sarahhod
01-09-2009, 02:11 PM
Hackel criticizes book on Tara Grant murder
BY AMBER HUNT • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • January 9, 2009
http://www.freep.com/article/20090109/NEWS04/901090339
A true crime book released this week about the slaying and dismemberment of Tara Grant isn't winning rave reviews from at least one of its real-life characters -- Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel.
In "A Slaying in the Suburbs: The Tara Grant Murder" (Penguin Press, $7.99), Hackel is described as a news media hound, and his department is criticized for not keeping Stephen Grant under surveillance as police searched his Washington Township home -- a move that allowed Grant to flee and lead investigators on an overnight manhunt in northern Michigan.
It was during that search that detectives found Tara Grant's torso in a rubber bin in the couple's garage, ending a three-week search for the woman who had been reported missing Feb. 14, 2007.
Hackel said he can take the criticism, but that the authors -- Lansing-based journalists Steve Miller and Andrea Billups -- were lashing out because he refused to cooperate with the book.
"Obviously, they're being critical because we did not talk to them," Hackel said. "Criticism I can accept. But this obviously is them lashing out at me."
Miller said that's not true, but he acknowledged that the book likely would have seemed less critical had the sheriff agreed to an interview. The book includes information gathered from prison interviews with Stephen Grant, who is serving at least 50 years for the crime.
"I don't think it would have read nearly as critical if he would have been able explain things to us," Miller said.
Hackel said he declined to cooperate at the request of Tara Grant's family.
Miller and Billups weren't among the local reporters who covered the yearlong case. They wrote an article about the case for People magazine and covered the trial, which began in November 2007 and ended with a second-degree murder conviction.
Stephen Grant was 37 when he killed his wife, who was 34. She was strangled and then dismembered in her father-in-law's tool-and-die shop. Miller said he's disappointed the book has upset Hackel, but said he and Billups repeatedly tried to sit down with the sheriff to get that side of the story.
"As journalists, our goal is to tell every single part of the story down to the smallest detail," he said. "We can't decide to not write something just because someone won't cooperate with us."
Contact AMBER HUNT at 586-826-7267 or ahunt@freepress.com.
BY AMBER HUNT • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • January 9, 2009
http://www.freep.com/article/20090109/NEWS04/901090339
A true crime book released this week about the slaying and dismemberment of Tara Grant isn't winning rave reviews from at least one of its real-life characters -- Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel.
In "A Slaying in the Suburbs: The Tara Grant Murder" (Penguin Press, $7.99), Hackel is described as a news media hound, and his department is criticized for not keeping Stephen Grant under surveillance as police searched his Washington Township home -- a move that allowed Grant to flee and lead investigators on an overnight manhunt in northern Michigan.
It was during that search that detectives found Tara Grant's torso in a rubber bin in the couple's garage, ending a three-week search for the woman who had been reported missing Feb. 14, 2007.
Hackel said he can take the criticism, but that the authors -- Lansing-based journalists Steve Miller and Andrea Billups -- were lashing out because he refused to cooperate with the book.
"Obviously, they're being critical because we did not talk to them," Hackel said. "Criticism I can accept. But this obviously is them lashing out at me."
Miller said that's not true, but he acknowledged that the book likely would have seemed less critical had the sheriff agreed to an interview. The book includes information gathered from prison interviews with Stephen Grant, who is serving at least 50 years for the crime.
"I don't think it would have read nearly as critical if he would have been able explain things to us," Miller said.
Hackel said he declined to cooperate at the request of Tara Grant's family.
Miller and Billups weren't among the local reporters who covered the yearlong case. They wrote an article about the case for People magazine and covered the trial, which began in November 2007 and ended with a second-degree murder conviction.
Stephen Grant was 37 when he killed his wife, who was 34. She was strangled and then dismembered in her father-in-law's tool-and-die shop. Miller said he's disappointed the book has upset Hackel, but said he and Billups repeatedly tried to sit down with the sheriff to get that side of the story.
"As journalists, our goal is to tell every single part of the story down to the smallest detail," he said. "We can't decide to not write something just because someone won't cooperate with us."
Contact AMBER HUNT at 586-826-7267 or ahunt@freepress.com.