Found Deceased TN - Matthew Braswell, 29, Dekalb County, 17 Dec 2021

[MissDimplezzzzz92]

MISSING
Date of Last Contact
December 17, 2021
Missing From
Smithville, Tennessee
Missing Age
29 Years
Current Age
30 Years
Circumstances of Disappearance
On 12-17-21, Matthew Braswell was involved in a motor vehicle accident and fled the scene. He was a passenger in the vehicle. The driver also fled but was located. He has not been seen or heard from since the date of the accident. (Officials found a human skull a mile away from where he was last seen) MTSU anthropologists are unclear how long testing will take to identify if this is Matthew.I also attached the link and this info can be googled. I just thought it was worth a try to start a thread on his story!!

Matthew Wayne Braswell

 

[MissDimplezzzzz92]

MISSING
Date of Last Contact
December 17, 2021
Missing From
Smithville, Tennessee
Missing Age
29 Years
Current Age
30 Years
Circumstances of Disappearance
On 12-17-21, Matthew Braswell was involved in a motor vehicle accident and fled the scene. He was a passenger in the vehicle. The driver also fled but was located. He has not been seen or heard from since the date of the accident. (Officials found a human skull a mile away from where he was last seen) MTSU anthropologists are unclear how long testing will take to identify if this is Matthew.I also attached the link and this info can be googled. I just thought it was worth a try to start a thread on his story!!

Matthew Wayne Braswell

I'm curious has anyone heard about this? I tried to search for a thread on him and wasn't able to find anything. Figured it was worth a try to make my own.

 

[MissDimplezzzzz92]

MISSING
Date of Last Contact
December 17, 2021
Missing From
Smithville, Tennessee
Missing Age
29 Years
Current Age
30 Years

Demographics​

Missing Age
29 Years
Current Age
30 Years


First Name
Matthew
Middle Name
Wayne
Last Name
Braswell
Nickname/Alias
--
Sex
Male
Race / Ethnicity
White / Caucasian
Height
5'-10" - 6'-0" (70 - 72 inches)
Weight
135 - 150 lbs

Circumstances​

Date of Last Contact
December 17, 2021
NamUs Case Created
January 11, 2023


Last Known Location (Map)
Location
Smithville, Tennessee 37166
County
DeKalb County

Missing From Tribal Land
No
Primary Residence on Tribal Land
No
Circumstances of Disappearance
On 12-17-21, Matthew Braswell was involved in a motor vehicle accident and fled the scene. He was a passenger in the vehicle. The driver also fled but was located. He has not been seen or heard from since the date of the accident.

---

Physical Description​

Hair Color
Brown
Head Hair Description
Short, Dark Brown
Body Hair Description
Facial Hair Description
Brown facial hair
Left Eye Color
Brown
Right Eye Color
Brown
Eye Description
--

---

Distinctive Physical Features
Item
Description

---

No Information Entered

Clothing and Accessories​

Item
Description

---

Clothing
Jean shorts with holes and red/blue/orange paint splatter

---

Clothing
Under wear is red and white plaid boxers

---

Footwear
Socks are short black

---

Footwear
Black and white Nike AirMax

---

Clothing
White tank top shirt

---

Accessories
Lion head belt buckle on a black belt

---

Accessories
Silver figuro necklace

---

Other
silver Gerber knife

---

Accessories
Black and white checkered wallet

---

Additional Case Info​

No Information Entered

Images and Documents​

• Facial Case Id​

  
  Uploaded:
  Jan 11, 2023
  Matthew Braswell

Contacts​

Investigating Agencies

DeKalb County Sheriff's Office​

Address
100 South Public Square

Smithville, Tennessee 37166
County
DeKalb County
Main Phone
(615) 597-4935
General Email
--

Website URL
--
Agency Case Number
2112211122
Date Reported
Dec 21, 2021
Mason Merriman, Detective
Case Contributors
No Information Entered

Contact NamUs​

The Regional Program Specialist contact for this case is Amy Jenkinson
Phone: (817) 304-8873
Email: ajenkinson@rti.org

Date Created: January 11, 2023
Top

National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)Human skull discovered in DeKalb County may belong to missing man​

This is all I can find on this missing person. I thought it would be worth a try to post his story. I searched and was not able to find a thread on him. I really am inspired by what you all do and I feel in the mean time maybe with websleuths additional info could be found as to what happened. I have posted this thread in a couple different forums. I think this was where my original post should have been. sorry for multiple threads,a newbie.

 

[Sillybilly]

has anyone heard of this case?

Websleuths requires links to MSM, NAMUS or an LE report to justify thread opening. I've found the link to support your opening post, but in future, please ensure all information stated as fact has a link to the source.

 

[StacyMarie83]

Websleuths requires links to MSM, NAMUS or an LE report to justify thread opening. I've found the link to support your opening post, but in future, please ensure all information stated as fact has a link to the source.

Human skull discovered in DeKalb County may belong to missing man

Dekalb County investigators may have a break in a missing persons case after a skull discovered near Center Hill Lake on Thursday.

www.wkrn.com

DEKALB COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Dekalb County investigators may have a break in a missing persons case after a skull was discovered near Center Hill Lake on Thursday.

Matthew Braswell, 29, went missing on Dec. 17, 2021, and Sheriff Patrick Ray believes the skull could belong to Braswell. As the sheriff’s department awaits anthropological testing, Amy Braswell, Matthew’s sister, said the skull’s discovery is hard to process.

DeKalb County officials searching for missing man following car crash
“Heartbreaking, I don’t even know how to react, think, anything,” Amy said.


The skull was discovered roughly a mile and a half from where Braswell was last seen. According to officials, Braswell was riding in a Chevy Tahoe with another man and the two were allegedly going through someone’s mailbox on Ponder Road. When the homeowner came out to confront them, the two drove off and crashed into a wooded area. Braswell and the driver fled from police, but Braswell was never found.

“If his skull is out there, the rest of him’s out there somewhere and I think it’s their responsibility to go out there and find him. And they may not be able to do too much with just bones, but I would still like to know maybe cause of death, what happened,” Amy said.

‘Disappeared without a trace’: Dekalb County man missing for over a year
Anthropologists with MTSU were able to confirm the skull was human.


Amy said many questions are still unanswered, and she hopes investigators will continue searching for the rest of Matthew’s remains if the skull does turn out to be his.

“He was such a good person, you know, he would give anybody anything that he had. He was my best friend,” Amy said.

Read today’s top stories on wkrn.com
Ray said he does plan to search the area, along with MTSU anthropologists, but he was not sure when that search would take place. He said it’s also unclear how long it will take to confirm whether the skull belonged to Braswell.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I hope his family is surrounded by caring support and the victim found will be quickly identified.

 

[tarabull]

March 14, 2022:

Girlfriend talks 3 months after Smithville man’s disappearance

This week marks three months since 29-year-old Matthew Braswell went missing in DeKalb County. At first, it appeared he was running from police, but after extensive ground and air searches the sher…

www.wkrn.com

Snipped...
...Hunter said she had access to Braswell’s iCloud account and his cell phone was last pinged near the crash site, behind a cemetery. But since then, his password has been changed either by him or some else.

...Braswell’s girlfriend said she was recently scammed on Cash App where she sent almost $600 to someone who promised they had information about his disappearance. The account was quickly closed after she sent the money.

 

[MissDimplezzzzz92]

March 14, 2022:

Girlfriend talks 3 months after Smithville man’s disappearance

This week marks three months since 29-year-old Matthew Braswell went missing in DeKalb County. At first, it appeared he was running from police, but after extensive ground and air searches the sher…

www.wkrn.com

Snipped...
...Hunter said she had access to Braswell’s iCloud account and his cell phone was last pinged near the crash site, behind a cemetery. But since then, his password has been changed either by him or some else.

...Braswell’s girlfriend said she was recently scammed on Cash App where she sent almost $600 to someone who promised they had information about his disappearance. The account was quickly closed after she sent the money.

I wonder if there is a way to find out who that person was that pretended to know something..I'm not sure how else to find out more.

 

[MissDimplezzzzz92]

I wonder if there is a way to find out who that person was that pretended to know something..I'm not sure how else to find out more.I wonder if facebook could lead to more. this is where i found out he was missing he is mutual friends with people I know. Worth A try

 

[Vern]

An article detailing his disappearance shortly after it occured. Includes a couple of photos of him which I do not know how to link in:

DeKalb County officials searching for missing man following car crash

The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department is searching for 29-year-old Matthew Braswell who went missing after a car crash in December.

www.wkrn.com

DEKALB COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department is searching for a 29-year-old man who went missing after a car crash in December. According to Sheriff Patrick Ray, Matthew Braswell hasn’t been seen or heard from since he fled into the woods after a crash on Ponder Road on December 17. Ray said Braswell was a passenger of a 2006 Chevy Tahoe, driven by 26-year-old Danny Phillips from McMinnville.
...
Law enforcement has conducted several ground searches in addition to aerial searches. They recovered Braswell’s white and gray jacket in the woods roughly a half-mile from the crash site, but no signs of Braswell.
...
“The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department along with other agencies searched on foot for Braswell along with 12 K-9 cadaver/tracking dogs and drones, but we still didn’t find anything,” Sheriff Ray said after the most recent search on February 5.

Here's an article on the, still unidentified, skull being found:

Human skull discovered in DeKalb County may belong to missing man

Dekalb County investigators may have a break in a missing persons case after a skull discovered near Center Hill Lake on Thursday.

www.wkrn.com

Matthew Braswell, 29, went missing on Dec. 17, 2021, and Sheriff Patrick Ray believes the skull could belong to Braswell.
...
The skull was discovered roughly a mile and a half from where Braswell was last seen. According to officials, Braswell was riding in a Chevy Tahoe with another man and the two were allegedly going through someone’s mailbox on Ponder Road. When the homeowner came out to confront them, the two drove off and crashed into a wooded area. Braswell and the driver fled from police, but Braswell was never found.

An article on Matthew with statements from his family:

‘Disappeared without a trace’: Dekalb County man missing for over a year

It’s been more than a year since 29-year-old Matthew Braswell vanished while running from police, and his family fears he’s no longer alive.

www.wkrn.com

“It’s heartbreaking, just to know that he just disappeared without a trace and no answers,” Matthew’s sister, Amy Braswell, said. “We just always were real close and if he was ever in trouble, I was always the first person he would call.” ...
Matthew had run-ins with the law before and struggled with addiction. But loved ones say he always let them know he was okay.
...
“Just because he had a little bit of trouble in the past that doesn’t mean anything. He would give somebody the shirt off his back in a heartbeat. He was a great person and a brother, a son, an uncle, a father,” Amy said. “We need answers.”

By this article discussing additional recovered remains and clothing articles found when searching the area where the skull was found, it appears IMO that this may be Matthew.

More Clues Surface in Missing Person Investigation - WJLE Radio

www.wjle.com

...
“My Chief Deputy, Detectives and myself went to the area of where the skull was found on Wednesday March 15. We did a visual look around the area and found a shoe, a sock, and a bone. The sock and shoe were consistent with the clothing Braswell was wearing. The bone could not be determined by a picture that was sent to the anthropologist to determine if it was human or animal. Looking at the picture that was sent of the skull, the anthropologist thought the skull was of a male. The terrain is very steep and has a lot of undergrowth and deep leaves. A team from the Office of Anthropologist and law enforcement officers will look at the scene at a later date to try to find more remains.
...

 

[imstilla.grandma]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A 17-month mystery is now solved in DeKalb County after a skull was identified as a missing man.

Sheriff Patrick Ray told NewsChannel 5 that Matthew Braswell's skull was found on the shoreline of Center Hill Lake in March. The skull was sent to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Nashville, along with other bones after they were found. The examiner then sent the skull to another lab for DNA testing. They used DNA from Braswell’s mother to compare to the DNA in the teeth of the skull.

The first clue in the disappearance of Braswell turned up during March when the human skull was found not far from where Braswell was last seen on December 17, 2021. That was when he ran from the scene of a crash on Ponder Road off Cookeville Highway. He was age 29 at the time.

More evidence including a shoe, sock, and a bone surfaced during a follow-up visual search in the same area. Sheriff Ray says the sock and shoe were consistent with the clothing Braswell was wearing when last seen.

The exact cause of Braswell’s death has not been determined.

Man's skull in DeKalb County linked to missing man

A 17-month mystery is now solved in DeKalb County after a skull was identified as a missing man.

www.newschannel5.com