LeRyan Nicholson was a caring and loving 18-year-old male who excelled at track at Pearl Cohn High School in his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. His sisters, Ameera and Candace, remembered him as a loving brother. In the period before he disappeared, LeRyan had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but his family could not recall anything suspicious happening or think of anyone who would want to harm him. He was a young man with struggles, but he was deeply loved by his family, who would spend years searching for him.
The search began on April 12, 1998, when LeRyan was reported missing in Nashville. Three days later, on April 15, his family filed an official missing person report. Tragically, a series of errors and miscommunications would keep the truth from them for 15 years. Just five days after the report was filed, the Nashville police closed the case, based on a false statement from a woman with no connection to the family who claimed LeRyan had returned home safely.
For a time, his mother told relatives he was in a mental health facility in Kentucky, a belief that added to the family's confusion and prolonged their search.
Unbeknownst to his loved ones, LeRyan’s fate had been discovered the day after he vanished. On April 13, 1998, a body was found dumped on Mary Street in North Nashville. The victim had been brutally murdered, wrapped in a piece of carpet, and set on fire, leaving the remains badly burned and unidentifiable. With no name to attach to the victim, the city buried him in Bordeaux Cemetery under a headstone that simply read "John Doe." While LeRyan’s family continued to look for him, his body lay in an anonymous grave. The city of Nashville was also reeling from a devastating tornado that struck the area during that same week, further complicating the timeline of events.
For years, LeRyan’s sisters, particularly Candace Williams, refused to give up. They became citizen detectives, tirelessly collecting police reports and sharing their brother's story on social media and in podcasts. It was Candace’s own investigation that finally broke the case open. While searching the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NAMUS) database, she made the connection between her missing brother and the unidentified body found in 1998. In March 2013, a DNA sample confirmed what Candace had suspected: the John Doe was LeRyan Nicholson.
The confirmation re-opened one cold case while closing another. The Metro Nashville Police Department’s Homicide Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit officially began investigating LeRyan's death as a homicide. Detectives have pursued leads over the years, including a trip to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 2013 that ultimately went cold. In 2019, a relative presented investigators with new theories about what might have happened to the teenager. The family remains haunted by unanswered questions, including why the initial missing person case was closed so quickly and why the dots were not connected sooner.
Decades after his death, LeRyan’s family continues to fight for justice. "It’s devastating," his sister Candace Williams told a reporter. "This would mean everything to me to find out what happened." She has worked to keep his story in the public eye, hoping that someone, somewhere, remembers something from that week in April 1998. The headstone in Bordeaux Cemetery has since been replaced, and it now bears the name LeRyan Nicholson.
As of June 2026, the murder of LeRyan Nicholson remains an open and unsolved investigation. His family continues to seek answers and closure. Metro Police urge anyone with information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to contact the Homicide Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit at 615-862-7329.
