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We having fun yet?

- I don't feel carsick that much anymore.

Well, good.

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

Maybe 'cause you're closer to Disneyland?

Here's Alissa.

Smiling and happy. Yes.

- Did you look down, Alissa? - Yeah, I did.

- Growing up, my dad always had the film recorder

in his hand 24/7 trying to capture

all of our memories.

I think the happiest parts of my childhood

were going to Disneyland with my family.

I loved being there.

It always makes me think of Alissa.

We have it on tape. Alissa can read.

We looked like a happy family.

Don't you know how to treat a lady?

Hell of a ride. Yeah.

♪

Whoo-hoo!

♪

- But this happy time is shrouded in darkness.

On the last day of her junior year,

Alissa went missing, and that changed everything.

♪

My dad told me that Alissa had run away.

I was in shock.

I felt so much guilt. I blamed myself.

♪

But because I was so young,

it's hard to rely on my own memory.

So I had to go back and try to piece together the truth.

Alissa, do not leave the building whatsoever.

Searching for the truth, I was frustrated.

I wanted to tell Alissa's story...

In this episode...

And that's when I found podcasting and TikTok,

and I started to put together the pieces.

You got me in trouble, Dad.

Nobody's heard from Alissa.

I'm trying to meet you in the middle here, Dad.

And you've destroyed your own family!

- When I started to uncover more facts about my own life

that I never knew,

it starts to make me question everything.

♪

The day Alissa disappeared, it was her last day

of junior year and my last day of seventh grade.

It was a great day for me.

I remember getting on the bus, going to the water park,

having a good time with my friends.

And then after school, my father picked me up.

He turns to me and says,

"Your sister's not answering her cell phone.

Can you try to call her?"

I call her a few times.

There's no answer.

We get home, and I go right to Alissa's bedroom.

I was sure that she'd be there,

but she wasn't.

I saw the contents of her backpack

dumped all over the ground,

and then there was a note and her cell phone.

"Dad and Sarah, when you dropped me off

"at school today, I decided I really am

"going to California.

"Sarah, you didn't want me around.

"Look, you got it, I'm gone.

"Dad, that's why I saved my money.

"I took $300 from you.

Alissa."

My dad immediately panicked.

He started calling friends and family

trying to figure out, you know, where she could have been.

- Family Investigations Bureau.

- This is Pam. - Yeah, Pam...

- Later in the night, he calls the police and says,

"My teenage daughter ran away."

So they mark her as a runaway,

but they do not come visit the house.

They do not come speak to my father.

♪

And in my mind, I was staying calm and thinking,

"Of course."

Alissa had big dreams of turning 18

and moving out of the house,

but I think, inside, I was scared.

♪

I slept in her room that night

because I truly thought that she was fine

and that she'd be back.

♪

- There's Alissa. How old are you, Alissa?

- Ten. - No, you're not.

- Yeah, I am. - You're five.

You'll be six in about less than one month.

- I am 17. - And there's Sarah.

She is 16 months old and a rocker.

Sarah, look at Mama.

Hi.

Can I see her?

I wanna see her. I wanna see her, Mom.

- Alissa wasn't just my sister.

she was the only mom I really ever can remember

because I never really got to know

my mother, Barbara.

These are the boys pretending like

they know how to play baseball.

- My mom and dad met, and just a few years later,

they got married.

Mom was a mortgage loan officer,

and my father was trying to get a mortgage,

and they fell in love.

Now let me have it so I can take a picture of you.

No.

My father was

a deputy sheriff for a few years,

and then he became an electrician with the union.

♪

My father came into the marriage

with the three oldest boys,

Rhett, James, and Mike.

My mother had our brother John and Alissa

from a previous marriage.

And then together they had me.

Shnookums. Sarah.

- So there were six kids in the house,

and it was absolutely insane.

Well, her face says it all.

So you're getting it-- you're getting your--

- "Step" or "half" was not a word

that we were allowed to use.

We grew up considering each other

brothers and sisters.

Dad, is Sarah your only baby?

- Who? - Sarah.

Nope. John's my baby, and so are you.

Nuh-uh.

Yeah, you'll always be our babies.

They're not step brothers and sisters?

Honey, we don't have any stepchildren in our family.

- A lot of people called us the Brady Bunch.

We were all one big family together

Alissa, I got the camera going, honey.

Dad, lookit.

Shnookums, are you helping your mom?

Mama!

- Sarah was probably three when my sister

first was diagnosed with the lung cancer.

And we were told from the get-go

that her diagnosis was terminal.

- You know where we're at, Sarah?

Are you here to see your mama?

- Where'd Mama go? - In heaven.

Mama go to heaven? Is she happy now?

- I don't know. - You don't know?

Don't you think she'd be happy to be with God?

♪

When my mom passed,

everything really changed in the house.

My dad was left with six kids

all by himself.

Sarah and Alissa were very rambunctious.

Girls! Alissa!

You guys stand here and look pretty so I can get--

Sarah!

And they needed a mom.

And Mike wasn't going to be able to provide that for them.

Our house was dirtier.

It really felt like living in a bachelor pad.

- I got a call one day from John.

John was angry, and he said, you know,

"Dad doesn't get up and take care of the girls.

"He doesn't make sure they're going to school.

There's no food in the house."

♪

We would call, and it was not even a year

after my sister passed that we were completely cut off.

Mm-hmm. I know.

- All of a sudden, our aunts were gone.

All of our brothers got older and moved out of the house.

It was just me, my dad, and Alissa.

Alissa cooked and cleaned and did the chores

and was responsible for making sure

I had good clothes on for school

and that my hair wasn't a mess.

You know, there was a summer where no one brushed my hair,

and somebody had to come over...

And detangle it for, like, two hours.

It's not fair--

the responsibility that was put on her.

I didn't talk about Alissa much after she was gone.

I think it hurt too much.

She mentions me in the note.

"Sarah, you didn't want me around.

"Look, you got it. I'm gone."

I thought she left me there in that house

to grow up alone.

Alissa and I fought a lot.

And we were true sisters in my mind, in terms of--

one minute we were screaming at each other

and calling each other horrible names and pulling,

you know, each other's hair, and then the next minute,

we were dancing to R&B in our kitchen.

That's just how it was.

As Alissa got older and entered high school,

I thought that she was the coolest.

And she was experimenting with drinking

and smoking marijuana.

You know, normal teenage stuff.

And I was an annoying little sister,

and I would tattle on her.

One of my last memories of Alissa was we'd fought...

And I did say something like,

you know, if you hate it here so much, just leave,

but, you know, I have to forgive myself.

I was just a kid.

Of course, I never really wanted her gone.

♪

♪

I knew that by the time Alissa was 17,

she was ready to grow up and, you know, be an adult.

And my dad told me that, on the day that she ran away,

he picked up Alissa from school,

took her to lunch, and they had some argument

about how she just really wanted more freedom.

He dropped her off at home, and his last memory

was her walking down the hallway angry

with her hair flying behind her.

♪

And then about a week after Alissa ran away,

my dad told me that a phone call came in

at about 5:00 a.m.

My father says it's Alissa on the other end,

and she's cursing at him and telling him to leave her alone,

and then all of a sudden, the phone call ends.

♪

He goes to the phone company,

and we find out that it's from a pay phone

in Riverside, California.

Soon after, I go on a trip with him to California.

♪

We go to the convenience store.

♪

But there's no surveillance.

There's no trace of who made the call.

Essentially there's nothing.

But I remember my dad saying the phone call from Riverside

was proof Alissa was out there still alive.

I made her first missing poster,

and my father put those posters up everywhere.

♪

Him being frantic about Alissa

was his constant state of being.

♪

I just remember holding out hope

that she'd be back when she turned 18.

After she turns 18, she's free of our dad.

She can do whatever she wants.

So when Alissa didn't come back,

it felt pretty clear to me that she may not want to come back.

♪

When Alissa disappeared,

we thought we did everything we could to try to find her,

but a year later, nothing is happening.

It was just me and my dad in the house.

I felt so sorry for my dad.

He fell into such a deep depression.

He would tell me that something terrible

could have happened to her--

like maybe she was forced into a sex-trafficking situation.

I don't think I would allow myself to believe any of that.

I was trying to block it out.

I went from being this kid that was extremely scared

of drugs and alcohol, and overnight,

I started experimenting.

All the things that I was told Alissa was horrible for--

you know, the drinking and drugs--

my dad would supply me with.

If I was anxious, he would give me a blue pill.

If I'm a little sad,

then it would be an orange pill.

If you had a problem, we weren't talking through it.

He was giving me some type of pill to make it better.

I just missed Alissa so much

that I was trying to refill this--

this hole that she's left in our family.

I'm wearing her clothes,

listening to all the same music,

so when she came back, she would think,

"Sarah's cool now, and we can be friends,

and she's not going to tattle on me."

I was just trying to pretend

that everything was fine.

♪

When Alissa ran away,

her father had called my house looking for her.

That's how I found out that she had gone missing.

I became friends with Alissa in high school.

For the most part, we hung out at my house

because she wanted to get away from her home

as much as she could.

- Alissa and I went to school together at Paradise Valley.

Back when she went missing, Alissa's dad called me,

yelling at me, wanting to know where she was.

He knew she was with me, I needed to bring her home,

but I didn't know where she was.

Part of me was excited for her to get away from him.

Alissa? Alissa!

Her dad was worried

about what she was doing all the time.

Alissa... I've changed my mind.

- You can't go to the prom. - Why?

Because I just changed my mind.

- Why? - Because I said no.

- What are you talking about? - I said you can't go.

- But you look nice. - Yeah, right.

I ain't going all through this just to not be able to go.

I know. Oh, my gosh, are you kidding me?

No.

- Every time that he would drop Alissa at my house,

Michael made a point to speak with my parents

about the things that she was and was not allowed to do.

Alissa, do not leave the building whatsoever.

What?

- He was very protective and defensive with Alissa.

And you ladies always be conspicuous,

always stay in places.

- My parents have said that Mike

was a totally different person when Barbara was still alive.

And after Barbara died, he sort of became

more and more obsessive.

Alissa. Alissa.

- Alissa! - Huh?

Alissa!

- Mike always talked about how bad Alissa was.

She was always being grounded.

It was so, like, toxic.

- Dad, is this off? - It's off.

Careful, don't jump on top of anybody, Alissa.

- Alissa was always treated as if she was some fire

that couldn't be contained.

I was constantly told that Alissa was out of control,

that she was always drinking and always smoking

and always getting into trouble.

So I was scared for her.

I thought that she was going down a really bad path.

I think he convinced himself

that he was protecting her from making poor choices.

But we definitely thought it was crazy

how overbearing he was.

Turn off that stupid camera.

- Turn it off! - It's off.

Turn it off, Dad, and point it the other way.

- I knew that her father had a passive recording system

on their home telephone.

If she was going to call me that day,

you know, she would let me know, "Hey, remember,

"these are always being recorded,

so careful what you say."

Every time you picked up the receiver,

it would automatically record the conversation.

My dad used to be a police officer,

and I assume that he knew what he was doing.

You know, he was constantly scared

of not being able to protect Alissa.

I didn't think much of it.

My dad was my best friend.

He really wanted what was best for Alissa.

I gotta set this thing up.

- My father started putting up surveillance cameras

when I was in about middle school.

♪

I thought it was something that rich people had,

so I was kind of excited.

I thought it was very fancy.

♪

I did not understand why he would need cameras

filming the perimeter of their house.

What was he so paranoid about?

We got a camera lens missing somehow.

- To hear that she lived in a situation where she was,

literally, constantly being watched

was very unnerving to me.

The day that my dad told me

about the video camera in the vent,

he said, "I got a new camera.

"This is to watch your sister

"to make sure she doesn't get in trouble.

Don't tell her."

He was just watching every move she made.

At this time, I'm maybe ten.

I really thought that that was good parenting.

Jack in the Box.

- Alissa got a job at Jack in the Box.

This was Alissa's real first taste of freedom,

making her own money.

And our dad would watch her obsessively.

My dad wanted to know everyone that was working with her.

- You got me in trouble, Dad. - How'd I do that?

Because that freakin' assMike,

he looks, and he goes, "That's illegal.

He can't do that."

And I was like, "That's my dad."

Which one's Mike?

The one that was talking to you?

No, the one-- I don't know.

The one that drives that nice-ass Mustang.

- Alissa told me how uncomfortable

it would make her feel that, you know,

he was constantly watching her every move.

And it made me uncomfortable.

Why in the world would he need to do something like that?

Part of me hoped Alissa actually had run away

for her own well-being.

♪

- As time goes by, days turn to weeks,

turn to months, turn to years.

Alissa never came back.

As time goes on, your mind just comes up

with every possible conclusion

of what could have happened to her.

I hoped that Alissa actually ran away,

but a bigger part of me

believed that it was impossible,

because I knew that she would never have left

Sarah alone in that house.

♪

- I inherited Alissa Turney's investigation in 2008.

She had been gone for seven years at that point.

In Arizona, law enforcement treats runaways

in pretty much a passive demeanor,

especially if it's somebody like Alissa,

who's left a note behind, who's communicated

to her family that she does not want to be at home.

Also, one week after she left home,

she's reported to have called home.

So she's alive and well at that point, too.

But there's something curious about this case.

She's never contacted any of her family members,

never contacted any of her friends.

Honestly, I'm having trouble with a teenage girl

cutting all ties with everybody she's ever known.

That just doesn't happen.

That speaks of some deep psychopathy

or that suggests something nefarious happened to her.

My job is to figure out what could have gone wrong.

- About seven years after Alissa went missing,

I got a call from someone named Detective Andersen,

and he asks me to come down to the station

for a formal interview.

Sarah Turney is 19 at time.

I tell her, "Hey, I need to know more about Alissa.

"I need to establish a pattern of life.

What is normal for her?"

- Sarah tells me Alissa was the kind of person

that if a strange carload of boys pulled up and said,

"Hey, do you want to go to a party?"

She'd jump in the car without hesitation.

And then I asked about things that were left behind.

Yeah.

- Sarah also mentions the cellular phone.

It's odd that she would leave that phone behind.

Working in missing persons cases,

I have not had another instance in which a child left the home

and left behind their phone.

These are concerning details.

And then I asked Sarah to describe

the relationship between Alissa and her father, Mike.

- Sarah believes that her father's dedicated

his life towards finding out what happened to Alissa.

So I call Michael Turney.

Obviously he's the only adult in the home when this happened.

Mike declines to do a formal interview,

and that's fine.

I still have him on the phone.

He's still relatively cooperative.

Mike was all about the cop talk.

He introduced himself as former law enforcement,

and he's so happy that we're paying attention to this.

Mike points to the boyfriend,

saying that the boyfriend, Jon Laakman,

was physically violent towards Alissa.

And Mike tells me that he has a videotape

that he thinks I'd be interested in

of an interaction between Alissa and Jon

taken at her home the day before Alissa left.

So, in my mind, this is a possible catalyst

that pushed her outside of the home.

There's an outdoor carport view

that shows Alissa and Jon walking off camera.

And then Alissa comes back and throws a cordless phone

against a wall.

And then it switches to an interior view.

♪

She's obviously upset.

You can hear him squealing his tires

and taking off down the street.

That is amazingly significant.

We've got interior coverage of the home.

That's wonderful because maybe

there is video footage from the last day

she was seen in the home, from May 17th.

We figure out where Jon is,

and then we bring him in for an interview.

- How is he responding, you know,

physically to what's being said?

We're looking for those indications of deception.

Jon doesn't give us any.

Jon talks openly.

He's hurt that Alissa never called him.

He feels like he was dumped.

And not knowing that we have that video,

he says he went over to Alissa's house,

and he was stopped by Mike Turney.

And Mike told him, "She's cheating on you

with a guy from work."

♪

Jon obviously reacted poorly to that.

He confronted Alissa, and then he stormed out of the house.

He's describing that event.

So that event, in my mind, goes from,

here's evidence of a violent, psychopathic boyfriend...

to a staged scene.

I mean, it's-- it's manufactured

by Michael Turney.

♪

And then Jon tells me a story of Alissa

that is very concerning.

That is a very, very difficult,

very taxing thing for a 17-year-old girl

to talk about...

saying that she was sexually abused by her father.

♪

This is a darker turn in Alissa's case.

♪

We immediately start reaching out to other people

in Alissa's realm-- every living relative,

secondary relatives, cousins, neighbors,

former babysitters,

anybody I could contact.

And I interviewed Alissa's brother Rhett,

and Rhett tells me a story of Alissa,

tears coming from her eyes, she's shaking,

she's emotional, and it's that same story.

- She's telling Rhett that her father took her driving

and then sexually abused her, touched her.

Rhett never told anybody about that.

Later on, we have a third source, Jessica,

close friend of Alissa's,

telling us that he tried something on her.

Speaking to the police when I did,

I was just grateful

that they were finally looking into it.

So that's three people all saying

that Alissa Turney told them that her father

had molested her.

I guess at the time,

we didn't necessarily know any better.

What are teenage girls supposed to do?

Who could they tell when the people

who are supposed to protect them

are the ones hurting them?

♪

- Alissa and I were sitting in my bedroom,

and I just remember looking over to her

and seeing...

this, like, defeated look on her face.

I pressed her, I pressed her-- "What's going on?"

She finally decided to share with me an experience

that she had with Michael.

She was gagged.

Mike was on top of her, and he was suffocating her.

I was completely beside myself.

But she said, "Don't ever share this with anyone.

"If you do, it might mean that I'll be pulled away from Sarah,

"and I can't have that.

You know, I could not live with that."

She believed that Sarah needed her.

She was the one that took care of Sarah,

that was that mother figure in her life.

She did not want to leave Sarah alone with Michael.

♪

- Alissa Turney was making that cry for help.

She's suffering this kind of abuse inside her own home.

♪

And that home is keeping secrets.

♪

- As the investigation progresses,

I know now

that there is internal and external security cameras

at Alissa Turney's house.

So maybe there's footage from the last day Alissa

was at home, May 17th of 2001.

That's a valuable piece of evidence to me.

I asked Mike if he can provide me with that tape.

Mike kind of hems and haws.

He's not sure if he still has that one.

He'll have to look around for it.

I consider that odd because it's the last day

your child was seen alive.

That's something that you keep.

And Sarah Turney had mentioned that there is

a cassette tape player that records

incoming and outgoing calls on that phone.

We know from Mike Turney's statement

back in 2001 that, one week after she left the home,

Alissa called home.

Again, I tell Mike,

I want to hear a recording of that phone call,

but he doesn't have it.

Michael's behavior towards me

has become progressively worse,

and I need those tapes.

- In 2008, I got a call from Detective Andersen,

who said that he had news about Alissa.

He asked if I could come down to the station

to speak with him about it.

So, that morning, I was really excited.

I thought it was going to be something huge.

- OK. All right.

Yes...

- I couldn't absorb that information.

And I just kept saying, "I need to go home.

I have to get out of here. I have to get back to my dad."

Before that moment, I never felt like the police

were circling in on my dad-- I was clueless.

♪

- I was there looking for items in the home,

any clue, any piece of evidence

that might explain what might have happened to Alissa.

When Mr. Turney came out of his house

to go check his mail,

that's when he was intercepted by SWAT officers.

He was equipped with multiple firearms,

knives, and a recording device

that he had donned

all just to make that walk

from the front door to the mailbox.

- We're looking for documents

that have to do with Alissa Turney.

♪

We're looking for all the security tapes.

But what we find is...

So much more.

♪

- I recall walking into the front hallway area

and seeing firearms lined up...

♪

Just a massive amount of weapons.

- Shotguns, rifles, other pistols,

a wealth of ammunition for everything possible.

♪

It was an epic mess.

♪

There were just piles of things everywhere.

♪

VHS tapes,

recordings of telephone calls...

there are thousands of them.

But I would suspect that Mr. Turney himself knew

where every single thing was.

♪

- We come across videotapes that show Michael

having sex with a particular woman.

We also found Polaroids.

♪

The woman is bound and blindfolded.

For whatever reason, sexually or otherwise,

he is incredibly drawn to dominance and control.

And then when you add to that

what Alissa's friends are saying she experienced,

it becomes much more disturbing at that point.

♪

And then one of our detectives opens a bag,

and he sees improvised explosive devices,

pipe bombs.

♪

We immediately evacuate the home.

And then we look towards an old van

that's in the backyard.

The van appears to be full of trash

upon first inspection,

but then you take a closer look...

it becomes very apparent that the van itself is a bomb.

♪

- It had propane and bleach and nails in the wheel wells.

The van, as it turns out, was a giant bomb.

Then we get into his safe.

Inside the safe are multiple envelopes

addressed to ABC, NBC.

Inside each of them are little thumb drives.

The thumb drives contain his manifesto--

"The Diary of a Madman."

♪

Mr. Turney had felt insulted

by the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

He was an electrician,

and he believes that he was treated very poorly,

concerning stories about union members

having attempted to kill him before,

having a long-term grudge against him.

- He was planning to drive the van into

the International Brotherhood

of Electrical Workers Union Hall

to commit a mass murder.

- Michael says that Alissa was abducted by the union

and murdered

and that her body was dumped in California.

None of these things make sense.

- 29 pipe bombs and numerous guns

were found inside the home.

♪

- Michael invokes his rights to an attorney

and refuses to interview.

♪

He is arrested for the possession

of the explosives...

but we're never able

to find the security video from May 17th of 2001

or the early-morning phone call

from that pay phone,

so we remain convinced that Alissa was last seen

in the company of her father

when she was picked up on May 17th,

and we have no idea what's happened to her since.

Michael Turney remains the only suspect in this case.

When my father was arrested,

it was just a horrible, horrible experience.

I was pretending as if it wasn't really happening.

I mean, I was in complete denial.

I couldn't believe that he was the man

that the police were making him out to be.

♪

Growing up, there were always guns in my house.

Oh!

That was my normal.

And when I heard about his plan

to hurt all these people, I really thought

that it was some fantasy writing of his.

And my dad told me that the Phoenix Police Department

planted those pipe bombs.

I believed that he was innocent.

My father was sentenced to ten years in prison

for the pipe bombs that were found in the home.

I was just starting college,

and my whole life turned upside down.

All of a sudden, I had the responsibility

of a house and three dogs.

I was his biggest supporter.

♪

I started a website for him.

I started a petition for him.

I was actively trying to get him out.

I believed that he was wrongfully convicted.

And I thought the police had to be wrong.

It was difficult to be forced out of my home like that.

I just love my father and just want to stick by him.

We know that he had nothing to do

with the disappearance of my sister.

He's very loving. I mean, he's the only parent I have.

And he's the best dad I could ask for.

Sarah was very protective and defensive about her father.

But if he was capable of this,

how could he not be capable of Alissa's disappearance?

When they found bombs in his house

and the search warrant was something related

to Alissa's disappearance,

I knew in my soul

that this man murdered Alissa.

- That whole time my dad was in prison

was really, really rough.

He was constantly telling me

how sick he was getting in prison

and how he needed to get out.

My father asks me to essentially act

as his legal secretary.

"Dear Sarah, I'm sending you the originals

"of two important documents.

"One is an affirmation witness statement.

When I was..."

I was immediately given legal power of attorney

over all of his assets.

I took over the mortgage, the house,

and the responsibility of helping him

fight his legal case.

All the while, he was telling me

he was the only one that loved me and cared for me

and how he wishes he could be out and take care of me

like he's supposed to, like a dad.

And that went on for years.

♪

Eventually he does tell me,

"Just give the house back to the bank."

I end up moving around a little bit.

I graduate from college. I buy my own home.

And over the years, our relationship

just starts to turn.

My dad just wasn't interested in anything but himself.

You know, he let me go bankrupt

paying for things like him to have a TV in prison,

to constantly send him hundreds and hundreds of dollars

in commissary money.

It didn't matter how many hours

I put into working for him,

how much of my money I gave to him,

it was very clear

that he didn't care about my well-being.

♪

Then I ran into Alissa's friend Jessica

at a record store here in Phoenix.

And it had been years since we'd spoken.

I was, like, kind of excited to see Jessica.

And Jessica turns to me and says,

"You know your dad killed your sister, right?"

You know he's guilty. He killed your sister.

And she's like, "No, he didn't."

But I did try to convince her.

I remember being in shock.

I mean, call me naive, but Jessica was the first one

to be extremely blunt with me

and tell me that she thought my dad killed Alissa.

♪

Later on, I turned to my boyfriend,

and I said to him,

"Do you think my dad could have killed my sister?"

And he says, "Sarah,

everyone thinks your dad killed your sister."

That moment was big for me.

It really opened up my mind to the possibility

that my father was not telling the truth

about what happened to Alissa.

I believed my father,

everything he said for a very long time.

But it wasn't until I was alone

and no longer under my father's manipulation

that I began to question everything.

♪

This is Alissa's case file. It's a lot.

I requested them from the Phoenix Police Department,

and I was sure

that they weren't going to give them to me,

and all of a sudden, somebody came out of the back

with this huge pile of documents.

♪

There are police interviews in here from 2008

with almost everybody who knew Alissa.

There are transcripts of audiotapes

that I'd never gone through,

transcripts of videotapes.

It's everything I didn't know.

Pulled over somewhere and tried fooling around with her.

- And it made her really uncomfortable,

and she got out and walked home.

- Alissa said, "My dad tried something with me

of a sexual nature."

And then he threatened

for her basically not to tell anybody.

- She did not want to leave Sarah alone with Michael.

- When I read through those files,

I was devastated for Alissa.

I didn't realize that Alissa was abused

and just terrified,

even from a very young age.

♪

I find an interview from 2009

with a woman who was my dad's girlfriend

after our mother died.

And here we have--

the little homemaker has made a-a nest.

- Want me to model my skiwear? - All right.

Very nice, very nice.

- She was a teacher at our school,

and I loved her.

I loved her and her kids, and Alissa did, too.

She was the closest thing to a stepmother we ever had.

Supplement 117.

This is the interview

of Alissa's third-grade teacher.

"I asked if she saw anything inappropriate

between Alissa and Mike."

- That statement is problematic,

because you can very quickly make any child retract,

depending on the way that you approach their revelation.

- She attributed the statement as Alissa acting out

and being jealous of her relationship with Mike.

It wasn't what she believed to be a cry for help

or anything other than the little girl

looking for attention.

So she does not report what Alissa told her

to Child Protective Services.

- I can't imagine what it was like for Alissa

to build up all that courage to tell someone

what was going on to just be dismissed.

Come here-- Alissa, look at me a minute.

Why do you keep doing this, Alissa?

You keep losing.

I don't understand your attitude.

- We were raised to be afraid of everyone

and to not trust anyone.

My father didn't want Alissa to have any friends.

He didn't want her to have any trusted adults in her life

who she could go to.

Alissa's trying to hit us with a snowball, snoot.

♪

- Learning about the allegations of sexual abuse

really made me reexamine everything I thought I knew.

It was hard to reconcile that with my own memory.

And then one night, I was just reviewing a VHS

like I had done so many nights before,

and it was a camping video from the '90s.

I'm probably 8. Maybe Alissa is 12.

- Oh, God.

And then eventually I'm recording,

and my dad tells me to turn off the camera.

- The red button. - Why?

- Hit the red button now. - I don't want to.

How do I record?

- Hit the red button. - Sarah!

- I wanna record me. - Sarah!

Sarah!

- Watching those home videos again made me rethink

what I always thought about my dad.

Sarah, give me the camera now.

So we have it on tape. Alissa can read.

I'm serious-- I'm getting ready

just to pull you over and spank you.

Now stop it.

Alissa, do not leave the building whatsoever.

Turn off that stupid camera.

- All this time, I thought that he was just that dad

with a video camera taped to his face...

What are you doing?

Just trying to capture all of our memories.

- Dad, stop! - Stop what?

Stop. Please?

- I had no idea how nefarious

it really was.

Dad's a pervert.

- While I thought my dad was basically

a superhero and the best dad ever,

it seems that he was a monster.

- Hi! - Hi!

- I don't know if you've seen this one.

She's definitely younger, but it's, like, so her.

Yes!

Alissa, stop that racket!

See? There it is.

- Yeah, you got that. - One more time. Yes.

- The resort buses. - Where is?

- There's one right there. - There it is.

Random-- zooming in on random women,

pretending to film his kids, and then moving on to--

- Mm-hmm.

Doesn't everything, like, look different

when you look back on it?

Those home videos used to be something

that I loved watching-- full of happy memories.

And now everything I see,

I see in a different light.

- Sarah would reach out to me and inform me

that she was feeling differently about her father.

I was relieved that--

that she finally, you know, was seeing some of the things

that many of us were seeing.

And I shared with Sarah how Alissa told me

she did not want to leave Sarah alone with Michael.

And that's what kept her there, is her love for Sarah.

♪

- Honestly, that was one of the hardest things

for me to realize.

Alissa wanted to leave

and refused to leave me behind with our father.

As an adult, I can realize

the pressure that she was under and...

that all those sister fights that we had...

were nothing in comparison to what she went through.

It also still makes me feel extreme guilt

that she felt she had to stay and be abused to protect me.

♪

There were so many things that I never knew about,

like my father creating contracts.

- He would have her sign contracts,

which he requires her to state

that there was no sexual abuse.

He would tell her things to discredit her

in the event that she might come forth saying them.

This is a legal document

in which Alissa Turney

is made to initial every bullet point,

saying she had not been physically or sexually abused,

but she had to do that in front of a notary public.

That is the level

that Michael has taken that relationship to...

holding that legal document over that child's head

so that she cannot make any sort of accusation.

We also found that Michael himself had contacted

Child Protective Services,

stating that if this child, Alissa Turney,

accuses me of molesting her,

accuses me of doing anything inappropriate,

you shouldn't believe that.

She's trying to extort me.

Just taking pictures.

- I think my dad was terrified that Alissa

was going to come out about the sexual-abuse allegations.

And once he was no longer able to control her,

it's very clear that he was panicking.

- Not long before Alissa goes missing,

my dad calls my brother Mike to complain about Alissa.

- It's clear that my father was extremely angry

with Alissa before Alissa went missing.

And my entire life, my father had always talked

about how he could kill someone and hide a body.

♪

I mean, he had an entire manifesto

about how he was going to kill people.

♪

So I can absolutely see my dad

being that violent towards anyone.

♪

My theory is that on the day Alissa went missing,

my father picked Alissa up from school,

took her out into the desert,

which makes it harder to find her.

I think he tried what he had tried before in the past,

according to Alissa.

Perhaps she fought back, something went wrong,

and he decided that today was the day

he was going to kill her.

♪

I believe that the last day of school was picked on purpose.

That way, no one would ask about where she was.

I don't know if he actually brought her home that day.

And, of course, we don't have any video surveillance

to tell us one way or the other.

And as I got older,

I had a lot of questions about that runaway note.

That first line, "Dad and Sarah,

when you dropped me off at school today"...

I wasn't there to drop Alissa off at school that day.

♪

Also, the "Dad, I took $300 from you,"

that was an incident that happened

before Alissa went missing,

and that money was actually returned to our father.

I believe that note was from a previous time period,

and then my father found it and planted it in her room.

♪

And that phone call from Riverside, California,

just further solidified the runaway idea.

I don't believe Alissa made that call.

I think he used it as an alibi.

My dad knows what he's doing. He's former law enforcement.

He knows how to cover his tracks,

and he did it very well.

It's a long, painful process to try to turn your heart off

to someone who you looked up to so heavily.

But the second I put those pieces together,

it all made sense.

My dad would try to call from prison,

and I just stopped answering.

I slowly just cut that relationship off.

Once I was convinced that my father killed my sister,

I went to the police and said, "Hey,

"I see what you've been trying to tell me for all these years.

What can I do to help?"

- Sarah explains her change of heart now.

She's very open and very adamant

about his responsibility for Alissa's death.

But at this point in time,

we've contacted hundreds of people.

Anybody that could have possibly known Alissa

has been talked to.

We went to the point of exhaustion.

♪

My investigation has to thrive or die

based on what details

and what facts I can bring up

that cement Mike Turney as the suspect.

♪

The circumstantial evidence that we have is damaging,

but there's nothing physical that shows Alissa died.

You're lacking a body, and you're lacking a crime scene.

Now that I understood

the full story of Alissa's case,

I did not understand how this was not enough

to arrest my father for Alissa's murder,

how it wasn't enough to arrest him for anything,

for any charges.

They had the means, motive, and opportunity.

♪

My father got out of prison in 2017,

and it had been about three or four years

since we'd spoken.

I wanted to confront him and let him know,

I know that you're lying,

and I'm not going to let this go,

and I want you to look me in the eye

and tell me the truth of what happened to Alissa.

♪

- My dad served about nine years in prison

before he got out on the bomb charges.

I asked him to meet with me

at a coffee shop in downtown Phoenix.

I thought that this would be my one chance

to maybe get answers out of him,

that he might just be spiteful enough

to get caught in something that could get him arrested.

And to be honest, I was nervous.

I had no idea what was going to happen.

I turned on the voice memo on my phone

because I wanted to give it to the police.

At this point, my father had never sat down

for a formal interview with them,

and this seemed like the best opportunity to get answers.

- He kind of asked me to get to the point,

and I said I wanted to say to his face

that I thought that he killed Alissa,

and I wanted answers.

That is the closest thing to a confession

that I believe we'll ever get from my father.

And, honestly,

him saying that to my face,

"Come to the deathbed," that was it.

That's when I knew Alissa wasn't out there

and she wasn't coming back.

- Be there at the deathbed, Sarah,

and I'll give you all the...

- Sarah turned over that recording to law enforcement,

and she said things like, "You know, look,

here, he says he'll tell me the truth on the deathbed."

I can't take snippets of a conversation.

The very next sentence is,

"But it's going to be the same as what I'm telling you now."

- I have to look at the totality

of that conversation,

and the totality of the conversation was,

I'm not responsible.

You've been lied to. The police are corrupt.

The police are lying to you.

It's not a confession to a homicide.

I think it is just

an exceptionally cruel thing to say.

To me, that is the crescendo

of the manipulative behavioral control.

If you want to know,

then you need to be there when I die.

Like, the ultimate going out

with control over somebody else.

- After the police told me that my dad's statement

about the deathbed confession wasn't good enough,

I was devastated.

I said to them, "What are we doing going forward?

How are we going to press charges?"

And they basically said, "We don't have enough. Sorry.

Your best chance is getting media exposure."

My name is Sarah Turney.

This is "Voices for Justice."

In this episode, we are discussing my father...

I was determined.

I reached out to every single person

that I knew knew Alissa and asked them to be involved.

My dad did?

- When I was conducting these interviews

with family members, I was getting the complete context

behind these police reports.

I was learning the full story of everything,

and some of those stories were horrific.

I just want to thank everybody for being here.

I was really hopeful that my brothers would interview

for my podcast,

but they were not interested in coming on the podcast.

I think they all have their reasons.

There's four brothers,

and they're all different individuals

who have their own trauma.

There was some frustration that I was tarnishing

the family name.

♪

And, eventually, I was no longer invited

to family functions, birthdays, holidays.

I was outcast from them.

That's when I realized that it was all on me.

I was doing my podcast,

but people weren't paying enough attention

to Alissa's case.

And then I saw TikTok.

It's not easy being the disappointment of the family,

but someone had to do it, so here the I am.

Press "publish," and basically overnight,

it just went viral.

Then I made another video and another video,

and I just kept going viral.

♪

And you're still recording.

1 million views,

2 million views,

up to 20 million views.

They wanted to take action.

They wanted to help get justice for Alissa.

One of my followers made a campaign

called The 12 Days of Alissa.

Every day was an action item, and one of those days

was Call the Maricopa County Attorney's Office,

asking them to arrest my father

for Alissa's murder.

I remember I was driving home from work.

I called the county attorney's office,

and they said, "You're the sister?

We've been getting calls all day."

People were pissed.

I didn't know what was going to happen.

And then on August 20, 2020,

I get a phone call...

And that changed everything.

Hey, guys, I don't know if you've heard.

I got a call about an hour ago now,

maybe less than that.

My father's been arrested

for Alissa's murder.

I couldn't have done this without you guys caring so much

and sharing her story

and just making this a priority for the media.

- Just a bombshell arrest tonight.

Almost 20 years after Phoenix teen Alissa--

- Alissa's stepfather has really been the only person

of interest in her disappearance

for at least the last ten years.

It's absolutely horrible to hear that your father

is being arrested for the murder of your sister,

but at the same time, all this hard work,

giving up so much of my life for this fight

was the right thing to do.

To Alissa's sister,

your perseverance and commitment

to finding justice for your sister, Alissa,

is a testament to the love of a sister.

- Just felt such relief for Sarah.

This was the first step in her getting her life back.

I couldn't believe that it was finally happening.

I was looking forward to looking the man in his eye.

I was looking forward to that day

that we would be sitting there

and he would finally be answering for this.

More than 20 years

after 17-year-old Alissa Turney disappeared,

her stepfather is now on trial,

accused of her murder.

- Michael Turney, who is now 75 years old,

arrived in court in a wheelchair.

When the trial started,

I was getting more and more nervous,

but I was really hopeful

that we would finally get justice for Alissa.

This was Alissa.

The relationship she had with this defendant

was oftentimes troubled.

- The state had a really heavy burden,

because there's no body.

There's no murder scene. There's no murder weapon.

There were no witnesses to Alissa's murder.

You will find that the state's entire case

is based on circumstantial evidence,

based on speculation, based on belief.

There's no evidence.

- Beyond that, a whole bunch of the evidence

that friends of Alissa and Sarah wanted to bring in

was excluded from the start.

Defense has filed a motion to preclude

any further mention of sexual abuse and molest.

I was not allowed to talk

about any of the sexual-abuse allegations,

and I asked why I was even there.

- The prosecution could not talk about things

that Alissa accused Mike of because Alissa is not here

and Mike has the right to face his accuser.

It's the Constitution.

Also, the nature of that accusation

is so damaging that you run the risk

of him being found guilty of a homicide

because people are mad at him for having molested the kid.

- The prosecution being unable to talk

about the sexual molestation

really made it difficult to explain

why Michael Turney may have murdered his daughter.

It made it much easier for the defense

to claim that Alissa was just an unruly teenager

who put herself and others in danger.

Alissa was a free spirit.

She liked to have fun. She liked to party.

She would drink. She would smoke marijuana.

She thought she was old enough and could do what she wanted.

The rules didn't apply to her.

The defense tried to create a story of her being

some crazy teen who must have, you know,

got herself into some big trouble

and that's the cause of all this.

You told Detective Andersen that she would get into cars

with strangers to go to parties,

even though her friends didn't want to.

That's what I was told, yes.

Everything the defense presented,

in terms of my thoughts and feelings,

came from basically that interview with police

when I was about 19 years old.

That interview is based off of memories I had when I was 12.

I was never re-interviewed by police officially after that,

so that was all used against me.

They did the same thing to every single witness.

My understanding is that you also told

Detective Andersen she could be mischievous?

You told him she was boy-crazy?

I think that every 16-, 17-year-old girl

is a little boy-crazy.

You said she was open sexually.

You said, she wasn't quiet about it, that's for sure.

No.

She was stubborn, confrontational.

You said she was the most difficult of your six siblings.

Yes.

- They were trying to make it seem

like she deserved it.

As if there's ever a situation

where a teenage girl deserves

to not only be murdered

but completely vanish off the planet.

- They knew exactly what they were doing.

That is the handbook on how to victim-blame a child

who was abused.

As the trial went on,

I think I got more and more nervous.

Shocking, to say the least.

Never happened.

Never, ever, ever, ever happened,

and then this happens today.

- We are back on the record in State v. Turney.

How would the state like to proceed?

- At this time, Your Honor, the state rests.

- In the State of Arizona, the defense

has a right to ask the judge to determine

that the state hasn't provided enough evidence

to allow a jury to reach the reasonable conclusion

that this person is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Judge, pursuant to Rule 20,

the court must enter a judgment of acquittal

if there is not substantial evidence

to support a conviction.

Rule 20 motions for judgment are almost never granted.

It's incredibly rare for judges to not allow jurors to decide.

I was in shock.

It was heartbreaking.

What happened in that trial is not the truth

of what happened to Alissa or her life.

I feel like the trial was just a part of the pattern.

Alissa's been failed by almost every adult in her life,

every institution.

Her schools, the Phoenix Police Department,

the County Attorney's Office, everyone failed Alissa.

- An acquittal wasn't even something

that occurred to me was an option.

So it's just paralyzing...

to know that that's it.

- Bombshell ruling from the judge.

And the question is whether or not

he could be tried again for this.

The answer is no. Jeopardy attaches.

He cannot be tried on this particular charge

of second-degree murder again.

- In theory, if new evidence were found--

Alissa's body, for example,

he could be charged with other crimes.

But, unfortunately, Sarah's options

are really limited.

Michael Turney is highly likely to be a free man

for the rest of his life.

♪

- The acquittal has given him power

to say, "Look, I'm innocent,"

when that's not what the acquittal means.

The acquittal means

that the state did not present their case.

It's been about five years

since I've spoken to my father,

and he was never fully questioned

by any authority ever.

I just want one last shot to ask him about Alissa.

Sorry, it's like, the moment of truth, right?

I absolutely still have hope for Alissa's case.

Her remains have never been found,

so I need to set up this meeting with him.

Yeah, hey, it's Sarah.

Well, I'm filming a documentary about Alissa,

and I was wondering if you wanted to talk.

Yeah, I guess.

Well, actually, I'm wondering

if you wanted to, like, do it in person.

It'll just be me and you and the production crew,

and they have, like, a security guard,

which means they have to make sure

that you don't have any weapons on you,

and they have to make sure I don't have any weapons on me.

I don't know. I'll have to think about that.

What I'm asking from you is honesty.

So, if you want a hug from me,

if you want me to shake your hand,

then let's sit down and have a real talk.

You already got acquitted, Dad.

There's nothing left for you to lose.

Give me some peace in my life and give me some answers.

So I'm just going to-- This is Chris, our sound guy.

He's going to put a microphone--

- Put a microphone on me? - Yeah, if that's OK.

Oh, and I think Sarah mentioned,

we do have to do a pat-down.

♪

- This it? - Yeah.

I can go in?

- Hey, Dad. - Hello.

Everything's recording.

It's on just like I said it would be.

Are we going live?

No, it's not--what are you talking about, live?

Oh, shucks.

So I know that you have questions for me,

but are you OK if I ask you questions first?

- You're more than welcome. - OK.

So I wanted to ask you,

how did you feel about Alissa

after she accused you of sexual assault in 2000?

Upset, disappointed, my heart broken.

Were you angry?

Yes, at her. Yes, I was.

Do you think Alissa was afraid of you?

No. Not like you guys keep saying she was.

Because you told me before that you don't remember

fear and Alissa's eyes, but you remember defiance.

So you don't think Alissa was--

You don't know-- you don't even--

Alissa wasn't afraid of hardly anything, Sarah.

OK, do you recall writing to Alissa,

your words, quote, "I am so sorry

you were afraid of me," end quote?

That had to do with Alissa telling people,

you know, I'm afraid my dad's going to kill me,

which is every statement that you made,

- everybody else makes. - Right there.

- You just said it. - Oh, there you go, Sarah.

Earspot, guys. Earmark that one.

Come on, Sarah.

What is wrong-- Is your career that important

that you're going to manipulate this into a lie?

You've destroyed your own family.

You're helping destroy-- Your brothers and sisters--

or brothers don't want to talk to you

because you keep continuously bringing up these lies.

You even bring up things that they say,

"Dad, how can Sarah remember? She wasn't even there."

Well, that's between me and them, right?

- And, no-- - That's between you and them?

They talk to me all the time.

You're the one that's making this into national news, Sarah.

Dad--

I'm not here for you to interrogate me, OK?

- Dad, you said that I need... - I did not kill your sister.

Rely on my memory, and now I am using examples.

No, you don't have your memory.

You're reading off of something that--

You just said it yourself, you just read it

because of letters I wrote.

You don't remember that. Were you there?

I'm, like, trying to meet you in the middle here, Dad,

- and you can't even hear it. - No, you're not.

You'll have an opportunity to ask me questions

when I'm done asking my questions.

- Really? - Is that fair?

You continue on with your attitude, Sarah,

I'm going to leave.

Do you understand?

I can stop this interview right now

if you're not going to be civil.

I am being civil--you're the one that's being hostile.

I'm not hostile.

You're trying to gaslight me,

and you're continuing your abuse,

and I'm not taking it.

- What does gaslight mean? - Look it up.

Boy, Sarah, you're just absolutely nasty.

You're turning things-- really going off haywire.

Calm down, Sarah. Please, calm down.

I mean, you're really losing it.

I'll calm down when you tell the truth.

What truth are you looking for, Sarah?

Remember me asking you over and over,

what are you looking for, Sarah, other than ratings?

OK, so my last question is, will I get that confession

on your deathbed?

Bad phrasing, Sarah.

It meant that the story that you have heard

is never going to change, even when I'm dying, Sarah,

because I did not molest and I did not kill

your daughter--your sister.

I was warned by all of the family,

don't talk to Sarah, but I chose to talk to you

because I really wanted to see if my daughter

had that much hatred towards me.

- You-- - I feel nothing for you.

I will leave this conversation and never think of you again.

My children will not know who you are.

- Are you--Sarah-- - I will not speak your name.

Oh, now for the audience.

- I wish you the best. - You're a liar, Sarah.

Why are you doing this, Sarah?

To make money off of your dead sister,

if she is dead?

If you'd like to speak to the producers, you can.

I wish you the best.

No drumroll, guys?

♪

- When I left that meeting with my dad,

it gave me a lot more peace.

I put myself through all of this for Alissa.

Her story deserves to be told, and he needed to be confronted

because no one else had ever done it.

Part of telling Alissa's story

is how you stop this generational abuse.

I had to take that power back, saying, "It stops here."

Got a pretty hat--what kind of hat is that, Sarah?

- I don't need a judge or a jury

to tell me what we all know happened.

Sarah!

And although I don't have

a legal sense of justice right now,

I'm at peace with what I've done for Alissa.

You may not always get the results you want,

but at least you have peace

knowing you've done everything you can.

After spending so many years talking

about my sister Alissa's case,

I've decided that I want to help other families, too.

This is 17-year-old Asia Cowell.

She went missing on September 7, 2020.

25-year-old ISU grad student Jelani Day

was last seen in Bloomington, Illinois.

I didn't want to just stop with Alissa.

I wanted to keep going and help as many people as I could.

Leah Croucher went missing from Milton Keynes, England,

on February 15, 2018.

There are so many people out there

with missing or murdered loved ones

that were trying to get media attention

and get the world to care about it.

If you do have any information,

if you recognize this woman,

please call the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department.

I'm so proud of Sarah.

She's helping other people.

She says she's encouraged by how her story

has inspired people around the world

to self-advocate when it comes

to working with law enforcement.

- It was Sarah's page that inspired me.

- She's helping them find their own voices

in their own situations.

It's really beautiful what she's doing.

- As much as I never wanted to be

this big of a part of Alissa's story,

I have to recognize that it has inspired others

to do something similar to what I did.

So next week you're going to hear me

talk about a brand-new case that you've never heard before.

This case has so many twists and turns over the years,

it'll have your head spinning

and wondering why this family is still fighting for justice.

♪