In the winter of 2017, the family of William Dale Inklebarger was left with lingering questions when the 40-year-old man disappeared from Knoxville, Tennessee. He was last seen by his father on December 27th of that year. In an act of support, William's father had paid for him to stay for a full month at the Inn of Knoxville and also ensured his cell phone had service for the same duration. The expectation was that this would provide William with stability and a means to stay connected. However, after this last meeting, an unsettling silence began.
As days turned into more than a week, a deep worry grew within William's father. Despite his efforts to reach out, all calls and messages to William's phone went unanswered. This lack of communication was highly unusual, as his father reported that William had always made it a point to keep in touch and would never have gone for such an extended period without contact.
Prompted by this concern, his father visited the motel room on three separate occasions between January 5th and January 13th, 2018. Each time, he found the room in the exact same condition it had been in on December 27th, seemingly untouched and unused, deepening the mystery of his son's whereabouts.
William, who also went by the nickname Will, is a Caucasian man with hazel eyes and black hair that he often kept cut very low or bald. He typically had a mustache and a goatee. He is between 5 feet 9 inches and 6 feet tall, and at the time he went missing, he weighed approximately 160 to 165 pounds. He has several distinct tattoos that could help identify him, including an eagle with a man's face and a skull on his right bicep, a sunburst on his left bicep, and a cross on his left forearm, as well as a scar on his right hand. The Knoxville Police Department opened an investigation into his disappearance, and family members provided DNA samples in the hopes of finding a match. The overview of the case is centered on a man who vanished without a trace after his father's attempt to provide him with a safe place to stay, leaving behind only an empty room and a family waiting for answers.Last Seen: Dec 27, 2017