Memphis’s River Keeps Its Secrets: Sonar Hunt Fails to Find the Six Vanished Souls, Leaving Families in Continued Agony.

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Memphis, Tennessee—A city known for its musical soul and historical heartbeat is also a city plagued by a cluster of baffling, unsolved missing persons cases, collectively known in search circles as the “Memphis 6.

” These six individuals—Marlaquinta McGee, Joe Rogers Brooks Jr.

, Terrence Lamar Bledsoe, Fabian Carruthers, Kirsten Joy Kryszak, and Tonja Conley—vanished without a trace over a two-decade span, leaving behind vehicles, loved ones, and a profound silence that official investigations have yet to break.

In a renewed effort to bring resolution to these seemingly unsolvable mysteries, a team of independent cold case investigators recently descended upon Memphis, deploying advanced sonar technology to scour the city’s complex network of waterways, operating under the theory that many long-term missing person cases end tragically submerged.

The circumstances surrounding each of the six disappearances are distinct yet share a terrifying common thread: an abrupt, total vanishing.

Marlaquinta McGee was last seen on May 12, 2015.

After dropping off her children, the security guard, observed in her uniform, told her mother she was tired.

This mundane detail quickly turned ominous when she failed to return, leaving her family deeply concerned, as it was highly uncharacteristic for her to depart without notice.

Marlaquinta also suffered from a diagnosed mental illness and did not have her necessary medication with her.

Crucially, her tan and brown 1999 Ford Contour (Tennessee license plate: 302 ZTG) disappeared with her, suggesting a possible journey that ended abruptly.

The cold case of Kirsten Joy Kryszak dates back to the New Year’s holiday of 2001.

Kirsten, last seen in Memphis, had spent time with her boyfriend and another man, attending two house parties.

After staying overnight at one location, she asked for a ride back to her boyfriend’s house.

She was reportedly driven around for several hours by an unidentified individual in a blue 1988 Ford Aerostar van (Kentucky license plate: CYV 100).

Though she was briefly seen at her boyfriend’s apartment, she subsequently left in the van and has not been located since.

Investigators noted she had a known history involving illegal drugs, potentially complicating the circumstances of her last hours.

The vanishing of Fabian Carruthers is tied to a routine stop on September 16, 2020.

Carruthers had been gambling at a friend’s house and reportedly won a substantial sum—$1,000—which he intended to deposit before returning home.

He was last seen driving his silver 2016 Nissan Versa (Tennessee license plate: 5W7-5X0).

He never made the deposit and never made it home.

Joe Rogers Brooks Jr. was reported missing on February 2, 2012.

He was last observed leaving his ex-girlfriend’s residence in a gold 1998 Buick LeSabre with a Mississippi license plate.

The details of his last known movements are sparse, leaving his family searching for any information that could lead to his whereabouts.

The two other individuals central to the cold case investigation are Terrence Lamar Bledsoe and Tonja Conley, whose disappearances add layers to the city’s unsettling pattern.

Conley, in particular, has been missing since July 2, 2020, with her black 2010 Nissan Sentra (Tennessee license plate: 6T21P9) also nowhere to be found.

The investigative team, using a boat equipped with high-definition sonar technology, launched their mission into the waters around Memphis.

The search patterns were meticulously planned, focusing on strategic locations: public boat ramps, areas prone to accidental entry, and sections beneath major bridges over the vast Mississippi River and its tributaries—places where a vehicle could plunge undetected into the current.

The logic behind the intense underwater search is rooted in the high percentage of long-term missing person cases that are eventually solved by finding the individual’s vehicle in a body of water.

Roads leading to and from the river are often high-risk areas, particularly at night or during adverse weather.

The work was painstaking and emotionally charged, conducted with the families of the missing six watching and waiting, desperate for any flicker of hope.

These families have endured years, and in some cases decades, of emotional limbo, with no grave to visit and no certain truth to accept.

Despite the thorough deployment of cutting-edge sonar equipment and the team’s renowned expertise, the initial search phase in the Memphis waterways concluded without finding any of the vehicles connected to the “Memphis 6.

” This lack of discovery underscores the sheer difficulty of the task and the challenging nature of the large, fast-moving river systems that define the region.

The absence of a breakthrough, however, has only intensified the community’s focus on these cold cases.

The Memphis Police Department’s Cold Case Unit, which currently operates with five investigators and one supervisor, continues to review and analyze unsolved homicides and missing persons cases, prioritizing them based on solvability and utilizing newly-developed forensic technology.

The renewed attention brought by the independent investigators serves as a vital reminder that, even if the watery depths did not yield immediate answers, someone in the city of Memphis holds the final pieces to these six harrowing puzzles.

The disappearance of Marlaquinta, Joe, Terrence, Fabian, Kirsten, and Tonja remains a collective wound on the city’s conscience, and their families are left with the eternal, unanswered question: Where are they?

Authorities continue to urge anyone with even the slightest detail regarding any of these cases to contact the Memphis Police Department’s Cold Case Hotline at 901-636-COLD (2653) or CrimeStoppers at 901-528-CASH (2274), emphasizing that anonymity is guaranteed.

The search for justice, and for the six ghosts of Memphis, continues.