The message was another indication to investigators that something was amiss.
“We’re trying to help this guy find his wife, and he lawyers up and says he’ll only communicate with us by fax,” Kozlowski said. “What kind of guy would do that if he really wanted us to find his wife?”
The white-haired, mustachioed David Griem was a well-known Metro Detroit lawyer. A former Macomb County prosecutor and U.S. attorney, he also was a veteran defender with high-profile cases to his credit.
In 2005, Griem defended prominent Macomb County real estate mogul Ralph Roberts, who was accused, along with state senator James Barcia, of funneling money to former Macomb County prosecutor Carl Marlinga’s unsuccessful 2004 reelection campaign. In exchange, the prosecutor allegedly was to help two convicted rapists get new trials. The charges were eventually dropped against all parties.
Ironically, Griem also spearheaded the rape-conviction appeal of William Hackel, the county’s former top lawman and father of the current sheriff. His roster of corporate clients included household names, such as Kmart, General Motors, and General Dynamics.
Griem was known for his poise before the cameras and often served as a legal commentator for local broadcasters, as well as in national venues like CourtTV and Geraldo Rivera’s programs.
And he was about to get even more airtime.
17
Thursday afternoon, Stephen set out in his charcoal gray Jeep Commander with a $3,000-plus cash stash. One of his envelopes held $1,145; the other $1,912.
Motoring south along North Avenue in Mount Clemens, right near the sheriff’s office, Stephen failed to signal as he turned east on Elizabeth Street. He was promptly pulled over by a deputy. It was 2:13 P.M.
The stop rattled Stephen, causing him to lose some of the cool demeanor that had perplexed the cops up till now. “I know why [you’re] pulling me over,” he blurted, according to a later police report. “It’s because [of] my wife.”
The officer ran the usual check on Stephen’s identification and found that he was driving on a suspended license. He was placed under arrest.
A closer look at Stephen’s past revealed a terrible driving record, as well as a more serious brush with the law. Stephen was arrested in Clinton Township on October 28, 1989, for reckless driving and carrying a concealed weapon. He was stopped by Officer Mike Friese for driving seventy miles per hour in a 45mph zone. When Friese approached the car, he noticed a pouch near the brake pedal, and it held an unloaded Colt pistol. Stephen did not have a permit for the gun.
He was charged with reckless driving and carrying a concealed weapon. However, Stephen pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of careless driving and failure to obtain a permit for a handgun, and was fined $500.
Stephen’s license was suspended three times in 2002 and 2003 for failing to pay speeding tickets in the Detroit suburbs of Allen Park, Rochester, and Troy. His latest two suspensions came in 2005 after he ran a red light in Mount Clemens and failed to pay fines in Clinton Township.
After Stephen’s arrest, police also discovered that he had paid almost $900 in back traffic fines the day before reporting his wife missing. The fines stemmed from two moving violations and twelve parking tickets in several communities.
Accounts of the next several hours differ. Stephen claimed he was held against his will for six hours and interrogated at the Macomb County Jail.
The sheriff told a different story. Hackel said Stephen was detained for only a short time. “It’s standard procedure—if someone is driving on two suspended licenses, we arrest them,” Hackel said. “If my deputies let someone like that go free, and they later get into an accident and hurt someone, then what? So, of course, we arrested [him]. I would have questioned my officers if they hadn’t.”
If Stephen had been willing to submit to a polygraph exam, as he’d assured the evidence technician who had visited his house the night before, his jailhouse stay put him in a less cooperative frame of mind.
“Three police cars surrounded his car as he was driving home, and arrested him over an unpaid ticket for driving fifty-five miles per hour in a forty-five-mile-per-hour zone,” Griem said. “Then they incarcerated him for six and a half hours and questioned him. Those are Neanderthal tactics and demonstrated bad faith on the part of the police.”
Stephen struck a macho pose when he discussed his February 15 police encounter with the Detroit News.
“I get why they stopped me—they thought I was going to be a little girl and go down there and cry and confess all my sins,” he said. “But there’s no sins, though. I’m a big boy and I can take care of myself.”
Stephen said he was forced to retain an attorney. “It’s not like I had Dave Griem on my speed dial. But do you blame me for getting a lawyer?”
18
Within two days of Stephen’s initial missing persons report, Kozlowski had interviewed Sue Murasky, a counselor at Au Pair in America, the agency sponsoring the Grant children’s nanny, Verena Dierkes.
Kozlowski told Murasky about the investigation into Tara Grant’s disappearance, and they agreed the Grant home was not a fit environment for nineteen-year-old Verena. The young native of Aulhausen, a quaint, quiet village in Germany’s vineyard-rich Rhine Valley, was on her first trip overseas, less than a year after graduating high school.
The French term “au pair” often is translated as “on par,” meaning on par with family members, to distinguish the child-care providers from servants or other household staff. Generally, they are young women with an acceptable command of the English language who seek a year or two change of pace in the United States in exchange for working as a parents’ helper.
Au pairs are placed through agencies with the blessing of U.S. Immigration officials. Classified as visitors, not workers, part of the bargain is that they are allowed time off to attend classes at local colleges and to socialize with friends, often other au pairs. Their sponsoring agencies generally provide nearby counselors who lend a listening ear to homesick teens, as well as organizing cultural, social, and educational activities for the young women.
Verena had been placed in the Grant home in August 2007 by Au Pair in America. She had been given a temporary assignment for a few weeks, and then she started working for the Grants. Verena attended Macomb Community College; she hoped to become a teacher.
Erik Standerfer said Stephen wanted Tara to hire a nanny to make his life easier. “They had an au pair in the house at his request from the moment their second child was born,” Erik said.
Verena was the Grants’ seventh nanny in five years. Most of them quit after only a few weeks.
Police contacted the couple’s former au pairs in hopes of getting a clue to Tara’s possible whereabouts. Some of the nannies said they were frightened in the Grant home, fearful of everything from someone snooping through their belongings to “tirades” from the master of the house.
One of the au pairs, a Ukrainian girl named Yana, said Stephen “gave her the creeps,” Lieutenant Darga said.
“She said she never liked him,” Darga said. “And she said she always got the feeling he was watching her. She said she left not long after she started getting that feeling.”
The former au pairs also provided an insight into the Grants’ relationship, Sergeant McLean said. “There were fights, but I don’t think they had a relationship where they were screaming at each other all the time,” she said. “It was a more subtle kind of manipulation, getting little digs in. It was a psychological kind of fighting.”
Despite the qualms of