A parent from the high school where missing football coach Travis Turner formerly worked has made some damning allegations about his disappearance.
Stephen Murray, whose stepdaughter attends Union High School in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, said in a new interview that most of the tight-knit community has reached a consensus about Turner’s well-being.
“Everyone knows that he’s alive,” Murray told the Daily Mail on Tuesday, March 10. “No one believes that he took his own life, and the reason is because he’s too much of a coward and he thinks too highly of himself to take his own life.”
Turner, 46, has not been seen since November 20, 2025, when his family alleges he walked into the woods behind his home while carrying a rifle. Shortly after he went missing, Turner was charged with five counts of child pornography and five counts of using a computer to solicit a minor.
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Murray added, “People [think] he liked himself too much. There’s no way that this brought him to suicide. They think he ran for it. … The general feeling in the community is, ‘This is bulls*** that the police haven’t found him yet.’”
The high school parent even offered up some theories about Turner’s potential whereabouts.
“People think that he’s in Texas with his sister,” Murray said. “I’ve heard people say that he’s out of the country. I find that hard to believe because getting flagged with your passport would be pretty basic police work.”
When the Virginia State Police (VSP) were contacted by the Daily Mail, the agency said they had “not received any information to indicate that Travis Turner is in Texas.”
Regardless, Murray argued that Turner’s lifestyle didn’t exactly make him equipped to survive for months alone in the wilderness.
“It’s not like [Turner] is a woodsman,” he said. “’He’s lived a pretty cushy life, getting paid a pretty decent salary for this part of the country.”
Furthermore, Murray said the “majority” of Big Stone Gap residents think Turner was tipped off about the pending charges against him, meaning he “had time to prepare to leave.”
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In a statement to Us Weekly on March 9, the VSP said there have still been “no credible sightings” of Turner.
“This case is worked on every day. It’s two-fold: We have the criminal investigation and the search,” said Captain J. Daniels of the VSP Bureau of Criminal Investigation Wytheville Field Office. “Every single lead has been vetted and followed up on, and all have been unfounded. We need the public to continue providing information. Someone knows something that will lead to his whereabouts.”
According to the statement, authorities have responded to 178 national and international leads, spanning seven states.
Virginia State Police said, “All tips so far have been unfounded.”
