QUESTIONS

Man Who Cops Say Confessed Is Acquitted of Murder

Ryan Duke was said to have told police in detail how he killed Tara Grinstead in 2005. On Friday, a jury found him not guilty.

When cops grilled Ryan Alexander Duke in 2017 about his involvement in the murder of Tara Faye Grinstead, they say he confessed to killing the 30-year-old teacher more than a decade earlier and setting her body ablaze. But when Duke took the witness stand during his trial, he insisted he wasn’t the one responsible for Grinstead’s death. Duke blamed everything on his best friend, Bo Dukes—who was convicted in 2019 not of Grinstead’s murder, but rather, of helping Duke dispose of her remains. On Friday, a Georgia jury acquitted Duke of murder, finding him guilty only of concealing a death, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Amid the countless new questions this raises, Duke will be sentenced on Monday. He faces up to 10 years in prison, minus the five he already served while awaiting trial.