foreign [Music] [Music] was a 30 year old former beauty queen and local high school teacher living in the small town of Ocilla Georgia she was a gorgeous brunette with a striking smile and someone her students and peers looked up to on Saturday October 22nd 2005 Tara went to a local beauty pageant during the day after the pageant was over Tara left around 8 pm and hung out at a friend's barbecue just eight blocks away from her home around 11 p.m Tara left the barbecue and went home to her house on Monday morning October 24th Tara didn't show up for work at the school concerned students and teachers called the local police and around 8 45 a.m Ocilla PD was dispatched to Tara's house upon arrival investigators found her car parked in the driveway unlocked and the front door to her house with locked shut detectives knocked on her door repeatedly but got no response police forced their way inside and searched the house entirely but there was no sign of Tara grinstead to this day there has never been a confirmed sighting of Tara grinstead if you have any information about The Disappearance of Tara grinstead please contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation ten years ago today marked the last time anybody especially police are calling this a missing person GPS [Music] from tinderfoot TV in Atlanta this is up and vanished the investigation of Tara grinstead I'm your host Payne Lindsay around six months ago I was surfing the web I was looking for cold cases and other Unsolved Mysteries I'm actually a filmmaker I was kind of digging around for a cool idea for a documentary film I think there's something about an unsolved case that intrigues everyone this urge to solve the puzzle and reveal the truth in this Universal satisfaction when we catch the bad guy we all want an answer an explanation for The Unexplained like a lot of people I have been pretty obsessed with the podcast serial and the Netflix series making a murderer and I thought to myself what if I made one of those so I literally just went to Google and started searching I'm from Atlanta so I wanted to find a case that was local that I could actually investigate I eventually ended up on the website for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and they have a top 10 list of unsolved crimes in Georgia the first one I saw was a missing person's case a girl named Tara grinstead had been missing for over 10 years now and they had no suspects and they had no leads needless to say I was instantly fascinated so I read tons of articles about the case and through my amateur internet investigation I stumbled upon a new site called Web sluice where apparently other people like me pretend to be detectives and try to solve famous cases in front of their computer screens perfect so I found a forum on the Tara grinstead case and made a post hey guys I'm a filmmaker from Atlanta and I'm thinking about doing a documentary on Tara's case does anyone have any interesting theories before montera's case hadn't been updated in quite a while and I honestly didn't expect to get a response but to my surprise less than an hour later I had a voicemail on my phone from a number I didn't recognize that's when this whole thing really started I saw your post about the Tara grahamstead case on Webb's loose uh I worked this case uh from March of her sixth to over uh past 0.90 uh 2009 uh for her family and uh uh probably other than the gbi there's another one knows no more about the terror glenstead case than myself uh so you know if you want to give me a call I can give you a rundown the straight up truth about uh what's happening or um and everything about the case I'm in North Carolina so I'm on East Coast time okay you take care bye-bye wait am I actually doing this now I thought I was just brainstorming but now I have an actual investigator who worked this case wanting to tell me everything that he knows it was time that I got my facts straight time to do some major research on this case to even know what to ask him dates times people's names I had to know it all I totally streamlined my plan for the documentary and decided to make a podcast to document my investigation mind you I am not a podcaster and I'm definitely not an investigator but I was determined to tell Tara's story and most of all I wanted to know what happened to her I bought some audio equipment and I called the investigator hey is it Maurice Godwin yes it is hey this is Payne Lindsay you called me yesterday oh yes oh pain I saw your um your post on web sleuths I've been working for Tara grinstead case since March of 06. we talked for two hours he told me more things than I could even remember this case went deep I mean really deep the largest case File in Georgia history Mr Tara grinstead case as much as I wanted to feel like I was making progress on the case I was really just getting started he gave me a lot of advice where to start who to talk to he said he would help me out in any way he could he left me with this piece of advice if you go to our civil and never have something like that take somebody who else with you now okay why is that well this is a weird place you go to Ocilla the town where Tara lived and was last seen make sure you bring somebody with you maybe I was reading into that too much either way I planned on taking his advice it was time for me to start talking to people I wanted Insight from people who knew her people who talked to her that weekend before she disappeared I built up a long list of names and it was time to start cold calling people foreign [Music] you have reached a number that is no longer in service your call has been forwarded to an automated voice the number you dialed is not a working mode okay I had a pretty rough start I was literally getting every type of non-working number message in existence and when I finally reached some people it went like this my name is Payne Lindsay I wanted to talk to you about the tarot rinstead case the Tara grinstead case a podcast documentary stories here I'd like to talk to you about Tara grinstead nothing not a single person would talk to me it was beginning to seem impossible everyone surrounding this case had their guard up the small town in south Georgia had become this impenetrable community that just refused to rehash the whole wounds or just plain too scared to talk but I was determined that somewhere in this network of people was the answer the key to what happened to Tara but 10 years is a long time 10 years of reporters and TV networks just exhausting these people for new Clues and tips or just trying to get a juicy quote out of one of the locals and here comes me this Millennial podcaster trying to solve the mystery I'd probably tell myself to piss off too one day I called a girl who was friends with Tara back in 2005. I don't feel comfortable saying her name right now so let's just call her Susan Susan answered the phone and I introduced myself before I could even finish Tara's name she had hung up on me then about 10 minutes later I got a call from a blocked number and I answered it I was still trying to figure out my phone recorder at that point and unfortunately I was not able to record the call which I immediately regretted there was a Stern man's voice on the other line when I answered he said why are you asking about Tara grinstead it was almost like he was investigating me now I told him about the podcast and the documentary and his tone changed a bit then he said why did you call Susan I didn't really have an answer for him then he said do not call her again click just like that I wish I had the audio to play back for you but there was just something really odd about that call the person sounded like a police officer or someone in law enforcement trying to figure out what I knew he didn't call me just to say don't call her again the first thing he wanted to know was why I was calling that particular person [Music] oh here she is ladies and gentlemen I call her your Royal Highness because I think it is a very nice a lot of Terror grinstead how are you doing I'm doing great miss Tifton getting ready to go over to Columbus and represent Tifton over there are you excited oh yes very excited well you were well into your career already too aren't you what kind of work do you do I'm in 11th grade history teacher at Irwin County high school and I also have a cheerleading squad of junior varsity cheerleaders 9th and 10th graders I just completed my first year teaching and I loved every bit of it that's a local news interview from 1999 when Tara won the beauty pageant for Miss Tifton the biggest city near Ocilla and she was moving on to compete for Miss Georgia she seemed to have everything going for her she was popular among her students all the teachers loved her but in October of 2005 she would disappear Without a Trace and never be seen again who would want to hurt Tara let's recap the night of October 22nd when Tara just completely vanished I'll have my friend Rob describe the scene Saturday October 22nd 2005. Tara went to a beauty pageant during the day and then she attended a friend's barbecue later that night just a couple blocks away from her home she arrived around 8pm and stayed for a few hours friends at the party said she was acting normal nothing out of the ordinary around 11 pm Tara told a friend at the party she was going home to watch the videotape from the pageant that day he said her goodbyes and drove off she was never seen again Monday came and Tara didn't show up for work when the bell rang for class to start and Tara wasn't there students informed the faculty and they called the local police department chief of Ocilla police Bill Hancock was the first to arrive on the scene her car was parked in her driveway and the front door was locked as he approached her front door Hancock discovered a blue latex glove just feet from her doorstep even more puzzling he found a business card wedged in the front door the neighbors and elderly couple had a spare key to Tara's house they were really close to Tara and they kept watch on her house at night they had a little system going every night when Tara came home she turned on the lamp by the window in her room facing their house that night Tara's lamp was never turned on Hancock used the neighbor's key to gain entry to Tara's home the house was in near perfect condition but there were a few subtle things that seemed a little off the lampshade on her bed was not to skew tilted in an odd position as if maybe it had been knocked over clock normally on her nightstand was found on the floor by her bed her cell phone was found sitting in its charger on the nightstand Hancock quickly realized the severity of this case he made a call to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for Baca and official investigation was underway come on in man how you doing man come on in I decided to visit the private investigator in person I told him I wanted to ask him some preliminary questions about the case for my documentary and he was more than happy to help he lives in a small town in North Carolina and I drove up from Atlanta one afternoon these all notes about the terror case yeah he had this thick notebook it was filled with hundreds of notes thoughts names all related to the Tara grinstead case he started thumbing through it reminiscing about the case Maurice is an older man gray hair glasses you get the sense that this case and many others like it have taken a toll on him and even he'll tell you it's exhausting uh this is to Maurice this is not a hobby it's always ever known and then in the back here are some updates and stuff I was contacted in the end of January of 06 by um Tara's sister Anita I couldn't take it at that time and I actually didn't take the case and then she contacted me again and I took the case uh about the end of February and I went down in March and then I worked on the case I spent two whole days in the house we searched a lot of places there was nothing ever come of anything and this case is cold as Alaska [Music] so Tara's sister Anita hired Maurice to help with the investigation and he wasn't involved until March of 2006 almost five whole months after she went missing so one of the things that I did when I was there is I I talked to um some of the local a lot of people climbed up in one talk so most people climb up and don't talk in this case oh yeah and still today it appeared that um to to gbi and other some others that were there didn't appear to be a struggle well this is what I found see she had the old-timey wooden floors with the gaps in between them so I got on my you know knees and stuff and crawled around I found a clasp from a necklace a lesser known fact in this case that I actually learned through Maurice is a broken necklace that was found by police inside her home the beads were scattered about on the floor and they bagged it up as evidence but it was still unclear to police if the necklace was broken on accident or if it meant that there was a struggle inside the home almost five months later when Maurice went to visit Tara's house he found a clasp on the floor that looked like a match and you can see on the class have been pulled apart So based on what you know about the necklace and that clasp in your opinion did that necklace come off in a struggle that class was pulled apart by force you can take that for what it's worth uh then I found some pieces of rook and plastic of the headboard in the master bedroom the bed post was split into and broken and was found lying under the middle of the bed you have to get up you have to get up there and find it then I also found a box with dust on it underneath the bed so that was never retrieved by the gbi then one thing that I noticed is she had a rug beside the bed I moved I pulled that rug up and the rubber came off on the back of it so the rug had never been lifted so in your opinion to the GB I do a good job investigating uh absolutely not on a scale of one to ten what would you rate the gbi's performance probably three out of ten three out of 10. five months later he finds a whole slew of evidence inside Tara's house that the gbi completely missed you could sense his frustration still today but what did any of it mean I asked him to recap that Saturday Terror went missing I wanted to know his account so walk me through the day my understanding is that uh during the daytime she had girls at her house and stuff helping girls with the pageants and the makeup the hair preparing for the sweet potato pageant in Fitzgerald that afternoon I think the patches started about three o'clock is what I was told so then she went to the pageant uh stayed at the pageant and then she left the pageant around 7 25 to 7 30. one of her pageant girls named Dana Wilder well with Tara to Tara's car and she said that she had to go to her superintendent's barbecue so she left the pageant in Fitzgerald and uh drove back to The Cellar I was told that her landlord of the the son of her landlord Rhett robbers I was told that she talked to Rhett out at the curb of the road about probably quarter to eight then again another lesser known fact about this case that you can't find anywhere in news articles between leaving the pageant and going to the barbecue that night Tara made a brief stop at a friend's house a man named Rhett Roberts who was actually her landlord's son and they talked briefly at the curb of the road and then she proceeded on to barbecue and arrived about eight o'clock and then at 11 o'clock she left the barbecue on the notion that she had to go back and watch a video what video is that that would be no video because so far there's never been one that existed that would know of remember Tara told her friends at the barbecue that night and she was going home to watch the tape from the pageant that day the police could never find it and as far as they knew no video ever even existed there are two types of crime scenes there's a primary crime scene that's where the most actions occur between the victim and the attacker and then there's a secondary crime scene say where a car was left the problem with this case is you don't have any secondary crime scene and you don't have any really primary crime scene you don't even know for sure if the house is a crime that's right the answer lies in in the gbi G case files in Prairie Georgia the answer to this case lies there why can't they solve it I don't know [Music] it was a bunch of information but I felt a lot more in tune to this case on my drive back to Atlanta I played our interview on repeat analyzing every detail and when I got home I caught my first lucky break someone was finally willing to talk to me hey how are you I'm good how you doing and and did well I had a little problem with my back but thanks thanks for looking better awesome are you still walking every day yeah yeah that's my grandma but she's lived in Tifton which is only a half hour from Ocilla for nearly half her life maybe she knew something so I'm I'm taking some Cowboy Cookies yes I need some more Cowboy Cookies ASAP okay oh perfect fresh ones well um I wanted to ask you something um so I'm working on this new documentary and um it's actually about this girl who went missing about 10 years ago in the town of Ocilla her name was Tara grinstead do you ever remember hearing about that I get uh 25 to 30 minutes from here um what do you remember about that as far as like what were people saying when that happened oh ask around a few a few people that might remain in fact I'll call my friend who lives in Ocilla okay I'll ask her she'll know I'll call her right now awesome I'll call you back okay okay that sounds great okay sure enough 10 minutes later my friend's name is named b-8 that is her first name okay let me tell you what she did tell me I'll tell you right quick uh she was a school teacher and on this the Saturday that this happened uh there was a beauty pageant in Fitzgerald Georgia now Fitzgerald is like 15 minutes away and there there was a beauty pageant on that Saturday at you might know this at like three o'clock she went to help the girls put their makeup on and that sort of thing right when the pageant was over my friend and I just talked to melvie she talked to her at 6 00 p.m at the theater really now the same when she left the theater Terror we're still at the back of the theater with a friend Tara did leave and went to visit a friend in Fitzgerald in fact it was a student that she had taught for just a short time and then from there she went back to ocella to her principal's house because he had a cookout that night did I hear her right according to her friend Tara stopped by a former student's house in Fitzgerald before going to the barbecue that night who is she talking about if this is true it's bombshell information it completely contradicts the known timeline of terra's last moves I had to talk to Melba immediately so I did next time on up and vanished this season on up and vanished reports of Screams and gunshots and tires Wheeling off of five Bridges Road that late Saturday night and he was to the left of us up against the wall with a video camera he acted really weird he was acting like he didn't know who I was I want this thing solid before I die I want to know I Wanna Know thank you guys for listening to the first episode of up and vanished this is my first time ever doing a podcast so I'm kind of learning as I go if you like it please subscribe and rate the podcast on iTunes I'm gonna hold a little contest too if you rate and write a review on iTunes I will pick one lucky winner in the next two weeks to get a fresh batch of my grandma's cowboy cookies I plan on releasing a new episode every two weeks on Mondays I'm in the process of creating a documentary video series on this case as well to stay up to date on everything you can visit the website at uppinvanish.com I also would like to encourage anyone who knows anything at all about Tara's disappearance to come forward and share what you know I want this podcast to be an outlet for people surrounding this case thanks again for listening and see you next time