Crime

Tara Grinstead case: New search for long-missing teacher's remains after arrest

March 1, 2017 / 12:16 PM EST / AP

Former student arrested in 2005 cold case of Georgia teacher

FITZGERALD, Ga. -- A search continues in south Georgia for the remains of a teacher who’s been missing for more than 11 years.

Ryan Duke in an Ocilla, Ga. courtroom Feb. 23, 2017 WGCL

Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge J.T. Ricketson tells multiple news outlets that investigators returned to a pecan farm Wednesday morning, searching for Tara Grinstead’s remains. Investigators dug through a wooded area Tuesday for Grinstead, who went missing from her Ocilla home in 2005.

Grinstead was a history teacher at Irwin County High School and three-time Miss Tifton. Her former student, Ryan Alexander Duke, was arrested last week and charged with murder in her death.

Duke burglarized the teacher’s home, and used his hands to kill her inside the residence, according to warrants that were read at a court hearing last week. He then removed her body from the home with the intent of concealing her death, the warrants state.

The GBI declined to give the cause of Grinstead’s death or a possible motive.

Details of investigators’ possible findings weren’t released. A judge issued a gag order Tuesday preventing law enforcement, potential witnesses, court personnel and family members from discussing the case.