12/04/2025
From November 20 to Now: How Virginia Fumbled the Travis Turner Case
On November 20, 2025, Union High School’s undefeated football coach, Travis Turner, walked into the woods near his Appalachia home with a gun and never came back. Two weeks later, Southwest Virginia is still searching for answers about where he went – and why Virginia State Police downplayed the danger he posed to the community even after he was wanted on serious felony charges.
Turner’s disappearance began like a straightforward missing‑person case. His family says that on the evening of Thursday, November 20, he left his house to walk in the nearby mountains carrying a firearm and did not return. When his wife contacted law enforcement that night, she was reportedly told she would have to wait at least 24 hours before a missing‑person report could be taken. On Friday, November 21, she filed that report with Virginia State Police, and searches of the rugged terrain around their home began in earnest.
Over the weekend of November 22–23, local residents watched troopers, bloodhounds and drones comb the hillsides while news outlets reported that the beloved coach of a 12–0 Union team was missing. By November 23, Turner had been entered into the state’s missing‑persons database, and VSP publicly confirmed that they were looking for him. Officials emphasized that agents from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation had been headed to his home on November 20 “as part of an investigation, not to arrest him,” and said he was gone by the time they arrived.
That timing is one of the key questions in this case. On November 20, agents are in transit to speak with Turner as part of a criminal investigation. On that same day, according to his family’s attorney, he leaves his residence and walks into the woods with a firearm, never to return. No arrest warrants had been issued yet, but a state‑level investigation was active and serious enough to send special agents to his front door. The public has a right to ask whether word of that impending contact – or of the broader investigation – reached Turner before law enforcement did.
The situation escalated quietly behind the scenes. On Tuesday, November 25, Virginia State Police obtained ten arrest warrants for Turner: five counts tied to child s*xual abuse material and five counts of using a computer to solicit a minor. That same day, they publicly announced the charges and labeled him a fugitive from justice. Yet even then, the official line continued to reassure people that there was no threat to the community, despite the fact that Turner had been missing for five days, that he had last been seen with a gun in the mountains, and that he was now wanted on multiple felonies involving children.
From November 26 through November 28, the manhunt continued across Wise County. Reporting on November 26 noted that it had been one week since Turner was last seen. Virginia State Police acknowledged using air support, K‑9 units and search teams, but there was still no clear, urgent public warning along the lines of: “An armed, wanted suspect is missing in this area – do not approach and call 911 if seen.” Instead, parents, students and residents were left to fill in the gaps through rumor, social media and fragmented coverage from different outlets.
By the weekend of November 29–30, national media had picked up the story, no longer as a missing‑coach human‑interest piece but as a manhunt for a coach now charged with child s*xual abuse‑related offenses. On November 30, the U.S. Marshals Service announced a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to Turner’s capture and confirmed that Virginia State Police had requested their assistance on November 26. Federal authorities and subsequent wanted posters emphasized what should have been clear from the beginning: Turner may be armed, and the public should not approach him.
As of early December, Turner remains at large. The FBI, U.S. Marshals and Virginia State Police continue to search for him while his family pleads for him to come home safely. Meanwhile, the communities of Wise County and the broader region are left with a series of disturbing questions that center not only on what Turner is alleged to have done, but on how the state handled the case once he vanished.
Why was his wife initially told she needed to wait to file a missing‑person report when her husband had walked into the woods with a gun and failed to return? Why did it take until November 25 for felony warrants to be secured and announced, and why did public messaging even after that date downplay the risk he posed? What protocols, if any, did VSP follow for notifying local governments, school systems and residents that a potentially armed fugitive was missing in their back yard?
Perhaps most importantly, what explains the timing on November 20 itself? State agents say they were going to speak with Turner as part of an investigation. His family says he left with a gun that same day, before any warrants were issued. If no one tipped him off, then law enforcement needs to convincingly show what did happen and why.
This is not about second‑guessing every tactical decision in a difficult search through Appalachia’s steep hollows and ridgelines. It is about basic transparency and the duty to warn. When a person under active criminal investigation disappears with a firearm, the default posture should not be “no threat to the community.” The default should be immediate, honest communication with the public and a clear plan for containment.
Southwest Virginia deserves a full, public timeline from Virginia State Police, down to the hour: when the investigation began, when agents were deployed on November 20, when they learned Turner had left, when local law enforcement and school officials were notified, when the missing‑person report was formally taken, when the ten warrants were obtained on November 25, and when each public statement was released. It also deserves to know whether any internal inquiry is underway into possible leaks or informal warnings that might have given Turner time to disappear.
Until those answers are provided, the Travis Turner case will remain more than a disturbing set of criminal allegations. It will stand as an example of how a state agency failed to match its words and actions to the reality on the ground – and how an entire region was left to live with the consequences.
I have asked VSP and local officials all of these questions and have thus far been met with silence.
Marcus Ritchie
SWVAFP
