By Steven Ardary, Patrick Phillips and Blair Sabol
Published: Jan. 11, 2024 at 8:22 PM EST
MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (WCSC/Gray News) - The father and stepmother of a 5-year-old boy whose body was hidden in a camper on their property while the community searched for him are responsible for his death, according to court documents.
Victor and Megan Turner, who was known as Pamela Turner, are charged with murder in the death of Justin Lee Turner in March 1989.
The Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office arrested the couple at their home in Cross Hill Tuesday.
‘Tragic, horrendous murder’” Warrants reveal timeline of tragedy
Justin was strangled with a ligature on or around the early-morning hours of March 3, 1989, according to court documents released Wednesday. The discovery was found based on an analysis of the boy’s stomach contents.
That afternoon, deputies visited the couple’s home in Moncks Corner where they were told by Justin’s parents that he did not get off the afternoon school bus.
However, witnesses said Justin never got on the school bus to go to Whiteville Elementary School that morning and was absent from school that day, according to the documents.
“He never got on that bus. He never got on that bus because he was dead inside that house,” Sheriff Duane Lewis said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference. “I can’t think of a more tragic, horrendous murder. A 5-year-old boy.”
The arrest warrant states Megan Turner claimed she did not see Justin leave the home or watch him get on the school bus as she normally does that morning because she was not feeling well and was taking a shower at the time.
But she admitted she had an argument with the boy before the time she claims he was last seen alive inside their home, the warrants state.
“[She] provided misinformation to investigators about her specific whereabouts on the morning of Friday, March 3, 1989, and provided inconsistent information about her activities,” the document states.
Turner’s disappearance led to a two-day search of the area surrounding the Turner residence.
But the search ended two days later, on March 5, 1989, when Victor Turner found the child’s body hidden inside the couple’s pickup truck camper, which was parked close to the family home, the warrants state.
Investigators said Victor Turner found the boy’s body “within seconds of entering the camper” and “moments after the search party began its search.”
The Turners were the only ones with access to the camper and the warrant states Victor and Megan Turner’s “deliberate actions and obvious behavior” suggest they “knew exactly” where the boy’s body was.
“Rather than react to finding his son and personally checking for any indication of life whatsoever, [Victor Turner] instead backed out of the camper commenting, ‘He’s in there, my son is in there. Somebody’s hurt him,’” the warrant states, adding that he “later told investigators, ‘He looked dead. I could feel that something was wrong with him. I did NOT touch him.’”
The warrant also states that before the discovery of the body, a witness overheard Victor Turner ask a law enforcement official what would happen to the suspect if someone, possibly a family member, had “done harm to the victim, such as killed him.”
“Within this transparent question, an apparent awareness of [the victim’s] fate was revealed prior to the discovery of [the victim’s] body,” the warrant states. “[Victor Turner] had made other comments to suggest he had knowledge” of the boy’s fate prior to the discovery of his body.
Forensic analysis and autopsy results established that the body was placed inside the camper “a short time” after his death by strangulation, investigators said. A forensic pathologist’s report indicated the boy died “near the time he was last seen alive,” the documents state.
The warrant states the suspected ligature found at the Turner home matched ligature wounds on the child’s neck, and fibers on the ligature were consistent with the boy’s shirt collar material.
Investigators said after learning about the discovery of physical evidence collected from the scene, both Victor and Megan Turner “expressed concern and devised a plan to withhold/conceal potential evidence” and gave “spontaneous incriminating statements to indicate responsibility in the death” and “intent to conceal physical evidence from investigators” at the start of the investigation.
‘An amazing day’: Sheriff praised teamwork, technology that led to arrests
Surrounded by members of Justin’s family and some of the investigators who spent decades working on the 34-year-old killing, Sheriff Duane Lewis referred to the long path to the arrests.
“This is an amazing day. It’s a day that a lot of people that have since left us have been waiting for and a lot of people that are here today,” Lewis said. “You have to go back to 1989 and think about Berkeley County. We were a different place. We were smaller. Everybody kind of knew everybody and families were all — we all stuck together and had acquaintances and people that we knew. And it just went widespread all over not just Berkeley County but the state and the country and everybody wanted some justice.”
Amy Parsons, the cousin of Justin Turner, said she was 8 years old at the time of his death. She was emotional when thanking Lewis and the investigators who listened to their cries for justice.
“I want to say our justice system did what it was intended to do and put these two people where they deserve to be because they’ve walked for 34 years. They’ve had freedom for 34 years, while our family has suffered and they don’t deserve another day from behind those bars,” she said. “I want to thank everybody that has put time in to get us to where we are here, and again, Sheriff Lewis, I really, truly — we all appreciate what you have done for our family.”
Lewis said his cold case unit reviewed Justin Turner’s case in 2021 and used new technologies to take a new look at evidence collected at the scene and through the autopsy.
“We have a lot of forensic evidence. We got here because of new technology and forensic medicine. We all know how things have progressed over the years. And we kept pushing and plugging and pulling to finally get what we needed to make an arrest,” he said.
Lewis said investigators looking into the cold case found many inconsistencies that led them to believe the scene was staged.
A grand jury had previously recommended that Megan Turner, then known as Pamela Turner, be charged with the boy’s murder. She was arrested but eventually released due to a lack of evidence.
“Justin would have been 40 years old, could have graduated high school, went to college, got married, had a child, been a productive citizen,” Lewis said. “But he wasn’t because we believe these two people took that away from all of us and this family who I have been in contact with over the years. And they have been tremendous in their efforts to keep this case alive and keep pushing us and asking questions and in helping us get where we are today.”
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