The Wilson Post
LEBANON WEATHER

David Riemens’ closest friends see many reminders of artist who disappeared in 2012




Laura and Donny Nuessle shared their Quietude Farm with David Riemens for 12 years. Riemens slept in a tree house on their property and ate breakfast and dinner with them most days. In this picture from 2015, the Nuessles sit on their porch swing with Riemens’ Australian shepherd, Kody.KEN BECK

Laura and Donny Nuessle shared their Quietude Farm with David Riemens for 12 years. Riemens slept in a tree house on their property and ate breakfast and dinner with them most days. In this picture from 2015, the Nuessles sit on their porch swing with Riemens’ Australian shepherd, Kody.KEN BECK

Part two of a two-part series

Very few knew David Riemens better than his friends Laura and Dr. Donny Nuessle. The couple considered him a brother. Laura knew him for 40 years, more than anyone in Tennessee, and Donny reported him missing to the police on that fateful day he vanished.

Riemens lived in a tree house for 12 years on the Nuessles’ Quietude Farm and ate meals with them twice a day. The tree house, which sits on a sloped base 18 to 25 feet off the ground, was the first structure he built on their property and is still standing but in poor condition.

“It breaks our hearts to go up there, so it has been taken over by the wildlife. David would have liked that,” said Laura.

“He was kind of a laborer out here for us. He lived in our tree house. … And in payment for board and room, he’d help around the farm. He was an artist. His work with the rocks was always done artistically. In the wintertime he’d often paint in the tree house,” Donny told the Wilson Post in 2015.

David Riemens labored 10 years on this “hobbit house” and considered it his crowning achievement in rock. The stone mason also built sidewalks, chimneys, retaining walls and even a pizza oven.KEN BECK

David Riemens labored 10 years on this “hobbit house” and considered it his crowning achievement in rock. The stone mason also built sidewalks, chimneys, retaining walls and even a pizza oven.KEN BECK

Constructed for Laura, the stone mason’s “hobbit house,” an 800-square-feet underground dwelling with two rooms, proves a whimsical and yet amazing creation as field rock fits snuggly in walls here and there in the hillside. It’s a combination hand-mixed mortar and limestone house with a rock chimney, and a small tribe of sculpted dragons decorate the exterior.

Doctor reported Riemens missing

Donny has served as a deputy medical examiner for Wilson County and been called to numerous fatal accident and crime scenes to scrutinize the dead. He was the first person to realize late Wednesday afternoon of Aug. 8, 2012, that something was not right in David Riemens’ world.

A week earlier Riemens had told Donny that he had met an older man who had some antique bricks. These were the type of bricks he needed to do some repair on bricked walkways around the tree house. The stone mason had brought a load of about 50 bricks to the farm, about an hour’s drive back and forth to the brick pile.

The day that David Riemens went missing, he left his 1997 Ford Ranger in the parking lot of the Dollar General in Watertown facing Highway 70. Over the following days, friends draped flowers on the hood of the truck as tokens of their affection.

The day that David Riemens went missing, he left his 1997 Ford Ranger in the parking lot of the Dollar General in Watertown facing Highway 70. Over the following days, friends draped flowers on the hood of the truck as tokens of their affection.

At that site, which included an aging barn and old rock wall, Riemens found that the elderly gent had hired two men to build a foundation for a house for his daughter or son. The landowner wanted Riemens to give him an estimate to face the foundation with stones. After working out some figures, Riemens needed to meet with the contractor of the project but did not know how to contact the man. The two men he saw there laying the block rock were not communicative.

“He was frustrated because they wouldn’t say what their name was. There was the older man and he had two other men working on the blocks, and he never could get their names. And they didn’t want to give him the name of the contractor or anything, and it was really puzzling David and kind of irritating him,” Laura told the Wilson Post in 2015.

“On Monday (two days before he disappeared) David went out to try and find the contractor and came back. I remember him saying, ‘Well, maybe he’ll call.’ He must have given somebody our home number,” Donny recalled.

The siblings of David Riemens had his remains cremated, and a portion of his ashes were buried beside their mother’s grave in Michigan. The family placed a bronze plaque here that reads: Loved Son, Brother, Uncle, Friend. Forever will be remembered. Forever will be known as Adventurer and Artist, and as Master of the Stones.SUBMITTED

The siblings of David Riemens had his remains cremated, and a portion of his ashes were buried beside their mother’s grave in Michigan. The family placed a bronze plaque here that reads: Loved Son, Brother, Uncle, Friend. Forever will be remembered. Forever will be known as Adventurer and Artist, and as Master of the Stones.SUBMITTED

“Tuesday, he did the same thing. Went out to the property, tried to meet somebody there. Finally, Wednesday was the last day that anybody had seen him. I was home bush hogging, but I was watching the time because I had a 12 o’clock appointment to meet somebody in Franklin.

“He had a bag that was packed. … It was still in our garage. He was planning ‘if I can meet with this contractor before one o’clock, I’m heading up to Michigan.’ I heard him say it a couple of times.”

Searching for clues and answers

That afternoon around 5:30, Donny called the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office to report that his best friend was missing. Police met with him that night beside Riemens’ locked truck, where they spied his sketchpad on the seat. The lawmen decided not to break in and search the vehicle as they were optimistic that Reimens would return.

In this oil painting David Riemens depicted himself and his dog as they approach the tree house where they spent their nights in slumber when not disturbed by the sounds of animal nightlife.SUBMITTED

In this oil painting David Riemens depicted himself and his dog as they approach the tree house where they spent their nights in slumber when not disturbed by the sounds of animal nightlife.SUBMITTED

“That his truck was locked was unusual. Normally he would never lock his truck, but it turned out that his skill saw was in the floorboard of the passenger side. That’s why it was locked,” said Donny.

Tragically, Riemens did not show up until five and a half years later when his skull and skeleton were discovered on a wooded hillside about two and a half miles away from his truck.

Donny, who went on five aerial searches trying to locate the brick site, remains very suspicious of his pal’s death and says there was “no good reason for him to be there where he was found.”

But he adds, “Hope lingers despite overwhelming reason that leads me to doubt ever finding that final understanding.”

Laura’s opinion is that her friend was “most definitely murdered.”

She says what she misses most is “David being here with us, of course,” but she is surrounded by visible remembrances of his legacy that she said includes “the rock work, his art, his care of this farm. He always helps me somehow if I have a problem.”

Donny said he misses “his smile, laugh, companionship; his help around the farm, and the complete comfort Laura and I had in being able to leave David to care for the place and animals while we excursioned somewhere.

“Gosh, I see and value evidence of David’s artistry and hard work nearly everywhere I turn on the farm, and we still have several of his personal items that remind me of him scattered about, but those are only reminders.”

Riemens’ family held a memorial service for him at the assembly hall at Cedars of Lebanon State Park on March 25, 2018. Attendees were invited to take a small chip of wood cut from saplings where his bones were found.

The family had his remains cremated, and his ashes were buried on his mother’s grave in Michigan. They gave the Nuessles half of their brother’s ashes.

“We would like to take them to Chaco Canyon. He wanted to go back there,” said Laura, of one Riemens’ favorite places to visit.

(Chaco Culture National Historical Park is located in northwestern New Mexico between Albuquerque and Farmington.)

According to Detective Maj. Robert Stafford, at this moment in time the cause and manner of David Riemens’ death is listed as “Could not be determined.”

If anyone has information that might help the Wilson County Sheriff’s Department in solving the cause of David Riemens’ death, contact Detective Major Robert Stafford at (615) 444-1459 Ext. 233.

The Wilson Post reached out to the siblings of David Riemens and asked if they would share some thoughts on the 10th anniversary of the date he disappeared. David’s brother, James Riemens, responded by saying, “I’ve talked with my sisters, and they would prefer that I represent the family unless there are new developments. We all have our own thoughts and feelings but agree that 10 years gone by helps to soften the grief.”

Will your family do anything special in his memory?

“As for the anniversary, I don’t really notice it in years. For me it’s the frequent reminders like a picture or comments that expose that empty space left by the loss of a loved one. We don’t have any plans for a ceremony.”

What do you miss most about David?

“I miss his stories and tales of adventure. Our family gets together on a regular basis now because we don’t want to lose track of what is going on with each other.”  

What feelings do you have for the many in Watertown who knew your brother as a friend and who pitched in trying to find him and later consoled you after his remains were found?

“We greatly appreciate all the help and support we received from the people in his world there in Tennessee. There are still people that continue to ask questions about what happened. There is a feeling that some things went unsaid and maybe with time the truth will expose itself like his bones did.”

What did your family do with his remains?

“We had his remains cremated, and his ashes were buried on our mother’s grave here in Michigan. We had a bronze plaque made for him and placed it there.”

What most would you want people to remember about David’s life and legacy?

“David was a good man, good for the world and good for his community. A talented artist and nature lover. Those who knew him will always remember him.”

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