The Last Answers?

The Last Answers?

  1:10 AM    Unknown

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Note: If you do not like the narrative, irreverent style of this story, I apologize. If you like the style, I hope you find it enjoyable and informative. Actually, I hope everyone does.

A friend once marveled that despite the fact I hardly ever go anywhere, I can't step out of my door without having an adventure. The reason for this is that every adventure needs conflict, something to overcome, and anytime I leave the house, I have to overcome my many neuroses and foibles.

In short, I have to overcome myself, so everything is an adventure, or at least can be. So if going to the store at a slow leisurely pace can turn into an adventure, imagine how adventurous my exploits can be if I'm suddenly thrust into the middle of John Grisham novel.

That's how this feels.

So, after working damn near constantly for the past five days and writing stories and laying out pages for The Ocilla Star until 3 a.m., I slept until 1 p.m. on Tuesday, February 28, 2017. As usual for those days I was greeted by dozens of friend requests, messages and comments on Facebook. The rumors run together over time, so it's hard to pinpoint exactly what made me check out the "Up and Vanished" discussion board, but I did.

Rumors were piling up about something I had heard since a few hours before the press conference the previous week: A pecan orchard in Ben Hill County. Someone said there was a search, but I heard that every day. In fact, I was planning to go poke around there later in the day.

But one post on the discussion board was a link to a story on WALB News, the local television station from Albany, Georgia. The story said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation planned an announcement in the Tara Grinstead case some time soon. The time of the report said 2:45. It was 2:50-something.

I had planned to take a little bit of a break that afternoon, so of course I had not dressed or bathed, but I clawed into some clothes and brushed my teeth like a Flash. I mean like the superhero, not just fast, Flash fast.

But I didn't know where to go. The WALB report's dateline said Ben Hill County, not Irwin County as I would have assumed had I not read the dateline. I called work, and no one there knew. I called a law enforcement contact, who passed me on to another officer, who said, "They were gonna have something at the Ben Hill County Sheriff's Office, but it might be over by now."

I zoomed to my car at superheroic speed.

But before I tell you about my trip to Fitzgerald, I want to tell you an anecdote from last week.

Payne Lindsey, or as I call him around town, Payne the Podcast Guy, and his friend Donald spent the night in South Georgia on the Thursday an arrest was made in the Grinstead case. They had not planned for an overnight trip, so they asked if there was a Walmart around so they could buy clothes for the next day.

Neither of them look like they shop at Fashions by Walmart.

When I saw Payne the next day, he was wearing a particular button-up shirt that I recognized. I said, "That must be your Walmart shirt." He said it was.

"I know," I said, "Because I've got one just like it."

He said it wasn't a bad shirt, "But it's too hot." He was right. The material is thick. In the heat, it's stifling. You could wrap your coffee in it to keep it warm.

So of course that was the shirt I wore on what turned out to be the most sweltering day of the year so far.

What's worse, when I jumped out of my car at the Ben Hill County Sheriff's Office, I noticed that this stuffy, insulation disguised as a shirt was also mis-buttoned. One side was up and the other down, like a fault line after an earthquake. I looked ridiculous, or should I say, more ridiculous, as I introduced myself to a beautiful lady reporter in the parking lot.

I had to introduce myself because I was told I just missed the GBI's briefing, which desperately disappointed me. I hoped the reporter could give me the gist of what was said, but she directed me to another reporter, and he wasn't as beautiful, if that matters, but seemed to be a nice guy.

He said the GBI confirmed that a search was ongoing in Ben Hill County. I asked if a body was found, and he said no. He asked where I would look, and since he had shared with me, I shared with him.

I said Highway 129, north of Fitzgerald.

As early as the early afternoon of February 23, before the press conference announcing the arrest of Ryan Duke, I heard mention of a place people went to party at a pecan orchard in Ben Hill County. I heard the rumor was that her body was burned there. I heard it was Randy Hudson's property. The next day, I got a solid sounding tip that the location being searched was on Highway 129, past Bowen's Mill grocery. I got another tip or two Tuesday that suggested the same area, but I was told more specifically, that the orchard was past the Georgia Department of Natural Resources forestry station with its looming tower to watch for forest fires.

The reporter, the non-beautiful one, said he had heard the same thing.

As I hustled to my car, I might have thought, but didn't, about how the location in Ben Hill County certified some speculation I made previously. At the previous week's press conference, the district attorney from the Cordele Judicial Circuit, which covers Ben Hill County, was in attendance, despite no obvious connection to Irwin County, where the press conference was held. Furthermore, the Ben Hill sheriff and other law enforcement officers from the county were in attendance.

I might have thought about how the search site being in Ben Hill confirmed my suspicions about their presence, but I didn't. Not at that time.

I was more concerned with getting my buttons ordered correctly on my wool blanket of a shirt. Of course, I was in a hurry so I ended up not buttoning the top buttons. I later saw myself in a mirror and I looked like a disco dancer or someone who owns a night club that isn't as high class as he thinks it is.

But the primary problem with the shirt continued to be its ability to hold in heat. Even though I did not know the exact location, it was a good 15 minutes at least, I'd say, to the site. The day was growing hotter, and so was I, so hot that I felt inclined to roll down the window.

I've written recently about my car's various problems, but recently it was very, very sick. The engine seemed to lose all its power, and I thought that was due to it leaking exhaust out the engine, because rolling the window down left me choking on gas fumes. I finally got the engine fixed, its power restored, but then the first time I rolled down the window driving, I learned that the engine still belches exhaust fumes.

This was OK since it was winter, and I didn't need to roll down the window. But on this hottest day of the year, in a thermos-like shirt, I decidedly did want to roll down the window. Sweating and irritated, I could only stand the fumes so long before I feared carbon monoxide poisoning.

For some reason, I never use a vehicle's air conditioning, I guess to save gas, which is ironic, because when I could take the heat no more and finally turned on the AC, guess what I got? More gas fumes even than if I had rolled down both windows.

I guess all the air comes from the same place.

Still, I drove, and in the distance, I spotted a few news vans on the side of the road, and I looked to my right to see a panorama of pecan trees. This was the place. It had to be.

Except, no one could say for sure. Looking past the no trespassing signs and the gate at the entrance, all that could be seen were pecan trees, hundreds or thousands of them, and no law enforcement officers were in sight.

The no trespassing notices were signed by the owner, Randy Hudson. I've known Mr. Randy most of my life, and I'm sure the GBI was right when they said he had nothing to do with Tara's disappearance.

The property is large, I heard it was 150 acres, and anyone determined enough could easily get onto the property if they wanted to dispose of a body. They wouldn't necessarily need keys. There aren't really fences, just a gate, and who knows if that was even there in 2005.

The orchard is only a few miles north of where a pond was searched as part of Tara's case in 2015, but the GBI has not indicated a connection, and if I were to guess, I'd say there isn't one, but that's mostly just a hunch.

Other than the news crews, there was a man there in a pickup truck and I stopped to talk to him. I asked if he was guarding the property, and he said he wasn't. He said he was an adjoining property owner whose wife was bothered by a news helicopter flying overhead. He was there to tell someone from the chopper's news station to leave them alone.

"It wasn't me," I said. "I'm from Ocilla."

Interestingly, he said the GBI spoke to him and he signed off on allowing them to search his property, but he said he had not seen anyone searching the Hudson property, and he had not seen any vehicles coming or going.

I walked along the road snapping photos all the way to the apparent end of the property, maybe 150 yards down the highway. I must have taken hundreds of photos. Hundreds of non-existent photos. Because when I tried to review them I got a damnable message.

"No card in camera."

So, aggravated beyond reason, I walked back the 150 yards to the entrance, then another 50 yards in the hot sun to my car, hopped in and prepared to drive to Ocilla to retrieve my camera's memory card. The interior smelled like gas fumes.

I'm fat, too, you know, so I get hot easily, especially after spanning a few football fields under a global warming sun. I figured I would stop at a restaurant and go inside for a refreshing blast of indoor air conditioning. Of course, I got caught at the train in Fitzgerald. I sat in the sun, with no air conditioning, as the train slowed to a stop at the city's station.

Finally, I arrived at The Ocilla Star office and explained the events of the day. After that explanation, I was asked why I came in that day. Since an arrest was made in Tara's case, I came in every day, even when the GBI didn't reveal what could be the last announcement in the case before trial.

You see, I learned at the office that a judge issued a gag order in this case. According to what I read, this affects law enforcement officers, court personnel, and potential witnesses. Potential witnesses? In this case, that could be anybody, but I'm going to keep writing until someone tells me specifically I have to stop, and then I'm going to say "How the hell am I supposed to do my job?"

It's not the first time I've worried this case would land me in jail, although now the concern is a bit more serious.

Apparently, Ryan Duke has a defense attorney now, because I read the gag order was requested by his lawyer.

Also while at the office, I watched a WALB video of the GBI briefing I missed, although it appeared their reporter was late, too, though not as late as me, since only part of the briefing was not recorded. I couldn't find a more extensive video of the event.

Special Agent in Charge JT Ricketson said that the GBI looked on the property the previous week working on some very general information, and 16 agents were out there investigating then. He said that one of two GBI Body Recovery teams, the South team, was activated to search the orchard. Forty-one agents from eight GBI offices were searching Tuesday.

"We're finding evidence that we are collecting that will be analyzed by the anthropologists and by our crime lab," he said, which I think some people are interpreting to mean that they have found conclusive evidence that Tara was there, which is possible. But I think he was saying they have found things that they are analyzing as potential evidence.

A reporter for WSB-TV said that two anthropologists were also on the scene to examine the findings. I wonder if those are forensic anthropologists as featured on the TV show "Bones." Forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, the author of the novels on which "Bones" is based, has served as an expert on and has given commentary on television shows about the Tara Grinstead case.

"As long as we're finding evidence, we're staying there," Ricketson said.

He said he was not sure the area was Tara's resting place, but he said they were hopeful they would find the remains. He called it "a possible site that she may have been disposed of."

Ricketson would not comment on whether murder suspect Ryan Duke led the GBI to the location.

Answering questions about Duke, Ricketson said his name had not come up before, but some of his associates had come up. He said the GBI is looking through hundreds of interviews over more than 11 years. He said Duke would have to be asked how the murder was kept secret for so long.

"He has not shared that," Ricketson said.

At the office, I also looked up the pecan orchard on Google maps. The satellite image of the area was obviously taken in the fall or winter, as the trees were barren in the image. As the property surrounding is made of evergreen pine trees, the orchard looked eerily desolate.

The orchard is oddly shaped, with a gigantic mass along the highway but a smaller but still large section deeper in the woods and slightly to the southeast. There is a pond in this southeast section, and near it a copse of apparent pine trees in the middle of dozens of pecan trees. There appears to even be a building or two tucked into a corner of the orchard somewhat near the pond and pines.

I wasn't going to go back. I was going to wait till the next day to get the photos I missed before. But I felt an obligation to you, those of your reading this, to give you everything I can give.

So I went back. I'm glad I did.

But before I get there, in this story, a dark and peculiar thought passed through my head as I drove from Ocilla to Fitzgerald to parts further north. Imagine the anxiety and fear, the incredible sense of dread that must have pumped through the heart of the person who drove that distance with a body in their vehicle. Because that is the story we are being told.

Ryan Duke is alleged to have killed Tara in her home and then concealed her death by moving her body from her home. I've put a lot of thought into this case, and I was doubtful that she was killed in her home because of the enormous risk of driving with someone's body inside the vehicle. But if the GBI's allegations are true, it's not the first thing I was wrong about.

If this pecan orchard is where the killer went to dispose of her body that must have been a long and terrifying drive for the killer, whether that was Duke or someone else.

I hope it was.

My ordeal driving was thankfully not as bad as it cooled down some closer to dusk. When I arrived, the same reporters from before lingered outside the gate.

"This is the right spot," another beautiful reporter, Amanda Hoskins of WALB, said. At least I think it was her.

The reporters told me that dozens, maybe as many as 40 vehicles, left through the front gate. I later saw video that included multiple GBI crime scene vans. The volume of traffic left clear tracks in the earth damp from the previous day's rain.

The tracks pointed toward the southeast, possibly toward the pond and the grove of pine trees in the midst of the pecan orchard. I later saw aerial shots from WSB-TV of Atlanta and they showed the agents working in an area feathered with pine trees. The area showed evidence of digging, dirty tarpaulins draped over the ground, and teams of agents sifting through soil like miners panning for gold.

Then, as I stood there, I saw lights coming from deep in the orchard, from the southeast. A black SUV pulled to the gate and the drive exited. I was surprised to recognize him, GBI Special Agent Jason Shoudel, case agent in charge of Tara's case. I waved, and he waved back, although he might not like me after some of my recent writings.

Behind him, a familiar white car pulled up and through the gate. It was driven by Ocilla Police Chief Billy Hancock. Any possible doubt that I had found the search location was gone.

The Chief waved at me, rolled down his window, and asked if I needed a ride back to my car, which was again a football field away down the highway.

I said, "Yeah," and he half pulled off the road but still butted into the highway enough to block traffic. Three cars were coming swiftly from the distance. Chief Hancock said, "Hurry and get in quick," and thus the most exciting 8 seconds of an exciting week happened when I rushed around the front of his car, opened the door, threw all 250 pounds of me in the passenger seat, watching not to hit my knees, and awkwardly slammed the door just as he pulled out of the way of the oncoming cars.

Then, as Chief Hancock is one of the nicest guys I know, he followed me home, because he, like you, has read about my car's notorious problems.

So, we know where they are searching for Tara, where they believe she may be, but we may not know even if they find her remains because of this gag order. As a journalist, I find it especially troubling, but I have plenty of other things to write about for now. I wonder how the gag order will affect "Up and Vanished," the podcast about Tara's disappearance.

Dr. Maurice Godwin, a forensic investigator and integral part of "Up and Vanished," asked me for a copy of the March 1 Ocilla Star, as it featured an interview with him. He said it would be his final interview, since he is going to honor the gag order as a potential expert witness. That will definitely leave a void on "Up and Vanished."

The defense attorney apparently asked for the gag order to ensure his client's right to a fair trail, but a lot of people are losing their right to freedom of speech. It's a worrisome situation.

I have plenty more I would like to write about this case, and some notes I have already collected, including information I had never heard about a second latex glove found in Tara's neighborhood back in 2005. I hope nothing stands in the way of me writing about it and you reading.

We learned a lot today about the mystery of Tara Grinstead's disappearance. But I can't help but wonder if, until there is a trial or a guilty plea, will these be the last answers we get about what happened to her?