Photo: Georgia Bureau of Investigation / Courtesy
A jury found this Friday not guilty of murder a man accused of murdering a well-known high school teacher who disappeared from Georgia in 2005.
Ryan Duke had told the detectives on the case that he had murdered Tara Grinsread and helped burn her body. However, when it was his turn to testify on the stand at trial, he insisted that he was innocent of the charges.
The jury acquitted the accused of intentional homicide, serious homicide, aggravated assault and robbery, but found him guilty of concealing a death, it was announced The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The disappearance of the woman in rural Irwin County was an unsolved mystery for more than a decade until Duke decided to confess in the year 1200.
“I believe that guilt was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” Holloway said. “I also think that the conviction on count six…should be dismissed due to statute of limitations”#RyanDuke acquitted of murder in death of #TaraGrinstead https://t.co/nhw05eViGx
— Phil Holloway™ ⚖️✈️ 😁 (@PhilHollowayEsq) May 20, 2022
Told authorities at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that he broke into Grinstead’s home in October of 2005 hoping to find money to steal and buy drugs.While he was inside the house, he got scared when the victim appeared behind him, so he hit and killed her.
Duke led the detectives to an orchard where he said he and a friend named Bo Dukes burned his body.Officials testified at trial that the defendant knew things about the case that had never been done before. or public.
For his part, John Merchant, defense attorney for Duke, told the jury that it was Dukes who murdered Grinstead. Dukes was convicted in 2019 for helping to move and burn the victim’s body, however, he was never charged with manslaughter. .
Likewise, Duke stated at trial that his confession was false, he said that Dukes woke him up in the house where they lived together in 2005 and said that he had killed the teacher and showed Duke woman’s purse and wallet. The defendant said he lied to detectives because Dukes had already killed one person and was afraid, he testified.
In 2017, Ryan Duke confessed to the killing of Georgia teacher Tara Grinstead. On Tuesday, I have testified that his previous confession was false. https://t.co/hTxCyCOXWt
—USA TODAY (@USATODAY) May 17,
Duke’s murder trial began last week, after more than 16 years Grinstead was last seen leaving a meal in rural South Georgia. The teacher taught history and was a beauty queen, she disappeared when she was 30 year old.
Prior to Duke’s confession, the woman’s family still held out hope that she would be able to return home safely.
Although her body was not found, detectives compared Grinstead’s DNA to bone fragments found at the location where the man told them to the officers that he and Dukes had burned it.
Duke will be sentenced this coming Monday, but the Grinstead family asked for more time to prepare statements to read the sentence.
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