COP IS QUIZZED OVER MISSING BEAUTY QUEEN -- WAS TARA HAVING AFFAIR WITH MARRIED OFFICER?
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!
Published on: 11/18/2005
