PETOSKEY, Mich., March 5, 2007
Cops: Husband Admits To "Horrific" Murder
Police Say Stephen Grant Confessed To Killing Wife Tara
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Alisia Standerfer, sister of Tara Lynn Grant, center left, embraces Sheriff Mark Hackel, left, after reading a statement from the family, as her husband Eric, right, looks on at the Macomb County Sheriff's Office, Sunday, March 4, 2007. (AP Photo/Kathleen Galligan)
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Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel finishes addressing the media at a command post in Washington Township, Mich., Saturday, March 3, 2007. Investigators found what is believed to be the torso of a 34-year-old suburban wife and mother of two who disappeared last month. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
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Stephen Grant is shown in this photo provided by the Macomb County Sheriff's Department. Grant confessed to killing and dismembering his wife, and described the grisly details surrounding her death, a sheriff said Monday, March 5, 2007. (AP)
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Tara Grant, left, and her husband, Stephen Grant, who was arrested for her murder and mutilation after body parts were found at several locations. (AP)
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Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel, speaking at a morning news conference in Mount Clemens, said Stephen Grant has been cooperating with investigators, telling them in detail how he killed and dismembered Tara Lynn Grant and where her remains were taken. Hackel said there was a confrontation between Stephen and Tara Grant at their home, but the sheriff would not explain the method of death.
"He gave a very lengthy confession, laying out exactly what took place," Hackel said. The couple's young children were in the home at the time, he said.
County Prosecutor Eric Smith said investigators found a Ziploc bag containing latex gloves, plastic bags, metal shavings and human blood in a wooded area not far from the Grant home. That discovery provided authorities with the probable cause necessary to obtain a search warrant for the home and Stephen Grant's business.
Smith said the shavings in the bag were consistent with what would be found in a tool-and-die shop. Grant worked at a tool-and-die shop. Hackel couldn't say when the bag was discovered.
"We had the perception that when we did the search on the 24th, to see if would have any effect and it did. It seemed to make him nervous," Hackel told the Detroit Free Press. "He had a lot of people fooled that he did not committ this crime."
Grant was to be released to Macomb County deputies at 2 p.m. Monday from Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey. Hackel said Grant would be taken to the Macomb County Jail and later would face arraignment on charges related to his wife's death and mutilation.
"The effects of the hypothermia have essentially resolved, and the frostbite in his extremities has improved rapidly as well," Dr. John Bednar, the hospital's medical chief of staff, said during a news conference. It could take weeks to determine whether there will be long-term effects from the frostbite, even though it's a minor case, he added.
Bednar declined comment on Grant's mental state, saying only that he was "awake, alert, calm and cooperative."
County Medical Examiner Daniel Spitz told the Detroit Free Press that preliminary autopsy results showed Tara Grant, 34, likely died of strangulation before her body was dismembered. Spitz said the remains showed no visible injuries except bruising around the neck. He said he would release official findings Monday.
"While this outcome represents the worst possible scenario imaginable to anyone, we take comfort in the fact that Tara is now in a better place," Tara Grant's sister, Alicia Standerfer of Chillicothe, Ohio, said Sunday at a news conference in Macomb County with Hackel.
Standerfer had vouched for Stephen Grant before officers discovered a female torso Friday in the garage of the family's home in Washington Township, 30 miles north of Detroit. The torso, and other body parts found in a nearby park, were believed those of Tara Grant, a businesswoman and mother of two who disappeared last month.
Stephen Grant, 37, who until now had steadfastly maintained his innocence, fled in a friend's pickup truck after police obtained a search warrant. Tracing calls from his cell phone, officers descended on Wilderness State Park about 225 miles north, at the tip of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.
After finding the abandoned pickup, they searched on foot and snowmobile, pounding on doors of the park's few cabins and nearby homes to warn occupants.
"We didn't know what we were up against," Wallin said. "We knew he was suicidal, we knew he could be armed and dangerous." He had no weapons when found, the Emmet County sheriff said. Hackel said it didn't appear Grant tried to kill himself.
Aided by a full moon, a Coast Guard helicopter crew followed Grant's footprints and guided several dozen ground searchers in his direction, Lt. Jeremy Loeb said.
"We could see where he'd lay down, get up, lay down again," Wallin said. He said he didn't know whether Grant had left the truck without shoes or lost them afterward.
He was found about 6:30 a.m. Sunday cowering under a fallen tree about three miles from the pickup, wearing only a shirt, socks and pants in 14-degree weather. He offered no resistance. He was silent as he was hoisted into the helicopter, Loeb said.
"I don't think he probably could have made it much longer in those kind of conditions," Emmet County Sheriff Pete Wallin told reporters. "I wouldn't want to be out there unless I was dressed for it."
The Grants have two children, a 6-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy, who were staying with relatives. In a statement released through the hospital, Grant said he loved them and "looks forward to seeing them again as soon as possible."
Standerfer embraced Hackel after speaking to reporters in Macomb County.
"We are filled with grief and are horrified by the manner in which Tara's life was needlessly taken, and are filled with many, many unanswered questions," said Standerfer, 32. "We hope and believe that Tara's murderer will ultimately be brought to justice."
Tara Grant last was seen Feb. 9. Her husband reported her missing five days later. Police say the day she disappeared, the couple had argued over her frequent business trips abroad.
David Griem, a lawyer who has acted as Grant's spokesman, said Sunday he would no longer represent Grant because of irreconcilable differences. He said Grant didn't yet have another attorney.
"If I can't give a client all of my blood, sweat and tears, it's time for that client to find a new attorney and time for me to move on down the road," Griem said.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 81 CommentsAs has been mentioned before, the women in the United States of America are treated as equals. They are equally capable of working, parenting and voting.
They do not hide their faces and bodies (unless they choose to).
They do not rely on a Man for their livelihood (unless they choose to).
They are not relegated to the role of Motherhood once they are married (unless they choose to).
As you are incapable of cogent thought I will point out the obvious - in my country these are choices. My country believes in Free Will.
My country also believes in Free Speech and in Free Press.
And this is why YOU read OUR news.
Drew Crecente
Director, Jennifer Ann's Group
www.JenniferAnn.org
Fight Dating Violence!
(How about fighting ignorance as well?)
I don't expect that you'll be forthcoming about your heritage or country of origin but based on your moniker will make some assumptions.
Posted by Agnim at 11:18 AM : Mar 06, 2007"
The "heritage" of the murderer IS AMERICAN!
That is the one that should concern you if you are American?
If you were smart at all, you would cease being in denial and pretending that this horrific act was not brought about by AN AMERICAN, but only could have by someone of another 'culture'! Tsk-tsk
And by the way, instead of always gearing up for a 'fight' with the nonsense about 'fight date rape', you would do better for your females by teaching them about PREVENTION; since females are STILL THE WEAKER GENDER, WILL ALWAYS BE SO, and also the most likely targets!
"She doesn't have to be 'cheating', just disappearing abroad too often and leaving him behind to play 'mommy' are more than enough. LOL"
You've shown that you have no respect for women and one can assume that this includes your mother. If she'd had the temerity to better her situation would you be "LOL"-ing at her funeral?
You are an embarrassment to Men. I would assume that you are equally embarrassing to your culture as well.
I don't expect that you'll be forthcoming about your heritage or country of origin but based on your moniker will make some assumptions.
Depending on the context, Agnim can mean "God" in Hindi. So not only do you appear to have a God Complex but are likely living in India. Take these together and I'm lead to believe that you are Brahman, or wish that you were.
It's interesting that you choose my country as the source for your news. Here we would see you as one of the "chhote admi" (little men) based on your peasant way of thinking and treatment of women as chattel.
If you're capable of intelligent discourse then please share. Otherwise you're better suited to spend your time amongst your brethren of hate mongers and supremacists. Our country has no patience for your ilk.
Drew Crecente
Director, Jennifer Ann's Group
www.JenniferAnn.org
Fight dating violence!
Posted by yoopermom at 10:46 AM : Mar 06, 2007"
She doesn't have to be 'cheating', just disappearing abroad too often and leaving him behind to play 'mommy' are more than enough. LOL
The modern lifestyle where a mother's primary role is not being with her children is good neither for children nor for family. It is bound to lead to all kinds of weirdness; plus this guy could be a bit insane.
An insanity plea should give him a few years in the can and back with his children.
Your protests appear completly empty to me, sorry.
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 05:32 PM : Mar 05, 2007
You're empty headed. The cost of the whole deal is the point!!!! It may never get to all the appeals, the courts may take his confession to all these cops and we may be done with it. But I have a very strong feeling that he will end up like the guy down in FL, Couey I believe who got his confession thrown out before his trial. Now he is sitting in a courtroom in front of the little girls family with crayons and a kids coloring book. Give me a break there just has to be some point where we have to just stop and say what is for the better good. I am anti death penalty by the way but this case has really pushed my limits. Also I don't know why you assume he will be sitting in prison for the rest of his life, he may get some crazy lawyer that might get him off. Remember OJ?
That loony look didn't work very well for her either, btw.
As a progressive, and a graduate student, I can share with you the following knowledge and wisdom:
We need to make all domestic disputes gender neutral in reporting.
The bias that this story relates by giving us gender is just another sexist aspect of our *** biased compromised society where such reporting is merely a way to relate and encouage acts of violence for and by other men.
All we need to know that a person was killed, and a person was caught. We do not need to know the gender for any crime! That is a sexist reporting of need not to know so called facts. That is a sexist bias, so that no jury, reader or person can not possibly make a calm decision, and limits the ability for a fair hearing. It also encourages that gender to "copy" cat or even "revenge". Again, how much of his violence is due to negative societal decisions ? We judge too quickly due to these sexist ultraconservative reporters.
I wonder wonder how many adults in this day and age are really only one second from snapping in a heated argument with their spouse, spousal abuse is much more than physical violence, many times the mental abuse is what triggers physical abuse.
When one lives with another, many times the actually abuser is not the one who commits the physical part of the crime. There is no doubt that at some point there was a mental dementia. Why and who was at fault may or may not ever be revealed, but somewhere along the way, the train went of the track. Spare the children, and make this a none story for their sake.
This is a society that has fostered self-aggrandizement, with no-regards of the impact or effects yielded by the consequences of individual actions.
European settlers encroached upon the autochthonous people here raping, brutalizing, murdering, and annihilating millions, while the rest were forced onto small enclaves.
This is a %u201Cstate-of-mind%u201D, the %u201Csurvival of the fittest%u201D philosophy has been a bulwark of American society. The indigenous populations in North/South America were affected by this philosophy and so had been Africans, East Indians, Asians, and Arabs.
Prior to the early 20th Century there was a law, which allowed men to legally beat their wives as long as the object he used was not bigger than his thumb, %u201Cthe-rule-of-thumb-law%u201D.
So, rationalizing this injustice by stating, well the number of abuses towards women has decline is an oversimplification and a gross denunciation of this type of travesty.
Posted by whatithink at 07:51 PM : Mar 05, 2007
Is'nt it obvious? This is the next big story that will be sensationalized to the fullest extent possible. It will be as big a story as the Laci Peterson story, if not bigger.... (sic)
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