Georgia beauty queen Tara Grinstead’s accused murderer on trial 17 years after her disappearance

The trial for the man accused of murdering missing smalltown Ga trainer and previous attractiveness queen Tara Grinstead just about 17 yrs in the past will start off Monday. 

After a 5-year wait around, Ryan Duke will stand trial on prices of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, theft, and concealing a system. Jury range will start Monday at the Irwin County Courthouse in Ocilla, Ga. The system is expected to past for about a week and half. 

The demo itself is anticipated to past a thirty day period or more time judging on the total of proof and testimony anticipated to be presented by prosecution and defense. 

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If convicted, 36-year-previous Duke could experience utmost sentence of daily life in prison devoid of the chance of parole. 

Tara Grinstead is witnessed posing with one particular of her pageant crowns in a photograph provided by household. 
(Fox 5 )

In what is regarded the biggest scenario in the heritage of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, 30-12 months-previous Grinstead was reported lacking from the rural town of Oscilla in Oct 2005 right after failing to display up to get the job done a person Monday morning at Irwin County Superior School, where she taught the eleventh grade. A previous Miss out on Georgia contestant, she experienced served mentor young ladies for a local pageant and attended a barbeque with mates that weekend. She was pursuing her doctorate diploma at night before her disappearance. 

Ryan Duke is seen throughout a pre-demo hearing on March 9, 2022.
(Fox 5 )

Fox 5 Atlanta described that deputies observed no indications of wrestle or compelled entry when they came to carry out a welfare test at the home wherever Grinstead lived by yourself. Her automobile was in the driveway and her door was locked with her pet, cat and cell cellular phone however plugged in charging inside of. 

Court docket documents allege Duke climbed in by way of a window to burglarize the dwelling. At the time inside, prosecutors say he climbed into bed with Grinstead and strangled her to dying right before asking a former higher university classmate, Bo Dukes, to personal loan him his truck to assistance him go the human body. 

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Dukes, who is not relevant to Duke, was sentenced in 2019 to 25 decades in prison for his function in aiding to conceal the murder. In court docket, prosecutors played a movie of his confession in which he admitted that he assisted Duke burn the physique until eventually “it appeared like it was all ash.” Small, burned bone fragments have been located in a discipline in 2017. Grinstead was declared dead in absentia in December 2010. 

The situation has obtained newfound general public awareness in current many years from the Up and Vanished podcast.