THE shocking moment a grieving sister confronts her father about the disappearance of her half-sister has been captured in a new documentary.
Alissa Turney vanished without a trace at the age of 17 after the final day of her junior year of high school.
Alissa Turney vanished in May, 2001[/caption]
Her stepfather Michael Turney was later acquitted of her murder[/caption]
Alissa’s younger sister Sarah Turney, left, has led the campaign to discover what happened[/caption]
Her sister, Sarah, has campaigned for justice for her sister for years after she accused her father Michael Turney of murder.
In a new documentary Family Secrets: The Disappearance of Alissa Turney, Sarah’s final conversation with her dad gives a chilling insight into the bizarre missing persons case.
Alissa, an ordinary 17-year-old high school student with a part-time job at Jack-In-The-Box, vanished in May 2001.
She had gone to Paradise Valley High School in Phoenix, Arizona for the last day of her junior year, but was never seen again.
Alissa told her boyfriend she was going for lunch with her stepdad.
Turney later told investigators the pair had argued and Alissa had run off.
At the time, Sarah Turney was just 12 and knew that her older sister had long harbored dreams of running away.
So when her father, Michael, told her Alissa had left of her own accord, she believed him.
She even found a note in Alissa’s room saying that she was heading to California.
But the new documentary that airs on Oxygen Sunday, October 13, uses home footage to show previously unseen interactions between Alissa and her father.
In one scene, she begs her father to turn off the cameras as she comes out of her job at a fast food restaurant.
Alissa’s mysterious disappearance captured the public imagination after her sister shared the story in a series of TikToks.
She also started a podcast, Voices for Justice, which highlights not only Alissa’s case but that of other missing persons but also unsolved murders.
Increased attention on the case saw Michael Turney arrested for second-degree murder in 2020.
Turney was acquitted last year of his daughter’s murder in a Maricopa County courtroom.
The acquittal means Turney cannot be tried again for second-degree murder.
Alissa’s body has never been found.
ALISSA TURNEY’S DISAPPEARANCE
ARIZONA school girl Alissa Turney vanished in May 2001. She has never been found and her father Michael was later acquitted of her murder.
- May 17, 2001: Alissa Turney, 17, disappears on the last day of school. Her stepfather Michael Turney claims he picked her up from school at lunch when she had an argument and she ran off. A note is later found supposedly written by Alissa in her room saying she ran off to California. Her cell phone and other personal belongings are left behind.
- May 24, 2001: Turney claims Alissa phones him from a California number, swearing before hanging up.
- 2006: Serial killer Thomas Albert Hymer tells a prison guard he killed Alissa. But Phoenix Police find no link between him and Alissa, and Hymer later admits he may have confused her with a different victim.
- 2008: The case is reopened. Turney claims Alissa was murdered by two “assassins” from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and that she was buried in Desert Center, California.
- December 2008: Detectives tell Sarah her father is the main suspect in Alissa’s disappearance. Authorities raid Turney’s home and find more than two dozen improvised explosive devices, 19 firearms, two homemade silencers, and a van full of gasoline. A manifesto detailing Turney’s plans for a rampage against the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers building in Phoenix is also found. Turney is arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to 10 years in jail. He was released in 2017.
- August 2020: Turney is arrested again in Mesa, Arizona, and indicted and charged by a Maricopa County grand jury on second-degree murder charges.
- July 2023: All charges against Turney are dismissed.
In a new interview, Sarah sits down with her father for the first time in years and asks him directly whether he killed Alissa.
She also asks Turney whether he sexually assaulted his stepdaughter.
At one point, Turney loses his temper, telling his daughter, “If you continue on with your attitude, Sarah, I’ll leave, I’m serious.”
After he accuses her of being aggressive, Sarah responds, “I’m not being hostile. You’re trying to gaslight me.
Why are you doing this, Sarah? To make money off your dead sister?
Michael Turney
“You’re continuing your abuse and I’m not gonna take it.”
He tells her to calm down, to which Sarah replies that she will calm down when she finally gets the truth.
Turney continues to taunt Sarah in the interview, at one point asking her if the longtime detective on Alissa’s case is her new “daddy.”
“Why are you doing this, Sarah? To make money off your dead sister?” Turney asks after a heated argument.
He then catches himself and adds, “If she is dead.”
The interview shows Turney, 76, being patted down for weapons as he walks slowly into the room carrying a cane.
He pulls out a phone and records the interview, later posting that footage on YouTube.
Alissa disappeared after her stepfather reportedly picked her up from school[/caption]
Turney claimed that Alissa had run away to California[/caption]
Alissa’s disappearance has never been solved[/caption]
FINAL MEETING
Sarah remembers being on a field trip at the waterpark on her last day of school in May 2001, the day her life changed forever.
Her father picked her up from school and took her for lunch as he told her her sister was missing.
Turney later told the Phoenix Police Department that during their lunch, the pair had argued over some of Alissa’s behavior and her desire for more freedom.
The former sheriff’s deputy raised six children on his own after his wife, Barbara Strahm, died of cancer nine years before.
He had three older boys from his previous marriage and his wife had Alissa and her brother John from an earlier relationship.
Together, they had Sarah, Turney’s only biological daughter.
In the emotional interview, Sarah asks Turney why, as a former cop, he didn’t raise the alarm when his stepdaughter disappeared.
Instead, Alissa was reported as a runaway, meaning police didn’t investigate.
EERIE FOOTAGE
Going through old home movies, Sarah says she began noticing strange patterns of behavior between her father and Alissa.
In one video she later shared on TikTok, Alissa can be heard yelling “Sarah, dad’s a pervert.”
The clip, which reached more than 21 million views on the video platform, was partly responsible for reigniting interest in Alissa’s disappearance.
In 2017, Sarah met with her father and recorded their conversation where she confronted him about Alissa’s disappearance.
“Be there at the deathbed, Sarah,” he reportedly told her. “I will give you all the honest answers you want to hear.”
Family Secrets: The Disappearance of Alissa Turney premieres on Sunday, 13 October on Oxygen at 8 pm EDT. An extended cut of the documentary will premiere on Peacock on Tuesday, 22 October.
