On the afternoon of Friday, November 19th, 1999, 23-year-old Laresha Walker dropped her son off at her sister’s home, because she had an appointment to take her car into a repair shop the following morning.
However, she never arrived for this appointment.
When her sister went to Laresha’s home on Sunday to check on her, she found an odd scene: All of the lights had been left on, music was blasting from the stereo, and there were red splotches on the wall that looked eerily similar to blood.
The neighbors would soon reveal that they’d witnessed Laresha arguing with an unknown man in her yard on the evening of November 19th, but no one knew who he was and, to this day, he’s never been identified.
What happened to Laresha Walker?
Laresha Deana Walker
One of three daughters, Laresha Deana Walker was born on January 2nd, 1976, in Nashville, Tennessee, to parents Wanda and Sidney.
Laresha had a close relationship with her family and was said to be the “leader” among the sisters. She worked at Peterbilt Motors Company in Nashville, and was a loving and devoted mother to her two-year-old son Rayvon.
One of her sisters described Laresha as having been a “wild child” in her past, but that changed when Rayvon was born. He quickly became the center of her world. Laresha also started regularly attending church. She was said to be a very private individual and her family didn’t know most of her friends.
Rayvon’s father doesn’t appear to have ever had an active role in his life. In fact, even his identity is unclear. According to The Fall Line Podcast, Laresha had taken Rayvon’s father to family court in the past for child support, but he allegedly stated that a paternity test had actually proven that he wasn’t Rayvon’s father.
However, the podcast’s host was unable to find official confirmation for any of this in court records, so much about Rayvon’s father remains shrouded in mystery.
A Court Appearance & A Car Appointment
On Friday, November 19th, 1999, Laresha went to court over a prior physical altercation with an extended family member, during which the woman in question had assaulted Laresha.
Nothing else has been released about this case or the violent encounter itself, including the name of the female relative who attacked her. However, her sister Kesha and father Sidney both spoke to her that day and didn’t notice anything off about Laresha. She seemed untroubled by the court appearance.
She dropped Rayvon off at Kesha’s home that afternoon, since she intended to take her red 1995 Oldsmobile Achieva to the repair shop in Murfreesboro (about an hour away from Nashville) the next morning to get an estimate.
She made it home safely and talked to Sidney on the phone between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. This would be the final contact anyone in the Walker family would have with Laresha.
Mysterious Stranger
As previously stated, Laresha was witnessed arguing with a man that night. Neighbors said the two were arguing in Laresha’s front yard, then went inside the home together and came back out later—still arguing. It’s unclear if anyone heard exactly what they were saying.
There were two vehicles parked in her driveway—Laresha’s and the mystery man’s, presumably—but there are no available details about what the man was driving. Since it was nighttime, it’s possible that no one got a clear look at his vehicle, just as no one had gotten a clear look at him.
Later that night, the two reportedly got into a vehicle together and departed. This would be the last time anyone in the neighborhood remembered seeing Laresha Walker.
Although she didn’t show up to retrieve Rayvon on Saturday, her family didn’t panic initially. They had yet to learn that she hadn’t shown up for her car appointment. It wouldn’t be until Sunday—two days after she was last spotted—that Kesha went to her home.
She’d run out of diapers for Rayvon and needed more supplies, so she went over to get some from Laresha and also to see if she was okay, as no one in the family had heard from her since Friday night.
Kesha pulled into the driveway and immediately felt that something was off. Music was blaring from Laresha’s home so loudly that she could already hear it. As Laresha was not known to be disruptive or to ever play music this loudly, this instantly raised questions.
(Side note: It’s unknown how long the music had been playing, as none of her neighbors reported the noise to the police.)
Kesha entered the home and found that all of the lights had been left on—another detail that was highly uncharacteristic behavior for Laresha. Additionally, it looked as if two people had been sitting on the bed at some point.
The clothing that Laresha had last been seen wearing was also in the home. Most troubling of all was the presence of red marks on the walls near the front door which resembled blood.
None of Laresha’s belongings seemed to be missing, including the heart medication she needed.
Kesha notified the police of what she’d found and that her sister was gone.
Also missing was her Oldsmobile Achieva, which—like Laresha Walker herself—has never been located.
Many Potential Leads, No Solid Evidence
The initial investigation struggled to turn up any substantial evidence or leads. The red spots were tested, but those results are apparently now a mystery as they’ve been lost from the original case files.
There were no reported sightings of Laresha to help establish where she might have gone after leaving with the unidentified man.
Furthermore, his identity remained elusive and no one ever came forward to say that they were with her that night. The only detail known about him, based on eyewitness reports, is that he was a Black man. No other description was given.
Laresha’s loved ones were heartbroken over her loss and the lack of answers only made their tragedy more difficult to process.
“We’re just surviving, really,” said Sidney. “It’s kind of hard right now.”
Her family didn’t know if she’d been dating anyone at the time. In fact, no one questioned by investigators seemed to know the answer to this question, as Laresha kept much about her personal life private. However, her sister stated that a male friend (or possible boyfriend?) had picked her up on several occasions. She never got a clear look at this individual, though.
Detectives interrogated the man whom Laresha had claimed was Rayvon’s father. During this interview, he said he hadn’t seen her since three weeks before she went missing. With no evidence against him, it appears that he wasn’t pursued further as a person of interest.
They confirmed that Laresha never arrived for her appointment at the repair shop, leading authorities to believe that whatever happened to the missing woman had likely occurred on Friday night, which lined up with the eyewitness testimony from her neighbors.
Investigators also discovered that Laresha had been set to testify soon in an upcoming criminal trial and that whomever she was testifying against didn’t want her involved. (Side note: It’s important to clarify that this case was unrelated to the other court appearance she’d just made.)
No further information has ever been released about this criminal trial or Laresha’s connection to it. And whether or not it’s relevant to her disappearance is also unknown.
However, Detective Matthew Filter—the current lead investigator—revealed that there were many potential reasons why she might have been in danger.
“There was also a lot of things going on in Laresha’s life that could have put her in a little bit of danger. People that may have wanted to harm her. I can’t confirm that that’s necessarily what happened, but there were a lot of things from Laresha’s past that kind of stand out that make you wonder if something hadn’t caught up with her and someone harmed her.”
What else might have been going on that could have put her safety at risk has never been disclosed. Her case remains one with far more questions than answers.
Another Walker Family Member Mysteriously Vanishes
Tragedy would strike the Walker family again years later.
On October 5th, 2016, Laresha’s mother Wanda vanished under mysterious circumstances.
She reportedly had car trouble on her way to work and contacted her boyfriend Harold (she and Laresha’s father were no longer together), who came out to help her. Harold lived a short distance away from her and was able to get there quickly.
According to him, he put oil in her overheated vehicle and helped her get it started again. Afterwards, she left for work alone.
However, she never arrived at Dollar Tree—her place of employment—which was only a seven-minute drive away from her home. What happened to her in that small window of time?
A week later, her Nissan Maxima was discovered locked and abandoned in an alley on Wade Avenue in Nashville, just down the street from her residence.
What law enforcement came across was a disturbing scene: There were signs of a struggle, as well as a large amount of blood in the backseat—so much that investigators believed that whomever it belonged to had likely died.
DNA analysis soon revealed that it was Wanda’s blood.
Wanda’s purse was inside the Nissan as well. However, it has never been confirmed that her cell phone was among her things or that Harold’s claim that she contacted him that morning about her car problems was verified. The last contact her family had with her was on October 4th.
Wanda Faye Walker has never been found, nor has anyone ever been charged in her case.
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Current State of the Investigation
Rayvon was raised by family members following the disappearance of his mother. He remains hopeful for a resolution in her case one day.
“It’s my mom, so it’s hard. It’s definitely hard. Everyday, I just take it one day at a time. You’ve just got to have faith. That’s all you can do at this point.”
Laresha’s case is still open, but no developments have been announced in many years.
No connection between the disappearances of Laresha and Wanda has ever been established, and both cases remain unsolved.
As Laresha’s vehicle was never located, some have speculated that her presumed assailant might have disposed of both her car and her remains in a body of water somewhere.
Underwater searches for her have been carried out by divers in recent years, but nothing relevant to Laresha has turned up so far. However, several unrelated submerged vehicles have been recovered in the process.
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of either Laresha or Wanda Walker, you are encouraged to contact the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department at (615) 862-8600.