Tara Grinstead story to appear on ‘48 Hours’

by Angie Thompson/senior reporter

TIFTON — “Nightmarish” and “confounding” are words used to describe the October 2005 disappearance of teacher and former beauty queen Tara Grinstead from her home. Those who watch the 9 p.m. Tuesday airing of CBS’s “48 Hours” segment “Stolen Beauty” could learn about new evidence, and investigators hope more leads come in from viewers.

“The story involving Tara has moved all of us greatly,” said CBS “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Zant. “Tara’s disappearance is nightmarish for all of us.”

Grinstead vanished from her Ocilla home on Oct. 22, 2005 after attending the Georgia Sweet Potato Pageant in nearby Fitzgerald, where she had assisted some of the contestants with their hair and makeup. When she didn’t show up for work on Monday, co-workers at Irwin County High School called the Ocilla Police Department. There were no signs of forced entry into Grinstead’s home, no sign of a struggle and only her pocketbook and keys were missing. A latex glove was found in her front yard.

The case has garnered national attention and hundreds of people joined in the search for Grinstead. Family, friends, co-workers and law enforcement scoured the county trying to find any clue they could to solve the mystery and give family and friends some answers. A $100,000 reward is being offered for Grinstead’s safe return and another $100,000 for information leading to arrest/conviction of the person or people responsible.

Van Zant said the CBS crew working on Tuesday’s “Stolen Beauty” segment got involved with the case and began shooting video a month after Grinstead’s disappearance. At first, he said, people in Ocilla were wary of being “used and exploited” in the media, but they began to realize that “we were very serious about this and dedicating weeks of time and hundreds of thousands of dollars” to produce the show.

Van Zant said that he and the CBS crew were impressed with what a tight-knit community Ocilla is and how deeply the community cares about the case.

“We are hoping it (the show) will do some good and lead to some answers in the case,” Van Zant said.

Before her disappearance, Grinstead was a teacher at Irwin County High School. She was a former Miss Tifton and had competed in the Miss Georgia pageant as well.

“Tara is a classic beauty and someone you related to right away,” Van Zant said.

GBI Special Agent Gary Rothwell said the case has been “confounding” because Grinstead was well-known and a very active member of the community.

“It’s a lot of information to cipher through,” Rothwell said.

Rothwell said that television shows like “48 Hours” can be valuable to investigations and hopes someone will come forward with information that they have been withholding because they were either afraid or thought that the information wouldn’t be taken seriously.

“There’s no way to know if it is important if they don’t come forward,” Rothwell said in a telephone interview Friday from his Perry office.

Three months after Grinstead’s disappearance, Jennifer Kesse vanished from her Orlando, Fla., home. She was also a young, beautiful and successful woman and there was no sign of forced entry and no sign of a struggle. Her keys and purse were also missing. Authorities have grainy surveillance footage showing an unidentified shadowy figure who they believe could be Kesse’s abductor emerging from her car that was parked at a nearby apartment complex.

Van Zant said the similarities between the cases brought investigators on the Grinstead and Kesse cases together and the CBS crew followed Georgia investigators to Florida. An e-mail from CBS claims that investigators uncovered a clue that they believe is essential to solving the cases, but neither Van Zant nor Rothwell would comment on that subject.

To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.

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