Dateline NBC S32E17 The Day Alissa Disappeared H 264

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00:00:09Tonight on Dateline.

00:00:11You're looking out at Alyssa going to prom.

00:00:14She looked really beautiful.

00:00:16Was that the last time you saw her?

00:00:17Yes, it was.

00:00:20When you told me she was missing, I was shocked.

00:00:23I was called by my father.

00:00:25She had run away.

00:00:26I want to find out what happened to my kid.

00:00:30Sarah has become this big podcaster and advocate for her sister.

00:00:34This is insane.

00:00:35It should never happen to anyone.

00:00:37We found hundreds of VHS tapes and audio recordings.

00:00:43I made a foolish, stupid mistake and tried to talk to Alyssa.

00:00:46How often is he coming to her work and recording her?

00:00:50Comes on a regular basis.

00:00:51That's stalking.

00:00:53This whole other side is emerging of this family.

00:00:57Dark secrets now coming to light.

00:01:00I saw them digging, so I took my camera, my phone, and just started taking pictures.

00:01:06They were gasping out loud.

00:01:08He had enough explosives to take out our whole neighborhood.

00:01:12After a teenager goes missing, a chilling discovery pulls a family apart and turns an investigation upside down.

00:01:20I'm Lester Holt.

00:01:22I'm Lester Holt.

00:01:23This is Dateline.

00:01:31Here's Andrea Canning with The Day Alyssa Disappeared.

00:01:40They're out there somewhere.

00:01:42Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters.

00:01:47People who vanish without a trace.

00:01:50Ten years ago, Dateline posed a question on Facebook.

00:01:54Have you ever known someone who simply disappeared?

00:01:58The comments poured in.

00:02:00Hundreds of people told us about unsolved cases from their towns and cities.

00:02:04The response was so overwhelming.

00:02:06The very next day, Dateline launched an online series to help shine a light on the missing.

00:02:13And that's how we heard about tonight's story.

00:02:16A young woman named Sarah Turney sent Dateline a tweet about her sister Alyssa, who was 17 years old when

00:02:23she went missing back in 2001.

00:02:25Sarah told Dateline about her social media crusade to find out what happened.

00:02:30Can we please just get justice for Alyssa now?

00:02:33It's a dark family drama with explosive allegations and a case with an ending that no one saw coming.

00:02:43In all my years at Dateline, this is the first time I'd ever seen this happen.

00:02:48It was a shock.

00:02:51It all started on May 17, 2001, in Paradise Valley, a desert oasis just outside of Phoenix.

00:02:59Alyssa Turney's father, Mike, scrambled to get the kids out the door.

00:03:02Well, we got up, and I think we were running late.

00:03:04So I took Alyssa, and I always sat in the parking lot at Paradise Valley High School until she got

00:03:09in the building.

00:03:11It was the last day of school.

00:03:13There were parties to go to, friends to hang out with, friends like Chris Ridenour.

00:03:18She's a good soul.

00:03:19Yeah.

00:03:20A good friend.

00:03:21Yeah.

00:03:22Alyssa was a junior, but she was planning to go to the graduation ceremony that night to see Chris, a

00:03:28senior, walk the stage.

00:03:30End of high school.

00:03:30Yeah.

00:03:31And Alyssa was really excited for you.

00:03:33Yeah, she wanted to come see me graduate, and that was the plan we made.

00:03:39Alyssa left school early that day.

00:03:41Her dad picked her up.

00:03:42Mike says they had important things to talk about, like what she'd be doing that summer.

00:03:47I wanted Alyssa to get a driver's license so she could help me out to a certain extent.

00:03:52Mike was a widower raising Alyssa and her 12-year-old sister Sarah all by himself.

00:03:58As a retired Army specialist and former deputy sheriff, he had a lot of rules in the house for Alyssa.

00:04:04He expected her to check in with him often and kept close tabs on where she went.

00:04:09What was going on with Alyssa that you felt you needed to be so on top of her as far

00:04:14as where she was going, what she was doing?

00:04:16She's very naive, very easily influenced, and could be talked into just about anything.

00:04:23He says they got lunch that day and then headed home.

00:04:26Then after that, a discussion started going bad because she wanted to go to a party.

00:04:30Mike says their argument got heated and Alyssa stormed off to her bedroom.

00:04:35He left to run errands and later picked up her sister Sarah from a friend's house.

00:04:39And when they got home, Alyssa wasn't there.

00:04:42And she wasn't answering her cell phone.

00:04:45And then eventually it was by her room, we hear the buzzing.

00:04:50And Sarah and I went in together.

00:04:52So her phone's in her room.

00:04:53A phone's in her room.

00:04:55And right there on her dresser, something else.

00:04:58A note.

00:05:00It said,

00:05:01Dad and Sarah, when you dropped me off at school today, I decided that I really am going to California.

00:05:07Sarah, you said you didn't want me around.

00:05:09Look, you got it.

00:05:10I'm gone.

00:05:11That's why I saved my money.

00:05:13Dad, I took $300 from you.

00:05:16How concerned are you that you found this note saying that she's gone?

00:05:21Does panic fit the description?

00:05:23So I immediately started calling.

00:05:26Who are you calling?

00:05:27Anybody I can get a phone number from her.

00:05:29Her yearbook.

00:05:30Her address book.

00:05:32I was called the day of by my father that she had gone missing.

00:05:36Growing up, Alyssa's older brother James had been like a second father to her.

00:05:41You thought that, yes, she's run away?

00:05:44Yeah.

00:05:44Definitely.

00:05:45James no longer lived at home and didn't know where Alyssa was.

00:05:49But he did know she had an aunt in California and Alyssa kept in touch with her by phone.

00:05:54At that initial stage, that's what I thought.

00:05:56Maybe she had gone there.

00:05:57Had her aunt heard from her, from Alyssa?

00:06:00Mike also checked in with his next-door neighbor, Judy Wacker.

00:06:04She told him not to worry.

00:06:05When she was a teenager, she'd run away too.

00:06:08She'll come back.

00:06:09Just let her have some space.

00:06:10You know, she's a teenager.

00:06:13She'll come home.

00:06:15How was he handling it?

00:06:16He seemed really anxious.

00:06:18Chris noticed Alyssa didn't show up for graduation or the party after.

00:06:22At first, I thought her dad wouldn't let her leave or something like that, you know?

00:06:26But after the party, I get a phone call from Mike like, hey, have you seen Alyssa?

00:06:30So this is strange.

00:06:31Yeah, this is weird.

00:06:32Yeah.

00:06:33Alyssa's dad went to the police, of course.

00:06:35But he says they told him there wasn't much they could do.

00:06:38They assigned the case to a detective in the missing persons unit

00:06:41and added Alyssa's name to a long list of teenage runaways.

00:06:45I was trying to convince them that Alyssa was an endangered runaway.

00:06:49You know, I'm worried about my child.

00:06:50We hear that all the time, Mr. Attorney.

00:06:52A week went by and nothing from Alyssa.

00:06:55No calls, no sightings.

00:06:58Until very early one morning, the home phone rang.

00:07:02Mike says it was hard to hear, but he was sure it was Alyssa.

00:07:06And Alyssa said some cuss words and stuff saying that, you know, leave me alone.

00:07:12It sounded like she was talking away from the mouthpiece.

00:07:15You know, and then it just ended abruptly.

00:07:17Does she sound like she's okay?

00:07:19Does she sound like she's in danger?

00:07:21No, she didn't.

00:07:21She sounded upset.

00:07:22Where was Alyssa Turney?

00:07:24A mystery that would stretch over decades was just getting started.

00:07:4417-year-old Alyssa Turney had been gone for seven days

00:07:46when her father told the Phoenix police about that brief phone call he got from her.

00:07:51He said he wasn't able to see the number, so he asked for their help tracing the call.

00:07:55But the police didn't share his sense of urgency.

00:07:59You wanted to find out where that call was made from.

00:08:00I wanted to find out where it was.

00:08:02Phoenix PD didn't help me at all.

00:08:03Police knew at 17, Alyssa was almost an adult.

00:08:07If anything, a call from her meant she was alive and well.

00:08:10So I started calling Quest, all up through the power chain, all the way to Denver.

00:08:15The phone company?

00:08:15I wanted the phone number.

00:08:17Bag pleaded.

00:08:18Did they help you?

00:08:19No.

00:08:20The phone company said it couldn't turn over the records without a subpoena,

00:08:24so Turney went to court to get one.

00:08:27Meanwhile, he continued to look for Alyssa everywhere.

00:08:30He was driving out to places to canvas the area to see if she was around,

00:08:40talking to her friends.

00:08:42James says his dad became obsessed with finding Alyssa,

00:08:45who was the oldest girl in their blended family.

00:08:49Mike wasn't her biological father.

00:08:51He met and married Alyssa's mother, Barbara, when Alyssa was two years old.

00:08:55Barbara also had an eight-year-old son named John.

00:08:58You decided to adopt Alyssa and John, make it official.

00:09:03Why take that extra step and not just be stepdad anymore?

00:09:09Because I love Barbara.

00:09:10I mean, you know, it's a package.

00:09:12If you love somebody, you have to accept what they have with them.

00:09:18Mike had three sons from a previous marriage, including James.

00:09:22James says his dad always had the video camera out.

00:09:25Here's Alyssa at the center with her large family.

00:09:29When she first came into the family, she was just this little box of energy.

00:09:33She zoomed everywhere.

00:09:35She was constantly on the go, always in between whatever us brothers were currently at that moment doing,

00:09:43always wanted to be a part of it.

00:09:45Sarah was born a few years later.

00:09:47Did you all click really well, given the fact that you're a blended family?

00:09:51Yeah, I would say pretty quickly.

00:09:52We were all pretty close with each other.

00:09:55And they stayed close when tragedy struck.

00:09:58Alyssa was in second grade when her mother was diagnosed with cancer.

00:10:01Barbara died a year later.

00:10:04How did you help her get through it?

00:10:06Was there anything that you did for Alyssa or said to Alyssa that made it a little easier?

00:10:11Well, at that time, my father was kind of, I would say, really out of it.

00:10:16He seemed to be in shock.

00:10:18I was the person that she was kind of leaning back on.

00:10:21I remember at the funeral specifically, she understandably completely broke down.

00:10:26I remember taking her out and going into one of the church's classrooms in order to comfort her

00:10:32until she was able to return back to the funeral.

00:10:36By the time Alyssa was in high school, her older brothers were grown and on their own.

00:10:41It was just Mike and the two girls.

00:10:43She had a really bubbly, like, friendly personality.

00:10:47Her friend Chris lived down the street, and they worked together at a jack-in-the-box near the high

00:10:52school.

00:10:52Would you hang out a lot when you weren't at work?

00:10:55We would go to school together, so I would walk by her house and, you know, get her,

00:11:00and we'd maybe hang out sometimes at her house, waiting for her to get ready.

00:11:04He remembers Alyssa and her father argued. A lot.

00:11:08You know, he was always, always trying to demand what she was doing, you know,

00:11:12always trying to see her phone, you know, and things like that.

00:11:15Like, heavy-handed parenting, like, you know, helicopter style.

00:11:19Mike said it was for her own good. He worried about her,

00:11:23especially after he believed Alyssa had been giving out their home phone number

00:11:27to guys she met while working the jack-in-the-box drive-through.

00:11:30How did you find that out?

00:11:32The phone calls that came in.

00:11:34And you would ask them, how'd you get this number?

00:11:37Well, try to. Most of the time, they just hung up.

00:11:40Molly Claykamp met Alyssa in seventh grade.

00:11:43Oh, my God, she was so much fun.

00:11:44She says Alyssa was a bit of a rebel, but in a good way, independent, outspoken.

00:11:50She didn't care what anybody, like, thought.

00:11:52She just did her own thing.

00:11:54I think that's what I really liked about her,

00:11:56because I wasn't like that very much until I got older.

00:11:59What did you all do for fun?

00:12:01Listened to a lot of music.

00:12:02We, like, talked a lot in class.

00:12:06Talked about boys a lot.

00:12:07She just made me smile all the time, made me laugh.

00:12:11Did you do homework together since you had so many of the same classes?

00:12:14Yeah.

00:12:14Who was helping who?

00:12:16I would say she was probably helping me more.

00:12:21Yeah.

00:12:22After sophomore year, Alyssa transferred to a different high school,

00:12:25and she and Molly lost touch.

00:12:28But Molly often thought about her friend.

00:12:30She still has these photos Alyssa gave her with notes written on the back.

00:12:34What would she say?

00:12:35She'd be like, hey, Molly, I'm glad, you know, you're my best friend.

00:12:39And she put, like, 2002, which is when we're supposed to graduate, 2002, rock, love, Alyssa.

00:12:47That summer, Alyssa disappeared.

00:12:49No one knew if she would be back to start senior year, much less graduate.

00:12:54It's unsettling.

00:12:55You know, it's very sad, you know.

00:12:58You know, like, what happened?

00:12:59You know, you kind of think the worst, but you got to keep the hope alive.

00:13:03There was some good news.

00:13:04The court issued that subpoena, and Alyssa's dad got the phone records.

00:13:08What did you find out?

00:13:09Where did that call come from?

00:13:11The area code suggested California.

00:13:14They didn't give me the location, just gave me the number.

00:13:17And so I just kept calling it.

00:13:19And finally, somebody answered.

00:13:21It was a convenience store clerk.

00:13:23The number Mike had been calling was from a payphone outside of a store in Riverside, California,

00:13:28not too far from L.A.

00:13:30Mike grabbed Sarah and drove the 320 miles from Arizona to California and found the payphone.

00:13:37I went ahead and took pictures of the phone, just to keep my memory straight.

00:13:42And then I started going to the various police departments, giving out flyers.

00:13:46But no one remembered seeing her.

00:13:49Back home, Mike pushed to get Alyssa's case noticed.

00:13:52He worked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

00:13:55And with their help, he was able to get Alyssa featured at a NASCAR event.

00:13:59Her face appeared on the hood of a race car.

00:14:02I did whatever I could, even out of desperation, to get and keep the attention of Alyssa.

00:14:08That included pressuring the police for updates and peppering them with suggestions.

00:14:13People they could talk to, but nothing came of it.

00:14:16As time started to move on and no sightings of Alyssa, are you starting to get concerned that something bad

00:14:25has happened?

00:14:27Yeah, I love my sister, but I don't think she had the ability to completely wipe her life and disappear

00:14:35into nothing.

00:14:35That's hard to do.

00:14:37Holidays and birthdays passed.

00:14:39One year turned into two, then into many.

00:14:42I can't emphasize enough that she would have called somebody.

00:14:46You know, that was so out of character for her to not call.

00:14:51Alyssa's missing persons file was passed from one detective to another.

00:14:55Small steps were taken, like collecting her dental records and DNA from the family.

00:15:00They never did any interviews.

00:15:02But soon, a new detective was on the case, and he had questions for everyone.

00:15:23Thousands of people are reported missing every year in Phoenix, many of them considered runaways.

00:15:29For years, the case of missing teenager Alyssa Turney sat gathering dust in the Phoenix Police Department.

00:15:34She remained listed as a missing person, but there wasn't an overt effort to track her down.

00:15:44That was about to change.

00:15:46Seven years after Alyssa vanished, Detective Will Anderson joined the Phoenix PD's missing persons unit.

00:15:52I was assigned a portion of the alphabet and started working.

00:15:56So this came about because of the alphabet?

00:15:59Yes.

00:16:00T for Turney quickly led him to Alyssa's case, and when he started reading the file, he felt an instant

00:16:06connection with her father, Mike.

00:16:08Mike's the same age as my father.

00:16:11Mike served in the Army, just like my father.

00:16:15When Mike got out of the Army, he briefly worked at Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant.

00:16:20So did my father.

00:16:21Wow.

00:16:22Mike has three biological sons.

00:16:24I'm the oldest brother of three.

00:16:27So this is unreal, the parallels.

00:16:30It is.

00:16:31And he's former law enforcement.

00:16:33So I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that we give him a resolution because they deserve

00:16:40that.

00:16:41Even if the resolution would be devastating, because the detective's instincts were telling him that Alyssa, who would have been

00:16:4724 when he got the case, was not just hiding out somewhere.

00:16:51She's an adult.

00:16:52She can do anything she wants at that point.

00:16:54She's going to seek out her ID.

00:16:57She's going to contact family and get a copy of her birth certificate.

00:17:00But that didn't happen.

00:17:01That did not happen.

00:17:02Which is a huge red flag.

00:17:04Absolutely.

00:17:04Something has interrupted that pattern of life.

00:17:07My name's Anderson.

00:17:08I'm a detective here.

00:17:10One of the first people Detective Anderson talked to was Alyssa's sister, Sarah.

00:17:14She was 19 now.

00:17:16When Alyssa disappeared, she was 12.

00:17:19Your sister's case is new to me.

00:17:21I'm reviewing it.

00:17:22I'm going to go over it.

00:17:23I want to give it the attention it deserves.

00:17:25Like her father had, Sarah described Alyssa as rebellious and naive.

00:17:30I've heard stories of like, hey, you know, get into our car.

00:17:33Let's go to a party.

00:17:33And she's like, all right, let's go.

00:17:34And her friends will be like, no, Alyssa, we don't know these guys.

00:17:38Strangers rolling up to her.

00:17:42She told the detective her sister had issues with their father's rules.

00:17:46She'd even talked about leaving home.

00:17:48All the time.

00:17:49All the time?

00:17:50Was that directed towards Dad?

00:17:53Yeah, mostly when they would fight.

00:17:54What did they fight over?

00:17:56Her not being able to do stuff.

00:17:58Like?

00:17:59Like go out whenever she wanted or if she didn't check in or something like that.

00:18:03Do you think he's like overly protective?

00:18:05Compare him to other parents of your friends.

00:18:08Other parents.

00:18:10With her, he was.

00:18:12He was very overprotective of her because.

00:18:14That's his oldest daughter.

00:18:16Yeah, exactly.

00:18:17And, you know, she was the type, oh, I'll just get in your car.

00:18:19I don't know who you are.

00:18:20The detective covered every topic he could think of,

00:18:23including any security precautions at the house.

00:18:26Any cameras, anything like that?

00:18:30We did, I'm not sure.

00:18:32We do have cameras now.

00:18:33I don't think we had them then.

00:18:35Didn't have them then?

00:18:37Oh, no, no, no.

00:18:38We did have them then.

00:18:39That's right.

00:18:40Security cameras were rare in 2001.

00:18:42She said her dad installed them after a theft at their house.

00:18:45The cameras, they would record the main door that you guys used.

00:18:50Yeah.

00:18:50Coming in and out.

00:18:51Excellent.

00:18:52She said they also had a recorder to tape phone calls.

00:18:56The reason?

00:18:57In the past, her dad had worked as an electrician,

00:18:59but had a falling out with the electrical union.

00:19:02He told Sarah he had enemies.

00:19:04I know he's really politically outspoken.

00:19:06He was really like a whistleblower, do-gooder.

00:19:09Some people would do things bad.

00:19:11He would tell.

00:19:11Are you thinking like retaliation?

00:19:13Yeah, exactly.

00:19:14The detective wondered if there was security footage from the day Alyssa went missing.

00:19:19A day he went over with Sarah in detail.

00:19:21I went to my room, you know, and I thought it was no big deal, whatever.

00:19:25She's probably just somewhere.

00:19:26And I found the note.

00:19:27That note bothered the detective.

00:19:30In his experience, it's unusual for a runaway to leave one.

00:19:33On top of that, she didn't take her cell phone or the silver jewelry she always wore.

00:19:38She left a lot of it.

00:19:40I raided it, obviously.

00:19:41I was 13 and stuff.

00:19:43She didn't take much with her at all except for clothes and the one set of jewelry she was wearing.

00:19:48Just what she had on and then she left?

00:19:50Yeah, she only took her regular jeans and then a few t-shirts.

00:19:54Still, Sarah held out hope and encouraged her dad to do the same.

00:19:58For all I know, she's sitting on the beach and I'm drinking a pina colada and he's like,

00:20:01okay, well that's how I'm going to think of it too now, you know, so.

00:20:05Detective Anderson thought all options were on the table.

00:20:08Either Alyssa ran away and something tragic happened, or maybe she hadn't left on her own after all.

00:20:14Maybe someone close to her knew something they weren't telling.

00:20:18That would include Alyssa's many friends and her high school boyfriend, John Lackman.

00:20:22How steady of a boyfriend was he?

00:20:24They were dating, it was probably her most serious relationship I ever saw.

00:20:27They were dating for a long time.

00:20:29So pretty much the entire junior year?

00:20:31I believe so.

00:20:32How about your dad?

00:20:33How do you feel about John?

00:20:35He didn't like him because something happened.

00:20:39Her finger got slammed in a door and he got...

00:20:42Car door?

00:20:43Yeah, a car door.

00:20:44Then he thought John did it on purpose, something like that.

00:20:47He didn't like the way John treated her either, the talking down to her and stuff like that.

00:20:50Slamming car doors, talking down to her?

00:20:53The boyfriend went to the top of the list of people he wanted to interview, and there were others.

00:20:59You want to get as many friends of hers, as many friends that your father talked to.

00:21:05From the beginning, Mike Turney had given police names of people he wanted investigated.

00:21:10And now detectives were finally tracking them down.

00:21:14Would one of them hold the key to what happened to Alyssa?

00:21:17Mike brings up an individual that he thinks might have actually killed Alyssa.

00:21:22Yes.

00:21:36In the years after Alyssa's disappearance, her brother James had moved away from Phoenix,

00:21:41but carried with him a sense of loss and uncertainty that only grew with time.

00:21:46How are you feeling when you find out there are fresh eyes on this case, new detectives?

00:21:52I was ecstatic.

00:21:53I was incredibly happy.

00:21:55I had been constantly calling over and over with the previous detectives

00:22:00that were incredibly unresponsive, unhelpful, and basically not doing anything.

00:22:05Detective Anderson started knocking on doors, including Alyssa's old friend Molly's.

00:22:11It had been nine years since she last spoke to Alyssa,

00:22:13and she was stunned to hear from the detectives that Alyssa was missing.

00:22:17I can't even imagine just the feeling that you would have in that moment.

00:22:21Yeah, I was like, what?

00:22:24I didn't even know how to say anything because I was like, it's been a long time.

00:22:28What did they say?

00:22:29They said that he had found my name in like yearbooks and like address books.

00:22:35They told her they were looking for anything with Alyssa's writing on it.

00:22:39Molly went in search of those class pictures, the ones with Alyssa's writing on the back.

00:22:43He took those and he said, I need to do, because she wrote a note,

00:22:48and we need to analyze her, you know, writing on the back and everything.

00:22:53Alyssa had left that note, but also her phone, clothes, and money in the bank, $1,800.

00:23:01The detective turned his attention to the names her father had given police,

00:23:05names of people Mike thought might have helped her run away or worse.

00:23:09That included her boyfriend, John.

00:23:11Were you concerned that John might be involved in her disappearance?

00:23:16Yes, and I tried to get that through to the Phoenix PD.

00:23:20Mike had been suspicious of John because he and Alyssa had a nasty fight a few weeks before she disappeared.

00:23:26It was recorded on the attorney's home security cameras.

00:23:29What happens in the video?

00:23:31From what I could see, Alyssa throws the phone.

00:23:34He's upset.

00:23:36And then you can hear the squealing of the tires of John leaving.

00:23:40Do you have your idea with you?

00:23:41Sure.

00:23:41Now, years later, Detective Anderson and his partner asked John to come in for an interview.

00:23:47I've talked to her family, but family knows one thing, boyfriend probably knows more.

00:23:52I hope so.

00:23:53And friends.

00:23:53So, um, how did you guys meet?

00:23:57I met her at school.

00:23:58We had a class together in, uh, in our...

00:24:00This is a Paradise Valley.

00:24:01We were together for the whole year, pretty much.

00:24:05Nine months through that year.

00:24:07The detective wanted to know about that fight, of course.

00:24:10John said he was mad because he just found out Alyssa had cheated on him.

00:24:13So, no physical violence between you guys?

00:24:16No.

00:24:16In fact, after their fight, he says the two of them made up and went to prom.

00:24:20You guys had a good time at prom then?

00:24:22Probably.

00:24:23John said prom was one of his favorite memories with Alyssa.

00:24:26And after she disappeared, he was heartbroken.

00:24:29Were you worried about her?

00:24:30Yeah, I was real worried about her.

00:24:32Detectives thought he was telling the truth.

00:24:34But just to be sure, they ran his vehicle to see if he'd left the state around the time Alyssa

00:24:38disappeared.

00:24:39There's no break in his life pattern that suggests he has any missing time where he'd have the opportunity to

00:24:46do anything with her.

00:24:47Anderson moved on from the boyfriend.

00:24:49There was another worker, co-worker of hers that you felt might have aided him for running away?

00:24:57He was her shift supervisor, Mike Stanley, and he'd given her a ride home.

00:25:02He was the guy Alyssa had been with while dating John.

00:25:05Mike had video of that, too.

00:25:07Alyssa and Mike Stanley kissing.

00:25:10The night, I always turned the recorder on to record the night while we were asleep.

00:25:14And it was unfortunate that I caught the make-out on the tape.

00:25:18Detectives asked him to come in for an interview.

00:25:20Was there anything suspicious with him?

00:25:22No, he voluntarily comes in.

00:25:24He's cooperative.

00:25:26Nothing as far as means, motive, and opportunity to suggest that he's responsible for this.

00:25:31Another dead end.

00:25:32But there were more names on Mike Turney's list.

00:25:35Mike brings up an individual that he thinks might have actually killed Alyssa.

00:25:40Yes.

00:25:41Paul Abbott is the name he provides.

00:25:44This was a person who was doing wiring at the school.

00:25:48Alyssa's school.

00:25:49Abbott also frequented the Jack in the Box where she worked.

00:25:53Had they argued or was there any reason?

00:25:57Was he obsessed with her?

00:25:59No, it's one of many people that Mike has offered as possible suspects in her disappearance.

00:26:06All those leads, but none were panning out.

00:26:10Anderson wanted to go through the whole case with Alyssa's dad in a sit-down interview.

00:26:14To his surprise, Mike said no.

00:26:17He told the detective Sarah could speak for the family.

00:26:21I said, in all due respect to Sarah, she's 19 now, but her memories are that of a 12-year

00:26:27-old.

00:26:27Does he agree to come in?

00:26:29No.

00:26:30But Anderson wanted more than just a sit-down interview.

00:26:33He wanted something he believed might be in the Turney house.

00:26:37In Michael Turney's own words, there's a video from the day she disappeared.

00:26:42This could be a gift falling in your lap in this investigation, this video.

00:26:47Absolutely.

00:27:00The Phoenix Police Department was investigating one lead after another in the Alyssa Turney cold case.

00:27:06And there in the file, detectives found another lead.

00:27:09Maybe, just maybe, this was it.

00:27:11A few years earlier, a convicted killer named Thomas Heimer had confessed to several murders,

00:27:17and he said one of his victims was Alyssa.

00:27:20This person in prison at that time for a homicide.

00:27:25Heimer had written a letter to the FBI saying he'd met Alyssa in a drug dealer's van outside of a

00:27:30Phoenix bar.

00:27:31His letter described how he drove her to Georgia and killed her in a hotel room,

00:27:36dumping her body in a trash compactor.

00:27:38The FBI had looked into his story and dismissed it.

00:27:42Heimer never provided any details beyond what was available to the public.

00:27:46But years later, with still no sign of Alyssa, Anderson and his partner wanted to check him out.

00:27:52I spoke to Heimer. I arranged a conversation with him.

00:27:55Anderson's partner traveled to a Florida prison to interview Heimer in person.

00:27:59He brought along a technician to give the convicted killer a polygraph.

00:28:15But that's not what the polygraph results showed.

00:28:19Right there in the room, the polygrapher determined Heimer was making it all up.

00:28:23I've never seen anybody get 100% lying before.

00:28:27So 25 years, your first guy to get put.

00:28:30It's quickly becoming apparent to you that he's not Alyssa's killer.

00:28:35So all the detective had was a pile of dead ends, most of them provided by Mike Turney.

00:28:41While Anderson had initially felt a connection with Alyssa's father,

00:28:44now while he felt was frustration, Mike was still refusing to come in for a formal interview.

00:28:49What's happening in this story is a big shift.

00:28:53This dad has gone from doing everything he could to find his daughter to now being uncooperative.

00:28:59The father has gone from following up on every lead, providing us information,

00:29:05directing who we should speak to.

00:29:07But when you get that cop who wants to meet with you, wants your input and your information,

00:29:13I start getting objections.

00:29:16In the years since Alyssa disappeared, Mike's public campaign to find her had waned.

00:29:21He didn't have a job, collected disability for an injury he suffered working as an electrician,

00:29:26and Sarah told investigators he'd been treated for depression.

00:29:30She continued to be as helpful as she could.

00:29:33I stated I wanted more of Alyssa's artifacts.

00:29:36Did you keep anything of hers?

00:29:37Yes, we've kept everything.

00:29:40Wonderful.

00:29:41Did she allow you to come into the home?

00:29:43Absolutely. Sarah arranged the date.

00:29:46I showed up with two other detectives and a truck,

00:29:50anticipating a large volume of material that I'd be able to take and review

00:29:54to try and figure out who Alyssa was.

00:29:56What did you get?

00:29:57I got her yearbook.

00:30:00That's it?

00:30:02That was it.

00:30:03So you have a truck sitting outside for a yearbook?

00:30:06For a yearbook.

00:30:08Contrary to what Sarah told him, Mike said that's all they had left of Alyssa's things.

00:30:13Anderson was certain there had to be more in the house.

00:30:16That's because in the case file, there was this letter written by Mike years earlier

00:30:21to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

00:30:23What I really key in on is a statement by Mike saying that he has internal and external security

00:30:30cameras at his home and that he has an eight-hour video from May 17th of 2001, the day Alyssa

00:30:38ran away.

00:30:40The day she went missing.

00:30:41Yes.

00:30:41This is crucial, potentially.

00:30:44Yes.

00:30:44Did you ask him if you could see the video?

00:30:47Yes.

00:30:47He states he will look for it, but he's not sure if he kept it.

00:30:51The detective says Mike told him there hadn't been anything useful on the tape anyway.

00:30:55So Anderson asked him for something else.

00:30:58Remember that phone call Mike got from the payphone in California?

00:31:02Anderson knew he had a history of recording calls.

00:31:05So the million-dollar question is, did he record the call that he said Alyssa made to the house?

00:31:12Does he have it?

00:31:14No.

00:31:15And there was more on the detective's radar.

00:31:18We've talked to so many people at this point that there are allegations floating around that

00:31:25have me frankly concerned.

00:31:28One allegation came from Alyssa's biological father, Steve Strom.

00:31:32Years earlier, he and Alyssa's mother had divorced.

00:31:35He hadn't seen Alyssa since she was a toddler.

00:31:38She was one of those kids that just go, go, go.

00:31:40And she was really outgoing, very sweet kid.

00:31:45When he heard she was missing, he contacted police.

00:31:49He expresses concerns.

00:31:50Are you sure that she's a runaway?

00:31:53He wanted investigators to know he didn't believe Alyssa left on her own.

00:31:58What did you think had happened?

00:31:59I think he did something to her.

00:32:01I just felt it as a father.

00:32:04I could feel there was something not right there.

00:32:07He's talking about Mike Turney.

00:32:09The two men had a contentious history.

00:32:11They battled over custody and child support.

00:32:14He was just narcissistic.

00:32:17That's what he was.

00:32:18It's all about Michael and no one else in the world.

00:32:21Maybe Steve was biased, but he wasn't the only one pointing the finger at Mike.

00:32:27Alyssa's boyfriend, John, had a lot to say about Mike Turney.

00:32:31For one, he told investigators that the fight he had with Alyssa started because of something Mike said.

00:32:37Mike Turney stopped him, leans over and says, she's cheating on you.

00:32:42Odd thing to say from a dad.

00:32:45John told police he was suspicious of Mike from the beginning.

00:32:48What did you think happened to him?

00:32:50I think her stupid stepdad did sound ridiculously terrible.

00:32:54Anderson continued to push Mike for evidence, having no idea that what he would uncover next could blow up the

00:33:02whole investigation.

00:33:03He had enough explosives there to take out our whole neighborhood.

00:33:08Holy cow.

00:33:24Detective Anderson was done playing games.

00:33:27For months, he'd been asking Mike Turney for video of the day Alyssa vanished and audio of that call from

00:33:33California.

00:33:34Mike Turney responded by handing over those two other tapes.

00:33:38Alyssa fighting with her boyfriend and Alyssa kissing that other guy in the living room.

00:33:42Neither of which helped the investigation.

00:33:45I'm looking for that videotape.

00:33:48I'm looking for that audio tape.

00:33:50So authorities went to court and got two search warrants.

00:33:53One for the house where Alyssa grew up and another for the house Mike lived in now, right across the

00:33:59street.

00:33:59Is the entire house being turned upside down?

00:34:02Yes.

00:34:02Everything's being looked at?

00:34:03Yes.

00:34:04They didn't need to look hard to find out that Mike had guns.

00:34:08Lots of them.

00:34:09But investigators had come looking for tapes and there were plenty of those too.

00:34:13We found hundreds of VHS tapes and hundreds of audio tape cassette recordings.

00:34:24Would the tapes they wanted be among them?

00:34:26It was too soon to know.

00:34:28And their focus had shifted to something more imminent.

00:34:32A large stash of explosives, including homemade pipe bombs.

00:34:37These are somewhat competently created devices.

00:34:41This is a dangerous situation, potentially.

00:34:43This is a deadly situation.

00:34:45The big question, what was Mike Turney planning?

00:34:48They found the answer in a locked safe.

00:34:51Michael Turney had created and stamped sealed envelopes for NBC, for ABC, for local media.

00:35:00It's being described as a manifesto.

00:35:03It was titled, Diary of a Madman Lost in an Obsession for Justice and Closure.

00:35:08Remember Sarah had mentioned her dad's trouble with an electrical union?

00:35:12Said he was a kind of whistleblower who worried about retaliation?

00:35:15I know he's really politically outspoken.

00:35:17Some people do things bad.

00:35:19He tells.

00:35:20Well, he'd done more than worry.

00:35:22He'd been obsessed.

00:35:23He believed that the union sabotaged his job in California and that they tried to kill him

00:35:30by knocking him off of a ladder, and it gets even worse than that.

00:35:36Mike's manifesto made an outrageous claim that the union had murdered Alyssa.

00:35:41She was abducted by union members that somehow recognized her, killed her,

00:35:46and left her body in Desert Center, California.

00:35:51He wrote in the manifesto's cover letter,

00:35:53I got to this point in my life that my death, vengeance, and mass murder was all I had left.

00:35:59He'd even marked his calendar with a big X.

00:36:02That happened to be the next date for the local union's Christmas party.

00:36:08That's when they would have all their members, wives, children at the party.

00:36:13That holiday party was just a few days away.

00:36:15The detective believed that's the day Mike had chosen to carry out an attack.

00:36:21This search warrant that was not looking for this

00:36:25ended up potentially preventing a mass shooting.

00:36:29Absolutely prevented it.

00:36:31Mike Turney was arrested.

00:36:34A detective called James with the news.

00:36:37Said that pipe bombs have been found in the house.

00:36:40We're evacuating that particular part until we get the bomb squad in,

00:36:44and we're cordoning off the area.

00:36:45What's going through your mind?

00:36:47It was a surreal experience.

00:36:48All I kept thinking during that stuff was,

00:36:50oh my God, my sister was living there, and my family was visiting there.

00:36:55It's like, this is crazy.

00:36:57Crazy, surreal, but in a strange way, validating for James.

00:37:02You see, for years he'd been the odd man out in his family,

00:37:06ostracized, he says, for challenging his father.

00:37:08I was asking too many questions.

00:37:10About Alyssa.

00:37:11About Alyssa.

00:37:12Yeah, I had started this even before Alyssa went missing.

00:37:17I kept asking questions about how well the girls were being taken care of.

00:37:20You know, why are their rooms dirty when I come over?

00:37:22Why is the house not clean?

00:37:25Just things along those nature.

00:37:27And after Alyssa vanished, while his dad appeared to be searching everywhere,

00:37:32he told James something downright bizarre.

00:37:35Well, he tells me that he has found the killers of my sister,

00:37:40and that he had killed the killers of my sister.

00:37:43Now, you have to also remember, my father has told me crazy things my entire life.

00:37:48So, there was also a part of me that was like going,

00:37:50is this guy just rambly?

00:37:52Like, he's just telling me this to make me happy,

00:37:55telling me this to try to comfort me in some sort of bizarre way.

00:37:59But it definitely raised red flags,

00:38:01and it started to begin the checking.

00:38:03In my mind, it doesn't make sense.

00:38:05You really started asking questions that you hadn't necessarily asked before.

00:38:10Yeah.

00:38:11And as I asked more questions, the answers became more, I would say, obscure,

00:38:19and it was more and more contradictions.

00:38:21Now, bomb squads were rolling into his old street.

00:38:25Neighbor Judy got a knock on her door.

00:38:28It was the biggest shock I ever got in my life.

00:38:31The police officer was like, you're going to have to evacuate overnight.

00:38:37So, you have 10 minutes.

00:38:39They stayed at the front of the door, waited for us to get all of our stuff.

00:38:43And this is right across the street?

00:38:45Right across the street.

00:38:46He had enough explosives there to take out our whole neighborhood.

00:38:51The next day, the neighbors were allowed back, but the drama wasn't over.

00:38:56A new search was underway at Mike Turney's old house,

00:39:00the one he lived in at the time of Alyssa's disappearance.

00:39:03A bunch of police cars were there, and I noticed that they had the canine.

00:39:07And I figured they were here to have cadaver dogs.

00:39:12To search for Alyssa's body, potentially?

00:39:15Because they came out here to the backyard, and I watched them.

00:39:19I kind of got up on this, and I just kind of looked over,

00:39:23and I saw them digging there, so I just kind of took my camera,

00:39:27my phone, and just started taking some pictures.

00:39:30So, you're playing citizen journalist.

00:39:32Citizen journalist.

00:39:33Taking these photos.

00:39:34Yes.

00:39:34Investigators were searching.

00:39:36Would they solve this mystery and finally find Alyssa?

00:39:55As the digging continued, and the canines sniffed around Mike Turney's old house,

00:40:00neighbor Judy Wacker held her breath.

00:40:02My heart was going 50 miles an hour, you know, thinking, oh my God, you know.

00:40:08And then when I heard they didn't find anything, I was relieved.

00:40:13But there was little relief for James.

00:40:16His father pleaded guilty to illegally possessing those pipe bombs

00:40:20and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

00:40:22And with his dad behind bars,

00:40:24James thought back on all the strange things his father had said and done.

00:40:28One thing that really bothered him,

00:40:30he says his dad never told the family that he'd picked Alyssa up early from school that day she disappeared.

00:40:36To me, it kind of looks like if you take a person out of school early

00:40:41and you want to do something that may make them want to go away or go away,

00:40:49it's best to do it at a time when no one else is around to ask questions.

00:40:54Detective Anderson was more than a little suspicious too.

00:40:57He hoped Mike Turney would finally talk to him from prison.

00:41:01Is he cooperative or does he shut down?

00:41:04He shuts down.

00:41:05We solicit him.

00:41:06Can we talk about Alyssa?

00:41:08No, he will not talk to us.

00:41:11But Mike Turney wasn't going anywhere for now.

00:41:15There was plenty of time for police to sort through those piles of recordings.

00:41:20Remember, detectives were looking for two things.

00:41:22The video from the day Alyssa went missing.

00:41:25And that phone call Mike said she made from California.

00:41:29Finding these two tapes that you need is like finding a needle.

00:41:32Two needles.

00:41:33Two needles and a stack of needles.

00:41:35Many of the audio recordings seemed mundane.

00:41:41So you were used to the recorded phone calls though, right?

00:41:44Yeah, from a very young age, yeah.

00:41:47There were phone recordings of Sarah ordering pizza and calling to check movie showtimes.

00:41:53Here's Alyssa on the phone with her boyfriend, John.

00:41:55Bye-bye.

00:41:56I love you.

00:41:57Bye.

00:41:57I love you.

00:41:58But then there was this recording.

00:42:00A phone call between Mike and one of his sons from before Alyssa's disappearance.

00:42:04Mike is talking about Alyssa.

00:42:06Everything else is going to be f***ed over because of some stupid-ass f***ing b***h.

00:42:11I'm giving her basic and alternative cops where she can bond back with me and the family and stop being

00:42:18such a f***ing b***h.

00:42:19These tapes are showing an unhealthy relationship with his daughter.

00:42:23There are definitely some issues in that home.

00:42:26There were hours and hours of family videos.

00:42:30Alyssa.

00:42:31Alyssa.

00:42:34But what to make of this?

00:42:36That's Alyssa at work.

00:42:38She seems annoyed.

00:42:39Her father is outside with his camera.

00:42:41And how often is he coming to her work and recording her?

00:42:44He comes on a regular basis.

00:42:46Mr. Turney has stated that he would routinely show up an hour or two early to ensure that she did

00:42:51not leave the premise with anybody else.

00:42:53My gosh.

00:42:54It's like she's being stalked almost.

00:42:58It's, yeah, it's very much over the top.

00:43:00I remember her saying kind of something about that and I was like, that's weird and, you know, it was,

00:43:06like, why would you do that?

00:43:08Detectives also combed through the video captured by Mike Turney's security cameras.

00:43:13Years worth.

00:43:14A camera outside.

00:43:15And a hidden camera inside.

00:43:18I saw it.

00:43:19It was up in the register vent.

00:43:20In the vent?

00:43:21Yeah.

00:43:21You could see it?

00:43:22Yeah.

00:43:22Like a red light?

00:43:23Yeah.

00:43:23Like it was on?

00:43:24Like a little bleeping red light.

00:43:25He's got the camera in the vent and then, of course, he's videotaping Alyssa on the job.

00:43:30He's, you know, all these things are happening.

00:43:33Yeah.

00:43:34That, to my knowledge, never, ever occurred until Alyssa.

00:43:39And it seemed to be pretty specifically focused on her, specifically.

00:43:45It would take thousands of hours to go through all the tapes.

00:43:49Years, in fact.

00:43:50And after all that work, detectives never found the video of Alyssa from the day she disappeared.

00:43:56And there was no recording of that phone call either.

00:43:59I can tell you the family ordered a large cheese pizza, half pepperoni and half onion.

00:44:05I can tell you that Sarah was trying to find a good movie time for the, for Princess Diaries.

00:44:12All of those ridiculous calls are recorded.

00:44:17But no call from California.

00:44:18But no call from California.

00:44:21Despite the hundreds of tapes collected from the house, remember,

00:44:25Turney had only volunteered two tapes to police.

00:44:28Alyssa with a guy in the living room and that fight with her boyfriend, John.

00:44:34Now, when you see this video and you know what you know, what are you thinking?

00:44:39It was theater.

00:44:40I'm thinking Mr. Turney kept this video to give law enforcement something to look at.

00:44:46Something to possibly distract from Mike Turney himself?

00:44:50Yes.

00:44:51Detective Anderson was now convinced that Mike Turney was responsible

00:44:54for his daughter's disappearance.

00:44:56And the stories people were telling him about Mike were beyond disturbing.

00:45:02It just creeped me out.

00:45:03I just, that's all I remember.

00:45:04It creeped me out and it's forever ingrained in my brain.

00:45:22Phoenix police detectives learned a lot about Mike Turney and his relationship with Alyssa

00:45:27while he sat behind bars.

00:45:29Before his arrest, he told Detective Anderson Alyssa was impulsive, had bad judgment when

00:45:35it came to guys, and that she wasn't very bright.

00:45:38The stories that are told about Alyssa are not charming stories.

00:45:43Everything he says, everything he does is geared to make Alyssa look foolish, look sexual.

00:45:52But now he was hearing, that's not how others saw her.

00:45:56I don't know, she's always so cute and happy and I think people just liked her.

00:46:01She really qualified.

00:46:02They heard plenty of ugly stories, but those were about Mike.

00:46:06Yeah, he was paranoid.

00:46:08When we finally get around to talking to all these people, they come forward with these horrible situations.

00:46:16One of those people was Alyssa's older cousin.

00:46:19He lived with attorneys for a short while as a young adult.

00:46:22In a call with police, he described a VHS tape he found in the house one day.

00:46:27It showed a girl lying on what he believed was his Uncle Mike's couch.

00:46:31A newspaper covered her eyes.

00:46:34She was bare-breasted, had short claws, not anywhere.

00:46:37You can see the color of her hair.

00:46:39I would swear up and down would be her.

00:46:41The her he was talking about was his cousin Alyssa.

00:46:45Police asked him to come in so they could talk in person.

00:46:48So you knew the attorneys growing up?

00:46:51Yes.

00:46:52He brought his wife with him and described the video again.

00:46:55Yeah, I mean, you could tell because Alyssa had a real distinct nose.

00:46:59I could tell it was her and please see the color of her hair.

00:47:02So if you had to put a percentage of how sure you were, it was her?

00:47:05I would say a good 90% sure.

00:47:07And this is being recorded by Mike.

00:47:10This appears to be a home video.

00:47:12I can't tell you who took it.

00:47:13I've never seen the video.

00:47:16Investigators never found a video with that topless girl during the search of the attorney's house.

00:47:21Mike says that's because it doesn't exist.

00:47:23But Alyssa's cousin was convinced he saw something deeply disturbing.

00:47:27It just creeped me out.

00:47:28That's all I remember.

00:47:30It creeped me out and it's forever ingrained in my brain.

00:47:33Alyssa's cousin was not the only person that described unsettling things.

00:47:38Others shared stories they said they'd heard from Alyssa directly.

00:47:41This story ranks up there with some of the worst stories you've heard.

00:47:46Alyssa's third grade teacher.

00:47:48Yes.

00:47:49The teacher met with detectives in a parking lot.

00:47:52There's one time.

00:47:53Um, Alyssa was, she said to me, I didn't text with my dad.

00:47:58I'm like, what?

00:47:58And I talked to her and I said, Alyssa, why are you saying no?

00:48:05Are you truly telling me this?

00:48:06Because if she told me, I would have called the CPS or whatever.

00:48:10And she said, no, I'm not.

00:48:11And this is a little girl, third grade Alyssa, walking around saying she'd had sex with her

00:48:17father.

00:48:17So she confronted Michael about that.

00:48:20Michael said, no, no, no.

00:48:21She's confused.

00:48:22She thinks sex is when people kiss each other.

00:48:25Good night.

00:48:26I have a third grader myself and she knows what kissing is.

00:48:30Yes.

00:48:31Yeah.

00:48:32Alyssa had also told friends and family about something she said happened when she was a

00:48:36teenager.

00:48:37Wait, you said that he touched her?

00:48:40This high school friend recounted a story Alyssa told her about a drive into the desert with

00:48:45her dad.

00:48:45They were in his truck and he let her drive.

00:48:49It made her really uncomfortable and she got out and walked home.

00:48:52She specified what he did that made her feel uncomfortable.

00:48:56It's hard.

00:48:57I've tried so hard to forget.

00:48:58I don't know.

00:48:59Maybe he put his hand on her leg or got too close to her or something.

00:49:03What was her demeanor when she was telling you this?

00:49:06Scared.

00:49:06He touches her, he gropes or he tries to do something to her.

00:49:11That particular story comes from three different sources.

00:49:14The same story?

00:49:15The same story.

00:49:17And did they all talk or know each other or was this all independent?

00:49:20All independent.

00:49:21Alyssa's boyfriend, John, was one of the three sources for that story.

00:49:25I think the story was pulled over somewhere and, you know, an unoccupied area, something

00:49:31like the desert area and tried fooling around with her and she got, you know, aggressive,

00:49:38fighting about it.

00:49:40Did you ask these three, did you say, did she seem like she was trying to get back at

00:49:44her dad?

00:49:45Because she's just sick of him being so controlling.

00:49:48Absolutely.

00:49:49For all three of them.

00:49:50And they said, no, this was genuine.

00:49:52This was emotional.

00:49:53This was her in the moment shaking and crying.

00:49:56She talked a lot about...

00:49:58In a call with police, another friend said Alyssa confided in her too.

00:50:02There is one time that she did tell me about something that he did that was physical.

00:50:09She had told me about waking up to him one night, gagging her with a sock and trying to

00:50:16strangle her.

00:50:17When she came to and realized what was going on, he did stop.

00:50:22What he tried to explain to her afterward is that basically if she ever told anybody,

00:50:28nobody would ever believe her.

00:50:30He was always threatening her in that way, threatening her not to tell people things

00:50:35because, you know, he would be believed over her.

00:50:40The detectives couldn't verify the sexual abuse stories without Alyssa.

00:50:44But there was this.

00:50:46Alyssa talked to her aunt in California just weeks before she disappeared.

00:50:50And Mike knew it.

00:50:52After all, he recorded their calls.

00:50:55Yes?

00:50:56No.

00:50:57Yes?

00:50:58You know what's Alyssa?

00:51:00Yeah.

00:51:00If you ever want to come out and visit me, I'm right here.

00:51:05Okay.

00:51:05Okay?

00:51:06Uh-huh.

00:51:07So you have a 17-year-old girl.

00:51:10Whatever issues are going on in that home, she's not willing to tolerate them anymore.

00:51:15And she's finally able to stand up and recognize that she has some resources.

00:51:20She could go to her maternal aunt.

00:51:22You believe Mike Turney is losing control at this point.

00:51:26Absolutely.

00:51:26And if he's not outright losing control, he's in fear that she is going to cause him harm.

00:51:32Giving him a possible motive.

00:51:34Yes.

00:51:35For wanting her gone.

00:51:36Means, motive and opportunity are entirely Mike's.

00:51:41That was the theory.

00:51:43But they needed more.

00:51:44Something.

00:51:45Or maybe some one to make the case.

00:51:49My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

00:52:04It just creeped me out.

00:52:07Investigators heard a slew of distressing stories about Mike Turney's relationship with Alyssa.

00:52:12Her brother James hadn't heard any sexual abuse allegations, but he did have a story of

00:52:17his own.

00:52:18Weeks before she disappeared, Alyssa told her brother she wanted to go live with him.

00:52:22Did she say why?

00:52:23She said that she couldn't take living with my father anymore, that she was afraid of him.

00:52:27She at that time was weeping.

00:52:30Very, very emotional.

00:52:32How worried were you about her when she's saying these things and crying?

00:52:36I was concerned, but at the same time, I had been told that she was a problem child,

00:52:46that she was causing all sorts of issues, she was into all sorts of trouble.

00:52:50James says their dad always made it seem like Alyssa was the problem.

00:52:54And for a long time, he'd believed him.

00:52:57He would badmouth her, saying she was dumb, naive, too sexual.

00:53:02Yes.

00:53:03Why do all that?

00:53:04In order to control her.

00:53:06James spent years thinking about his upbringing and learning about domestic and child abuse.

00:53:11He believes his father used something called coercive control to dominate Alyssa and all

00:53:17of his kids.

00:53:18You make that person feel isolated and that basically you're the only one that can help

00:53:23them because they're too stupid, too whatever, to be part of any other group.

00:53:28Would you say you were under his spell back then?

00:53:31Oh, when we were younger?

00:53:32Yeah, we were, I call us a cult.

00:53:35And everything that my father said was, you know, the word, the true word, and everyone

00:53:41else was an outside influence.

00:53:43You know, you didn't trust anyone else.

00:53:45What he said, you believed.

00:53:47James says as soon as he started to doubt the true word, he was basically kicked out of

00:53:52the family.

00:53:53After his dad's arrest, he tried to get his siblings to start asking questions, too.

00:53:58You had been trying to convince your siblings that, hey, something's not right here with

00:54:04dad, with Alyssa, with her disappearance.

00:54:08Yes, for years.

00:54:10The majority of my questioning had to be very, very cautious.

00:54:14I had been slowly just doing things like, doesn't this, you know, interaction here seem

00:54:21a little off?

00:54:22Why don't you question this, too?

00:54:24Or do you not see this?

00:54:25Raising doubts.

00:54:26Yeah, definitely.

00:54:27You know, if I was to come out directly and say, I think dad did something, I would have

00:54:31been pushed back immediately.

00:54:34James says eventually, one by one, his brothers came around and started cooperating with investigators.

00:54:41In fact, his brother, Rhett, was one of the many people to tell investigators about Alyssa's

00:54:45allegation of sexual abuse.

00:54:48But one attorney still wasn't convinced her father had harmed Alyssa.

00:54:52Sarah had long supported your dad.

00:54:55When did she start making that shift to questioning him as well?

00:55:00I would say after his incarceration, yeah.

00:55:03I think she was internal to her own thoughts and she was reviewing what she had experienced,

00:55:08what she had seen, what she had read.

00:55:11You had a delicate dance with Sarah because she'd supported her dad for so long.

00:55:16Yes.

00:55:16And now you're trying to show her, look, I don't think he's the father you think he is.

00:55:23Yes.

00:55:24Anderson decided to let the evidence speak for itself.

00:55:27Over the course of several meetings and even more emails, he showed Sarah the case being built

00:55:32against her dad.

00:55:33Sharing a video with her, releasing a video to her, telling her, hey, explain this to me.

00:55:40Walk me through this.

00:55:42It was 2016, 15 years after Alyssa disappeared.

00:55:46Mike Turney was about to be released from prison after serving time for those weapons charges.

00:55:52Detective Anderson sat with a prosecutor from the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and walked

00:55:56him through the case.

00:55:57By then, Sarah had changed her mind.

00:56:00Now, all of the Turney siblings believed their father was involved in Alyssa's disappearance.

00:56:05The prosecutor looked at what police had and despite all the smoke, he saw no fire.

00:56:11He told the detective to keep digging.

00:56:14Mike Turney would not be charged in Alyssa's disappearance.

00:56:17It was incredibly frustrating.

00:56:19It made us so angry and we had been told all along that he'll be charged when he comes out.

00:56:26We're going to charge him with this.

00:56:27Don't worry about it.

00:56:29And then not long after he was released, there's nothing.

00:56:32It was like, you've got to be kidding us.

00:56:34Why would you even tell us that it was going to happen?

00:56:37Why would you even give us that hope?

00:56:40But someone was coming for Mike Turney.

00:56:43My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.

00:56:47Sarah was now 30 years old, a college graduate living on her own.

00:56:51With her father out of prison, she was going to do everything she could to send him back.

00:56:57She's the ultimate creation of my father and he did not expect that.

00:57:03She was able to definitely turn it a full 180 and be the driving force, something that none of us

00:57:10could have ever done.

00:57:11She started a podcast dedicated to her sister's case.

00:57:15You might have heard of my sister Alyssa's story before, but I promise that you've never heard it like this.

00:57:19And created a TikTok account.

00:57:22Can we please just get justice for Alyssa now?

00:57:24Please help me share this.

00:57:26This is insane.

00:57:27It should never happen to anyone.

00:57:29She raised money to put up this billboard in Phoenix to spotlight the case.

00:57:34She would have done it for me.

00:57:35And reached out to national media, including Dateline.

00:57:39I did not expect to blow up on TikTok overnight, so thank you.

00:57:42It worked.

00:57:43Alyssa's story went viral and Sarah gained more than a million followers.

00:57:47It's like she single-handedly got millions of people interested in Alyssa's case.

00:57:54And put this incredible pressure on police to get things done.

00:58:00Exactly.

00:58:01It took several years.

00:58:03Then finally, it happened.

00:58:05In August of 2020, officers in tactical gear surrounded Mike Turney as he exited his vehicle with his hands in

00:58:12the air.

00:58:13Today, I am announcing the grand jury indictment for second-degree murder of Michael Roy Turney.

00:58:22There was a new district attorney, and her team had taken a second look at Alyssa's case.

00:58:28With largely the same evidence as before, she decided it was enough.

00:58:32To Alyssa's sister.

00:58:33She gave Sarah a shout-out for keeping the case front and center.

00:58:37Your perseverance and commitment to finding justice for your sister, Alyssa, is a testament to the love of a sister.

00:58:47Sarah immediately shared the news on her TikTok account.

00:58:50My father's been arrested for Alyssa's murder.

00:58:54And I just stopped crying, and I'm trying not to cry again.

00:58:58It made me sleep better at night, just knowing that he was there.

00:59:02And it made me think, maybe there's a chance my sister will get justice.

00:59:07Maybe there's a chance.

00:59:09Mike Turney was behind bars once again.

00:59:12But would it be for good this time?

00:59:15They need to prove that he did something.

00:59:17And from our perspective, that evidence just was never there.

00:59:34Public defender Jamie Jackson headed over to the Maricopa County Jail to meet his new client.

00:59:40Mike Turney, what's your first impression?

00:59:43You know, from the very beginning, he was adamant that he did not do this.

00:59:47And after just a quick glance at the files, Jamie thought his client had a strong case.

00:59:52For me, it was immediately, wow, there's very little physical evidence, obviously, in this case, or none.

01:00:00And it seemed that this all became kind of a character assassination.

01:00:07Deputy County Attorney Vince Imbordino disagreed.

01:00:11We were convinced that we had sufficient evidence to show that he murdered her,

01:00:16that he had a motive to kill her, and he had time to kill her.

01:00:20But the prosecutor had obstacles, big ones.

01:00:24There was no body, no physical evidence of a murder.

01:00:27And while the alleged motive was compelling, it was possible a jury would never hear it.

01:00:33It was problematic in the sense that a lot of the information we had about Alyssa alleging abuse

01:00:40were statements that she had made to her friends and her family.

01:00:45Well, we couldn't get those in because it's hearsay.

01:00:47In a blow to the prosecution, the judge ruled that the sexual abuse claims

01:00:52could not be discussed in front of the jury.

01:00:55So frustrating for you that, you know, this is the crux of your possible motive here,

01:01:00and you can't deliver it to the jury.

01:01:03Very frustrating, but we have rules of evidence, as you know,

01:01:06and you just have to work around it.

01:01:09And those rules of evidence precluded something else.

01:01:11Like in most criminal cases, the prosecution wasn't allowed to talk about prior convictions.

01:01:17Mike Turney, of course, was a convicted felon.

01:01:20The pipe bomb case, which they couldn't say because they felt that might

01:01:25make him look like he was a criminal, but he was a criminal.

01:01:29On July 6, 2023, the prosecutor stood before a jury and laid out what was left of his case.

01:01:36All the pieces of circumstantial evidence he believed added up to just one logical conclusion.

01:01:42Mike Turney was a vengeful father desperate to silence his daughter

01:01:46and the last person known to ever see her alive.

01:01:50He told the jury how Turney didn't have the security video from the day Alyssa disappeared

01:01:54or the recording of that call he said Alyssa made from California.

01:01:58Detective Anderson had a theory about that.

01:02:01We know a call was made because there's a record of it.

01:02:04So who do you think made that call?

01:02:06My suggestion would be that it was Michael Turney.

01:02:08You think he drove all the way to California and made the call from the payphone and then drove home?

01:02:12He himself says he made several trips to California.

01:02:15He easily could have made that call.

01:02:17The prosecutor played calls they did have.

01:02:20Those recordings of Mike saying nasty things about Alyssa.

01:02:24Because of some stupid-ass bitch.

01:02:26He showed video from the camera Mike hid inside the living room vent.

01:02:31The one the prosecutor said Mike used to spy on Alyssa.

01:02:34He suggested to the jury it all added up to Mike Turney's unnatural obsession with his daughter.

01:02:40This defendant attempted to basically control every part of her life.

01:02:47Whether she was at home, whether she was at school, whether she was at work.

01:02:52This is one of the several contracts.

01:02:55He also showed the jury what he described as the contract.

01:02:59An unusual document that Mike Turney wrote up titled,

01:03:02My statement about things in my life at home.

01:03:06Alyssa signed it.

01:03:08At the very top, number one said,

01:03:11My father, Mike Turney, has never physically or sexually abused me at any time.

01:03:17Prosecutors entered it into evidence as a way to let the jury at least hear something about the alleged sexual

01:03:22abuse.

01:03:23We utilized the contract avowing that he had never done any of these things to her.

01:03:29The sexual abuse.

01:03:31Right.

01:03:31And so the only argument we were trying to make was that whether it happened or not, he's concerned about

01:03:38it.

01:03:39And if he's losing control of her, then he's concerned that people are going to believe her and not him.

01:03:47I'm James Turney.

01:03:48James took the stand, but he wasn't allowed to say much.

01:03:52That story about Alyssa crying, asking to go live with him because she was scared of their dad, that was

01:03:57ruled too prejudicial.

01:03:59What was that like getting up there on that witness stand with your dad right there and your eyes are

01:04:03meeting?

01:04:04Yeah, it was uncomfortable.

01:04:06It took a while before I started to look at him and then I started to look at him and

01:04:09he never looked at me.

01:04:11The prosecution hoped its star witness, the sister who fought so publicly to get justice for Alyssa,

01:04:17might be able to convince the jury of her dad's guilt.

01:04:21Sarah described the animosity between her father and sister.

01:04:24No, as far as I can remember, it was just always a bad relationship with Alyssa and my father,

01:04:29which caused just a lot of stress and tension.

01:04:32What would they argue about?

01:04:33Everything.

01:04:35I mean, it was a lot of criticism of Alyssa.

01:04:38When the prosecutor asked Sarah about the note she and her dad found, she got choked up as she recited

01:04:43it from memory.

01:04:45Lou said, Dad and Sarah, when you dropped me off at school today, I decided I really am going to

01:04:49California.

01:04:50Dad, that's why I took $300 from you.

01:04:53Sarah, you always said you wanted me gone.

01:04:55Now you have it.

01:04:56Alyssa.

01:04:57The prosecutor didn't dispute that Alyssa wrote the note.

01:05:00So you believe that she did write it herself?

01:05:03A forensic handwriting analysis was done.

01:05:07It's clear that Alyssa wrote the note.

01:05:09We don't know when.

01:05:10Yeah.

01:05:10We don't know under what circumstances.

01:05:14But he felt certain Alyssa didn't write the note the day she disappeared.

01:05:19Sarah testified that things Alyssa wrote didn't line up with the events of the day.

01:05:23Like, Dad and Sarah, when you dropped me off at school today.

01:05:27Had your father dropped you and Alyssa off at school together that day?

01:05:32No.

01:05:33And the part about Sarah not wanting Alyssa around?

01:05:36She said that was about an old argument from long before Alyssa went missing.

01:05:41Sarah testified and would tell you that that's not what was going on at this time.

01:05:47So, clearly, Alyssa wrote that note at some point in time, but not on May 17th.

01:05:54Have you, on occasion, asked your father what happened to Alyssa?

01:06:01Many times.

01:06:03One of those times was at a Starbucks after her father got out of prison.

01:06:07Taking a page from him, Sarah recorded their conversation.

01:06:11Be there at the deathbed, Sarah, and I'll give you all the understandings you want to get.

01:06:17Why don't you give them to me now?

01:06:18Because you got them now.

01:06:21Then why are you making me this offer to go to your deathbed?

01:06:25I don't know, Sarah.

01:06:27What are you looking for?

01:06:29The prosecutor didn't play the tape in court, but asked Sarah to describe the conversation.

01:06:34He told me he'd tell me on his deathbed.

01:06:37And she told the jury about another conversation with her dad.

01:06:40A creepy story she says happened about a month after Alyssa disappeared.

01:06:44She was 12 at the time.

01:06:46He wanted to swap bedrooms with her.

01:06:48My father moved me into the master bedroom.

01:06:51Did he tell you why he was going to have you stay in that bedroom?

01:06:56Yes.

01:06:57What was that?

01:06:58He didn't want to be accused of molesting me and having me walk around in the towel, so

01:07:03he wanted me to have my own bathroom.

01:07:05Okay.

01:07:05It was another workaround, another way to raise the suggestion of sexual abuse.

01:07:10But the defense fired back, ready to poke holes in what they believed was a weak case,

01:07:15starting with Sarah's credibility.

01:07:18It's convenient the things that you remember and don't.

01:07:20Objection, argumentative.

01:07:21Sustained.

01:07:22Our argument, obviously, was she had got it through her mind at some point that her dad

01:07:27was guilty and was adding facts.

01:07:30Did you ever speak with the police?

01:07:31The defense showed the jury how Sarah's story changed in big and small ways since the first

01:07:36time she spoke to police.

01:07:37You told Detective Anderson that she would give her phone number and addresses to strangers.

01:07:41That's what I was told.

01:07:43That's what you told Detective Anderson, correct?

01:07:45Yes.

01:07:47Sarah repeatedly implied that, like her brother, she once believed whatever her dad said.

01:07:52That's what I was told.

01:07:53That's what I was told.

01:07:55In court, Mike Turney sat silently watching it all.

01:07:59Outside of court, he had plenty to say to us about the accusations against him.

01:08:04Human error.

01:08:05I forgot to turn the record on.

01:08:07The police find that very convenient?

01:08:10Of course they did.

01:08:11You see how it sounds, though, right?

01:08:26Defense attorney Jamie Jackson and his co-counsel, Olivia Hicks, were feeling pretty confident.

01:08:31They told the jury the state's case was nothing but a character assassination.

01:08:35The state's entire case is based on circumstantial evidence, based on speculation, based on belief, with no actual facts.

01:08:47Still, they had concerns.

01:08:49What did you think was the most damning evidence or testimony against your client?

01:08:53I would say the negative phone call and the contracts.

01:08:56The phone call where he calls her a bitch and an a-hole?

01:09:00Yeah, because it at least, I think, would put something in the jurors' mind that, well, I would never, no

01:09:08matter what, say that about my daughter.

01:09:10And the contract that now you're putting sexual abuse in their minds, the jurors' minds?

01:09:16So would Mike Turney take the stand?

01:09:18His lawyers say he was ready to tell jurors his side of the story.

01:09:22Hello.

01:09:23A story he told us, too.

01:09:29How did you feel when you had gone from the father, who appeared to be doing everything you could to

01:09:37find Alyssa, to suddenly, now, the police are looking at you, that you harmed your daughter?

01:09:44How did I feel?

01:09:46Well, first off, I knew from the beginning, when they showed up at the door, that they weren't looking for

01:09:51Alyssa, that they were focusing on me.

01:09:54He believes Detective Anderson never really investigated all those leads he'd passed along.

01:09:59Anderson had made up his mind from day one, and he focused completely on me.

01:10:04He completely denies that.

01:10:06He says that he had an open mind and wanted to find Alyssa.

01:10:11He's a liar.

01:10:12They didn't follow through anybody else.

01:10:13That was all a rouge.

01:10:15Well, they say, though, that you trying to find your daughter, doing all these various things to find Alyssa, that

01:10:22was the ruse.

01:10:23That you were not trying to find her because you knew that she was dead, because you had killed her.

01:10:29That's what the police say.

01:10:31That's a lie.

01:10:31I did not kill my daughter.

01:10:33That just never happened.

01:10:35Detective Anderson said that he wanted to talk to you, but you wouldn't talk to him in a formal setting.

01:10:43Why not?

01:10:43Because we couldn't agree on the fact that I wanted to take my video cameras, two of them, one on

01:10:52him, one on me.

01:10:53The only thing that was refused was the formal interview.

01:10:55I talked to Anderson all the time, gave him anything he wanted.

01:10:59Days after Alyssa's disappearance, you say you got a call from her.

01:11:03Yes, I did.

01:11:04You're the dad who records every call.

01:11:08Did you record the call?

01:11:09No, because the recorder had to be set manually.

01:11:12Okay, so when the tape ran out, it flipped off, and I hadn't started it that morning yet.

01:11:18So 30 years of calls, and then you miss recording this call.

01:11:21Yeah, I've heard that one.

01:11:23It's just one of those things that happens.

01:11:25You think I don't regret it?

01:11:27Did you make that call yourself?

01:11:29What?

01:11:29The call that you say was from Alyssa, did you make that call to your house?

01:11:32Phone call myself?

01:11:36That's a theory that the police have floated.

01:11:39No, they probably think that I was Jack the Ripper, too, for all I know.

01:11:42I don't care what they think.

01:11:44What about videotapes?

01:11:45You videotape inside the house, outside the house, every day.

01:11:50Did you have video of Alyssa from the day she disappeared, from inside or outside the house?

01:11:56There never was a video of Alyssa that day.

01:11:58There wasn't a video turned on that morning because I forgot to.

01:12:01The police said that you told them there was a recording of the day that Alyssa disappeared,

01:12:07but that you felt there wasn't anything worthwhile on it, so you didn't keep it.

01:12:12I told them at the beginning, you look at it, and then you can verify that there's nothing on it.

01:12:17So there was a recording of the day, or there wasn't?

01:12:20No, there was not.

01:12:21There was not.

01:12:22There was never a recording on the VCR from that day.

01:12:25So why that day?

01:12:27Why not that day?

01:12:29When every other day?

01:12:30Human error?

01:12:31I forgot to turn the record on?

01:12:34The police find that very convenient?

01:12:37Of course they did.

01:12:38You see how it sounds, though, right?

01:12:40Oh, I know what it sounds.

01:12:40People will see it.

01:12:41You're not recording the day she calls.

01:12:44There's no video of the day she disappears.

01:12:45When you have hundreds, thousands of videotapes and audiotapes.

01:12:53Luck of the circumstances?

01:12:55You heard on a recording calling her an a-hole, a bitch.

01:13:00Why call her those names?

01:13:02It's a very embarrassing thing, venting, because I found out that Alyssa was again lying to me.

01:13:10He says the man you hear on those tapes is a parent at the end of his rope, a father

01:13:15trying

01:13:15to protect a rebellious and impulsive teenager.

01:13:18One of the ways that you kept an eye on her was by videotaping her at her job.

01:13:26Videotaping at her job?

01:13:27Like, from the parking lot.

01:13:28I mean, what dad does that?

01:13:30It seems a little much.

01:13:35You want the explanation?

01:13:37Yes.

01:13:37Okay.

01:13:40My children, when they first had their first job, it was a family condition, because I

01:13:44videotaped all the time.

01:13:45When Alyssa saw that her brothers, her four brothers, had been videotaped, she asked me

01:13:49to do that.

01:13:50Wait, she asked you to videotape her?

01:13:52She wanted me to videotape her at her job.

01:13:54Why?

01:13:55What teenager wants their dad videotaping them at their job?

01:13:58I can barely get my daughter to take a photo.

01:14:01I don't know.

01:14:02Probably because they grew up with me taking videos all the time.

01:14:05Why did you have contracts that you had Alyssa sign saying that you did not sexually abuse

01:14:10her?

01:14:11Well, I didn't.

01:14:12That's for sure.

01:14:13What I'm trying to understand is, how did it get to the point where you felt you needed

01:14:17to have a contract of Alyssa saying you did not sexually abuse her?

01:14:21I don't understand where that comes from.

01:14:23Alyssa started threatening me with CPS.

01:14:26She wanted to be emancipated.

01:14:28And in Arizona, she couldn't do that.

01:14:30So she was trying to pressure me.

01:14:32You were concerned Alyssa was going to lie?

01:14:34Is that what you're saying?

01:14:36I know Alyssa lied because I didn't do that.

01:14:38She told people that you did, that you took her out to the desert and sexually abused her.

01:14:46I don't know what she told those people.

01:14:49What I do know is those are some of the people that I was keeping her away from or trying

01:14:53to.

01:14:54During our interview, Turney made repeated claims about people being out to get him.

01:15:00From the police, to the union he plotted against.

01:15:04They were making threats against my family.

01:15:07But he did not want to talk about the crimes that had sent him to federal prison.

01:15:11You can understand now how someone with pipe bombs could be seen as very unstable.

01:15:16I don't want to get into the pipe bomb things.

01:15:19I have no memory of them.

01:15:20And I still don't.

01:15:21Of the pipe bombs?

01:15:22That's right.

01:15:23No memory?

01:15:24No memory of it.

01:15:25How's that possible?

01:15:27Beats me.

01:15:28Oh, you think the pipe bombs were planted in your house?

01:15:32I'm not going to comment on that.

01:15:34My name is Sarah Turney.

01:15:35Your daughter, Sarah, had supported you for years.

01:15:39And then all that changed.

01:15:42She believes that you killed Alyssa.

01:15:46It's upsetting to me because do you understand the phrase turning the family?

01:15:52It's a police technique.

01:15:54Anderson continued to perpetuate the lies and he turned Sarah.

01:16:01Sarah seems like a very smart woman, independent.

01:16:07That's the way I want her to be.

01:16:09But doesn't that speak a lot, though, about her making up her own mind about whether you were involved or

01:16:15not?

01:16:16She's read all the evidence.

01:16:18And that's what's strange, because by now she should have concluded that there was no evidence.

01:16:23But it broke my heart.

01:16:25And as for that remark he made to Sarah about giving her answers on his deathbed, he says, listen to

01:16:30the whole tape.

01:16:32If something that tragic happened to your sister, I didn't do it.

01:16:36And he denied ostracizing his son, James, for any reason.

01:16:40He says it was James who turned on him.

01:16:43Did you kill Alyssa?

01:16:45I did not kill Alyssa.

01:16:46Do you know where Alyssa's body is?

01:16:48I have no idea where Alyssa is alive or dead.

01:16:54In the end, the man who had an answer for just about everything would not be taking the stand.

01:17:00That's because the defense had another plan.

01:17:03This was the twist of all twists.

01:17:05I've never seen this before.

01:17:08Yeah.

01:17:09I was just in disbelief.

01:17:11I think I'm still processing it.

01:17:25We are back on the record in State v. Attorney.

01:17:29How did you feel when you arrested your case?

01:17:32I thought we had done a good job.

01:17:34I was confident that we had presented all the evidence that we had, all the evidence that we needed to

01:17:39present, all the evidence that we were allowed to present.

01:17:43Alyssa's brother James sat through every day of testimony and did not agree.

01:17:48When they arrested, I was horrified because I was like, so what did they actually say?

01:17:58Prosecutors said that it would all come together in closing arguments.

01:18:02But first, a courtroom formality.

01:18:04The Rule 20 is done in every case.

01:18:07That is, once the state presents our evidence, we make an argument that there's not substantial evidence that this case

01:18:13can go forward.

01:18:14In other words, the defense asks the judge to throw out the case before it even gets to the jury.

01:18:19Defense lawyers try it all the time.

01:18:21Judges rarely go for it.

01:18:24And we were told by the lawyers, this is normal.

01:18:26They do this in every trial.

01:18:27Don't worry about it.

01:18:28But I was just shaking through it all when it started off.

01:18:33Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to take up some legal issues.

01:18:36With the jury out of the courtroom, the defense argued for an immediate acquittal.

01:18:40The state has not presented any evidence to prove that Mike acted intentionally or recklessly to cause a death in

01:18:46this case.

01:18:48There's no confession, no evidence of a plan, and no evidence of how a death occurred.

01:18:54The prosecution defended its case.

01:18:57We don't have to prove how he killed her.

01:19:00We don't have to prove whether he strangled her, whether he beat her.

01:19:04All we have to prove is that he killed her.

01:19:09And there is circumstantial evidence that he did.

01:19:12The judge weighed in with this.

01:19:14There is evidence in the case.

01:19:17I am not here to suggest that the state has put forth no evidence.

01:19:23There is evidence.

01:19:24The question then becomes, is it substantial that would warrant a conviction for second-degree murder?

01:19:31The answer to that question, no.

01:19:34Evidence does not exist to warrant a conviction.

01:19:37It's ordered granting defendants' motion for a Rule 20 judgment of acquittal.

01:19:42An acquittal for Mike Turney.

01:19:45There was silence in the courtroom for 10 long seconds as the judge's decision sunk in.

01:19:50I was just in disbelief.

01:19:52I think I'm still processing it.

01:19:55Mike Turney was free to go.

01:19:57Mr. Turney, you're going to be signing for a copy of your release.

01:20:02Take us to that moment for you.

01:20:04It felt like an out-of-body experience for me.

01:20:07So for me, when he said the words, everything just dropped.

01:20:14And I'm like, he did it again.

01:20:16I had been telling the prosecution from over and over again,

01:20:21remember, crazy, not stupid.

01:20:23My father will, anything he possibly can, he will use.

01:20:27And they were successful in fighting every piece of evidence, in my opinion, that they possibly could.

01:20:34We start this afternoon with breaking news about a murder trial.

01:20:38People around the country are watching.

01:20:40Alyssa's friend Molly had been watching the trial online.

01:20:43All of a sudden, at the top of it, it said that he was, they're going to let him go.

01:20:48And I was like, what?

01:20:51Are you doing a double take?

01:20:52Yeah.

01:20:53Am I reading this right?

01:20:54Yes.

01:20:55Is this the case that, that haunts you?

01:20:58You know, sadly, this haunts me.

01:21:00It's been going on for 20 years of my life.

01:21:03I feel that I failed.

01:21:05The information is there.

01:21:06I believe in what I'm telling you.

01:21:09It's there.

01:21:1175-year-old Mike Turney told us he's not giving up on his mission to find out what happened to

01:21:15Alyssa.

01:21:16I sure miss her.

01:21:20She gave me a reason to stay alive.

01:21:25Sorry.

01:21:26And to anyone who says that these tears are not real.

01:21:31I don't care what people think.

01:21:34You think I'm an actor?

01:21:37No.

01:21:38This is real.

01:21:40James left Phoenix the moment the trial ended.

01:21:43He wanted to put as much space as possible between himself and his father, a man he believes is dangerous.

01:21:50It made me feel very afraid for my person and my family.

01:21:56I'm still concerned.

01:21:57I will be concerned until my father is either re-arrested for something or until he passes.

01:22:06His sister Sarah is not backing down.

01:22:08She's still podcasting from Phoenix, still using her voice to highlight unsolved cases, including her sisters.

01:22:16I do plan to finish Alyssa's season and tell you how we got to this point, because there is still

01:22:22so much to say.

01:22:2522 years ago, 17-year-old Alyssa was checked out of school early and never seen by her loved ones

01:22:31again.

01:22:32What happened next is still a mystery.

01:22:35Her case remains open at the Phoenix Police Department and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

01:22:40recently produced an updated age progression photo of Alyssa.

01:22:44She would turn 40 years old in April 2024.

01:22:47She was an incredible spirit.

01:22:49Her presence was just so strong that it's hard to believe that she's not here.

01:22:58Like, I still feel like she has to be here.

01:23:02There's no way that kid who was so able to put her expression forward and her opinions

01:23:08and tell you exactly how she felt, how that's not still here.

01:23:14It hasn't diminished even after all these years.

01:23:18That's all for this edition of Dateline.

01:23:21And check out our Talking Dateline podcast.

01:23:24Andrea Canning and Josh Mankiewicz will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode.

01:23:29Available Wednesday in the Dateline feed, wherever you get your podcasts.

01:23:34We'll see you again Thursday at 10, 9 central.

01:23:37And, of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News.

01:23:41I'm Lester Holt.

01:23:43For all of us at NBC News, good night.

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