December 10, 2005
Ocilla- Searchers comb hundred of acres looking for Tara Grinstead, but continue to come up empty. It's been 50 days since Tara Grinstead disappeared. Information gained from a private tip line has family investigators questioning people in North Georgia, but Saturday's search for the teacher in Irwin County turned up no new leads in the case.
The search for Tara Grinstead continues as more than 150 volunteers searched, field by field, by smell, and by air, but with no luck and few clues. Texas EquuSearch led this weekends search using remote control planes to take both still pictures and video of hard to reach places like this pond in Irwin County.
"We'll go out and we'll take up to hundreds of pictures a day and we'll come back and look at those and analyze those images on a big screen TV and we'll look and if there's anything out of the ordinary or something that just doesn't fit the picture, we'll mark that down as a point of interest," said Gene Robinson, RP Flight Systems Pilot.
To check those points of interest K-9 dogs were also used to search areas including this well. Czar was sent on a practice run.
"He is searching for scent and in this case it is human remains scent, much like a drug dog, see he's already got it," said Tracy Sargent, K-9 Search & Rescue Specialist.
While searchers continue to scour the county, there's been little progress.
"We've not found any new evidence, we're just continuing to search. We've had a lot of volunteers out today and we appreciate each one of them," said Chief Billy Hancock, Ocilla Police Dept.
Family members say finding nothing still offers them some comfort. "If we don't find anything, that's okay, but I know we will have thoroughly eliminated what we don't need to keep questioning and there were some areas the family, we were told they were searched, but we just had some concerns about them," said Anita Gattis, Grinstead's sister.
As police and searchers wrap up their quest, the family continues to question everyone they can in the hope that one piece of information may lead them to Tara.
"Not all of Tara's neighbors had been questioned, my dad and the private agent that's working with the family, they went door to door and in two days they found five families that no one has ever talked to them," said Gattis.
The reward for information that may lead to Tara's whereabouts has climbed to $100,000. Anyone with information about Tara is still encouraged to call the Private Tip Line at (912) 386-2564.
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