Nearly two weeks into the search for missing high school football coach Travis Turner, the United States Marshals have offered up their services.
The Marshals met with members of the Virginia State Police at the former Appalachia High School on Monday, December 1, according to News Channel 11. At around 3:20 p.m. ET, members of law enforcement broke into groups and left the school.
A spokesperson for the Virginia State Police said the Marshals were there to assist in the “general search for Turner.”
“If the FBI recognizes that a local agency doesn’t necessarily have the resources that is available to the FBI or other federal agencies, then they’ll come in and often offer their help and assistance in loaning that equipment or helping them facilitate the function of finding this person,” Ken Lang, former detective and head of Milligan University’s criminal justice program, told News Channel 11 on Monday.
The United States Marshals Service issued a $5,000 reward for information about Travis’ whereabouts on Monday, warning the public that the coach is thought to be “armed.”
“If the circumstances are saying that this person is a threat to themselves or threat to others, then certainly a higher precedence is going to be put on that as opposed to somebody who is [solely] fleeing from a crime or trying to hide from a crime,” Lang explained.
Turner left his home with a firearm, according to a statement from the Turner family attorney, Adrian Collins, on Friday, November 28. Days after his disappearance, Turner was charged with five counts of child pornography and five counts of using a computer to solicit a minor.
Appalachia High School, which permanently closed in 2011, is the alma mater of the missing football coach. Under his father and head coach, Tom Turner, Travis won three state titles at Appalachia High as the team’s quarterback.
The former school is located roughly seven miles from Union High School in Stone Gap, Virginia, where Travis had been coaching since 2011.
Travis went missing on November 20, disappearing into the woods behind his home in nearby Wise, Virginia.
Lang also explained how the search for Turner has become quite specific and challenging, given the circumstances.
“Instead of using technology and court subpoenas to find a location of the subject, we’re going to pull up the helicopter, initiate some flare, we’ll … send officers out in the woods and trek through the woods,” he said.
Lang added, “We’ll [use] K-9, dogs and bloodhounds and see if we can get a scent off of clothing from the house of the subject and then send bloodhounds out to see if we can find them in the more traditional sense.”
Since the start, the search for Turner has centered on the wooded area near his home.
“He had went into the woods right near the general location of his house, and that’s basically where we’ve focused our search on,” Virginia State Police 1st Sgt. Jason Day said on November 22.
The Turner family has also executed their own independent search efforts, their attorney explained.
“Family members and friends have also conducted search efforts in the surrounding woods,” the attorney’s statement said. “These efforts have been limited by weather conditions and with respect for the official operations underway.”
The statement added, “It is the family’s prayer that Travis is safe and will have the opportunity to defend himself in a court of law.”
