Police said no immediate signs of foul play were found, and the medical examiner will determine Conor Anderson’s cause of death.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Conor Anderson, a 31-year-old Colorado man who disappeared while visiting Nashville for a work conference, was found dead Thursday evening in a wooded area beside a parking lot at 14 James Robertson Parkway, Metro Nashville police said.
Anderson had not been seen or heard from since early Sunday, when he spoke with two East Precinct police officers in the Woodland Street and Main Street area of East Nashville. His disappearance led detectives to review surveillance video and examine information from his phone and bank records. Police announced Thursday night that the search had ended with the discovery of his body. Authorities said there were no immediate indications of foul play, while stressing that the medical examiner had not yet determined how Anderson died.
Police said Anderson arrived in Nashville on Saturday, Aug. 15, for a work conference and checked into the Millennium Maxwell House hotel. Family members told NewsChannel 5 that he attended a concert at Nissan Stadium that night. By early Sunday, he was in East Nashville, several miles from his hotel.
At about 1 a.m. Sunday, Anderson flagged down two patrol officers near Woodland and Main streets. Police said he told them he had encountered unknown individuals outside a nearby bar and had given men $20 to show him around the area. According to Anderson’s account to officers, the men left with the money, and he wanted police to know about the incident.
Body camera footage later made public showed officers speaking with Anderson for about 10 minutes. Officers asked questions about what had happened and told him they would need his identification to complete a formal report. Anderson declined to provide his driver’s license and did not pursue the report. Police said the officers encouraged him to arrange a rideshare back to his hotel, and he agreed.
The encounter became a central point in the missing-person investigation because authorities had no confirmed contact with Anderson afterward. Detectives with the Missing Persons Unit began reviewing area surveillance footage while also examining phone and financial records in an effort to reconstruct his movements. Police asked the public for information about where Anderson might have gone after speaking with the officers.
Authorities did not announce evidence connecting the people Anderson described during the early Sunday encounter to his later death. Police also did not identify a suspect or publicly describe the death as a homicide. The earlier interaction remained part of the known timeline, but investigators had not established that it caused or contributed to Anderson’s disappearance.
On Thursday, the search shifted to the area around James Robertson Parkway. WSMV reported that a retired Metro Nashville police detective said two private investigators hired to help Anderson’s family had spoken with businesses, reviewed video and interviewed people as they worked to trace his movements. Police later confirmed that Anderson had been located in a wood line adjacent to the parking lot at 14 James Robertson Parkway.
Metro Nashville police said Thursday night that “there are no immediate indications of foul play.” That assessment was preliminary and did not establish a cause or manner of death. Police said the medical examiner would make the determination. Local reporting indicated an autopsy and toxicology work were expected as authorities sought to establish what happened between Anderson’s last known police encounter and the discovery of his body.
As of early Aug. 21, authorities had not publicly released a cause of death or additional medical findings. No criminal charges had been announced in connection with Anderson’s death, and police had not said when the medical examiner’s final findings would be available.
Author note: Last updated August 21, 2026.