A man who was filmed on TV weeping into his hands after they found his son’s dead body in 1989 has been arrested for murder.
“My son’s in there!” Victor Lee Turner is heard saying when local TV filmed the moment that the body of five-year-old Justin Turner was found in a camper, then immediately breaks down sobbing, the station’s archive footage shows.
While authorities had their suspicions at the time, it was not until 34 years later that the murderers of the young boy could be brought to justice, including his weeping father.
After over three decades, Mr Turner and the boy’s stepmother, Megan Turner, were arrested and charged with murder in South Carolina after the cold case was reopened in 2021 by investigators.
Physical evidence that was collected from the scene of the crime and the autopsy was reassessed by forensic pathologists, the police said.
“I can’t think of a more tragic, horrendous murder. A 5-year-old boy,” Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis said at a press conference on Wednesday.
“Justin would have been 40 years old, could have graduated high school, went to college, got married, had a child, been a productive citizen,” Mr Lewis said.
Mr and Mrs Turner have both been charged with murder— (Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office)
“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.”
On 3 March 1989, the police were called to the couple’s home after Justin allegedly did not get off the bus after school, court documents obtained by WCSC said.
That morning, Ms Turner told police she did not see her stepson off to school as she would usually do as she was not feeling well and was taking a shower. Yet witnesses also reportedly told investigators they never saw him leave home nor get on the school bus.
“He never got on that bus. He never got on that bus because he was dead inside that house,” Mr Lewis said.
Ms Turner admitted she and the young boy got into an argument, claiming this was the last time she saw him alive, the outlet reports.
After this, a two-day search was initiated to find Justin when the child’s body turned up inside the couple’s camper, which the couple had keys and the only access to.
Mr Turner was seen on camera crying after he found his son’s body— (WCBD News 2 Archive)
Mr Turner was the one to make the discovery, and despite his sobbing, still made investigators suspicious.
The authorities said he found the boy’s body “within seconds of entering the camper,” with the warrant suggesting he “knew exactly” where his son’s body was, WCSC said.
The warrant reportedly continued to say that Mr Turner did not check his son for any indication of life, something that he rebutted, telling investigators “he looked dead. I could feel that something was wrong with him. I did not touch him.”
Before the discovery, Mr Turner also allegedly asked a member of law enforcement if someone had “done harm to the victim, such as killed him,” what would happen to that person?
Investigators said that when Mr and Ms Turner knew that physical evidence was being collected from the scene, they “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,” the outlet reported.
While the investigators believed the scene was staged, Mr Lewis said, there was no solid evidence at the time to prosecute either of them.
Forensic analysis of a ligature that was recovered from the couple’s home matched the child’s neck wounds, and the fibres found on the ligature were consistent with the boy’s clothing fibres— (WCBD News 2 Archive)
Ms Turner, known as Pamela Turner at the time, was even arrested with a grand jury recommending she be charged with murder, but she was let go due to insufficient evidence, WCSC said.
Eventually, the couple moved upstate, and none of the family heard from them again, Mr Lewis said.
“Isn’t that strange? I never got one phone call, one phone call from his daddy or stepmother,” Mr Lewis said.
“‘What are y’all doing about my son’s death?’ Not one. What does that tell you?”
The boy’s cause of death was alleged to have been strangulation with a ligature, according to the court documents obtained by the outlet.
Forensic analysis of a ligature that was recovered from the couple’s home matched the child’s neck wounds, and the fibres found on the ligature were consistent with the boy’s clothing fibres.
"This is an amazing day,” Mr Lewis said of the murder charges.
"We got here because of new technology and forensic medicine. Y’all, we all know how things have progressed over the years.
The couple were arrested at their home in Cross Hill and transported back to Berkley County. The couple were being held at the Hill-Finklea Detention Center awaiting a bond hearing that happened Wednesday.
