Naman Shrestha
The episode titled ‘Molly Miller and Colt Haynes – Lost In Love County’ of Paramount+’s ‘Never Seen Again’ sheds light on the mysterious case of Molly Miller and Colt Haynes, both of whom went missing together after a dramatic police chase in their friend’s car. Despite trying to connect to their loved ones after being stranded, they couldn’t be found. Alongside the authorities, their family and friends searched for them and tried to play their part in the investigation. The episode features interviews with Molly’s loved ones, officials related to the case, and the list of suspects that might or might not be responsible for the disappearance.
Molly Miller and Colt Haynes Went Missing After a Police Chase
Born on April 30, 1996, to Melissa Miller, Molly Miller lived in Oklahoma City with her mother. Besides her mother, she was also quite close to her grandparents as she used to live with them frequently. Since she was particularly fond of her grandmother, she went through a tough period when she passed away. Growing up, she was athletic and played a number of sports, including basketball and softball. However, when her teenage arrived, she got mixed up with the wrong crowd and started using drugs. Meanwhile, she crossed paths with a senior named Colt Haynes, and seemingly developed an infatuation with him.
Colt was born on April 28, 1992, making him about four years senior to Molly. They were introduced to each other just about a week before they vanished together. As they started growing closer over the summer of 2013, Molly and Colt hopped in their mutual friend James Conn Nipp’s black 2012 Honda Accord on July 7, 2013. Nipp was known to get into car chases with cops deliberately for fun, as his cousin Joe Russell was the sheriff. So, on that night around 10:30 pm, he initiated a police chase on Main Street in Wilson, Oklahoma, by performing a doughnut right in front of a police officer, with Colt and Molly seated in the backseat.
During the pursuit, Nipp even turned off his headlights and drove into the wrong lane. After the pursuit reached Long Hollow Road, they were told to call off the chase by Nipp’s cousin Joe Russell. Nipp still didn’t stop and took his car to an off-road track into his family’s property, a wooded area in the middle of nowhere. After ditching the car, Nipp reportedly went back to his home. According to reports, Molly tried to get in touch with the authorities around 1 am on July 8, but couldn’t connect. Meanwhile, Colt had called one of his friends and told them that he had fallen out of a tree and broken his leg in the process. Unfortunately, by 10 am in the morning, both of their cell phones ran out of batteries.
Soon, that same morning, their family members reported Molly and Colt missing. However, there were some complications for that too as Joe Russell resisted filing the report and told the families that they had to file the report with the Wilson Police Department instead. A couple of weeks later, the detectives found the abandoned Honda of Nipp near the site where the police chase had ended, but it was devoid of any evidence related to Molly and Colt.
Molly Miller Has Been Declared Dead While Colt Haynes is Still Missing
With the case going cold, Molly’s family decided to hire a private investigator to look into the disappearance of Molly and Colt in 2014. Several theories about the pair’s whereabouts surfaced. While some believed that they skipped town and went to Texas, Nipp reportedly testified that they had gone to Wichita Falls. Another rumor was that they might have died of exposure or had gotten lost in the woods. There was another theory — a gruesome one — that Molly and Colt were murdered. In September 2013, a Facebook Public Group Operation Find Molly Miller was created by her family members and loved ones to spread awareness about the mysterious case.
In January 2014, Nipp got involved in another police chase but this time, he was charged and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for eluding a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon, and unauthorized use of a vehicle. However, he was not arrested in connection to Molly and Colt’s disappearance. In 2018, just four years into his sentence, he was released. In March 2014, Nipp’s uncle made an accidental phone call to the police, in which the name of Molly Miller’s name was mentioned and two gunshots were heard at the end of the call. The police, including Joe Russell, were sent to the location, which was just north of Long Hollow Road, to inspect the situation. Three individuals, all of whom were felons, were found at the site with firearms, but instead of getting charged for it, they only received a ticket for trespassing.
Some disturbing reports suggested that Molly was sexually molested and tied to a tree at the end of Long Hollow Road. This was confirmed by a witness who testified that Con Nipp told her about the same. She claimed that Nipp and several others had a party with drugs on site, and they sexually molested Molly at the same time, while he was heavily drugged and had a shock collar around her neck. In order to confirm the reports, only Joe Russell had gone to check out the site and later reported that nothing was suspicious. Following allegations of hindering the investigation of Molly and Colt’s case, Joe Russell decided to step down as sheriff.
Sometime in 2016, Joe was arrested for corruption charges against him, which included one count of willful maladministration. It was because of letting Nipp hold a meeting with family members in a deputy’s office, where there is no supervision of the evidence. Besides that, Joe was also found to be keeping drugs at his house, something that his son’s girlfriend claimed. Following all these charges, he decided to resign from office and pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge. For his crimes, he was sentenced to a year of unsupervised probation and fined approximately $300.
About eight years after her unexpected and unfortunate disappearance, Molly was declared legally deceased in 2021. Unfortunately, Molly’s grandfather passed away in 2021 or 2022 without knowing the truth about Molly’s disappearance. For the tenth anniversary of her disappearance, in July 2023, Molly’s cousin Paula Fielder held a candlelight vigil for friends and family to share their memories of her. To this day, the search for truth regarding Molly and Colt is going on, while Molly’s family remains hopeful that they will get the closure they need and the justice that the pair deserves.
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