A jury on Friday found a man accused of killing a popular high school teacher who vanished from her rural Georgia hometown in 2005 not guilty of murder.
Ryan Duke had told investigators he killed Tara Grinstead and helped burn her body. But when he took the witness stand during his trial, he insisted he was innocent.
The jury acquitted Duke of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and burglary but found him guilty of concealing a death, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Grinstead’s disappearance in rural Irwin County remained a mystery for more than a decade until Duke’s 2017 confession.
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