Skull found by hunter in 2010 identified as dad missing since 1998, Tennessee cops say

A skull found by a hunter in the Tennessee woods in 2010 has now been identified as belonging to a 23-year-old dad who disappeared in 1998, authorities said.

Foul play is suspected in the now-confirmed death of Marcus Rutledge, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said in a Jan. 31 news release.

Rutledge’s family hadn’t given up hope that the Tennessee State University student would be found alive.

“I don’t pass through an airport without checking out all the faces, and thinking that somewhere I will run into him,” Rutledge’s father, David Rutledge, told WTVF in July 2022.

What his family didn’t know at the time of his disappearance was that Rutledge had dropped out of Tennessee State University and was selling marijuana to support his two kids, MNPD cold case detective Matthew Filter told NBC’s Dateline podcast in July 2024.

Rutledge was dropping his daughter off at day care the morning of June 1998 when he disappeared without a trace, Filter told the outlet.

His girlfriend, who was the mother of his daughter, couldn’t get in touch with him later that day and reported him missing to police, according to Filter.

Nearly three weeks later, Rutledge’s car was found abandoned at another apartment complex, police said. Investigators suspected foul play.

“I can’t think of anyone who would want to hurt him,” his sister, Felicia Rutledge, told WTVF in 2022. “I miss my brother, he was my best friend.”

His family and law enforcement pleaded for tips for decades, but the case went cold.

Then in December 2010, more than 12 years after Rutledge’s disappearance, a hunter stumbled across a human skull — but no other remains — in the woods near the Cumberland River in Nashville about 30 or 40 yards from the road, according to police.

The unknown person became known as Pecan Valley John Doe, who died of undetermined causes.

Investigators uploaded DNA from the skull to a database managed by the FBI, and eventually a hit came back on another DNA sample from one of Rutledge’s family members, police said.

David Rutledge told Dateline in 2024 that his family’s priority was closure. After the identification of his son’s remains, he thanked investigators who helped them along that journey.

“Your efforts have brought us another step closer to closure,” he wrote in a statement to the outlet, published Feb. 1. “Marcus, we will forever cherish the memories.”

The investigation is ongoing.

This story was originally published February 3, 2025 at 2:15 PM with the headline "Skull found by hunter in 2010 identified as dad missing since 1998, Tennessee cops say."