Dennis Murphy Correspondent • Profile

DETROIT - North of Detroit’s seamless sprawl of strip malls and subdivisions is a 4500-acre woodland preserve. In winter, it’s a bare forest that still belongs to the deer, coyote and occasional trail walkers like Sheila Werner.

What she spotted that last day of February, tucked under a tree, looked like more than litter. A one-gallon Ziploc bag.

Sheila Werner: Because there was snow on the ground it stood out like a sore thumb. I mean it was, there was bright red blood in the bag.

Sheila picked up the baggie. She thought the sheriff's office might want to know about it what with all the coverage on the news about that missing woman.

(News report)

“Not one call on a cell phone. Not one hit on a credit card. She has simply vanished."

The story of Tara Grant, the vanished wife and mother, had become as regular a fixture on the Detroit news stations as sports and weather.

The missing woman's husband, Stephen Grant, was on the local news almost daily, making teary -- on the verge of angry -- appeals to his wife of more than 10 years to come home. If not for him, then for their two young children, a girl, 6, and a boy, 4.

Stephen Grant, in tears: "Please call anybody. Call the police, call me, call my in-laws, call someone."

The family lived in a comfortable home northeast of Detroit. Tara was the breadwinner, thriving in a six-figure management position with an international construction and engineering firm. The most recent job site was in Puerto Rico. She'd been commuting between Detroit and San Juan for five months.

Stephen Grant worked in his father's small-time, two-man machine shop and looked after the kids while Tara was on the road. He prided himself on being a "Mr. Mom" at home and a soccer dad on the field, according to newspaper reporter Amber Hunt.

Amber Hunt: Took them to all their appointments and soccer games and appreciated getting the accolades for that.

And from the time he walked into the Macomb County Sheriff's office on Valentine’s Day, 2007, to report his wife missing, his story never changed.

As he gave the spare details of her disappearance to the desk sergeant in the lobby he may not have noticed the huge plainclothes detective walking by, but that officer remembered Stephen Grant because of the fragment of conversation he overheard.

Brian Kozlowski: And I heard him actually say, 'she's been gone for five days now.'

Detective Brian Kozlowski was still wondering why the guy had waited five days to report his wife missing when his desk phone rang and, sure enough, he'd been assigned the case.

It was his lieutenant, sounding urgent.

Kozlowski: "...I want you to get on it immediately."

By now, Det. Kozlowski had the report from the desk officer who'd taken down the husband's story, this story:

Watch the broadcast 'Valentine's Day Mystery' videos   Part 1: Wife goes missing   2: Detectives are thinking foul play   3: Police make gruesome discovery   4: The manhunt was on   5: Grant: 'And I choked her'   6: DA: 'It was about sex'

After a week-long business trip, Grant said, his wife Tara had come home the previous Friday night, Feb. 9. No sooner had she unpacked her bag when she announced she'd be going back to Puerto Rico early. Sunday, rather than Monday. Grant cried foul. She needed to be home more and traveling for her job less.

Kozlowski: Argument ensued, according to Mr. Grant. And he last heard her he thought was on a phone say, “I’ll be out in a minute.” She left the house, he looked out the window and a black sedan was leaving.

The husband agreed to meet the detective and his partner at the Grant home the night he reported her missing -- five days after, he said, she'd walked out in a huff.

Kozlowski: Mr. Grant answered the door. And I could tell he was afraid we were there, whereas he's our complainant, we're here to serve him and help him, but he's afraid of us.

One of the detective's first questions was why Grant had waited so long to report his wife missing. The husband replied that they'd had fights before when Tara walked out for a day or so but she'd always come back.

Kozlowski: We're immediately trying to establish her reason for leaving. Was it an argument? Was something prearranged?

Detective Kozlowski proceeded to ask Grant about the health of his marital relationship, potential lovers and potential enemies. While the other detective, Sgt. Pam McLean, was with the two children and their au pair, a 19-year-old German girl named Verena Dierkes, a live-in who looked after them because of Tara’s hectic travel schedule.

Det. Pam McLean, Macomb County Sheriff's office: I talked briefly with her for a few minutes, asked her about the night that Mrs. Grant supposedly had left.

Verena, the au pair, said she'd been out of the house the night the fight occurred and didn't see what happened.

As the detectives put away their notebooks, they asked if Grant would come down to the sheriff's office the following day for a lie detector test, and he agreed.

Kozlowski: He asked me, “Do you think that I’m going to be in trouble for any of this?” and I said, “Trouble? Meaning what Steve?” And he said “You know I didn't have anything to do with this.” And that's when he showed emotion. He put his hands over his mouth and he started to cry.

Interactive Photos: Remembering Tara Tara Lynn Grant was "a family-driven, career-driven woman," says her sister Alicia. Dateline NBC

Here at the sheriff's office, detectives were finding that Tara Grant's trail -- five days after she reportedly fought with her husband and walked out -- was growing stone cold. She wasn't using her cell phone, laptop, or personal credit cards. She hadn't talked to her family.

Still, investigators knew that she was a sophisticated international traveler, well equipped to take care of herself on the road. Maybe she was just cooling off somewhere after a heated confrontation.

The detectives also learned her husband was trying to reach her, because when they retrieved Tara’s voicemails after the night of the disappearance they heard Steve’s angry voice.

Stephen Grant voicemail message

"Tara, next time I call you, pick up your phone. ... It's absolute bull- - - - that you can't call me or your kids ... I know you're mad. I'm mad. You traveling this much is not right."

But anxious as he professed to be for help in locating her, Stephen Grant never did take that lie detector test the next day. He hired a lawyer who advised him to stop talking.

Stop talking to law enforcement, maybe, but not the media.

(Stephen Grant talking to media)

"We appreciate you guys. We appreciate all the people who've been helping."

Amber Hunt, crime and courts reporter for the Detroit free press, was surprised that Grant was constantly calling newsrooms and reporters on their cells.

Amber Hunt: Initially you think, oh, well the guy really wants to find his wife. Then after a while, hmmm, maybe that's not what he was looking for.

Meanwhile, Det. Kozlowski and the investigative team watched the live shots and took careful notes.

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