NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) has identified remains found in 2010 as those of a Tennessee State University (TSU) student reported missing in June 1998.
In a Friday press release, the MNPD said a hunter found a skull on Dec. 8, 2010, in the area of Ashland City Highway and Pecan Valley Road. No other remains were found at the time, and the skull was taken to the Medical Examiner’s Office.
From there, DNA from the remains were uploaded into a database—CODIS—and the profile matched a DNA upload provided by a family member of TSU senior Marcus Rutledge. Rutledge had been reported missing on June 8, 1998, and his car was found at an apartment complex on Cabot Drive in West Nashville.
“We didn’t really have anything initially to go on in the case until July 1st 1998,” Detective Matthew Filter with the MNPD’s Cold Case-Homicide Missing Persons Unit told News 2 in 2022. “His car was found in an apartment complex over on the west side of Nashville.”
The MNPD added foul play has been suspected in Rutledge’s disappearance, and an investigation by detectives with both the Missing Persons Unit and the Cold Case-Homicide unit is ongoing.
