- Hello! - Tell me about that day ` May 17th 2001. - On the surface, it looks like a 17-year-old girl who ran away, who wanted to live her own life. - What teenager planning to run away would ever leave their cell phone behind? - But obviously there was more to this story. - She just broke down crying. I just remember her saying she was scared. - My dad, obviously, being a cop, he knows what happens to teenage girls who go out alone. - He seemed very driven by the situation. 'I gotta do this. I have to do this. I'm searching for this. 'I'm calling this person. I'm calling that person.' - After a few years, did you begin to think, 'She's not around; she's dead'? - Yes. I began to fear the worst. - 20/20 has talked to Michael Turney about his missing stepdaughter over the course of decades now. - My last memory... of someone you love... (EXHALES HEAVILY) stomping down the hallway. - Stop! You're not welcome here. (DOOR SLAMS) (DRAMATIC NEWS STING) - Kia ora, good evening, and thanks for joining us for 20/20 tonight. Alissa Turney was a bright, popular 17-year-old student when she disappeared on the last day of school back in 2001. Ever since, the question has been ` did she run away, or did someone else make it look like that? (PENSIVE MUSIC) - May 17th 2001 was Alissa's last day of her junior year in high school. (SCHOOL BELL RINGS, STUDENTS CHATTER) (CLASSROOM DOOR OPENS) - Well, at some point, Alissa pokes her head into her then-boyfriend John Laakman's classroom, and she says, 'My stepdad is picking me up early today from school.' - She says, 'Bye. I'll see you later.' And then she gets in the car with her stepfather, Mike Turney. (TAPE CLUNKS, CHILDREN CHATTER) - JOHN QUINONES: The home videos, family photos and recorded video from the Turney home that you're about to see were obtained by ABC News from police in 2009. They show Alissa as a seemingly typical kid. - She's kind of a free spirit. Well, she's very genuine, very honest. Really, really cool. - Alissa was working as a cashier. She was a very reliable employee ` never missed a shift. She was well liked by everybody there. - Hello! - Two of Alissa's closest friends sat down with ABC back in 2009. - Alissa was very carefree. You never knew what was gonna happen (CHUCKLES) with her. She was very spontaneous. - (SHRIEKS) - She would always think of something new to do, and it was never (CHUCKLES) a boring moment. Never a boring moment with Alissa. - (SHRIEKS) - Whoa! - MICHAEL: Careful. Don't jump on top of anybody, Alissa. - For a little perspective ` it's 2001; people are emailing each other using AOL... - COMPUTER: You've got mail. - ...people have flip phones. Alissa was spirited and fun, and she loved to party. She had a lot of friends. She had a boyfriend. Life for her was as typical as it could get for a 17-year-old. - By all accounts, she was a very happy and radiant kid. She had a very bubbly personality but was also really playful and mischievous. - Michael Turney raised Alissa after her mother passed away. When I spoke to him, he said he picked up Alissa early from school and they had lunch. Their conversation turned into an argument, but he says it was just typical parent/child friction. That morning, she was in good spirits? - Oh, she was. We were arguing that... She only had one more year to go ` very proud that we accomplished it. We got lunch and came back. We were arguing over me scrutinising her too much. She didn't like that. - What did you talk about at lunch? - Oh, what we were gonna do that summer; uh, some of the problems that we were concerned with. She wanted to be able to stay out later at night and go run with her friends wherever she wanted to and not be accountable to where she was at. And I told her, 'That's just not going to happen with us.' You know, 'As long as you're under my roof, 'you're gonna have to check in with Daddy, 'cos Daddy's a nervous wreck if you don't.' - How did she respond? - She said for the last year or so that she was ready to leave home, she wanted to go live somewhere else, and I didn't think she was ready. I didn't want her to. I wanted her to stay. - So she stormed away from you, went to her bedroom? - Yeah. Basically, that was it. - That was the last you saw of her? - Yeah. Walking down the hallway mad, like, with her hair flying behind her. - Michael says he runs errands; later, he picks up Alissa's younger sister, Sarah. - My dad picked me up and said, 'Your sister's not answering her cell phone. 'Will you try to call her?' And so we were just in the car, calling, calling, calling. (LINE RINGS) Got home. She wasn't there. You know, my dad was running through the house seeing, you know, if she was there, and then I found the note on top of the dresser. - A handwritten note left for both of them. And in this note, Alissa says, 'Dad and Sarah, when you dropped me off at school today, 'I decided that I really am going to California. 'That's why I saved my money. 'Dad, I took $300 from you. 'Alissa.' - It didn't really appear like any of her belongings were missing. Her favourite clothes were still there, her jewellery, her makeup, her hairbrush and, most importantly, her cell phone. - What teenager planning to run away would ever leave their cell phone behind? - Did you call the police? - Eventually I did, later on that night. Cos she could've just gone somewhere and then we could find her real quick. - If she ran away, why wouldn't she take her cell phone? - That was the questions that we had. She didn't take her cell phone. She took limited amount of clothing. Uh, it's as though so she left in a hurry. - There's no way, no way that she would not have contacted any of her friends. (CRICKETS CHIRP) - When there's a call from a parent saying, 'She's talking about California and I've got a note,' this is a run-of-the-mill textbook example of a teenage kid who's run away. 99 times out of 100, that kid turns up within a couple of days. - When you present it as a 17-year-old runaway, that's how it's going to be handled. - She didn't turn up the next day for her shift or to pick up her paycheque. Concerning? Absolutely. But people closest to Alissa told us life in the Turney home wasn't always paradise. - Alissa Turney was born on April 3rd 1984. Her mom was Barbara Farner; her father was Stephen Strahm. When Alissa was 3 years old, Barbara met Michael Turney, and she divorced Stephen Strahm, and Mike and Barbara got married. - It was a blended family. At times, they have been described as kind of a Brady Bunch. - Michael had three children from previous relationships, and Barbara has two children ` Alissa and her brother; and then they have a daughter, Sarah. - We didn't treat anybody differently. Like, the... My siblings are my siblings. I don't have a step. I don't have a half. - And then, to everyone's shock, Barbara is diagnosed with cancer and passes away pretty quickly thereafter. Alissa was 9 years old, and, you know, that was obviously devastating. - JAMES TURNEY: Alissa was aware. She was very, you know, upset. - You played a special role for the girls. - I like to call it the substitute role. I put off college to go up and be with them. I took care of the girls in the day when my dad was at work. - What did you know about Alissa's life as she entered her teen years? - She definitely had a very unpleasant relationship with my father, and a very, uh... tense one. - ALISSA: Stop! You're not welcome here. (DOOR SLAMS) - Michael Turney is a former sheriff's deputy, and he says he wants to protect his children, so he is very controlling of the home environment, where they go, who they see... - MICHAEL: Alissa! - You were a strict dad. - Very strict. She was just very naive to many things. It made it more of a task for a parent to protect Alissa, as` and keeping her in school. - And I thought I had strict parents. Oh my gosh. (CHUCKLES) He was very protective of her. Like, he would hardly let her go out, um, and do, like, normal things. I do remember her talking about, you know, 'I can't wait to turn 18 'and get outta here,' and stuff like that, um, but I think every teenager, you know, kind of complains about that at some point. - In these recorded phone calls from 2001, later released by police, you can hear Alissa talking to her boyfriend, John Laakman. - ANA GARCIA: There are records that indicate that Alissa had been thinking about going to California for some time. In fact, for her driver's ed essay, she calculated how long and how far it would be to drive to California. - Alissa still had nine months to go until her 18th birthday, but friends and family wondered if maybe she had had enough of Dad's rules. Her brother, James, says he noticed a shift in her in the weeks before she disappeared. - She said, 'James, can we go for a walk?' Well, she just broke down crying. I just remember her saying she was scared and that she wanted to come and live with me. - Mike called me and said he could not control Alissa anymore and if I could take her, if she can come and stay with me for the summer. I told him, 'Sure. I'll take her.' ON PHONE: You know what, Alissa? - ALISSA ON PHONE: Yeah? - You ever wanna come out and visit me, I'm right here. - OK. - OK? - Uh-huh. - I love you. - I love you. - He called me right after she ran away. And, you know, I wanted to believe she ran away, you know? They were having problems. - But Alissa's aunt never hears from her, and as more time passes, Alissa's closest friends and family say they believe something is terribly wrong. - Staying hidden for a prolonged period of time is very difficult. Very few people are able to do that. This is a very typical American teenager, and she had a wide variety of people that she interacted with on a regular basis, and all of that was cut off abruptly. (TELEPHONE RINGS) - And finally, there's a phone call. (MAN PICKS UP RECEIVER, RINGING STOPS) - Could this be news of Alissa? - The phone call that Alissa's stepdad says he received from her as soon as we come back. (DRAMATIC NEWS STING) (DRAMATIC NEWS STING) Welcome back. Her friends say 17-year-old Alissa Turney would not have run away without her phone and without ever getting in touch with them. Her stepdad, Michael, the main parent she lives with, is relentless in his efforts to find her. But as time goes by and more about their difficult relationship comes to light, suspicion grows that he may be the one who actually knows where she is ` and then there's a confession from somebody else. - ANA GARCIA: And then, a week after her disappearance, really early in the morning, Michael gets a phone call. (TELEPHONE RINGS) - What did she say? - I said, you know, 'Is this you, Alissa?' And then she, uh, said a few cuss words and stuff about, 'Leave me alone,' and then the phone went dead. - They had this really short conversation, after which she hung up. - He calls the police, and he tells the police, 'I just got a call from Alissa.' He asked them to please try and trace this call, and the police don't. - ASHLEY HOLDEN: It looks like a runaway case, and that's how Phoenix Police treated it. - What's the Phoenix Police Department doing? - Nothing. - Nothing? - No. - Michael Turney is determined to obtain a record of that phone call and actually sues the phone company ` he sues Qwest ` and eventually, they release the raw data. - Records reveal the 29-second call came from a payphone in Riverside, California. Remember ` Alissa's aunt, who lives just an hour from that payphone, had offered to take her in. - Michael Turney goes to California, goes to the location of that phone booth, and he starts handing out these flyers with Alissa's picture on it, trying to get information, but he doesn't find anyone who recalls seeing her at any point. - At some point... once we knew she was 18... that if Alissa were able to, that she would have made some kind of contact with someone in our family. And we held on to that. We held on to that for that whole year, hoping that that's just what was going to happen. - McHENRY: The days turn to months; months turn into years. Her friends graduate. Some of them move out of state. Some people start to think that maybe she really did get away. - You were basically handling the disappearance of your daughter... - Oh, yeah. I` - ...alone? Alone? - With my background, I did most of the investigation ` cos it's too expensive. You know, I went through close to $20,000 looking for Alissa and wore out several vehicles. - After a few years, did you begin to think, 'She's not around; she's dead'? - Yes. I began to fear the worst. - A photograph is one of the most powerful tools that we have to engage with the public. Below the age of 18, we do an age progression about once every two years, and then over the age of 18, we do an age progression about once every five years. That just gives us another opportunity every couple of years to re-engage with the media. - ASHLEY HOLDEN: In 2006, there was a time when Alissa's picture was run with a blurb of information. - Then a stunning admission from thousands of miles away. - ASHLEY HOLDEN: Thomas Hymer starts reaching out to law enforcement agencies and saying, 'I'm gonna make you famous. I am a serial killer.' - He goes on to claim to have killed 20 or so different women throughout the United States, and one of them is Alissa Turney. - There was some evidence that maybe Thomas Hymer... was being genuine. Some of the things that he said weren't things that were nationally known, like her shoes, some jewellery ` stuff like that. - McHENRY: The FBI handed over that information to the Phoenix Police Department. - DETECTIVE SOMERSHOE: Once we had his confession, I and a polygrapher flew down to Florida, where he was in prison. - Almost immediately, his story falls apart concerning Alissa Turney. - One of the other women Hymer confessed to killing was Jaycee Dugard. - REPORTER: She's been found ` held captive, living in deplorable conditions. - Jaycee was famously found alive in 2009 after being held captive for 18 years. - So Thomas Hymer's credibility fell apart regarding Alissa Turney and continued to fall apart regarding the other women he confessed to. - In this weird way, this false confession about what happened to Alissa Turney actually changes the direction of this case. Detectives Somershoe and Andersen realise this was never investigated, and they have a lot of questions that they want answers to. - She had saved $1800, which was a good sum of money for a teenager in 2001, and she didn't use any of it. - When people run away, they don't leave a note to say where they're going, cos they don't wanna be found. - ASHLEY HOLDEN: Detective William Andersen and Detective Stuart Somershoe start doing things police had never done ` interviewing family, interviewing friends. - Living with her dad, she was like... She was afraid of him, but it wasn't like... she wanted to get away, because she... was used to it. - This very, uh, friendly, happy person around, you know, me and my friends or` or with her close friends. Um... Obviously things were different at home. - She did make comments a few times of being scared of him and made comments that she felt like he was going to kill her. - DETECTIVE SOMERSHOE: OK. And did she literally say that? He`? - She literally said, 'I feel like he's going to kill me.' - What did you think happened to her? - I think her stupid stepdad did something ridiculous and terrible to her. - The friends, when we ask, 'Is there anything negative in her life?' they continually point out her relationship with her stepfather. - DETECTIVE SOMERSHOE: So you saw cameras inside the house? - Yeah. - Do you remember where they were at? - And outside. - Michael Turney, it turns out, had several cameras installed that appeared to record just about everything that went on there. - There was` Well, there was one in the carport... - Mm-hm? - ...and there was one on the outside of the house, and then... there's the vent to go down the hall ` there was one in there. - You have to remember ` in 2001, when Alissa disappears, this is not the age of Ring doorbell cameras, of having a puppy cam in your house; this is a time that no one really has surveillance or security footage at their home. - MALE INTERVIEWEE: ...what he said was a security camera, but she knew he was watching her like that. - Why did you record so much? - The videos are recorded because I love my family. Those are home videos that I've recorded since I can remember. - But weren't these surveillance cameras in the house? - Yeah, there's very few of those. - Those aren't home videos. - No, those aren't home videos. Those are for my` protection of my house. - So for security? - Yeah, most of it's for security. Why? Because I wanna spy on everybody? (CHUCKLES) - Your father said these cameras were for security, for safety. - I don't think the one inside the house was for safety. When you look at the videotapes, especially from the past, in our home movies, the focus on one individual as the years got later was disturbing. - And the focus was Alissa? - Was Alissa. - 'Hold on a second. If you have this videotape, 'do you have any videotapes 'of the day that Alissa went missing?' And Michael Turney says to police, 'No. I don't have it.' - There was nothing on the tape. They were told that. I saved it and said, 'You want me to give you this tape?' A detective told me, 'No, man. This is just a runaway. 'I don't need all that stuff.' - What she was wearing, what time she left ` all those things are important. But the fact that it was missing was, in the minds of detectives, even more important. (UNSETTLING MUSIC) - Police say they learn that Michael Turney also records many, if not most of, all the outgoing and incoming phone calls. (CLICK!) - Since pretty much the 1970s, he had a wiretapping device. (LINE RINGS) It's unclear why, but he listened in on her phone calls. (ALISSA LAUGHS OVER PHONE) - She was talking about running away, so monitor phone calls ` which is not really, uh, providing her privacy; she was very upset over that. But, uh, I didn't know what else to do. I'm a single parent. Her mother's dead. - So now police are asking, 'Is it possible that you have a recording of that phone call 'that you say Alissa made to you early that morning?' - No. It was` When Alissa called, it was like 4, 5 o'clock in the morning. And, you know, if I don't reset the tape, then I have to do it that morning and reset it, turn the tape over. - It would've been great to have that tape. (UNEASY MUSIC) - Seven years had already passed when detectives finally sat down with Alissa's friends, and they learned about some disturbing incidents she told them occurred. - The most ominous story that's come out, it involved Alissa going for a drive with her stepfather. He's teaching her how to drive. - DETECTIVE SOMERSHOE: What did she say happened? - I think the story was pulled over somewhere and... tried fooling around with her, and she got, you know, aggressive, fighting about it, and I guess he ended it and they went home. - And then, uh, waking up with somebody trying to gag her, identifying her stepfather as trying to do that. - And then he threatened to... for her basically not to tell anybody, because nobody would believe her over him. - A lot of those stories, it seemed like... they're now saying this for the first time. If they knew about that information in 2001, why wouldn't they come forward? - Did you ever do anything sexual with your stepdaughter? - No. Why would I do that? They have no proof whatsoever ` anything other than rumours, innuendos and lies. - If they have no proof, that doesn't mean you didn't do it. - Well, it` (SIGHS) Again, there's only two people that can confirm whether I did it or didn't, and one is me and the other's Alissa. Alissa's not here, and I'm sitting here, and all I can say ` till Hell freezes over ` I didn't do a damn thing to my daughter. (UNSETTLING MUSIC) - The detectives from the Phoenix Police Department say they also find it very curious that Michael Turney refuses to sit down for a police interview. - I've never refused to talk to the Phoenix Police Department. I told 'em to stop calling me every day, OK, with petty stuff that had nothing to do with Alissa other than just trying to keep me agitated. - He said multiple times that he'd be more than happy to sit down with them, but he wasn't gonna do it at the police station. He'd have done it at his house. He wanted a recording of it. - Detectives Somershoe and Andersen, they begin to accumulate enough evidence to establish probable cause that she's dead and Michael Turney was the last person to see her. - You decide to search this house. Why was that important? - We're looking specifically to recover that eight-hour tape from the last day she was living, the audiotape from the day she called, the original runaway note ` we want to have that. - So detectives get a search warrant. - When they went up to investigate, boy, did they find all kinds of other stuff inside that home. - The shocking discoveries at Michael's home that will land him in jail ` but not for Alissa. Stay with us. (DRAMATIC NEWS STING) (DRAMATIC NEWS STING) You're with 20/20. Welcome back. Michael Turney's now the main suspect in the disappearance of his stepdaughter, Alissa, several years before. Her friends told police about his creepy behaviour with the 17-year-old ` recording her phone calls and almost constantly watching her via security cameras in their home. So, finally, seven years after she vanished, police get a search warrant for Michael's home. - Detectives arrived at the Turney home, search warrant in hand, a psych team advising and a SWAT team at the ready. When Michael Turney emerged and made his way to his mailbox, the team approached. It turns out Turney was armed ` two guns, seven magazines of ammunition, a knife, and he was also carrying a recording device. Inside the home ` even more surprises. (TENSE MUSIC) - Upon entering the house, it was immediately noteworthy for the disarray. There were piles everywhere. There were guns lined up all along the hallway and in just about every room. - REPORTER: A sleepless night for 100 neighbours. - NEIGHBOUR: It was pretty... pretty scary. - While you're searching the house, you find...? - Improvised explosive devices ` a number of manufactured pipe bombs. We had to evacuate not just that house but that entire block. - Mike's portrayal of himself is a good family man, you know? Yet he's crafting 26 pipe bombs in his house. - The one that was 2ft long and had 20lb of nails in it ` that is going to kill you, maim you, possibly destabilise your home. - And it's not just the bombs. It's` There was a detailed plot to use these bombs. - OTTAVIA McHENRY: He talks about blowing up a union hall, killing at least 12 union members. - MIKE WATKISS: I think Phoenix Police said it was the largest cache of IEDs that they had ever encountered. - What about Alissa? You know, how did this turn affect her case? - This actually complicated it, cos we go from speaking to the concerned father to now he's a suspect in a bombing plot. So it's a problem. - We now have information that her stepfather's planning a mass murder. So does that make him even more of a suspect? Yeah. - Yes. - Did you look for forensic evidence, and did you find that? - Yes, we did an in-depth forensic review of that home. We did luminol; we're looking for blood, we're looking for body fluids; we check through the backyard, but no violent crime scene is identified. - Cos you got this guy that seems to fit all the profile. Can you put him at the scene of the crime? - We didn't choose Mike Turney; the investigation pointed toward Mike Turney. - DETECTIVE SOMERSHOE: Do you understand these rights? 'And he refused to talk to me.' - Turney is arrested for unlawful possession of unregistered explosive devices; four counts possession, uh, the bombs being the most important; an attempt to blow up a building used in federal commerce. - Michael Turney wouldn't talk to the FBI. He wouldn't talk to the Phoenix Police Department, but there is one person he did speak with. - Mr Turney, how are you? I'm John Quinones. - It's a good day. I really appreciate what you're doin'. Been waiting seven, eight years for this opportunity to talk about my daughter. I've been trying to bring some large-scale or, uh, national news to my missing daughter, Alissa. - You think she might still be alive? - There is a hope in the back of my mind. It's very bleak, but I do hope she's still alive. 'Course I do. - 'He sat down with me.' What struck you about that decision of his? - It's theatre. - He enjoys the attention. So being on national TV was kind of a thrill for him. - Police say you were going to bomb the local union hall. You weren't gonna do that? - Not in the least bit. Why? I'm gonna murder a bunch of innocent people? That sounds insane. - What did you have in your house? - Firecrackers ` a few things to make some noise, start a fire... so when I blew my head off at least it would make some kind of noise and maybe national news would pick it up. I wanted the attention brought to Alissa. - DETECTIVE SOMERSHOE: We're looking at thousands of hours' manpower time just going through this stuff. - Phoenix Police had many people that were working on this, trying to figure out... do we have that final piece of video that showed them what happened to Alissa? - As the detectives start interviewing friends of Alissa's... - Mm-hm. - ...some disturbing things start to surface. - Oh, yeah. - ALISSA: You're not welcome here. (DOOR SLAMS, MICHAEL CHUCKLES) - That you were very controlling... - Yes. - ...and very strict; that you had her sign contracts. - One of the contracts gave extensive detail about what she agreed to do or not to do until she was 18. It included all kinds of specifics about sexual conduct. Another document was a statement indicating that she agreed he had never physically or sexually abused her. - She would have to initial that and sign it in front of a notary and have it stamped. - They were incredibly disturbing and way outside the bounds of even a protective parent/child contract. - Do you feel that went far beyond what a normal parent would do? - Oh, depends on who you talk to. If it would avoid anything happened to my daughter, yes. I don't think it was far beyond. At the time` I look back at it, because she ran away as a result of that ` yeah, 'course I feel bad about it. - The only reason I can think of for someone to do that would be so if the child later came forward and said, 'Yes, X happened,' he could say, 'No, but you signed this thing saying it didn't happen.' - Michael Turney eventually pled guilty to unlawful possession of unregistered destructive devices ` those pipe bombs. The other charges were dismissed as part of his plea deal. - He was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. - It's been 15 years since Alissa Turney went missing. Detectives are still investigating, but they say they've never had enough solid evidence to charge her stepfather, Michael Turney, or anyone else in the case. But someone new was about to start asking questions. - OTTAVIA McHENRY: 'I watched an ABC News special about Alissa Turney. 'I couldn't understand why it hadn't been solved yet.' This is Missing Alissa, a podcast documentary series about the unsolved case of a missing girl. - Ottavia was scouring the police reports looking for anything unusual, and she found a 2009 interview that police had conducted with Michael Turney's nephew, a man named David. - ON RECORDING: I feel guilty a lot of ways... - This is Michael's nephew, David. - ...that I didn't do anything to help that girl. - He was very forthcoming... and told me this story about when he crashed at his uncle's house for a little bit following a divorce, and he says he put in a VHS tape and that he saw this weird footage of a woman laying down, nude from the waist up, with a newspaper partially covering her face, and he said he could've sworn that he recognised her ` Alissa. - Detective Somershoe interviews him. - I-I knew it was her. It` It had to be. Because you could see the profile of her face ` her nose, her mouth... - Mm. - ...the colour of her hair. (UNSETTLING MUSIC) - By the time Ottavia's podcast was released, Michael Turney was a free man after having served about 10 years for that federal weapons charge. - I knew it was very unlikely that he would speak to me. However, I did end up making that phone call. ON PHONE: Yeah, he said that he saw a videotape in which Alissa was naked, and also another girl ` just two teenage girls lying on the couch, naked. - MICHAEL, SCOFFING: Really? - Yeah. He said that that was the reason why he left. - He didn't leave, ma'am. I told him to` I had to ask him to leave. - Well, but what do you think about this? - Are you nuts? - What do you think about this? - Oh, come on. This is why I don't wanna talk to you ` because you're full of (BLEEP)! - Although David's claim is disturbing, Phoenix detectives say that in all of their searching of the Turney home, they never found that video. And recently, Michael sat down with us again. - Never existed. He was delusional on things. Did this stuff happen? Did he see a film like it? If he did, it certainly wasn't one of mine. - For years, Michael Turney's other daughter, Sarah, stood by her father, but by the time Ottavia had tracked her down for her podcast, Sarah's feelings had changed. - SARAH TURNEY: Things like he took her out of school early that day, and the molestation ` I had never heard those things before. I wasn't totally on board with it at first, but slowly it just made more and more sense to me that it was probably him. - And she keeps putting pressure on the Phoenix Police to do something. - Let me tell you why I'm even here. - She takes to social media, she starts putting up videos on TikTok, and people start following her. And so she makes this decision to meet with her father, and she decides to record their conversation secretly. - Telling someone that you're going to give them answers on your deathbed... that makes people feel like... 'Why? 'Why won't you answer this question? Why does it have to wait?' - Quite simply, the answers that you've gotten from day one until the day I'm on a deathbed and die are gonna be the same. It's not gonna change. I didn't do these things. - But Sarah Turney kept the public pressure on. She even started her own podcast. - My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices For Justice. (TENSE MUSIC) - She starts being even more vocal about Alissa's case, and she wants charges. - Everybody's waiting for that smoking-gun piece of evidence, something that actually puts Michael Turney as the responsible party in the murder of Alissa. - And then, at long last, the arrest is made ` but making the case against Michael is a whole other problem. We'll be right back. (DRAMATIC NEWS STING) (DRAMATIC NEWS STING) Welcome back. Michael Turney's been the main suspect for many years in the disappearance of his teenage stepdaughter, Alissa. Even his other children now think he should be charged. But proving his guilt when there's no body and no physical evidence is a challenge, and the judge makes a stunning move that surprises absolutely everyone. - Today, I am announcing the grand jury indictment for second-degree murder of Michael Roy Turney. - Mr Turney has maintained his innocence since 2000, and his intention is to see that through in court. - ANA GARCIA: Michael Turney pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charge. - When prosecutors announced charges, most people were wondering ` what's the smoking-gun evidence that finally moved the case forward? Well, it turns out there wasn't really anything new. - They have a lot of circumstantial evidence. Is it the critical mass they need to overlook the one glaring deficiency ` no crime scene; no body? - Cos you have to actually establish that the person is dead. That is an uphill battle. - 22 years after Alissa went missing, Michael Turney's day in court arrived. - The defendant came to Alissa's school and picked her up and took her out early. She never showed up again. - It was frustrating. For a... over two-decade investigation, thousands of pieces of evidence, and some evidence can't get in. - Some of the things that Alissa's friends told investigators that Alissa told them was hearsay, and it was inadmissible. - With the sexual abuse allegations, we felt that it was hearsay. We felt that there was no corroborating evidence to support that ` just someone saying, 'Oh, this happened.' So, ultimately, the judge agreed with us. - Michael Turney's defence team painted Alissa as a rebel, as someone who did drugs, as a partier, as someone who would run away and not look back. - The defence tried to keep out his strange parenting style, but the judge allowed it to come in. - At first glance, they obviously sound really bad. And we had, you know, years of conversations with` with Michael about these contracts, about why he did them. In his mind, these contracts are something that could be good. - The prosecution was determined to keep the focus squarely on Michael Turney. They played a disturbing recording that they claim showed him disparaging Alissa. - That was a gut punch inside of the courtroom, to hear him talk about his stepdaughter in that manner. - That phone call was something that... even talking to him, he was embarrassed about. People say things all the time that they don't mean. You know, you're frustrated with your child. Now, this was to the extreme ` I'll admit that. - And we had heard that Michael Turney might take the stand. - At this time, Your Honour, the state rests. At that point in time, the defendant would normally have the opportunity to present his defence. - Ms Hicks. - OLIVIA HICKS: Your Honour, Defence has a Rule 20 motion. Would the court like us to address that first? The defence can ask the judge to enter a judgement of acquittal under what we call Rule 20. - The defence is saying that the state hasn't proven their case. They're saying that there's not even enough evidence for a jury to even go back into the deliberation room. This is a standard procedure that happens after the state rests its case. Nine times out of ten, this is denied. - HICKS: The state has not presented any substantial evidence that Alissa is deceased and that Mike caused her death. The state's case rests entirely on speculation, character evidence and rumours. - We don't have to prove how he killed her. We don't have to prove whether he strangled her, whether he beat her, whether he struck her. All we have to prove is that he killed her, and there is circumstantial evidence that he did. - JUDGE MYERS: The court is deciding whether a reasonable inference can be made that the defendant caused or engaged in conduct that resulted in Alissa's death. The court is unable to make that finding. The court has considered the evidence and finds that substantial evidence does not exist to warrant a conviction. It's ordered granting defendant's motion for a Rule 20 judgement of acquittal. I will order the defendant released. - He actually threw the case out and acquitted Michael Turney. - That was the jaw-drop moment. We thought there was a possibility of a not-guilty. Had no idea that the judge was going to be the judge and the jury in this case. - It is exceedingly unusual that a judge makes a finding like this. All of a sudden, the case is over. - HICKS: Michael cried when we told him that he was acquitted and that he was going home. - I think the first thing he said is he couldn't hear, and so I had to go` - Yeah, that's true. - I had to go around the other side and tell him in the other ear, (CHUCKLES) and then he said that. - He was like, 'What` What just happened?' Like, 'You're going home. The judge acquitted you.' - I was shocked. I really was. I just sat back in total disbelief, and I went on and on and I'm lookin' around thinkin' to myself, 'Is this real? This can't be real. This` It's going to end here, now?' - What was going through your minds? - Abject failure. Again, it's` it's disappointment. I've always known that a no-body homicide is so significantly difficult to prove that I may not convince all those jurors. I could've had a` - The lack of a body? - Yes. I could have had a hung jury. I could have gotten a not-guilty. But for it to be cut off before ever going to a jury ` I didn't see that coming. So, I mean, that was especially painful. - What was that moment like for you? - It was an incredibly... long period. It felt like everything slowed down. Other people near me were reaching out to me to comfort me, because I was shaking. And I don't shake. - It's unfortunate and emotional for me. If an individual said, 'Well, he was acquitted, so that means he didn't kill Alissa, right?' No. That means there wasn't enough evidence to convict him. - Michael did not do this. - I believe what happened was that she ran away and something bad happened to her. And we believe that the judge did the right thing ` that legally, that was the correct decision. - Did it exonerate me from what my children were thinking, the negative stuff that they were fed? No. That damage is done. It never can be re` It might someday recover itself, but that's only gonna happen if we find Alissa. - REPORTER: Acquitted in the death of his stepdaughter, Alissa Turney, and this morning, he walked out of jail a free man. - This is a man who was walking out of jail for the first time in three years. How does it feel to be released today? - It doesn't feel good, because I lost my family. - And Michael Turney tells us he's now ready to return to his mission. - I've still gotta look for my daughter. She's probably in some foreign country somewhere. We should be looking at that. - So Michael remains stubborn in his mission ` but after the break, we see the fallout for the rest of Alissa's family. (DRAMATIC NEWS STING) (DRAMATIC NEWS STING) You're back with 20/20. Michael Turney's been acquitted of murdering Alissa, but not by a jury ` the judge intervened before they could even deliberate, saying the prosecution hadn't done enough to make a case. So now the rest of her family has to deal with the repercussions of that decision as they continue to hope for justice. - Every day that I went to court, I was very aware that we were talking about Alissa Turney, her life and her family's life. Even after this trial was done, as we pack up the cameras, they still deal with it every single day, and they're waking up without answers. - Two days after Michael Turney was acquitted, his children released an emotional and pointed family statement through Sarah's podcast. - SARAH, TEARFULLY: To Alissa ` I love you, and I'm sorry. You moved mountains to protect me from the reality of our lives. - Sarah did an incredible job. I think without her, it would never have even gotten to the trial stage. - In his part of the recorded statement, Alissa's brother James left no room for doubt about whether he believes justice was served. - JAMES: We would like to specifically thank Detective Somershoe and Detective Andersen for doing an amazing job. They did all they could have done. Unfortunately, that is where our praise for the system ends. - And the result was that there was no justice, in your mind, in your opinion? - There was no justice in this case. - How do you keep going? How do you hold on to hope for answers? And that is what the family has said that they'll do. - I've still gotta look for my daughter. She's most likely not here; she's probably in some foreign country somewhere, if she's caught up in this human trafficking sex trade. We should be looking at that, not running around persecuting a father that they know damn well they have no evidence on. That's insane! Alissa's gone. No proof that I had murdered her. Never was. (BROODING MUSIC) - The saddest part of this entire case is that to this day, we don't know anything more about what happened to Alissa Turney. Despite charges, trials, podcasts, interviews, we still do not know what happened to Alissa. - It's one of those cases that will... till the day I die I'll probably think about, and, you know, second-guess myself whether` Was there was something else I could have done, some other place I could've looked? It haunts me. - Stays with you? - Yeah, it's... it stays with you. - How do you want Alissa to be remembered? - (INHALES, SIGHS HEAVILY) I want her to be remembered as having an incredible smile, her being able to have a blast out of almost anything. She was famous for sticking her tongue out at you... (JAMES, QUINONES CHUCKLE) ...in a way of saying, 'Hey, I'm here.' - And because Michael Turney was fully acquitted by the judge, double jeopardy laws prevent him from ever again facing second-degree murder charges for Alissa's death. And that's our show for tonight. Thank you so much for joining us this Monday. Until next week ` kia ora; nga mihi. ('20/20' THEME) Captions by Maeve Kelly. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023