Investigators say the inquiry stretched from North Texas to South Dakota and Oklahoma before Christopher Charles Sanders was booked in Denton County.
DENTON, Texas — A North Texas man has been charged with murder months after a woman police say had been living with him disappeared during a trip tied to South Dakota, turning a three-state missing person case into a homicide prosecution even though her remains have not been found.
Police say Christopher Charles Sanders, 53, is jailed in Denton County in the disappearance of Molly Richards, 31. Investigators have said the case now rests on a mix of witness statements, travel records, phone data and forensic evidence gathered from properties linked to Sanders. The charge matters because prosecutors moved ahead without a body, a step that leaves the public case built largely from reconstructed movements and physical traces while detectives continue trying to find Richards and explain exactly how she died.
According to accounts of the arrest affidavit, Richards moved into a home in Little Elm with Sanders in October 2025. Her father, Steven Richards, later told investigators that he last saw or heard directly from her in November, after she said she and Sanders were heading to South Dakota. Before contact stopped, he said, she sent a message saying Sanders had become “abusive physically and controlling.” On Dec. 1, the father received what investigators believe was the last message from her phone, saying she was checking herself into a mental health facility because of bipolar disorder. After that, the replies stopped. In a later message that became part of the affidavit, Steven Richards wrote, “I am worried about Molly,” as he pressed Sanders for an explanation. Police say Sanders did not give him a clear answer, and the search gradually widened from a family welfare concern into a formal investigation spanning several states.
As detectives worked backward through Richards’ last known movements, they found a trail leading north to the Black Hills. Deadwood police said early this year that Richards was believed to have been last seen in the downtown Main Street area sometime before Dec. 8, 2025. Chief Cory Shafer later said investigators still could not confirm the exact time, business or circumstances of that possible sighting. Court-related reports say Richards’ vehicle had been involved in a minor crash in Deadwood. A witness there told investigators he met the couple at a bar and agreed to watch the vehicle after Sanders said he was taking Richards to a doctor in Rapid City, about 40 miles away. Later, according to the affidavit, Sanders told the same witness that Richards had met another man and wanted to stay behind at a motel. Detectives checked hospitals, mental health facilities, hotels and motels in the area and said they found no record showing that Richards checked in, stayed overnight or continued traveling on her own.
The case drew broader attention because so much of it was built from ordinary items and ordinary places instead of one clear public crime scene. Investigators said they later found Richards’ car and obtained a warrant to search it, reporting a strong smell of cleaning products inside. On Feb. 19, authorities learned that her phone had pinged near Sanders’ Denton home. Days later, according to the affidavit, a woman caring for Sanders’ dogs at a South Dakota property found items belonging to Richards in a dresser, including identification, bank cards, a laptop, prescription medication and unopened mail. Reports tied to the investigation also said her laptop had not been used since mid-November and her bank activity had stopped except for recurring charges. That pattern, investigators said, did not match the idea that Richards had simply chosen to leave, and it helped push the case toward a homicide theory even though police still have not publicly described a confirmed cause of death.
Search warrants executed at Texas properties linked to Sanders added more weight to the prosecution. Investigators reported finding blood residue on bedding and a human remains detection dog alert in a bedroom at the Little Elm residence. They also recovered receipts for items that investigators considered significant, including a 24-inch bow saw, a reciprocating saw, multiple five-gallon buckets, gloves and a tamper. Public reports said the tools themselves were not recovered. The affidavit, as described in those reports, alleges Richards was killed on or around Nov. 25, 2025. Investigators later reconstructed the route of her vehicle and said it traveled through Oklahoma on Nov. 27 on the way to South Dakota. They identified a gap of 1 hour, 9 minutes when the vehicle was near property Sanders owned in Marietta, Oklahoma. Investigators suspect that pause could mark the point where Richards’ remains were left, but police have not recovered them and have not said whether anyone else may have helped move evidence or dispose of property.
The procedural case then moved quickly in March. Love County authorities in Oklahoma said Sanders was detained without incident just south of Burkhart Road in Marietta on March 7 after Little Elm police warned that a person of interest in the case would be passing through the county. Jail records there listed him on a fugitive from justice charge at first. Court records cited by KXII later showed Sanders waived extradition on March 12. By March 16, records obtained by KXII showed he had been booked into the Denton County Jail on the Texas murder charge. A later report said the affidavit identified Richards as Sanders’ former girlfriend and said the killing may have happened during an argument. No trial date had been publicly announced by Tuesday, and authorities had not outlined whether prosecutors might pursue additional counts tied to handling evidence, moving remains or false statements. For now, the public next steps are expected to be court hearings in Denton County, continued forensic review of seized items and more searches tied to the route investigators believe Sanders traveled.
For people living near Sanders’ Denton home, the arrest landed as the kind of case that changes how an ordinary block looks in memory. Jessica Martinez, who lives nearby, told FOX 4 she had noticed little more than an unkempt yard before police activity changed the street. “And to think that it was just right there is just wild,” Martinez said. Another neighbor, Jaedy Smith, told the station the case left her wondering what can stay hidden inside quiet houses. In South Dakota, the public side of the search had started months earlier with police appeals asking residents and visitors to think back to late 2025 and report any verified sighting of Richards on Main Street in Deadwood. For Richards’ family, the delay has been harsher. Her father’s unanswered messages helped start the inquiry, but the answers he sought still have not produced the one result investigators say matters most, the recovery of her remains.
As of March 31, Sanders remained in the Denton County Jail on the murder charge, and investigators still had not recovered Richards’ remains. The next major public milestone is expected to come in Denton County court while police continue tracing her final movements through Texas, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
Author note: Last updated March 31, 2026.