UPDATE: Tip leads to arrest in Georgia teacher’s 2005 disappearance

Residents of a rural community in south Georgia are beginning to get some answers nearly 12 years after teacher and former beauty queen Tara Grinstead vanished from her home.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced Thursday that 33-year-old Ryan Duke, a student at Irwin County High School when Grinstead taught, has been charged with her murder.

It wasn’t immediately known if Duke had an attorney.

Wendy McFarland, a fellow teacher and friend of Grinstead’s, said she wept tears of anger and relief upon hearing the news so long after Grinstead disappeared in October 2005.

McFarland also remembered Duke as a bright, polite student – someone she never would have suspected.

The case had stumped authorities for more than a decade. Grinstead’s cellphone was found inside her home and her car was in the driveway. But her keys and purse were gone.

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