Unsolved Tennessee: Nashville father missing for 27 years
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — As of Sunday, June 23, a young Nashville father will have been missing for 27 years.
At the time of his disappearance, 27-year-old Andre El was living at an apartment complex at 2621 Airpark Drive in East Nashville. It’s the same area where he is believed to have last been seen, but the details remain murky.
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Like his last location, much of the information in the case is still unclear, making El’s disappearance one of the most mysterious and difficult to solve for the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD).
In an interview last year, MNPD Cold Case Detective Matthew Filter told News 2 there was a nearly six-month gap in between when El was reported missing and when anyone last spoke with him.
“I would like to say that it is odd, but I’ve had some other cases where the missing person just didn’t stay in that close of contact with people and so nobody really knew that they were missing until several months had gone by and they couldn’t get ahold of the person,” Filter said.
It was the mother of El’s young child who finally filed a report on Jan. 4, 1998. According to officials, the woman lived hundreds of miles away in Atlanta, and at the time, the police department required people to make reports in person.
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“We needed a signature on the report in order to fulfill NCIC requirements,” Filter said. “Technically, that’s still kind of a rule today. However, there’s some ways we’ve found that we can kind of get around that if somebody is not in the city.”
Detectives still aren’t sure who exactly was the last person to physically see El. After he was reported missing, investigators learned of a few people he was known to associate with, but some of the names provided were only “street names,” making it difficult to locate them.
“It looked like at least two or three of the people, the detective was never able to make contact with them,” Filter said. “And we still, to this day, aren’t sure who these people may have been.”
Authorities suspect that El’s disappearance may have been linked to some type of “criminal activity” and have said that foul play is likely. However, few tips have been received since the 1990s.
UNSOLVED TENNESSEE: Find more of the state’s cold cases, missing persons, and other mysteries →
Still, detectives believe there may be someone who knows something that could help crack the case — whether it’s a neighbor who lived at the same apartment complex or someone who knew more about El.
El would be 54 years old today. When he was last seen, El was 6 feet tall, weighed about 220 pounds and had black hair and brown eyes. He could have a mustache, beard or a goatee.
Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to contact the MNPD’s Cold Case Unit at 615-862-7329. Anonymous tips can also be shared by calling the police department’s Crime Stoppers Division at 615-74-CRIME (615-742-7463).
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