Michael Turney was allegedly extremely controlling of his 17-year-old stepdaughter Alissa before she disappeared in 2001 — and while even his own children believe he killed her, a judge ruled that there was not enough evidence to convict him.
Sarah TurneyMichael Turney and his stepdaughter, Alissa, who went missing when she was 17.
On May 17, 2001, the last day of Alissa Turney’s junior year of high school, the teen mysteriously vanished from her Arizona home. Earlier that day, her stepfather, Michael Turney, had picked her up early from school, then allegedly left to run errands. He claimed he returned later to find a note from Alissa explaining that she had run off to California.
At first, the police believed Michael’s claims that Alissa was a rebellious runaway teen. But strangely, she hadn’t taken her car or any of her belongings with her — and she was never seen again. It wasn’t until years later, when Alissa’s friends and family members came forward with a series of troubling allegations against Alissa’s stepfather, that the police began to take a closer look at Michael Turney.
As they conducted their investigation, they noted that Michael had “exhibited an apparent obsession” with his stepdaughter, spying on her while she was at work, monitoring her phone calls, and setting up surveillance cameras around the house to keep track of her.
What’s more, in the weeks before Alissa’s disappearance, she had reportedly asked her older brother James if she could move in with him, telling him that she was afraid of her stepfather and did not feel safe in his home.
In July 2023, Michael Turney was cleared of all charges related to Alissa’s case. But to this day, even Michael’s own children believe that he murdered Alissa.
Michael Turney’s Alleged Obsession With His Stepdaughter
Alissa Turney was born in 1984, but this story really begins three years later, in 1987, when her mother Barbara Strahm met Michael Turney. Michael, a former deputy for the Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff’s Office, was like a “knight in shining armor” to Strahm, and the two quickly got married.
According to a 2019 report from MEL Magazine, neighbors often joked that the Turney family were like The Brady Bunch. Michael Turney had three sons from a previous marriage, and Strahm had Alissa and her older brother. But the family never used the prefix “step.” They were family, plain and simple. Eventually, Michael and Barbara had another daughter, Sarah, in 1988.
Sarah TurneyBarbara, Alissa, and Sarah Turney.
All was seemingly well in the blended Turney family. But that changed after Michael, who was working as an electrician, suffered an accident on the job. As Sarah explained it: “He’d been on a roof. The guy holding the ladder slipped, and the ladder shattered his knee. I can’t ever remember him being in a cast, but from that point on, he never worked again. Some of it had to do with his mental health though. He’d always had mental health problems.”
Michael’s mood took a dark turn after the injury. And things got worse still when Barbara died of lung cancer at the young age of just 34. Suddenly, Michael Turney’s behavior toward Alissa changed.
Sarah described her father’s surveillance of Alissa as “night and day.” He searched through her things, monitored her phone calls, and watched her as she clocked out from work through a pair of binoculars. He set up surveillance cameras around the house to keep track of her.
According to Michael, Alissa Turney was rebellious and needed to be reigned in. She smoked weed and occasionally skipped school. But to those who knew her, she wasn’t a “bad” kid — just a teenage girl trying to navigate her young adult years and the devastating loss of her mother.
Sarah, on the other hand, had the freedom to come and go as she pleased. Michael bought Sarah her own mini fridge and filled it with beer, and even allowed her boyfriend to move into the house.
Despite signs that things weren’t quite right in Alissa’s home, police didn’t initially consider her case to be anything more than a runaway teen situation. It wasn’t until years after her disappearance that they reopened the investigation — and uncovered some startling revelations about Michael Turney.
Police Reopen The Investigation Into Alissa Turney’s Disappearance
Sarah TurneyAlissa Turney reportedly told friends that her stepfather sexually assaulted her.
In 2006, a self-proclaimed serial killer named Thomas Albert Hymer confessed to the murder of Alissa Turney, as well as more than 20 other murders. As far as police knew, the only woman he’d actually killed was a 30-year-old video store employee named Sandra Goodman.
It didn’t take long for authorities to realize that Hymer knew nothing about Alissa. He even described her as a heroin addict, which had never previously been said about her. Eventually, Hymer admitted he might have been mistaken about who his victim had been.
However, this false confession sparked renewed interest in Alissa Turney’s case —and caused the police to look into it more closely. They interviewed Alissa’s friends, which they had not done in 2001, and were suddenly faced with a string of disturbing allegations about Alissa’s stepfather.
In 2008, detectives called Sarah to notify her that they suspected her father was responsible for Alissa’s disappearance. Soon after, the Phoenix Police Bomb Squad and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives swarmed the Turney property, searching it inch by inch.
During the raid, they found more than two dozen homemade explosives, 19 assault rifles, two handmade silencers, and a van filled with gasoline. They also apprehended Michael Turney, who had a knife, two loaded guns, and several magazines of ammunition on him.
More disturbingly, they found a 98-page manifesto written by Michael, titled “Diary of a Madman Martyr.” In it, he detailed plans to drive a van full of explosives into the electrical workers’ union hall, after which he would shoot any survivors and then himself.
Police also uncovered the surveillance footage Michael Turney had collected of Alissa, including some intimate moments between her and her boyfriend. Shockingly, no footage existed from the day she disappeared.
What’s more, investigators found several homemade contracts Michael had forced Alissa to sign — including one from 1999 declaring that her stepfather never molested her.
However, several of Alissa’s friends and even a teacher claimed that Alissa had told them that Michael had sexually assaulted her multiple times. On one occasion, she allegedly woke up to find herself tied to a chair with her stepfather on top of her.
Still, there was not enough evidence to charge Michael Turney with Alissa’s murder. Instead, the police charged him with the unlawful possession of pipe bombs, which ultimately landed Michael a 10-year jail sentence.
He was released from prison in 2017. A few months later, Sarah met with her father at a Starbucks to confront him about his role in her sister’s disappearance. She described Michael as “trying to be emotionally manipulative” during their conversation, then “aggressive when that didn’t work.”
“It was pathetic,” she said. “He went off on crazy tangents about his childhood. But the two most noteworthy statements were that he’d give me all of the honest answers I want to hear on his deathbed, and that he’d confess to everything if the state agreed to give him lethal injection within 10 days. This wasn’t a slip. He intentionally made two separate statements about the conditions in which he’d confess.”
Michael Turney Is Charged With The Murder Of Alissa Turney
Maricopa County Sheriff’s DepartmentMichael Turney’s booking photo from 2020.
In August 2020, The Arizona Republic reported that Michael Turney was arrested once again. This time, he faced charges of second-degree murder.
Sarah Turney tweeted about her father’s arrest shortly after, writing, “I’m shaking and crying. We did it you guys. He’s been arrested. Omg thank you. #justiceforalissa Never give up hope that you can get justice. It took almost 20 years but we did it.”
But Sarah’s happiness was short-lived; in 2023, after a six-day trial in a Phoenix courtroom, Michael Turney was acquitted of all charges after a judge ruled that there wasn’t enough evidence that he had murdered Alissa.
As NBC News reported at the time, Michael’s son James was disappointed in the decision, saying that what had transpired between his father and Alissa was a “textbook” example of coercive control.
“There’s no justice in the system for her,” he said. “It failed her 100 percent.”
Michael has repeatedly denied that he harmed his stepdaughter in any way. He claimed his surveillance of Alissa was for her safety, that he made her sign the handmade contracts because she was forgetful, and that any allegations that he sexually assaulted her were false.
“I never did, and I would never do anything like that,” he said.
Sarah TurneySarah Turney holding a picture of her sister, Alissa.
In January 2024, Michael Turney sued police and prosecutors who attempted to charge him with Alissa’s murder, claiming that they colluded to punish him before his trial and violated his rights. At the time, he couldn’t get a lawyer to take his case and didn’t seem optimistic about the outcome.
“I don’t ever expect to get any money from it,” Michael told the Phoenix New Times. “I expect them to come down on me like banshees from hell.”
After learning about Michael Turney, read about Christina Boyer, the allegedly telekinetic woman accused of killing her young daughter. Then, read about Joe Michael Ervin, the serial killer who nearly got away with it until DNA revealed his crimes 40 years later.
