South-Carolina

South Carolina father filmed finding 5-year-old son’s body in 1989 charged with his murder

Published

2 years ago

January 12, 2024

South Carolina father filmed finding 5-year-old son’s body in 1989 charged with his murder

Investigators long thought a 5-year-old South Carolina boy found strangled in 1989 was killed by his father and stepmother. But it took 34 years of scientific advancement to link microscopic fibers found on the boy’s shirt to a ligature that investigators located at the couple’s home, a sheriff said.

Victor Lee Turner, 69, and Megan R. Turner, 63, have been charged with murder in the death of 5-year-old Justin Turner, Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis said at a news conference Wednesday.

The boy’s body was found inside a cabinet in a camper behind the Turner home in March 1989.

Investigators immediately thought the killing scene had been staged and caught the couple in lies, including that he had gotten on the school bus the morning he disappeared, Lewis said. Megan Turner was charged with murder shortly after the boy’s death, but prosecutors dropped the charge, with the condition that they could refile it if more evidence emerged.

Scientific advancements, combined with evidence collected in 1989, was the push needed, the sheriff said.

Tiny fibers from a ligature that investigators found at the home shortly after the boy’s disappearance were found to match those found on the boy’s shirt, sheriff’s deputies said in the arrest warrants.

“That enabled us to tie in the murder weapon that we believe was used to strangle Justin to clothing and fabric on his clothing at the time of his death,” Lewis said.

Investigators suspected the Turners from the beginning, based not only on the ligature, but the couple’s behavior. Other possible evidence was that food from a dinner the family had eaten the night before Justin was reported missing was found during an autopsy to be only partially digested. Investigators said that indicated the boy was killed not long after he ate. The couple said the last time they saw Justin alive was the next morning as they got him ready for school.

The child’s body was found two days after he was reported missing. Just as a massive search was getting underway, Victor Turner entered the camper as a TV camera filmed him and seconds later said he found the body among the many cabinets and drawers in the camper, deputies said.

Turner didn’t check to see if the boy was alive, instead backing out and saying someone had hurt him, according to the statement.

“He looked dead. I could feel something was wrong with him. I did not touch him,” Turner later told investigators.

Before the body was discovered, a witness said Turner asked a law enforcement official what might happen to a family member who had harmed the boy, deputies said.

Deputies said the couple do not have lawyers. They are being held without bail at the Berkeley County jail after being arrested at their home in Laurens County, about a three-hour drive away.

The sheriff said deputies gave them ample time to talk during the ride after reading them their rights, but they chose not to.

“I never got one phone call — one phone call — from his daddy or his stepmother. ‘What are y’all doing about my son’s death?’ Not one. What does that tell you?” Lewis said.

Several members of the boy’s family were at the news conference, including Amy Parsons, who was 8 when her cousin died. She said while many of her relatives grieved and cried and demanded justice — including the boy’s mother, who has since died — the Turners moved away and disconnected.

“Put these two people where they deserve to be because they walked for 34 years,” Parsons said. “They had freedom for 34 years while our family suffered.”

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South-Carolina

What Happened Last Time Texas A&M Played South Carolina?

Published

20 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Press Room

What Happened Last Time Texas A&M Played South Carolina?

Week 10 of the 2026 college football campaign sees the Texas A&M Aggies in the second game of a three-week road trip across the Southeast, this time heading to Columbia, South Carolina for a match with Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks.

The last time the two teams met, it was a clash between an undefeated Aggies team and a Gamecocks squad that had absolutely nothing to lose, and resulted in high-running emotions, questions as to whether or not Marcel Reed deserved his Heisman Trophy hype, and even an odd interaction between a South Carolina player and a state trooper that was working the sidelines of the game.

Oh, and also the greatest football comeback in Texas A&M program history.

The Great Comeback at Kyle Field

Texas A&M Aggies wide receiver KC Concepcion (7) runs with the ball past South Carolina Gamecocks defensive back Vicari Swain (4) during the fourth quarter at Kyle Field. | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

The Aggies already had revenge fresh on their minds from the 2024 meeting between the two teams, which saw the Gamecocks hand the Ags an embarrassing 44-20 loss to halt their seven-game winning streak and serve as the catalyst for a downward spiral for A&M that resulted in them losing two of their next three games, including a four-overtime thriller against Auburn and a heartbreaking finale loss at home against the Texas Longhorns.

And the first half of the 2025 game looked like a rinse and repeat of that fateful November night in Columbia, except this time, it was in front of a jam-packed Kyle Field crowd.

South Carolina wasted no time pouring it on the Aggies, as a 17-3 first quarter score had Shane Beamer beaming with delight during an interview shortly before the second quarter.

Two field goals and an 80-yard touchdown pass from quarterback LaNorris Sellers to Nyck Harbor, and the confidence of the 12th Man in the team was crumbling, and an undefeated Aggie team was suddenly on the ropes against one of the more underperforming teams in the conference.

Unfortunately for Beamer and the Gamecocks, football has two halves in it, and very few teams perform better in the second half of a contest than the Texas A&M Aggies.

Marcel Reed wasted no time to start the second quarter, only needing three-and-a-half minutes to find Izaiah Williams down the sideline for a 27-yard touchdown, slowly bringing life back into the largest football stadium in the state, life that was temporarily zapped when Ashton Bethel-Roman dropped a walk-in touchdown pass, but was restored as ABR made a circus-like catch to come down with the ball in the end zone for a 39-yard score.

Bethel-Roman would add to his highlight reel with a 76-yard catch to bring the ball all the way to South Carolina’s 14-yard line, where Reed connected with tight end Nate Boerkircher for a touchdown, the score going from 30-3 to 30-24 in the span of a quarter.

After A&M forced a punt from the Gamecocks, they would then embark on a 10-play, 98-yard drive that culminated in a two-yard punch-in from EJ Smith, completing A&M’s comeback and giving them their first lead of the afternoon.

However, there were still nearly 11 minutes left in the game, and a fumble from running back Jamarion Morrow with three minutes to go did not do the College Station crowd any favors.

Thankfully for the Aggies, they had a dynamic duo of defensive linemen in Tyler Onyedim and Cashius Howell, who each recorded sacks on the ensuing drive, and Howell chased Sellers out of bounds on 4th & 16 to force a turnover on downs, sealing the game, keeping the Aggies undefeated, and capping off the greatest comeback in the history of Texas A&M football.

The Aggies and Gamecocks meet again in Columbia on November 7, where A&M has not won since serving up a 48-3 pummeling of South Carolina back in 2020.

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