James Arnold Saunders was 44 when he was last known to be in the Knoxville area of Knox County, Tennessee, on May 3, 2022. His last reported location was associated with the Concord community near Knoxville. He is described as a White man with brown hair and blue eyes, weighing about 215 to 220 pounds, and listed at between 5 feet 2 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall.

The Knox County Sheriff’s Office received the missing-person report on May 8 and entered the case into NamUs as MP102923. Months after his disappearance there was little public detail about his movements, what he was wearing, or whether he told anyone his intended destination. The most consequential development came on October 24, 2022, when Saunders’s white 2016 Chevrolet Express van, Tennessee license plate 364BDSQ, was found abandoned at a remote Blue Ridge Parkway overlook in western North Carolina. The National Park Service searched the area but did not locate Saunders.

The vehicle’s recovery broadened the search area but did not resolve where Saunders went or how he reached that mountain corridor. Anyone who remembers seeing Saunders, his white Chevrolet Express van, or an unfamiliar person or vehicle near that Blue Ridge Parkway overlook is asked to contact the Knox County Sheriff’s Office with information.