As the search for missing Union High School football coach Travis Turner enters its second week, a crime expert has a dramatic theory about his whereabouts. “There’s always an idea that we think there might be someone in another place that could help him. He might have a different haircut, he might even have a different identity somewhere out of the country, that’s another possibility,” Dr. Alex del Carmen told WCYB-News 5 on Wednesday, Dec. 3. Dr. Del Carmen also said it was “always a reality” that Turner, 46, had committed suicide since his disappearance on Nov. 20. “Based on all these possibilities, we cannot give up on one of them,” he argued. The wife of a missing high school football coach has responded to speculation that she helped in his disappearance. Dr. Del Carmen, a professor and associate dean at Tarleton State University, has no direct connection to the Turner case. The U.S. Marshals Service joined the search on Monday, Dec. 1, which Dr. Del Carmen said is a sign that the search for Turner may extend far beyond rural Virginia, where Turner was last seen carrying a gun into the woods behind his home. “Now that there are two entities at the federal level, that should tell us that they probably expect this person to flee the state, it has become an interstate fugitive task force, and secondly, federal resources are being used that are clearly often lacking in local law enforcement,” the criminologist said. “Now you’ve taken it to a whole different level of complexity and a whole different level of technology and resources.” Marshals on Monday offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to Turner’s whereabouts. Authorities are keeping much of the search, and any intelligence about Turner’s location, secret, but Dr. Del Carmen said that didn’t mean progress wasn’t being made. “Don’t assume just because there’s radio silence that nothing is happening behind the scenes,” he explains. Dr Del Carmen said the search was now entering its second week, but all hope was not lost. “We’ve had fugitives for months, sometimes years, and they were eventually found somewhere,” he said. Travis married his wife Leslie Caudill Turner in 2001 and has three children: sons Bailey, 25, Grayden, 21, and daughter Brynlee, 11. Missing high school football coach Travis Turner may have had help from ‘an accomplice’: Detective The Turner family released a statement to Us Weekly through their attorney on Wednesday, pleading for his safe return. “If Travis is competent and able to respond to the wishes of his family, your wife and children are in trouble,” the statement read. “Leslie implores you to come home, defend yourself in court, and face the charges. Do not let your family fight this battle alone without you. They love you and miss you. They want you to know they have your back.” Leslie expressed “high” concern for her husband’s health, noting that he left his wallet, contacts, glasses, and daily medications at home when he disappeared into the woods. “The family of Travis Turner will continue to cooperate with law enforcement in their search for Travis,” the statement said. “Their home and property have been searched multiple times with their consent. While the family’s last contact with Travis leaves them extremely concerned for his well-being, they remain hopeful that he will be found and have the opportunity to defend himself in court.”
Missing High School Football Coach Travis Turner May Have ‘Left the Country’: Criminologist
