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Indictment: Suspect burned body of long-missing beauty queen Tara Grinstead

OCILLA, Ga. – One of the suspects indicted in connection with the killing of a long-missing Georgia teacher is accused of burning her body, according to an indictment signed Monday.

A Ben Hill County grand jury indicted Bo Dukes on charges of concealing a death, tampering with evidence, and hindering apprehension of a criminal in the death of 30-year-old Tara Grinstead, a former beauty queen who vanished nearly 12 years ago.

"48 Hours" was the first national broadcast to investigate the case in the episode "Stolen Beauty." 

Behind the shocking twist in Tara Grinstead's murder case 03:29

Investigators believe Dukes helped a former classmate, 33-year-old Ryan Alexander Duke, remove Grinstead's body from her Ocilla home, reports the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Dukes and Duke are not related. Ryan Duke has been charged with her death.

The new indictment says Bo Dukes "did unlawfully and knowingly destroy physical evidence by burning the body of Tara Faye Grinstead, a human being, at a location off Bowen's Mill Highway" in Fitzgerald, Georgia, reports the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation previously searched woods behind a pecan farm in that area, but have not publicly said what, if anything, was found, the paper reports. CBS affiliate WMAZ reports Bo Dukes is the nephew of the owner of that farm, known as Hudson Pecan.

Grinstead was reported missing in October 2005 when she didn't show up for work at the school where she taught. No arrests were made in the case until February of this year, when a tipster contacted authorities with information that led to the men's arrests.

In April, Ryan Duke was reportedly indicted by an Irwin County grand jury on counts including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, burglary and concealing a death.

Grinstead had reportedly taught at the high school both suspects attended. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has declined to give the cause of Grinstead's death or a possible motive.  

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