By DON GENTILE
A married policeman bombarded missing beauty queen Tara Grinstead with more than 20 frantic phone calls on the day of her disappearance, The National Enquirer can reveal. In a stunning development, a source revealed that the officer repeatedly phoned Tara in the hours before she vanished from her Georgia home at 11 pm on October 22. “He called her more than 20 times,” the source said.
“That’s how authorities found out about him. They traced him through the calls.
“The cop is married. Authorities have already spoken to him and his wife. He may have been having a relationship with Tara. Investigators believe he told Tara he was going to leave his wife but backed out on the promise.
“One theory is Tara got angry and threatened to tell his wife about their affair. So she had to be silenced.”
A lawyer who has spoken to investigating officers said they had told him numerous messages were left on Tara’s answering machine in the hours before her disappearance.
“The calls are from a married man and he’s a cop,” Thomas Pujadas told The National Enquirer. “I am told police are investigating him.”
On the last day she was seen, Tara, 30, a well-loved history teacher in the tiny town of Ocilla, Georgia, was busy helping others as usual. Girls appearing that afternoon in the Miss Sweet Potato Pageant in nearby Fitzgerald came to her home, where she combed and fixed up their hair. Tara was in the pageant in 1998 and won the title of Miss Charisma.
“The girls were so grateful,” Tara’s good friend Susan Oakley told The National Enquirer. “Then Tara went to the event in the afternoon.”
In the early evening, Tara drove to a barbecue at the home of high school principal Troy Davis, eight blocks from her house. Guests noticed that Tara’s cell phone kept ringing during the evening.
“She got a bunch of calls,” said Susan. “Tara told the guests the calls were from the pageant girls thanking her for doing their hair.”
Tara drove home at 11 pm. Police were called on Monday, October 24, when she didn’t show up for classes. Tara had vanished and investigators found little to go on when they searched Tara’s home.
For more on Tara’s disappearance, pick up this week’s issue of The National Enquirer — on newsstands now!
