Tara Faye Grinstead - Murderer Convicted, Body Not Found

Field	Details
Name	Tara Faye Grinstead (Called "Ms. Grinstead" in some newspaper articles from the of her disappearance, suggesting she was unmarried).
Biological Sex	Female
Race / Ethnicity	White / Caucasian
Date of Last Contact	October 22nd, 2005 (Saturday)
Missing From	Ocilla, Georgia
County	Irwin County
Missing Age	30 Years
Current Age	50 Years
Birthdate Range	October 23rd, 1974 - October 22nd, 1975 (Probably November 14th, 1974)
Height	5' 3" - 5' 5" (63 - 65 Inches)
Weight	100 - 110 lbs
BMI	17.7 - 20.2
Hair Color	Brown
Eye Color	Brown
Distinctive Physical Features	Pierced ears, pierced navel, small tan-colored birthmark on front of shoulder
Clothing	Possibly black sweatpants
Footwear	Possibly gray New Balance sneakers
Circumstances of Disappearance	Tara was last seen at approximately 11:00pm at an acquaintance's residence in the vicinity of the 700 block of W. 3rd St. in Ocilla, GA. She left the residence and arrived at her home in the vicinity of S. Alder St. and W. Park St. in Ocilla, GA. It is unknown at what time she arrived. Her vehicle, the clothes she wore, and cell phone were found at her residence which was locked. Supplemental details: she attended a cookout the night she went missing, when she got home there was a robbery in progress, and alarm bells were raised on Monday she did not report to work (she was a high school teacher).

By: Shane Lambert
Original Publication Date: October 10th, 2025

Tara Faye Grinstead was a high school teacher who went missing in October 2005. The first newspaper coverage I found of her disappearance discussed a large reward for information leading to her whereabouts. That dated to December 2005 and it seemed that this was considered a likely abduction scenario in the early going.

USA Today. December 21, 2005.

December 21st, 2005. Anderson Independent Mail.

This is a case where there is a conviction with the body. In 2017, Ryan Alexander Duke was convicted of charges related to her death, including felony murder. The same article suggests that the missing person's body was destroyed. It appeared as though she arrived home and stumbled onto an active crime scene as there was a robbery in progress once she got there.

April 13, 2017. Atlanta Constitution.

The second page of the article above stated that the robbers were former students of the high school that Grinstead taught at.

I think that this is a case that online researchers can basically leave alone. It's not that mysterious as to what happened to her thanks to the convictions. It is also a well covered case. The mysterious is where her remains are but if they were destroyed, as suggested in the article above, then any work attempting to aid locating her by online researches could be entirely futile.