It's an early Tuesday morning in East Nashville.A family is just waking up for the day, and everyone is getting ready for work and sending their daughter off to school.
Debra Tuders leaves for work at 6:30 a.m. Thirty minutes later, Bo Tuders wakes Tabitha up for school. Tabithia's siblings are still sleeping. Neighbors see Tabitha walking to the bus stop as usual. That afternoon, Tabitha isn't on the bus home.
Her parents think that Tabitha may have missed the bus, walked, or maybe was with a friend, but by 5 p.m., panic sets in. Bo and Debra Tuders drive to Bailey Middle School, where a teacher tells them Tabitha was not in class that day.
Nashville Police, canvassing the area, receive several tips. Some neighbors report seeing Tabitha at the bus stop on 14th and Boscobel Street but then see her cross 14th and head down Boscobel. A neighborhood boy says he saw Tabitha enter a red car at the corner of 15th Street.
He described the driver as a 30 to 40-year-old Black male. Tracker dogs trace Tabitha's scent on a route similar to the boy's account. Jamie Tuders' ex-boyfriend matched that description and drove a red car, but police placed him elsewhere that morning. The tracker dogs lose Tabitha's scent in an alleyway. Friends say Tabitha would never have gone in the alley alone.
Tabitha's clothes, toiletries, and money are left behind. Tabitha did not take her backpack to school that day; she only carried her signed report card. On Tabitha's desk at home, police find several 'business' cards with Tabitha's name, phone number, and address, alongside a picture of Winne the Pooh.
Her parents did not know Tabitha had the cards and could not explain why she may have had them. Investigators also discover a note reading 'T.D.T - n – M.T.L.' Detectives believe them to be initials, TDT for Tabitha Danielle Tuders, but MTL has never been identified.
JOINING NANCY TODAY:
- Debra Tuders - Tabitha's mom
- Bo Tuders - Tabitha's Dad
- Marc Klaas – Founder, KlaasKids Foundation; X: @PollyDad
- Dr. John Delatorre – Licensed Psychologist and Mediator (specializing in forensic psychology); Psychological Consultant to Project Absentis: a nonprofit organization that searches for missing persons; X, IG, and TikTok – @drjohndelatorre
- Steve Fischer – Missing Persons Private Investigator, Search & Rescue Specialist, & Owner of Search Investigations; X: @SF_Investigates (helping in the search for Riley)
- Sydney Sumner - Crime Online Investigative Reporter
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
41 mins