Cold Cases in Tennessee

ColdCaseIndex documents 18 cold cases in Tennessee, spanning 1969–2024. 9 of these cases remain fully unsolved. Each case page includes documented details, status, and information on how to submit a tip.

18 Documented Cases
9 Still Unsolved
1969–2024 Year Range
3 Case Types

By Type

11 Homicides 6 Missing Persons 1 Suspicious Death

By Status

9 Unsolved 7 Solved 1 Conviction 1 No Conviction

All Tennessee Cases

Unsolved 2024

Anthony "Big Jook" Mims

Anthony "Big Jook" Mims, a 47-year-old music executive and the older brother of Memphis rapper Yo Gotti, was fatally shot on January 13, 2024, outside Perignon's Restaurant and Event Center on Winchester Road in Memphis,

Memphis Homicide Age 47
Solved 2024

Riley Strain

University of Missouri senior Riley Strain disappeared on Nashville's Broadway after being kicked out of a bar. His body was found in the Cumberland River two weeks later. His death was ruled accidental drowning.

Nashville Suspicious Death Age 22
Unsolved 2024

Sebastian Rogers

Sebastian Wayne Drake Rogers, a 15-year-old boy with autism, vanished overnight from his family's home on Stafford Court in Hendersonville, Tennessee, between the night of February 25 and the morning of February 26, 2024

Hendersonville Missing Person Age 15
Solved 2023

Tyre Nichols

Tyre Nichols was beaten to death by five Memphis police officers after a traffic stop. Body camera footage showed a prolonged assault. Three officers were convicted of federal civil rights violations.

Memphis Homicide Age 29
Solved 2022

Eliza Fletcher

Teacher and heiress Eliza Fletcher was abducted while jogging near the University of Memphis and murdered. Cleotha Abston, who had a prior kidnapping conviction, was sentenced to life.

Memphis Homicide Age 34
Unsolved 2021

Summer Wells

Five-year-old Summer Wells vanished from her family's rural home in Hawkins County, Tennessee. Her mother said she went to play in the yard and disappeared. Despite exhaustive searches of the rugged terrain, Summer has n

Rogersville Missing Person Age 5
Solved 2021

Young Dolph

Memphis rapper Young Dolph (Adolph Thornton Jr.) was shot and killed while buying cookies at Makeda's Homemade Cookies. Justin Johnson and Cornelius Smith were charged with his murder.

Memphis Homicide Age 36
Solved 2019

Evelyn Boswell

Fifteen-month-old Evelyn Boswell was reported missing in February 2020 but had actually been dead since December 2019. Her mother Megan Boswell was convicted of her murder.

Sullivan County Homicide Age 1
Solved 2016

Emma Walker

Sixteen-year-old Emma Walker was shot through her bedroom wall by her obsessive ex-boyfriend William Riley Gaul while she slept. Gaul, a high school football player, was convicted.

Knoxville Homicide Age 16
Solved 2016

Joel & Lisa Guy Sr.

Joel Guy Jr. murdered his parents over Thanksgiving weekend and dismembered them, dissolving body parts in acid. He was motivated by wanting to keep receiving financial support from them.

Knoxville Homicide
Unsolved 2015

Lauren Agee

Lauren Agee, 21, was found dead below a cliff at Center Hill Lake near Smithville, Tennessee, in July 2015. Officials ruled the death accidental, but her family disputes that finding and believes foul play was involved.

Smithville Homicide Age 21
Conviction 2011

Holly Bobo

Twenty-year-old nursing student Holly Bobo was abducted near her home in Darden, Tennessee. Her remains were found four years later. Zach Adams was convicted of her murder in 2017 and sentenced to three life terms. Two o

Darden Homicide Age 20
No Conviction 2011

Karen Swift

Karen Swift, a 44-year-old Dyersburg, Tennessee mother of four, vanished after a Halloween party in late October 2011 and was found beaten to death six weeks later. Her estranged husband, David Swift, was charged in 2022

Dyersburg Homicide Age 44
Unsolved 2003

Tabitha Tuders

Tabitha Danielle Tuders, 13, vanished on the morning of April 29, 2003, while walking roughly one block from her East Nashville home to her school bus stop at 14th and Boscobel Streets. She never boarded the bus, and inv

Nashville Missing Person Age 13
Unsolved 1996

Blair Adams

Canadian construction worker Blair Adams was found murdered in a Knoxville, Tennessee parking lot after a bizarre cross-country flight from his home in Surrey, British Columbia. His erratic behavior before death and the

Knoxville Homicide Age 31
Unsolved 1996

Cayce Lynn McDaniel

Fourteen-year-old Cayce Lynn McDaniel disappeared from Milan, Tennessee in May 1996. She was last seen near her home. Despite years of investigation and FBI involvement, she has never been found and no one has been charg

Milan Missing Person Age 14
Unsolved 1976

Teresa "Trenny" Lynn Gibson

Trenny Lynn Gibson, a 16-year-old Bearden High School student from Knoxville, Tennessee, vanished during a class field trip in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Clingmans Dome on October 8, 1976. Despite one o

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Missing Person Age 16
Unsolved 1969

Dennis Lloyd Martin

Dennis Lloyd Martin, a 6-year-old boy from Knoxville, Tennessee, vanished on June 14, 1969, while playing with other children at Spence Field in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during a Father's Day weekend campi

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Missing Person Age 6