Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - MANHUNT: PERVY HS FOOTBALL COACH TRAVIS TURNER “ALIVE,” IN HIDING

Episode Date: June 10, 2026

Nancy Grace dives into the baffling disappearance of Travis Turner, a legacy high school football coach from Wise County, Virginia, who vanished into the rugged Appalachian Mountains just as law enforcement arrived to arrest him. Facing multiple felony counts of possessing child pornography and soliciting a minor, Turner’s sudden flight has ignited fierce community outrage over escaped justice. Joined by an all-star panel, Nancy breaks down the timeline of the search and exposes a history of systemic failures within the school district. Together, they challenge the theory that Turner took his own life in the woods, exploring the plausibility of a powerful community figure with deep ties, cash, and a loyal support network fleeing the country. Joining Nancy Grace today: Stephen Murray - (Wise County, VA) Concerned Parent, Stepdaughter attends Union High School, where fugitive Travis Tuner was coached football Dr. Janie Lacy - (Orlando, FL) Licensed Psychotherapist and CEO of Life Counseling Solutions, Author of "How To Heal From A Toxic Relationship: A Guide To Reclaiming Your Mental Health and Happiness", Host of "Let's Talk About It with Janie Lacy” Podcast on YouTube, , Instagram & Facebook: @JanieLacy Mike Gould - (NY) Former Lieutenant and Founding member of the NYPD K-9 unit, leader of several investigations into missing persons and serial killers, Former National Guardsman and Secret Service Detail member for two presidents. Mike Jaafar "Big Case Mike" - (Dearborn, MI) Criminal Defense Attorney, Founder: 800-BIG-MIKE Alexis Tereszcuk - (Los Angeles, CA) Crime Stories Investigative Reporter  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The Manhunt is on for a pervy high school football coach, Travis Turner. Rumors swirling, he is in fact alive and in hiding. Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. The coach vanished as law enforcement was on their way. to his house to talk to him.

This man's a fugitive now. This person that you trusted was not worthy of your trust. They would probably fall for some Zadie conspiracy theory like the child porn was planted on his computer. On the run in hiding in the Appalachian Mountains or has he already left the country. This guy is not stupid. If so many other people can't escape,

and leave the country. Just example, Caitlin Armstrong, R.J. McLeod, I could go on. He can too. This coach, high school coach out of Virginia, Travis Turner, disappears into the Appalachian Mountains literally as law enforcement on their way to question him about inappropriate illicit child images and alleged solicitation of minors. Joining us an all-star panel, but the person that would know best of all, aside from all of the experts. Special guest joining us tonight, Stephen Murray from Weiss County, Virginia. His stepdaughter attends the high school where Travis Turner coached football. Stephen Murray, thank you for speaking out tonight. Do you think he's dead or alive? Because I think he's alive. Yeah, Nancy, I'm with you. I think he's alive. I think he's hiding out somewhere.

I don't think he's far, honestly. I think he's somewhere in these mountains. He's got a long list of people that would protect his name because it's a legacy name. So I think he's hiding out somewhere. Hold your horses, Stephen Murray. Hold your horses. A legacy name. I've never heard of him until I found out about the alleged illicit child images. So I don't know how well known he is outside of his hometown in Virginia.

But what do you mean by that? I'm not saying you're wrong. I think you're right. I think people would protect him. But why do you say that, given the nature of the charges? Right. So there are things I've learned. I moved here about seven years ago.

My wife is born and raised here. And there's things that I've learned along the way, and especially since this case opened up, that there's things that you just don't talk about. There's things that you just let sweep under the rug. But I think this was just too big of a crime to do that. But Coach Turner, his father was a star football player, grew up was a coach. Travis was a star football player and is now the coach.

And since I started speaking out, I've received incredible amount of messages saying that this has been going on since the 90s, like this type of inappropriate relationships, this type of sexual abuse, harassment, all across the board. Law enforcement headed to the family home to interview Turner. On the way, investigators are informed Turner is no longer home. When officers arrived, they're told Turner was last seen going into a wooded area near his home, wearing a gray sweatshirt and gray sweatpants. Turner's disappearance days before his team's playoff game is now even more shocking. The coach is wanted on five counts of possessing child pornography,

five counts of using a computer to solicit a minor. Additional charges pending. When Turner fails to return home from his sudden walk into rugged mountainous terrain, Leslie contacts law enforcement to report her husband missing, but is told a report can't be taken until 24 hours passed. The next day, family reports him missing. The family has cooperated fully in search efforts as well as gathering family and friends to search the wooded area. Some of the family search efforts have been affected by weather, as well as the official search. Back to Stephen Murray, whose stepdaughter attends a high school where a fugitive coached Travis Turner coached football.

Ever since you spoke out, other people are contacting you. reaching out to you. Why? They're sharing their own stories of growing up in this town, in this county, where this type of abuse is kind of just rampant and normalized and swept under the rug. Do you believe people are still trying to sweep it under the rug? Yeah, absolutely. I really have a hard time believing that the school board and the superintendent and the principal of the school are acting with good intentions right now. Well, Alexis Tereschuk joining us, Crime Stories Investigative Reporter,

it would look really bad on them, those people in charge of school superintendent, other higher-ups, because there were a lot of warning signs that illicit behavior with students or trying to have illicit behavior with students, there were a lot of red flags that this was happening and nothing was done

and the same school district and the same school has had past incidents with the same behavior, the same illegal, inappropriate behavior. There have been. There has been more than one case of teachers, male teachers, that have had an inappropriate relationship and actually an illegal relationship with students.

And these cases, they did actually get prosecuted. Basically, the teachers got a slap on the wrist. They got barely any time in jail at all. But this case in particular, this man was under investigation. There was a student that was allegedly involved, and the school spoke with the student without their parents involved at all. Spoke to the student. The parents were furious. They said, why didn't you call us? Why are you speaking to the student? You're making our child feel like she has done something wrong, but she is the victim here. And that because he's the football coach, he's so powerful that anything anyone would say against him would be detrimental to him instead of focusing on a child victim.

Well, Stephen Murray joining us from this jurisdiction, his stepdaughter attends that high school. Stephen, isn't it true that one of the alleged victims just a couple of days before Turner takes off into the mountains was yanked out of practice, basketball practice, and told to stop spreading lies about the coach? This is a victim. Yes, no, absolutely. And I'm so glad you're bringing this up. It was the first thing on my list to talk about. there was discussion from the principal now. And this was what was told to me that perhaps she was being catfished or perhaps it was someone else that was texting her.

But this couldn't be true. She did not return to school. So she was pulled out of practice on a Monday, did not return to school. And by Thursday, Travis was at the school picking up his belongings and leaving. Okay. I need to get that timeline down. Stephen Murray, this little girl, this teen girl, in front of everybody, was Yank pulled out of basketball practice and questioned and reprimanded and told to, quote, stop spreading lies

about the football coach. Did that happen? Yes, without her parents there or her parents' consent or knowledge. Mike Gould, joining me former lieutenant founding member of the New York Police Department K-9 Unit. Former National Guard has worked for the Secret Service for two presidents? Mike Gould, that is not how you conduct an investigation when a child is involved. No, they did everything wrong. Yeah. So the nature of this crime is very sensitive, Nancy. So obviously, you can't treat the victim or the alleged victim as somebody who was responsible for these things. So you have to be extremely sensitive and you have to follow that, be very careful in how you discuss interviews, especially children, of course. Stephen Murray, back to you, joining us from Wise County, Virginia.

So how did the little girl react when she was dragged out in front of all of her friends on the basketball team and told not spread lies about the coach? I mean, like any teenager would, she's a child. She's probably terrified, uncomfortable, unsure of what to do next. And I want to reiterate, Nancy, that with the school system and this school board, each administrator, whether you're a teacher or a principal or whatever, It is the law that you are a mandatory reporter. So from the get-go, the principle, whether this is true or not, whether this girl was making up all of this, he has an obligation by law to then call Department of Children's Services and report what is being said to him. And none of that was done. I want to go straight out to Dr. Janie Lacey, licensed psychotherapist, CEO of Counseling Solutions and author of How to Hill from a Toxic Relationship. host of let's talk about it with janey lacey dr janey thank you for being with us aside from the legal ramifications of telling an alleged victim a child victim to quote stop spreading lies

there is a huge emotional impact on a child or any girl or woman that has been a victim in a case of this nature is extremely sensitive that's why i've had so much emotional impact on a child or any girl or woman that has been a victim in a case of this nature is extremely sensitive that's why i've had so much many female victims refuse to testify. They're embarrassed. They're ashamed. They feel like it's their fault. But right at the get-go to be told, stop telling lies on the coach. You don't see a problem with that? Am I the only one upset about this? It is very upsetting, Nancy. The system around her, in my opinion, has failed. What we think about, in particular, survivors of grooming and exploitation, they can carry misplaced shame because the grooming process was designed to make them complicit. And then you have this system, the school system that also creates this environment. And when we think about these situations where the abuser can create this dynamic of secrecy,

like special access, emotional and meshment. And then you have this community where we know clinically that predators are skilled at identifying permissive environments. They're drawn to institutes where boundary violations go undressed, where secrecy is normalized and where the institutions brand. In this case, Nancy, a winning football coach creates this. halo that protects certain people from scrutiny. And when these environments exist, it's not just one predator who benefits. It's a system that enables predation. And the victims in this case are the ones that get lost. I'm very, very curious, Stephen Murphy, why you had a security system installed in your home after you spoke out about coach Travis Turner. Yeah. So it's a small town,

right? We have a small mountain town. I started speaking out at the school board meeting. I have received an incredible amount of support, and someone reached out to me privately and said, thank you for doing what you're doing, but if I were you, I would tighten up security at your home. So we did, you know. I haven't had any threats, you know, I'm okay.

I'm okay. My family's safe. And actually, we live directly across the street from the police station, so I feel taken care of. Stephen Murray, describe the day that you learned the coach was being investigated for illicit child images and pervy solicitation of minors.

You know, it was a, for me personally, it was a gut punch. It just kind of seemed crazy. You know, like what, what's going on here? This is wild. You know, my, my stepdaughter was getting, you know, a few days into it, was getting notifications on her phone from all types of news organizations. all around the world. It was an out-of-body experience for sure. And then the sad part is, Nancy, is that as I started speaking out and realizing, like, a lot of people, yes, they were shocked that it was with a minor, but the general consensus was, I'm not surprised. What is the general consensus, Stephen Murray, amongst the parents there that Coach Travis Turner may have been behaving improperly, to put it mildly? I mean, he's charged with felonies as it relates to children, to minors, right under everybody's nose for so long. Generally, it was known that he wasn't the most faithful husband to have done this with children.

That was more of a shock to people. But the general consensus is, you know, that people want justice, right? They want him found. They want him to do time for these crimes. Stephen Murray, you seem convinced that Coach Travis Turner, the high school football coach, is still alive, and that people would actually cover for him and enable his escape because he has a, quote, legacy name. It's like Friday Night Lights. His father was a great football player. He was a great football player.

They're all coaches winning, winning, winning. I find it hard to believe that somebody would put on blinders to these charges about children. But that said, how could he disappear? How could he pull it off, Stephen? You know, he's got to have deep ties. He's got to know some people that are willing to stick their neck out for him. Like I said earlier, it's a legacy name. It's a name that's been in this county for generations. And I highly doubt that he is dead. I really do. And a lot of people share that opinion. So I think he's tucked away somewhere. And I don't think he was able to leave the country. I think there would be too many red flags. I think he, you know, he would be caught. I think he's tucked away

somewhere in Wise or Lee County. Why do you think he could not leave the country? I just think there wasn't enough time, like to, I feel like I would hope I have, you know, some faith in our justice system that they could flag his passport or flag something with him leaving. I don't think he could had gotten out that Thursday night when he walked out into the woods. So I don't know, but maybe, I don't know. You have a lot more experience than I do, Nancy, so I'm sure you got some better ideas of how he could do that. How do the victims feel, Stephen, the alleged child victims, the teens? I mean, what I've heard, I haven't talked directly to the victim, but what I've heard is that the kids haven't felt safe for a while. And this kind of was, this was kind of the

in the coffin of just like, they knew, they kind of knew what was going on, though it was never, you know, they didn't know explicitly, but this kind of really just reiterated to the kids at this high school, particularly that they can't trust their, their teachers. And especially, and I don't want to speak about all the teachers. There's amazing teachers at this school. My stepdaughter goes to this school. She, you know, and at the same time, this reiterated that this, they haven't felt safe in a while. Pride is like love. You feel it in your heart.

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Just ask your smart speaker to play IHart Pride Canada. Stream us on your phone. Or listen now at IHartRRRRRK, Radio.ca. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Joining us now special guest, Mike Jaffer, goes by Big Case Mike Criminal Defense Attorney. You can find him at bigcasemic.com.

Mike, thank you for being with us. Mike, what is your response to claims he's still alive? I mean, that shocks me. That shocks me. You know, because at the end of the day, it would take a lot of cash for him to be on the hide this long or know a lot of people or have a lot of friends who are going to cover up from, which baffles me even more so. So it kind of shocks me that he's been on the run this long because it's very difficult to be on the run this long in this day and age with social media

and the internet. But hey, you know, stranger things have happened. Joining us tonight, special guest former senior inspector U.S. Marshal Service International Investigations Branch, chief inspector DOJ international affairs, country attaché, has served at U.S. Embassy's all around the world, author of a series of books on Amazon, the Jack Solo series, most recent riding solo, remember the Alamo. Straight out to Irv Brandt joining us, who has studied the disappearance of high school coach Travis Turner. You know, Irv Brandt, thanks for being with us tonight. We're discussing rampant rumors within the community that Turner is still alive and that he is being enabled by people within the community.

I don't know why it's so difficult to believe he could leave the country. I mean, you've been in the Appalachian Mountains, right? Yes, ma'am. They are incredibly dense. They are extensive. Let's see a shot of that. I mean,

they go on for hundreds of miles. All he has to do, Irv Brandt, is lay low for a period of weeks. Get out, change his appearance. and leave the country. Do I have to say, Caitlin Armstrong? She left the country under the noses of the authority straight out of the New York airports,

repeat, say, with all of those video cameras. She's been convicted since, but we had to go find her in Costa Rica. On the left, you see her after her Costa Rican plastic surgery. I can't say it did her any favors at all, but that said, she was extradited. Then there is R.J. McLeod. ran on a horrible murder charge, a vicious attack on his girlfriend. He was found in El Salvador. Changed his appearance. The works.

It's easy, Irv, Brandt. It is, Nancy. And if he's being supported by friends, family members in the community, just like you said, if he can lay low long enough, there are ways to get out of this country. If you ever been to the airport, I know you travel internationally. How hard did they look at your passport, Nancy? I mean, someone that just looks similar to you. If you had their passport, you can get out of the country on that passport.

And you could go to an American passport, get you into just about any country in the world without a visa. So once you're in, then you can travel country to country once you're outside of this. country. And if you have people who are willing to support you, yes, you can hide and you can hide well for a very, very long time. What would be the mechanics of it, Irr-Brandt. How do they do it? I mean, my thinking is, I'm sure you remember the Gabby Petito murder at the hands of Brian Laundry, her fiancé. He was being enabled by family to flee the country by boat. We are told. according to reports, all he has to do is get 90 miles, for Pete's sake, to Cuba.

That's it. And from there, you can go anywhere in the world. That's exactly right, Nancy. I mean, if you can just cross the border, any border, if you can go north to Canada, if you can go south into Mexico, if you can go by boat to, you know, the Caribbean, to one of those nations,

yes, you are free and clear. But even in the United States, just like Caitlin Armstrong did, she used her sister's passport to get out of the country. They don't check you on the way out. They check you on the way in. And if you're going to Mexico, Irv Brandt,

you can walk across the border. So easily, there are known routes coyotes use going back and forth the border. They're visible. There's nothing between you and Mexico. Unless you want to just ride through a security gate, which you do not

have to do. And once you're in Mexico, what then, Irv Brandt? You hop on a bus to Mexico City, and the international airport there can take you any place in the world you want to go. Or you can just hide in Mexico City.

There's like 40 million people that live there. If you have a support network, if you have someone willing to send you money and help you hide, it's not that hard. Once you're in Mexico, what would be the next move?

I remember distinctly Ethan Couch, the young man who mowed down a youth pastor and several others, leaving multiple dead and leaving one paralyzed for life. His mother took him to Mexico. And the two idiots ordered pizza and some five-star resort, and that's how they got caught. But that is a traditional go-to when you're trying to escape the law.

It is, Nancy. And Mexico is the gateway to South America, Central and South America, because there's so many flights and so many countries. And you can even do it by land border. You can do it by train. You can do it by bus. if you want to keep a very low profile, you never have to even show an ID, you know, when you're traveling like train and bus. And when you get to these border crossings, especially if you're an American, they barely look at you. They just wave you through.

And you can just completely disappear. Everyone keeps talking about how difficult it is. Irv, do you know how many perps? I have followed to catching the L. Expresso off Beeford Highway in Atlanta, Georgia, fleeing felony charges. You go stand in a parking lot. They don't ask for real ID. You get on the bus.

It looks like a big greyhound bus, and you're off. Nobody checks you. You're gone. You can get off one stop before Mexico and walk. across the border, not going through customs. And again, they don't look that hard at people leaving the country. It's people entering the country. It's a bus. It looks like a greyhound. There are dozens of people congregated in a parking lot at some shopping center to get on the L-Expresso. I've been there myself looking for defendants. It's easy. You pay in cash,

you show a fake ID. You're gone. That's absolutely true, Nancy. And all along the Southwest border. I've walked across the border thousands of times in El Paso and DeWores and, you know, from San Diego and to Tijuana. Nobody checks you. Nobody checks you walking across. They just wave you through unless there's an alert out on you and there's a picture of you up on the wall, possibly with a reward, make them pay attention. You're, you're, you're going to be. You're You can just, there's just crowds and crowds of people. You're just another face in the crowd. And you just walk right through them.

And, Erv Brand, it's so easy to change your appearance. I mean, you don't have to have plastic surgery like Caitlin Armstrong did. Look at R.J. McLeod. He didn't really change his appearance that much. Or Donna Ailsson. Remember, she was just convicted in the murder of her daughter's husband, ex-husband, the father of her grandchildren, Dan Markell. He was murdered in his own garage. It was an execution. And the grandma said the whole thing up because she wanted custody. She wanted to be with

her grandchildren. She didn't want to drive five hours to see them. And the father, the bio-dad, refused to move five hours from his teaching job. He was a law professor. She was stopped in the airport with her husband, who apparently didn't know what was going on. all their way to Vietnam where there is no extradition treaty. So you don't have to go to great lengths to make a getaway, Irv, Grant. No, that's true, Nancy. You do not. If you can avoid law enforcement long enough to develop a plan, you can implement the plan.

It just takes resources. That's why most people can't do it, is because they don't have the financial resources. They don't have people willing to help them. If you have someone willing and you don't have to have a lot of people, you just have to have one who has the financial resource to help you, you can do it. It's not complicated. Straight out to criminal defense attorney, renowned criminal defense attorney, Mike Jaffer, joining us. Mike, got a question. What would the penalty be for someone that was aiding and abetting a felon?

accessory after the fact, accessory to, you know, as a contributing conspiracy to hide somebody. I mean, it would be, they would be jail time. There would be serious jail time, not as much as a person who actually perpetrated the crime, but they would be that person as well as public humiliation. Mike, even though there could be felony or misdemeanor charges connected to someone that was aiding and abetting, a fugitive, people do it all the time. I will never forget Mike Jaffer,

whenever I would have a plea and arraignment calendar, there'd be BF's bond forfeiters. I'd say just go to his mother's house and look under the bed. Typically, they run home to mommy. And of course, Mommy will protect them. And if it's not mommy, it's auntie or grandma girlfriend. They do not believe the person they love would ever commit such a crime. I get it.

They've got on blinders. They are blinded by love. And they will do anything to help even though they are facing a stiff penalty. Relationships matter. Relationship are the end of many, many people, many great people. They just can't, they have a hard time letting go. And when they are faced, when they're in a situation where they have to turn in a loved one, or they have to ask themselves, am I going to actually cover up, a lot of people will make the wrong choice.

And that is why you see this happen time and time again. Relationships are everything. Have you seen people, Mike Gould, change their appearance? And it doesn't have to be as overt, as extreme as Caitlin Armstrong, who actually have plastic surgery. How do people change their appearance in order to escape the law? Yeah, Nancy. So it's relatively easy. Nowadays, people wear masks, and that's acceptable surgical masks. But it's relatively easy to get a disguise, an expensive disguise. Scott Peterson tried it when he was. fleeing to Mexico. So it's not hard. My problem here is Nancy, these charges, whether we like it or not,

are relatively minor. This is a three or four or five year jail sentence at best. So the networking, the money, as your previous guest talk about, it takes a lot of networking and it's difficult to flee the state with all the digital evidence, digital footprints that follow us all around. I can't drive a mile from my house without being on probably 20 cameras to get to wherever I'm going. I find it highly unlikely. I hate to be the kind. I think I do enjoy being the contrarian here. I don't think he's alive, Nancy.

Mike Gould, if he's dead up in those mountains, why haven't cadaver dogs found him? So cadaver dogs, you know, we talk about the Rin Tin Tin theory. They have to be an odor, we call it. So depending, I don't know when they were deployed, where they were deployed, and they should be able to pick up a trail or track. And eventually, I believe they will. But this person's been gone for three months. And my sources have told there's 150 leads that the state police and the U.S. Marshal Services are tracking down.

This is a relatively small town. He doesn't have a huge network of people. And I agree that there are other people networked in this little crime syndicate, so to speak. But they are into everybody's bank accounts. They know every family's bank accounts, friends, families, It's coworkers. So to be able to plan this and disappear for three months without anything, it's really difficult for me and law enforcement to believe, frankly. To Alexis Tereschuk, isn't it true that in the jurisdiction of Virginia, he's looking at a five-year behind bars incarceration sentence on just one of these charges, much less the multiple charges that could be stacked.

In other words, to run consecutively? Yes, so there are five charges. That could be 25 years that he would get. But as we were talking about before, this area, specifically this school district, has had three cases. And one was just in the fall of a teacher assaulting a child. And that child was between 13 and 15, and they got jail time. But before that, the two other teachers had not been getting jail time.

This is something that this district doesn't handle well. And in fact, Turner was placed on paid leave up until he disappeared on the 20th. He was still on paid leave until November 24th. They didn't take it seriously enough to not have him get a paycheck. They just said, well, we got to let the football coach tell his side of the story. They weren't. The family was very upset that their child seemed to be attacked instead of the football coach. Pride is like love.

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Stream us on your phone. Listen now at iHeartRadio.ca. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Alexis Tereschuk, you are absolutely correct. The same type of behavior has been allowed and condoned and goes on in this jurisdiction. Accusations swirling around Coach Travis Turner. Not the first time Union High had to deal with allegations involving a coach slash teacher. Timothy Lee Meader, a teacher and coach a Union High, arrested on one count of child solicitation, two counts of indecent liberties. Meader pleaded guilty to two felony charges of indecent liberties with a minor by a person in a supervisory relationship and sentenced to one year three months in prison. The same lawyer who represented Meeter is representing the Turner family.

Union High is located in Wise County and in the same county system another teacher arrested with three counts of carnal knowledge, one count in decent liberties with a child. Tyler J. Tibbs is the social studies teacher at Coburn Middle School. Following his arrest, he was placed on unpaid leave by the Wise. County Public Schools. Dr. Janie Lacey joining us, the CEO of Life Counseling Solutions and author. Dr. Janie, why would someone risk jail time? You just heard Mike Jaffer describing penalties, hard jail time for aiding and abetting a felon. Why would they help him?

Well, we can say a lot here, Nancy, but, you know, the basic thing that I would say is that there's what we call betrayal blindness, that the very image or the figure or the figure or the notoriety, the position authority that this coach had in the community, sometimes people can't hold two truths at the same time, that you could have been a successful coach who also brought championships and some level of notoriety to the school and also committed these crimes. So when we think about the average person, sometimes holding two truths and the same person is very difficult.

So they will lean to the image and that perhaps could potentially have narratives in their mind that there could be innocence and they hold on to these narratives that can keep them in these relationships or help someone who is a criminal. Tonight, theory swirling over a fugitive football coach, Travis Turner, after he goes missing, disappearing into the Appalachian foothills, a married father of three disappeared when cops were actually en route to his house. He went into a heavily wooded, mountainous area after allegations surfaced of, illicit child images on his school computer and soliciting child relations. Wow.

Theory swirling about where he could be despite a reward of up to $5,000. Efforts of nearly 100 personnel to locate him. I find it very significant Alexis Tereschuk. His body has not been found and cadaver dogs have not hit on anything. Nothing at all. And his family says they watched him walk into the woods and he was carrying a firearm. We learned that it was a rifle. So they saw him. They saw him so they could take the dogs exactly where he walked, walks into these woods. They didn't see him. But this family's home has been searched multiple times. The police have come back several times to the home to search it and to see his lawyers are not saying what they were taken, but the police have been there multiple times. Right. The dogs have

not found a body. They haven't found a cabin where he was camping out. They say he left home without his glasses or his contacts or medicine that he needs. But again, he could have had cash, could have had anything with him. Says who? Says who, Alexis? Who says he didn't have his glasses or his contacts? His wife. Okay. To Mike Jaffer, veteran trial lawyer at big case mic.com, Mike, got a question for you. If the feds, actually we don't even have to have the feds, if local law enforcement wants to catch him, do you believe they would go so far as to use wiretaps on the family? phones, landlines, and cell phones. For sure, 100%.

If local law enforcement wants to find you, they'll find you. Yeah, they can write. It's very easy for them to get a warrant from a judge. It wouldn't be that hard at all, especially after he's been on the lamb for this long. It should not be hard at all. And I don't think it takes a lot of resources to have a wiretap in this day and age. So I think they could absolutely have that. And they might even be doing that as we speak.

According to locals, everyone knows he's alive. Quote, no one believes he took his own life. And the reason is because he's too much of a coward. and thinks too highly of himself, to take his own life. People think he liked himself too much. There's no way he took his own life. He ran for it. Okay, to you, Irv Brandt, joining us,

former bounty hunter with the feds. How do you believe he would do it? And who would help him? And how can he be caught? It's apparent that he knew he was under investigation. And I believe that he had a plan and probably was tipped off that the police were coming for him. And it's not beyond the pale to have a plan in place. He had a go bag.

He had money, things, medicine, things that he needed stash somewhere. And he just walked away. And he went off with his plan. Like we were talking about before on suicide theory with the cadaver drugs and everything else. They would have found a body. If he would have walked out of there and committed suicide, they searched it so much, they would have found his body or at least evidence to support a suicide. And it hasn't.

He left for somewhere. He went into hiding. Someone is helping him. Think about Irv Brandt. If he was going to take a dirt nap, if that was his plan, then how come cadaver dogs haven't found? found him. K-9 sent dogs, haven't found a trail. Drones have been used. You name it. Search teams. There's no evidence that he continued on into those mountains. I think you're right. I think he had a stash bag. What would be in a stash bag? Well, I mean, a lot of things. If you know beforehand,

if you're making a plan to leave, you may have gotten a hold of someone else's passport. You're going to need cash that can't be traced. You're going to need, you know, those type of supplies. You're going to need your medicine. You're going to need your glasses. You're going to, you know, things for everyday life, things that you would think, what do I need? Not tomorrow, but next week, next month. That's how you put a plan together.

And from the evidence and just the circumstances around me leads me to believe, That's exactly what he did. No one commits, well, I won't say no one, but no one takes their own life somewhere and does it in a place where their body will never be found. You can talk to your psychologists and, you know, your doctors and things like that. And I'm sure they'd tell you that's rather rare. If you were going to go take your own life and you didn't want to do it in front of your family, you would just go maybe a lot of, you would just go maybe a lot of, as far as out of sight and take your own life, and the body would be discovered rather quickly. That's a really good point, Irv Brandt. Dr. Janie Lacey, what about it?

I agree. So when we think about individuals who are running, there's two things that happen. One is they're running because of the collapse of the ego, and the other is because that they feel like their ego would be too much, so there is some type of accountability place that they're evading. But when we look at those who decide that they're going to end the potential of things that are happening, it happens very impulsively, very quickly. And you normally don't necessarily, you know, I have some thoughts around, you know, the last things that people have seen because we want to, obviously I haven't worked with them. But the person who's in who's giving this information, sometimes that betrayal blindness can come into play and things can be said to made it look a certain way. But in this case, I believe, in my opinion, just like some of the other panelists, that he's probably had a plan in place. He has someone helping him, and his ego probably believes that he's going to get away and evade whatever justice, the process of justice is happening.

In my opinion, there's no indication to me that he was someone that would take his own life. Locals report being disappointed, disgusted, angry, that a case of this nature, a case on children is being covered up, quote, it's crazy. the good old boys club that covers up for each other so they could take their team to state it's disgusting. Will there be answers? Or will we all just eat it with a silver spoon and swallow it? That the case is over. He must have taken his own life. Do you believe that?

Because people that know him best say no way. We want justice. If you know or think you know anything about missing high school football coach out of Virginia, call Virginia State Police 276-484-9483. Repeat, 276-484-9483 or toll-free. 877 wanted. 877 9-26-8333-2. Repeat.

877-926-8332. There is a $5,000 reward for information leading to the whereabouts of coach Travis Turner. $5,000. Do not allow this case to be swept under the rug. It's not going away. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an I-heart podcast, guaranteed human.