Authorities say a drive from Texas toward South Dakota became a key part of the murder case against Christopher Sanders.
LITTLE ELM, Texas — Investigators say they pieced together a murder case against a North Texas man by following a trail that ran across three states, from a home in Little Elm to property in Oklahoma and South Dakota, after his girlfriend vanished last fall.
At the center of the case is not only what police say was found inside homes tied to Christopher Charles Sanders, 53, but also where Molly Richards, 31, was no longer found. Detectives say the route of her vehicle, the reappearance of her phone signal and the discovery of her personal items helped transform a missing-person case into a murder charge even though Richards’ body has not been recovered.
Police accounts of the affidavit describe a trip that became more important over time. Steven Richards, Molly’s father, told officers he last saw his daughter on Nov. 18, 2025. He then received a message from her phone saying she and Sanders were going to South Dakota. Investigators later tracked Richards’ vehicle and said it passed through Oklahoma on Nov. 27 while headed north. That movement might have looked ordinary at first, except for one stretch that did not fit cleanly into a direct drive: authorities said the vehicle showed a one-hour-and-nine-minute gap near property linked to Sanders in Marietta, Oklahoma. According to later reports, police came to believe that window mattered because it may have been when Richards’ remains were left behind.
The car was only part of the map. WFAA reported that officers obtained a search warrant for Richards’ vehicle and found a strong smell of cleaning products inside. That detail, combined with the route analysis, appears to have sharpened investigators’ suspicion that the vehicle had been used after Richards could no longer speak for herself. Police have not publicly released a forensic report tying the vehicle to a cause of death, and that missing piece remains important. Still, the affidavit as described publicly shows investigators treating the car as a moving record: where it went, how long it stopped and what condition it was in when police gained access to it.
The South Dakota end of the route brought another break. In January 2026, police received information that Richards’ driver’s license, credit cards and other belongings were at a residence in South Dakota owned by Sanders. Then, on Feb. 24, a woman watching Sanders’ dogs at that property reportedly found additional items belonging to Richards, including bank cards, a laptop and unopened mail. Those discoveries mattered because Sanders had allegedly given an explanation that Richards wanted to remain in South Dakota. But the belongings police said were left behind suggested something else: a woman who supposedly chose a new life had not taken basic documents, cards, prescriptions and mail with her.
Back in Texas, investigators said the route connected to evidence at the starting point. Search warrants served at properties in Denton and Little Elm uncovered bedding with blood residue, according to reports summarizing the affidavit. A human remains detection dog alerted in a bedroom at the Little Elm home, police said. Officers also found a receipt for tools and supplies, including a 24-inch bow saw, a reciprocating saw, 10 five-gallon buckets, a tamper and gloves. Public reports do not say prosecutors have tied each item to a specific act, but the purchase record has become one of the most closely watched pieces of the case because it appears in the same investigative arc as the missing body and the interstate travel timeline.
The route also intersected with silence. Police said Richards’ father had received a Dec. 1 message from her phone stating she was entering a mental health facility for bipolar disorder. Later, Sanders allegedly told him she was not at such a facility and at another point said she had met a man and decided to stay in South Dakota. Investigators checked hotels, facilities and hospitals in the region and did not find evidence that Richards had checked in, according to WFAA’s report on the affidavit. On Feb. 19, police said her phone was reactivated and pinged in Denton near Sanders’ home. To detectives, that signal suggested the case had looped back to Texas even as the public story pointed elsewhere.
By the time Sanders was arrested on March 7 in Marietta, police say the geography of the case had become its own form of evidence. He was detained while traveling from South Dakota, according to the affidavit accounts, and authorities said he denied killing Richards and did not explain where she was. A murder charge followed, but the investigation still faces a major gap: without Richards’ remains, prosecutors must rely heavily on the route, the belongings, the physical evidence from homes and the contradictions in Sanders’ reported statements.
Police believe Richards’ remains were buried in Oklahoma and continue to investigate the case while Sanders remains jailed in Denton County. The next meaningful step is likely to come either from a court filing that spells out the state’s timeline in detail or from a search that turns the suspected burial corridor into a confirmed crime scene.
Author note: Last updated April 20, 2026.