Ep 2. The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken is the second episode from the fifth season of the investigative true crime series, Disappeared. The episode chronicles the case of 23-year-old Tara Grinstead, a former beauty queen and high school teacher from rural Georgia who vanished without leaving any clues on October 22, 2005.

Tara Grinstead was a beloved and respected member of the community she lived in. She was the winner of local beauty pageants as a teenager and later went on to become a history teacher at Irwin County High School. Besides teaching, Tara was an active member of her church and participated in various volunteer activities.

On the night of October 22nd, 2005, Tara attended a barbecue with friends at a farm outside of town. After leaving the party, she drove back home to her house in Ocilla. However, she never made it there. The following morning, Tara didn't show up for work and her colleagues immediately grew concerned. When friends and family members attempted to get in touch with her, her phone was off. Her car, a Honda Civic, was found parked in her driveway with no sign of a struggle.

The local police department in Ocilla was initially perplexed by Tara's disappearance. With no signs of forced entry or struggle in her home, investigators were left with very few leads. However, as time stretched into days, weeks, and months, the community’s nerves began to fray, and rumors and theories started to crop up.

For the next few years, Tara's parents, friends, and the community rallied around a search effort, organizing prayer vigils, and posting flyers around town. However, the leads dried up, and the case went cold. It wasn't until a decade later that there was a breakthrough.

The case gained media attention when a podcast called Up and Vanished dedicated a season to Tara's disappearance. The podcast series spurred renewed interest in her case, which eventually led to the arrest of Ryan Alexander Duke, a former student of Tara's who had been a person of interest from the start.

The Road Not Taken will give audiences an insight into the police investigation at the time, and what made this case so difficult to solve. It profiles the difficult work that is spent sifting through all the rumored suspects and conspiracy theories that cropped up in the years following Tara's disappearance.

Audiences will also be taken on a heartwarming journey as the episode covers the long struggle of Tara's loved ones who fought tirelessly to find her. Friends, family members, colleagues, and former students will all share their memories of Tara and the impact she had on their lives.

In the end, the episode will leave audiences with a renewed sense of hope in the power of the community and the determination of those who seek justice. With its insightful interviews, rich archive footage, and moving storytelling, The Road Not Taken will take viewers on a journey through this long and perplexing mystery, finally bringing closure to one of the most famous unsolved cases in the southern United States.