Up and Vanished
Podcast
Georgia native and filmmaker Payne Lindsey decided he wanted to tell a story of another Georgia native Tara Grinstead. Payne watched Making a Murderer and listened to Serial and decided that he could do that too. He could tell a story that mattered. So he googled Georgia cold cases and found Tara's case. Tara was a beauty queen turned high school English teacher who disappeared from her house on a Saturday night in October 2005. The town that Tara lived in was small and therefore close to each other and quiet, I pictured Sweet Home Alabama when Melanie's divorce attorney comes looking for her and the people in the diner ask "what business do you have with her" and he can't tell them and they say "then we can't help you." It's about protecting your own.
With the anti outsider perspective in Ocilla, Payne couldn't get anyone to talk to him until he talked to his Grandma and found out that she had a friend who knew Tara. Grandma connected him to her friend and the friend told the story about how Tara had been at a beauty pageant the day she went missing, then went to a party at her superintendent's house, then made an excuse to go home early. No body really knows what happens after that but it's speculated that she got home, changed and either something happened then or she left again and wherever she went then is where she met foul play. Things that were of note is that she had lamp that she turned on to tell her neighbors that she was home and it was never turned on Saturday.She also had a dog that would only be outside when Tara wasn't home so she should have been in the house if Tara was killed in the her house. Her car was newly muddy and the seat was pushed back. And there was a latex glove found on her lawn.
Original suspects were her ex-boyfriend Marcus Harper who had the alibi that he was on a ride around with an officer friend, Heath Dykes who was a family friend; police officer from another county; and suspected boyfriend (even though he was married) who's alibi is that he drove from his house to check on her per her mother's request, and some high school kid that said he was sleeping with Tara but there is no proof. The problem with all of these suspects is that no one is saying anything so even the GBI never cleared anyone. Payne was looking at this case 12 years after Tara went missing. No body was ever found either.
The coolest thing about this podcast is that they found new suspects, arrested, and charged with Tara's murder! The podcast was only going to have 13 episode and it ended up having 24 because they had to find out about these random guys that weren't even on the radar until they came forward. Currently we are waiting for the court dates so technically the podcast is still going on.
I will warn you that there are so many bonus episodes that I wouldn't listen to if I listened again. I really didn't like the Q&A episodes. They also had so much fun with this podcast they created a new one called Sworn that is about court trials and law in that sense and then they have Atlanta Monster Killers that I also plan to listen to soon.
Georgia native and filmmaker Payne Lindsey decided he wanted to tell a story of another Georgia native Tara Grinstead. Payne watched Making a Murderer and listened to Serial and decided that he could do that too. He could tell a story that mattered. So he googled Georgia cold cases and found Tara's case. Tara was a beauty queen turned high school English teacher who disappeared from her house on a Saturday night in October 2005. The town that Tara lived in was small and therefore close to each other and quiet, I pictured Sweet Home Alabama when Melanie's divorce attorney comes looking for her and the people in the diner ask "what business do you have with her" and he can't tell them and they say "then we can't help you." It's about protecting your own.
With the anti outsider perspective in Ocilla, Payne couldn't get anyone to talk to him until he talked to his Grandma and found out that she had a friend who knew Tara. Grandma connected him to her friend and the friend told the story about how Tara had been at a beauty pageant the day she went missing, then went to a party at her superintendent's house, then made an excuse to go home early. No body really knows what happens after that but it's speculated that she got home, changed and either something happened then or she left again and wherever she went then is where she met foul play. Things that were of note is that she had lamp that she turned on to tell her neighbors that she was home and it was never turned on Saturday.She also had a dog that would only be outside when Tara wasn't home so she should have been in the house if Tara was killed in the her house. Her car was newly muddy and the seat was pushed back. And there was a latex glove found on her lawn.
Original suspects were her ex-boyfriend Marcus Harper who had the alibi that he was on a ride around with an officer friend, Heath Dykes who was a family friend; police officer from another county; and suspected boyfriend (even though he was married) who's alibi is that he drove from his house to check on her per her mother's request, and some high school kid that said he was sleeping with Tara but there is no proof. The problem with all of these suspects is that no one is saying anything so even the GBI never cleared anyone. Payne was looking at this case 12 years after Tara went missing. No body was ever found either.
The coolest thing about this podcast is that they found new suspects, arrested, and charged with Tara's murder! The podcast was only going to have 13 episode and it ended up having 24 because they had to find out about these random guys that weren't even on the radar until they came forward. Currently we are waiting for the court dates so technically the podcast is still going on.
I will warn you that there are so many bonus episodes that I wouldn't listen to if I listened again. I really didn't like the Q&A episodes. They also had so much fun with this podcast they created a new one called Sworn that is about court trials and law in that sense and then they have Atlanta Monster Killers that I also plan to listen to soon.
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