California

Alissa Turney finished her junior year at Paradise Valley High School in Phoenix on May 17, 2001. Her stepfather, Michael Turney, a former sheriff’s deputy, picked her up early. That evening a note on her dresser said she had left for California. She had $1,800 saved for that trip, and none of it was ever withdrawn.

Police treated her as a runaway, and no real investigation followed until a false confession reopened the file and Phoenix police declared foul play in 2008. Investigators later learned that Michael had wired the house for audio and video and kept recordings of Alissa, though none existed from the day she vanished. In 2008 a search of his home turned up twenty-six pipe bombs, rifles and a van packed with gasoline, along with a long document laying out a plan to attack an electrical workers’ union hall. He was sentenced to ten years in federal prison and released in 2017.

Sarah Turney’s podcast and social media campaign pushed the case back into public view, and in August 2020 a grand jury indicted Michael for second-degree murder. The trial opened in July 2023. Before it reached the jury, Judge Sam Myers granted a defense motion and entered a judgment of acquittal. Alissa has never been found.