Tara Grinstead murder: Did authorities miss leads that could have potentially solved the case over a decade ago?

[This story previously aired on September 4, 2021. It was updated on August 20, 2022.] GBI AGENT to BO DUKES: I'm gonna just kinda leave it – open the floor to you, and just tell me about you knowing about Tara … GBI AGENT: You could still see the body?  PROSECUTOR OPENING: This case is about Bo's lies … it's about Bo's concealment that his best friend, Ryan, had killed Tara Grinstead and then they both burn the body.  BO DUKES [GBI video interview]: He told me he had killed Tara Grinstead. … And he asked me to help him get rid of her body. BRAD RIGBY | PROSECUTOR: This case is about Bo's lies, lies that lasted from 2005 to 2016. BO DUKES [GBI interview]: He told me that he had killed Tara Grinstead. I didn't believe him. I thought he was out of his mind. I told him, you know, leave me alone … BO DUKES [GBI interview]: Again, I didn't believe him … he asked me to come with him out to —to the pecan orchard. BO DUKES [GBI interview]: We drove back into the back, and he showed me where her body was. GBI AGENT: So, you immediately see this and you're like "what in the hell did you do?" GBI AGENT: So, by Friday, there's nothing left? JOHN MCCULLOUGH: The exact location, he didn't tell me, but had made the comment of, you know, we took her to the middle of the pecan orchard and burned her body. GARLAN LOTT: The statement that I recall was, 'We killed and burned her body." LAWYER: It sounds like you're saying you assumed it was handled properly? AGENT GARY ROTHWELL: We thought that that lead had been addressed by local law enforcement as unfounded and did not follow up. AGENT GARY ROTHWELL: It is something we should've followed up, but we —we didn't. CONNIE GRINSTEAD: He knew she wasn't ever coming back. He could have at least told us that, but he didn't. And the reason he knew she wasn't coming back, is because he had put load after load of wood on her body and burned her. BO DUKES: To the Tara Grinstead family, I'm truly sorry. Your long suffering has been unimaginable. BO DUKES [GBI interview]: He jumped on her, while he was —she was in bed and strangled her right there in her bed. DEFENSE [closing arguments]: Bo Dukes should be on trial for the murder of Tara Grinstead, not Ryan. RYAN DUKE [GBI interview played at trial]: I can't lie. I can't live with myself. I'm so sick of this… stealing from her purse. … she snuck up on me and — I hit her. …  I don't remember everything clearly.    DEFENSE: Mr. Duke, did you murder Tara Grinstead? Q: Did you see Miss Grinstead's body after she died? RYAN DUKE: … dry heaving, I'm crying ... DEFENSE: We know the State hasn't brought a single witness to tell you it was on the ground before Monday morning. Not a one. PROSECUTION: The man in THAT chair, confessed to the murder of Tara Grinstead. … They burned her body. A full skeleton. Down to about 20 fragments of bone. CONNIE GRINSTEAD [Reading family impact statement]: His confession in 2017 seemed genuine and sincere, and he looked remorseful. … He looked like a person who was ready to do the right thing, but his testimony on the witness stand only seemed coached, well-rehearsed and sought self-serving benefits. … We pray that people will remember that the defendant was not the victim. Tara was.

"48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant first reported on this story in 2008 – almost three years after Tara Grinstead went missing. Back then, hardly anyone thought this case would ever be solved. Then, in 2017, a woman came forward with a remarkable story about her boyfriend … but could it be trusted?      BO DUKES: Yeah. Yeah.  GBI AGENT: Of all the people, why Tara, what's the connection? BO DUKES: Yeah. And why the f-— would you do it here on my family's pecan orchard? I mean… BO DUKES: No.  LAWYER: Any doubt in your mind, however, that you heard these two people laughing about killing and burning Tara Grinstead's body? GARLAN LOTT: I assumed it was handled by law enforcement, yes. RYAN DUKE: I did not. RYAN DUKE: I did DEFENSE: Does Bo say anything?

The 2005 disappearance of Tara Grinstead — beloved teacher and local beauty queen — mystified the people of Ocilla, Georgia, like Jannis Paulk, who lived just around the corner from Tara. GBI AGENT: Just kinda like charred?  BO DUKES: No connection. GBI AGENT: What did he say?  GARLAN LOTT: No. Q: Where did you see it? RYAN DUKE: He starts laughing at me. … He lit her on fire.