ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – Billboards in Roanoke and Franklin counties are giving new attention to the case of a Franklin County man missing since 2013.
Virginia State Police put up the billboards.
The one on Brambleton Avenue in Roanoke near the Colonial Avenue Kroger is electronic.
It rotates through with other advertisements.
The one in Franklin County on Highway 220 near Duncan Ford is a traditional billboard.
The billboards ask anyone with information about the disappearance of Christopher Douthat to contact state police.
Douthat went missing from Vinton on Oct. 25, 2013.
He was 24 years old.
As 10 News has reported, state police took over the case from Vinton police in January of last year.
Late last year, investigators filed court documents to look through the Facebook account of a woman they say made the comment online that Douthat is dead and his body is in Philpot Lake.
The documents say investigators have interviewed the woman.
State police spokesperson Corinne Geller said Wednesday the billboards were just put up a few weeks ago because until now investigators have been working to investigate the case from the beginning.
"The investigation is still very active. The special agent assigned to it is pursuing multiple leads. With the billboards, some new leads have started coming in," Geller said.
On Wednesday, 10 News also reached out to Douthat's mother, who has a Facebook page set up to raise awareness about his disappearance, but we did not get a response.