Pod Insights Crime Junkie MURDERED: Marcus Rutledge About this episode 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.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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0:32 Ashley Flowers? When you're out in nature, you learn to trust your instincts. You pay attention to the trail, your surroundings, and you stay alert to protect yourself from harm. But what if the biggest threat isn't the environment at all? On Park Predators, host Delia Diambra explores true crime cases that happen in national parks and remote wildernesses, the places we usually think of as safe and peaceful. Each episode reveals what happened and how much more there is beneath the surface. Listen to Park Predators now, wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.
1:06 Speaker 02 And I'm Brett.
1:07 Ashley Flowers? And the story I have for you today is about how a young man's disappearance revealed a secret life. And his secret life made it so much harder for investigators to solve his disappearance. This is the story of Marcus Rutledge.
1:57 Ashley Flowers? So it's the afternoon on Monday, June 8, 1998, and a woman named Tawania is getting kind of nervous. She and her 23-year-old boyfriend, Marcus Rutledge, were supposed to meet up, but he's a no-show, not even answering his cellphone. She's Like calling him and calling him, but she's just not hearing anything back.
2:14 Speaker 02 And when's the last time she spoke to him?
2:16 Ashley Flowers? So it actually hasn't been very long. I mean, he had spent the night at her place and then took their two-year-old daughter to daycare at around like 10 o'clock that morning. And they've even honestly talked on the phone since at like 1:00, 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's parents, David and Geraldine, 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 Tawani and Marcus both live in Nashville, Tennessee.
2:58 Ashley Flowers? 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 Tawani 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 Nina, when he got that first call from Tawania, 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.
3:33 Speaker 02 Right.
3:34 Ashley Flowers? But Tawania says that she wants to go to Marcus's 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 when Tawania pulls up to Marcus's 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, Ethan Gibbs Jr., who basically helps her just break into the place.
4:17 Speaker 02 That feels like a pretty big leap.
4:20 Ashley Flowers? Yes, I mean, I think it's it's the unanswered phone calls. They're just, again, I can't
4:24 Speaker 02 It's so unlike him.
4:24 Ashley Flowers? So unlike him. Even when she calls Ethan, like, he doesn't think she's overreacting. He's just as concerned. So when Ethan gets there, he and Tawania 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.
5:06 Ashley Flowers? 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, Tawania calls the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department that very night. And an officer comes to take a missing persons 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, it has Michigan plates still.
5:40 Speaker 02 It's not local.
5:40 Ashley Flowers? 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 Tawania.
6:03 Speaker 02 Why?
6:04 Ashley Flowers? Well, she says apparently it was her phone and she wanted it back? Question mark?
6:09 Speaker 02 Why did police let her take anything?
6:13 Ashley Flowers? 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 Tawania actually took Marcus's caller ID. Because apparently she wanted to look for numbers that she might recognize. Like, I don't know if the caller ID is like built into the phone. I don't know why she would take it instead of telling police.
6:40 Speaker 02 I would say, but couldn't she have checked it right there at the apartment?
6:44 Ashley Flowers? 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.
7:04 Speaker 02 It like factory resets it.
7:06 Ashley Flowers? Yes.
7:07 Speaker 02 And it loses all the information.
7:09 Ashley Flowers? 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, Tawania's house is their first stop. Now, Tawania isn't a stranger to them. On like a past 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.
7:37 Speaker 02 Yeah.
7:38 Ashley Flowers? But Tawania 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 is Ethan. 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 that 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.
8:20 Speaker 02 Had they ever met Ethan before?
8:22 Ashley Flowers? So they actually know him pretty well because up until a few months ago, Ethan 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.
8:34 Speaker 02 Did anything prompt that move or was it just like kind of growing up, wanting your own space?
8:40 Ashley Flowers? 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.
8:47 Speaker 02 The reason you and I have never lived together.
8:49 Ashley Flowers? Preach. Marcus had, I guess, been into his family about Ethan. He's messy, his bills weren't getting paid on time, like that kind of thing. But even after Marcus moved out, he and Ethan stayed really close friends. So like, there is no bad blood between them. And honestly, Marcus's family had always liked Ethan. 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's sister Felicia notices the same strange vibe when Ethan takes her driving around to look for her brother's missing car. She's like, Ethan's acting tense.
9:34 Ashley Flowers? He's not saying much, other than just 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 chalked up to the same thing, right? Now, as detectives start digging in, they begin to learn more about Marcus's life. He has two children, a nearly four-year-old son with a former girlfriend in Knoxville, and a two-year-old daughter with Tawania. 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 Tennessean 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.
10:18 Speaker 02 Was there any relationship drama?
10:20 Ashley Flowers? 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 piece things together.
10:33 Speaker 02 Right.
10:33 Ashley Flowers? 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.
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12:59 Ashley Flowers? So, police learn that Marcus actually dropped out of college the year before, back in 1997.
13:07 Speaker 02 What?
13:07 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, he's basically been pretending to be a student ever since.
13:12 Speaker 02 And his family had no idea?
13:13 Ashley Flowers? Mm-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.
13:26 Speaker 02 Did Tawania know?
13:27 Ashley Flowers? I don't know. So, the detective we talked to didn't know either. And Nina tried calling the number that Marcus's dad had for Tawania. 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,
14:10 Ashley Flowers? 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 small-scale stuff, like not some big-time operation. And Ethan 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 Ethan 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.
14:43 Speaker 02 But that could be why he's acting so strange around Marcus's family. He knows they're all gonna find out about this and be... Upset about the drugs.
14:52 Ashley Flowers? Maybe, yeah. But here's the thing. Even while he's being honest about the weed, investigators still can't shake this feeling like Ethan is holding something back. They just don't know what. Because 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.
15:10 Speaker 02 Did he know that Marcus had dropped out of school?
15:13 Ashley Flowers? 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 Tawania. 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, Tawania 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 Mankiewicz, his son's mom said that he was doing it to help provide for their child. And Tawania tells detectives the same thing, that this was just a way he could make enough money to support everyone.
15:55 Ashley Flowers? 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 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.
16:40 Speaker 02 And I don't know how like churchy they raised him, but I can see that maybe being a reason why he hid it.
16:47 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, I mean, I think he was probably just afraid that David and Jerry would be disappointed in him.
16:53 Speaker 02 And that's probably the reason he kept the school thing to himself. Like, the disappointment that like, not only is he disappointing them, but He's already disappointed them, so it's like one more thing. Had they noticed any changes in Marcus's behavior? Like, looking back, like, knowing or finding out about all this now?
17:10 Ashley Flowers? So at that Memorial Day cookout that I mentioned, 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 elaborate. And as far as his parents knew, everything was fine. Like, you can chalk stress up to the finals he said he was gonna go study for.
17:27 Speaker 02 And say, schooling, yeah.
17:28 Ashley Flowers? 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.
18:09 Speaker 02 Were there people after him? Like, was anybody, like?
18:12 Ashley Flowers? Not that investigators can tell. 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 mid-May, 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.
18:49 Speaker 02 So why rent?
18:50 Ashley Flowers? Right. Now, did he drive back and forth from Nashville to Knoxville a lot to see his son? You know, that's like 360 miles 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.
19:17 Speaker 02 Right, he just had a rental for 10 days.
19:19 Ashley Flowers? 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 30. That is when a maintenance man at an apartment complex more than 20 miles from where Marcus lives
20:03 Ashley Flowers? 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.
20:13 Speaker 02 Why is he just calling about it now?
20:15 Ashley Flowers? 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 like 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.
20:32 Speaker 02 Does Marcus know someone who lives at this complex?
20:35 Ashley Flowers? 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 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...
20:57 Speaker 02 How's he gonna get there?
20:58 Ashley Flowers? The car is the thing you need, right? Like, or if you're gonna leave your car behind, like just leave it parked at your place. Why drive 20 miles 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 is 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, there is a world, right?
21:42 Ashley Flowers? Where someone 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.
21:55 Speaker 02 And was it locked up? Were the keys there?
21:58 Ashley Flowers? It wasn't locked.
21:59 Speaker 02 Okay.
21:59 Ashley Flowers? But Detective Filter couldn't find anything in the reports that indicated if the keys were in it or not.
22:04 Speaker 02 Hmm.
22:05 Ashley Flowers? 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,
22:13 Speaker 02 Right.
22:13 Ashley Flowers? I don't recognize him. I hadn't seen him around before. No idea why he was in the complex at all.
22:19 Speaker 02 But it makes you 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 of times. Like, he was there and then he wasn't and then he, like...
22:32 Ashley Flowers? You would think, but all I know is that according to David, police canvassed the complex and that didn't lead them to Marcus or to anyone who knew Marcus.
22:41 Speaker 02 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's a chain, right? Like, the person in the complex leads you to the driver, the driver leads you to who gave him the car.
22:56 Ashley Flowers? Right.
22:56 Speaker 02 And like, if they're... And like, that goes all the way back to Marcus and why he doesn't have his car and where he is.
23:00 Ashley Flowers? 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 gonna be, like, fessing up to knowing him, right?
23:10 Speaker 02 Right.
23:11 Ashley Flowers? I don't know. All the things are possible. It's also possible that the canvassing they did was just light. Again, maybe people were lying. Or option C, I just truly don't know. 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's 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,
23:55 Ashley Flowers? 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. And the print from the tape leads nowhere. The detective told us they confirmed it belonged to an employee at the video rental place, which is like, give me an older sentence.
24:18 Speaker 02 Right.
24:18 Ashley Flowers? And the fingerprint on the window, they eliminated Ethan and Tawanya 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.
24:43 Speaker 02 Right.
24:43 Ashley Flowers? But they have access to his apartment. Like, couldn't they have lifted his prints from there to compare?
24:49 Speaker 02 I mean, you'd think. So, those two prints were the only prints in the car, right? Like, I guess I thought you were saying that those are the only prints that weren't his.
24:58 Ashley Flowers? Those are the only prints that were identifiable. So Detective Filter-
25:02 Speaker 02 Not like, smudged or smeared or incomplete?
25:05 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, Detective Filter told us it, the car was examined meticulously, is what he said, and that it didn't appear to be wiped down or anything like that. That's a question we asked.
25:13 Speaker 02 Yeah.
25:13 Ashley Flowers? 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, prints aside, what really concerns investigators is what they don't find in the car, which is any proof that Marcus was alive after June 8. All of the receipts, everything in the car predates his disappearance. Now, meanwhile, so they find this, 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 this reminder of
25:58 Ashley Flowers? 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.
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28:02 Ashley Flowers? 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
28:45 Ashley Flowers? of unsettling, quiet calls.
28:48 Speaker 02 Do police try to trace these calls?
28:50 Ashley Flowers? Not that I'm aware of. Like, I don't know if they even try to begin with, or if the problem was like, from what I can tell, there's no pattern to this or anything. So I don't know if they just think they're weird 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 are 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
29:35 Ashley Flowers? 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.
29:46 Ashley Flowers? They're still pretty sure that Ethan 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 involved. Because 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 Ethan. So let me take you to February 1999.
30:31 Ashley Flowers? By now, Marcus has been missing for about eight and a half months, and the case is at a complete standstill. Investigators are convinced that Ethan knows more than he's letting on, but he's not talking. Now, around this time, Ethan 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 Ethan's brother Jonathan. Jonathan has been staying with Ethan, but as soon as Charles moves in, Jonathan's like, "I'm peacing out for a bit." Like, he just wants to get away from the guy. Because Charles is one of Ethan'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.
31:15 Ashley Flowers? And there was definitely reasons for concern. So according to articles in The Tennessean by Kirk Loggins and Kathy Carlson, Charles had pass arrests 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.
31:41 Speaker 02 Hmm, you know we don't believe in coincidences anymore.
31:45 Ashley Flowers? 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 gets shot five times and somehow not only did he manage 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.
32:28 Ashley Flowers? 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 too bonkers.
32:51 Speaker 02 Okay, so this one is the Corsica? And this is the Ashley?
32:57 Ashley Flowers? They're like identical.
32:58 Speaker 02 They're kind of like the same car. They definitely look incredibly similar.
33:03 Ashley Flowers? I mean, like if you weren't like a car-
33:05 Speaker 02 Person?
33:05 Ashley Flowers? Right, or like, not even a car person, but like you knew your makes and models, you could easily mix those up. 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 Cowan was hit by maybe friendly fire during the chaos? Because again, it didn't come from like Charles's gun. Supposedly it was a gun left behind. Again, I don't know if that matters or whatnot, but whatever. Now, this Cowan guy was no stranger to detectives. He was actually a potential suspect in six homicides.
33:49 Speaker 02 Oh, my God.
33:49 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, as far as I can tell, Cowan was never arrested for murder. He was, however, arrested and convicted of attempted first-degree 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 rap sheet, which included multiple drug-related felonies. Now, in connection to all of this, Charles wasn't arrested since he was acting in self-defense. But investigators didn't believe that Cowan and the crew he came with just randomly chose Charles's house to rob.
34:24 Speaker 02 Did they arrest anyone else in connection to it? I mean, it's, it was more than one person, right?
34:30 Ashley Flowers? It was, but as far as I know, they didn't like arrest anyone or charge anyone except for Cowan.
34:36 Speaker 02 Did they recover the gun used to shoot at Charles?
34:39 Ashley Flowers? 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 Cowan's threw him a quote unquote "big gun" when the first gun that he was using ran out of ammunition.
35:03 Speaker 02 What about the gun in Marcus's car?
35:07 Ashley Flowers? Well, so at the time this is happening, I mean, they're not going to find that for weeks. But when they do find it, I know that they run the bullets through their database to check for links to other crimes, but nothing comes up. So I don't think that gun was used in this.
35:20 Speaker 02 Okay.
35:21 Ashley Flowers? If that's what you're getting at?
35:21 Speaker 02 Yeah.
35:22 Ashley Flowers? Okay, so that happens. Now let's jump back to February of 1999. According to Kirk Loggins, on the 18th, Ethan informs his brother that Charles is going to crash at them, right? And so this is when Jonathan's like, mm, don't like this guy. I'm going to peace out. A couple of days after that, Ethan tells him that Charles was quote unquote "going crazy." Like apparently he was super paranoid. He was saying that his girlfriend was trying to have him killed. 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.
36:04 Ashley Flowers? And when he makes his way inside, there on the floor, he sees his brother Ethan's body, stiff and cold. He had been shot multiple times. Now, police believe that Ethan 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 forced entry, although they do notice that something is missing: Ethan's white Pontiac Grand Am. But, the next day, someone spots this vehicle in Nashville's Inglewood neighborhood, which is like 18 miles from Ethan's apartment,
36:48 Ashley Flowers? and they recognize it from the news reports.
36:50 Speaker 02 Hmm, this is feeling too similar.
36:52 Ashley Flowers? Right? And Ethan's aunt tells Kathy Carlson that his family doesn't know of any connections that he has to that area.
37:01 Speaker 02 Of course.
37:02 Ashley Flowers? Now, obviously, the biggest difference between Marcus and Ethan's cases are that Ethan's is clearly a homicide. He's been found, while Marcus is still a missing person.
37:12 Speaker 02 Right.
37:13 Ashley Flowers? 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 Ethan's murder.
37:22 Speaker 02 It's gotta be Charles.
37:23 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, and mostly because an Inglewood woman IDs him as the guy that she saw leaving Ethan's car on her street the day before his body was found.
37:34 Speaker 02 Wait, how old is Charles? I'm wondering if he could have been the one seen driving Marcus's car?
37:40 Ashley Flowers? No, that, they thought that guy was middle-aged. Um, Charles is like Marcus's age, so like 23.
37:45 Speaker 02 Early twenties, okay.
37:46 Ashley Flowers? Right, but still, police can't ignore how sketchy his behavior gets. Kirk Loggins reported that Charles skips Ethan's funeral and completely ghosts police when they try to question him further. A friend who hung out with Charles and Ethan 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 Ethan's murder in early March.
38:30 Ashley Flowers? And after a few days on the run, he ends up turning himself in.
38:34 Speaker 02 Hold up, what's the motive? Charles got paranoid and then just snapped on Ethan?
38:41 Ashley Flowers? No, so not likely. Detective Filter actually refers to Ethan's murder as drug-related because he believes that Ethan 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 Ethan was working as a tax consultant at his father's, like, income tax business. So, I don't know that they're connecting it to, like, Charles's paranoid, like, 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. Either way, at first, investigators suspect that there could be a connection between Ethan's murder and Marcus's disappearance.
39:26 Ashley Flowers? And when the Rutledge family hears about Ethan's death, they can hardly believe it. Marcus's sister Felicia is devastated because in her mind, Ethan 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.
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41:52 Ashley Flowers? I wish I could tell you more about what investigators learned from Charles. 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 Loggins' article about the prelim was literally "Hearing
42:35 Ashley Flowers? Short on Evidence in Bellevue Slaying." So the evidence presented by the state, I mean, we know was mostly circum- 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.
42:57 Speaker 02 But I thought his gun was used to kill Ethan.
43:00 Ashley Flowers? No, he just had the same type of gun as the one used to kill Ethan.
43:05 Speaker 02 What about that witness who ID'd him dropping Ethan's car, though?
43:10 Ashley Flowers? 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. Ethan's murder is still considered unsolved today. And when it comes to any connection between Ethan'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 Cowan
43:54 Ashley Flowers? or his associates in connection with Marcus's 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.
44:04 Speaker 02 But no one has in, oh, about three decades?
44:08 Ashley Flowers? No.
44:09 Speaker 02 I mean, to me, the timing alone. The home invasion, a day after he went missing, not to mention the red car stuff.
44:17 Ashley Flowers? I know.
44:18 Speaker 02 It definitely raises like a couple of questions, at least.
44:21 Ashley Flowers? Right. Plus, we know that Cowan 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 and get in touch with Cowan, 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 Ethan knew more than he let on and that he took some secrets about Marcus's disappearance to his grave.
45:04 Speaker 02 Do they have any theories about where Marcus could be? I mean, as similar and connected as these cases seem, 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?
45:20 Ashley Flowers? 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 Rutledge family learns that Marcus had another big secret. They find out that he had a daughter.
45:53 Speaker 02 With who?
45:54 Ashley Flowers? Tawania.
45:55 Speaker 02 Another one?
45:57 Ashley Flowers? No. Brett, they never knew he had a daughter.
46:01 Speaker 02 How is that even possible? I mean, didn't investigators know?
46:04 Ashley Flowers? So they did. I don't know how this happened, but it looks like they never communicated that to his family, which like, why would you, right? Like, I can, maybe they thought like, oh, surely they know about this grandchild.
46:17 Speaker 02 Yeah, there's no need to bring up something so obvious.
46:20 Ashley Flowers? Right.
46:21 Speaker 02 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?
46:33 Ashley Flowers? 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 Tawania never mentioned it either, which makes you wonder like, what other secrets 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...
46:52 Speaker 02 She's like a main contact when Marcus goes missing. Like, they're in communication with her.
46:58 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, and you would think when she calls them to be like, oh... He's like, he's not answering his phone. Oh, when's the last time you saw him? When he went to drop our daughter off at daycare? That's how we started the story. So it feels like something that got intentionally left out. I don't know. I wish we could talk to her, but we haven't been able to get ahold of her, like I said.
47:16 Speaker 02 I mean, how did they even find out about their granddaughter?
47:20 Ashley Flowers? 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 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, this is when he picks up the investigation for what started as like a pretty routine reason. Basically, they were doing like DNA housekeeping.
48:05 Ashley Flowers? They only have DNA from one of Marcus's kids in CODIS. 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.
48:16 Speaker 02 Did something specific prompt that? Like, were there remains that could have been his that were found?
48:21 Ashley Flowers? 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 relatives, like get some answers some way.
48:43 Ashley Flowers? Hi, me. A big update. So that was kind of where our episode was supposed to end. Britt and I wrapped it up, did the usual call to 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 Ashland City Highway and Pecan Valley Road. That is nearly 13 miles from where Marcus's car was found, and 30 miles from his apartment.
49:25 Ashley Flowers? 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 CODIS until a month after we interviewed the police. So, we interviewed them in October, and then the ME submitted the skull DNA to CODIS in November. This is of 2024, and we don't know why it took so long. Marcus's DNA had been in CODIS 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.
50:10 Ashley Flowers? 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, because 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 persons case is now actively being worked as a homicide.
50:55 Ashley Flowers? 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
51:39 Ashley Flowers? and where he was found, it could help connect some of the dots about what happened in those crucial days after June 8, 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 Rutledge, or even Ethan's murder, contact the Metro Nashville Police Department Crime Stoppers Division at 615-74-CRIME. At 615-742-7463.
52:25 Ashley Flowers? You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com.
52:31 Speaker 02 You can also follow us on Instagram at @crimejunkiepodcast.
52:34 Ashley Flowers? And we'll be back next week with a brand new episode.
53:11 Ashley Flowers? Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?
53:21 Speaker 02 Growing up in a small town, I know how deeply a crime can shake a local community. And I know that what makes the headlines is rarely the full story. That's what Kylie Lowe explores on her show Dark Down East. She digs into cases from Maine and New England using original reporting, archival records, and conversations with the people who knew them best. Each episode takes you inside the communities these stories shaped, and the families who never stop searching for answers. Listen to Dark Down East wherever you get your podcasts.
53:49 Speaker 04 When the nights grow longer, the shadows start to stir. And that can only mean one thing. Full Body Chills is back. This season, step inside original tales where every doorway leads somewhere darker, every stranger carries a secret, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Each story takes you somewhere new, but be careful. You never know what might follow you home. So gather round, listen close, and stream Full Body Chills wherever you get your podcasts.
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