Drinking The Cool Aid

Justin Turner // 208

• Megan and Hanna Hawkins • Season 1 • Episode 208

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On the afternoon of March 3rd, 1989, the police arrived at the residence and Justin’s parents said that he never came back from school.  Witnesses said Justin never even got on the bus and he was marked absent from his classes.  Justin was in kindergarten and would have been expected to walk to a neighbor’s house to get on the bus.  The neighbor went outside that morning to get her grandson on the bus, and she never saw Justin, so she assumed he was home sick.   

 

During the search for the young boy, witnesses overheard his father, Victor Lee Turner, asking law enforcement what would happen if someone harmed Justin?  Like, what if they killed him, and what if that someone was in the family, what would happen to that person? 

 

On March 5th, 1989, 5-year-old Justin Turner was found dead inside a cabinet in his family’s small camper.  His father, Victor Lee Turner, was the one who discovered him while the vehicle was parked near their residence.  Justin had been reported missing two days prior to the discovery.  The police and community had done an extensive search.  Footage of a news segment, which was captured by reporters at an NBC affilliate station based in Charleston, WCBD, shows Victor, wearing jeans and a plaid shirt.  He opened the doors to the family camper, went inside, then he emerged and was upset.  He quietly said, “My son’s in there.”  He was later seen sitting on a porch near some firewood, burying his face in his hands.  When Victor had entered the camper, he discovered Justin’s body within seconds, and he didn’t check for signs of life.   

 

Affidavits said, “The specific location inside the camper where the body was concealed by the offender highly suggests familiarity with the camper and its floor plan.”  It was noted that the Turners were the only ones that had keys to the camper.  Justin’s body had been stuffed into a storage area beneath a dining seat.  There are two weird things here.   

-Victor entered the camper and was only in there for a few seconds before finding Justin’s body.  It almost seemed like he knew exactly where to go. 

-The police had already searched the camper more than once and they weren’t able to find him.  Campers aren’t that large.  They wondered if his body had been moved to that location, but if that’s the case, who did it?  On the day Justin was found, the temperature reached 80 degrees, but someone that was present when his body was found, said he was “cold as ice” leading some people to believe his body had been frozen, but the medical examiner didn’t mention finding evidence of this. 

 

The official cause of Justin’s death was ruled to be strangulation with a ligature, and it was believed that he died on or around the early morning of March 3rd, 1989, after being sexually assaulted with a cylindrical object.  He was found with his pants down, and there was a clump of animal fur in his hand.  The autopsy showed that he died shortly after consuming his last meal. 

 

A forensic pathologist’s report mentioned the possibility that Justin died close to the time he was last seen alive.  CBS news reported that his stepmother, Megan Turner claimed she didn’t see Justin get on the school bus that day like normal because she was taking a shower, but she said they got into an argument before he left.  Justin’s father didn’t see him getting on the bus because he was already at work.  That morning, Justin at a bowl of cereal, got dressed for school, and was supposed to leave before 11 o’clock to walk across the road to the Smith home, where he and his best friend Justin Smith would get on the bus together.  That afternoon, Megan said she went out to the school bus to meet Justin and he wasn’t on it. 

 

Justin’s best friend remembered the last time they got to hang out.  He said that Justin was acting nervous, so he asked him what was wrong.  Justin explained that he wasn’t allowed to be playing at his house, he wasn’t supposed to leave his yard because he would get in trouble. 

 

 

At first, the police believed Justin’s disappearance was due to a parental abduction and they contacted his biological mother, Elaine Pace.  As they began looking at the evidence, investigators set their sights on Justin’s stepmother, Megan, who was the last person to report seeing him alive.  They said there was no doubt in their minds that she was involved, but they were trying to build the case and the information got leaked to reporters.  Once that happened, they were completely blocked from talking to Megan and it hurt the investigation.   

 

There was another major obstacle they had to deal with.  Then-Berkeley County Coroner WIlliam B. Smith Jr was 21-years-old and Sydney Wrenn, the sheriff’s chief investigator, partially blames him for messing up the investigation in a big way.  Wren brought the coroner into the office and asked him not to do anything until they completed the investigation.  He acted like that was totally fine, but the very next day, the news media said, ‘Coroner Calls Big Inquest’.  It really screwed the case up and the investigator believes that politics had a lot to do with this.  The coroner was planning to run for sheriff of Berkeley County, so he was doing everything he could to make the sheriff’s office look bad.  He saw his opportunity, and he ran with it. 

 

Wrenn needed Justin’s biological mother, Elaine Pace, to help connect some of the evidence that Justin’s grandmother (Victor’s mother) had been providing them with.  Elaine actually refused to talk to Wrenn because the coroner had interfered so much.  There were allegations that Megan Turner had family working for the sheriff’s office and rumors of a romantic affair with someone in local law enforcement.  According to family members, she didn’t trust the investigators.  Wrenn wasn’t able to find anyone that Megan was connected to, it was all just terrible, messy rumors. 

 

Before Justin went missing, he spoke to his mother, Elaine on the phone the night before.  He spoke to her every night, but this time was different.  He told his mother that he had to tell her somthing really important when she picked him up.  Then, his stepmother snatched the phone out of his hand and wouldn’t let him talk anymore.  Wrenn wondered if Justin was about to spill a secret that Megan didn’t want anyone to know.  That could be a potential motive. 

 

The day after Justin’s body was found, Wren drove Megan and Victor Turner to SLED (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) headquarters in Columbia for polygraph tests.  Wren said that Megan lied on every question, and she refused to cooperate.  He said she had taken Valium prior to the exam, so Wrenn had to make arrangements for her to the take the test again the following day.  Unfortunately, that’s when the Berkeley County Sheriff M.C. Cannon disclosed to the media that Megan was a suspect in the case, and she refused to cooperate.  Once she heard that, she got a lawyer, and they advised her not to take the test.  Victor’s mother met up with her son to try to convince him to tell Wrenn the full story.  They felt that he knew more about his son’s murder than he was saying.    

 

Justin’s stepmother, Megan, was arrested in late 1989, but she was released in November 1990 and the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.  A case was taken to the grand jury in 1992, but no indictments were returned.  Megan’s lawyer said that more than half of the testimony was inadmissible, irrelevant or prejudicial.  Witnesses spoke about suspicions, and there was talk about psychic visions.  The grand jury urged state legislatures to change the law to force spouses to testify against each other.  After the charges were dismissed, the couple moved away, Mrs. Turner changed her name from Pamela to Megan, and they never asked the authorities about the investigation again.  They never called. 

 

Two years after Justin’s murder, Herald-Journal published an article about a Berkeley County boy, who was then 6-years-old, who told his mother and counselors that he saw a man wrap his hand around Justin’s mouth and pull him into a waiting car.  He even drew a picture of him, but since Justin’s body was found in a pickup truck camper outside his home, psychiatrists believed the boy imagined it and the police dismissed the story without talking to him.  His mother said he was traumatized over what he saw and was just starting to go outside alone again.  His mother also had fears for their safety and said she received several anonymous calls where she was being threatened. 

 

The boy said that Justin walked out of his house and down his driveway toward a pine tree.  A man stood up from behind a 4-foot pile of dirt about 50 feet away.  Justin seemed to know the man and walked towards him as if he had been called over.  The man put his hands over Justin’s mouth and took Justin to a grey car.  The boy described the man as having black hair that was partially spiked, shorter than 6’2” and heavier than 150 pounds.  His mother absolutely believes he was a witness to Justin being taken and said that he hadn’t forgotten any of the details over the two years, his story never changed. 

 

The day Justin’s body was found is when the boy mentioned what he saw and he was taken to Medical University Hospital, where three psychiatrists interviewed him for at least an hour.  Two of them believed he was making the story up.  They thought he had been watching the news reports and was confused about what happened, but the police say they did look for a man that fit the description the boy provided.  Former Sheriff’s Lt. Jim Preacher said they didn’t overlook the information the boy was providing, but they were concerned about his emotional trauma.  Instead of speaking with the boy, they let the child psychiatrists talk to him.   

 

In 2014, Justin Turner’s case was revived when a tip came in.  On February 16th, 2016, several of his family members had a meeting with Sheriff Duane Lewis.  The plan was to use new technology and put fresh eyes on the case.   

 

A press release by the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office stated that it had been over three decades since Justin’s body had been discovered, but on January 10th, 2024, the police apprehended Justin’s father, Victor Lee Turner, and stepmother Megan R. Turner, who was previously known as Pamela K. Turner.  They were apprehended at their residence in Cross Hill, South Carolina and were charged with Justin Turner’s murder.  The search warrant for the couple’s arrest said that Megan provided misinformation to investigators about her specific whereabouts on the morning of Justin’s murder and she provided inconsistent information about her activities. 

 

When the news crew had been filming in 1989, Justin’s father was seen crying, but the arrest warrant highlighted the inconsistencies in Victor Turner’s behavior, particularly in the footage where he located his son’s body.  The press release by the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office stated that the Cold Case Unit re-evaluates cases for “new information or the application of new technology” that may be useful in solving cases.  In April of 2021, the cold case file of Justin Turner was reviewed.  The physical evidence gathered from the crime scene and the autopsy were re-examined and submitted to forensic pathologists and the SLED lab for analysis.  Sheriff Lewis said: “We have dedicated detectives who are committed to reviewing and investigating criminal cases where factors have prevented a timely resolution of justice.  These detectives have worked hard to be sure that the life of Justin Lee Turner is remembered and that his murderers are brought to justice.” 

 

During the press release, the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office thanked the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office, SLED, the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, the Ninth Circuit Solicitor’s Office, and all of the investigators who formerly worked on the case.  A leash, which was believed to be the murder weapon, was located at their residence.  New forensic testing enabled investigators to match the ligature to the marks on Justin’s body, and the fibers found on it were matched to the material on the collar of his shirt.  Forensic technology was used to match fibers found in the house with Justin’s clothing.  There was no debris or other matter on his body, clothing or shoes, suggesting he had been carried from the house to the camper.    

 

According to the arrest affidavits released on January 10th, after the Turners learned investigators had collected the ligature from their home, they expressed concern and tried to withhold potential evidence.  The Turners appeared virtually at a bond hearing before Magistrate Judge Brian West.  Amy Parsons was only 8 years old when her cousin Justin was murdered.  She spoke on behalf of her family to say, “For 35 years you have enjoyed your freedom.  You do not deserve one day outside of those prison walls for what you did to Justin.  You were supposed to take care of him, love him, and instead you tortured, abused and murdered him, your child.  It takes a sick individual to do what you did.” 

 

Sheriff Lewis hasn’t provided a timeline for the prosecution’s case, but he said, “I’m hoping and I’m praying that Justin is looking down from heaven, rejoicing that today there’s some justice.  There’s still some justice in this country.” 

 

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