were close to finding an answer. Several days ago, for example, when a remote house outside of Ocilla burned to the ground, searchers thought that their worst fears might be realized. "The rumor was out that Tara had been found in the burned house," a source said. "They took cadaver dogs out there and they thought they were on the trail, they kept going to one spot in the house, and GBI went through the house, shovel by shovel, but didn't findanything."

As it turned out, the source said, "cadaver dogs are trained to identify body fluids, even long after they evaporated and (authorities concluded) that there had been a baby in the house at one time."

While authorities say they still have no evidence to suggest that Tara was the victim of foul play the probe officially remains a missing person's case there has been rampant speculation on the Net that Tara might have been abducted. Among others in her life, three men became the focus of much of the speculation on the Internet; Marcus Harper, the former Army Ranger who she dated for six years before an emotionally charged breakup last spring, Anthony Vickers, a 20-year-old former student who had once been arrested after pounding on her door, and Capt. Heath Dykes, a married police officer from nearby Perry with whom had enjoyed a close relationship. All have been cooperating with authorities.

Privately, sources familiar with the investigation say they are increasingly convinced that none of the men have any significant information about Tara 's disappearance, and that it is even more unlikely that any of them had anything to do with it.

Challenging a report in the National Enquirer that "a married police officer," had called Tara some 20 times before her disappearance, the source said it would make sense that Dykes, who was privy to the emotional distress Tara had been suffering as a result of her breakup, would have repeatedly to reach the woman he regarded as a close friend and confident. In fact, though Tara was not officially reported missing until Monday the 24, several people had noticed her absence on Sunday and some, Dykes among them, had telephoned her home looking for her.

That same source said they also believe that it would have been impossible for Harper, who has provided a detailed and verified account of his time during the hours when Tara is believed to have vanished, to have had a hand in her disappearance.

And in strange twist, Vickers has also apparently found his way out from under the cloud of suspicion. According to the source, the young man received a frantic telephone call from a woman the other day. The woman was so emotional that Vickers couldn't understand her, and thought it might have been Tara. He immediately notified police who traced the call and found that it had been a wrong number dialed by an inarticulate and emotionally overwrought stranger. The coincidence was so bizarre the source said, and Vickers was so certain that the woman on the other of the phone was Tara, that the source and others are convinced that it could not possibly have been a ploy.

 

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Disappearance of Tara Grinstead Divides City

New Phase in Search for Tara Grinstead

One Aspect of the Search for Tara Grinstead Has Been Completed, But the Probe Continues

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Return to full Tara Grinstead coverage

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