Why Did This College Student Vanish Without a Trace? The Disappearance of Marcus Rutledge | Forensic Files

a woman named Tania is getting kind of nervous she and her 23-year-old boyfriend Marcus rutage were supposed to
meet up but he's a noow so when Tania pulls up to Marcus's apartment his car isn't there she's actually convinced
that something is up so she reaches out to Marcus's best friend and he's just as
concerned but this is where they encountered the first big twist it turns out Marcus has been
keeping some major secrets from his family so it's the afternoon on Monday June 8th 1998 and a woman named Tania is
getting kind of nervous she and her 23-year-old boyfriend Marcus rutage were supposed to meet up but he's a no-show
not even answering his cell phone she's like calling him and calling him but she's just not hearing anything back and
when's the last time she spoke to him so it actually hasn't been very long I mean
he had spent the night at her place and then took their 2-year-old daughter to daycare at around like 10:00 that
morning and they've even honestly talked on the phone since at like 1 1:30 that afternoon so truly very little time has
passed it might not even ring alarm bells for some people but the thing is this is totally uncharacteristic of
Marcus not to answer his phone and if he did miss a call he would get back to whoever tried him like ASAP so right
away she knows in her gut that something just doesn't feel right so she reaches out to marcus' parents David and geraldy
known as Jerry and she's just trying to see if like they have heard anything from him they're not local they're in
southeast Michigan while toan and Marcus both live in Nashville Tennessee Marcus
had actually moved to Nashville to attend Tennessee State University TSU but even with the distance like his
family talks to him pretty regularly so Tani is hoping that they might know where he is but it turns out they
haven't heard from him either now according to what his dad David told our reporter Nah when he got that first call
from tuia he understood her concern like Marcus going Mia even to him is unheard
of but you know he tries to reassure her at first maybe Marcus just got held up somewhere it'll be fine just like give
it a beat right but Tania says that she wants to go to marcus' duplex apartment to just check on him so David tells her
like okay just like keep me posted and meanwhile he and Jerry start making a series of unsuccessful calls to Marcus
themselves trying to reach him so Tania pulls up to marcus' apartment his car this red 1995 Plymouth Neon isn't there
but instead of that reassuring her like oh he's just out for some reason she's actually more convinced than ever that
something is up and she needs to get into his apartment now even though they've been together for a little bit
it doesn't look like she has a key to his place so she devises this plan to call Marcus's best friend aan Gibbs
Junior who basically helps her just break into the place that feels like a pretty big leap
I guess I mean I think it's it's the unanswered phone calls they're just again I I can't so unlike so unlike him
even when she calls Athan like he doesn't think she's overreacting he's just as concerned so when Ethan gets
there he and Tania break in through a back window and what they find inside just kind of confirms for them that they
made the right decision because even though there's no sign of a struggle or Foul Play Marcus's Rottweiler is shut in
his bathroom with no food or water except like the water in the toilet and they can tell that he's been there for a
while because he had eaten part of the bathroom carpet and they know that Marcus would never leave his dog like
that not even for a short amount of time let alone for however long it took this
dog to start chewing on the rug so there's no indication that Marcus was planning for any kind of trip right like
his clothes are still there there's no bag or suitcase that's packed or even missing like nothing is standing out to
them so with David and Jerry's encouragement Tania calls the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department
that very night and an officer comes to take a missing person's report now initially he gets some basic details
about Marcus he puts out a bolo for his car which should stick out because like it has not only is it red but like has
Michigan plates it's not local right now even though there is nothing in his apartment that is obviously out of place
like it doesn't appear that he was even robbed nothing like that David told us that something was taken from Marcus's
apartment that day that police do kind of check out so Marcus's landline phone was taken but there's no mystery about
who took it it was Tania why she says apparently it was her phone and she wanted it back question
mark why did police let her take anything I don't know I don't know if they didn't realize that she even did at
first like we actually got to speak with Nashville Cold Case detective Matt filter he is the one heading up the
investigation now although he wasn't on the force when this all started but he told us that Tania actually took marcus'
caller ID because apparently she wanted to look for numbers that she might recognize like I don't know if the call
ID is like built into the phone I don't know why she would take it instead of telling police I say but couldn't she
have checked it right there at the apartment I know this part like doesn't totally add up for me but for whatever
reason she took it with her police do though get it back from her pretty quickly like once they realize but it's
useless to everyone because detective filter says that when she unplugged it at Marcus's house all of the numbers
were automatically erased it's like factory reset so if she was trying to see something that information is now
gone and that's just one of the things Weighing on David and Jerry's Minds as they make the 500 plus mile drive to
Nashville the next day so when they arrive toan's house is their first stop now toan isn't a stranger to them on
like a pass trip to Nashville David and Jerry had taken her and Marcus out to dinner but this time they're not here
for a friendly visit like they want answers from her yeah but Tania tells them she has no idea what could have
happened to Marcus or where he might be and the only person she can think of who
Marcus spent a lot of time with with is aan so Marcus's parents arranged to meet
up with him at their son's duplex but he doesn't have any insight to share either
he says he is just as lost as they are and he wants to help them find Marcus any way he can however David and Jerry
can't help but notice that their son's friend seems awfully nervous like he's literally sweating he can't sit still
and there's just this uncomfortable energy that is like vibrating off of him had they ever met Ethan before so they
actually know him pretty well because up until a few months ago Athan and Marcus
shared an apartment they were roommates but like Marcus had recently decided to get his own place so he moved out like
moved into this duplex that they had now looked at did anything prompt that move
or was it just like kind of growing up wanting your own space yeah I think you can call it that I think the two just
had like roommate issues but stuff that like two people who live together might encounter little things that just like
get under your skin marus the reason you and I have never lived together preach Marcus had I guess Ved to his family
about aan he's messy his bills weren't getting paid on time like that kind of thing but even after Marcus moved out he
and Athan stayed really close friends so like there is no bad blood between them
and honestly Marcus's family had always liked aan he is a respectful guy from a good family they never had any cause for
concern about Marcus being around him and even now they're wondering if his reaction is maybe just because of the
circumstances I mean his best friend is now missing seemingly vanished Into Thin
Air but marcus' sister Felicia notices the same strange Vibe when Athan takes her driving around to look for her
brother's missing car she's like athan's acting tense he's not saying much like other than like suggesting places where
they should maybe look for the car he's saying that he's worried about the whole
situation but again nothing like incriminating it's just like it could be talked up to the same thing right now as
detectives start digging him they begin to learn more about marcus' life he has two children a nearly four-year-old son
with a former girlfriend in Knoxville and a 2-year-old daughter with Tania he is super involved with both kids always
checks in with his son but that child and his mom haven't heard from him either according to Tennessee and
reporter Beth Warren Marcus had last seen his son in May when they went to the zoo and they had been planning a big
party for his upcoming birthday was there any relationship drama no no he gets along well with both of his
children's mothers so like that feels like a quick dead end which is when they turn to his school maybe someone at the
University there can help them pece things together right but this is where they encountered the first big twist in
their investigation it turns out Marcus has been keeping some major secrets from
his family [Music] two branches of the same tree two pieces of a sole where one sister
goes the other will be for she is but half of the whole the missing half pre-order your
copy at Ashley flower .c so police learn that Marcus actually dropped out of college the year before
back in 1997 What yeah he's basically been pretending to be a student ever since
and his family had no idea mm in fact the last time Marcus visited his parents which was just a few weeks before he
went missing this was for Memorial Day he was there for a cookout he said he left early because he had to study for
an exam did did toan know I don't know so the detective we talked to didn't know either and nah tried calling the
number that Marcus's dad had for Tania we're not sure if it's still the right number for her anymore like long story
short we haven't been able to talk to her to figure that out but either way his family was shocked to find this out
from police like going to TSU was the entire reason Marcus moved to Nashville in the first place I mean both his
parents went there he wanted to follow in their footsteps I mean the wild part is they thought he was close to
graduating it's not just that he was going there they were expecting to go to a graduation soon but that's not the
only surprise in store for the family because even though Marcus doesn't have a criminal record investigators also
learn that he'd been selling weed and they think that he might have started when he was still a student because his
clientele seems to mostly be other students like it doesn't seem that he was out on the streets dealing and we're
talking of small scale stuff like not some big time operation and aan actually admits this to police he says that he
and Marcus both sell weed although I'm not sure if they work together or what and I don't know if Athan is the first
person that they hear this from or if he's just confirming this info that they learn or already had but he doesn't try
to hide it I think is the main point but that could be why he's acting so strange
around Marcus's family he knows they're all going to find out about this and be upset about the drugs maybe yeah but
here's the thing even while he's being honest about the weed investigators still can't shake this feeling like
Athan is holding something back they just don't know what cuz like I don't think that all that stuff like just
stops after they learn the thing right or what they think could be the thing did he know that Marcus had dropped out
of school I assume he knew because they spent a decent amount of time together I
mean like I think I would tell you things I wouldn't necessarily tell my parents like when I was his age but
there doesn't seem to be any solid confirmation of that like it's kind of like with Tania I mean and even his
other ex I don't know what any of them did or did not know about him dropping out of college but I do know that both
women Tania and his other ex seem to be aware that he was selling weed I know that much in an interview with Dateline
NBC reporter Josh minkowitz his son's mom said that he was doing it to help provide for their child and Tania tells
detectives the same thing that this was just a way he could make enough money to
support everyone but whatever the reason his parents are hurt and Confused to find all of this out like this like it
completely goes against his upbringing like they raised Marcus and his sister in this solid home they felt that like
centered around family it's centered around Church David is actually an elected official Jerry is an elementary
school teacher so like selling drugs lying about being in college all of this is the last thing they expected from
their son however speaking of Secrets this wasn't the only time Marcus had kept a
big one from his parents they actually didn't know about their grandson until he was born and Marcus was only 19 at
the time and I don't know how like churchy they raised him but I can see that maybe being a reason why he hit it
yeah I mean I think he was probably just afraid that David and Jerry would be disappointed in him and that's probably
the reason he kept the school thing to himself like the disappointment that like he's not only is he disappointing
them but he's already disappointed them so it's like one more thing have they noticed any changes in Marcus's Behavior
like looking back like knowing or finding out about all this now so at that Memorial Day cookout I mentioned
earlier his sister Felicia thought that he seemed unusually stressed but when she asked him about it he just said that
he had a lot going on in Nashville he didn't really collaborate and as far as his parents knew everything was fine
like you can chalk stress up to the finals he said he was going to go stud schooling yeah right so you can imagine
how overwhelming this is for his family they are already dealing with him being missing but then to discover that he was
living a life they really knew nothing about it was a lot and David told us it's like walking through a nightmare
and as investigators dig deeper into Marcus's life more concerning details emerge he had gotten into a couple of
altercations one reported to police when it happened about a year before his disappearance and then another just a
few months before he went missing both incidents were apparently related to him selling weed although detective filter
won't share specifics about those altercations were there people after him like was anybody like not that
investigators can tell I like I don't think there's anyone specific or if there is they're not sharing that it
seems like from everything they look at they can't find any immediate dangers in
his life no one is saying Marcus owed them money no one has been like making threats to him but they do discover
something interesting back in miday Marcus they find out had rented a car for like 10 days and this stood out
because they know that he didn't get into an accident or anything so it doesn't look like his own car was out of
commission or anything so rent right now did he drive back and forth from Nashville to Knoxville a lot to see his
son you know that's like 360 M each trip maybe he didn't want to put the miles on
his car but detective filter pointed out an alternative possibility he says that
when you're doing something illegal you might not want to use your own car to do
that but they don't know if he was doing something illegal with the car or what he was using it for in those 10 days
they truly just have no idea right he just had a rental for 10 days right so they find that out but then beyond that
not much turns up there is a recent traffic ticket some receipts from a car wash like nothing that points
investigators in any real Direction so here you have this devoted father who has suddenly stopped checking in with
his kids which seems completely out of character but they've also just learned that he's been living this whole other
life that his family knew nothing about and they really can't tell if he left on
his own or if something happened to him but their thinking starts to shift on Tuesday June 30th that is when a
maintenance man at an apartment complex more than 20 miles from where Marcus lives spots Marcus's missing Plymouth
and this guy tells investigators that this car has been sitting in the same spot at Riverwood Apartments for at
least a couple of weeks why is he just calling about it now well according to David the guy contacts police because he
saw something on the news about Marcus's disappearance and the car so maybe he had only just realized I mean again it's
not anything bad about this car it's just kind of been there and then once they make known what car everyone's
looking for he's like oh that's the car does Marcus know someone who lives at this complex no so that's the thing as
far as anyone knows Marcus has zero connection to this complex and while investigators don't find any signs of
violence in the car when they look at it like there's no blood or anything like that the the fact that it's just sitting
there abandoned makes them think something bad must have happened to Marcus I mean if he wanted to take off
and start a new life like how how's he going to get there the car is the thing you need right like or if you're going
to leave your car behind like just leave it parked at your place why Drive 20 mil
and then ditch it at this random apartment complex and what's even more wild is apparently someone had been
driving the car around the maintenance man tells detectives that he saw this middle-aged guy occasionally using it
before it was left there for good around mid June so somebody who was definitely
not 23 year-old Marcus now detective filter says that they never identified who this mystery driver was but he also
says that there could be explanations that don't necessarily include this driver being the one who did something
to Marcus like he says like there is a world where someone could have just handed this person the car without
telling them anything about Marcus like could have been someone who didn't realize what they were driving around
until they had like found out it belonged to a missing person and then when they did like that's when they left
it there and didn't go back for it I was it locked up were the keys there it wasn't locked but detective filter
couldn't find anything in the reports that indicated if the keys were in it or not and the maintenance man had no clue
who the driver was by the way like hence the vague description and this is a guy
the maintenance guy he's like around a lot and he's like I don't recognize him I hadn't seen him around before no idea
why he was in the complex at all but it makes me feel like the driver had to have lived there or was close to someone
who did live there if he like was at the complex like back and forth a couple times like he was there and then he
wasn't and then he like you would think but all I know is that according to David police canvased the complex and
that didn't lead them to Marcus or to anyone who knew Marcus yeah but what about the people who knew the driver I
know we don't know who he is but like he doesn't live there but that guy has to have a tie there to me it like it's a
chain right like the person in the complex leads you to the driver the driver leads you to who gave him to the
car and and that goes all the way back to Marcus and why he doesn't have his car and where he is and if they did have
something to do with it right and it's not just like a car that was given to them or even if again they now know it
belongs to a missing person like I don't think they're going to be like fessing up to knowing him right right I don't
know so it's possible all the things are possible it's also possible that the canvasing they did was just light again
maybe people were lying or option C I just truly don't no MH but they're hopeful that now that they have the car
maybe they can find the driver another way and maybe through forensic evidence so police have the Plymouth towed to
their lab and inside they find a gun that's tucked under the driver's seat now is this more evidence of marcus'
double life like did the gun belong to the person who was driving the car did it belong to Marcus like couldn't tell
you because it doesn't look like the gun was actually registered to anyone though
it seems like from you know what we learned from detective filter that everyone assumes the gun was Marcus's
they also managed to lift two fingerprints from the car one from inside the driver's side window and then
another from a rented VHS tape that they find in the car now the print from the tape leads nowhere the Ive told us they
confirmed it belonged to an employee at the video rental place which is like give me an older sentence right and the
fingerprint on the window they eliminated they or they eliminated aan and toan as the sources of it but they
didn't like eliminate anyone else they couldn't determine who it belonged to here's the wild part to me they said it
could be Marcus's because detective filter says they don't have his prints on file but like here's where I get a
little skeptical like sure Marcus was never arrested so his prints weren't in the system but they have access to his
apartment like couldn't they have lifted his prints from there to compare I mean
you think so those two prins were the only prince in the car right like I guess I thought you were saying that
those are the only prints that weren't his those are the only prints that were identifiable so detective not like
smudged or smeared or incomplete yeah detective filter told us the car was examined meticulous L is what he said
and that it didn't appear to be wiped down or anything like that that's a question we asked but he says he also
can't say for sure again he wasn't on the case back then so from what I can tell those are the ones that were they
were able to pull and here's the thing Prince aside what really concerns investigators is what they don't find in
the car which is any proof that Marcus was alive after June 8th all of the receipts everything in the car predates
his disappearance meanwhile so they find Marcus's family is back in Michigan at this point trying to process their new
reality to David and Jerry each Revelation about their son feels like another piece of the puzzle one that
they never thought they would have to solve his student loan notices are starting to come in the mail which is
just this reminder of a life that he was supposed to be building and there's something else that's coming in
something far Stranger Than student loan bills shortly after their son goes missing Jerry and David start getting
these strange phone calls on their home phone in Michigan the phone will ring and ring but when they pick up it's
nothing just silence on the other end and Jerry they don't just like say hello and stop talking I mean Jerry
pleads with the caller like Marcus if this is you please just say something but whoever is on the other end never
speaks and Felicia remembers it happening like two or three times in those first couple of months and
according to an article by Jax Miller for Oxygen Network Marcus's son's mom was getting the same kind of unsettling
quiet calls do Polie try to trace these calls not that I'm aware of like I I don't know if they even try to begin
with i or if the problem was like like from what I can tell there's no pattern to this or anything so I don't know they
just think they're weird and if or if they just didn't care enough to do it I don't know but these calls do give his
loved ones hope that Marcus is still out there maybe maybe still alive investigators though they're not
as optimistic the calls are like I said super sporadic months will go by without
a single one and in that time the leads are even fewer so almost as quickly as it all begins the case goes cold police
don't have enough to work with no real Trail to follow all of the fragments that they've uncovered about Marcus
haven't even fit together into any kind of coherent picture no one they speak with seems to have the whole
story well almost no one they're still pretty sure that aan knows way more than he's letting on maybe he doesn't know
exactly what happened to Marcus but detective filter believes that he had some idea of what happened or who might
have been in involved cuz even though he was upfront about you know selling weed
for whatever reason after that and beyond that point it appears that he kind of just shut down and while it's
possible that given time he might have decided to share more that is a chance that he doesn't get because little do
detectives know they are about to have a new case to work and their victim will be aan
so let me take you to February 1999 by now Marcus has been missing for about 8 and 1 half months and the case
is at a complete standstill investigators are convinced that Athan knows more than he's letting on but he's
not talking now around this time Athan is tied up with someone new this brand new roommate of sorts this guy named
Charles D Brown Jr and this new Arrangement is raising some eyebrows especially with athan's brother Jonathan
Jonathan has been staying with Athan but as soon as Charles moves in Jonathan's like I'm piecing out for a bit like he
just wants to get away from the guy because Charles is one of athan's closest friends but Jonathan has never
approved of him he didn't think that Charles was the type of person his brother should hang out with and there
was definitely reasons for concern so according to articles in The Tennessean by Kirk loggin and Kathy Carlson Charles
had passest add for aggravated assault unlawful weapon possession and selling and possessing weed he had also been
shot and shot someone during an attempted home invasion that happened interestingly that attempted home
invasion happened one day after Marcus went missing you know we don't believe in
coincidences anymore right so let me rewind real quick and tell you about this home invasion because the details
are interesting to say the least so in the morning on June 9th 1998 three or four masked men broke into Charles's
apartment and at the time he was living with his girlfriend and two young children and everyone was home when The
Intruders broke in they demanded money and then they started shooting they're like spraying bullets everywhere with at
least two guns Charles get shot five times and somehow not only did he managed to survive he also returned fire
and hit one of the gunmen who then took off and John Yates reported something really intriguing for The Tennessean
Witnesses told police that they saw the suspects flee from Charles's place in two vehicles including a red one that
they thought looked like a Chevy Corsica and when I Googled a red Chevy Corsica it looks an awful lot like Marcus's then
missing red Plymouth which I actually have the photos to show you because it's just two bonkers
okay so this one is the Corsica and this is the Ashley they're like identical they're kind of like the
same car they definitely look incredibly similar I mean like if you weren't like
a car person right or like not even a car person but like you knew your makes and models I you could easily mix those
up especially if you're just like an eyewitness to something and say like yeah I saw a guy in a red car it looked
a little bit like this right either of those cars right so one of the two cars in that whole thing was this anyway
within an hour of the home invasion a man named James Cowan shows up at the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds
Cowan tells police some story about getting shot from a car but court records show that the bullet recovered
during his surgery matched a gun that the shooters left behind at Charles's apartment so I'm guessing that Cowen was
hit by maybe Friendly Fire during the chaos cuz again it didn't come from like Charles's gun supposedly was a Left
Behind now this Cowen guy was no stranger to detectives he was actually a potential suspect in six homicides oh my
God yeah as far as I can tell Cowen was never arrested for murder he was however
arrested and convicted of attempted first scree murder especially aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary for the
home invasion on Charles and he was sentenced to six decades in prison because of the violent nature of the
crime and his extensive w rap sheet which included multiple drug rated felonies now in connection to all this
Charles wasn't arrested since he was acting in self-defense but investigators didn't believe that Cowen and the crew
he came with just randomly chose Charles's house to Rob did they arrest anyone else in connection to it I mean
it's it was more than one person right it was but as far as I know they didn't like arrest anyone or charge anyone
except for CN did they recover the gun used to shoot at Charles with so that's not totally clear from the court records
they say they recovered two guns they recovered a 9mm found in the backyard and they had Charles's gun which is a
357 revolver but there were at least three guns involved because according to testimony at one point during this
struggle an accomplice of cow threw him a quote unquote big gun when the first gun that he was using ran out of
ammunition what about the gun in Marcus's car well so at the time this is happening I mean they're not going to
find that for weeks dat think that gun was used in this okay if that's what you're getting at yeah
okay so that happens now let's jump back to February of 1999 according to Kirk Loggins on the 18th Athan informs his
brother that Charles is going to crash with them right and so this is when Jonathan's like don't like this guy I'm
going to peace out a couple of days after that Athan tells him that char Char was quote unquote going crazy like
apparently he was super paranoid he was saying that his girlfriend was trying to
have him killed uh Jonathan had the exact right idea getting out of there but it's not like Jonathan moved away I
mean I don't think Charles was supposed to be a permanent fixture he just needed
to crash for a couple of days so the night of Tuesday February 23rd Jonathan comes back to the house and when he
pulls up the door to the duplex is wide open and when he makes his way inside there on the floor he sees his brother
athan's body stiff and cold he had been shot multiple times now police believe that aan was actually killed days before
he was found sometime before noon that past Sunday they also think that there might have been more than one weapon
used and shell casings that they find appear to be from a 40 caliber gun now they don't see any signs of forest entry
although they do notice that something is missing athan's wife Pontiac Grand D but the next day someone spots this
vehicle in Nashville's Englewood neighborhood which is like 18 miles from athan's apartment and they recognize it
from the news reports this is feeling too similar right and athan's Aunt tells Kathy Carlson that his family doesn't
know of any connections that he has to that area of course now obviously the biggest difference between Marcus and
Athens cases are that Athens is clearly a homicide he's been found while Marcus is still a missing person right and
while detectives are still basically in the dark about what happened to Marcus they've got a pretty good theory forming
about who might be responsible for athan's murder it's got to be Charles yeah and mostly because an Englewood
woman IDs him as the guy that she saw leaving athan's car on her street the day before his body was
found wait how old is Charles A I'm wondering if he could have been the one seen driving Marcus's car no that they
thought that guy was middle-aged um Charles is like Marcus's age like 20 early right but still police Can't
Ignore how sketchy his behavior gets Kirk loggin reported that Charles skips athan's funeral and completely ghost
police when they try to question him further a friend who hung out with Charles and Athan over the weekend tells
investigators that Charles was seriously worried about his own safety possibly because of that home invasion that we
talked about now Charles was apparently so convinced that someone was after him that he was wearing a bulletproof vest
around and he had at least two guns in his SUV including a 40 caliber like the shell casings found at the scene so
talking or not they do have enough on him to charge him with athan's murder in early March and after a few days on the
Run he ends up turning himself in hold up what's the motive Charles got paranoid and then just snapped on aan no
so not likely detective filter actually refers to athan's murder as drug related
cuz he believes that aan was selling weed when he was killed so he was wrapped up in what could have been a
dangerous crowd although if he was I mean he was clearly keeping some secrets of his own from certain family members
because his aunt says that aan was working as a tax consultant at his father's like income tax business
business so I don't know that they're connecting it to like Charles's paranoia like it or if they're saying the
paranoia is separate and Charles did it because it was a drug thing I don't know
it's a little like convoluted and muddy MH either way at first investigators suspect that there could be a connection
between athan's murder and marcus' disappearance and when The Rutledge family hears about athan's death they
can hardly believe it marcus' sister Felicia is devastated CU in her mind Athan was the one person who could fill
in maybe someday all the blanks about her brother and now he's gone but Charles's arrest is a hopeful sign for
Marcus's dad David because he figures that once police start like pushing on Charles maybe the dam will burst and
maybe they can finally find his son but here comes another unexpected twist I wish I could tell you more about
what investigators learn from Charles but there is not much info available we know that a preliminary hearing is held
later that March Charles is emotional he's sobbing at times and like shaking his head throughout the proceedings the
judge finds sufficient evidence to send the case to a grand jury but it doesn't look like Charles is ever actually
indicted or if he is the da decides not to pursue it because the murder charge just
disappears what how I guess there just wasn't enough to move forward I mean the headline for Kirk Logan's article about
the prelim was literally hearing short on evidence in Belleview slaying so the evidence presented by the state I mean
we know was mostly circumstantial like I mean they had Witnesses who could talk about Charles's Behavior they could talk
about the fact that he had guns but they couldn't actually connect him to the murder itself or even like I said
establish a clear timeline or motive but I thought his gun was used to kill aan no he just had the same type of gun as
the one used to kill Athan what about that witness who ided him dropping Ethan's car though not
enough detective filter thinks that the da in the end just like wasn't confident
that they could get a conviction so they just dismissed the charges probably hoping that they'd be able to build a
stronger case later but for whatever reason that never happened athan's murder is still considered unsolved
today and when it comes to any connection between athan's murder and Marcus going missing while there might
be some witness overlap between the investigations police say they've never been able to establish any direct link
between the two though it's interesting detective filter says that as far as he can tell from the case File
investigators only really looked at Charles like there's nothing showing that they ever dug into Cowen or his
associates in connection with marcus' disappearance and then we asked him about it he told us like yeah you know
that's an angle maybe worth exploring which like yeah but no one has in oh about three decades no I mean to me the
timing alone the home invasion a day after he went missing not to mentioned the red car stuff I know it definitely
raises like a couple of questions at least right plus we know that Cowen was already being looked at for other
violent crimes at that point right so I don't know we'll have to see we'll have to wait and see if filter pursues that
lead oh and we actually did try get in touch with Cowen who was actually released from prison more than a decade
ago and is out there on parole but we couldn't reach him and Charles who has been in and out of lockup over the years
for various crimes he is in prison now on drug related charges so we couldn't make contact with him now whether or not
any of these guys were involved police still believe that aan knew more than he led on and that he took some secrets
about Marcus's disappearance to his grave do they have any theories about where Marcus could be I mean as similar
and connected as these cases seem it's it stands out so much that Marcus just vanished while Ethan was just shot
and left in his home on the floor like why the difference well I mean they don't have any theories on a connection
because they can't prove the cases are connected at all so like without that link you can't even build upon that
right like they're just stuck so that was pretty much it like years passed tips aren't coming in media coverage is
minimal and the case just sits there but around 2010 something significant does happen the rutage family learns that
Marcus had another big secret they find out that he had a daughter with who Tania like another one no but they never
knew he had a daughter how is that even possible I mean didn't investigators no so they did
I don't know how this happened but it looks like they never communic at that to his family which like why would you
right like I can maybe they thought like oh surely they know about this Grand child yeah there's no need to bring up
something so obvious right but like wouldn't it come up when the police were getting basic information like if his
parents had mentioned their grandson wouldn't someone have said like oh and what about your granddaughter you would
think but it didn't happen and I guess like the part that I can't get over is like the fact that Tania never mentioned
it either which makes you wonder like what other secret she had because that feels like a secret it doesn't feel like
something that just like gets missed right like they come they have dinner with her before they're like they're all
she's like a main contact when Marcus goes missing like they're in they're in communication with her yeah you would
think when she calls them to be like oh he's like he's not answering his phone or when's the last time you saw him when
he went to drop our daughter off at daycare that's how we started it that intentionally out I don't know I wish we
could talk to her but we haven't been able to get a hold of her like I said I mean how did they even find out about
their granddaughter I don't know the exact details of how this unfolds I just know that Marcus's son somehow connected
with her on Facebook and then that's when the rest of the family found out so like it's it's fuzzy but this is one of
those that even though it's a shock it's at least a good surprise like they have
another little piece of Marcus to hold on to and despite Marcus keeping her a secret I have to imagine that even he'd
be happy knowing that they all have finally found each other and just in time because in 2015 Marcus's mom Jerry
passes away and then in 2020 detective filter who is in the Nashville PD's Cold Case unit he this is when he picks up
the investigation for what started as like a pretty routine reason basically they were doing like DNA house keeping
they only have DNA from one of marcus' kids in codus so filter wanted to get more family profiles into the system so
that they can be prepared if they ever need to make comparisons if they ever find remains did something specific
prompt that like were there remains that could have been his found nothing like that I think he just wanted to be
proactive he was making sure all of their bases were covered and that DNA update was going to be the extent of it
but once he started talking to David and learning more about Marcus he just like
I don't know the case like latched on to him he like kept digging he wanted to see if he could help the rages like get
some an some way hi me uh big update so that was kind of where our episode was supposed to end
Britt and I wrapped it up did the usual call the action but literally just this last week like right as we were about to
release this episode something huge happened a major break in the case on January 31st police announced that
Marcus's remains have been found there was a skull that had been found by a hunter back on December 8th 2010 in some
Woods near Ashlin City Highway and pan Valley Road that is nearly 13 mil from where Marcus's car was found and 30 mi
from his apartment now the sequence of events is a little baffling for me and I'm sure frustrating for Marcus's family
who are still coping with the news and I say baffling because DNA from this unidentified skull wasn't uploaded to
codus until a month after we interviewed the police so we interviewed them in October and then the me submitted the
skull DNA to cotus in November this is of 2024 and we don't know why it took so long marcus' DNA had been in cotus for
years and you heard right before our like record scratch moment that even more of his family's DNA had been added
by detective filter to ensure that there would be enough to get a match to any unidentified remains that might surface
the DNA match that they got was a match to DNA collected from Marcus's daughter it's just a shame that it didn't come 14
years sooner cuz it puts detectives even further behind than they would have been
in 2010 detective filter told us it is unclear if police searched the woods thoroughly at the time when the skull
was found so he is planning to do a search of his own hoping to find more because unfortunately even though they
now know where Marcus has been the skull hasn't told them much there were no wounds or markings on it that gave a
clue as to how Marcus was killed but detectives are clear that they do believe Marcus was killed and this
missing person's case is now actively being worked as a homicide which filter believed was the case even before
finding Marcus's skull he believes that Marcus's involvement in selling weed likely played a role in his death the
problem is even after this major breakthrough police still have not gotten a single solid lead I'm not
kidding you not even one and detective filter doesn't think this case is going to be solved by science what they need
is for someone who knows the truth to finally start talking now Marcus's family they were holding out hope for so
long that he was still alive like they held out that hope till the very end it's what our whole ending was about so
this news was devastating to them but maybe now that everyone knows where he was and where he was found it could help
connect some of the dots about what happened in those crucial days after June 8th
1998 they are convinced someone out there knows exactly what happened to him and maybe you're that someone so if
you have any information about the death of Marcus rutage or even athan's murder
contact the Department's Crimestoppers division at 615 74e at 6157417071 [Music]
for Crime junkie wherever you get your podcast [Music]

A young father moves to Nashville chasing his college dreams, but in June 1998, 23-year-old Marcus Rutledge vanishes after taking his daughter to daycare. His disappearance reveals a life filled with secrets…and even after the discovery of his skull, his family is left wondering if they’ll ever know what really happened.

For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/breaking-news-murdered-marcus-rutledge/

We explore the mysterious case of Marcus Rutledge, a 23-year-old student from Nashville, Tennessee, who disappeared on June 8, 1998. Despite extensive searches by the Nashville Police Department and family efforts, Marcus was never found, leaving his loved ones in despair. We retrace the timeline of his disappearance and the police's theories over the years. Recently, new developments in the case brought hope for closure, shedding light on this cold case that has haunted Nashville for over two decades. Join us as we dive deep into the investigation, examine crucial evidence, and share the latest updates on Marcus Rutlege's disappearance.

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About Ashley Flowers Ashley Flowers is the top female podcaster in the U.S. and the host of Crime Junkie, the #1 podcast among women and the #1 true crime podcast globally. As the Founder of audiochuck, she has built a top-tier podcast production company that has garnered over 2.6 billion downloads, captivating audiences with its gripping storytelling through 10+ chart topping podcasts. Ashley and her team are dedicated to creating responsible true crime content that respects victims and their families.

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Check out these other great crime channels: @KendallRae Life360 App Helps Police Find Missing 13 Yr. Old: Justice For Savannah Copeland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnfNkA9XUNs @48hours The Tara Grinstead Mystery | Full Episode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Kspg2DwbA @LawAndCrime Realtor Executed by Ex-Husband During Horrifying 911 Call: Cops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9nsxl9rD-Q&t=1s @ExploreWithUs Cops Unlock Predator’s Phone, Find Horrifying Videos of Missing Girl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr48Wnw0uew&t=6s @CoffeehouseCrime Cops Discover Secret Journal of Incel Turned Killer: WrathOfMan22 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQKg9miHmdQ

Brief Summary

Marcus Rutledge goes missing, revealing secrets about his life and leading to a homicide investigation after his remains are found years later.

Key points

Tania's Growing Concern. Tania becomes increasingly worried when Marcus doesn't show up or answer his calls.
Secrets Uncovered. Investigators reveal that Marcus had been living a double life, dropping out of college.
A Father's Nightmare. David expresses the anguish of having a missing son and the shocking revelations that follow.
Discovery of the Gun. Police find a gun in Marcus's car, raising questions about his double life.
Strange Phone Calls. Marcus's family receives unsettling silent phone calls after his disappearance.
Athan's Murder. Athan is found dead, raising suspicions about his connection to Marcus's case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's totally uncharacteristic of Marcus not to answer his phone.

Tania's concern for Marcus grows as he doesn't respond.

1:14WatchFeb 28, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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