CENTERVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Investigators say "recent information" in the 2003 disappearance of Tabitha Tuders led to detectives searching a rural part of Hickman County this week.
Metro Nashville Police Department officials confirmed the update on Wednesday morning, saying cold case detectives, along with Urban Search and Rescue officers and FBI agents were on scene.
Police spokesperson Don Aaron said the police department has pursued numerous leads in the 17 years since Tuders' disappearance. Aaron said a theory that she may have been on the property in 2003 led to today's search.
Tuders was 13 when she vanished in April of 2003. She was on her way to catch the bus near her family's home on Lillian Street in Nashville. She hasn't been seen since.
Police described the search area as a six-acre, rugged plot of land with a small, dilapidated house on it. The terrain was described as mostly wooded.
Sgt. Charles Rutzky said the search was based on "old and new information." He said information has been developed as to how Tuders possibly got to the property, but that's something they're still investigating.
Rutzky said they're looking for any evidence to support the theory that she's been in the area. He said they'll be out there "as long as it takes."
A law enforcement team, including MNPD Cold Case-Homicide detectives, Urban Search & Rescue officers & FBI agents, is in rural Hickman County today looking for evidence in the 2003 disappearance of 13-year-Old Tabitha Tuders. Recent information led investigators to Hickman County pic.twitter.com/2auIQYrLkN
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) August 12, 2020
"This has been a case that has spanned the whole country," said Rutzky. "We've looked long and far, and we'll continue to look wherever it takes us."
The case remains one of the area's biggest unsolved mysteries.
This story originally reported by Laken Bowles on newschannel5.com.
