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Man who previously confessed to killing Georgia teacher is acquitted of murder

FILE - An image of Tara Grinstead is displayed on a billboard in Ocilla, Ga. Ryan Duke, charged with murdering Grinstead, a popular high school teacher who vanished in 2005, went on trial Monday, May 9, 2022, with prosecutors and defense attorneys clashing over whether the jury should believe the defendant's confession to investigators. (AP Photo/Elliott Minor, File)
by: WRTV Staff
Posted: / Updated:

A jury has found a man accused of killing a popular high school teacher in 2005 not guilty of murder.

Tara Grinstead vanished from rural Irwin County, Georgia. She was last seen leaving a cookout.

Ryan Duke had told investigators in 2017 he killed Grinstead and helped Bo Dukes burn her body.

Duke went as far as telling Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents details that had not been made public.

But when he took the witness stand during his trial, he insisted he was innocent and that it was his friend who had killed her.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the jury acquitted Duke of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and burglary but found him guilty of concealing a death.

Grinstead’s body has never been found. However, her DNA was found in bone fragments located in the area that Duke said she was burned.

Duke will be sentenced Monday.

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