The U.S. Marshals Service is offering $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of a Virginia high school football coach wanted on child pornography charges.
Travis Turner, 46, of Appalachia, Virginia, went missing from his residence near the state border with North Carolina on Nov. 20.
Virginia State Police charged him with five counts each of possessing child pornography and soliciting a minor on Nov. 24. The Marshals Service announced its reward on Monday.
Mr. Turner is White, 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 235 pounds, according to the federal law enforcement agency. He has brown hair and brown eyes, and is possibly armed.
“The last known contact the family had with Travis occurred on or about Thursday, November 20, after he left his residence to walk in the woods with a firearm,” Adrian Collins, an attorney for the Turner family, told Tennessee’s WJHL-TV on Saturday. “He is believed to have entered a heavily wooded and mountainous area.”
The Virginia State Police told the TV station it couldn’t confirm that Mr. Turner had a gun when he fled his house.
His wife, Leslie Turner, has denied the child pornography charges against him and told the Daily Mail that she didn’t know anything about allegations of soliciting a minor.
Mr. Turner is on administrative leave from his position at Union High School in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, and is barred from school property or contacting students, Wise County Public Schools said in the aftermath of his disappearance.
Mr. Turner’s football team has remained undefeated in his absence, winning multiple playoff games. Union High will host the Virginia High School League Class 2 semifinal in Big Stone Gap against Glenvar High School on Saturday.
