Missing In Nashville

April 29, 2023 marks 20 years since 13-year-old Tabitha Danielle Tudors vanished in East Nashville, TN on her way to the school bus.  Chris reviews this tragic mystery and describes the steps she would take to revive the investigation.   

Transcript

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People always want to know what it's like to be me. How does it feel to see a dead body? Tell a family their loved one has been murdered, talk to a rape victim, catch a killer, and get them to confess. Hold on time my friends, get ready for the journey. And welcome to murder with mannina. And hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of murder with mannina. I think if it sounds funny on this podcast, it's because Colleen is in the jungle in India In India, literally, right? Yes, I'm in a wildlife sanctuary in India. So the the, the internet is less than ideal for me on this end. Yeah, yeah. So we'll get through it. But if it gets a little spotty, a little delay, that is why but anyway, I want to start out this episode of the podcast with some good news, I got a really nice message on Facebook, it said Christine, my son got me a murder case file for Valentine's Day, we solved the murder in six and a half hours was less than eight plus crime scene photos. It was super hard, but it was all due to your awesome tips and tricks. So I thought that was cool. She said that, you know, people are buying those murder packets on Amazon and doing them. So I actually got some for my for my students. And they're a lot of fun. They give you crime scene photos, and they give you the victim and pictures and all the stuff that's happened and you have to figure it out. And you kind of get online and you tell them the answer. And if you get it right, then you get to move on to the next section. So anyway, shout out to brandy Russell Eastwood for supporting me in my career and my podcast. So unfortunately, again, we have to talk about another mass shooting that happened at Michigan State University on February 13. And we'll just briefly talk about it. And again, I think five people were injured three people were murdered as the gunmen who at this point in time, Anthony McCray, they weren't able to find really connection to the university, but he decided around 830 to go up to the Michigan State University campus and start shooting. And so they are grieving and reeling from that unfortunate tragedy that's happening again and again and again. But what's kind of interesting, as I was kind of looking at it a little bit as Anthony McCray, the shooter, in a couple hand guns, he had a lot of ammunition. And what's interesting is he was arrested a couple years back for having a handgun without a license. And he goes to the court system. And unfortunately, they offered him a plea because it's a felony charge up admission to carry a gun without hand handgun license, and he's and he was concealing it and all that, but he was charged with that. And then the prosecutor office, comes back and gives them a plea deal, and he pleased to a misdemeanor charge. And he was on probation for 18 months, started out being 12 months, and then it went to 18 months. But unfortunately, because when the probation ended, it allowed him to buy handguns again. And so because the prosecutor's office offered him a plea to a misdemeanor charge, as opposed to a felony, he was able to buy handguns, and what she did, and then he decided to go shoot up Michigan State, but we were just talking about the plea arrangement and the plea deals. And for people that know that most, most people 95% of the cases are given plea deals, which means they don't do not see the inside of a courtroom. And it allows them the positives of it are they do have to plead guilty to something. So, you know, they're found guilty. Unfortunately, though, they plead to something, they plead to a lesser charge. That must be such a frustrating aspect of it's horrible, because what happens is exactly this. Now, he doesn't have a felony on his record. And he was allowed to go out and buy handguns. So you know, there are pros and cons and each case I think is individual. But I think in this day and age when people are being arrested for any type of gun charge, you really have to kind of try and stay away from offering them something that still would allow them to purchasing guns. And the prosecutor up in Michigan now is getting a lot of flack for doing that. And she goes on to explain that look. 95% of cases are plead or pled out because what it allows it, it allows it to get through the system quicker. It doesn't overpower the courts because so many cases aren't going to court. It's settled outside of court. And then again, it's a win for the prosecution because pleading guilty, even if it's alleged surcharge is a win. But, you know, and like I've said before the prosecutor's office want to take wants to take a case to court that they can win. And so it's a win for them. If they can get somebody to sign a plea agreement and say, Yes, I'm guilty, you know, and it's a big, I'll give you this, you give me this type of thing. But we are starting to see the repercussions of this. And in this story, you know, in this incident, you know, he was going to hit a note that he was going to shoot up several other places, I think Meyers where he worked, or had worked, and then a place in New Jersey. But he was 43 years old living with his father, and both his father and his sister described him as an angry evil. So they knew he had some anger issues. And I think what kind of expedited all of that was the passage name his mother, a couple of years ago, he's kind of been angry evil, ever since then. So again, it's it's such a sad, sad thing that we have to report on, it seems like all the time, and, of course, whenever anything like this in the news comes up, I try to talk to my kids. You know, I have one that's thinking about going to Michigan State, it's just crazy. So, you know, again, I hate you know, it's the same old thing prayers out to the families and, and everything. But man, we've got to do something. And, you know, the leaders in Michigan State, we're like, what is enough gonna be enough? And that is just the question, when is it going to be enough? So I don't agree always with the plea agreements, they are offered all the time. And that needs ethic beat to the forefront to have why are we not taking these cases, to court. And of course, when you take them to court, there's always a chance that you may lose. So that's the reason that plea agreements are given. And to keep the system moving in a factory line, workers get the cases in and get the cases out, get the cases in and get the cases out. So there's benefits and negative and both but we seem to be seen as a country, the repercussions of these types of things. So anyways, my enough of my rant on that, but it's just so disturbing. So anyway, but I want to shed light on a case that I want to shed light today on is out of East Nashville, Tennessee, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee is one of my favorite places in Colleen and I've been there together. And I've been there a few times. And I love that city. It's just cases. This case is a little interesting. The victim's name in this it's still it's still considered a missing persons because her body has not been found. And that always begs the question is Is she still out there? And and the parents you know, of course just want closure. Is she still out? There is she is she did you know and of course I always say the chances of her being dead are just really, really high. But you know, every once in a while you get a case where they're found, you know, alive and they just kind of lived a different life. But anyway, her name is Tabitha Daniel tutors. Her date of birth is 429 if 2003 are no I'm sorry. Yeah, no, she went missing on April 29 2003. But she was a white female. She was 13 at the time of her disappearance, so she would have been, oh shoot a couple days ago she would have been 33 years old. When she went missing, she was four foot nine to five foot she was little weighing 90 to 100 pounds. You kind of the background on this a little bit. We'll also let me give her her description. She had Sandy blond hair, blue eyes. She has a birthmark on her abdomen and a scar on her finger. Um, her ears were pierced and she has fair, freckled complexion. Small four foot nine again five, four foot nine to five one is kind of how she was described 90 to 100 Pass and not big at all. So the background on this a little bit with Tabitha was last seen around 7am headed to her bus stop. Her mother lead left around 6am for work and her father leaves around seven. And she she is supposed to board a bus around eight o'clock. A witness saw her in the direction of the bus stop and she was kind of looking down and looking at some papers. She never got on the bus. Tabitha lived with her mom and dad. And she was described as a fantastic student who was happy, lively and cheerful. She went to Bailey middle school and her teacher and friends loved her. She was I guess a really really good student and involved in a lot of different things. She has an older sister who was actually 13 years older than her and an older brother by 12 years. That day, Tabitha failed to come home from school and they learned that she was kind counted absent from school, Mom and Dad response reported her missing about 6pm. So what's interesting, and I was starting to think about this as she had never missed a day of school. And you just wonder if, like, each day when I take attendance, I have to do it on my computer. And it will send a message home to the parents, that the child was not in school, but you almost wonder if we could get an automated system that says, Hey, she didn't show up, you know, at the beginning of school to kind of let parents know, because they're behind the eight ball when they learn that she wasn't at school. They didn't know she didn't go to school until she didn't come home from school. So you wonder if like, man, somehow there could be some kind of computer notification appearance, you know, in the in the morning, to let you know, that they're, that your child didn't appear that the search could have gotten started a lot easier. A lot earlier in this, if my son did not show up for school, and I, you know, maybe once forgot to call them in sick, they called me. So there is such a thing. Maybe it's not in all schools, but it does usually happen. Yeah, right. Yeah, they, you know, it's interesting that, that that didn't happen, you know, whatever, but I was just thinking about that. Because, you know, every once in a while, I will mark one of my kids absent and they were there. And their parents say something to them, and they're like, you know, miss Christmas, Chris, I was there, you know, so they do get a notification, but I think they don't get it until the end of the day. Okay, so let me just start off with Okay, so Tabitha failed to come home from school and they learned that she was you know, absent from school so they were really really far behind. Mom and Dad report her missing about six o'clock. Um, so they're so behind in this, especially with the witness, see, and her a little bit before eight o'clock, but never getting on that bus. So law enforcement, they do a great job. They go straight to work, and they learn more about Tabitha. You know, the first question, of course, is Did she run away and from the background that they got theirs? There was no history of running away. And that's always the first question law enforcement is going to ask when a child goes missing is, especially at this age, is there a possibility that she ran away, but there was just no history indicating that she had no boyfriend, she made straight A's. She had perfect attendance and was active in the church choir, her parents could not think of a reason why she would run away. So hope, you know, it seemed like once they learned all that 40s in the in the neighborhood and everybody got on it. They still have to assume he can tunnel vision, you know, there's still a possibility of her running away. But you can't, you can't treat it like that at that point. Because there's just no validity at all. And so as law enforcement, you really, you know, there's no validity at that, then you've got to go, you know, to the point that she's run away and get on it. So they do an interview, or they do they talk to her parents. And then they go in and they look and they search her room. And hopefully at that point, somebody's in there searching her room. And then there's other officers in the area looking for her. So in her room, were all of her belongings, including, you know, her clothes and makeup. And more important, they thought was that she left 20 bucks. She was supposed to do six flags in two weeks, and super excited about that. So she had money in a room. So that's another indicator, you know that she didn't run away. And that she had been talking about going to Six Flags, which is a huge amusement park and she was super, super excited about that. So based on all of that you have to kind of tailor your investigation toward her being abducted. Law enforcement, Claire's her parents, they did that pretty quick. There was a little bit of suspicion, suspicion about maybe her siblings. But none of them were really considered suspects. People started canvassing the neighborhood and started talking to everyone and I'm such a huge advocate of that when kids go missing, get everybody that you can because really realistically, the street officer gets there, they make the report, they're trying to get as much information. There's other officers that are going on runs in the neighborhood as well. Then the officers have to, you know, contact a missing persons detective. And really, you're only talking about two or three people that are starting to get the information and really physically nobody's out looking yet. So as more officers get contacted that there's a missing child, and then the neighbors get involved. That is such a huge, huge thing. So if you're ever in a position to get out, you know, you hear of a missing child in your neighborhood. You know, get out and join the search because it's so valuable at the very beginning so valuable. A neighborhood boy a little guy said that he he told police that he saw Tabitha get into a red car on that morning. He said that there was a black male driving it he thought maybe 30 to 40 wearing a baseball hat. The boy said after she got in the car, the car reversed his direction and went up the hill. All right. And that's, it's what he was a little guy. And he gave that information. He did. Well, enforcement was not convinced how credible he was, or whatever. But they, you know, they put that description out as well. And what's kind of interesting is that the boyfriend of the sister was looked at, because he drove a red car. But he was eventually cleared. The reason why he was kind of looked at is obviously he would know, or he did have knowledge of her route to the bus stop. So they cleared him, I guess. So they keep kind of going on. And they do get the dogs out, and they trace her scent. So again, they're doing everything they can, they got people out looking, they're doing interviews, they're calling the dogs, and the dog actually traced her scent to the similar to a similar route to her bus stop. But it ends up in an alley, a place that according to everyone who knew her she would never ever go, so the dog sent, you know, it was going to the bus stop, but then detour to an alley. So, you know, and in the interviews with the parents, and that's the thing, too, is you have to be really, really honest with law enforcement, you know, and a lot of people don't do that. Because I don't want to, you know, say that their kid is bad, or say that their kid, you know, would never run away or things like that. But the more honest you can be, as we're trying to piece the puzzle together, the better. So, you know, the family see, and there's no way in hell that she would go into this alley, and based on the information that they have, right now, it doesn't appear like she would do something like that. So again, it looks more like an abduction. But like I said, interesting to have the sister, her former boyfriend matches matches the description of the driver of the red car. He also knew where she got on the bus every morning. And according to law enforcement, they could never able, they were never able to really to link him. He was interviewed, and as he was interviewed, but the one question that I have is, was his car searched? And I can't seem to figure that out. So as I'm looking into this, I'm like, okay, so they interviewed him? And then of course, always my question is, how hard did they lean on him? How Cooperative was the did he get? Was he able to give alibi? At that time in the morning? What is he done all day? Those types of things? And if they found this car, which I think they probably did, that they search it right, that they and one thing they could have done since they sent the dog out, is send the dog to the car there was her sent in the vehicle, you know, and I don't know if that happens. So those are always things, you know, that I look for when we're looking at these cold cases? Yes. So interest? Yes. Wow. Yeah. Right. I mean, it sounds like they did. You know, they, they were using all the possible things that they could use, you know, with the dogs and getting everybody and in getting the information out. But that question, just because I didn't find any information about that makes me feel like oh, you know, did they did they go that one step further, but we're in her room. And other interesting thing was there was a piece of paper written in her handwriting, and found in her room that said t, the letter t d t. And then in MTL, and T D, T, or her, her are her initials, okay, they did find that in her room. They also found a business card with tabs with his name, address and phone number on it, and there was a notation that said, Call me sexy girl, which was crossed out in rewritten and it said get a girl. So there was a business card cab with his name or address, phone number. And in quotes, same call me sexy girl that was scratched or that was crossed out and it was said get a girl. Law enforcement learn that the card had been. It was right. I don't know. That's a good question. Yeah, I don't I don't know. Law enforcement learn that the card had been given to Tabitha by a friend and had no connection to the case. There's no information about like, did they go and interview you know, for them to say no connection to the cage. I'm assuming that they went and interviewed her. And just you know, this card was just given to her by her friend. But man, isn't that weird? Yeah, that's a strange thing. She's 13 years old. That's not appropriate for a 13 year old. And that was and that was a long time ago. It's I mean, kids are more forward and open now. That wasn't the climate back then. Like, it's just that's really strange. Yeah, really? Strange. Yeah. Yeah. If her friends were interviewed, then they would find out what was the point of having a business card a 13 year old? Yes, it is a joke that her friends didn't like, what was what was it about? Yeah, and business cards aren't a thing. Oh, are they? Okay, but she was saying in that same time frame, that's what it seems like, okay, it doesn't have anything to do with it then explain how you know, it didn't have anything to do with it. Because it's, that's not because this is a girl who came from a loving home it sounds like so far right? A pretty supportive loving home with good parents. You know? So that's kind of a strange and of course, you know, 13 year olds experiment and all that and they test the boundaries. But I don't know that still seems especially for 20 years ago. really odd. Yeah. And then you know, for it to say call me sexy girl and then crossed out. Ghetto girl. You know, it's just weird HERC in context of her life. Yeah, really odd. Really, really often really odd. I completely agree. It we law enforcement kind of you know, investigating that it kind of stops I think there's fliers out in there. People kind of still looking but it kind of it slow some steam. However, though, in in October 2003, a trucker reported a possible sighting of Tabitha from Linton, Indiana. Okay, so a trucker at a truck stop says that he sees a girl a competent accompanied by a man and another teenage girl, the girl who looked like Tabitha appeared to be anxious and afraid. A hotel clerk and Linton, Indiana also saw that man with a girl looking like Tabitha, and she contacts the police. Now letting the Indiana is has maybe seven people. I mean, it's really, really small. But I find that interesting that a trucker. So that goes to tell me that law enforcement did a good job of getting right. How would the trucker write her picture out and all of that? And, you know, and then that begs the question, man, did she get into trafficking? At some point? You know, you have to look at that. So, you know, greatly that hotel worker contacted law enforcement. But it doesn't seem that it went anywhere. It didn't seem to go anywhere. But it does beg the question, Is she still alive? Is she possibly be in traffic it? You know, I mean, but me and Linton, Indiana, that is, that's just a weird workplace. So as the years go on, you know, it just it's been heartbreaking for the parents that I contacted one of the family members, but I haven't heard back, so I kind of wanted to interview them and talk to them about it and kind of see, you know, where they think law enforcement is on it. But they didn't respond. But her mom in an interview just said, you know, if she's gone, at least I want to know where she's at. If she has passed, I just want to put her to rest. So I have somewhere to go. That was an interview with her mom and dad, and I just saw one kind of recently with them. And they're just heartbroken. They're heartbroken in the stretch that they feel so bad. It's interesting, because when tragic tragedy happens, what people you know, remember what those types of things and, you know, they were just so they're so upset that they got such a late start in reporting understandable, you know, and we have to learn from these cases. And, you know, we have to learn from these cases and do better with these people go missing because time is such of the essence. And you know, they just lost so many hours. Again, law enforcement believes that she may have been forced into traffic, and that's kind of how they're leaving the investigation. And so they're doing, you know, progression photos, was such an interesting career to do that right to figure out what somebody would look like, at 13. And now she would be 33. And so those progression photos are out and about the FBI at this time is offering a reward up to 50,000. Again, I want to stress that she's got a birthmark on her stomach, and a scar on her finger. But man, this case is just so it isn't like your parent's worst nightmare. Like while you send your your kid to school and they get abducted. It's just one of the worst. So just wanted to highlight it. East Nashville. I still, you know, if I were to go back and look at our blog to sit down with mom and dad, the sister, the boyfriend again and just kind of almost redo the investigation to see kind of where we could go with that. But again, if anybody has any information, again, the FBI is offering $50,000 And it's a real really easy number to remember one 800 Call FBI. Again, in my I don't know, My instincts tell me that she's probably dead. But you never know in this world of trafficking and, you know, being abducted at that young age, who knows? Also interviewer friends, to find out what that business card was about. What's the story behind that? Well, and I kind of want to, I would love to interview the little guy while he's not little anymore, but I like to go back and interview interview him as an adult, because, you know, he's the one that saw, you know, he's, he's the best witness at this point, saw her getting to a vehicle kind of gave the description the car and, and the driver. And then for whatever reason, law enforcement at that point said that he wasn't you know, he was okay, but not crazy credible. And I thought, Man, I don't know, you know, he's got the best information, it fits where the dog kind of traces are back and then it's, you know, he's, he's specific enough to say that once she got into the vehicle, the car turned around, you know, did a quick U turn and ran up the hill. So I would love to go back and interview him and just say, you know, do or do a new interview with that, but I don't know the business card. Boy boyfriend, I don't know. Absolutely. So I think there's probably a lot of work to be done but just wanted to highlight it. These things make me so sad and and again, if you have any information, one 800 Call FBI. How easy is that to remember? So anyways, again, everyone Thanks again for listening. Thanks again for leaving us nice messages. There was a gentleman that sent me an email about a case that was solved I think of God it's been many many years but solved by DNA and he wanted me to talk a little bit about you know, ancestry.com So I'll do some research and and we can talk about how that's really becoming a huge thing in law enforcement and solving cold cases. And again, we just appreciate you listening Colleen Be careful in the jungle literally, literally in the jungle. And everyone stay safe. Keep your head on a swivel and we will see you next time on murder with mannina.