Casefile updated July 2024
- Distinguishing CharacteristicsAfrican-American male. Black hair, brown eyes. Rutledge may have a mustache or a goatee. He has a scar on the knuckle of one of his right fingers, and his name "Marcus" tattooed across his abdomen.
Details of Disappearance
Rutledge was last seen at his apartment in the 2700 block of Park Dale Drive in Nashville, Tennessee on June 8, 1998. He spoke to his ex-girlfriend at about 1:30 p.m., but when she tried to reach him after that he didn't respond to her calls or messages. He has never been heard from again.
Just days before his disappearance, he had visited family in Michigan for Memorial Day, and he hadn't indicated anything was wrong at the time. When Rutledge's loved ones checked his residence, nothing there indicated he had left on an extended trip. His dog was found shut in the bathroom with no food and only the toilet to drink from, something which is completely uncharacteristic of Rutledge's behavior. The dog had been in the bathroom long enough that it had eaten part of the rug.
On July 1, his red four-door 1995 Plymouth Neon with the Michigan license plate number PEX-755 was discovered abandoned in the parking lot of Riverwood Apartments on Cabot Drive in Nashville, about 21 miles west of his home, shortly after he disappeared. There was no sign of him near the vehicle and when it was processed for evidence, no indications of foul play were found.
There was a handgun in the vehicle which may have belonged to Rutledge. His ex-girlfriend stated he had had "run-ins" and "altercations" with people and may have kept the gun for protection. He was the father of her three-year-old son; he was close to both of them and at the time of his disappearance he and his ex-girlfriend were planning their son's birthday party. He also enjoyed playing the saxophone.
After Rutledge went missing, his family discovered he'd been hiding parts of his life from them. He had been a student at Tennessee State University, studying biology, and his family thought he was a senior that year, but authorities discovered he was no longer enrolled at the school and that he was selling marijuana. They believe he was a small-time dealer who mostly sold to college students. Rutledge also concealed the existence of his two-year-old daughter from his family. The morning he went missing he dropped the little girl off at day care. His family thinks he hid all this so he would not make them disappointed in him.
Prior to his disappearance, Rutledge had lived with his best friend, Athan Gibbs, but shortly before he went missing he moved out into his own apartment. Rutledge told his father that he moved because Gibbs wasn't paying his share of the rent on time and wasn't keeping the apartment clean.
In February 1999, eight months after Rutledge disappeared, Gibbs was murdered in his home. A suspect was charged, but the case was dismissed and the murder is listed as unsolved. It's not clear whether this murder is related to Rutledge's disappearance, but like Rutledge, Gibbs had been selling marijuana.
Authorities believe that foul play may have been involved in Rutledge's case, possibly from to his involvement with drugs. His family hopes he is still alive and stated would get hang-up calls about once or twice a month starting after Rutledge went missing. The calls lasted until around 2015, the year Rutledge's mother died.
