Sheriff: Torso of Mich. Woman Found

By RON VAMPLE

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A fugitive suspected of killing and dismembering his wife fled Saturday to a state park almost 300 miles from their suburban Detroit home, authorities said.

Police were closing in late Saturday on a cabin at Wilderness State Park where Stephen Grant was thought to be hiding, according to Michigan State Police. The truck Grant was believed to have been driving was found hours earlier near Carp Lake in nearby Emmet County.

"As far as we know he has not been located," said a dispatcher at state police regional headquarters in Gaylord.

A person who answered the phone at the state park referred questions to the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office, which was leading the investigation into the disappearance of Tara Lynn Grant. Messages were left with the sheriff’s departments in Macomb and Emmet counties.

Grant, 37, went missing hours before police found what they believe is the torso of his wife in the garage of their suburban Detroit home. Searchers also found what were thought to be other parts of Tara Grant’s body in a nearby public park.

Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel said Stephen Grant fled the area in a friend’s pickup truck shortly after allowing deputies inside his house to execute a search warrant.

Grant’s lawyer, David Griem, said earlier Saturday that he feared his client was suicidal, but Hackel said police were aware of contact Saturday afternoon between Grant and two other people he would not identify.

Hackel said the torso was found in the garage of the Grants’ home in Macomb County’s Washington Township during a search that began Friday night, three weeks after 34-year-old Tara Grant was last heard from.

Police obtained a warrant to search the home after persuading a judge that there was probable cause to believe a crime had been committed there. Hackel told reporters Saturday evening that investigators "did find several items we suspect were used in the commission of this crime," but added, "By no means did we expect to uncover what we did in the home."

Hackel would not say how long authorities believed the torso had been in the garage. The body had not been positively identified as of late Saturday, but the sheriff said he was certain it was Tara Grant’s.

An arrest warrant was issued Saturday charging the 37-year-old Grant with murder, as well as disinterment and mutilation. "He is the number one, and at this time the only suspect in the murder of Tara Lynn Grant," Hackel said.

Griem said Saturday night he spoke twice with Grant earlier that day.

"I was as certain when I got off the phone with him at 3:30 this morning that he was going to take his own life," Griem told The Associated Press. "I volunteered to meet him wherever he was at so we could hopefully come to a conclusion to surrender to the sheriff’s department."

Griem said that if Grant was still alive, he did not know where he was.

Asked if the discovery of the body parts changed his mind about Grant’s actions, Griem said: "I have never ventured an opinion in the last three weeks as to the innocence of Stephen Grant. Sometimes good people do bad things. Something snaps."

Hackel said Saturday evening that authorities had "very recent information" that Grant was still alive and in Michigan, although not in Macomb County. Two handguns were found in the house during the search, but the sheriff said Grant was not believed to be armed.

Grant apparently phoned his sister about 5 p.m. Saturday to ask about his 6-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, who have been staying with her, Hackel said.

The sheriff urged Grant to surrender, saying, "There’s an opportunity for him to have his time, his day in court."

About 100 law enforcement personnel looked for other evidence and additional body parts Saturday near the Grants’ home and in nearby Stony Creek Metropark. The search was suspended at nightfall and was to resume at 9 a.m. Sunday, Hackel said.

Hackel declined to release details about the body parts that were found, but said they may have been scattered in an attempt to hide them. "They were in various locations," he said.

Grant was detained briefly but not arrested when police arrived to search his house Friday, Hackel said. Grant let investigators into the house, then went to a neighbor’s house and asked to use the pickup truck. The sheriff insisted the neighbor did not know that Grant planned to leave the area.

"We tried to back off on the surveillance and not make it so obvious" after Griem called and demanded that Grant be released, Hackel said. "We went to (another) neighbor’s house where we were unable to see where he was going. … We were confident he was going to be available, that he wasn’t going to try to elude law enforcement, like he’s doing right now."

Tara Grant was an operations manager for Boise, Idaho-based Washington Group International, an engineering and construction firm with an office in the Detroit suburb of Troy. Her job regularly sent her to Puerto Rico.

"Our sympathy goes out to Tara’s loved ones during this very painful time," Washington Group said in a statement. "We had hoped to celebrate Tara’s return with them, not grieve her apparent death. If Tara is gone, we will have all lost a respected colleague, and many will have lost a friend."

Tara Grant last was seen Feb. 9. Stephen Grant reported her missing five days later. Police say the day she went missing, the Grants argued over her frequent business trips abroad.

Throughout the search, Stephen Grant has maintained his innocence.

Hackel said his office was working with prosecutors to determine whether anyone misled investigators, and those people – who Hackel declined to identify – also could face charges in the case.

Of the charges being brought against Stephen Grant, open murder is punishable by up to life in prison without parole, while disinterment and mutilation carries a penalty of up to 10 years behind bars.

A 4 1/2-hour search last weekend of Stony Creek Metropark, 30 miles north of Detroit, turned up no clues to Tara Grant’s whereabouts.

The case has been a daily fixture on local TV newscasts and in Detroit’s newspapers. It has conjured comparisons to media-saturated missing-women cases such as those of Laci Peterson and Natalee Holloway.

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Associated Press Writers David Runk and Jim Irwin in Detroit contributed to this report.