00:00:00
a woman named Tania is getting kind of nervous she and her 23-year-old boyfriend Marcus rutage were supposed to
00:00:06
meet up but he's a noow so when Tania pulls up to Marcus's apartment his car isn't there she's actually convinced
00:00:13
that something is up so she reaches out to Marcus's best friend and he's just as
00:00:19
concerned but this is where they encountered the first big twist it turns out Marcus has been
00:00:28
keeping some major secrets from his family so it's the afternoon on Monday June 8th 1998 and a woman named Tania is
00:00:42
getting kind of nervous she and her 23-year-old boyfriend Marcus rutage were supposed to meet up but he's a no-show
00:00:49
not even answering his cell phone she's like calling him and calling him but she's just not hearing anything back and
00:00:55
when's the last time she spoke to him so it actually hasn't been very long I mean
00:00:58
he had spent the night at her place and then took their 2-year-old daughter to daycare at around like 10:00 that
00:01:03
morning and they've even honestly talked on the phone since at like 1 1:30 that afternoon so truly very little time has
00:01:10
passed it might not even ring alarm bells for some people but the thing is this is totally uncharacteristic of
00:01:16
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
00:01:23
away she knows in her gut that something just doesn't feel right so she reaches out to marcus' parents David and geraldy
00:01:29
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
00:01:35
southeast Michigan while toan and Marcus both live in Nashville Tennessee Marcus
00:01:39
had actually moved to Nashville to attend Tennessee State University TSU but even with the distance like his
00:01:47
family talks to him pretty regularly so Tani is hoping that they might know where he is but it turns out they
00:01:54
haven't heard from him either now according to what his dad David told our reporter Nah when he got that first call
00:02:01
from tuia he understood her concern like Marcus going Mia even to him is unheard
00:02:07
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
00:02:13
it a beat right but Tania says that she wants to go to marcus' duplex apartment to just check on him so David tells her
00:02:21
like okay just like keep me posted and meanwhile he and Jerry start making a series of unsuccessful calls to Marcus
00:02:28
themselves trying to reach him so Tania pulls up to marcus' apartment his car this red 1995 Plymouth Neon isn't there
00:02:36
but instead of that reassuring her like oh he's just out for some reason she's actually more convinced than ever that
00:02:42
something is up and she needs to get into his apartment now even though they've been together for a little bit
00:02:47
it doesn't look like she has a key to his place so she devises this plan to call Marcus's best friend aan Gibbs
00:02:53
Junior who basically helps her just break into the place that feels like a pretty big leap
00:03:00
I guess I mean I think it's it's the unanswered phone calls they're just again I I can't so unlike so unlike him
00:03:07
even when she calls Athan like he doesn't think she's overreacting he's just as concerned so when Ethan gets
00:03:12
there he and Tania break in through a back window and what they find inside just kind of confirms for them that they
00:03:20
made the right decision because even though there's no sign of a struggle or Foul Play Marcus's Rottweiler is shut in
00:03:28
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
00:03:34
while because he had eaten part of the bathroom carpet and they know that Marcus would never leave his dog like
00:03:40
that not even for a short amount of time let alone for however long it took this
00:03:45
dog to start chewing on the rug so there's no indication that Marcus was planning for any kind of trip right like
00:03:53
his clothes are still there there's no bag or suitcase that's packed or even missing like nothing is standing out to
00:04:00
them so with David and Jerry's encouragement Tania calls the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department
00:04:07
that very night and an officer comes to take a missing person's report now initially he gets some basic details
00:04:14
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 has
00:04:20
Michigan plates it's not local right now even though there is nothing in his apartment that is obviously out of place
00:04:27
like it doesn't appear that he was even robbed nothing like that David told us that something was taken from Marcus's
00:04:33
apartment that day that police do kind of check out so Marcus's landline phone was taken but there's no mystery about
00:04:42
who took it it was Tania why she says apparently it was her phone and she wanted it back question
00:04:51
mark why did police let her take anything I don't know I don't know if they didn't realize that she even did at
00:04:59
first like we actually got to speak with Nashville Cold Case detective Matt filter he is the one heading up the
00:05:06
investigation now although he wasn't on the force when this all started but he told us that Tania actually took marcus'
00:05:12
caller ID because apparently she wanted to look for numbers that she might recognize like I don't know if the call
00:05:18
ID is like built into the phone I don't know why she would take it instead of telling police I say but couldn't she
00:05:25
have checked it right there at the apartment I know this part like doesn't totally add up for me but for whatever
00:05:31
reason she took it with her police do though get it back from her pretty quickly like once they realize but it's
00:05:39
useless to everyone because detective filter says that when she unplugged it at Marcus's house all of the numbers
00:05:46
were automatically erased it's like factory reset so if she was trying to see something that information is now
00:05:54
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
00:06:02
Nashville the next day so when they arrive toan's house is their first stop now toan isn't a stranger to them on
00:06:10
like a pass trip to Nashville David and Jerry had taken her and Marcus out to dinner but this time they're not here
00:06:16
for a friendly visit like they want answers from her yeah but Tania tells them she has no idea what could have
00:06:23
happened to Marcus or where he might be and the only person she can think of who
00:06:27
Marcus spent a lot of time with with is aan so Marcus's parents arranged to meet
00:06:33
up with him at their son's duplex but he doesn't have any insight to share either
00:06:38
he says he is just as lost as they are and he wants to help them find Marcus any way he can however David and Jerry
00:06:46
can't help but notice that their son's friend seems awfully nervous like he's literally sweating he can't sit still
00:06:57
and there's just this uncomfortable energy that is like vibrating off of him had they ever met Ethan before so they
00:07:06
actually know him pretty well because up until a few months ago Athan and Marcus
00:07:09
shared an apartment they were roommates but like Marcus had recently decided to get his own place so he moved out like
00:07:16
moved into this duplex that they had now looked at did anything prompt that move
00:07:19
or was it just like kind of growing up wanting your own space yeah I think you can call it that I think the two just
00:07:24
had like roommate issues but stuff that like two people who live together might encounter little things that just like
00:07:29
get under your skin marus the reason you and I have never lived together preach Marcus had I guess Ved to his family
00:07:36
about aan he's messy his bills weren't getting paid on time like that kind of thing but even after Marcus moved out he
00:07:42
and Athan stayed really close friends so like there is no bad blood between them
00:07:46
and honestly Marcus's family had always liked aan he is a respectful guy from a good family they never had any cause for
00:07:53
concern about Marcus being around him and even now they're wondering if his reaction is maybe just because of the
00:08:00
circumstances I mean his best friend is now missing seemingly vanished Into Thin
00:08:05
Air but marcus' sister Felicia notices the same strange Vibe when Athan takes her driving around to look for her
00:08:14
brother's missing car she's like athan's acting tense he's not saying much like other than like suggesting places where
00:08:21
they should maybe look for the car he's saying that he's worried about the whole
00:08:25
situation but again nothing like incriminating it's just like it could be talked up to the same thing right now as
00:08:31
detectives start digging him they begin to learn more about marcus' life he has two children a nearly four-year-old son
00:08:39
with a former girlfriend in Knoxville and a 2-year-old daughter with Tania he is super involved with both kids always
00:08:46
checks in with his son but that child and his mom haven't heard from him either according to Tennessee and
00:08:53
reporter Beth Warren Marcus had last seen his son in May when they went to the zoo and they had been planning a big
00:08:59
party for his upcoming birthday was there any relationship drama no no he gets along well with both of his
00:09:05
children's mothers so like that feels like a quick dead end which is when they turn to his school maybe someone at the
00:09:13
University there can help them pece things together right but this is where they encountered the first big twist in
00:09:20
their investigation it turns out Marcus has been keeping some major secrets from
00:09:27
his family [Music] two branches of the same tree two pieces of a sole where one sister
00:09:47
goes the other will be for she is but half of the whole the missing half pre-order your
00:09:57
copy at Ashley flower .c so police learn that Marcus actually dropped out of college the year before
00:10:08
back in 1997 What yeah he's basically been pretending to be a student ever since
00:10:15
and his family had no idea mm in fact the last time Marcus visited his parents which was just a few weeks before he
00:10:22
went missing this was for Memorial Day he was there for a cookout he said he left early because he had to study for
00:10:28
an exam did did toan know I don't know so the detective we talked to didn't know either and nah tried calling the
00:10:37
number that Marcus's dad had for Tania we're not sure if it's still the right number for her anymore like long story
00:10:43
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
00:10:50
from police like going to TSU was the entire reason Marcus moved to Nashville in the first place I mean both his
00:10:57
parents went there he wanted to follow in their footsteps I mean the wild part is they thought he was close to
00:11:03
graduating it's not just that he was going there they were expecting to go to a graduation soon but that's not the
00:11:09
only surprise in store for the family because even though Marcus doesn't have a criminal record investigators also
00:11:15
learn that he'd been selling weed and they think that he might have started when he was still a student because his
00:11:21
clientele seems to mostly be other students like it doesn't seem that he was out on the streets dealing and we're
00:11:27
talking of small scale stuff like not some big time operation and aan actually admits this to police he says that he
00:11:34
and Marcus both sell weed although I'm not sure if they work together or what and I don't know if Athan is the first
00:11:40
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
00:11:46
to hide it I think is the main point but that could be why he's acting so strange
00:11:50
around Marcus's family he knows they're all going to find out about this and be upset about the drugs maybe yeah but
00:11:57
here's the thing even while he's being honest about the weed investigators still can't shake this feeling like
00:12:05
Athan is holding something back they just don't know what cuz like I don't think that all that stuff like just
00:12:11
stops after they learn the thing right or what they think could be the thing did he know that Marcus had dropped out
00:12:17
of school I assume he knew because they spent a decent amount of time together I
00:12:22
mean like I think I would tell you things I wouldn't necessarily tell my parents like when I was his age but
00:12:27
there doesn't seem to be any solid confirmation of that like it's kind of like with Tania I mean and even his
00:12:34
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
00:12:42
women Tania and his other ex seem to be aware that he was selling weed I know that much in an interview with Dateline
00:12:48
NBC reporter Josh minkowitz his son's mom said that he was doing it to help provide for their child and Tania tells
00:12:55
detectives the same thing that this was just a way he could make enough money to
00:12:59
support everyone but whatever the reason his parents are hurt and Confused to find all of this out like this like it
00:13:08
completely goes against his upbringing like they raised Marcus and his sister in this solid home they felt that like
00:13:15
centered around family it's centered around Church David is actually an elected official Jerry is an elementary
00:13:21
school teacher so like selling drugs lying about being in college all of this is the last thing they expected from
00:13:29
their son however speaking of Secrets this wasn't the only time Marcus had kept a
00:13:37
big one from his parents they actually didn't know about their grandson until he was born and Marcus was only 19 at
00:13:45
the time and I don't know how like churchy they raised him but I can see that maybe being a reason why he hit it
00:13:54
yeah I mean I think he was probably just afraid that David and Jerry would be disappointed in him and that's probably
00:14:00
the reason he kept the school thing to himself like the disappointment that like he's not only is he disappointing
00:14:07
them but he's already disappointed them so it's like one more thing have they noticed any changes in Marcus's Behavior
00:14:14
like looking back like knowing or finding out about all this now so at that Memorial Day cookout I mentioned
00:14:20
earlier his sister Felicia thought that he seemed unusually stressed but when she asked him about it he just said that
00:14:26
he had a lot going on in Nashville he didn't really collaborate and as far as his parents knew everything was fine
00:14:32
like you can chalk stress up to the finals he said he was going to go stud schooling yeah right so you can imagine
00:14:38
how overwhelming this is for his family they are already dealing with him being missing but then to discover that he was
00:14:46
living a life they really knew nothing about it was a lot and David told us it's like walking through a nightmare
00:14:54
and as investigators dig deeper into Marcus's life more concerning details emerge he had gotten into a couple of
00:15:01
altercations one reported to police when it happened about a year before his disappearance and then another just a
00:15:08
few months before he went missing both incidents were apparently related to him selling weed although detective filter
00:15:14
won't share specifics about those altercations were there people after him like was anybody like not that
00:15:23
investigators can tell I like I don't think there's anyone specific or if there is they're not sharing that it
00:15:28
seems like from everything they look at they can't find any immediate dangers in
00:15:33
his life no one is saying Marcus owed them money no one has been like making threats to him but they do discover
00:15:41
something interesting back in miday Marcus they find out had rented a car for like 10 days and this stood out
00:15:51
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
00:15:57
commission or anything so rent right now did he drive back and forth from Nashville to Knoxville a lot to see his
00:16:03
son you know that's like 360 M each trip maybe he didn't want to put the miles on
00:16:08
his car but detective filter pointed out an alternative possibility he says that
00:16:14
when you're doing something illegal you might not want to use your own car to do
00:16:19
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
00:16:26
they truly just have no idea right he just had a rental for 10 days right so they find that out but then beyond that
00:16:33
not much turns up there is a recent traffic ticket some receipts from a car wash like nothing that points
00:16:40
investigators in any real Direction so here you have this devoted father who has suddenly stopped checking in with
00:16:46
his kids which seems completely out of character but they've also just learned that he's been living this whole other
00:16:53
life that his family knew nothing about and they really can't tell if he left on
00:16:57
his own or if something happened to him but their thinking starts to shift on Tuesday June 30th that is when a
00:17:07
maintenance man at an apartment complex more than 20 miles from where Marcus lives spots Marcus's missing Plymouth
00:17:16
and this guy tells investigators that this car has been sitting in the same spot at Riverwood Apartments for at
00:17:22
least a couple of weeks why is he just calling about it now well according to David the guy contacts police because he
00:17:29
saw something on the news about Marcus's disappearance and the car so maybe he had only just realized I mean again it's
00:17:36
not anything bad about this car it's just kind of been there and then once they make known what car everyone's
00:17:41
looking for he's like oh that's the car does Marcus know someone who lives at this complex no so that's the thing as
00:17:47
far as anyone knows Marcus has zero connection to this complex and while investigators don't find any signs of
00:17:55
violence in the car when they look at it like there's no blood or anything like that the the fact that it's just sitting
00:18:00
there abandoned makes them think something bad must have happened to Marcus I mean if he wanted to take off
00:18:06
and start a new life like how how's he going to get there the car is the thing you need right like or if you're going
00:18:11
to leave your car behind like just leave it parked at your place why Drive 20 mil
00:18:16
and then ditch it at this random apartment complex and what's even more wild is apparently someone had been
00:18:24
driving the car around the maintenance man tells detectives that he saw this middle-aged guy occasionally using it
00:18:31
before it was left there for good around mid June so somebody who was definitely
00:18:35
not 23 year-old Marcus now detective filter says that they never identified who this mystery driver was but he also
00:18:43
says that there could be explanations that don't necessarily include this driver being the one who did something
00:18:51
to Marcus like he says like there is a world where someone could have just handed this person the car without
00:18:56
telling them anything about Marcus like could have been someone who didn't realize what they were driving around
00:19:01
until they had like found out it belonged to a missing person and then when they did like that's when they left
00:19:06
it there and didn't go back for it I was it locked up were the keys there it wasn't locked but detective filter
00:19:12
couldn't find anything in the reports that indicated if the keys were in it or not and the maintenance man had no clue
00:19:19
who the driver was by the way like hence the vague description and this is a guy
00:19:23
the maintenance guy he's like around a lot and he's like I don't recognize him I hadn't seen him around before no idea
00:19:28
why he was in the complex at all but it makes me feel like the driver had to have lived there or was close to someone
00:19:36
who did live there if he like was at the complex like back and forth a couple times like he was there and then he
00:19:42
wasn't and then he like you would think but all I know is that according to David police canvased the complex and
00:19:49
that didn't lead them to Marcus or to anyone who knew Marcus yeah but what about the people who knew the driver I
00:19:56
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 like it's a
00:20:05
chain right like the person in the complex leads you to the driver the driver leads you to who gave him to the
00:20:10
car and and that goes all the way back to Marcus and why he doesn't have his car and where he is and if they did have
00:20:16
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
00:20:20
belongs to a missing person like I don't think they're going to be like fessing up to knowing him right right I don't
00:20:26
know so it's possible all the things are possible it's also possible that the canvasing they did was just light again
00:20:32
maybe people were lying or option C I just truly don't no MH but they're hopeful that now that they have the car
00:20:42
maybe they can find the driver another way and maybe through forensic evidence so police have the Plymouth towed to
00:20:49
their lab and inside they find a gun that's tucked under the driver's seat now is this more evidence of marcus'
00:20:56
double life like did the gun belong to the person who was driving the car did it belong to Marcus like couldn't tell
00:21:03
you because it doesn't look like the gun was actually registered to anyone though
00:21:08
it seems like from you know what we learned from detective filter that everyone assumes the gun was Marcus's
00:21:15
they also managed to lift two fingerprints from the car one from inside the driver's side window and then
00:21:22
another from a rented VHS tape that they find in the car now the print from the tape leads nowhere the Ive told us they
00:21:29
confirmed it belonged to an employee at the video rental place which is like give me an older sentence right and the
00:21:35
fingerprint on the window they eliminated they or they eliminated aan and toan as the sources of it but they
00:21:44
didn't like eliminate anyone else they couldn't determine who it belonged to here's the wild part to me they said it
00:21:50
could be Marcus's because detective filter says they don't have his prints on file but like here's where I get a
00:21:57
little skeptical like sure Marcus was never arrested so his prints weren't in the system but they have access to his
00:22:03
apartment like couldn't they have lifted his prints from there to compare I mean
00:22:08
you think so those two prins were the only prince in the car right like I guess I thought you were saying that
00:22:17
those are the only prints that weren't his those are the only prints that were identifiable so detective not like
00:22:23
smudged or smeared or incomplete yeah detective filter told us the car was examined meticulous L is what he said
00:22:29
and that it didn't appear to be wiped down or anything like that that's a question we asked but he says he also
00:22:34
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
00:22:40
were able to pull and here's the thing Prince aside what really concerns investigators is what they don't find in
00:22:46
the car which is any proof that Marcus was alive after June 8th all of the receipts everything in the car predates
00:22:56
his disappearance meanwhile so they find Marcus's family is back in Michigan at this point trying to process their new
00:23:03
reality to David and Jerry each Revelation about their son feels like another piece of the puzzle one that
00:23:10
they never thought they would have to solve his student loan notices are starting to come in the mail which is
00:23:15
just this reminder of a life that he was supposed to be building and there's something else that's coming in
00:23:22
something far Stranger Than student loan bills shortly after their son goes missing Jerry and David start getting
00:23:30
these strange phone calls on their home phone in Michigan the phone will ring and ring but when they pick up it's
00:23:40
nothing just silence on the other end and Jerry they don't just like say hello and stop talking I mean Jerry
00:23:48
pleads with the caller like Marcus if this is you please just say something but whoever is on the other end never
00:23:57
speaks and Felicia remembers it happening like two or three times in those first couple of months and
00:24:03
according to an article by Jax Miller for Oxygen Network Marcus's son's mom was getting the same kind of unsettling
00:24:11
quiet calls do Polie try to trace these calls not that I'm aware of like I I don't know if they even try to begin
00:24:21
with i or if the problem was like like from what I can tell there's no pattern to this or anything so I don't know they
00:24:28
just think they're weird and if or if they just didn't care enough to do it I don't know but these calls do give his
00:24:33
loved ones hope that Marcus is still out there maybe maybe still alive investigators though they're not
00:24:42
as optimistic the calls are like I said super sporadic months will go by without
00:24:47
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
00:24:57
don't have enough to work with no real Trail to follow all of the fragments that they've uncovered about Marcus
00:25:03
haven't even fit together into any kind of coherent picture no one they speak with seems to have the whole
00:25:09
story well almost no one they're still pretty sure that aan knows way more than he's letting on maybe he doesn't know
00:25:20
exactly what happened to Marcus but detective filter believes that he had some idea of what happened or who might
00:25:27
have been in involved cuz even though he was upfront about you know selling weed
00:25:32
for whatever reason after that and beyond that point it appears that he kind of just shut down and while it's
00:25:40
possible that given time he might have decided to share more that is a chance that he doesn't get because little do
00:25:47
detectives know they are about to have a new case to work and their victim will be aan
00:26:01
so let me take you to February 1999 by now Marcus has been missing for about 8 and 1 half months and the case
00:26:09
is at a complete standstill investigators are convinced that Athan knows more than he's letting on but he's
00:26:15
not talking now around this time Athan is tied up with someone new this brand new roommate of sorts this guy named
00:26:23
Charles D Brown Jr and this new Arrangement is raising some eyebrows especially with athan's brother Jonathan
00:26:31
Jonathan has been staying with Athan but as soon as Charles moves in Jonathan's like I'm piecing out for a bit like he
00:26:37
just wants to get away from the guy because Charles is one of athan's closest friends but Jonathan has never
00:26:43
approved of him he didn't think that Charles was the type of person his brother should hang out with and there
00:26:49
was definitely reasons for concern so according to articles in The Tennessean by Kirk loggin and Kathy Carlson Charles
00:26:57
had passest add for aggravated assault unlawful weapon possession and selling and possessing weed he had also been
00:27:05
shot and shot someone during an attempted home invasion that happened interestingly that attempted home
00:27:11
invasion happened one day after Marcus went missing you know we don't believe in
00:27:17
coincidences anymore right so let me rewind real quick and tell you about this home invasion because the details
00:27:24
are interesting to say the least so in the morning on June 9th 1998 three or four masked men broke into Charles's
00:27:34
apartment and at the time he was living with his girlfriend and two young children and everyone was home when The
00:27:40
Intruders broke in they demanded money and then they started shooting they're like spraying bullets everywhere with at
00:27:46
least two guns Charles get shot five times and somehow not only did he managed to survive he also returned fire
00:27:55
and hit one of the gunmen who then took off and John Yates reported something really intriguing for The Tennessean
00:28:02
Witnesses told police that they saw the suspects flee from Charles's place in two vehicles including a red one that
00:28:11
they thought looked like a Chevy Corsica and when I Googled a red Chevy Corsica it looks an awful lot like Marcus's then
00:28:19
missing red Plymouth which I actually have the photos to show you because it's just two bonkers
00:28:31
okay so this one is the Corsica and this is the Ashley they're like identical they're kind of like the
00:28:40
same car they definitely look incredibly similar I mean like if you weren't like
00:28:45
a car person right or like not even a car person but like you knew your makes and models I you could easily mix those
00:28:52
up especially if you're just like an eyewitness to something and say like yeah I saw a guy in a red car it looked
00:28:57
a little bit like this right either of those cars right so one of the two cars in that whole thing was this anyway
00:29:03
within an hour of the home invasion a man named James Cowan shows up at the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds
00:29:09
Cowan tells police some story about getting shot from a car but court records show that the bullet recovered
00:29:15
during his surgery matched a gun that the shooters left behind at Charles's apartment so I'm guessing that Cowen was
00:29:23
hit by maybe Friendly Fire during the chaos cuz again it didn't come from like Charles's gun supposedly was a Left
00:29:28
Behind now this Cowen guy was no stranger to detectives he was actually a potential suspect in six homicides oh my
00:29:37
God yeah as far as I can tell Cowen was never arrested for murder he was however
00:29:42
arrested and convicted of attempted first scree murder especially aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary for the
00:29:49
home invasion on Charles and he was sentenced to six decades in prison because of the violent nature of the
00:29:55
crime and his extensive w rap sheet which included multiple drug rated felonies now in connection to all this
00:30:02
Charles wasn't arrested since he was acting in self-defense but investigators didn't believe that Cowen and the crew
00:30:08
he came with just randomly chose Charles's house to Rob did they arrest anyone else in connection to it I mean
00:30:15
it's it was more than one person right it was but as far as I know they didn't like arrest anyone or charge anyone
00:30:23
except for CN did they recover the gun used to shoot at Charles with so that's not totally clear from the court records
00:30:32
they say they recovered two guns they recovered a 9mm found in the backyard and they had Charles's gun which is a
00:30:38
357 revolver but there were at least three guns involved because according to testimony at one point during this
00:30:45
struggle an accomplice of cow threw him a quote unquote big gun when the first gun that he was using ran out of
00:30:50
ammunition what about the gun in Marcus's car well so at the time this is happening I mean they're not going to
00:30:57
find that for weeks dat think that gun was used in this okay if that's what you're getting at yeah
00:31:10
okay so that happens now let's jump back to February of 1999 according to Kirk Loggins on the 18th Athan informs his
00:31:18
brother that Charles is going to crash with them right and so this is when Jonathan's like don't like this guy I'm
00:31:23
going to peace out a couple of days after that Athan tells him that char Char was quote unquote going crazy like
00:31:30
apparently he was super paranoid he was saying that his girlfriend was trying to
00:31:34
have him killed uh Jonathan had the exact right idea getting out of there but it's not like Jonathan moved away I
00:31:41
mean I don't think Charles was supposed to be a permanent fixture he just needed
00:31:44
to crash for a couple of days so the night of Tuesday February 23rd Jonathan comes back to the house and when he
00:31:51
pulls up the door to the duplex is wide open and when he makes his way inside there on the floor he sees his brother
00:32:00
athan's body stiff and cold he had been shot multiple times now police believe that aan was actually killed days before
00:32:09
he was found sometime before noon that past Sunday they also think that there might have been more than one weapon
00:32:16
used and shell casings that they find appear to be from a 40 caliber gun now they don't see any signs of forest entry
00:32:23
although they do notice that something is missing athan's wife Pontiac Grand D but the next day someone spots this
00:32:31
vehicle in Nashville's Englewood neighborhood which is like 18 miles from athan's apartment and they recognize it
00:32:38
from the news reports this is feeling too similar right and athan's Aunt tells Kathy Carlson that his family doesn't
00:32:47
know of any connections that he has to that area of course now obviously the biggest difference between Marcus and
00:32:54
Athens cases are that Athens is clearly a homicide he's been found while Marcus is still a missing person right and
00:33:02
while detectives are still basically in the dark about what happened to Marcus they've got a pretty good theory forming
00:33:10
about who might be responsible for athan's murder it's got to be Charles yeah and mostly because an Englewood
00:33:16
woman IDs him as the guy that she saw leaving athan's car on her street the day before his body was
00:33:23
found wait how old is Charles A I'm wondering if he could have been the one seen driving Marcus's car no that they
00:33:32
thought that guy was middle-aged um Charles is like Marcus's age like 20 early right but still police Can't
00:33:38
Ignore how sketchy his behavior gets Kirk loggin reported that Charles skips athan's funeral and completely ghost
00:33:46
police when they try to question him further a friend who hung out with Charles and Athan over the weekend tells
00:33:51
investigators that Charles was seriously worried about his own safety possibly because of that home invasion that we
00:33:58
talked about now Charles was apparently so convinced that someone was after him that he was wearing a bulletproof vest
00:34:06
around and he had at least two guns in his SUV including a 40 caliber like the shell casings found at the scene so
00:34:14
talking or not they do have enough on him to charge him with athan's murder in early March and after a few days on the
00:34:22
Run he ends up turning himself in hold up what's the motive Charles got paranoid and then just snapped on aan no
00:34:33
so not likely detective filter actually refers to athan's murder as drug related
00:34:37
cuz he believes that aan was selling weed when he was killed so he was wrapped up in what could have been a
00:34:44
dangerous crowd although if he was I mean he was clearly keeping some secrets of his own from certain family members
00:34:51
because his aunt says that aan was working as a tax consultant at his father's like income tax business
00:34:57
business so I don't know that they're connecting it to like Charles's paranoia like it or if they're saying the
00:35:03
paranoia is separate and Charles did it because it was a drug thing I don't know
00:35:06
it's a little like convoluted and muddy MH either way at first investigators suspect that there could be a connection
00:35:14
between athan's murder and marcus' disappearance and when The Rutledge family hears about athan's death they
00:35:21
can hardly believe it marcus' sister Felicia is devastated CU in her mind Athan was the one person who could fill
00:35:28
in maybe someday all the blanks about her brother and now he's gone but Charles's arrest is a hopeful sign for
00:35:36
Marcus's dad David because he figures that once police start like pushing on Charles maybe the dam will burst and
00:35:43
maybe they can finally find his son but here comes another unexpected twist I wish I could tell you more about
00:35:59
what investigators learn from Charles but there is not much info available we know that a preliminary hearing is held
00:36:07
later that March Charles is emotional he's sobbing at times and like shaking his head throughout the proceedings the
00:36:14
judge finds sufficient evidence to send the case to a grand jury but it doesn't look like Charles is ever actually
00:36:21
indicted or if he is the da decides not to pursue it because the murder charge just
00:36:29
disappears what how I guess there just wasn't enough to move forward I mean the headline for Kirk Logan's article about
00:36:37
the prelim was literally hearing short on evidence in Belleview slaying so the evidence presented by the state I mean
00:36:46
we know was mostly circumstantial like I mean they had Witnesses who could talk about Charles's Behavior they could talk
00:36:51
about the fact that he had guns but they couldn't actually connect him to the murder itself or even like I said
00:36:59
establish a clear timeline or motive but I thought his gun was used to kill aan no he just had the same type of gun as
00:37:08
the one used to kill Athan what about that witness who ided him dropping Ethan's car though not
00:37:15
enough detective filter thinks that the da in the end just like wasn't confident
00:37:20
that they could get a conviction so they just dismissed the charges probably hoping that they'd be able to build a
00:37:25
stronger case later but for whatever reason that never happened athan's murder is still considered unsolved
00:37:33
today and when it comes to any connection between athan's murder and Marcus going missing while there might
00:37:39
be some witness overlap between the investigations police say they've never been able to establish any direct link
00:37:47
between the two though it's interesting detective filter says that as far as he can tell from the case File
00:37:54
investigators only really looked at Charles like there's nothing showing that they ever dug into Cowen or his
00:38:00
associates in connection with marcus' disappearance and then we asked him about it he told us like yeah you know
00:38:06
that's an angle maybe worth exploring which like yeah but no one has in oh about three decades no I mean to me the
00:38:17
timing alone the home invasion a day after he went missing not to mentioned the red car stuff I know it definitely
00:38:25
raises like a couple of questions at least right plus we know that Cowen was already being looked at for other
00:38:32
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
00:38:38
lead oh and we actually did try get in touch with Cowen who was actually released from prison more than a decade
00:38:44
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
00:38:52
for various crimes he is in prison now on drug related charges so we couldn't make contact with him now whether or not
00:38:59
any of these guys were involved police still believe that aan knew more than he led on and that he took some secrets
00:39:08
about Marcus's disappearance to his grave do they have any theories about where Marcus could be I mean as similar
00:39:16
and connected as these cases seem it's it stands out so much that Marcus just vanished while Ethan was just shot
00:39:28
and left in his home on the floor like why the difference well I mean they don't have any theories on a connection
00:39:36
because they can't prove the cases are connected at all so like without that link you can't even build upon that
00:39:41
right like they're just stuck so that was pretty much it like years passed tips aren't coming in media coverage is
00:39:50
minimal and the case just sits there but around 2010 something significant does happen the rutage family learns that
00:40:01
Marcus had another big secret they find out that he had a daughter with who Tania like another one no but they never
00:40:15
knew he had a daughter how is that even possible I mean didn't investigators no so they did
00:40:24
I don't know how this happened but it looks like they never communic at that to his family which like why would you
00:40:30
right like I can maybe they thought like oh surely they know about this Grand child yeah there's no need to bring up
00:40:37
something so obvious right but like wouldn't it come up when the police were getting basic information like if his
00:40:45
parents had mentioned their grandson wouldn't someone have said like oh and what about your granddaughter you would
00:40:52
think but it didn't happen and I guess like the part that I can't get over is like the fact that Tania never mentioned
00:40:59
it either which makes you wonder like what other secret she had because that feels like a secret it doesn't feel like
00:41:05
something that just like gets missed right like they come they have dinner with her before they're like they're all
00:41:11
she's like a main contact when Marcus goes missing like they're in they're in communication with her yeah you would
00:41:19
think when she calls them to be like oh he's like he's not answering his phone or when's the last time you saw him when
00:41:24
he went to drop our daughter off at daycare that's how we started it that intentionally out I don't know I wish we
00:41:34
could talk to her but we haven't been able to get a hold of her like I said I mean how did they even find out about
00:41:40
their granddaughter I don't know the exact details of how this unfolds I just know that Marcus's son somehow connected
00:41:47
with her on Facebook and then that's when the rest of the family found out so like it's it's fuzzy but this is one of
00:41:54
those that even though it's a shock it's at least a good surprise like they have
00:41:58
another little piece of Marcus to hold on to and despite Marcus keeping her a secret I have to imagine that even he'd
00:42:04
be happy knowing that they all have finally found each other and just in time because in 2015 Marcus's mom Jerry
00:42:13
passes away and then in 2020 detective filter who is in the Nashville PD's Cold Case unit he this is when he picks up
00:42:20
the investigation for what started as like a pretty routine reason basically they were doing like DNA house keeping
00:42:27
they only have DNA from one of marcus' kids in codus so filter wanted to get more family profiles into the system so
00:42:34
that they can be prepared if they ever need to make comparisons if they ever find remains did something specific
00:42:40
prompt that like were there remains that could have been his found nothing like that I think he just wanted to be
00:42:45
proactive he was making sure all of their bases were covered and that DNA update was going to be the extent of it
00:42:52
but once he started talking to David and learning more about Marcus he just like
00:42:57
I don't know the case like latched on to him he like kept digging he wanted to see if he could help the rages like get
00:43:02
some an some way hi me uh big update so that was kind of where our episode was supposed to end
00:43:15
Britt and I wrapped it up did the usual call the action but literally just this last week like right as we were about to
00:43:21
release this episode something huge happened a major break in the case on January 31st police announced that
00:43:30
Marcus's remains have been found there was a skull that had been found by a hunter back on December 8th 2010 in some
00:43:39
Woods near Ashlin City Highway and pan Valley Road that is nearly 13 mil from where Marcus's car was found and 30 mi
00:43:48
from his apartment now the sequence of events is a little baffling for me and I'm sure frustrating for Marcus's family
00:43:56
who are still coping with the news and I say baffling because DNA from this unidentified skull wasn't uploaded to
00:44:04
codus until a month after we interviewed the police so we interviewed them in October and then the me submitted the
00:44:12
skull DNA to cotus in November this is of 2024 and we don't know why it took so long marcus' DNA had been in cotus for
00:44:21
years and you heard right before our like record scratch moment that even more of his family's DNA had been added
00:44:28
by detective filter to ensure that there would be enough to get a match to any unidentified remains that might surface
00:44:36
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
00:44:44
years sooner cuz it puts detectives even further behind than they would have been
00:44:49
in 2010 detective filter told us it is unclear if police searched the woods thoroughly at the time when the skull
00:44:56
was found so he is planning to do a search of his own hoping to find more because unfortunately even though they
00:45:03
now know where Marcus has been the skull hasn't told them much there were no wounds or markings on it that gave a
00:45:10
clue as to how Marcus was killed but detectives are clear that they do believe Marcus was killed and this
00:45:17
missing person's case is now actively being worked as a homicide which filter believed was the case even before
00:45:25
finding Marcus's skull he believes that Marcus's involvement in selling weed likely played a role in his death the
00:45:33
problem is even after this major breakthrough police still have not gotten a single solid lead I'm not
00:45:40
kidding you not even one and detective filter doesn't think this case is going to be solved by science what they need
00:45:47
is for someone who knows the truth to finally start talking now Marcus's family they were holding out hope for so
00:45:54
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
00:46:01
this news was devastating to them but maybe now that everyone knows where he was and where he was found it could help
00:46:08
connect some of the dots about what happened in those crucial days after June 8th
00:46:13
1998 they are convinced someone out there knows exactly what happened to him and maybe you're that someone so if
00:46:23
you have any information about the death of Marcus rutage or even athan's murder
00:46:29
contact the Department's Crimestoppers division at 615 74e at 6157417071 [Music]
00:46:56
for Crime junkie wherever you get your podcast [Music]