Tommy Gene Hatfield was 29 when he left his Clairfield, Tennessee home on September 18, 1987, saying he was going into the woods that border the property. He was last seen carrying a rifle or shotgun and wearing ox blood-colored cowboy boots, jeans, and a flannel shirt with a white background and progressively smaller blue blocks. His case was reported the same day and entered into NamUs as MP21815.

Claiborne County deputies led extensive searches of the dense, rugged terrain near the house but found no sign of Tommy or the firearm. He is described as having brown hair and brown eyes and several scars — across the bridge of his nose, above his right eyebrow, across his right hand and right knee — and a surgical scar on his upper left rib cage; he may have walked with a slight limp. No trace has emerged since that September day.