Up and Vanished - The Trial of Bo Dukes

Episode Date: April 27, 2019

Philip Holloway leads us through the Bo Dukes trial in Wilcox County on March 18, 2019. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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and reach no final conclusion until the trial is over. Do not jump to conclusions before all of the evidence is presented. I instruct you, ladies and gentlemen, that you must decide this case for yourself solely on the testimony you hear from the witness stand and the exhibits admitted in evidence. You may not visit any scenes depicted by the evidence. You may not utilize any books or documents not in evidence during You may not visit any scenes depicted by the evidence. You may not utilize any books or documents not in evidence during your deliberation. Likewise, during your deliberations, you may not discuss the case with anyone other than your fellow jurors. Therefore, you may not communicate with anyone about the case on your cell phone, through email, BlackBerry, iPhone, text messages,

or on Twitter, through any blog or website, or by any other social network or website, including without limitation Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and YouTube. If there is any coverage of the case by the newspaper, radio, television, or other media, you should be careful not to consider it at all in reaching your verdict or in your deliberation. Do not independently investigate any facts or visit any scenes depicted in the evidence. During the trial, the jury can consider only the evidence that is produced in the courtroom

under my supervision and the law that I give you in my instructions. Now, that completes my preliminary instructions. We're going to have our opening statements before I do that. I need to take up a matter outside of your presence, so you will make yourselves comfortable. This case is like a fire. I hate to use that terminology, but it really is. It burns everything and everyone up around it. Those are the words of GBI agent Jason Shadel, one hour, nine minutes into his interview with Bo Dukes on February 21st, 2017. And I cannot agree with him more. Everybody who comes in contact with this case cannot leave

unaffected. This case has consumed Ms. Grinstead's family. This case has consumed the lives of every suspect and their families throughout the years. This case has consumed the lives of the accused. This case has consumed the community and it has surely affected each and every one of you. You have heard things and seen things over the last four days that are simply tragic. Things that when you have left this courtroom, you have not been able to get out of your head. These are the types of things you would want to talk to a counselor about, but you can't even talk to each other about them yet because of the oath that you took. yet because of the oath that you took. These are things that will likely be in your memory long after your duty as a juror in this case is over. This story is a decade in the making. October,

March, 13 years since Tara's disappearance. Duke's capture came just a few miles from where he's accused of helping a high school buddy dump and burn the body of beauty queen Tara Grinstead in 2005. Duke's was out on bond on that case. Testimony is underway for the man accused of covering up the murder of a Georgia teacher. Bo Dukes is one of the men accused in Tara Grinstead's death. And today we heard from family members and a man who went to basic training with Duke's. Justin, that soldier testified that he reported to police multiple times that Dukes told him that he was involved in hiding the body of Tara Grinstead.

The judge seated a jury in the trial tied to a murder of a Georgia teacher. Investigators say Tara Grinstead's murder happened in Irwin County. The trial is taking place north in Wilcox County against the man accused of helping clean up and cover up this murder in 2005. against the man accused of helping clean up and cover up this murder in 2005. On March 18, 2019, Bo Dukes went to trial in Wilcox County, Georgia, for charges related to the death of Tara Grinstead. We've asked Philip Holloway to guide us through his trial.

So he stood trial for two counts of making a false statement to the GBI about his role in connection with her death. He was also charged with concealing a death. And the last count of the indictment was hindering the apprehension of a criminal. The maximum penalty he was facing for all of those charges was 25 years in prison. And not surprisingly, that's what he got. years in prison and not surprisingly, that's what he got. One thing that struck me as odd about this particular case is how they managed to get this trial done in one week's time. If you go back and look at it, you can see it all on YouTube. It's out there. They picked a jury in like half a day. This county is just like one county over and everybody in the area is

familiar with the case. And the jury had a verdict before the day was out on Friday. Now, the legal system has been a long and a winding road for Bo Dukes. It has led him to this trial. And before him is a brick wall. That brick wall is reasonable doubt, and you can only convict him if each of those bricks, each of those doubts are knocked down by the state, and you are satisfied that they have proven to you beyond a reasonable doubt he is guilty of the offenses that have been alleged. Let me explain to you why the state cannot tear

that wall down. Counts one and two in this indictment charge that Mr. Bo Dukes knowingly and willfully covered up Ryan Dukes' confession of murder by denying to the GBI that he discussed, Mr. Duke's discussed, Tara Faye Grinstead with John McCullough during that 2016 interview. Count two alleges that he knowingly and willfully covered up that he assisted Ryan Duke in destroying Ms. Grinstead's body by denying that he discussed burning the body with John McCullough. Now, the state has presented to you 20-some-odd witnesses, over 90 exhibits, but you don't need to look but at a handful in order to find the answers and to find that there is a reasonable doubt as to these two charges. It took me several days to sort of decipher what I thought the defense strategy

might be. The defense seemed to be hanging its hat on semantics. They wanted the jury to think about exactly what words were said. I think part of the defense was that if Bo made these statements to his army buddy and then lied about it to the GBI, that it wasn't really a lie because they were trying to say that he was intoxicated when he made those statements to the army buddy to the point maybe that he didn't remember it. So when he was questioned by the GBI later, the idea was that if he said it didn't happen, it is because he didn't remember that it happened. I think that was at least part of the defense.

Now, Mr. McCullough, I want to direct your attention to a person by the name of Bo Dukes. Do you know a person by the name of Bo Dukes? Yes, sir. And how do you know a person by the name of Bo Dukes? I was actually at Fort Sill, Oklahoma at Charlie 119, in which I attended basic training there and began in November of 2006. And when you were there at Fort Seal, Oklahoma for basic training, is that when you met Bo Dukes? Yes, sir. And the person you know as Bo Dukes, is he in the courtroom?

Yes, sir. Can you tell me what he's wearing, please, sir? Yes, sir. He's wearing a jacket with a tie with a comb over little hairdo. Now, how long does basic training last? It's normally nine weeks, but because of how it fell whenever we attended, it was actually a two-week Christmas exodus break in between, so totaling about 11 weeks. And when you talk about a Christmas break, what did you do for that Christmas break in November of 2006?

Well, I first initially had planned to go home to see my family because I'm pretty close with my family and stuff like that. But, you know, he had mentioned something about, hey, man, you know, it'd be cool. You can come back to Georgia, you know, and we can hang out and stuff like that if you really don't have too much going on in Texas. And I was like, oh, man, you know, I've never been to Georgia. So I was like, OK, that's cool. I'd go, you know. And tell me how you spent the weekend. Well, you know, just obviously we're on break, you know, we're in the military, so it's very strict, you know, you can't drink alcohol, you can't, you know, actually do anything, quote-unquote fun.

You know, we hung out and stuff like that. All right, but tell me how it was that these statements came up. Well, it was, you know, pretty late at night, and, you know, What was, you know, pretty late at night and, you know, he had been drinking and also used some substances in the sense of cocaine. And I was driving, which I'm very adamant about, you know, not drinking and driving and, you know, doing stuff like that. And I didn't want him to drive, even though it was his mom's car. It was a little black uh three series bmw we had stopped because he had needed to drink stopped at a convenience store parked in the parking lot and

when i actually went in alone got some drinks came back outside and you know we're so we're sitting there and he you know seemed like something was bothering him possibly uh and he just you know started to come out and say hey you know you're my battle right you're my battle buddy right and i was like yeah man you know when you say battle buddy what what did you understand that to me well whenever it was explained to us whenever you know any i guess wartime situation or battle situation that you always have that buddy with you so you know you're not alone so somebody can always watch your back. When he referred to you as his battle buddy, what did he tell you?

Well, he had just asked if I was his battle buddy, and I said, yeah. And he was like, well, man, he was like, you know, I need to tell you something. And that's whenever I was pretty much shocked to the extreme, and it messed with me pretty good. And what was it that shocked you? The fact of I had made comments previous in the day to whenever we were riding through town because, you know, I've never been to Georgia, so we rode around. Ocilla, Rochelle, Fitzgerald, you know, just, oh, man, yeah, you know, look at this.

You know, basically taking me around and showing me around town. I had mentioned something about seeing a billboard, and it had a really, really pretty lady that was on it. And I was like, man, that's crazy. You know what's going on with that? You know, and that was, like I said, the previous conversation we had. But he had brought it up and said, do you remember that billboard that you had seen? And I was like, yeah. And he was like, I know what happened. And then I was like kind of shocked with that and was like, what? Did he tell you what happened?

To an extent, yes, sir. Okay, and tell me what he told you. He had started to say, like I said, I know what happened. I was there, and he had said that my friend had came to me, and he said that his friend had showed up and said, man, I fucked up. And I said, what do you mean? And he said, well, he continued to tell me that he had messed up and he needed his help. He needed his truck.

His friend needed Bo's help, is that right? Yes, sir. Okay. And he had said that he had needed his help because he said that, you know, like I had mentioned, that he had fucked up. And whenever he continued to explain of the situation, you know, I wanted to stop in disbelief because it's, you know, it's a severe thing, man, you know, for somebody to be able to do, you know, do stuff like that. But he had said that he had technically killed Tara to him. The friend had said that? Yes, that he had beat her and accidentally strangled her and killed her and he didn't know what to do. So he needed his truck to be able to move her body. And did Bo Dukes tell you if he loaned his truck to his friend? He said that he had went with his friend and used the truck,

which was the white Ford F-150. He had said that they had went and recovered the body. And they continued to take it to the middle of his grandpa's or the Hudson pecan orchard and the exact location 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 and if I can roll back a little bit whenever I was in basic training he had made the comment which now it made sense of the sense of hey man it takes more than 1200 degrees to burn

human bones. How many times did he make that statement to you? Two that I recall previous. When he said that they burned her body in the McConnell Orchard was this with Foe Dukes and his buddy? Yes sir. Did he tell you anything else about that? Just the sense that they burned her body and let it burn as long as they could and whenever they were satisfied they buried the rest. And did he tell you how they buried the rest? No sir. Did you ever go to the pecan orchard while you were here? I never actually got out and walked around the pecan orchard but we did drive past a section I'm not exactly sure um what little town it was but he was like do you see all that over there

that's part of the pecan orchard how did you react to what your your battle buddy had told you i messed me up pretty good what do you mean? It was just tough to deal with that. Experience basketball like never before with BetMGM, We'll see you next time. experience basketball on the foul line, exciting state-of-the-art live tracking technology, and dozens of sportsbook selections await you at BetMGM Sportsbook. Tap into every game on your mobile devices. Get up off the sideline and drive to the basket yourself. No matter which team starts popping off, you'll find out why there's truly nothing like laying up a W with the king of sportsbooks.

Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone else close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. I think that anytime you've got a case that says high profile is all of these cases are everything connected to her death is extremely high profile. I was really surprised that his lawyer did not file a motion for change of venue.

I think it may have been a matter of strategy because he seemed to hit that head on. He would remind jurors that they're going to hear about a whole bunch of stuff about a murder, but he would also remind them that Bo is going to be tried and he's being prosecuted in another county for that. It obviously was not successful if that was the strategy because he was convicted. Drinking after a night of drug use at 2, maybe 3 in the morning, Mr. McCullough tells you that Mr. Dukes makes statements to him about having burned a body, having made statements about Tara Faye Grinstead. But according to John McCullough when this is happening, Mr. Dukes is slurring his words. John McCullough describes him as all out of it. In fact, he tells you that Dukes

was drunk and wasted the entire time they were on Exodus here in Osceola. Can you introduce yourself to the jury? I'm Brooke Sheridan. Do you know the defendant in this case? Yes. How do you know him? He is my boyfriend. Do you know the defendant in this case? Yes. How do you know him? He is my boyfriend.

And now when you say he is your boyfriend, can you identify your boyfriend for us? Point him out, please. Right there. And what's his name? Bo Dukes. Mr. Rigby is going to give you the state's closing argument. He gets last word. It's kind of like an argument with a spouse. It's a problem with being a defense lawyer is the other person always gets the last word.

But listen to him. Listen to the state's case. Go back through, look at the testimony of their 20 witnesses, look at their 90 exhibits. When you do so, you will see that they have not proven the four charges in this indictment beyond a reasonable doubt, and it will be your duty to acquit. You must understand that discharging that duty is not a free pass. Bo Dukes will stand trial in Osceola for the three charges the state has brought against him for the destruction of Tara Faye Grinstead's body. But that is a question for a different jury in a different county in a different trial.

I found out on January 10th, 2017. When you say you found out on January 10th, 2017, what did you find out on January 10th, 2017? That he had helped dispose of her body. So what occurs on January 10th of 2017 that you learn that your boyfriend, in fact, had helped dispose of her body? I'm not, I don't recall the exact events that led up to it, but I do know that he had had a severe panic attack. And he, after I got him calm, I told him that he needed to tell me what was going on. And he proceeded to tell me what had happened.

Okay. What did he tell you? He told me about his, that his roommate had gone into her home, had strangled her, had gone into her home, had strangled her, and that he had put her body on, or he had taken his truck and put her body on Hudson property in Fitzgerald, and that he helped to destroy the body. Okay, so I want to be kind of clear, because you said the word he a couple of times. Okay, so I want to be kind of clear because you said the word he a couple of times. Who was it that you were told killed and strangled Tara Grinstead?

Ryan Duke. Who was it that you were told actually put her body on Hudson property farms? Ryan Duke. Who was it that you were told helped burn the body? Bo Dukes. Okay. And when we say helped burn the body, was there more than one person other than body? Bo Dukes. And when we say helped burn the body, was there more than one person other than Mr. Bo Dukes?

Was anyone else involved with burning Tara Grinstead's body? Ryan Duke. Did Bo Dukes tell you whether or not he was ever inside Tara Grinstead's home? He told me that he was never in her home. Did Bo Dukes tell you why it was his roommate, that being Ryan Duke, had killed

Tara Grinstead? No. Now, I want to go back to the details of the day that Ms. Grinstead is murdered. Did Bo Dukes tell you how he first learned that Ryan had killed Ms. Grinstead? Yes. Tell us about that. He said that the following Sunday morning or early afternoon that Ryan had come home and he had woken Bo up. And Ryan said, woke him up and I guess kind of startled Bo and said, I killed Tara Grinstead. Did he know what time of morning it was on Sunday when that occurred? Early afternoon, maybe lunchtime. When he says, I killed or I strangled Tara Grinstead, what was Bo's response? He thought that he was kidding. Did he tell you why he thought his friend would be kidding about killing someone? No.

I know that they had been drinking the night before, but he didn't really say why he thought he was kidding. When is the next time that they have a conversation about Ms. Grinstead, they being Ryan and Bay? Wednesday, the following Wednesday. And how does that conversation occur? They were at the house, and Ryan and Bo, I guess, had asked Ryan about it. And Ryan said, you know, I need to show you something.

And then they took Bo's truck out to the orchard. Now, when you say that Bo asked Ryan about it, why was Bo now asking Ryan about something he thought was a joke? Because that Monday, Stephen Duke had come home and said that Tara had been reported missing. And it was at that point that Bo told Stephen that your brother told me that he had killed her. Did Bo, in fact, go with Ryan to the orchard that day?

Yes. And when you say the orchard, what do you mean by that? Fitzgerald Farms. So Bo says that he goes out with Ryan to the orchard. What does he find when he gets there? He said that Tara's body was laying there. Can you tell the jury about that? Yes. He said that she was laying on her back that she had, there was discoloration

the discoloration of the body where I guess a liver mortis had set in where the blood had held to the bottom. There was also blue, like bluish marks around her neck, strangulation marks. And one thing I do particularly remember is he taught about ants. There was a lot of ants. Did he tell you if he did anything after seeing her laying there naked and dead? He was in shock. What did he and Ryan do after that?

They moved her body to another area down a path into a wooded area. They went to a woodshed that had pecan wood and they brought the wood back to burn the body. Did Bo tell you how many days it took to burn the body? Two. Did Bo tell you whether or not after they burned her for those two days there was anything left of her? He didn't think that there was anything left from what he had said. When Bo told you this, had he been drinking? Yes. What was his level of intoxication

at that time? Moderate. As they burned her body, they buried the truth with her. They buried the truth about what happened to this beautiful young lady as they buried her body in the straw with household trash, dirt. That's where they left her. They buried the truth with her. I'll just say it. Poor Bo. He has panic attacks and anxiety attacks because he helped destroy somebody's body. Poor Beau. This was not a case about Tara's murder. This case is about Beau Dukes

and Beau Dukes' lies and his hindering and his concealment. But as Mr. Fox went through the charges with you, we had to tell you about how she was murdered because that's part of the proof in this case. We don't have to prove to you, but we had to prove you about the malice murder, hindering apprehension of a felon. This is, of course, why we have to prove to you malice murder and that he was killed by Ryan Alexander

Duke. Malice murder does not have to be planned out. It doesn't have to be premeditated in the state of Georgia. It can be formed in an instant. That's what the law in the state of Georgia is. And jumping on somebody and strangling them in their bed while they're asleep absolutely is malice murder. We learned so much in this case. They managed to get all of this evidence in about the state versus Ryan Duke, but it all came out in the case of the state versus Bo Dukes. He was accused of lying about a murder, so they had to prove that some murder occurred. They also had to prove that, you know, he lied to the GBI essentially about what they believe Ryan's role in Tara's death was. So we got a pretty good preview of all of the state's case that we think

they're going to have against Ryan. Now in Ryan's trial, they will be more in-depth to be sure, but we learned a lot about what the state thinks happened in her death. One of the lingering questions that's been out there, it's been discussed a lot, One of the lingering questions that's been out there, it's been discussed a lot, not only in the podcast, but in the media and social media. The big question is whether or not any remains were ever recovered. And while it's true that no DNA testing has been done on any of the bone fragments that we now know were recovered, circumstantially, they did prove that Tara's remains were found. Because after all, they found what they know to be some human bone fragments there.

They could not definitively prove it was her through DNA, but you had two people, Bo Dukes and Ryan Duke, telling them that in this general area, this is where we burned her body. I think everybody's on the same page that these two guys acting together destroyed her body in that location. Who else would be there if it's not her? So circumstantially, they proved that Tara's remains have been found. Takes 1,200 degrees to burn human bones. It took 1,200 degrees to burn the bones of Tara Faker instead.

It's hard to look at, I understand. But the conwood burns really hot because what we know is it burned the bones of Tara Faye Grinson a cheerleading coach a high school teacher a winning personality with a beautiful smile and what did Bo Dukes

and Ryan Alexander Duke do to this beautiful lady? They set her on fire. And they left her with a tooth. A tooth that won pageants. The smile on billboards. The smile on missing persons posters. They reduced to bits of skull, vertebra, the teeth.

to bits of skull, vertebra, and teeth. Bo Dukes seems to be a one-man, multi-jurisdictional crime spree. He's got federal charges. Of course, he's convicted, and he's got, for whatever it's worth, a pending probation revocation. But look, this 25-year sentence that he just got is going to more than consume

any time he's got left on federal probation. So as a practical matter, you know, right now he's serving at least 25 years. I'm thankful for this opportunity to address the court. To the Terry Hristead family, I'm truly sorry. Your long suffering has been unimaginable. My actions are cowardly, callous, and cruel. I was more interested in self-pity and self-preservation than doing the right thing for Tara and for you. I pray for your forgiveness. I apologize to those who were cast in our cloud of suspicion for so long. Reputations with their friends and family destroyed.

I can never undo that damage, and I sincerely apologize. To the local communities, I'm sorry for the years of uncertainty, of suspicion, and mistrust placed even on the law enforcement community by my actions. I apologize to my own family, to my mother, to Brooke Sheridan and to her family. to Brooke Sheridan and her family. My actions and failures I'm responsible for alone. I failed Tara Grinstead. I failed her family.

I failed the local community. And I hope these proceedings have given some closure to the many people hurt by my actions. And I want each of you to know that I am truly remorseful. Thank you. When I watched the sentencing in this case, I can tell you the judge just looked disgusted. He absolutely looked like this is probably the most horrible human being I've ever had to sentence. That was my takeaway. I've seen a lot of sentencing in my life. I've seen people go to prison for a long time. I've seen judges reluctantly pass sentence. I've seen judges

reluctantly send people to prison. This judge was not reluctant. He had no qualms whatsoever about sending him to prison for as long as he possibly could. Up and Vanished is an investigative podcast produced for Tenderfoot TV by Payne Lindsay, Mike Rooney, Christina Dana, and me, Meredith Stedman. Executive Producers Payne Lindsey and Donald Albright. Additional Production by Resonate Recordings as well as Mason Lindsey. Voice Over by Rob Ricotta.

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