Unsolved murders and missing people in Tennessee
Tennessee cases are worked by local police and sheriffs, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation joins when a district attorney asks. TBI’s cold case work has been thinly staffed, with hundreds of open cases and very few agents assigned to them.
In 2026, families of missing and murdered Tennesseans packed the Capitol to push for a funded cold case unit at TBI. Each story below lists the agency handling the case and how to reach it.
New update. Colleen Slemmer
Colleen Slemmer, 19, left Florida to study computers at Knoxville Job Corps. In 1995, four students walked out. Only three came back.