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Missing woman's family gets a detective

February 18, 2007
BY BEN SCHMITT

As investigators continue searching for a missing 34-year-old Washington Township woman, an attorney for her husband said a private detective is also on the case.

Tara Lynn Grant argued with her husband over taking business trips and left her home late Feb. 9, said attorney David Griem, retained by Stephen Grant.

"Her job takes her all over the world, and he felt that she should be spending more time with their children," Griem said Saturday.

The Grants have two children, 4 and 6. Tara Grant is an executive with a Troy construction company.

Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel described the disappearance as "a mystery to us."

Tara Grant's cell phone has been turned off, and she hasn't used her credit cards since she left, Hackel said. She has not returned to work, he said.

Hackel said Tara Grant made her last cell phone call to her husband on Feb. 9 after she returned to Michigan from a business trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Griem said his client said Tara Grant got into a dark-colored, 4-door vehicle late that day, and he hasn't heard from her since.

Griem said Stephen Grant reported his wife missing on Tuesday. He said they have hired a former FBI agent as a private detective.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070218/NEWS04/702180636/1006

(http://mas.scripps.com/WXYZ/2007/02/16/070216missingwoman_d.jpg)

VANISHED: No Sign of Macomb Mother Since Feb. 9

By WXYZ.com
February 16, 2007

Where in the world is Tara Lynn Grant? That's what the Macomb County Sheriff's Dept. wants to know after she supposedly left last week for a business trip to Puerto Rico... and vanished.

Investigators tell WXYZ.com that Grant, 34, an executive with the Washington Group construction company in Troy and mother of two children, hasn't been seen nor heard from since Feb. 9. Her husband, Stephen Grant, says she was heading to San Juan, Puerto Rico -- but investigators say there's no record of her trip, no credit card activity since she left, and her cell phone has been turned off.

Adding to the mystery, the sheriff's department says, is the fact that Grant and her husband argued prior to her disappearance from their home in Washington Township. And that her husband has hired prominent criminal defense attorney David Griem.

In a letter to investigators obtained by WXYZ.com, Griem explains why he was hired and how his client will continue to cooperate:

"Because of the tone of your Feb. 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.

"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."

Investigators have requested Tara Grant's dental records.

Tara Lynn Grant is described as 5' 6", 120 lbs. with brown hair and brown eyes.

Tara Lynn Grant, 34, Missing Since February 9, 2007

http://missingexploited.com/2007/02/18/tara-lynn-grant-34-missing-since-february-9-2007/

34 year old, mother of two Tara Lynn Grant has not been seen or heard from since February 9, 2007. Her husband, Steven Grant, stated that she was on her way to San Juan Puerto Rico on a business trip. However, there are no records of any such trip. Hmmm ...

I find this an odd request.........considering they haven't found her .

Local woman seeks missing sister

By ASHLEY LYKINS
Gazette Staff Writer

Chillicothe residents Erik and Alicia Standerfer have been in Michigan all weekend, posting fliers and turning to the media for help with finding Alicia's sister, Tara Lynn Grant.

Grant, an executive with Washington Group International, has been missing since about 11:15 p.m. Feb. 9, said Capt. Tony Wickersham of the Macomb County Sheriff's Office.

She flew into Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport from Puerto Rico on that day, and she was planning on leaving again that night.
Alicia said Grant was originally going to leave for San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Monday, Feb. 12, but she and her husband had an argument about the situation.

"He said he'd rather her leave early and be back sooner," she said, noting that was the reason she pushed her departure date up.

Grant's husband, Stephen, reported to the sheriff's office that the 34-year-old mother of two got into a black sedan and left the home in Washington Township, Mich.

Alicia said Grant has used the transportation service, which takes passengers to and from the airport, in the past.

"Nobody has seen or heard from her since," said Wickersham. "Within 45 minutes to an hour, she packed and left again."

However, Alicia said there is no record of her sister returning to San Juan for business.
>>>> Full Article
http://tinyurl.com/2ey7d3

Missing woman mystery deepens
Her husband's e-mails probed

February 21, 2007

BY CHRISTY ARBOSCELLO

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

The case of Tara Lynn Grant, the Washington Township woman missing for 12 days, has taken another twist as investigators look into a series of e-mails between her husband and an unidentified woman.

Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel said his department had received a batch of e-mail messages exchanged by Stephen Grant and a woman Hackel would not identify and that investigators were looking into them to see if they had any bearing to the case.

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"We haven't had a chance to review it," Hackel said late Tuesday.

The e-mails come as tensions between Stephen Grant and investigators are rising.

>>>>>>Complete Article
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070221/NEWS04/702210378/1001/NEWS

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Investigators believe allegations that missing woman was having an affair are false

February 21, 2007

By CHRISTY ARBOSCELLO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Stephen Grant told an ex-girlfriend in a series of emails that he thought his wife was having an affair with an older co-worker-an allegation investigators believe is false.

The saucy e-mail exchanges between Stephen Grant and his college sweetheart took place as recently as last month and now is the subject of scrutiny in the case of his missing spouse, Tara Grant.

“Obviously, it's something to raise an eyebrow,” Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel said Wednesday.

But there's no reason for them to believe she was with her work partner whom with she traveled frequently or another identified man in the past.

“There's nothing to her having a relationship with anyone else. There's all kinds of rumors going on right now,” Hackel said.

>>>>>The Full Article
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070221/NEWS04/70221031/1008/NEWS

Excerpts from the e-mail exchanges

February 22, 2007

The following are e-mail exchanges between Stephen Grant and his ex-girlfriend, as reported in the Detroit News:

Ex-girlfriend: You have not changed a bit. Don't you worry about being burned eternally by the devil? Why did you get married in the first place? Seemed like the cool thing to do?

Grant: The answers in order are NO, Love, and No. I think you misunderstood, though, I like being married. I just think of marriage vows like speed limits. Sometimes you have to break them, and sometimes you get caught. You just need to keep an eye on the road to avoid detection.

Ex-girlfriend: So what are you going to do about the cheatin' wife? ...

Grant: Don't know yet. By the way -- she does talk to the "old geezer" like that...that is the problem. Actually, never that direct. Everyone is not as subtle as me. The problem is she says things in code. And because of that, I don't know what is actually going on. Also, and I thought I told you this, about two years ago, she did the same thing with some guy she used to know. Nothing physical, just txt and e-mail and phone calls...

At another point ...

>>>The full Article
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070222/NEWS04/702220408

Now they are going to search local area woods and countryside for this woman that has been missing 2 weeks??? WTH? If the husband had anything to hide, he's had 2 weeks to do it!

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Search For Former Delta County Woman Stepped Up
Delta County, February 22

Police in downstate Macomb County are stepping up their search for former Delta County resident Tara Lynn Grant.

She disappeared almost two weeks ago.

Officials plan to search wooded areas on all-terrain vehicles and horseback over the weekend.

Although clues to her disappearance may be contained in the family's computers, police say the missing woman's husband has so far denied police access to them.

His wife, who's from Perkins in Delta County, has been missing since February 9.

Her husband says she got into a car that was waiting outside their home in Macomb County, and never returned.

>>>Full Article
http://www.wluctv6.com/Global/story.asp?S=6128903&nav=81AX

I smell a lie! The husband is to nervous to search? His sister says he is to nervous to search, he doesn't want her to be found harmed? Lie lie lie......

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Any normal husband or anyone for that matter who had a loved one missing would do anything to find them ....This guy is involved.

I agree. For his family to even have said such a thing, what's more believe such a thing is BS .

I agree.
I think the husband killed her.

 
 
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February 27, 2007

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (Crime Library ) —Last week, an ex-girlfriend of Stephen Grant's gave the sheriff's department copies of a series of emails she exchanged with Grant on January 25.  In the emails, Grant told the woman she could give him a sponge bath and said that he wanted to see her naked.  Grant has since admitted sending the emails, but claims they were not serious, and were meant as a joke.

Unfortunately for Grant, Tara's family is not laughing with him.  Yesterday evening, Tara's sister, Alicia Standerfer, vented her anger about the emails.

 
Tara Grant and sister Alicia Standerfer


"Obviously, I am not happy," Alicia said in a telephone interview with Crime Library.  "I mean, that's kind of a given.  If I had a friend, would I be communicating with them like that?  Absolutely not.  I am married, and I take my marriage vows seriously.  Those emails obviously communicated that the marriage vows did not mean anything to him."

Alicia also said she has been unable to speak with Grant.

"I tried to communicate with him over the weekend, and it was denied.  So I have not spoken with him directly."

Stephen Grant reported his wife missing on Feb. 14.  According to statements made by Grant, the couple had an argument on the night of Feb. 9. about Tara's job with an international construction contractor and the amount of time she was spending away from him and their two young children.  Grant said that, following the argument, at about 11:15 p.m., his wife walked out of the house, got into a dark sedan, and vanished.  Her cell phone and credit cards have not been used since she vanished, and authorities have no clues regarding her disappearance.


 
Police organize search


Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel assembled a group of 150 volunteers from his active and reserve units to search within a 2-mile radius of Tara Lynn Grant's home this past weekend.  While an air unit searched the landscape from high above, searchers, some using all-terrain vehicles and horses, conducted an intense search on the ground.

For some one that is so concerned about what his children are hearing, seems like it might be alot to explain when trying to tell them why daddy is not cooperating with police to help find mommy.

I sure hope the police have somthing they are not sharing with the rest of us regarding this case.

Police address grim reality in Grant disappearance
February 27, 2007

BY CHRISTY ARBOSCELLO

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

As the 18th day of Tara Grant’s disappearance lumbers on, police are checking on local Jane Does in case the Washington Township woman is no longer alive.

“In this business, you have to be realistic,” Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel said today. “As difficult as it may be to say this and for people to hear that, we do have to check on that.”

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Still hopeful she is not dead, authorities are sifting through 15 to 20 leads a day and are receiving help from the National Center for Missing Adults. They are brainstorming over another search in an undetermined area after last weekend’s search in the Stony Creek and Macomb Orchard Trail areas didn’t uncover anything.

Anyone with information can visit www.missingadults.org, call the national organization’s hot line at 800-690-3463 or call the Sheriff’s Office at 586-307-9358 anytime.

Contact CHRISTY OYAMA-ARBOSCELLO at 586-469-8085.

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I think he killed her...

So do I...

How's my SiSTAH.... :lol:

I not sure if he did it, or paid someone to do it........

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Tara Grants torso found in garage at her home. :cry:
Various other body parts located in other areas.
Stephen Grant went missing and was arrested early Sunday morning 300 miles away from his home.

Police Arrest Husband Accused of Murdering and Dismembering Tara Grant
Sunday , March 04, 2007



Police arrested a man Sunday wanted in connection with the dismembering death of his wife.

Michigan State Police arrested Stephen Grant early Sunday morning in Emmet County, Mich., after a statewide manhunt. The county is near the tip of the state's Lower Peninsula, about 300 miles from his home in Washington Township in suburban Detroit.

Stephen Grant is listed in serious condition at Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey, Mich., after being airlifted following his capture to be treated for frostbite and hypothermia.

Police captured Stephen Grant at 6:30 a.m. after a nighttime chase in a wooded area in Bliss Township.

• Click here for FOXNews.com's Crime center.

"Near the end he was moving quite fast through the snow until he was apprehended," said Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel at a press conference Sunday morning.

Deputies from his suburban Detroit office were on their way to Petoskey to guard Stephen Grant, he said.

"We think we have the right man based on his own statements," Hackel said.

Police launched the search Saturday after discovering what they believe to be Tara Lynn Grant's dismembered torso in the garage of the couple's house.

An arrest warrant had been issued Saturday charging Grant with murder, disinterment and mutilation.

Grant, 37, who had maintained his innocence in his wife's disappearance, went missing before police searched his home Friday and Saturday in Washington Township, about 30 miles outside Detroit. Searchers found the torso in the garage and what were thought to be other parts of Tara Grant's body in a nearby park.

Few details were immediately available about the capture, but Hackel said Emmet County authorities were key in the capture. The Emmet County sheriff's department said no one was available Sunday morning to discuss the arrest.

A truck that police believe Grant drove from his home was found Saturday night near Carp Lake, close to the bridge linking Michigan's Lower and Upper Peninsulas.

Grant's lawyer had said that he feared his client was suicidal.

The body had not been positively identified as of late Saturday, but the sheriff has said he was certain it was Tara Grant's. An autopsy was scheduled for Sunday.

About 100 law enforcement personnel looked for evidence and additional body parts Saturday near the Grants' home. The search was expected to resume Sunday.

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

If convicted of open murder, Grant could be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,256480,00.html

Grants attorney withdraws from case.

He will have to seek new counsel.

WOW.

He was the one who said on TV last night sometimes good people do something bad :shock: .

He put it this way...
"If I cant give my entire blood , sweat and tears to a case then I have to bow out" (not verbatem)

Sounds to me as if he knows he is guilty as sin and does not want to represent him for the herrendous crimes....

Grant's defender says resignation not snap decision
March 5, 2007
BY JOE SWICKARD and CHRISTY ARBOSCELLO

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

After almost three weeks of high-profile legal wrangling for Stephen Grant, his lawyer, David Griem, stepped aside Sunday, saying he could no longer represent the man accused of murdering and dismembering his wife.

Although the announcement came suddenly, it was not a snap decision, the former state and federal prosecutor said Sunday evening.
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"It was a series of events of the last week that made it no longer possible to give him my everything as an attorney," Griem said.

He said details of the relationship couldn't be disclosed because of lawyer-client privilege, but he described the split as "erosion rather than one sharp event. And I don't blame Mr. Grant."

Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith said: "I think Dave was maybe conned like a lot of people."

Smith pointed to news interviews in which Grant pleaded for his wife's safe return home, "where you see those crocodile tears, where he claims or professes his innocence."

On Saturday morning, Griem made public pleas on behalf of Grant, saying he feared Grant had killed himself after a series of disturbing phone calls he made to Griem. He said he took two calls from Grant after midnight Friday, in which Grant was "increasingly emotionally distraught."

"He had a hard time getting sentences out coherently. He was rambling," Griem said.

But by Saturday afternoon, it was clear Grant was alive and on the run.

Over the past three weeks, media attention and investigators' pressure on Grant had cranked up, and Griem stood before cameras, challenging the tactics and actions of the Macomb County sheriff's department.

He assailed Grant's arrest and subsequent questioning after sheriff's deputies pulled him over on a traffic violation the day after Grant reported his wife missing. He defended Grant as a wounded father who'd give his all for his two small children.

Griem still insisted Sunday that the Friday night search that uncovered Tara Lynn Grant's torso in the garage of the Grant home was legally flawed and should be barred from any trial.

"For days the sheriff was saying, time after time whenever asked, that he didn't have probable cause for a search warrant," Griem said. "Then all of a sudden it changed? What happened?"

Griem is a former chief trial lawyer for the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office and onetime chief of the U.S. Attorney's drug team. He served a stint as Warren city attorney before going into private practice.

He focused on criminal defense work, and his clients included suspected drug dealers, organized crime figures and white-collar criminals. But none matched the public fascination of the search for Tara Grant.

Griem said he isn't totally abandoning Stephen Grant -- he'll meet with the new lawyers to go over the investigation.

But like with many relationships, he said legal representation has a life span.

"And now," he said, "it's just time."

Contact JOE SWICKARD at 313-222-8769 or jswickard@freepress.com.

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Here is a little more detail than what klaas posted; this is from The Detroit Free Press: (www.freep.com).

This guy is one wackadoo.

Do they have the death penalty in that state?

San- No - no death penalty. (I've been reading the Blog on this case, in the Detroit Free Press.

Life in prison is too good for this guy.  I hope he is tortured every day for the rest of his life.

I don't believe for one second that they were arguing over her traveling.  They were probably arguing because he was spending all the money.

If you watch some of his interviews he has crazy eyes

Yes I saw the picture but I haven't seen him in an interview.

If someone has a link please post it I would like to watch his actions.

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You are right that guy is a loser. When you see his facial expression in news clips.......he looks, well....we have a medical abreviation for it.......he looks
Fn'N.      



 ( F _ _ kin' Nuts :shock: )

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BY AMBER HUNT, JOE SWICKARD and CHRISTY ARBOSCELLO, DET. FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS


Created: 3/8/2007 12:24:42 PM
Updated: 3/8/2007 12:26:58 PM


It might have made scattering body parts in woods easier

Detroit - Accused of strangling his wife and dismembering her, Stephen Grant may have used a familiar item to scatter her remains through a wooded area near their Washington Township home.

A child's sled.

Sources close to the case told the Free Press that the sled was recovered in the woods near Stony Creek Metropark, where Tara Lynn Grant's remains were found during the weekend. One source said this week that authorities say they believe the sled belonged to one of the Grants' children - a 4-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl - who are now in the custody of Tara Lynn's sister, Alicia Standerfer, at an undisclosed location.

The case against Stephen Grant already has taken many bizarre twists and turns: the discovery of a woman's torso in the Grant family's garage; the manhunt for Stephen Grant through a snowy state park at the northwest tip of the Lower Peninsula, and the alleged confession in which Grant admits to killing his wife, dismembering her and then, after dispersing the remains, going back to collect her torso before officials searched Stony Creek.

There promises to be even more stunning developments in the case, said a source, who wouldn't give details. Both sources asked that their names not be used because they have been told not to discuss the case publicly.

Macomb County sheriff's searchers found the sled in Stony Creek, the sources said. Speculation is that it would have made it easier to scatter remains in the snowy area.

Grant, 37, is being held at the Macomb County Jail, charged with first-degree murder - which carries a life sentence without parole. He also is charged with mutilation of his wife's body, which carries a 10-year sentence.

Sterling Heights attorney Stephen Rabaut - who has made a name for himself in metro Detroit in high-profile cases - was appointed Wednesday to represent Grant by Chief Macomb County Circuit Judge Antonio Viviano, who discussed the case with other judges before deciding to bypass the usual list of lawyers.

"The extraordinary nature of this case and the intense attention it has received requires a defense attorney with a proven ability to handle potential distractions while providing the best possible counsel for his client," Viviano said in a prepared statement.

Rabaut told the Free Press' reporting partner WDIV-TV Local 4: "I will represent Mr. Grant ethically, professionally, and protect his rights. Beyond that, I have no statement for the media."

Another matter also could have been at play: Circuit Judge Richard Caretti said Wednesday he didn't know anyone on the list of eligible defense attorneys who wanted the case.

Rabaut replaces David Griem, who announced his withdrawal from representing Grant on Sunday, after his client was on the run following the search of the Grants' home.

Griem had talked frequently to the media since Grant reported his wife missing Feb. 14 and maintained his innocence in her disappearance. Griem said he and Grant had "irreconcilable differences."

Strong track record

Former Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga said Rabaut was a smart pick.

"I tried a case against him and lost," Marlinga said. "Everybody knew if Stephen Rabaut was on the other side, you brought your A-game."

Although Grant appears to be comfortably middle class, an appointed lawyer is still an option in the case, explained Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny. Grant's home and other assets are likely to be frozen or tied up in litigation and unavailable to him. If that money becomes available, the court can tap it to repay Rabaut's fees, Kenny said.

Anthony Chambers, one of Detroit's top-tier criminal defense lawyers, said Rabaut is especially adept with the intricacies of search-and-seizure issues. The search of the Grants' garage that revealed his wife's torso is sure to be a legal flash point of the case, he said.

"If I had a friend in trouble, Steve would be on my short list to call," Chambers said.

Rabaut's clients have included government informant Youssef Hmimssa in the ill-fated 2003 terrorism trial in Detroit; drug boss Edward (Big Ed) Hanserd, who waged a bloody feud with Richard (Maserati Rick) Carter and other cocaine operators in the late 1980s, and Mark Cleary, for whom he won a new trial in 2004 when his daughter recanted the allegations of molestation that sent him to prison in 1987. The next year, prosecutors dropped that case.

Also, Rabaut won an acquittal in 1992 of a 79-year-old ex-convict accused of being a bagman for a gambling ring, even though a witness described him picking up a package stuffed with $100 bills at a New Jersey highway rest stop.

Business owners in disbelief

Business owners in the building where Stephen Grant worked with his father at U.S.G. Babbitt, a tool-and-die shop, still were grappling Wednesday with the news that authorities say they believe Tara Grant was dismembered there.

John Bove, who owns a game room supply shop in the building, watched Friday as deputies busted down the door to the Grants' business. He said they took machinery and tools with them.

Bove, 65, a newcomer to the building, hadn't realized that Stephen Grant worked there, so he didn't connect the search with the case until Saturday, when he saw his building on television.

"You can't trust anybody," said Bove's wife, Sharon Bove.

Chris Prenger, who owns an auto garage called One Man & A Wrench and often worked on cars for the Grants, said he saw a melted cell phone in his private Dumpster soon after Tara Grant disappeared but didn't think anything of it at the time.

Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel said her cell phone hasn't been recovered; the Dumpster has since been emptied.

"In hindsight, I would've grabbed it," Prenger said Wednesday. "I just didn't know it might be important."

Contact AMBER HUNT at 313-222-2708 or alhunt@freepress.com. Contact JOE SWICKARD at 313-222-8769 or jswickard@freepress.com.


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There promises to be even more stunning developments in the case, said a source, who wouldn't give details. Both sources asked that their names not be used because they have been told not to discuss the case publicly. [/list]

This is unbelievable what could be more stunning that what he did already. :evil:

This is my theory San. . .

It has been rumored that this guy was coming on to or maybe even having an affair with one of their au pairs...

Maybe....Tara found out, confronted him and in a fit of rage he kills her.

The interesting thing too, is that they say that the au pairs moved out several days after Tara went missing.  But we know know that she was killed and in the very house they were all staying ing...

The girls have stated that they did not feel safe talking about the Grants until they were home.  Both were given options to be placed in different homes but declined.

I am wondering if they knew what happened and were afraid for their own lives....

I totally agree with you.

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There you go Jacqueline he was involved with the German au pair and Tara found out and said it's over.  That POS killed her because he knew his goose was cooked.

Yep. The SOB.

Authorities believe Stephen Grant had a physical relationship with his children's 19-year-old German nanny and say it may have played a role in why he allegedly strangled his wife in their Washington Township home last month

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070309/NEWS04/703090350/1008

March 17, 2007

BY JEFF SEIDEL

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Hank Winchester lies awake at night, thinking about the eerie conversations he had with Stephen Grant.

"I think, 'Why did he try to lure me into his garage?' " said Winchester, a reporter with WDIV-TV Local 4.

 Grant has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Tara Lynn Grant. A few hours before police discovered Tara Grant's remains, Winchester was on his way to interview Stephen Grant.

In Grant's garage. On Grant's request. Where police found the torso March 2.

"It gives me chills when I think about it," Winchester said.

Grant was obsessed with the media, obsessed with seeing his face on the TV news, obsessed with trying to manipulate and control every situation.

While a pack of reporters covered Tara Grant's disappearance and many communicated with Grant -- the Free Press and other newspapers, local TV stations and radio stations -- Grant spoke to Winchester as many as five times a day. Some of the calls lasted more than an hour.

Winchester developed an extraordinary connection, although he has a hard time explaining why it started. All he did was answer his phone and listen. Suddenly, Winchester found himself getting phone calls at all hours from a central figure in a story that was drawing national attention.

"Perhaps, when you look at the overall pattern of the phone calls and contact that Hank had with him, you can piece together the larger story of Stephen Grant," said Neil Goldstein, the vice president of news and news director at WDIV-TV. "That's the story of the story."

Winchester knows Grant was using him and others to get attention.

WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) had a phone connection; at WJBK-TV (Channel 2), Doug McKenzie, a night assignment editor, talked to Grant four times. And the Free Press had an extended sit-down interview with Grant, in which he boasted, "I am the No. 1 suspect."

All the attention might not have played out the way Grant wanted.

"The media attention may have fed Stephen Grant's ego," Winchester said, "but ultimately it brought him down."

The first meeting

Winchester interviewed Stephen Grant for the first time Feb. 19. From the start, Grant tried to control everything.

"He told me that I was only going to be allowed to ask four questions," Winchester said. "When I got there, we ended up talking for 40 minutes."

Winchester gave Grant his cell phone number.

"In the very beginning, the phone calls were completely related to Tara," he said.

The relationship shifted Feb. 24, the day police organized a search for Tara Grant's body in Stony Creek Metropark. Winchester was near the search command center when his cell phone rang. It was Grant, who did not attend the failed search. Grant asked Winchester for some advice: Would it be inappropriate for him to go jogging while the search was going on?

"I thought, that's a bizarre thing to ask a reporter," Winchester said. "A search is going on in the woods for his wife's body and not only is he asking a reporter if he should go jogging, it was the idea that he would want to go jogging. I told him, 'Stephen, you have to make your own decisions.' "

Intimate videos

Another time, Winchester asked Grant for home videos of his wife.

"We were asking him for home video -- Christmas movies, whatever," Winchester said. "Anything that showed Tara. He alluded to me that the only movies he could find were movies that he and Tara had shot that were personal intimate movies.

"He made a joke. He said, 'Hank, I'm having guy talk with you. Don't take it the wrong way. That's the only thing I could think of off the top of my head.' "

Focus on the news media

Cameras caught Grant buying up newspapers to read the stories about his wife's disappearance, and he followed all of the TV coverage.

"I know he was watching every newscast religiously," Winchester said. "Often, after my live shots, or after I did a report, the phone would ring two minutes later, and he would have a comment on it.

"I think there was a part of Stephen Grant who loved every bit of attention this story generated. He enjoyed seeing himself on television."

Winchester, 33, has worked at Local 4 for six years. He was born in Detroit and raised in Saginaw. He never turned off his cell phone, hoping Grant would call.

"In one sense, he wanted to develop a friendship," Winchester said. "On the other hand, he wanted to keep me in constant communication, because he felt if he did, he would get on the news.

"I just let him keep going, just in case, in the middle of those ramblings, he would offer up critical information. He never really did. I'm sure my cell phone bill is going to be $1,000.

"It was almost like he couldn't stay away from the camera for too long. He would want to be involved somehow, in the story, from day to day."

In all their discussions, he said, Grant maintained his innocence.

"There would be days when he would talk about everything from hunting to where he got his hair cut to what errands he was going to run that day," Winchester said. "Then, at the end of the conversation, it would almost be like he would try to remember the focus had to be on Tara, and he would provide me with some information."

Money in the car

On Feb.15, a sheriff's deputy stopped Grant for speeding, noticed he had a suspended license and placed him under arrest. When Winchester found out, he reported that Grant had about $3,000 in his car.

"He called me right after," Winchester said, "and he said, 'Hank, you made me look like Scott Peterson tonight. It made me look like I was on the run.' "

On March 2, Winchester was headed to Grant's home to interview him in his garage. "We turned into his neighborhood and noticed his car was on the side of the road and he was in the back of a police car."

A while later, police discovered a torso in the Grants' garage. By then, Grant had walked off with his dog, jumped into a pickup and gone on the run. He called Winchester around 8 p.m. Winchester remembers talking to Grant for about three or four minutes.

"He seemed erratic, very nervous," Winchester said. "In hindsight, I realized I was talking to a guy who was on the run." Winchester has not talked to him since.

The aftermath

Winchester has had nightmares about the story. Late at night, he thinks about conversations he had with Grant: "I think about the garage scenario, and try to figure out why he wanted me in there.

"I think he wanted to bring someone as close as possible, without revealing what he had done. Maybe, it was a sense of pride: 'I'm going to get you this close to the scene of the crime. I've got all the power in this situation. I know what is in this room, and I'm going to manipulate this situation again.' "

Winchester will continue to cover the story. But, if Grant is found guilty, he would like to ask him a different series of questions. "Obviously, I want to ask him the question everybody wants to ask him: Why?"

Contact JEFF SEIDEL at 313-223-4558 or seidel@freepress.com.

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Detroit Free Press (Michigan)
 
December 8, 2007 Saturday 
 
Grant killed, then sought sex, says prosecutor: He cut up wife's dead body, defendant admits to judge  

Dec. 8--As Tara Grant's dead body lay in their bedroom, her husband sent a text message to the couple's teenage au pair:

"You owe me a kiss."

A naked Stephen Grant then left a note on the au pair's bedroom pillow as a reminder.

"Have you ever wondered what goes through the mind of a man who's just murdered his wife?" Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith asked a panel of jurors Friday morning.

Smith paused, then answered his own question: "Sex."

So began the opening statements in the county's most publicized trial in decades.

Grant, 37, surprised courtroom onlookers by admitting to the more gruesome of the allegations -- that he cut up his wife and dispersed her remains in a park -- before the 16-member jury entered the courtroom.

Asked by Macomb County Circuit Judge Diane Druzinski to explain, Grant said only: "I mutilated and carried away a dead body."

He wasn't asked to elaborate. When jurors entered the courtroom, they were not told he had pleaded guilty.

That plea will land Grant in prison for up to 10 years, but it won't impact the trial much because the judge ruled that jurors will still see mutilation-related evidence, including graphic pictures.

"The mutilation is intrinsic to this case at every turn," Assistant Prosecutor Therese Tobin told Druzinski.

For the first time in open court, Grant's defense lawyers acknowledged that, on Feb. 9, he killed his wife in their Washington Township home and cut up her body.

That means the jurors -- 10 women and six men -- are nearly guaranteed to come back with a guilty verdict.

The question is whether that verdict will be first-degree murder or a lesser charge: Did Grant have enough time to reflect and think about the consequences of killing his wife, or was it impulsive?

"The events of that night were the result of a pot that simmered a long time and boiled out of control," defense lawyer Gail Pamukov told jurors. "Angry, mean-spirited, words meant to wound were exchanged. ...

"His thinking was chaotic. His thoughts, at best, jumbled."

Smith, however, described Grant as calm and calculating. He said Grant told the au pair -- 19-year-old Verena Dierkes of Germany, hired to care for the Grants' two children -- that his wife had left him after an argument.

In reality, by that time her body had been shoved into the back of an SUV in the couple's garage, Smith said.

Smith said Grant stuck with that story and told his wife's mother, sister and friends she'd gone missing. It also is what he told police when he reported her missing Feb. 14, and what he told reporters as he publicly pleaded for her safe return.

Grant even left increasingly angry voicemails on his wife's cell phone, demanding that she call to touch base with her children, even though she was dead and her remains were scattered.

Meanwhile, Smith said, Grant and the au pair began sleeping together. After the slaying, as the au pair watched the children at home, he used band saws to dismember his wife's body at his father's tool and die shop in Mt. Clemens.

"He cut her body into 14 pieces," Smith told the jury. "You're going to hear how we recovered 11."

Smith also said jurors will learn that Grant considered the au pair the "perfect person to take Tara's place."

Pamukov countered that all of those actions were harried efforts to hide the crime -- right down to the clumsy scene Grant described to police in which his wife's body parts spilled down a hillside as he dragged them by sled to Stony Creek Park in northern Macomb Township.

Much of what Smith presented mirrored Grant's own nearly four-hour statement to police, which was released to the public in the summer.

Smith said prosecutors will play an audiotape of that interview in full for jurors during the trial.

Grant's lawyers tried to get the statement quashed, but Druzinski ruled that it was given freely and thus would be presented to jurors.

On Friday, only one witness took the stand: Macomb County sheriff's deputy William Hughes, who took a missing person's report from Grant on Feb. 14.

Hughes said he talked for nearly 90 minutes with Grant, who said his wife had stormed off during a fight. He asked Grant if the fight got physical because "I noticed a scratch on the right side of his face." Hughes said Grant replied no.

Grant didn't seem eager for her to return, Hughes added.

His voice dropping to a growl, Hughes imitated Grant: "He said, 'I don't know if I want her back. In fact, I don't care if she ever comes back.' "

Testimony resumes at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:713014009&start=6

Detroit Free Press (Michigan)
December 13, 2007 Thursday 
 
Police describe discovery of tools, forensic experts' impersonal task
 Dec. 13--After Tara Grant's remains were recovered in Stony Creek Metropark, she was no longer treated as a human being: She was body parts, bagged and iced, to be inventoried by forensics experts.

One of those experts -- Jennifer Smiatacz of the Michigan State Police -- began testifying late this morning about her role in examining Tara Grant's home, her and her husband's vehicles and the tool-and-die shop at which her husband worked.

"I swabbed areas for blood," Smiatacz said. And when Tara Grant's body parts arrived, "I inventoried everything I received."

Tara Grant, 34, was strangled and dismembered in early February. Her husband, Stephen Grant, already has pleaded guilty to the dismemberment. His lawyers acknowledge he also killed his wife, but they argue that he killed her in the heat of a fight -- not in the premeditated way that prosecutors allege.

Smiatacz's testimony follows earlier testimony about the discovery of the tools investigators say were used in the dismemberment: Band saw blades. A bow saw. Scissors. A wood-handled filet knife.

Also buried in the snow near the body parts were other items, such as latex gloves.

Photographs of those items were shown to jurors today, Day 4 in the trial.

Macomb County Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Szlaga, an evidence technician, said he shot photographs as the items were discovered, and shot them again as they were pulled from the snow, the weekend that Tara Grant's torso was found in the family's garage. That discovery turned the case from a missing person search to a homicide.

Most of those tools were scattered within feet of each other.

Also earlier this morning, Michelle Gaudreau, a nurse at Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey, testified that after Grant was discovered in northern Michigan, his core temperature was low and he suffered from frostbite.

By the time he entered the Intensive Care Unit, his temperature had increased to 95 degrees, however, and he was no longer disoriented and groggy.

Grant had reported his 34-year-old wife missing, saying she'd left in a huff after a fight about her hectic work schedule. On Friday, he pleaded guilty to dismembering her and his lawyers acknowledge he killed her.

The prosecution contends that Grant killed his wife with premeditation, however, while Grant's lawyers say he shouldn't face the mandatory life imprisonment sentence that first-degree murder requires. They argue that Grant reacted to the fight and panicked after the slaying, scattering his wife's remains haphazardly throughout the park near their home.

Jurors this afternoon could hear from county Medical Examiner Daniel Spitz, who examined Tara Grant's remains and determined the cause of death to be strangulation.

Testimony is set to continue at 1:15 p.m.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:715910978&start=5

Detroit Free Press (Michigan)
 
December 20, 2007 Thursday 
 
Jurors ponder: A plot or simply passion?: Both sides admit Grant killed wife

Dec. 20--Both sides agree on a few things:

Stephen Grant is pathetic. And a liar. And a killer.

But, said his defense lawyer, he's no cold-blooded murderer. So the defense made a bold request Wednesday: that Grant be found guilty of voluntary manslaughter instead of first- or second-degree murder.

"This is a killing often described as in the heat of passion," lawyer Stephen Rabaut said. "This individual had no pre-thought plan to kill Tara Grant. Who plans strangulation?"

On Day 7 of the murder trial against Grant -- who has admitted strangling his wife on Feb. 9 -- both the defense and prosecution wrapped up their closing arguments and sent the case to the jury.

Voluntary manslaughter carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence.

The prosecution's goal? A first-degree murder conviction, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole.

Jurors also could find Grant guilty of second-degree murder, which could land him in prison for up to life, but would give him the opportunity for parole. At the start of the trial, he pleaded guilty to dismembering his wife, for which he stands to receive up to 10 years in prison.

At 5 p.m., jurors stopped deliberating for the day after they'd asked to review certain evidence. Macomb County Circuit Judge Diane Druzinski said deliberation would resume at 8:30 a.m. today.

The evidence jurors asked for included autopsy photographs of injuries to Tara Grant's head and back; Stephen Grant's three-page written confession; medical examiner Daniel Spitz's autopsy report; phone records showing calls between Grant and his wife, and Grant's initial missing person's report that he filed with police Feb. 14 -- five days after the killing.

The jury also asked for a list of the evidence that had been presented and a list of the witnesses who had testified. Those lists don't exist.

The six-man, six-woman panel began deliberating just before noon, after Prosecutor Eric Smith and defense lawyer Rabaut each delivered hour-long closing arguments.

Smith called Rabaut's voluntary manslaughter request ridiculous.

"Are you kidding me?" he said in his rebuttal closing argument. "That's saying she provoked her own death."

In arguing for first-degree murder, Smith pulled out a stopwatch to illustrate how much time it would have taken for Grant to choke his wife to death, even after she passed out from a lack of oxygen.

After 15 seconds, Smith said: "Tara Grant is now unconscious."

The stopwatch counted off another 3 minutes, 45 seconds, during which Smith said nothing. When the stopwatch reached 4 minutes, or the amount of time two forensic pathologists said it takes for someone to be choked to death, Smith clicked the stopwatch off.

"Tara Grant is now dead," he said. "Stephen Grant had a choice between life or death. He chose death."

First-degree murder charges usually are linked to cases in which someone is accused of mapping out, or planning, the slayings. In Grant's case, Smith said he believes Grant had mentally prepared for the killing months in advance.

But, he said, first-degree murder also applies to cases in which the killer had enough time to reasonably reflect on what he or she is doing.

"He had that entire time to think, 'She's alive, she's alive, she's alive,' " Smith said. "But he squeezed."

Rabaut said Grant was too panicked to think clearly. He and his wife had fought, and the fight turned violent. Tara Grant, he said, swore at her husband the night of the slaying, telling her husband their relationship was over and he'd never see their kids again.

Stephen Grant was a lonely stay-at-home dad whose wife was gone most weekdays in Puerto Rico for her job, Rabaut said. Grant grew jealous of his wife and her success.

"It all builds up over time," Rabaut said, and Grant "lost it."

Quoting from Grant's statement to police -- which jurors heard in full during the trial -- Rabaut said his wife called him names, prompting Grant to grab her throat to keep her from saying more.

Once Grant did that, he couldn't stop himself, Rabaut said.

Smith said Grant had nearly four minutes to try.

"The defense says he was lonely," Smith said. "Well, that's too damn bad. That doesn't give you an excuse to kill your wife, for God's sake."

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:719157689&start=9

"Stephen Grant is pathetic. And a liar. And a killer."

1st degree murder -case closed  (IMO)

GRANT / is found guilty in grisly slaying of wife

A man who tearfully stood before TV cameras and repeatedly denied any involvement in his wife's disappearance was convicted Friday of killing her.

Stephen Grant, 37, was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Tara Grant, 34, at the home they shared in the Detroit suburb of Washington Township.

Sentencing is set for Feb. 21.

Grant insisted he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance after he reported her missing Feb. 14. He fled March 2 as police searched the couple's home but was captured two days later in a remote, snowbound state park in the far northern Lower Peninsula.

Police said he made a graphic confession while being treated for hypothermia at a hospital. Her body parts were found in their garage and a nearby park.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:720071241&start=5

YES!

JMHO -I think the jury failed to understand "premeditated" also.

++++++++++++++++++

Grant juror takes offense to prosecutor's remarks
Foreman also says he got 'hate call'

 Thursday, December 27, 2007

The foreman of the Stephen Grant jury said he was "a little offended" by Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith's comments following last week's second-degree murder verdict.

Gary Hafner told The Macomb Daily on Monday that he didn't like Smith inferring the jury failed to understand the definition of "premeditation."

"I was a little offended by the prosecutor's statements," Hafner said. "He made it sound like we didn't know what premeditation meant."

Smith said at his press conference following the verdict that he believed some of the jurors did not seem to understand the definition, which Smith has said could be a matter of seconds as well as an organized, thought-out plan.

>>>>the complete article

http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/122707/loc_n2001.shtml

October 17, 2008

Tara Grant's sister found in contempt of court over visitation

A Macomb County Circuit Court judge found the sister and brother-in-law of Tara Grant — who was strangled and dismembered by her husband Stephen — in contempt of court after they were accused of denying Stephen Grant’s mother contact with the two Grant children.

Judge John Foster also transferred the case to Ross County, Ohio, where Alicia and Erik Standerfer — the sister and brother-in-law — live with the children whom they adopted. He ordered the couple to pay $500 in attorney fees to Susan Brown, Stephen Grant’s mother, and ordered visitation arranged within 90 days.

“It was a little bit of a steep penalty,” Deborah Weihermuller, the Standerfers’ attorney, said today of Foster’s contempt of court ruling Thursday.

But, she said, the part of the ruling that transfers the case to Ohio “is a good result” because it diminishes the burden on the Standerfers to come to Michigan for such matters.

Kathleen Tocco, who represents Brown, declined comment today.

Stephen Grant is serving a 50- to 80-year prison sentence in his wife’s death.

His mother wanted time with the children with Mother’s Day one of the requested days. Michael J. Smith, another attorney for the Standerfers’, previously said he didn’t think that was appropriate. But during a court proceeding last month, Tocco told Foster the Standerfers were in contempt of court.
http://www.freep.com/article/20081017/NEWS04/81017035/0/NEWS15
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