The man accused of murdering a former Georgia beauty queen and teacher revealed chilling details about her murder and blamed his friend, who is also facing charges in the case.
Ryan Duke is accused of killing Tara Grinstead after she vanished from Ocilla in 2005. On Tuesday, Duke took the stand in his own defense.
Duke told the jury that he lied when he confessed to Grinstead’s murder several years ago. He told police he broke into Grinstead’s house looking for money. She surprised him and he struck and killed her. He then claimed he had his former best friend Bo Dukes to help him burn her body in the woods.
Bo Dukes is currently in jail on charges that he concealed Grinstead’s death.
Duke claimed that he lied because he was afraid of Bo Dukes.
With Bo Dukes now in prison, Duke testified that he finally felt free to tell the truth.
Duke said that on the night Grinstead disappeared, he was throwing up and passed out at the base of a toilet in a mobile home miles from Grinstead’s house. Duke said Bo Dukes woke him up Sunday morning.
“He looked panicked, freaked out,” Duke said. He claimed Bo Dukes said he killed Grinstead and showed him her purse and driver’s license. Duke said that at the time, he thought Bo Dukes had just stolen the purse, and he intended to return it.
Duke said he took Bo Dukes’ truck and drove to Ocilla.
“I called 411 to get her phone number,” Duke said, claiming that no one answered.
Duke told jurors that Bo Dukes took him to Grinstead’s bod in a pecan orchard to proved to him that she was dead.
“She was beat up. She had bruises on her arms and legs,” Duke said. “I’m dry-heaving, I’m crying.”
Duke said that Bo Dukes started laughing at him. He then pushed up her shirt and started fondling her.
Duke told jurors that Bo Dukes then lit the body on fire.
Later, prosecutors tried to show that Duke is a proven liar who can’t keep his stories straight.
“You are willing to lie when the stakes are high,” prosecutors said.
“I have been as honest as I humanly can be today,” Duke said. “I can’t undo the mistakes I’ve made.”
Bo Dukes also took the stand Tuesday but refused to answer any questions.
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WSB Legal Analyst Philip Holloway, a former prosecutor and police officer, was in the courtroom on Tuesday for Ryan Duke’s testimony. Originally from south Georgia, Holloway has a wide range of experience in legal matters and law enforcement matters, both as a practicing attorney and as a media analyst. Holloway has appeared on several national media outlets, including the ‘Up and Vanished’ podcast series, whose first season focused on the Tara Grinstead case.
In the weeks leading up to Duke’s trial, Holloway spoke with Cox Media Group’s Nicole Bennett to preview the case. Holloway predicted that the prosecution would have an “uphill battle,” considering multiple factors in their case, including: potentially insufficient evidence, conflicting accounts of what may have happened to Grinstead and a witness—Bo Dukes—who Holloway says lacks credibility.
In his trial preview, Holloway walked through events that led to delays in Duke’s case and predicted shocking developments he thinks could possibly come out as proceedings get underway.
Listen to his full interview below from Bennett’s podcast series ‘Beyond Criminal Headlines’:
Tony Thomas, a reporter for WSB-TV in Atlanta, is also covering the trial in Irwin County. Thomas says important rulings were made over the past month, with defense attorneys reportedly expressing that they do not want jurors in the case to know about Grinstead’s past. They feel the details, good or bad, should not play a role in the jury’s decision.
“Any references to her being a beauty queen, being involved in pageantry. Any of her personal life,” defense attorney John Merchant said, underscoring that he feels too much information about the well-liked Grinstead would influence the jury.
“It’s only appropriate in limited versions during sentencing, during the guilt-innocence phase none of that is allowed to come in,” Merchant added.
But during a Zoom meeting in the weeks leading up to the trial, Thomas said prosecutors told the judge that Grinstead’s life will play a key role and those facts will come out.
“The fact that a lot of the witnesses knew she was a teacher. The first thing they did when they realized she was missing was call the school to see if she was there,” said prosecutor JD Hart.
The judge agreed that witnesses can mention those facts in passing, but not dwell on them.
Tony Thomas also spoke with Nicole Bennett in an episode of ‘Beyond Criminal Headlines’ earlier this year about Grinstead’s case. Listen to the full interview here.
The Grinstead case was unsolved until the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested Bo Dukes and Ryan Duke in 2017. Both men confessed, but now Duke says his confession was a lie.
Bo Dukes told several people different versions of his story and while he will be called to testify at the trial, Thomas says he is expected to take the Fifth.
“Bo Dukes is going to be a star witness in this trial one way or the other,” Merchant said.