Acquitted of murder, man sentenced for hiding teacher’s body

OCILLA, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for hiding the death of a popular high school teacher whose disappearance remained a mystery for more than decade. A judge sentenced Ryan Alexander Duke on Monday, just three days after a jury acquitted Duke of murder in the 2005 death of Tara Grinstead. The history teacher and former beauty queen vanished from her home in rural Irwin County. Her family’s hopes that she would return alive were dashed in 2017 when Duke told investigators he killed Grinstead and burned her body in a pecan orchard. Duke testified at his trial that he gave a false confession. The jury acquitted him of murder but convicted him of concealing a death.