My sister went missing 23 years ago- unearthed family videos convinced me our ‘monster’ dad sexually abused & killed her
WHETHER they were enjoying a trip to Disneyland or getting ready for prom, for years Sarah Turney loved rewatching the old home videos her dad captured of special family moments.
They were a great source of comfort for her, especially when older sister Alissa suddenly ran away from home aged 17, to help remember happier times – or so she thought.
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However years later those same video tapes would eventually convince Sarah her father Michael was responsible for her sister’s disappearance and probable murder.
Not only that, but their father was also accused by Alissa of sexual and emotional abuse, molesting her on numerous occasions, trying to control her and secretly filming her every move.
Two decades on, he was finally arrested but last year acquitted on all charges for lack of sufficient evidence, and has always strenuously denied all allegations.
He can’t be tried again, and Alissa’s body has never been found.
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However while he has been cleared, Sarah recently confronted him over the historic allegations in an explosive filmed meeting shown on documentary Family Secrets: The Disappearance of Alissa Turney, available to watch on HayU.
Sarah says: “I think the happiest memories of my childhood were going to Disneyland with my family. I love being there, it always reminds me of Alissa.
“We looked like a happy family… But this happy time is shrouded in darkness.
“Those home videos used to be something I loved watching, full of happy memories and now everything I see, I see in a different light.”
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‘People called us the Brady Bunch’
Alissa’s sudden departure came as a huge shock to Sarah, who’d always been close to her older sister.
Alissa had been more like a mum to her, after their own mum Barbara passed away when Sarah was just three.
They were a blended family.
Sarah’s mortgage advisor mum Barbara and former deputy sheriff dad Michael had met and just a few years later married.
Michael already had three sons, Rhett, James and Mike, and Barbara had Alissa and son John from a previous marriage. Then together they had Sarah.
Sarah says: “There were six kids in the house and it was absolutely insane. ‘Step’ or ‘half’ were not words we were allowed to use, so we grew up considering each other brothers and sisters.
“A lot of people called us the Brady Bunch, we were one big family together.”
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‘I was an annoying little sister’
However, everything changed when mum Barbara died.
Sarah says: “My dad was left with six kids, all by himself.”
One by one their older brothers got older and moved out, eventually leaving just Alissa, Sarah and dad Michael.
One of my last memories of Alissa was we’d fought, and I did say something like ‘if you hate it here so much, just leave’.
Sarah Turney
Sarah says: “I thought she was the coolest and she was experimenting with drinking and smoking marijuana – normal teenage stuff.
“I was an annoying little sister and would tattle on her.
“One of my last memories of Alissa was we’d fought, and I did say something like ‘if you hate it here so much, just leave’.
“I was just a kid. Of course I never really wanted her gone.”
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‘I felt so much guilt’
Aged 17, Alissa went missing on May 17 2001 – the last day of her junior year.
She left behind all her belongings, including her mobile, and a note to say she’d left home.
Sarah, who was 12 at the time, says: “My dad told me Alissa had run away. I was in shock. I felt so much guilt – I blamed myself.
“Dad told me on the day she ran away he picked her up and took her to lunch and they had some argument about how she really wanted more freedom.
“Later in the night [dad] calls police and says ‘my teenage daughter ran away’, so they mark her as a runaway but they do not come and visit… or speak to my father.”
“In my mind I was staying calm [but] I think inside I was scared. I slept in her room that night.”
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Alissa’s note in full
“Dad and Sarah,
When you dropped me off at school today I decided that I really am going to California.
Sarah you said you didn’t want me around, look you got it – I’m gone!
That’s why I saved my money dad, and took $300 from you.
Alissa“
As Sarah got older she began to question the note, later commenting: “That first line… I wasn’t there to drop her off.
“Also, the $300… that was an incident from 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.”
‘I felt so sorry for my dad’
A week later, Michael told Sarah that Alissa had called from California, swearing and shouting for him to leave her alone before the line went dead.
They took a trip to California and put posters up everywhere – but to no avail.
Sarah says: “I felt so sorry for my dad. He fell into such a deep depression.
“I just missed Alissa so much.”
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A dark and controlling side
However, there were suggestions not everything was as it seemed within the Turney house.
Michael recorded all phone calls, and installed surveillance cameras around the property – even hiding one in the living room vent to covertly watch Alissa’s every move.
He would also sit in his car outside her work and obsessively watch her there too, and filmed continually.
Conditioned to his behaviour, Sarah says: “My dad used to be a police officer so I assumed he knew what he was doing. I didn’t think much of it.
“My dad was my best friend and [I thought] he wanted what was best for Alissa.”
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A ‘dark turn’ in the case
The police started to re-examine the case in 2008.
Detective William Anderson from Phoenix Police Department took over the investigation and interviewed Sarah, then 19, Alissa’s boyfriend John and Michael – who declined to give a formal interview.
Michael suggested Alissa’s boyfriend John was violent towards her, a theory police quickly discounted after speaking to John, while John revealed Alissa had claimed Michael had sexually abused her.
Detective Anderson says: “This is a darker turn in Alissa’s case. We immediately start reaching out to other people… and I interviewed Alissa’s brother Rhett.
“He tells me a story… and it’s that same story.
“She’s telling Rhett that her father took her driving and then sexually abused her, touched her.”
Jessica Lang also corroborated Alissa’s version of events.
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Explosive evidence
The police initially thought Michael’s surveillance cameras and phone recordings could hold the key to unlocking the truth – but recordings from key dates were mysteriously missing.
So in December 2008 police carried out a search on the house.
Sarah said: “Before that moment I never thought the police were circling in on my dad. I was clueless.”
As well as finding an extensive stash of weapons, police also found homemade improvised explosive devices – pipe bombs – and he was sentenced to ten years in prison for bomb possession.
At that point Sarah stood by him, saying: “I was in complete denial.
“I believed he was innocent… I was his biggest supporter. I started a website… A petition. I believed he was wrongly convicted.”
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‘You know your dad killed Alissa, right?’
However while Michael was in prison, Sarah graduated from college and bought her own home.
She says: “Over the years our relationship starts to turn.
I turned to my boyfriend and said ‘do you think my dad could have killed my sister?’ and he said ‘Sarah, everyone thinks your dad killed your sister. That moment was big for me.
Sarah Turney
“Then I bumped into Alissa’s friend Jessica. It had been years. [She] turns to me and said ‘you know your dad killed Alissa, right?’ I remember being in shock.
“Jessica was the first one to be extremely blunt with me.
“Later on I turned to my boyfriend and said ‘do you think my dad could have killed my sister?’ and he said ‘Sarah, everyone thinks your dad killed your sister’.
That moment was big for me.
“It wasn’t until I was alone and no longer under my father’s manipulation that I began to question everything.”
Home (video) truths
While going through footage of old home videos, Sarah began to see things in a different light.
She says: “Learning about the allegations of sexual abuse really made me re-examine everything I thought I knew.
“Then one night I was watching a VHS like I’d done so many nights before, and it was a camping video from the nineties.
“I’m probably eight, maybe Alissa is 12 and then eventually I’m recording and my dad tells me to turn off the camera.”
Alissa can then be heard shouting in the background: “Dad’s a pervert!”
Sarah says: “All this time I just thought he was a dad with a video camera, just trying to capture all of our memories.
“I had no idea how nefarious it really was. While I thought my dad was basically a superhero and the best dad ever it seems he was a monster.”
Alissa’s disappearance – a timeline
- 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.
- 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.
- 2017: Turney is released from prison, after serving nine years.
- 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.
A devastating belief
Suddenly, Sarah’s perspective changed, and she became convinced her father was involved in Alissa’s disappearance.
She says in the documentary: “My theory is on the day Alissa went missing my father picked Alissa up from school, drove 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 today was the day he was going to kill her. I believe the last day of school was picked on purpose because no one would ask where she was.”
‘Everyone failed Alissa’
Michael Turney got out of prison in 2017 after serving nine years.
In August 2020, Michael, then 75, was arrested for Alissa’s murder – however he was later acquitted in 2023 at trial based on a lack of evidence.
During the trial Sarah testified against her father, telling the court how he allegedly brainwashed her into thinking that Alissa was a rebellious teenager who simply ran away.
Speaking about the acquittal, Sarah says: “I was in shock. It was heartbreaking. I feel like the trial was just part of the pattern…
“Alissa’s been failed by almost every adult in her life, every institution… Everyone failed Alissa.”
‘I’m at peace with what I’ve done for Alissa’
Finally, seven months after the trial earlier this year, Sarah reached out to her cleared father, full of unanswered questions, and confronted him.
“How did you feel about Alissa after she accused you of sexual assault in 2000?” Sarah asks during an arranged meeting, and her dad responds: “Upset, disappointed, my heart broken.”
“Do you think Alissa was afraid of you?” Sarah presses, to which her father says no, before threatening to leave and he adds: “You’ve destroyed your own family.”
Before getting up and walking out, Sarah adds: “I feel nothing for you. I will leave this conversation and never think of you again. My children will not know who you are. I wish you the best.”
Reflecting on the meeting, Sarah added: “He needed to be confronted because no one else had ever done it. I don’t need a judge or a jury to tell me what we all know happened.
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“Although I don’t have a legal sense of justice right now, I’m at peace with what I’ve done for Alissa.”
Watch Family Secrets: The Disappearance of Alissa Turney on HayU now.
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