By Seamus McGraw

(Continued)

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It was a monumental task. Still, Tara had seemed to be in good spirits that night, her friends have said.  There was nothing in her demeanor that night, her friends say, to suggest that Tara was particularly despondent or that she made some kind of private decision to cast off all the pressures and demands and emotional complications that had come to dog her life. But there were apparently aspects of her life that Tara tended to keep to herself. After her disappearance, authorities learned that there had been other men in Tara's life as well. Some of them had been romantic interests; others had been friends. In some cases, she shared tidbits about the relationships with friends, and in other cases, authorities and her family members had to piece together enough details to identify them. But identify them they did, and in those 50 volumes of case reports, there are statements either from or about all of them. It is, of course, possible that there were others in Tara's life about whom police still know nothing, but privately authorities say they doubt that. Ocilla, after all, is a small town. It's hard enough to keep a secret there even without the intense glare of the national media spotlight.

If her recent breakup with Harper was troubling her, or if one of her other suitors had distressed or upset her, she did not show it, at least on that October night. There was nothing about Tara that suggested to her close friends that night that it might be the last time they would see her.

It was.

Two days later, after the well-liked teacher failed to show up for school, she was reported missing. A two-week manhunt involving an army of searchers, some on foot, some on ATVs, others on horseback, yielded little to indicate what might have become of her. Tara Grinstead had simply vanished.

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Contact Seamus McGraw at seamusm@ptd.net

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