Читать книгу Limb from Limb - George Hunter - Страница 22

Within twenty-four hours after Stephen reported his wife missing, the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office had created one of its standard missing persons flyers to be distributed to the media. The flyer described the petite 120-pound mom, including a photo of brown-eyed, curly-haired Tara smiling directly into the camera lens. The photo was from several that had been provided by Stephen when he reported her missing.

Tara was last seen leaving her home in Washington Township, MI 48094 in the evening hours of Feb 09 2007, the flyer said.

That was the official scenario, in the absence of evidence to the contrary. But that five-day gap between the Grants’ argument and Stephen’s police report didn’t sit well with investigators.

Sheriff Hackel began polling his staff, asking for their hunches about Stephen based on experience, observation, and gut feelings. “Give me the percentage,” he urged them. “Some were one hundred percent [sure] he did it,” Hackel recalled. “Some said maybe fifty percent. Maybe she just didn’t like the guy and wanted to get away.”

The department didn’t want to publicly name Stephen a suspect “and have him hiding in a hole,” Hackel said. The sheriff was formulating other ideas.

Meanwhile, McLean began tracing Tara’s telephone and credit card activity. She asked the telephone company for permission to obtain records covering all incoming and outgoing calls on Tara’s Verizon cell phone from February 1 onward.

“You can get telephone records directly from the telephone company, but you have to have probable cause to search phone records,” McLean noted. “Just the fact that someone is missing isn’t enough. In this case, we were able to get the records based on exigent circumstances. That’s where you [have] a situation that’s above and beyond a normal situation. Stephen waited five days to report her missing. He showed signs of injuries. Tara didn’t have a history of drug abuse or a history of leaving in the past. She had a great work history. If you take that all together, it’s enough to search the records.”

McLean later successfully petitioned 42nd District Court judge Denis LeDuc for search warrants for cell site locations, to determine where Tara was when she made the phone calls.

“We had to start checking everything,” Lieutenant Elizabeth Darga said. “We had to check the airlines. Had she gone out of the country? Had she done any traveling within the U.S.? There was a lot to do.”

While it’s relatively simple to get access to telephone records, it’s not as easy for police to obtain credit card information, Darga said. “But in this case, the last credit card Tara used was through her company. That was her main credit card. Thankfully, the Washington Group was very cooperative, and they provided us records of her credit card use.”

Records showed the last time Tara used her company-issued American Express card was at 9:32 P.M. on February 9 when she paid for parking in the Detroit Metropolitan Airport parking structure.

Darga, who quarterbacked the detective team during the Grant investigation, said she and her crew brainstormed to come up with a checklist of what needed to be done during the first few days of the case. “Whoever could think of what we needed to do next, we would write it all down on paper, and when each thing got done, it would get checked off,” Darga said.

A white board was hung in the detective room, to map out how the investigation was going. “We used the board to keep track of all the phone calls Stephen made the night of February ninth, and in the days after that,” Darga said.

There were several possibilities to be considered, McLean said. “Who’s to say she wasn’t leaving her husband? Some people take a little downtime before they call and let their spouse know they’re leaving them, so we had to look at that avenue,” she said. “In a missing person case, even if you have suspicions, which we did, you have to consider all possibilities. So we went into this investigation with an open mind.”

But even as the detectives considered all potential scenarios, their instincts told them Tara Grant was a murder victim, not a missing person. “We knew in the back of our minds that he killed her,” Darga said. “And when we talked about it, we threw out all kinds of possibilities.

“We even wondered if he cut her up and disposed of the body that way,” she said. “That was actually discussed, but we all came to the conclusion that this guy wouldn’t have the guts to do that.”

Investigators received a surprising fax Thursday morning. It appeared that Stephen Grant had hired himself a lawyer:

Because of the tone of your February 14, 2007 interrogation of Mr. Grant at his home…it is my humble opinion that it is necessary for me to provide a buffer between your department and Mr. Grant, wrote the sender of the fax, Detroit attorney David Griem. Just as Mr. Grant answered all of your questions last night, he will continue to answer all of your questions in the future. I believe it is necessary, however, so there are no misunderstandings, that all of your future questions be submitted in writing which will, in turn, be immediately answered in writing.

The message was another indication to investigators that something was amiss.

“We’re trying to help this guy find his wife, and he lawyers up and says he’ll only communicate with us by fax,” Kozlowski said. “What kind of guy would do that if he really wanted us to find his wife?”

The white-haired, mustachioed David Griem was a well-known Metro Detroit lawyer. A former Macomb County prosecutor and U.S. attorney, he also was a veteran defender with high-profile cases to his credit.

In 2005, Griem defended prominent Macomb County real estate mogul Ralph Roberts, who was accused, along with state senator James Barcia, of funneling money to former Macomb County prosecutor Carl Marlinga’s unsuccessful 2004 reelection campaign. In exchange, the prosecutor allegedly was to help two convicted rapists get new trials. The charges were eventually dropped against all parties.

Ironically, Griem also spearheaded the rape-conviction appeal of William Hackel, the county’s former top lawman and father of the current sheriff. His roster of corporate clients included household names, such as Kmart, General Motors, and General Dynamics.

Griem was known for his poise before the cameras and often served as a legal commentator for local broadcasters, as well as in national venues like CourtTV and Geraldo Rivera’s programs.

And he was about to get even more airtime.