A Virginia high school has named a new head football coach, as former coach Travis Turner remains missing amid an investigation into his alleged child sex crimes, according to reports and authorities.
Union High School in Big Stone Gap announced on Tuesday that Jamie Harless will be the new head football coach for the Union Bears.
Harless boasts an impressive 134 career victories at Lord Botetourt High School in Daleville, where he spent 14 years leading the football team to four regional titles and three state runner-up finishes, the school wrote in a statement.
The accomplished coach is slated to succeed Turner, who was formally fired by the high school in February after he vanished into a wooded area with a gun on Nov. 20, WYMT reported.
Police were heading to his home to question him as part of a child sex crimes investigation when he disappeared — later revealing the pillar of the football-loving small town community was wanted on a string of child porn charges and for soliciting a minor.
Turner allegedly sexted a 16-year-old student explicit photos of his genitalia in an X-rated message exchange that lasted for three months, a family insider told The Sun earlier this month.
The head coach disappeared almost as soon as the allegations were reported when the girl was overheard talking about it in the library, the family alleged.
The schoolgirl is said to be in a “very depressive state” and has been bullied by other students in the wake of the ordeal.
There have still been no credible sightings of the 46-year-old father of three in the last several months of the investigation.
“This case is worked on every day. It’s two-fold: we have the criminal investigation and the search,” Captain J. Daniels, VSP Bureau of Criminal Investigation at the Wytheville Field Office, told the outlet.
“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.”
Turner’s family has previously insisted he is innocent of the charges.
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