NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — It’s been eleven years since a 21-year-old mother disappeared in East Nashville. At the time Radiah Gilbert was about 6-7 months pregnant.
It’s just one of hundreds of cases Metro Nashville police hope to shed light on after a cold case website launched several weeks ago.
In June 2013, 21-year-old Radiah Gilbert was last seen at the Roadway Inn on Trinity Ln. The inn is now permanently closed.
“Although it was usual for Radiah to be gone for a long period of time, it was unusual for her to be gone this long,” Lieutenant Jill Weaver, Metro Nashville Police Department Cold Case Homicide Detective said.
Lt. Weaver is the detective on Gilbert’s case. She said at the time of her disappearance, Gilbert found herself on the wrong path and staying at various inns. “She had been involved in prostitution and there were people in and out of her life.”
At the time, Gilbert’s two-year-old child was being cared for by her mother and Gilbert was up to 7 months pregnant.
“We feel strongly that Radiah was a victim of foul play, or something nefarious happened to her that ended her life,” Weaver said. “People don’t just fall off the face of the earth.”
For over a decade, Weaver investigated the case and hoped to give some answers to Gilbert’s mother.
“Her mom knew in her heart something negative happened to her. She would call me often crying wanting to know what happened,” Weaver said.
Now hoping to bring new attention to her case, as well as many others, Metro Nashville police launched a cold case website. Gilbert is just one of hundreds of names and stories.
“It’s painful to have to live with that yearning….and not knowing what happened to your loved one from day to day,” Weaver said.
Over a decade later, Weaver hopes to solve the case she’s been on since day one.
“You can breathe and it gives you a sigh of relief and it means a lot to me to give that to them, and at the end of the day that’s why we are here is to give them peace and that sigh of relief,” Weaver said.
If you have any information at all on this case, please reach out to Nashville Crime Stoppers at 615-74-CRIME.
