'She deserved help': Family seeks answers in Hollynn Snapp's disappearance

KINGSPORT — Hollynn Snapp was 19 years old when she disappeared from a home in Kingsport in October 2023.She had been messaging her family regularly until the day before she vanished. Her final text to her adoptive mother included the name Steven Linkous and the address of his home — where she was last known to be.It was the last time anyone heard from Hollynn.More than 600 days later, there has been no new development in the search for Hollynn and no trace of the young woman."We would've come and gotten her," said Leslie Hunt, Hollynn's former foster mother. "If she was aggravating somebody, if she owed someone money — whatever it was — we would have fixed it. She deserved to be helped."Few answersAccording to Hunt, multiple eyewitnesses reported that Hollynn was beaten and incoherent at the Belvedere Drive home where she was last seen, and that no one stepped in to help."Steven Linkous has been in and out of jail since then," she said, "but not for anything related to Hollynn."Law enforcement has reportedly conducted search warrants at the Belvedere Drive property, but what —i f anything — they found remains unclear."Because it's an ongoing investigation, they can't tell us much," Hunt said. "But you assume that if anything concrete had come out of those searches, we'd be closer to closure by now."Linkous is currently on probation, but, according to Hollynn's family, he has refused to speak with their private investigator, Steve Fischer, who has been working with local authorities and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation."He's really bridged the gap between us and law enforcement," Leslie said. "He's the one people are willing to talk to when they're too afraid to go to the police."Hollynn stood just under five feet tall and weighed around 80 pounds. Her IQ, Hunt said, placed her at the level of a 10- or 11-year-old."She didn't understand that people could have bad intentions," she said. "She just wanted to be around people, to connect, to feel seen. That's how she ended up at that house."Hollynn had stayed in close contact with both her foster and adoptive families before her disappearance. Hunt said she received messages from Hollynn one or two times a week. But her adoptive mother, Heather, heard from her every day until Oct. 4, 2023."Everything just stopped," Hunt said.In the months since Hollynn vanished, her family has organized vigils and posted relentlessly on social media. A Facebook group dedicated to the search for Hollynn has just over 1,300 followers.Still, Hunt said she often feels like she's shouting into the void."I'll get 1,300 people to see a post," she said, "but maybe 10 will share it."In conversations with Kingsport residents, she said, she's often met with blank stares."They'll say, 'I'm from Kingsport and I've never heard of her,'" Hunt said. "It's like — what do I do?"Though Hollynn's disappearance has sometimes been discussed alongside that of Layla Santanello, another young woman who vanished from the Kingsport area months earlier, Hunt doesn't believe the two cases are connected."I used to think they might be," she said. "But now, I believe they're two entirely separate tragedies. They just happened in the same place, to two girls who deserved better."The Sullivan County Sheriff's Office released the following statement to Times News regarding the search for Hollynn:"We have investigators that still are working on the case involving Hollynn Snapp. The detectives have conducted numerous interviews and are still interviewing additional individuals as more information comes to them. They continue to seek out anyone else that has information about Hollynn."There is someone that has information about Hollynn and we urge them to contact us. Tips can be submitted to our Facebook page or by calling 423-279-7506."Hunt said she believes several people know what happened to Hollynn and won't come forward."Most of them have kids, even grandkids," she said. "If they could just put themselves in our shoes . . . maybe they'd speak up.""Ultimately, I believe God already knows the ending to this," she added. "Just because we don't know it yet doesn't mean we won't. Your sins will find you out."The Sullivan County Sheriff's Office shared a list of four other missing persons cases they are handling. Those include:Carson Casteel, reported August 1980Linda Sanders, reported February 2008Travis Crusenberry, reported June 2015Ralph Nelson, reported December 2021Anyone with information about Hollynn's whereabouts or the above missing persons should contact the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office at 423-279-7330.