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After Young Dad Disappears, Secrets Surface and His Heartbroken Loved Ones Get Mysterious Calls
Years after Marcus Rutledge, 23, vanished from Nashville, secrets were unveiled about his personal life, his enrollment at Tennessee State University, and how he made money.
Cold case detectives are hoping for “a lucky break” in the 1998 case of a young father who disappeared without a trace.
The family of Marcus Rutledge, who was 23 when he vanished, shared details about the former Tennessee State University student and his head-scratching disappearance with Dateline correspondent Josh Mankiewicz for Season 3 of the Dateline: Missing in America podcast.
More than 26 years later, loved ones believe it’s “absolutely” possible that Marcus is still alive.
"I wonder whether or not Marcus was actually into something that was bigger than he was, and he was actually trying to get away. Just to leave and leave no trace,” the missing man’s father, David Rutledge, told Mankiewicz for the podcast's "Missing in Music City" episode.
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Who was Marcus Rutledge?
Marcus was born to David and Jerry Rutledge and raised in Ypsilanti, Michigan, a few miles east of Ann Arbor. David described his son as a “vivacious baby” who became “an active little guy” with good grades in school.
Marcus' sister, Felicia, is two and a half years older than him.
“I think we might've been partners in crime,” Felicia fondly recalled to Dateline. "My parents used to go out of town, and they would leave us at the house. You know, we were teenagers, and boy, we’d be waiting for that time. We’d have our friends over to the house, of course... like the second my parents left.”
She added that her brother had a “really good, respectable, genuine, kind heart about himself.”
Like both of his parents and sister, Marcus enrolled at Tennessee State University. After the siblings spent a couple of years on campus together in Nashville, Felicia moved back to Michigan, but she stayed in touch, often calling her younger brother to check up on him. "As far as I knew, he was attending his classes, had a lot of friends at Tennessee State," Felicia said.
Marcus met his girlfriend, Valencia Bryant, during his freshman year at college. Before long, Bryant became pregnant with Marcus’ child when the couple were both 18.
“It was scary, but I was also excited and very happy,” Bryant told Dateline. “And he seemed to be, too... when the initial shock wore off.”
Marcus held off on telling his family for as long as he could, but he eventually found the courage to let them know they were grandparents to his new baby, Darius. A week later, Marcus' family came to Tennessee to meet the baby.
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Due to the stresses of being young parents in college, Bryant eventually moved back in with her family in Knoxville, while Marcus continued his studies at TSU.
“He did the best he could at our age, and as a college student and us being in two different locations,” Bryant said. “[He] always checked on Darius, always wanted to make sure he was OK.”
By June of 1998, Marcus and Bryant were no longer a couple, but “stayed very, very close," according to Bryant. They were planning a carnival-themed birthday party for their son, who was turning 4 a month later. But then Marcus suddenly vanished.
What happened the day Marcus Rutledge disappeared?
On June 8, 1998, Marcus’ new girlfriend, Tawania, called the Rutledge family in Michigan and told them that she couldn't get in touch with him after he'd missed their planned meeting earlier that day. His sister then repeatedly called his cell phone but was also met with radio silence.
Marcus' family said that he had recently moved out of an apartment he shared with his best friend, Athan Gibbs, and was living in his own place in Nashville. Tawania told the Rutledge family that she and Gibbs went to Marcus' apartment to check on him, breaking in through a window.
“The place doesn’t look ransacked, but it does look like nobody’s been there for a while,” Marcus' dad David told Dateline.
Tawania and Gibbs also found Marcus’ pet Rottweiler had been trapped in the bathroom and was in there “long enough to ingest part of the rug,” according to David, which indicated that Marcus didn’t plan to be gone long, because he wouldn't have left the animal without enough food and water.
Matthew Filter, a cold case detective with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, told Dateline: Missing in America that Tawania reported her boyfriend Marcus missing at 7:35 p.m. on June 8 and that she was the last known person to see him.
Tawania last saw Marcus that morning when he left her place and she later spoke with him at around 1:30 p.m., according to Filter. When she tried to reach him after that, he didn't respond to calls or voicemails.
Investigators search for clues in the case
Marcus' sister and parents headed to Nashville to learn more about his disappearance. When they arrived, they noticed that that his car — a four-door 1995 Plymouth Neon with Michigan license plates — was also gone.
Nashville media outlets covered Marcus' disappearance and released information about his car. Then, 23 days after Marcus vanished, the vehicle was discovered more than 20 miles from the missing man’s home.
“The car was found at the Riverwood Apartments off of Cabot Drive, which is on the west side of Nashville,” said Filter. The detective added, “There was no particular evidence... there was no blood or anything like that that really indicated anything at all had happened in that car.”
The car’s location puzzled loved ones, who don't believe he knew anyone at that apartment complex. A handgun was found in the Neon, which Filter said could have belonged to Marcus.
Bryant, the mother of Marcus’ son, said she didn't know about the gun but wasn’t surprised to hear about the weapon because Marcus allegedly had “run-ins with some people, and they had been into some altercations,” she told Dateline: Missing in America.
David acknowledged there were aspects of his son’s life they were unaware of.
“I would say that it would fall into the category of keeping a secret from us,” he told Dateline.
Marcus Rutledge's best friend Athan Gibbs is murdered
Leads ran dry until February 1999 — eight months after Marcus’s disappearance — when Marcus’ former roommate and best friend, Gibbs, was murdered in his own home.
“He opens up his door, and he was shot,” Felicia said. “I mean, that’s brutal, personal.”
Before he disappeared, and when he was living with Gibbs, Marcus had told his father that he'd planned on getting his own place because Gibbs “wasn’t keeping up his end" of the living arrangement, according to David. Marcus took issue with Gibbs allegedly not paying rent on time and refusing to help keep the apartment tidy, David said.
When Marcus' family met with Tawania and Gibbs in Nashville after Marcus went missing, Gibbs “never, ever seemed comfortable” around the family, according to David. "I wish I had been more forceful in asking Athan what he knew," David told Dateline.
What secrets was Marcus Rutledge keeping from his family?
Months and years passed without any major breaks in Marcus’ case, but when Det. Filter reopened the missing persons file in 2020 — 22 years after the disappearance — he unearthed a handful of secrets Marcus concealed from his relatives.
“I think he was telling his family he was a senior at TSU, Tennessee State University, and the detective that was on the case early on discovered that he was... no longer enrolled,” Filter told Dateline. According to the detective, Marcus “was involved in the sale of marijuana.”
Police didn’t believe that Marcus was a big-time dealer, but more likely "selling to a lot of college kids and stuff," Filter said. Bryant, the mother of his son, confirmed he was selling marijuana, saying he did it to help provide for Darius.
But that wasn’t the only secret that was exposed. Marcus also hid from his relatives that he had a daughter, Jayla, with his then-girlfriend, Tawania. According to Filter, on the morning of his disappearance, Marcus had taken the then 2-year-old girl to day care.
David and Felicia believe that Marcus kept his secrets, including selling marijuana and dropping out of school, as to not disappoint his family.
“When this guy was in our presence, every single time we go down to visit him, everything was spiffy good, clean, good to go,” Marcus’ father said. “I mean, he knew our values... and he knew our hopes and dreams for him as an individual.”
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Still, Marcus’ secrets didn’t lead investigators much closer to why he disappeared. But, according to Filter, Marcus' friend who was murdered, Gibbs, was also selling weed.
“Right after Athan [Gibbs] was killed, the detectives thought that there might be a connection there,” Filter told Dateline. “But when comparing, looking at the cases, there’s nothing obvious that they can say that Marcus’ disappearance is connected with Athan’s murder.”
Though a person was charged in connection to Gibbs’ homicide, the case was eventually dismissed, and the murder remains unsolved.
Detective Filter told Dateline: Missing in America what he believed happened to Marcus. “The way the investigation looks is as though the marijuana sales and some confrontations that he had had in months prior to his disappearance are, in my opinion, likely what led to his disappearance,” Filter said.
Why Marcus Rutledge's family believes he could still be alive
Those closest to Marcus believe he may still be alive, according to his sister Felicia.
“We used to get these phone calls where we would pick up the phone,” she said. “Nobody would be there.” Calls started soon after Marcus disappeared and occurred once or twice a month.
“It got to the point where we answer the call and nobody would be there," Marcus' father David told Dateline. "And Jerry — his mother — would say, ‘Hey, don’t worry. That’s just Marcus checking in.'"
The mother of Marcus’ first child had a similar experience. “They would just call and hold the phone,” said Bryant. “I would be, like, ‘We’re fine,’ you know, ‘Your son is good. Still love you. We want you to come home.’”
The calls reportedly continued until at least until 2015, when Marcus’ mother died of a rare brain disorder.
Marcus’ son, Darius, is now 30 years old, seven years older than his father was when he disappeared in Nashville. His daughter, Jayla, is 28 years old.
“One of the things that I’d like to have us be careful of, as parents, is every chance you get, put your arms around your kid and hug ‘em and tell them that you love them,” said David, Marcus' father.
At the time of his June 8, 1998, disappearance, Marcus was 6 feet tall and weighed about 190 lbs. He had the name “Marcus” tattooed across his stomach.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the Metro Nashville Police Department's Cold Case Unit at 1-615-862-7329.
