Man charged with helping burn beauty queen's body faces new charges

WMAZ-TV, Macon, Ga.

Show Caption Hide Caption Man accused of burning beauty queen's body faces new charges A man charged with concealing the death of beauty queen Tara Grinstead and burning her body is now facing several new charges in Georgia.

MACON, Ga. --- A Georgia man accused of helping burn a Georgia beauty queen's body is facing new charges, according to authorities.

A Wilcox County indictment says Bo Dukes, 32, lied to a Georgia Bureau Investigation official who questioned him last year about the 2005 disappearance of Tara Grinstead.

A grand jury last week filed four new charges against Dukes: two counts of making false statements, one count of hindering apprehension of a criminal and one count of concealing the death of another.

Grinstead, an Irwin County High School teacher, was last seen leaving a cookout at a friend's house in 2005.

Police later found the 30-year-old’s cell phone, car and dog, Dolly Madison, at her Ocilla, Ga., home--about 200 miles south of Atlanta. Grinstead's keys and purse were missing, but there was no sign of break in or signs of struggle.

While police questioned several people close to her, including an ex-boyfriend, no arrests were made until this year.

In April, Ryan Alexander Duke, 33, a high school classmate of Bo Dukes, was indicted by an Irwin County grand jury with killing Grinstead in October 2005.

Bo Dukes, who is not related to Ryan Duke, is charged with helping Duke burn Grinstead's body and bury it in his family's Ben Hill County pecan grove.

This week's indictment put the Grinstead case into a third county, identify a third person who may have known about the killing and show that the GBI questioned Bo Dukes on the case more than a year ago.

According to the indictment, all four of the new charges stem from a June 16, 2016 interview between Dukes and GBI investigator Jason Shouldel.

When questioned by the GBI last year, the indictment says Bo Dukes denied knowing anything about Grinstead's death. He also did not tell the investigator that Ryan Alexander Duke had confessed the killing to him, and he denied discussing the matter with a man named John McCullough, the indictment says.

The indictment does not further identify McCullough.

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Dukes already faces similar charges in Ben Hill County in the Grinstead case. In June, a Ben Hill grand jury charged him with concealing a death, tampering with evidence and hindering apprehension of a criminal.

No trial date has been set for either man.

Contributing: WXIA-TV, Atlanta