A Georgia man charged with murdering a popular high school teacher who vanished in 2005 went on trial Monday with prosecutors and defense attorneys clashing over whether the jury should believe the defendant's confession to investigators.
Ryan Duke's trial opened more than 16 years after Tara Grinstead was last seen leaving an evening cookout in rural south Georgia. Her disappearance lingered as an unsolved mystery in Irwin County for more than a decade until Duke told Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents in 2017 that he killed Grinstead after breaking into her home to steal money for drugs.
