Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
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Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Today I'll be playing some of your questions from the voicemail line. If you haven't called our voicemail line yet and you'd like to, you can dial us at 770-545-6411. In today's Q&A episode, Maurice Godwin is here with me and he'll be answering some of your questions.
My name is Maria. I'm from the Chicagoland area. I am all caught up on the podcast. I have a question. I'm hoping this hasn't been answered before, but it is about the latex glove that was found. I just heard on, I think it was the last episode, that Tara's neighbor actually was the first one to see the glove in the yard. And I was wondering if Tara's neighbor was the first one to see the glove in the yard.
he could confirm the color of the glove. In reference to the color of the glove, we can turn to several media statements that were made early on in the case back in 05. In regards to Joe Poirier's recollection of the glove, he did an interview in November the 9th
2005 with Greta Van Susseren. And Greta asked him, she said, Joe, you were the one that went over on Monday, one of the first to go over. You saw the glove in the yard. What color was the latex glove? Joe responded, it was yellow, a light yellow. Greta said, is it a bright yellow? Joe responded, he said, no, it was the kind that doctors would use, not a dishwashing glove.
He said it was a light yellow, more like the flesh type of color of glove. My name's Jessie and I'm calling from New Sydney in Australia. I think that it was Marcus, the boyfriend, and I think that he's dead.
As the GBI has said, no one in this case has been totally cleared or ruled out. And there's a lot of issues with Harper's statements and actions that night that need to be further addressed.
Also, compared to some of the others who have not come out and given a statement, Marcus has given one interview to Greta Van Susseren back in 2005.
But as you know, following the podcast and stuff, that he only took a private polygraph, which is not accepted by the GBI. But like I said, no one has been cleared in this case. So he definitely remains one of the persons of interest in this case.
This is Katherine calling from Michigan in Royal Oak. Are we able to see the screenshots of the messages that were exchanged between George Harrison and everyone else? And then the second question is, why do we have to wait so long for new episodes? Because we really need to know what's happening. Yeah.
In regards to the screenshots, there's been a number of screenshots. In regards to George Harrison interaction, there's been several posts on the Up and Vantage discussion group. In regards to the podcast and the quickness of it, you have to understand that a lot of these podcasts that's out today are actually covering cases that's already been adjudicated, gone through trial. So they have the case files online.
All the case files, documents, and everything is sitting in front of them. And so you can plan out months, months ahead of time what's going to be discussed. Here in this case, this is a missing person case and highly likely a murder case. The case files are not available from the GBI.
So what has to be done is individuals have to be contacted that were previously interviewed by the GBI. And you have to make contact with them. Then you have to wait for them to respond. If they don't respond, you have to move on to someone else. You have to seek out information. So it's difficult to do these things in a timely manner.
Hi, this is Daphne calling from Phoenix. I've been listening to Up and Vanished and I absolutely love this podcast. It's very well done. I wanted to make some comments. One is with regard to Maurice Godwin's
comment about the oldest trick in the book concerning the business card that was left at the door at Tara Grinstead's house. Naturally, a police officer would know in order to take attention away from himself, he would leave that card. Heath Dykes, he had a relationship with Tara Grinstead. He
probably was unaware that Tara would have shared this with her mother. Perhaps she may have even cautioned her daughter into ending that particular relationship and
But Tara wasn't ready for it. I'm just curious. I haven't heard you mention anything about the father figure in her life. Thank you for the question. In reference to Heath Jackson leaving the business card and what I had previously mentioned in another podcast about reverse psychology,
I mean, the typical question from your average person would ask, if somebody is guilty, why would they place themselves at a missing person's house, at the crime scene, so to speak? And especially, why would they leave their business card unopened?
That's actually the question that the person wants you to ask because it just doesn't make sense. But actually, in reality, it could make sense. The one thing you have to understand about this, it was actually Tara's mother who placed Mr. Dykes at the scene because it's highly unlikely, highly unlikely that he would have traveled to Asila from Perry, Georgia,
without Miss Fay asking him to go. So because she asked him to go and he went, that placed him there.
So it just wasn't on his own. You have to remember that. In regards to Tara's father, his name is Billy. He's been married to her stepmother for years. They did live in Osceola for a while, and Tara did live with them when she finished up her student teaching before they moved to Alabama and she moved into the Park Street house.
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This is Jonathan, a listener from Raleigh, North Carolina. I just had a quick question about the profile picture of George Harrison. I don't know if you've done any kind of forensic analysis on the photo itself, but you can try to pull some metadata or GPS coordinates from the image if
if the image was taken with like an iPhone or something that allowed the GPS coordinates to be attached to the image and that may give you a tip as to where this person may live. Metadata usually doesn't have much information. GPS is going to be your best bet. But I thought, you know, why not give it a try?
Thanks for listening from Raleigh, North Carolina, just 60 miles from my home, Fayetteville, North Carolina, where I live currently. And the question about George Harrison, the fake Facebook account profile picture. Yes, we did several searches. Now, we downloaded it and looked at the details of that, and there was no GPS data whatsoever.
and very little metadata on that. We did multiple Google picture searches using four or five other different type programs other than Google. We did find the picture of the Hispanic females that were in there. We found that on a Spanish site. But as far as the picture of the individual with the beard and the headset, like it was at a ball game or whatever, we found no other pictures on the Internet of these individuals using...
the facial imaging programs that we tried. My name is Lieutenant Michael Woodruff. I'm a psychologist in the Navy. I just had a quick question. Did anyone ever call that second police officer, the second squad car, that supposedly also responded to the Fannie Merritt case
incident, second Benny Merritt incident to corroborate whether Marcus was truly riding along during that second call. If he wasn't, that kind of blows his alibi out of the water. I was just thinking about that.
The call for Benny Merritt and stuff was originally a Irwin County Sheriff deputy call. Oftentimes in some cases, because it's a small geographical area, the SILA PD and the Sheriff's Department work hand-in-hand with each other on some calls. Actually, the original call was to a deputy. The backup officers were Fletcher and then his ride-along partner at that time was Harper. According to the GBI...
They interviewed like nine individuals associated with that whole ride-along time frame. You're not really interested in time gaps during that ride-along because that's supposed to be an alibi, so he wants that to be solid. What you really need to look at is where was he before he went to the White Horse Saloon? Could he be accounted for at the White Horse Saloon the entire time he was there?
My name is Tom. I'm just calling with a possible tip for the podcast. Really enjoyed listening. Doing a great job. But anyway, my tip...
is actually related to the football game on Saturday, October 22nd, 2005. First off, when you interviewed the former Georgia football player, I just thought it was really weird from the start that he kept saying, oh, you know, it was so long ago, I don't even remember what year it was. He said he didn't remember what year it was when he saw her, and obviously he would have remembered that it was right before she went missing. He said he specifically remembers getting a text from her saying, I'm cold.
when he was in the skybox of the football game, and he said it was a night game. So he would have gotten a text as Tara was leaving the barbecue, walking out the door with that guy who told her to text the Georgia football player, I'm cold. But that game was actually a 1230 p.m. day game, the Georgia-Arkansas game on that Saturday. It wasn't a night game.
In reference to Jim Hickey and his comments on the podcast, he was totally wrong about the time frame of the football game. The Georgia game that he was at in Athens was a noon game and probably over before. Tara didn't get to the barbecue until after 8 p.m. that night.
And it was only after 8 p.m. that she sent the text to him. So he wasn't at the ballgame during that time. Now, he acknowledged that he owned or had a condo, you know, in the Athens area and was likely there. I don't know if it's just a memory problem, a poor memory problem. I mean, I don't know. He definitely needs to be recontacted to try to clarify that.
This is Taylor, a listener from Tifton, Georgia. And I was just wondering, has it ever been known that maybe somebody could have been hired to slip almost like a roofie in her drink at the barbecue and then her not be in her right mind and maybe go with somebody who she may have not even known? I don't think that it's possible that somebody slipped her a Mickey or a GHB or a Ruffinol or anything like that.
She was fine at the barbecue and talked to several people on the phone, had conversation with people. So I don't think there was anything that was altering her state of mind or anything like that. And I just don't think it's possible. Hey, my name is Margaret. I'm a listener from Auburn, Alabama. I just binge listened to the entire podcast over the past couple of days.
My question has to do with the latex glove found in Tara's front yard. Seeing as the police found DNA on the glove, but no match to it, do you think the glove could have possibly been planted to send police on a different track or just kind of as a red herring? And I work at a vet clinic, so I use latex gloves literally every single day. And they don't just slip off your hand.
There's a possibility that the glove was planted. I mean, a lot of people, the General Lay people, are not up to speed on just how many crime scenes people try to stage. In fact, there's numerous books that have come out over the last two or three years and journal articles that's focusing on staged crime scenes.
And I'm presently including the whole chapter on it in my updated Hunting Serial Predators book. But there's been no match. It's a complete full profile of a white male DNA profile.
It's been entered into CODIS. It's been entered into the Georgia DNA database, and there's been no match. Could it be a plant? Yes. You know, the one problem with the plant is that the DNA that you actually put on there to try to thwart the investigation, they would have to know for a fact that the person didn't have a criminal record. Thanks for listening, guys. Be sure to tune in on Monday for Case Evidence.
If you want to see all those screenshots of George Harrison's Facebook messages, you can do so on our website in the discussion board. Just go to upandvanish.com slash discussion. Thanks, guys. See you soon. At your job, do you ever have to deal with a nose roller? How about a snub pulley?
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