Tara Grinstead's Last Night Home

[LadyBlue]

A few crisp leaves, the first to sense the coming chill shuddered on their branches and then let go. Some tumbled softly to the ground, others landed on a jack-o-lantern grinning in mock malevolence outside the prim white house on the corner of Park Street.

It was late by the standards of Tara Grinstead's neighborhood, 11 p.m. on a Saturday night in October, cool and clear, a good night for sleeping and most of the neighbors on the schoolteacher's peaceful residential street were taking advantage of it. Not all of them, of course. There were a few lights on in neighboring houses, but not many. Her next-door neighbors were asleep. Joe and Myrtle Portier, "Mr. Joe and Miss Myrtle," Tara called them, often waited up for her, watching for the lamp in her bedroom to be doused. It was their private signal that Tara had again made it home safely. Not that night. That night, the Portiers had retired early. Their lights were off.

No one really knows for certain precisely what Tara did after she pulled into her little carport that night. Neighbors would later say that they heard her dog barking, but that was hardly unusual. Whenever Tara returned home, she would be greeted by the excited yelping and barking of her young German Shepard — the history teacher had named her Dolly Madison — who spent most of her time in the fenced in yard behind the carport.

By all accounts, Tara doted on that dog. She never passed the animal without stroking it, and by all accounts Dolly was equally devoted to her. She was equally devoted to her pet cat, Herman Talmadge — named for a former Georgia governor and U.S. Senator who was besieged by personal tragedy and censure for the Senate for financial misconduct --though Herman, by all accounts was far more reserved in his demonstrations of affection. It was his habit that only after she walked into her bedroom would he come out from under the bed and rub up against her leg. That was how small gray cat told her that he loved her. He loved only her, but he was sparing in the way he showed it.

By all appearances, Tara maintained her regular regimen that night. A creature of habit, she turned on the nightstand lamp, her signal to Joe and Myrtle Portier, even though she knew they were already asleep. She plugged her cell phone into its charger and changed out of the clothes she had worn that evening to the Sweet Potato Festival in the nearby town of Fitzgerald. She dropped them on the divan beside her bed. Later, they would be found there, partially hidden under a pile of other garments, many of them still on hangers.

Perhaps she was preparing for bed. She had every reason to be tired. In fact, earlier that night she had said as much when she left the dinner party at Troy and Missy Davis. "I'm going to watch the video of the pageant," before she turned in for the night she told them when she'd left their house. They understood, of course. They knew just how hard she'd worked with the girls in the Miss Sweet Potato pageant helping them dress, doing their make-up and hair for the pageant.

And like most of her friends, they knew just how tough things had been for the high school teacher and former beauty queen recently. Tara Grinstead had been maintaining a grueling schedule, working full time as an 11th grade teacher, a job she was uniquely dedicated to, plus carrying a hefty class load while studying for her studying for her 6-year education specialist degree, the last stop before beginning work on her doctorate. What's more, she had also thrown herself completely into the task of getting her students ready for the pageant.

All of that would have been more than enough to weary most people. But there was something else Tara had been grappling with, her close friends knew. For months, she had been bouncing between emotional extremes while trying to come to terms with the end of her six-year relationship with Marcus Harper. She had hoped they might marry. But Marcus had other plans. His stint in the Army Rangers had opened a whole new world for the former Ocilla cop, and now, serving as an independent consultant traveling often to war torn Iraq, he and Tara had become very different people.

Though Tara ended the relationship, she remained deeply disturbed by its failure, by all accounts. As many of the people closest to her would later say, despite it all, she remained deeply in love with him. And she struggled in the close-knit community of rural Irwin County, Georgia, to find a way to deal with her feelings of rejection and humiliation without vilifying her former boyfriend.

It was a monumental task. Still, Tara had by all accounts seemed to be in good spirits that night, her friends have said. There was nothing in her demeanor that night, her friends say, to suggest that Tara was particularly despondent or that she made some kind of private decision to cast off all the pressures and demands and emotional complications that had come to dog her life.

In short, there was nothing about Tara Grinstead that suggested to her close friends that night that it might be the last time they would see her.

It was.

Two days later, after the well liked teacher failed to show up for school, Tara was reported missing. A two-week manhunt, involving an army of searchers, some on foot, some on ATV's, others on horseback, has so far yielded little to indicate what might have become of her. Tara Grinstead had simply vanished.

[LadyBlue]

It was Sunday morning before the first hint of hint that something was wrong hit the small community. But even then, the people of Ocilla were not particularly alarmed. As Steve Huff wrote days after her disappearance, few eyebrows were raised when the devoutly religious 30-year-old failed to show up for church services. "Everyone has a Sunday off now and then, even the preachers," Huff wrote. "It was when Tara Grinstead wasn't greeting students with her welcoming smile on Monday morning, October 24, that co-workers and friends of the former cheerleader and Miss Tifton, GA of 1999 realized something was wrong."

By 8:50 a.m., on Monday, Oct. 24, authorities had been notified that Grinstead was gone. They searched her house, and turned up little. Her cell phone, which she never left the house without, was still inside on the charger. The clothes she had worn the night she disappeared were there. Though it took several days to find it, the necklace she wore that night was found, though the earrings, large chandelier-style earrings were not.

There were also a few puzzling details.

Her bedroom lamp, for example, was knocked askew. There was, of course, no way of telling when or how that had happened. What's more, her digital alarm clock had apparently fallen to the floor and was now six hours off, but authorities had no way of determining whether that any significance either. Perhaps the clock had simply stopped during one of the not- infrequent power outages the neighborhood had experienced. Or perhaps it meant something more. There was also the fact that the driver's seat on Tara's car had been pushed back further than the 5-foot-3 woman would have been likely to favor it. Again, the cops didn't know if it meant anything.

Finally, there was the glove, a latex glove, the kind worn by doctors, and paramedics and cops that was discovered on Tara's otherwise pristine front lawn.

As they sent the glove out to be tested for fingerprints, or other clues, the Ocilla cops realized that it was going to be a complicated missing person's case.

As Tara's sister, Anita Gattis would later tell reporters, Tara Grinstead was a grounded, Christian woman, a responsible and well-respected member of the community, who in her mind, would not simply run off.

From the very beginning, Gattis, and others who had known Tara over the years, feared that she might have been the victim of foul play. Perhaps, they fretted, she had been abducted or worse.

Though there was no evidence to support that conclusion, Ocilla Police Chief Billy Han knew that he would have to tread cautiously in the investigation, authorities have told Crime Library. In any missing person's case, Han realized, friends and acquaintances can offer all kinds of valuable information, and no one would have been more valuable to learn about Tara's mindset than Harper, Tara's ex-boyfriend. But Harper was a former Ocilla police officer who still had strong ties to the department. In fact, the night Tara disappeared, Harper had been at police headquarters and traveled around the community until the wee hours of Sunday morning in the company of an Ocilla police officer.

Nor was Harper the only cop in Tara's life. Among her closest friends and confidents was Heath s, a captain in the Perry police department. Realizing the potential for allegations that the local authorities might have conflicting loyalties, Han quickly summoned the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

[LadyBlue]

Almost immediately after her disappearance, investigators began talking with Harper, s, and others, among them Rhett Roberts, the son of the couple who rented the house to Tara, whom she had dated briefly following her breakup with Harper. They also quizzed young Anthony Vickers, a 20-year-old former student who had, by all accounts, developed an unhealthy attachment to the young teacher, and was once arrested on a disorderly person's charge after banging on Tara's door repeatedly.

All of the men cooperated with the probe. At least two of them agreed to submit to polygraph tests. In fact, Harper, who had retained a family friend as his attorney, arranged to have his done by a private polygrapher when his attorney was unable to be present out of a prior commitment on the day the authorities had scheduled his test.

Nothing in those interviews, authorities have said, provided them with any information to suggest that Tara Grinstead had been the victim of foul play.

But that didn't stop the suspicion.

Almost as soon as the investigation began, so did the steady drumbeat of rumor and innuendo. It is ironic perhaps that the same familiarity that makes small towns like Ocilla and Hawkinsville so warm and inviting, can, in the face of doubt, turn so dark and fearful.

It started on day one of the investigation. According to several sources, it began when Harper first showed up at police headquarters to talk with investigators. Anita Gattis met him outside and in front of other police officers, in what Harper took to be a direct accusation, she reportedly said, "what did you do to my sister?"

Realizing that Gattis and others viewed him as a suspect, even though authorities had not identified him as such, Harper then retained an attorney, Thomas Pajadas, a local lawyer for whom Harper's father works as a paralegal.

Gattis was not the only one who suspected Harper. A website, established to aid in the search, offered a forum and soon—to the consternation of its originators — it filled up all kinds of speculation about what had happened to Tara. Much of the discussion focused on Harper, though authorities had never publicly named him.

And as the national media attention grew, so too did the suspicion. It reached a crescendo last week when Greta Van Susteren of Fox News arrived on the scene. In the hours before she went on the air, a promotional spot announced that she would explore a report that Harper and Tara had been seen arguing in the days before her disappearance.

That, according to sources close to Harper, was untrue, and so Pajadas decided to take the risky step of allowing his client to be interviewed by Van Sustern. In the interview, Harper — who was shot in profile reportedly in part as a safety precaution because of his job as an independent contractor who has worked in Iraq — challenged the reports and said he had seen Tara about 9 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 14, a school day, when she turned up at his house. Harper said that Tara had threatened to commit suicide, though after a short interruption in the taping, Harper added that Tara had returned later that day and asked him for a hug, apparently indicating that it would be the last time.

Sources close to Tara have acknowledged that the young woman was "on an emotional roller coaster," following the break up, but say they saw no evidence that she was suicidal, noting that on Oct. 14, Grinstead had left Harper's house, spent some in a tanning bed and then went for a pleasant visit with relatives.

[LadyBlue]

In the meantime, authorities say they remain open to any possible explanation for Tara's disappearance.

While they acknowledge that that it is plausible that the young woman might have been abducted, or in the worst case, even killed, there is also the possibility that she could no longer stand the stress of her life, her grueling study schedule, her demanding profession, her increasingly unsettled personal life.

Friends, among them some who knew about Tara's unhappy romance, have told Crime Library that it is possible that she might have run away in a fit of despondency. Though they are loath to say it some even some friends admit that it is not entirely out of the question that the bright, articulate and fiercely religious young woman might have taken her own life.

Her family, however, refuses to believe that. They insist that suicide is not something that Tara would ever have considered and note that despite all the emotional hardships she had endured, the last time anyone saw her, just hours before she vanished, she seemed tired but content.

In their minds, whatever happened to Tara happened against her will.

Last week, after nearly two weeks of searching the vast rural county, authorities called off the officially sanctioned search for Tara though the missing person's investigation continues.

But Tara's family, aided by volunteers, including some of Tara's fellow teachers, have vowed to continue the search until they have looked in every one of the 1,200 buildings and silos in the far flung reaches of the rural county that have not yet been searched

It's a lonely and difficult task, but Anita Gattis says she refused to give up hope.

[glow=red,2,300]Front view of Tara's house[/glow]


[glow=red,2,300]Tara And Dog[/glow]


[glow=red,2,300]Tara with long-time boyfriend Marcus T. Harper[/glow]

[LadyBlue]

[glow=red,2,300]Tara's Website[/glow]
findtara.com/

[LadyBlue]

[glow=red,2,300]Interesting Information From A Nancy Grace Interview[/glow]
Nancy Grace
I`m going to go to Pat Lalama, investigative reporter. Pat, help me out, so the viewers can hear about the case of Tara Grinstead.

Pat Lalama
She had gone to this event, as was mentioned, then afterwards had gone to dinner at a former superintendent`s house. There was a barbecue, lots of fun. Everything seemed fine. And then, as far as everyone knows, she went home.

What was found in her home were the clothes that she was wearing that night and her cell phone was there. What`s interesting is that her car was locked and her home was locked, and her keys and her purse were gone. This is all that has been left to deal with and to look at.

[LadyBlue]

[glow=red,2,300]GRETA VAN SUSTEREN--Interview with Tara's long time boyfriend--Marcus Harper[/glow]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,174968,00.html

VAN SUSTEREN: When was the last time you actually saw her?

HARPER: The 14th of October. It was on a Friday morning.

VAN SUSTEREN: About what time?

HARPER: Around 9 o'clock.

VAN SUSTEREN: And what were the circumstances?

HARPER: She woke me by knocking on my windows.

VAN SUSTEREN: About how far do you live from her?

HARPER: Six miles approximately.

VAN SUSTEREN: Is that something common, where she would knock on your windows, or not? Is that unusual?

HARPER: No, it's not unusual, but she was crying and was upset about something.

VAN SUSTEREN: Now, is this a school day for her?

HARPER: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: Do you know whether or not she was in school that day as a teacher?

HARPER: I do not know that information.

VAN SUSTEREN: Do you know what time school usually started for her?

HARPER: I would say around 8 o'clock.

VAN SUSTEREN: So presumably, 9 o'clock would be into the school day.

HARPER: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: What happened?

HARPER: She approached me crying. She was very irrational. And she told me that if she found out I was dating someone, she would commit suicide.

VAN SUSTEREN: So on Friday, after you saw her in the morning, did you see her again?

HARPER: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: What time did you see her again?

HARPER: She came back that afternoon.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did you actually see her that afternoon?

HARPER: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: And anything unusual about that afternoon?

HARPER: She said she wanted to hug me for a last time. And I told her it's not going to be a last time. We live in the same small town. We'll continue to see each other, meaning face to face on the street. And she told me, I don't want you hating me. And I told her, I said, Tara, I do not hate you. I don't have any hard feelings against you. We just need to move on.

VAN SUSTEREN: So did you see her at any time between that Friday, which was eight days before the 22nd, when she disappeared — did you see her another time?

HARPER: No.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did you talk to her on the phone?

HARPER: No.

VAN SUSTEREN: You've had one or two e-mails back and forth?

HARPER: Yes. She did — she e-mailed me.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. And did you respond?

HARPER: I responded to one.

VAN SUSTEREN: Have you provided that to the GBI?

HARPER: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: And are you willing to give the GBI any e-mails you have?

HARPER: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: How many times have you talked with GBI?

HARPER: Four or five times.

VAN SUSTEREN: Where do you talk to them?

HARPER: Where? It started out at the jail. We've talked to them up here. When they wanted to look at my truck, I talked to them then.

VAN SUSTEREN: So you're willing to — they've have asked you for things and asked you to talk, and you've provided all that.

HARPER: Yes.

Tom, you represent Marcus?

THOMAS PAJADAS, ATTORNEY FOR MISSING WOMAN'S EX-BOYFRIEND: I do.

VAN SUSTEREN: How did that come about?

PAJADAS: Well, I've known Marcus since he was a small boy. His father is a paralegal in our office. Marcus called me one day when this first broke out and said that — told me that he had been going to the jail and Tara's sister there had made an accusation against him, and he felt concerned because that was — that accusation had been made down at the jail in front of the officers, he might need some assistance, somebody to sit with him all the time.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. The sister is Anita, is that right.

PAJADAS: Correct.

VAN SUSTEREN: And the allegations were what, that he needed help with?

PAJADAS: His statement to me was that she had said, What did you do to my sister?

VAN SUSTEREN: And his response?

PAJADAS: He said he didn't do anything to her sister.

VAN SUSTEREN: In terms of your client's cooperation — because people are always concerned, you know, whether someone's cooperating. And because he's an ex-boyfriend — all ex-boyfriends are always within that umbrella that we all talk about — how do you — how much is he cooperating?

PAJADAS: Fully. We've done everything that has been requested of us. We — as a matter of fact, I think we've probably provided them with more information than they cared to listen to. But everything they've asked us, we've answered. I have not objected to a single question that they have asked. I have not stopped a single question. When they wanted to meet with us, we met with them, wherever they wanted to meet with us.

They came over. They wanted to search his truck and do some tests on his truck. I told them, Come on up. I'll call Marcus. We met them right here in back of the office. They even wanted to spray this luminol stuff, and they — I guess it was that because I've never dealt with that, but they wanted to do it in a dark place, and it was not nighttime yet. So we — I located a place where we could take his truck to go into a dark place so they could spray their chemicals.

VAN SUSTEREN: Is there anything that your client has not agreed to do that the GBI has asked?

PAJADAS: Not thing. We have — the only thing is that we have — they had made an initial request for a polygraph, and I knew they had — the request was made to me. They wanted to do it on a particular day that I was going to be in court. And so I told them we couldn't do it that day, and I was told it was going to be some time before they could reschedule the thing. And I knew that it was out on the streets that other people had taken polygraphs, and I knew that was going reflect adversely on Marcus if we didn't do it immediately. So I contacted somebody and had one done as soon as possible.

And we've made the test results, we videotaped it, recorded it and made a copy of the results, the charts, the videotape, everything available to the GBI.

VAN SUSTEREN: The key question, of course, in every investigation is — you know, is, Where was your client during the important parts? I mean — and this, I guess, would be between October 22 at 11:00 PM and probably Monday morning on the 24th. Can you account for your client between those time?

PAJADAS: Marcus can account for every minute of his time during that time. He has provided that information to the GBI. They have checked with everyone of the individuals that he was with. He was in the company of somebody, either a law enforcement, Department of Natural Resources, at home asleep, at his mother's house, at his father's house, I mean. I mean, every minute of the time has been accounted for, and every individual that was there has confirmed i.

As a matter of fact, this was kind of odd, but on Sunday night, he was with a friend of his that's a Department of Natural Resources Officer. While he was with him, he got a call. The officer got a call. Marcus rode out with him. Marcus stayed in the truck. It was originally a call about one type of offense. It turned out to be a different offense. Well, the guy came into our office to hire to us represent him on the thing and confirmed that there was a guy sitting in the truck. He didn't know who.

VAN SUSTEREN: At about 11:00 o'clock, midnight on Saturday, October 22, where was Marcus?

PAJADAS: He was with his stepsister and her boyfriend and two other friends up in Fitzgerald, at a bar.

VAN SUSTEREN: Is Fitzgerald local?

PAJADAS: Ten miles up the road.

VAN SUSTEREN: And how long did they stay at the bar?

PAJADAS: I think about 1:30, so 1:00 to 1:30.

VAN SUSTEREN: And then where did your client go at 1:30?

PAJADAS: He went — he came to the Ocilla law enforcement center, Irwin County law enforcement center, to find a friend of his that was on duty at the time, and I believe the dispatcher contacted him, found out where he was, and Marcus went with him.

VAN SUSTEREN: And left the relatives behind in the bar, or they went home their own way?

PAJADAS: Oh, yes. Right.

VAN SUSTEREN: They were not there?

PAJADAS: Right.

VAN SUSTEREN: So then about 1:30...

PAJADAS: I might add Marcus doesn't drink, but they were at a bar where a friend of his was playing in the band.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. So at 1:30, Marcus is off with a law enforcement officer.

PAJADAS: Correct.

VAN SUSTEREN: All night long or until about what time?

PAJADAS: I want to say it was the early morning hours because he was home at about — he left the officer and he was home about 5:30.

VAN SUSTEREN: And then goes to sleep at 5:30?

PAJADAS: Went to sleep..

VAN SUSTEREN: Until what time, approximately?

PAJADAS: The next morning, he — I want to say it was about 10:00, 10:30, I believe it was, he came into town, as I recall.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did he — to do what on Sunday?

PAJADAS: I don't remember the specifics because I don't have my notes here in front of me, but as I recall, I think he went in to his father's house, but I'm not sure.

VAN SUSTEREN: The law enforcement officer that he was with in the middle of the night has spoken to the GBI?

PAJADAS: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: And I assume gave them all the information.

PAJADAS: I presume. Yes, he has spoken with the GBI. To my knowledge, he's answered all their questions.

[LadyBlue]

[glow=red,2,300]Relationships Could Provide Clues to Missing Woman's State of Mind[/glow]

Friends and others familiar with the probe say that her sometimes-stormy relationship with long time boyfriend Marcus T. Harper may help authorities piece together Grinstead's state of mind before she disappeared.

According to several sources who spoke on condition that they not be named, the couple began their relationship six years ago, and it was, in most respects, a classic small town romance. Harper, who could not be reached for comment for this story, had, according to friends of Grinstead, a fascination with law enforcement, and a driving desire to join the local police department, while Grinstead, a church going teetotaler, focused her attention on education and on the local beauty contest which she had once won.

In fact, according to several sources, Grinstead was deeply in love with Harper, he had a key to her home, a source said, and she had anticipated that someday they would marry. But that all changed after 9-11 when Harper left the police department and joined the U.S. Army, becoming a member of the Rangers, an elite branch of the special forces. He served, according to friends in both Iraq and Afghanistan. But during his stint in the military, and later as a contractor working in Iraq, the relationship changed.

According to one source, Harper became disenchanted with the relationship and, the source said, the couple began to bicker frequently. There was never any hint of violence between the pair, according to several sources, and in April, they finally broke up. By all accounts, Grinstead was deeply distressed by the breakup.

In fact, although she dated at least one other man, one friend told Crime Library that she remained deeply in love with Harper. In mid October one friend said, Grinstead had made efforts to reconnect with Harper, and when he resisted, she became so overwrought that she took a long drive and had to pull over and call for assistance to get home. The next day, uncharacteristically, she called in sick to school. A few days later, when a policeman from a neighboring community whom she had dated turned up at school, she left early. That too was unusual for the highly devoted and motivated ninth grade teacher...

Among the relationships that have attracted the attention of authorities is the missing woman's dealings with a 20-year-old former student. The student had apparently become smitten with Grinstead, and on at least one occasion, was so aggressive that Grinstead called police when he showed up at her home and began banging on her door. The young man was charged with disorderly conduct. Authorities interviewed the man on Monday...

Investigators are also trying to determine the origin of a latex glove — the kind used by paramedics, doctors and police officers — on the front lawn of her home after she was reported missing...

[LadyBlue]

[glow=red,2,300]Video Clips Regarding theTara Grinstead Investigation[/glow]
www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/tara_grinstead/video.html

[LadyBlue]

[glow=red,2,300]Clothes Tara Wore The Night She Went Missing[/glow]




[glow=red,2,300]Broken lamp--on a nightstand near her bed[/glow]

[LadyBlue]

[glow=red,2,300]Joe Portier--Neighbor[/glow]
Joe and Myrtle Portier are Grinstead's neighbors and were very close with the single woman. When she left town, they looked after her pets, a German shepherd named Dolly Madison and a cat named Herman Talmadge. The names of her pets are signs that, as her friends attest, Grinstead is an avid lover of history.

The Portiers never saw her bedroom night light come on Sunday night and found that fact to be mysterious. About midnight Sunday, Grinstead's mother called them to ask if they had heard from her daughter.

"Normally we saw her on an everyday basis," Joe Portier said. "I told her we had not seen her and her mother sounded concerned."

Although the Portiers had a key to her home, he said they did not want to invade their neighbor's privacy. But when they woke up Monday morning and saw that there was still no sign that Grinstead had been home, they investigated. They found a scene that has been puzzling friends, families and police members for over a week now.

Her door was locked, but her car was still parked in the carport and the doors to it were unlocked. The Portiers found the shoes in the floor and a lamp that had been knocked over and broken in her bedroom. Her alarm clock was lying on the floor near her bed, and the time was off by several hours. Her cell phone, with which she was seen Saturday, was placed on a charger.

None of those things are necessarily signs of foul play, but they provoke curiosity.

"Had we known it was a crime scene, we would have probably backed off and not touched a thing," said Joe Portier.

He said that he called ICHS and asked if Grinstead had called in to work, and found that she had not. As a city councilman, he had Police Chief Billy Han's phone number in his cell phone and he called the chief directly. The investigation into Grinstead's disappearance began.

[LadyBlue]

[glow=red,2,300]Portier speaks with Nancy Grace[/glow]
GRACE: Joining us tonight also is Tara Grinstead`s neighbor. His name is Joe Portier. Joe, thank you for being with us. Did you notice anything out of the ordinary the evening Tara went missing?

JOE PORTIER, NEIGHBOR OF MISSING WOMAN: We did not, Nancy. We were gone out of town most of the day, and when we got back in, her car was here, and no lights on. We didn`t really think a lot about it at that time.

GRACE: Back to Tara Grinstead`s neighbor. Joe Portier is with us. Joe, could you tell whether she was at home in the evenings or not by looking at her house? I mean, could you see her car? Did you see her lights go on or off?

PORTIER: Nancy, we couldn`t see her car from our house. It was in the carport. But her signal to us that she was home safely was her bedroom light. There`s a little lamp light by her bedside table. She would turn it on, and that was kind of a signal to my wife that she was home and safe. My wife would often go there several times a night if she was -- she went to school on Monday night in Tifton, on Tuesday night in Waycross, and she`d be getting in 9:00, 9:30, and my wife would go to that window several times until she saw that light and knew that Tara was home safely.

PORTIER: Nancy, it never did come on that night, which wasn`t unusual. On the weekends, she had a lot of studying to do. She had her papers to grade for the classes that she taught at the high school. So not seeing the light was nothing unusual on the weekend.

[gestalt]

Will someone please clarify something for me?
I read somewhere that Tara had been dating, for a short time, the son of either the homeowners of where she was living, or the neighbor's son.

I can't find where I read that.

[LadyBlue]

Not really sure but I know that I read that as well because it rings a bell in my head now that you mentioned it. I'll look today and see what I can find out.
Happy New Years!!

[gestalt]

What is going on? Why is this information not mentioned by anyone, anymore?

I believe I read it on Crime Library; but oftentimes it's difficult to keep up.



Happy New Year to you as well. Thank you! I need the positive vibes!