Posted on 11/06/2005 6:27:25 PM PST by Graybeard58
OCILLA - When Kenyatta McDonald's house burned down this summer and she lost everything, it was Tara Grinstead who made sure the high school senior had what she needed.
"I was mainly worried about school and how I was going to pay for things because we were struggling," she said.
Grinstead bought her things she wanted and things she needed, such as clothes and shoes.
"She was right there, even if I needed a hug or a shoulder to cry on she was there," McDonald said.
This year, she saw Grinstead three times a day - before school and on the way to her trigonometry and word-processing classes.
"It's really been tearing me up inside. I'm used to walking past her classroom every day, speaking with her and giving her a hug or something," said McDonald, who took Grinstead's history class last year. "Now I can't see her. I don't know where she is or what's wrong with her."
Grinstead is the small-town beauty queen and confidant of her students at Irwin County High School in Ocilla. Her disappearance two weeks ago has brought national attention to this town of 3,300.
"This is a small community. This is really shock," Irwin High principal Bobby Conner said. "We all expect this type of thing to happen in Macon or Atlanta, but this is hard for us to swallow."
She's a teacher who bought students prom dresses when they couldn't afford them. The students paid her back over time. But she put her students in a fake jail when they didn't pay fake taxes with their "Grinstead dollars" - part of her lesson on taxation without representation.
"She's just been so close to students in her classes," Conner said. "Any type of kid she could talk with, the A-plus students who are basically care free and those kids who are at risk."
Sixteen days have passed since Grinstead was last seen or heard from about 11 p.m. Oct. 22 at a former Irwin County superintendent's house, where she and some friends cooked out and watched a football game. Friends and family tried to call her that next day, but they couldn't reach her. Monday, Oct. 24, she was reported missing when she didn't show up for work. It was unlike her not to call.
What investigators say they have found so far leaves a lot to the imagination.
The clothes she wore Saturday night and her cell phone were found at her home. Her car was outside, unlocked, which her sister, Anita Gattis said was unusual. Her pocketbook and keys were gone, police said.
Grinstead is single and lived with her dog, Dolley Madison, and her cat, Herman Talmadge. There was no clear sign of a struggle at her home, police said. A broken lamp was found inside her bedroom, and her alarm clock was found under her bed.
Authorities have specifically mentioned the possibility that she was abducted or that she left with someone she knew and something happened between the two of them. A GBI investigator said they are still considering all possibilities and have plenty to do in the case.
Irwin County Sheriff Donnie Youghn said there are no suspects in the case.
Youghn said that family, friends, colleagues, her former boyfriend of six years and anyone else who could give them information about her life have been questioned. A man arrested in March on the charge that he banged on the windows of her home also has been questioned several times, Youghn said.
"I don't think anybody has been ruled out (as a possible suspect) yet because I don't think they have anything pointing to one particular person," he said.
Ocilla Police Chief Bill Hancock had similar views.
"Certainly anyone that had any acquaintance with her is someone that they're trying to question and find out information from," Hancock said. "We certainly don't want to call anyone a suspect at this point. I wish we could. I wish we did. I wish we had a suspect."
By the end of this week, the search will have covered all 358 square miles of the county. Volunteers and law officers have searched on foot, on horseback, by helicopter and with cadaver dogs but haven't found a trace of her, said Youghn, whose office is leading the search.
Authorities have also said the tips they are receiving haven't been solid. Youghn said as time passes it becomes more likely that foul play was involved.
"Let me put it this way: When time has gone by as long as this thing has, it really takes our hope away," he said.
FALLING IN LOVE
Grinstead didn't move to Ocilla intending to stay, her stepmother, Connie Grinstead, said.
During her senior year at Georgia Southwestern State in Americus, she did her student teaching at Irwin County High. She fell in love with the town and its people. When the school system offered her a job eight years ago, she accepted, her stepmother said.
Connie Grinstead said her stepdaughter loves history and loves helping people, but there were other reasons for her career choice.
"She just liked young people. She always wanted to be a good role model for them," she said.
Tara Grinstead has a lot of goals - one is to become a school administrator, her stepmother said.
"Tara always has had dreams and goals. She was always striving to do more, to be better," she said. "She didn't expect it to be handed to her. She was willing to pay the price and put out whatever effort was necessary."
Lately, she had been working on her doctorate in education at Valdosta State University and working part time as an administrator at Irwin County Middle School.
And though she is serious about her goals, Grinstead has a soft side. She collected Barbie dolls and episodes of "The Dukes of Hazzard." She also is a history buff who took and collected photos of old county courthouses and named her pets after historical figures. She talked less and less about having children as she focused on her career, her stepmother said.
'LIKE A SECOND MOTHER'
Grinstead also loves pageants, and she fulfilled a goal of competing in the Miss Georgia Pageant after she became Miss Tifton in 1999, Connie Grinstead said.
Pageants gave Grinstead self-esteem and confidence, and so she encouraged her students to do them, too, her stepmother said.
"It has helped her so much in her life that she knew it could benefit other young ladies in the same way," she said.
Fellow teacher Sheila Wynn said Grinstead told all the girls in the Miss Red and Black Pageant, the high school pageant she coordinated, that they were beautiful. She meant it.
"Whether it was a girl's personality or something in the radiation of their smiles. She found something that would give those girls' confidence," Wynn said. "She'd say 'Oh, she has the prettiest smile,' or 'I just love her eyes.' "
"A lot of them say 'I never would have done that if she hadn't encouraged me,' " Wynn said.
It was Grinstead's enthusiasm and encouragement that convinced LaTressa Moses to begin cheerleading.
Moses, Irwin County High Class of 2004, said she told Grinstead she doubted she could be a cheerleader because she wasn't an experienced gymnast.
She said, 'Just be yourself,' " the South Georgia College sophomore said. "She always gave me that determination."
Moses said even after she graduated she continued to seek out Grinstead for advice and encouragement.
"I call her and she kind of uplifts me and helps," Moses said. "Miss Grinstead, we always told her she is like a second mother."
'WHY HAVEN'T THEY FOUND ME?'
Moses said she hasn't lost hope that Grinstead is still alive, though friends have asked her about it.
"'It's been (two weeks), how can you have hope?' I told them I'm not going to give up hope," she said.
Grinstead's friend, Maria Hulett, said not knowing what has happened to Grinstead has been especially difficult.
"If someone dies, you have a funeral and you grieve. This is like an open wound," she said.
She said the disappearance has spawned rumors in the town. Several rumors that Grinstead has been found have circulated. Some rumors have been about who may be involved.
"It's not deliberate or meaning to be hateful. It's not meant to hurt anyone," she said. People are desperate for answers, she said.
Grinstead's sister, Anita Gattis, said what is hard for her is that Grinstead may not know people are looking for her.
"I hope she's in a place that she's safe and she's sheltered and her basic needs are being taken care of. I do worry that she thinks 'No one cares. Why haven't they found me?' "
Wow, hadn't heard about this. She sounds like a really wonderful person. Prayers that she is found safe and unharmed.
That picture doesn't do her justice. She is one beautiful lady.
This is topping the news around Atlanta. There have been intensive searches using cadaver dogs and lots of volunteers.
God bless her. We hope that she'll be found alive and OK.
Jusst scary stuff, I hope they find this gal
After two weesk you think they would be calling out the likes of Noreen Renier or Annette Martin to see if they could crack this case before too much time goes by.....
She has an ex-boyfriend who has lawyered up (I think he's suspicious) and she had a student who had threatened her. I think they have plenty to work on. It looks like she got home after going to a dinner party at a friend's house and was interrupted while changing clothes. There are a few details about her room that are interesting. A surgical glove was found near her front door and they think that someone else may have driven her car.
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