by Seamus McGraw

May 16, 2006

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OCILLA, Ga. (Crime Library) — It is, perhaps, a tantalizing clue an orphan speck of DNA recovered during the search for missing schoolteacher and beauty queen Tara Grinstead.

But despite a massive effort by state and local law enforcement officials, authorities still don't know whom it came from, says criminologist Dr. Maurice Godwin, or whether it might hold the key to solving the mystery of Grinstead's disappearance.

Tara Grinstead

Officially, authorities will not even confirm the existence of the DNA evidence, or any of the other leads Godwin has claimed to uncovered in the months since he launched his own probe into the schoolteacher's disappearance. "The issuesare not something we're going to comment on," said John Bankhead, a spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The case, officials say, remains a missing persons investigation, and authorities have uncovered no evidence to suggest that the young teacher was the victim of foul play. In the past, authorities have been circumspect in their comments on Godwin's assertions about the case.

But Godwin, who says he has been working "fourteen or 15 hours a day on the case" at the behest of Tara's family, contends that GBI officials not only have the DNA evidence but have taken it seriously enough that they have collected DNA samples from a number of men in Tara's life. "They're swabbing people right and left," Godwin said. "You don't swab people without having something to compare it to."

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