Ten years after Ryan Scott Trent's white Chevrolet Silverado veered off Ellington Parkway and slammed into a tree near the Briley Parkway overpass, no one has been arrested in his killing. The 29-year-old was found dead inside the wrecked truck early on September 28, 2016, and what first looked like a routine crash turned out to be a homicide that Metro Nashville Police are still trying to solve.
According to WSMV, Metro Nashville Police are still looking for whoever killed Trent, and cold-case detectives with the department continue to investigate the decade-old homicide. Police received a report just before 3 a.m. that morning describing a pickup that had gone off the road into trees near Ellington Parkway, the station reports. Trent was pronounced dead at the scene near the Briley Parkway west overpass.
A Wreck That Turned Out to Be a Murder
Investigators initially treated the crash as an ordinary traffic accident. A crash was reported to 911 at around 2:44 a.m. that morning, according to FOX 17, and it was not until later that the true cause of Trent's death came to light. FOX 17 reports that Trent was found inside his truck after it left the northbound lanes of Ellington Parkway and ran into a tree line at the Briley Parkway junction.
It wasn't until Trent's autopsy that his parents learned their son had been murdered in what investigators believe was a road-rage shooting, the outlet's report states. The Medical Examiner's Office determined that Trent died from a gunshot wound, a finding also noted by the Nashville Cold Case unit, which states that he was pronounced deceased at the scene before the medical examiner discovered the fatal wound.
A Family That Refuses to Stop Asking
Trent, who lived on Neelys Bend Drive and worked as a night manager for Premier Parking according to NewsChannel 5, left behind parents who have spent years pushing for answers. The family told WSMV in 2022 that they had tried everything to get justice for their son, and the Trents have said they pray each morning that they will find out what happened.
Their efforts have included putting up signs, appearing on television, and repeatedly raising the reward for information, FOX 17's report notes, quoting the family saying, “We've put signs up, we've been on television, we've upped the reward.” In 2021, the family increased its reward to $20,000 for information leading to an arrest, an offer FOX 17 reported was valid through March 2022. The following year, they renewed that $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, with the offer reported as good through March 28, 2023, per the station's earlier report. Nashville Crime Stoppers has also offered up to an additional $1,000 in reward money, the same report notes.
New Evidence, Still No Arrest
At one point, the family said it had uncovered what it called significant evidence near the scene, though it did not publicly describe what that evidence was, according to NewsChannel 5's report. That development, along with the billboard campaign the family used to keep Trent's case in public view, reflects just how far the Trents have gone to keep the investigation alive.
A decade later, the case remains unsolved. Anyone with information about Trent's murder is asked to contact MNPD's Cold Case Homicide Unit at [email protected], or to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 615-742-7463.
