ELLAMORE – The West Virginia State Police say they did not find any evidence in the case of the unsolved disappearance of an Upshur County man after spending three days unearthing a substantial dig site in Ellamore.
Cpl. S.W. Shahan with the Buckhannon detachment of the WVSP told My Buckhannon Monday that the Dec. 12-14 search for Luke David Stout did not yield any new evidence and has been terminated due to inclement weather. Shahan confirmed last week that state police were executing a search warrant of the property in connection with Stout’s 2012 disappearance.
Stout was last seen July 18, 2012, walking down the driveway of his mother’s residence on Hickory Flat Road carrying a bicycle frame. He was reported missing to the State Police three days later.
“We conducted a search over the course of three days — Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday — but we never found any evidence,” Shahan said.
The search was organized due to new information police received related to Stout’s case.
“We had gained some new information, and that part of the search warrant is sealed, but that’s what led us to the site,” Shahan said. “We terminated the dig on Wednesday due to weather.”
Shahan said he could not comment on how or where officers obtained new details in the case.
According to previous reporting, Carl ‘Cracker’ Tenney is the owner of the property that was searched. When reached by phone last week, he told My Buckhannon the police were searching for the body of Luke Stout but said he didn’t know if Stout’s body was on the property or how he might have gotten there.
The three-day search brought state police, along with officers with the Upshur County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI’s Evidence Response Team, to the dig site to supervise its excavation. The site is located about 8 miles southeast of Buckhannon, near the old 33 Mini-Mart, along the Middle Fork River near the Upshur-Randolph County line.
Shahan said he’s been investigating both new and old leads in the case since the summer of 2021 when he was transferred to the Buckhannon detachment. Anyone with information concerning the case is encouraged to call the WVSP Buckhannon detachment at 304-473-4200.
You can read more about Stout’s disappearance and the circumstances surrounding it here.
