Photo: Ryan Duke and Bo Dukes are pictured side-by-side in their high school yearbook.
The Stories of Ryan and Bo?
We may never know what actually happened the week Tara Grinstead went missing, but I think I'm getting a clear picture about the stories Ryan Duke and Bo Dukes have told investigators.
The final puzzle pieces to this picture were locked into place by Payne Lindsey with his Episode
"The Deal" which in my opinion was the finest episode of the
Up and Vanished podcast. He even managed to make it the most compelling episode despite the glaring flaw of having me on the episode twice.
There were two things about "The Deal" that solidified my beliefs about all the swirling rumors and stories I've heard about potential evidence.
First, Payne made the rock-solid observation that the indictments against Ryan Duke specify that Ryan Duke allegedly used his hand to assault and kill Tara.
Hand. Singular. Not hands.
Hand.
I had completely missed that distinction. But as Payne pointed out, it is an important distinction. I'll get to that later when I lay out the evidence for my beliefs about what Ryan may have told the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The second thing about "The Deal" is that Payne shared all or parts of a conversation from someone he called "Darren," a friend or former friend of Bo's. The conversation with "Darren," which at times raised goose pimples and at times earned my anger, buoyed some of the many rumors I've heard about what Bo Dukes has allegedly said about his role in Tara's disappearance.
I'll start with Bo's story, or what his story seems to be based on talk I've seen on the Up and Vanished Discussion Board, including the posts by "AAA" who claimed to be Bo himself. Also, other sources are people who reached out to me on Facebook or UAV, a list of questions allegedly answered by Bo, and now "Darren's" alleged conversations with Bo.
The reason I give all these sources is to point out that Bo's story, if what I've heard repeatedly is true, is very prevalent. And the details all seem to remain consistent with each other and with the allegations in the arrest warrants and indictments.
But it's also, at its heart, a pretty simple tale, if a horrifyingly astonishing one.
According to several of these sources, Bo allegedly said he drove a white truck, not a black one, and he allegedly said Ryan had borrowed his truck when whatever happened happened. Bo allegedly said Ryan told him and some others that he killed Tara, but Bo didn't believe him, allegedly. Bo allegedly said that he didn't believe until several days later when he saw the body at the pecan orchard.
And then, as the arrest warrants against him claim, Bo is alleged to have destroyed Tara's body.
Or as he allegedly told "Darren": "Please, never bring me a dead body. Although now that I've had some practice..."
Which is one of the most shocking things I've ever heard. If it was truly said by Bo, then that is someone either bragging about covering up a murder, making a joke of it, or both.
Many sources and popular consensus allege fire was used, which only makes such an alleged statement more horrifying.
So what about Ryan's story? Let me take you back 7 or 8 weeks ago, only shortly after Ryan was arrested.
I noticed someone on the Up and Vanished discussion board posting information that seemed right to me based on what little I knew at the time. This person is pretty well known on the UAV discussion board, at least by his or her anonymous screen name, but since I don't know if they want me to publicize their screen name, I'm going to call them "Utopian," just to have something to call them, and even though I have no idea of their gender, I'm going to call them "he."
Utopian posted that he had a source close to the GBI who said bones were found and were at the crime lab. He said Ryan's DNA was found on the latex glove. Utopian said Ryan did not confess to murder but confessed to being in Tara's house.
Utopian said Bo made a deal and was claiming only to be an accessory after the fact. He said Ryan left the body at the pecan orchard the night she went missing and Bo said that Ryan asked him for help disposing of the body five days after the disappearance. Utopian said Bo's arrest was prearranged and he will not serve any jail time.
Other details Utopian added were that the tipster's motive was reward money and that the Grinstead family was unhappy about it because someone that knew for years would be collecting the money. According to the alleged text messages between Bo and "Darren," Bo said that his girlfriend told her mother, who "tipped off the GBI," and that his girlfriend may be getting the reward money.
Utopian said rumors that were circulating at the time about the body being placed in a pond were untrue and that the fire on Snapdragon Road a few weeks after the disappearance were unconnected to the case. He also said that rumors of a third arrest were false, and no third arrest has been made, so that seems to be true.
In fact, almost 2 months later, nothing Utopian said is clearly untrue, although I have my doubts about Bo having a deal, but I'll get to that in a moment.
Since Utopian's information seemed like it could be true and fit a lot of what I was already thinking, I reached out to him on the Up and Vanished board and we talked through private messages. He provided greater detail.
He said there was a confession tape of Ryan that was about 30 minutes long. He said Ryan said he was going through Tara's purse when she woke up, and then he hit her, and that is all he remembers.
Recall how the indictments say hand, singular, instead of hands? Is the prosecution alleging that Ryan killed her with this hit, which we can assume was a punch?
A single punch can be fatal, but it rarely is. I've heard someone say "If that's true. It was one lucky punch." I'd say it was an unlucky one, for all involved.
Interestingly, Ryan's arrest warrants accused him of using his hands, plural, and many speculated that meant strangulation. According to a report of a conversation someone had through the messenger application Wickr with someone claiming to be Bo Dukes, the person who may have been Bo allegedly said that Ryan told him Tara was strangled. Utopian said Bo saw bruising and strangulation marks on her body before he allegedly helped burn it.
I believe, if these alleged reports are true about what Ryan and Bo are saying, that investigators are unsure how Tara died. If the reports are true, the safe bet for the prosecutors may have been to say hand, singular, because whether she died due to a punch or strangulation, a hand would have been used either way.
Utopian also said that law enforcement officers were skeptical about Ryan's story for certain reasons. I am skeptical, too.
That's the bulk of what Utopian told me, and it sounded plausible enough that it has been my working theory of what Ryan and Bo may have told investigators ever since.
Then, after the Grand Jury met two weeks ago, rumors spread on the Up and Vanished board that someone was leaking from the Grand Jury. The rumors about the leak seemed to support Utopian's claims, but I investigated and could not find anyone actually saying that they heard from someone on the Grand Jury the details that Utopian shared.
Then, rumors of another Grand Jury leak began to spread late last week on the board, and I reached out to someone who was posting about them. I will call this person "Esther," just because I like that name, and I will refer to them as a "she."
I spoke to Esther and she told me that someone on the Grand Jury told a family member about the evidence and that family member told Esther. I have no idea who the Grand Jury member is, and frankly, I can't even guarantee this information came from a member of the Grand Jury. All I know for sure is it fits a lot of other things I've heard or know, except for a few parts, but I'll explain.
Esther said she was told that Ryan went to Tara's house late at night and she was already asleep. She said she was told Ryan was going through her purse when Tara woke up and he hit her, exactly what Utopian told me previously.
Esther said she was told Ryan did not remember a lot of details, something Utopian hinted at. Esther said she was told Ryan didn't remember because he was "so messed up," which I take to mean that he was allegedly saying he was intoxicated or on drugs, but she said she did not know what he was allegedly "messed up" on.
Another source told me that they heard Ryan broke in her house to watch her sleep and that he may have done so other times but this particular time, she woke up and began screaming.
Esther said she was told Ryan left Tara's home that night but came back in the morning, and I got the impression she meant during the daytime. She said she was told Ryan wrapped Tara's body in a blanket, put her in the back of a truck and drove to the pecan orchard. She said she was not told if it was supposed to be Bo's truck he was driving.
About Bo, Esther said she was told he bragged about what happened to a friend from his time in the military. She said she was told this military guy is the one who came forward to the GBI, not Bo's girlfriend. This confused me, and perhaps is still confusing, but after listening to "The Deal" episode of Up and Vanished, I wondered if the military friend was "Darren." And I wondered if the Grand Jury was presented Darren's alleged text messages with Bo or other testimony from Darren that a grand juror might have interpreted as Darren coming forward. But that's just my speculation.
Another thing Esther said did not fit what I knew either. She said she was told that Bo did not have a deal.
This conflicts with what I've thought for a while, what Utopian told me, and what Bo allegedly told Darren. But then I thought about it.
Bo allegedly told Darren, "Through a long negotiation between (Bo's girlfriend), the case agent, myself, and eventually my lawyer, and the DAs we worked out a deal," and "It worked out well, for me at least."
"No, I wont' be arrested or prosecuted at all," Bo allegedly said.
But he was arrested. He was arrested and charged with concealing a death, hindering the apprehension or punishment of a criminal, and tampering with evidence.
If these stories Ryan and Bo may have told are the meat of the GBI's official narrative of what happened to Tara, then what else could he have been charged with? No one I know about with actual knowledge of the case is accusing Bo Dukes of doing anything more.
I believe a deal was probably in place, but I think it may have been withdrawn, possibly at the last minute. This is just my speculation, but I have an idea of how it could have happened.
If Bo had a plea deal in place, one of the stipulations of the deal may have been that he had to lead investigators to Tara's remains. This would make sense because I believe the GBI's search at the pecan orchard ended the same day Bo was arrested.
But, I've been told from reliable sources that Bo was not able to find the burn spot, even though it was found without him. It is a huge pecan orchard. I wonder if that simple alleged failure might have been enough to negate his deal.
Of course, that is just my speculation, but a source did tell me that Bo did have a deal at some point but it was revoked. I was told that if he was caught in a lie his immunity would be withdrawn, so perhaps a lie undid the deal.
I hope that everyone involved in Tara's death is punished, so if he was involved, I am glad he will not receive immunity, if that's true, and I do believe the deal is gone.
There are a lot of people crying for justice for Tara, and many are questioning why others have not been charged. Because if what Bo allegedly told Darren is true, several others knew what happened that night. But if all they did was know, if they did not materially participate in the crime or its cover-up, I'm not sure there is any punishment for them, at least not legally.
Somewhere in all this maelstrom of information swirling about this case, I heard that it's not a crime to have knowledge of a crime and not report it. I don't know how to look that up. It's a lot easier to look up what is illegal than what isn't, but I thought about it and it made sense.
Many years ago, I covered a class for mandatory reporters for the newspaper. Mandatory reporters are people like teachers and nurses who have a legal duty to report suspicions of child abuse. If only certain people in certain professions are legally required to report suspicions of child abuse, that amazingly means that the average citizen is not required to report suspicions of child abuse. Shocking, right?
But think about it even further. Should it be illegal to withhold reporting a crime? If you witnessed a gang shooting or a mob hit, should you face criminal charges just because you're scared to come forward?
Obviously, this case is different, and I think anyone who knew had a great moral responsibility to come forward, if not a legal one. Once their names are known, and I believe they will be, they will face a stiff social penalty, and some may already be facing that punishment in the form of suspicion, but I doubt anyone who knew will ever be arrested for knowing.
Of course, many people thought that others would be guilty of crimes if they knew but said nothing for all these years, which made me think, could Ryan Duke have thought the same thing?
Several weeks ago, and a few times since, I was told Ryan spoke to a nurse whom he knew, and she asked what happened. I was told that he told her that Tara wasn't murdered, that she died of an accidental overdose at the pecan orchard and the covered it up. Now, I don't believe for a moment that she overdosed, but that's the story I was told. Tara didn't even drink, so the idea that she did hard drugs sounds preposterous, but just because one thing someone says isn't true, it doesn't mean everything they say isn't true.
And I was told Ryan told the nurse that he was taking the fall for what happened because the others had more to lose than he did.
I have received enough confirmation to at least believe the conversation happened if not the details of what was said. But aside from the multiple reports of this nurse story, I've also heard other reports of him saying he was taking the fall.
I wonder if he might have thought the others would be facing criminal penalties, when apparently no one else other than Bo Dukes is. I wonder if now he is changing his story because he is realizing the ones he was trying to protect did not need his protection.
Everyone knows I question the official narrative that Tara was killed in her house. I won't rehash all of the details about how the idea that she was killed in the house doesn't seem to fit the clues. If you aren't familiar, read my blog post
"If I Was On the Grand Jury" or listen to "The Deal" episode of Up and Vanished.
Before I wrote "If I Was On the Grand Jury" I had been planning for weeks to write about my questions and doubts about the official narrative, and I had planned to write a more balanced exposition of those ideas. But then I realized there was a chance I wouldn't be on the Grand Jury and I had so many questions I would have asked if I had been on it that I rushed to write what I did in the hopes a grand juror would read it, but I did not include some of the counterarguments to my doubts.
For instance, if the stories I've been told are true and Ryan was looking through Tara's purse, it might explain why her purse was missing. Maybe he feared his fingerprints would be on the purse, if the story is true.
Then, there's the phone left on the charger. Tara left her cell phone on the charger and of all the material clues about her house, that is the one which does not seem to fit the idea of her leaving her house voluntarily, which is a scenario most other clues fit best. Why would a young woman leave home in the middle of the night and leave her cell phone behind? It was left on the charger which may be indicative that it needed charging or it could be explained that someone planted the phone on the charger after she died so that it would not lead to the location she was killed, but on the surface, the phone is suspicious and does not easily support the idea that she left her home willingly.
Another major problem with the idea that she left her home willingly is why. Why would she have left to go out to that pecan orchard or some other location? If she had regular cell phone communications with any of these people accused of being involved in her death or even those who may have known about it, it seems likely that Ryan Duke would not have been "off the radar" as the GBI said after his arrest. As she was a teacher when these people were in school, even if she may have not been their teacher, she probably knew them to some extent, but would she have trusted them enough to go out with them very late at night? I don't think so, unless there's some big piece of the puzzle we're missing.
One major question people seem to have is why someone like Bo would help Ryan cover-up a murder if otherwise Bo wasn't involved. It's a good question, but someone pointed out to me that from what he knew of Bo, he might not think like most people. He said Bo was someone who thought he could get away with stealing from the Army, so maybe Bo didn't see the risk of helping cover-up a murder because he thought he could get away with it. And for more than 11 years, he did.
And if these other people knew things about Tara's death, such as Bo allegedly suggested in his discussion with Darren, the GBI must have interviewed them. You would think the stories they told must be backing up the stories Bo and Ryan seem to be telling.
Could it all be prearranged? Could everyone who knew or participated have coordinated their stories years ago or even in the months prior to the arrests? It's possible, but it seems unlikely, and it seems like the stories of Bo and Ryan would corroborate each other better than they seem to based on the stories I've been told. Wouldn't a fabricated story be more polished?
If Bo and Ryan are the only ones involved, as the allegations seem to indicate, could Bo have created his story and just gotten lucky that what Ryan said did not contradict it? Again, it is possible but unlikely.
One point about that idea though: For the sake of argument, if both Ryan and Bo were at Tara's house wearing latex gloves, Bo would all but know that the DNA in that glove did not match him. When he was convicted of stealing from the Army, he had to give a DNA sample, which he could have reasonably assumed would have been checked for a link to the latex glove found in Tara's yard.
Remember the woman who talked to someone claiming to be Bo on Wickr? Wickr deletes messages after a time and it warns the other person if screen shots are taken, so she tried to write down her questions and the answers as quickly as she could. She then produced a list of questions and answers.
One of those answers gave me pause.
When asked why not turn the killer in, the answer was, "Then they point the finger at you. Where would the evidence point then if there was (evidence) at her house, which I still don't know."
But everyone knew about the latex glove, and Bo Dukes would reasonably know that it would not point to him.
If Bo lied to investigators, he could do so with confidence that the biggest piece of physical evidence in the case could not be linked to him. So, if both Ryan and Bo were at her house that night or morning in October of 2005, if Ryan tried to say Bo killed Tara, then Bo could be confident the physical evidence would better support his story that Ryan killed her.
But look, even though I have my doubts, what happened to Tara could have happened just as Bo and Ryan seem to be saying, more or less. It's possible, but like so much about this case, it doesn't seem likely. I feel like there is a huge hole somewhere in this story, something we're missing.
As I see it, if there are lies being told then they can only be for two reasons: To protect someone or to diminish the extent of the crimes out of pure shame.
The refrain I keep hearing from people is "We'll probably never know what really happened," but I hope we do. I think the only hope for the real truth and for real closure for this case is a trial.
And people keep asking me when I think there will be a trial. Well, if there is a trial at all depends on whether Ryan pleads guilty or not guilty. If he pleads not guilty, who knows?
On "The Deal," Payne interviewed Colin Miller, a law professor at the University of South Carolina and a host of the podcast
Undisclosed, which investigates possible wrongful convictions. Miller noted that in America we have a right to a speedy trial, and he anticipated a trial would come no later than 8 months after Ryan's arraignment, which is scheduled for May 4.
Well, let me tell you a story about justice in Irwin County, Georgia.
In March 2014, my friend, Samuel Chalyse Benson and his friend, Robert Green, were arrested in Irwin County on drug charges. After their arrest, they were each charged with multiple counts of child molestation. About the drug charges, I have no opinion, but after studying the case, talking to people, and because I know almost everyone involved, I do not believe the other, more terrible charges against them.
If I did believe those charges, I'd want them both to spend the rest of their days in prison, but I don't. In fact, no one I've talked to about the case believes they're guilty. In fact, I'm probably the most suspicious of them simply because I tend to be, well, rational to a fault. I've tried to examine the evidence fairly and honestly. Still, I don't think they're guilty of the worst things they're accused of.
But what I believe is immaterial because they are both innocent until proven guilty.
But that hasn't stopped them from sitting in jail, the same jail as Ryan Duke, for more than 3 years now. Three long years. Can you imagine sitting in jail for three years without a trial?
Neither was given a bond, and even now, no trial date has been set. Chalyse told me today that the earliest his trial can be held is November.
I believe Robert has had multiple public defenders through their years of incarceration. And because Chalyse fired his attorney after more than 2 years sitting in jail, he has been assigned an inexperienced public defender he has not even met. And that public defender will have to defend a case the prosecutor has had at least 3 1/2 years to prepare for.
Chalyse and Robert have already lost their right to a speedy trial, regardless of their innocence or guilt. I cannot see how they will receive a fair trial either.
That's an abortion of justice, and something needs to change, but I worry that it won't.
So when I hear that Ryan Duke's case may go to trial in 8 months, I know I won't be holding my breath.
Ryan Duke and Bo Dukes are innocent until proven guilty, too.
Correction: Irwin County Hospital does not provide dialysis treatment as I reported being told in my blog entry "The Stories of Ryan and Bo?" The hospital does not and has never provided dialysis treatment. I apologize for the incorrect information, and it has already been removed from the post. Irwin County Hospital is a fine institution with quality employees, and I definitely never intended to harm the hospital or its good reputation. -- Dusty Vassey
