Into the unknown
For season one of “Up and Vanished,” listeners,
family and friends of Grinstead and even Lindsey
were left with more questions than answers when the jury
came back with a verdict in late May.
“Ryan Duke is found not guilty for the murder of Tara
Grinstead,” Lindsey said on a breaking news episode of the
podcast. “Wild and emotional day.”
Regarding Grinstead’s story, for Lindsey, it’s over and
the chapter is closed. But he continues to chase stories,
searching, and even finding parts of himself in his work.
“It kind of makes you look in the mirror a little bit
dierently,” he said.
Though mum’s the word on his next podcast project,
Lindsey said it will focus on UFOs and strange phenomena.
Details of the podcast will come out later in the fall, just in
time for the spooky season.
When asked if there was anything Lindsey wanted his
listeners to know, he pondered a bit.
“You haven’t seen the real me, yet,” he said.
Until then, Lindsey’s audience is at the edge of their
seats with bated breath.
…Waiting…Listening.
play at the intro of the show, partnered with a private
investigator who had worked the case ten years prior, got
the voice of family and friends of Grinstead on the air,
invested in compelling cover art and even released a video
trailer for the podcast.
“I took every element of it extremely seriously, like the
name, the cover, the music, the theme song, just the tone of
the whole thing,” he said. “My goal was, I want this to look
like it’s coming out on Netflix… that was my whole approach.
I wanted it to seem bigger than it really was.”
By the first week, “Up and Vanished,” had 5,000
downloads and was quickly growing. Soon Lindsey was
contacted by advertisers and talent agencies and even
worked on releasing a docuseries on Oxygen.
“Then it just kept getting bigger and bigger,” he said.
A break in the case
By the time Lindsey reached 10 million downloads
and episode 12 of his podcast, something
unexpected happened: not one, but two arrests in the case.
During a press conference, the GBI announced in
December 2017 the arrest of two of Grinstead’s former
students implicated in her murder and the concealment of
her body: Bo Dukes and Ryan Duke. Even more shocking
was when investigators credited the media, an open-nod to
Lindsey’s podcast, during the announcement of the arrests.
“Then it just became this absolutely insane
experience,” he said.
Suddenly, thanks to his podcast, Lindsey became
known for his connection to a case that had reached the
national spotlight. Shortly after arriving in Ocilla for the
press conference, Lindsey found himself on “Good Morning
America,” the next morning, borrowing a friend’s jacket
when he didn’t have a change of clothes.
“It was a wild ride,” he said. “And I really, truly did it
every single day for at least a year.”
Lindsey chose to keep working and developed 12 more
episodes for the first season, not including the recent trial
coverage episodes created this summer.
By 2022, Lindsey had four successful podcast shows
under his belt: “Up and Vanished,” “Atlanta Monster,” “Radio
Rental,” and “Dead and Gone.” He’s gone on to search for
two other missing women from small, rural communities
across America. He’s sat down with Wayne Williams, the
alleged killer in the Atlanta Child Murders. He’s created a
podcast where listeners share their scary stories with host
Rainn Wilson from “The Oce.” He’s even launched a show
exploring the cases of missing and murdered Greatful Dead
fans over the last five decades.
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