Missing In Tennessee: Where is Shannon Arif

Shannon Arif loved being a mother. In March of 1998, Shannon was also excited to be expecting another little one.

Her husband was a soldier stationed at Fort Campbell, on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee, and they lived on the south side of the base, in the town of Clarksville, Tennessee.

Fort Campbell is home to the 101st Airborne Division and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.

Shannon’s personal life would be a bit of a mystery to those who knew her. She was known to be a private person.

Everyone would agree that she was a great mom who always put her children first.

On the night of March 17, 1998, Shannon left for her evening shift at the local Walmart store. She was scheduled to work from 4:30 p.m. to 9:15 p.m.

Later that night, long after Shannon was supposed to be home after her shift, her husband began to wonder where she was. He decided to drive up to the Walmart and check on her.

But he didn’t find Shannon.

Instead, he found her car parked in the lot, locked. Her purse was inside, and there was no sign of Shannon anywhere.

After a brief search, her husband realized something might be very wrong and called authorities to report his wife missing.

Shannon had disappeared.

Where is Shannon Elaine Arif?

Shannon Arif was 20 years old in 1998. She was married to Rahyab and she was a young mother. She loved her children, and their family seemed to be doing well from the outside.

Rahyab was a soldier stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, and Shannon was working part-time at a local Walmart store.

Shannon had also recently found out she was expecting another baby.

Some of her friends at work indicated she was having some trouble in her marriage, but everyone hoped that with a baby on the way the couple would be able to make it through their problems and come out on the other side as a happy, well-adjusted family.

There is a discrepancy on different missing person databases regarding Shannon’s case as to when she went missing. On some reports, it is noted as March 16, 1998 and yet on others, it is March 17th.

Either way, Shannon left for work at Walmart as she always did on that day. She was scheduled to work the 4:30 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. shift. Her husband, Rayhab had left for work just after 9:30 a.m. that morning, and a babysitter came over to the home so Shannon could get to work.

When she failed to return home later that evening, her husband went looking for her.

He found her car in the Walmart parking lot and discovered it was locked, but her purse was inside. He went into Walmart and quickly learned that Shannon had not shown up for her shift that night.

Rahyab was confused- her car was in the parking lot. If she had made it to Walmart, why hadn’t she gone in to work her shift?

He decided to call and report Shannon as missing to the local Clarksville authorities.

Volunteers and professional search and rescue teams quickly searched the area around Walmart, a 2.5-mile radius around the store.

The investigation revealed a few clues, at least those we know about.

Instead, there are a lot of questions.

Was the car ever forensically searched?

Did Walmart have any security cameras?

Was the husband’s alibi solid?

There was no activity on her bank accounts, driver’s license, or social security numbers.

As time went on, Shannon’s family was not given contact with the children. Shannon’s father desperately wanted answers on his daughter’s whereabouts and frequently blamed himself, saying,

“It’s a father’s responsibility to protect their children and I have failed.”

Of course, Shannon was living with her husband, and children and was twenty years old, so none of this was her dad’s fault, but any parent can feel the pain hearing a dad say those words.

It seemed that Rahyab was a person of interest from the beginning, and that might have played a role in the disconnect that would happen between him and Shannon’s family.

Rahyab was also enlisted in the United States Army, presenting another bit of a challenge to investigating these cases.

Sometimes there are crossovers between investigating agencies- either, state, local, or maybe even federal, but the United States Military has their own law enforcement to contend with also.

But Shannon was not an enlisted soldier, and she vanished from a Walmart in Clarksville, Tennessee, not on a military base or property.

Fort Campbell has been around since 1942. It is home to the 101st Airborne Division and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.

Fort Campbell made national news a few times in recent history.

In 2011, an F3 tornado hit the base and caused severe damage.

In 2023, tragically nine soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash during a training exercise. Two Black Hawk medical evacuation helicopters crashed into each other, while pilots were using night vision goggles. Their helicopters crashed west of Fort Campbell in a partially wooded field.

Shannon and her husband and children lived in Clarksville, Tennessee, on the south side of Fort Campbell. Clarksville is surrounded by parkland, the vast Dunbar Cave complex dates back thousands of years and has many sinkholes. The McGregor Park Riverwalk follows the meandering Cumberland River.

Lots of treacherous terrain.

Shannon’s vehicle made it to the Walmart in Clarksville, but we aren’t sure how. If we believe Rahyab’s story, he was at work all day and had last seen Shannon when he left just after 9:30 a.m.

It’s also unclear what the story is from the person watching her child, or children. Did they see her leave for work at 4:30?

Was this person connected to Rahyab? For instance, some reports state that he showed up at Walmart with his sister, leading many to speculate that she was the one watching the kids.

If she did make it to Walmart, where did she go from there? Did she go with someone?

Communications were different in 1998. There wasn’t social media and cell phones weren’t as commonplace, although the internet was.

But I don’t believe anyone has come forward with anything that points to Shannon having any other secret connections with anyone.

Did she just need to leave her life behind and start over? She was young, just 20 years old, and a mother. She had also just learned that she was pregnant. Perhaps she just couldn’t take it anymore and had to leave.

Or, do you doubt Rahyab’s story?

It is his account that gives us Shannon’s last known whereabouts. I do wonder who saw her last before him. His account says he last saw her at 9:40 a.m., but what if she was already missing at that point?

The entire area of southern Kentucky and Northern Tennessee is very rural, with lots of woods, mountain foothills, lakes, rivers, etc.

Shannon could be anywhere.

Those who knew the family after Shannon’s disappearance shed some interesting light on the situation as they saw it.

First, Rahyab was known to tell the kids that Shannon left because she didn’t want to be a mother and be tied down with the kids.

Second, there were no photos of Shannon in the home, and they never spoke of her.

It was as if she didn’t exist.

What do you think happened to Shannon Elaine Arif?

Shannon is described as a Caucasian female, standing 5’4 and weighing around 100 pounds when she was last seen in March 1998. She was 20 years old then, and would today be 47.

She has blonde hair and blue eyes. Shannon also has a mole on her neck and a mole on the left side of her upper lip. She wears contact lenses and her ears are pierced.

She may have been wearing a red and blue Tommy Hilfiger shirt, jogging pants, and Nike sneakers.

Anyone with any information on the case of Shannon Arif is asked to contact the Clarksville Police Department at 931–648–0656.