Friday, March 09, 2007

The Nanny Angle

http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/11196435/index.html

Confirmation today that I was right.

Back on Feb 28th, before the remains of Tara Grant were found, partly in her garage, and partly scattered all over Hell's half acre (unconfirmed report that her head was stuffed into a hollow tree), one of the local news sites ran an audio clip of an interview with the family's au pair. She's a German girl who had high-tailed it back home within days of Stephen Grant reporting his missing wife. In the phone interview, the girl referred to her former boss as "Steve," and defended him mightily. Something in my mind went, ~ding!~

The cute 19-year-old blonde with the sexy accent was in love with Mr. Wide-Eyed Innocence. Most of the people in the online community in which I was discussing the case thought I was full of...well...much too suspicious, anyway.

Grant said that the Sheriff's Office had demanded that the girl leave. Of course, Grant said a lot of things that law enforcement, the DA and forensic psychologists will be poring over for some time to come. It turned out that it was the agency that supplied the au pair that demanded she leave the household. Verena, the au pair, didn't want to go.

Of course she didn't! I can hear her now, in her cute little German accent: "Steve needs me. With Tara missing, the children need me, too." (Purely speculative statement)

So, anyway, a few days pass, and sweet Verena is languishing in Germany while old Steverino is in the hot seat in Michigan. Searches are conducted of terrain near the Grant home. Nothing is found, but public awareness is focused on the area searched. Then, a break. A woman out for a walk finds a ziplock bag containing some interesting items, including latex gloves and blood. The presence of iron filings in the bag, along with the items mentioned, gets the Sheriff a search warrant. Steve lets the cops into the house, and disappears into the snowy night with the family dog. Police make a grisly find in the garage--Tara Grant's torso in a plastic storage tub.

Steve is on the run. How do they finally find where he is? He uses his cell phone to place a call to...guess who? Yup. Got it in one. The nanny. In Germany. He tells her Tara fell down the stairs.

Whatever!

Cut to Germany. Verena is a woman scorned. Betrayed. Hurt. Screwed. "I trusted him," she said. "He knows how much I trusted him...he used me."

Verena, Verena, Verena. You have learned a very painful lesson.

We can only imagine what he told you, but those of us who are older and wiser and a bit more jaded could probably spell it out closely enough to shock you.

I just hope you didn't know what was in that storage tub in the garage.

News:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070309/METRO/703090399

From the article:

"If Dierkes were charged with a crime, U.S. officials could seek her extradition, Moran said. But she would be entitled to a hearing in a German court to ensure there was some reasonable basis for the charges, he said."

At this point, they are saying she's not a suspect. Of course, they said that about Stepehen Grant, as well. Verena was questioned and schlepped back to Germany before the phone records had been analyzed.

He called her "several times" on the night of the murder.

Speculating here, but, if he's calling her, she's not there, right? Of course, depending on the content of the calls; something we will never know for sure, she might be an accessory before or after the fact.

I think she knows more than she has told.

8 comments:

  1. I'm just thinking out loud here. If she was so in love with SG why would she WANT to go back to Germany, unless, of course, she had something to hide?

    From the article linked out front:"When Tara Grant was reported missing, we told Verena she must leave the Grant home," said Nancy Sterling, speaking for Au Pair in America. "We did offer to place her with another host family. However, she chose to return to Germany and we accommodated her request, only after she had been interviewed by police and they cleared her departure," she said in a statement.

    It sounds like she could have remained here if she had chosen to. Did SG convience her to go back so she wouldn't be questioned further and promise to hook up with her later?

    I agree, there's more to the au pair story than meets the eye.

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  2. ETA: The reason I bring that up is because it was first reported that the reason she went back was because they couldn't find a place for her. Was that what the nanny told reporters?

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  3. Finally. I found the one I was looking for.

    "Two days after police began investigating, Grant and Dierkes both said the placement service that had assigned Dierkes to the home removed her as a matter of policy, even though she wished to stay. She stayed at an area home of a "counselor" of the company for several days afterward, but without another placement with a new family she has returned home to Germany."

    http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/022807/loc_aupair001.shtml

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  4. IMO, SG convinced her to go back. I think she could have stayed with the counsellor up to a month (legally) to give herself a chance to find another place.

    I'm still wondering if the reason he told her Tara fell down the stairs when he called her after the body was found was a story for her benefit, or if he was rally saying, "Go to plan B."

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  5. Nothing would surprise me about this case at this point.

    There was a former friend of SG's that said he could make up a story to cover his butt in a heartbeat.

    Poor Tara. Talk about betrayal.

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  6. Police have said there is no indication Mrs. Grant got on another plane to go anywhere after Feb. 9 and there has been no activity on her business account, personal credit cards, cell phone or computer.

    This was my 4th or 5th moment of wtf, and they have no probable cause for a search warrant? I am feeling vicious at this point.

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  7. Charlie, the reading I have done leads me to believe that she wanted to stay with "steve". However the agency of her employment told her she could return to Germany OR have another placement in the US. She chose to return to Germany, perhaps thinking in her naivtee that after the dust had settled, "steve" would send for her to come bach into his bed.

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  8. I don't know, Moi.

    I tend to agree with Vero and SG convinced her to go back.

    If she wanted to stay, according to the agency, she could have.

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