Unsolved TN: Tabitha Tuders’ disappearance still a mystery 21 years later
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — On a Tuesday morning in 2003, an East Nashville family was just waking up for the day, getting ready for work and to send their daughter off to school.
Neighbors spotted then 13-year-old Tabitha Tuders walking to her bus stop at South 14th Street and Boscobel Street around 8 a.m. that morning, just blocks away from her Lillian Street home. However, she never made it on the bus.
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Now, exactly 21 years later, it’s still unclear what happened to the teen, with her parents telling News 2, “It’s like the earth opened up and she just fell in.” Her disappearance has since become one of Nashville’s most high-profile cold cases.
In a recent interview with News 2, Tabitha’s father, Bo Tuders, recalled waking her up around 7 a.m. that morning, with some of her last words to him being, “Daddy, I love you.” Bo and Debra Tuders contacted Tabitha’s school after she never returned home that evening.
That’s when they learned she had been absent from school the whole day. They reported her missing shortly before 6 p.m. on April 29, 2003 — sparking a search that would eventually become the center of national attention.
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Several tips flooded in immediately afterward, but they all turned up empty, according to detectives with the Metro Nashville Police Department.
In a February 2020 interview, Detective Steven Jolley told News 2 that from the beginning “many tips” have suggested Tabitha might have been drugged and forced into prostitution.
Tips have also pointed to several potential suspects, including a man who was known to be involved in prostitution in the East Nashville area and who is serving a lengthy sentence in federal prison. However, no one has ever been charged in the case.
Only months after that interview, in August 2020, law enforcement searched a seven-acre property off Black Piney Road in Hickman County that had reportedly been connected to a person of interest in Tabitha’s disappearance.
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A spokesperson for the police department explained that the search was based on a “theory” and several old and new tips indicating Tabitha may have been on the property “in the 2003 timeframe.” The search was focused on a wooded area near a small decaying house.
However, after multiple days, the search efforts concluded with no new leads. “It’s just been a real bad roller coaster ride,” explained Bo Tuders, who still believes there’s someone out there who knows what happened to his daughter.
When she disappeared, Tabitha was only slightly younger than 15-year-old Sebastian Rogers, who was reported missing out of Hendersonville more than two months ago. The cases are similar in that both have peeked national interest and seemingly have few leads, despite extensive searches.
UNSOLVED TENNESSEE: Find more of the state’s cold cases, missing persons, and other mysteries →
Tabitha’s family has said may times they sympathize with the pain Sebastian’s friends and family are feeling. Tabitha would have turned 34 years old in February. According to police, she has a birthmark on her stomach, a scar on her finger, and her ears are pierced.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s most recent age progression photo shows what Tabitha would look like at 29 years old.
Anyone who has any information related to the case is asked to call Nashville Crime Stoppers at 615-742-7463 or the MNPD at 615-862-8600. Tipsters remain anonymous. The FBI is also offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.
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