LINCOLN COUNTY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – UPDATE 7/30/26 3:03 PM: The missing juvenile Holly Sanders has been located and is safely in the custody of law enforcement.
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ORIGINAL STORY: A Milton man faces charges after West Virginia State Police said investigators were given false information about the disappearance of a 15-year-old girl from Lincoln County.
Troopers from the Huntington, Hamlin and Wayne detachments began investigating the disappearance of Holly Sanders, 15, of Ranger, on Wednesday, July 29.
Sanders reportedly told her parents she planned to stay with a friend in Milton. When troopers initially spoke with the friend and her father, 47-year-old Carson Toppins, investigators were told Sanders had disappeared around 7 p.m. after getting into a sedan with two unidentified men at the Huntington Mall in Barboursville.
State police later determined that account was false.
Investigators said Sanders had not been at the mall and had actually been missing since Monday, July 27. Her last known location was the Kroger in Teays Valley in Putnam County.
The investigation also determined that Toppins and the juvenile friend were among the last people known to have been with Sanders before she disappeared.
Toppins was charged in connection with allegedly providing false information during the investigation. Sanders’ disappearance remains under investigation.
