Man Arraigned For Dismembering Wife

Police Say Stephen Grant Reported His Wife Was Missing Before Confessing To Killing Her

(AP)  Shortly after reporting his wife missing last month, Stephen Grant went before TV cameras, crying, begging her to come home.

But authorities were suspicious.

"We thought it was a confession waiting to happen right then," Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith said Monday, without elaborating.

Police said the alleged confession finally came Monday, more than three weeks after Tara Grant last was seen alive.

Stephen Grant, 37, was arraigned Tuesday on charges of first-degree murder and dismemberment of a body, and Judge Denis LeDuc entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. Authorities, however, say Grant told them after his arrest early Sunday that he killed his wife in the couple's home and later dismembered her.

Grant had no attorney at the arraignment. David Griem, who acted as his spokesman, said Sunday he no longer would represent Grant because of irreconcilable differences.

The judge said he would appoint a lawyer for Grant. He also ordered him held without bail.

"Given the extreme, extreme seriousness of the charges, the nature of the allegations here, the nature of the alleged flight, the court agrees with the people. I'm going to order you held without bond. Do you understand that?" the judge said.

"Yes, your honor," Grant replied.

Grant was arrested after investigators tracked him to a park at the tip of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. He was treated for hypothermia before he was returned Monday to Macomb County outside Detroit to face charges.

Sheriff Mark Hackel said Monday that Grant "gave a very lengthy confession, laying out exactly what took place."

But he didn't offer a motive, Smith said.

"Evil rarely explains itself," the prosecutor said. "To us, it's not an element we have to prove."

Autopsy results suggest Tara Grant was strangled on Feb. 9, said Medical Examiner Daniel Spitz. That was the date she was last seen alive after returning from a business trip to Puerto Rico. Police have said the couple had recently argued over her frequent trips.

Grant waited five days before reporting his wife missing. Investigators found her torso on March 2 in the garage of the couple's home in suburban Detroit. Other body parts turned up in a nearby park.

The remains showed signs of a struggle, including neck bruises, according to Spitz. It was unclear when the body was dismembered.

Smith said investigators believe that the couple's two children — a 6-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy — were asleep in the home and didn't witness the slaying.

A child custody hearing for the children was scheduled for later Tuesday, and Smith said his office planned to petition the family court to terminate Grant's parental rights.

Smith said the Michigan Department of Human Services recommends the children live with Tara Grant's sister, Alicia Standerfer, and her husband in Chillicothe, Ohio.

Stephen Grant's sister, Kelly Utykanski, of Sterling Heights, and her husband also were seeking temporary custody. Utykanski said she gave police the information to help find her brother in northern Michigan.

"I'm not here to give my brother a big hug," she said. "I want him to get his punishment. I just want to make sure he has his (legal) representation and that I'm allowed to visit him."

Grant told investigators after his arrest that he initially put his wife's torso in the park but retrieved it before police searched there Feb. 24, according to Hackel. He was "nervous" after learning of the impending search, the sheriff said.

Smith said a neighbor found a plastic bag containing latex gloves, metal shavings and human blood in the woods near the Grants' house. The discovery enabled police to obtain a warrant to search the home and a tool-and-die shop where Grant worked. Smith said the body was dismembered at the shop.

Grant, who had insisted he was innocent, fled in a friend's pickup truck after police obtained the search warrant Friday. Officers traced calls from his cell phone to Wilderness State Park about 225 miles north on Lake Michigan, where he was found early Sunday hiding under a fallen tree, wearing only a shirt, socks and pants in 14-degree weather.

[michaure]

he should be sentenced to death... a long and very painful death.

[agnim]

Does anyone else thinks that these people have to be on drugs or religion in order to out of the blue kill and dismember another human like that?

We know the architect of the bushwar that kills hundreds of thousands used to take drugs, and the effects of a brain obviously numbed by drugs are still with him; so a lot of our sociopaths are probably drug users. Sad.

[kailumego1]

What is really a travesty the two children who have to live with the fact that their father brutally murdered and mutilated their mother. This will haunt them for the rest of their lives, especially when they become older the shock of what happened really takes affect.
He should never see his children again, and I hope some bleeding heart doesn't convince Tara's sister to reconsider allowing him to see his children. And yes I hope Tara's sister gets custody of the children, because she's the only one sane enough to look out for what's in the best interest of the children. Stephen's family might become too sentimental and allow the children to visit their dad, which they need to get as far away from him as possible.

[scott4261]

Maybe not as good of a liar, but he and Scott Peterson are neck and neck in the sociopath department.

[migrainegram]

Not as good a liar and sociopath as Scott Peterson.

[dsalicea]

Yes the children were in the house when the murder was committed, I read that earlier.

[scott4261]

All I can say is I really feel sorry for those poor chilren. This is going to haunt them for their entire lives.

[azman80]

usmcvn not usmvcn, sorry!!

[azman80]

USMVCN, I died laughing reading your post on the BOOBS thing. I have a link you should check out on what this guy might look like. Do not go to this site if you are at work, around kids, or a sensitive to partial nakedness. But if this guy does get boobs, he will be snorting lines off all sorts of boners from cell mates and beyond. Here is the link
http://www.ehowa.com/showpicture.shtml?image=wtfisthis.jpg

[jullie3]

Qui Sera, Sera

Lets not hold on to it to tightly, huh?

[youwish90210]

WOW! Just look at that guys face! The lights are on but nobody's home!!

I hope he gets a nice warm greeting from big Bubba in the shower in prison!

[susanhelit]

While I can sure see the murderer's sister being allowed to continue to see the children - she's still their aunt, and did nothing wrong - I think it's far better for them to live with the mother's sister - she's also good, and won't have the pressures from family to let the killer visit his children. She'll be much more objective about that. By the time he's out of jail, the kids can decide that for themselves, but everything I've read says that having children visit jail is very unhealthy for them.

[azman80]

Yeah well, if I got caught and knew I was going to prison, I would probably give that super psycho look too so that future inmates would fear me a little bit. But on a serious note, he confessed, so why have a 98 week court session, just go to the judge, let them record your every word, and go to jail the same day. Imagine how much money would be saved. Truth of the matter though, if some woman in my life pi$$ed me off that bad, I would sell everything and move to some hot island, not risk getting caught and living in a cell awaiting my death sentence. No woman on earth is worth that kind of Cr@p