Seth Augenstein / Forensic Magazine 

June 10, 2019

OVERTON COUNTY, TENN. – John Thrasher is probably dead. All the local people seem to agree: the 21-year-old who disappeared after leaving his family home 15 years ago has probably not been living off-the-grid in some location far away from his rural Tennessee home since he just never came home the night of Aug. 13, 2004. The family has offered rewards for information, and rumors continue to swirl in and around the town of Livingston, the county seat.

Law enforcement continues to field occasional tips, and the cold-case investigation is still technically active. Local cops say they still want to find out what happened to the missing young man.

The only significant development was an additional tragedy in the ensuing years. Because the only line-of-duty law enforcement death in Overton County history happened in April 2010, during a search for Thrasher.

The disappearance of Thrasher and the death of the sheriff's deputy remain linked. Like most of the thousands of America's missing persons, Thrasher's case is at a standstill until the right witness comes forward with the right information – no matter what forensic techniques are now available.

The solution could be anywhere locally. It could be off any road, it could be in the dirt along any of the 435 square miles of the surrounding countryside – or beyond. Or Thrasher's body could be hidden – as local rumors mostly have it – in one of the area's many sinkholes in the natural terrain, the rolling countryside that appears picturesque but can prove dangerous – and resulted in Deputy Chad Pritchard's falling death.

John Thrasher's disappearance seems to hang over those who knew him best. Because even having the worst news confirmed would be better than the mystery that now lingers.

"Obviously something happened to him," said Charles Thrasher, John's older brother. "Finding his body would be the first step."

A small-town disappearance

Overton County (pop. 22,012) is a rural spot in the northern part of the state, about halfway between Nashville and Knoxville. Livingston, the county seat, is a town of just over 4,000.

The occasional violent death creates statewide headlines every so often. In January 2000, a man killed his wife by detonating dynamite in her car – but with her dying breaths, the victim managed to tell her neighbors what had happened, allowing a first-degree murder conviction. Last December a woman was indicted for the death of a man in his Highland Mountain Road home a year earlier.

But mysteries endure. And one of the biggest stories in the 21st century is the still-lost John Thrasher.

It's come to define how people see and talk to – or avoid – Charles Thrasher, the older brother.

"People either only want to talk to me about it – or they don't want to talk to me," said Thrasher, in a recent sit down with Forensic Magazine in a local restaurant.

John Thrasher walked away from the home where he lived with his father the night of Aug. 13. He was carrying a backpack, according to the brother.

Official accounts said the 21-year-old was last reported being seen at the Putnam County Fair the following day, Aug. 14.

Charles Thrasher only received a call three days after his brother had last been seen by family.

The older brother, in conversation with a reporter 15 years later, still occasionally slips up and calls his brother "my son," since there was a significant age gape, and he helped to raise the boy. 

But Charles had moved out and was living his own life when John – a high school basketball star who dropped out after a short stint at Tennessee Tech University in nearby Cookeville – had found himself in with the "wrong crowd."

Drugs were involved in John's life shortly before he vanished, said the elder Thrasher.

"I didn't know it had gotten that bad," he added.

Initially, law enforcement told the Thrasher family that John may have voluntarily gone off on his own, since he was an adult. One Livingston police officer told Charles he and the rest of the concerned family "watched too much CSI," the brother recalled.

"At the time they didn't make an effort – that's why it's been 15 years," said Thrasher.

Eventually, John's family put up an $11,000 reward for leading to the whereabouts of Thrasher. They listed the family's phone number as point of contact. But all that led to were crank calls and people repeating stories: the same rumors, generally the same names of people known around town, some different places, and some slightly-different circumstances ... like a whole town playing a game of telephone.

None to date have claimed any direct knowledge of the actual events of Aug. 13, 2004 – and thus, there has been no resolution. The case is still open, said John Garrett, the current county sheriff.

"We get tips," said the sheriff. "We revisit the case as much as we possibly can."

The Thrasher case has drawn national attention, too. In fact, it was one of the first cases entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs. J. Todd Matthews, case management and communications director for NamUs, also happens to be a lifelong resident of Livingston. He also went to
school with Charles Thrasher.

But even with all of Matthews' hundreds of successes across the nation, the one that's perhaps closest to home remains unsolved.

"I must admit that it being people you know and in a town where you live adds to the personal frustration," Matthews told Forensic Magazine. "I will do everything that I can to make sure that the story is not forgotten."

The missing persons report was filed by the Livingston Police Department in the days after John Thrasher was last seen. But it became a county sheriff's case when the investigation revealed Thrasher may have gone missing from outside city limits.

Charles Thrasher and the rest of the family, in the meantime, have waited. Fifteen years on, the lack of answers has left a family in some ways devastated, with father Charles Sr. dead months after his youngest disappeared – and many of the other members not talking to each other.

"When he watches unsolved mysteries (TV shows), it tears him apart," said Cindy Thrasher, of her husband Charles. "I told him, it may take 30 years to solve this."

The death of a deputy

Overton County's unusual topography has "some of the most diverse geology and topography in Tennessee," according to a soil survey by the National Resources Conversation Services, conducted in 2003. The mix of sandstone, shale and limestone creates vastly different weathering patterns from rock formation to soil deposit, even within a few feet. When the groundwater becomes slightly acidic moving across some forms of sandstone, it creates vast gaps within the ground, over huge geologic timelines.

Sinkholes

Sometimes the holes plunge hundreds of feet without warning, giving way at any moment to unsuspecting passersby who may not know the dangers.

Six years after John Thrasher vanished, a lead ended with the death of a deputy at the bottom of one such precipitous drop.

A female inmate at the Overton County Jail one day in 2010 told officers that she had some missing information on the Thrasher boy. She had heard another person claim she was at a party with Thrasher and some other people involved when Thrasher got beaten to death. The body, the inmate said, was thrown down a sinkhole around Standing Stone State Park, about 10 miles outside Livingston, recalls former Overton deputy Ashley Tharp-Smith.

Deputies went to the spot described – a notoriously dangerous area depressed in the ground, just a short few steps off an intersection of dirt roads in the middle of the forest. Pritchard, who had just started as a deputy a few months earlier after a stint as an Overton jail guard, was among them.

Pritchard, who was raised in the Midwest, and others were careful around the fickle topography.

But the ground gave way.

Pritchard fell 160 feet to the bottom.

His microphone was on at the time, according to some.

Hours later, fire and rescue crews were able to descend to the bottom and recover the deputy's body. While there, they conducted a further search.

John Thrasher's body was not there.

"Because of faulty information, this is what it resulted in," recalled Tharp-Smith, nine years later.

DeAnna Kelley-Eskew, a former Overton County jail guard, worked with Pritchard and was changed forever by knowing him as a friend. She recalls how Pritchard was hilarious and brave, a veteran decorated in wartime – and how he was always there for his friends.

"Chad was one of the best guys you ever met," said Kelley-Eskew, who got a tattoo on her calf honoring Pritchard with his badge number in the months after her friend died. She even left her defunct badge in her friend's casket. "He was buried with my shield."

"He was like a brother to me," added Pam Keys, another local friend. "He was like an uncle to my boys."

The deputy was buried locally and was honored.

"It lit a fire under the (Thrasher) investigation for a while," recalls Tharp-Smith. "They asked for help from higher up in the state. But they didn't put in a whole lot of effort after that."

The case needs to be solved, said Pritchard's friends. "It pisses me off Chad died trying to solve that case," said Keys. "They need to not only bring closure to the Thrasher family – but also to Chad's memory. They need to solve what Chad died working to solve."

Rumors of a break-in, and a shovel

Everyone in the small Tennessee community seems to speculate – and have their own theory – about the disappearance of John Thrasher. "Things are very, very cloudy after 15 years," said Curtis Hayes, the current mayor of Livingston, whose wife is John Thrasher's first cousin. "Why hasn't it ever been solved? That's really a
million-dollar question ... It's a tragedy. 

"I think the case has been worked a great deal," the mayor added. "I've heard this and that ... but nothing really ever panned out."

The rumors abound about Thrasher's disappearance, and the deputy's death it ultimately led to. Some don't repeat – but others are very consistent, from teller to teller and voice to voice.

Many of the rumors center on a break-in shortly before John Thrasher vanished.

Clark's Pharmacy on Roberts Street was broken into in the time before Thrasher's disappearance – and involved the theft of a large quantity of narcotics from the establishment, according to an official with knowledge of the case. The since-closed business has become a division office for the Overton County Sheriff's Office.

A hand-drawn map of the layout of a business – including a safe – was found by Charles Thrasher in John's room shortly after his brother's disappearance. It showed words and markings making it clear it was a business, and the location of the safe. It was a map of the pharmacy, the brother said. But when authorities arrived a few days afterward, the paper was gone.

"I really believe he had the drugs (in that backpack when he left), but he didn't rob the place," said Charles Thrasher, of his long-lost little brother.

John Thrasher was never seen at the Putnam County Fair on Aug. 14, 2004, the brother guesses. Instead, he and others believe the "sighting" was simply reported by someone to muddle the investigation, by potentially bringing in other agencies.

Several people also spoke about rumors of a shovel and other tools being borrowed from one of the persons of interest's home the night John Thrasher went missing. Forensic Magazine heard many of these rumors – and names associated with such rumors – but is withholding them pending further developments in the case.

No arrests have ever been made on the Thrasher case, Sheriff Garrett told Forensic Magazine in late April. Several persons of interest were interviewed and investigated – some on multiple occasions. More than dozens of tips have been produced by the family's reward over the years, the sheriff said. Many have been
repeated information, some are probably hearsay – and just rumors. Detectives have also not been able to validate a lot of what they have been told by tipsters, he added.

"I don't know that, 15 years later, we are any closer to solving his disappearance than we were then," said the sheriff. "But as long as I'm here, and as long as we continue to get information, we're still going to work the case as best we possibly can.

"That family deserves some closure," Garrett added. "There's a lot of questions out there that we would love to have answers to."

Thrasher's was among the first cases entered into NamUs when it came online more than a decade ago. He is one of 15,939 of the missing in America. In August, with the passing of another anniversary of his disappearance, John Thrasher will join nearly 8,000 others who have been missing for 15 years or more.

Matthews, of NamUs, said the local case is one that will remain active on the database. But something else is needed to get an ending to the story of John Thrasher.

"I think that we have done everything that NamUs can do to this point without another piece of the puzzle coming to the surface," said Matthews. "I've seen NamUs resolve cases across the nation and that gives great hope ... NamUs will forward any information (it might receive) directly to the Overton County Sheriff."

The Livingston Police Department did not return calls on the John Thrasher case.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said it did not open its own investigation into the Thrasher disappearance, but had only assisted Overton County.

The case remains cold, the rumors swirl. The years have passed.

Like many of the other locals, a maintenance worker at Standing Stone State Park said he had heard all the variations of the story of what may have happened one August night 15 long years ago. But like the others, the maintenance man didn't want his name associated with any of it – and he didn't know anything for sure, first-hand. But he had the same belief that most in Livingston seemed to share.

"I don't think," he said, shaking his head, "they'll ever find him."

Search still ongoing for John Thrasher 16 years later

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For more information - 

​J​.​Todd Matthews
Program Director, Media & Public Relations Liaison​
www.DoeNetwork.org 
Former Director of Case Management 
& Communications for NamUs.gov​
J.ToddMatthews@gmail.com
cell / text: 931.397.3893