This 13-Year-Old Vanished On Her Way To The School Bus In 2003
In 2003, Tabitha Danielle Tuders was a 13-year-old straight-A student with a perfect attendance record. Yet, she never made it to school on April 29, 2003, and has remained missing from Nashville, Tennessee, for over 21 years.
That morning, Tabitha’s father, Bo Tuders, woke her up around 7:00 a.m., and she watched some TV as he headed out for work.
“I woke Tabitha up, told her I loved her, and I’d see her this evening. She said, ‘Okay, daddy, I love you,'” Bo recalled.
She was supposed to leave her home, located in the 1300 block of Lillian Street, to board her school bus at 14th and Boscobel Streets at 8:00 a.m. Witnesses saw Tabitha heading in that direction, too. She was reportedly reading some papers as she walked.
Nonetheless, Tabitha never got on the bus or made it to Bailey Middle School, which was two miles away from her home.
Her parents contacted the school that night when she didn’t arrive home, and at that point, they learned she’d been absent the entire day.
Tabitha was reported missing just before 6:00 p.m. on April 29, and her disappearance quickly captured the attention of community members. According to her parents, she’d never run away in the past and had no reason to flee home.
The teen excelled in her studies and was an active member of the Eastland Baptist Church choir. Plus, Tabitha was looking forward to visiting Six Flags of America in Louisville, Kentucky, a trip that was scheduled for two weeks after she vanished.
Still, in the beginning, the police treated her case like a runaway before pivoting. Now, it’s suspected that she was abducted.
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Tabitha left behind all of her belongings, including her clothing, makeup, and $20 in cash. Additionally, a local boy told authorities that he spotted the teen getting into a red car on the morning she went missing.
The boy described the driver as being an African American male between 30 and 40 years old who was wearing a baseball cap. Tabitha supposedly entered the car, and once inside, the vehicle reversed and headed up a hill.
Investigators were never able to confirm his story, and some doubted the boy’s credibility. However, canines ended up tracking Tabitha’s scent along a route that was similar to the one the boy described.
Her parents and siblings were interviewed, none of whom were identified as suspects, but one of her sister’s former boyfriends matched the description of the red car’s driver.
While the former boyfriend knew where Tabitha got on her school bus every morning, authorities were never able to link him to her disappearance.
Detectives with the Metro Nashville Police Department were flooded with other tips as well, none of which panned out.
When searching Tabitha’s room, a piece of paper with the handwritten initials “T.D.T” and “M.T.L” was found. The former are the teen’s initials, but the identity of the other person remains unknown.
She also visited internet chat rooms at the local library, so police combed through Tabitha’s computer search logs. Again, this potential lead led nowhere.
Four months after Tabitha disappeared, investigators turned their attention to a man who attempted to lure an 11-year-old girl into his vehicle just a few blocks away from Tabitha’s house. That man was arrested, and the police thought he may also be connected to her case.
Authorities didn’t find any evidence that linked him to Tabitha, though, and he was removed from the list of suspects.
Later, in the fall of 2003, a trucker in Linton, Indiana, submitted another tip. He’d seen a man with a teenage girl who appeared afraid and anxious.
The trucker subsequently saw a missing person flier for Tabitha’s case and realized she looked like the teenage girl.
He contacted the police on October 30, 2003, to report the sighting. Then, a second witness, a Linton hotel clerk, reportedly saw the same man with a teenage girl and reached out to the police. Nevertheless, these sightings have not been confirmed.
More recently, in 2020, a Hickman County property associated with a person of interest was searched. Authorities executed the search due to a “theory,” said a spokesperson for the Metro Nashville Police Department, based on various old and new tips, which suggested Tabitha might’ve been on the property “in the 2003 timeframe.”
The search honed in on a wooded region located near a small decaying house, but it was a dead end. Nothing was found after days of searching, and a new detective was assigned to Tabitha’s case in 2021.
“It’s just been a real bad roller coaster ride,” Bo stated.
The last time Tabitha’s parents saw her, she was just 13 years old. Today, she would be 34, and her loved ones continue hoping that someone will come forward with information. Bo also believes that God will help his family see Tabitha again.
“There’s somebody out there that knows what happened. You know, guilt is hard to live with,” he explained.
“He knows where she’s at, and He knows what happened to her, too. I’ll see her when I get up there if she’s up there, or He’ll let me know what happened to her.”
Tabitha was five foot one, weighed 100 pounds, and had sandy blonde hair and blue eyes at the time she vanished. She also had both of her ears pierced, a scar on her finger, and a birthmark on her stomach.
The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in her case. If you have any information, you are urged to contact Nashville Crime Stoppers at (615) 742-7463.
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