Georgia judge sets trial in 2005 slaying of missing teacher

OCILLA, Ga. – A judge says a man will go on trial next spring in the killing a Georgia high school teacher last seen 13 years ago.

Irwin County Judge Bill Reinhardt set an April 1 trial date for 33-year-old Ryan Alexander Duke at a hearing Monday.

He’s charged with murder in the slaying of one-time beauty queen Tara Grinstead, who vanished from her home in the southwest Georgia town of Ocilla in 2005.

Prosecutors have agreed with a defence request to move the trial out of the town because of publicity, but the judge hasn’t ruled on that issue.

Duke was indicted last year and is fighting murder charges. Another man, Bo Dukes, is charged with helping dispose of the body.

Grinstead’s disappearance was the focus of the podcast “Up and Vanished.”