Joshua Ryan Steele was 27 when he was shot dead in the Fiddler’s Inn parking lot in Nashville on February 5, 2020. Steele checked into the motel at 10:25 p.m.; less than an hour later his body was found on the west side of the parking lot with a fatal gunshot wound after an altercation that began at the doorway of his second-story room and moved to the upper balcony.

Officers from the Hermitage Precinct responded to a citizen’s call and arrived about 11:20 p.m. Investigators impounded a Nissan pickup believed to be Steele’s and worked to reconstruct his movements and whether he had arranged to meet someone at the motel. Detectives linked Steele to an online escort advertisement and identified 21-year-old Britany Lynn Foster as the woman in the ad. A pistol and a cell phone were recovered during a search of Foster’s apartment; forensic analysis of the phone showed communications between Steele and Foster the night of the killing.

Based on those findings, Foster was arrested and charged with Steele’s murder and jailed on a $500,000 bond. Does anyone have information about Steele’s movements that night or about contacts who might help clarify what happened on the motel balcony?