A Bonfire Confession Was Dismissed as a Joke
Local officers checked the bonfire story and dropped it, state investigators never followed up, and the lead agent still calls it a mistake.
Dateline NBC · Talking Dateline: The OrchardIt was night at an outdoor bonfire party, with a crowd of local young people gathered around the fire.
Two men in the group, Bo Dukes and Ryan Duke, said they were the ones who had killed Tara and burned her body in a pit. Dukes came from a prominent local family that owned orchards in town.
The people listening took it as showing off, two guys mouthing off and trying to get attention with a shocking joke.
That moment turned out to be an early lead in Tara's disappearance and killing, and brushing it aside became a regret that followed the investigation for years.
Word of the remarks reached Andy and Janice Palk, who ran a website to find Tara. After arrests were announced, they told lead investigator Gary Rothwell that he had heard those names, Bo and Ryan, before.
Rothwell, a former agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said local sheriff's deputies and investigators interviewed the person who reported the party talk. Officers went to the scene and even used a helicopter to try to verify it.
They could not corroborate the account, and concluded the men had been joking. The state investigators understood the tip had been checked and found unfounded, so they did not follow up themselves.
Rothwell now says that reliance was a mistake. He accepted responsibility as the man in charge and said he felt terrible, and he became emotional talking about a case that consumed much of his career.
Journalist Andrea Canning, who interviewed him, said the case could have been solved sooner and earlier answers might have eased some heartache for the family.
At the time, there was no flashing sign. Investigators were sorting through thousands of tips and had collected hundreds of DNA swabs in what was described as the biggest case file in bureau history.
In hindsight, the bonfire talk looks obvious. In the middle of the search, it was one noisy claim among many, and it slipped away. Rothwell said the failure lived with him, though he did not know whether more follow-up would have changed the trial outcome.
Questions people ask
Who were Bo Dukes and Ryan Duke?
They were two local men later taken to trial in Tara's case, with Ryan blaming Bo. Bo had already been convicted on related charges, including concealing a death and making false statements to investigators.
What happened when Bo took the stand?
Bo was brought into Ryan's trial and repeatedly pleaded the Fifth on the stand while the defense pointed toward him. The back and forth left the jury weighing two men who blamed each other, and Ryan was acquitted.
Why did this tip get buried?
It was one noisy claim among thousands of tips, and local officers had checked it and judged it a joke. State investigators understood it had been addressed as unfounded, so they did not follow up themselves.