The 31-year-old Colorado resident and New York native disappeared during a Nashville work trip; police say no foul play is suspected.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Private investigators hired by a family friend located 31-year-old Conor Anderson dead in a wooded area less than five hours after joining the search, according to the firm, four days after he was last seen during a business trip to Nashville.
Covert Results said investigators Diana Hutson and Kimberly Hutson met with members of Anderson’s family at about 1 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20, and began retracing his movements. Diana Hutson found Anderson shortly before 6 p.m. in a heavily wooded, difficult-to-reach area near James Robertson Parkway, the firm said. Metropolitan Nashville Police later confirmed Anderson had been found in a wood line near 14 James Robertson Parkway. Police said foul play was not suspected and that the Medical Examiner’s Office would determine his cause of death.
Anderson, who was originally from Huntington, New York, and was living in Colorado, had traveled to Nashville for a work conference. Police said he arrived Saturday, Aug. 15, and checked into the Millennium Maxwell House hotel. He was last known to be in the Woodland and Main Street area of East Nashville early the following morning. His disappearance prompted police to review surveillance footage and examine phone and bank records as detectives tried to determine where he went after his final known interaction with officers.
At about 1 a.m. Aug. 16, Anderson flagged down two East Precinct officers and told them about an encounter with unidentified men outside a nearby bar, according to Metro Nashville Police. Anderson said he had given the men $20 to show him around the area and that they had walked away with his money. Police said officers explained that Anderson would need to provide his driver’s license to make a formal report. Anderson declined to do so. Officers encouraged him to take a rideshare back to his hotel, and he agreed.
Body-camera footage later provided a closer look at the encounter. An officer told Anderson that he appeared heavily intoxicated and questioned parts of his account. Anderson denied that he had been attempting to buy drugs and maintained that he had approached the men for another reason. The conversation ended after roughly 10 minutes. Hotel staff later said Anderson did not return, according to local news reports. Police subsequently opened a missing-person investigation as concern about his whereabouts grew.
Covert Results said a close family friend retained the Nashville-based private investigation company on Aug. 20. Hutson and Hutson returned to Anderson’s last known area, canvassed businesses, examined available surveillance video and developed possible routes he might have taken. They also spoke with people who regularly spent time in the area, including people experiencing homelessness. Information gathered during those conversations helped narrow the search toward the James Robertson Parkway area, the firm said.
The company said its owner, Robert “Bobby” Young, a retired Metro Nashville Police detective, attempted to communicate the developing information to the detective assigned to Anderson’s case and sought assistance in searching the targeted area. The private investigators continued searching and spent nearly an hour in the wooded location before Diana Hutson found Anderson shortly before 6 p.m. The firm said the investigators stopped approaching the area, preserved the scene and notified authorities. Police officers, detectives and crime scene personnel then responded.
The account has drawn attention because of how quickly the private team located Anderson after it began working with his family. Covert Results said fewer than five hours passed between the investigators’ initial meeting with family members and the discovery. The firm credited conversations with people in the community as a key part of the search rather than a single piece of technology. NewsChannel 5 reported that Metro police said the department had remained in direct contact with Anderson’s family, while Covert Results said it had made repeated attempts to communicate its developing leads to the assigned detective.
Young’s firm has since called for a wider discussion about how community organizations and trained volunteers could support law enforcement during missing-person searches that require large numbers of people to cover difficult terrain. The firm stressed that such assistance would be intended to supplement police work rather than replace it. The company said wooded areas, riverbanks, greenways and other difficult locations can require substantial manpower when investigators are trying to locate a missing person quickly.
Anderson’s death also brought renewed scrutiny to the final police encounter captured on body camera, but authorities have not publicly connected that interaction to his death. Metro Nashville Police said there were no immediate indications of foul play when his body was found. The department’s public notice left the determination of how Anderson died to the medical examiner, and no publicly confirmed cause of death had been announced as of Aug. 28.
The investigation’s central unanswered question remains Anderson’s cause of death. Police have confirmed where he was found and have said they do not suspect foul play, while the private investigators have released details about how their search led to the wooded area. Any further determination about the circumstances of Anderson’s death will depend on findings released by medical and law enforcement authorities.
Author note: Last updated August 28, 2026.