SOLVED: South Carolina Cold Case | Justin Lee Turner, 5 | Child Vanishes on Way to School(1989–2024)

On the morning of March 3rd, 1989, 5-year-old Justin Lee Turner began his day like any other kindergartener.

He ate a quick breakfast, reportedly a bowl of his favorite cinnamon cereal, and got ready for school in rural Berkeley County, South Carolina.

Justin lived with his biological father, Victor Turner, and his stepmother, Pamela Turner, in a modest home near Monk’s Corner.

His daily routine involved walking down the dirt road to a neighbor’s house where he would catch the school bus along with other local children.

But that Friday morning, something went terribly wrong.

Justin never made it to the neighbor’s driveway to meet the bus.

The blonde, blue-eyed boy vanished somewhere along the short path between his front door and the bus stop, leaving no immediate clues as to what had happened.

When the school bus arrived at Whitesville Elementary that morning without Justin aboard, his fellow kindergarten classmates noticed his absence.

Initially, the children assumed Justin must have stayed home sick.

After all, it was unlike him to miss school without notice.

However, concern began to grow when afternoon came, and Justin still hadn’t appeared.

That day after school, a neighbor’s grandson, who was Justin’s best friend and bus buddy, recalled that Justin’s stepmother came around 4:30 or 5:00 p.m.

asking if anyone had seen him.

He told her that Justin hadn’t been on the bus that day and that he assumed Justin was home ill.

At that moment, the gravity of the situation became clear.

Justin was missing.

Pamela Turner immediately phoned 911 to report that her stepson had never returned home from school.

The peaceful routine of the rural neighborhood shattered as everyone realized something was very wrong.

Before we proceed, please tap like to help more people see this case.

Subscribe to Cold Case Desk and turn on all notifications so you never miss a new investigation.

And tell us in the comments where you’re watching from.

Berkeley County Sheriff’s Deputies James Gaither and Philip Mason responded promptly to Pamela’s 911 call.

It was early evening on March 3rd when law enforcement and neighbors began scouring the area for any sign of Justin.

The search kicked off around the Turner property on Horseshoe Road, a wooded rural area south of the town of Cross.

Family members, neighbors, and officers fanned out along the road and into the surrounding fields and woods, calling Justin’s name.

Flashlights cut through the gathering dusk as worry mounted with each passing hour that the sweet amiable 5-year-old could be lost or worse abducted.

In those first frantic hours, no stone was left unturned.

Deputies and volunteers searched the Turner’s house and yard, checked inside vehicles and outbuildings, and even crawled beneath the home.

They combed the dense pine forests nearby in a grid pattern and dredged ponds in case the child had fallen in.

Tracking dogs and rescue teams were brought in to assist as darkness fell, intensifying the urgency.

Friends and family desperately tried to recall if Justin had ever wandered off before.

He had not, or if anyone saw anything unusual that morning.

But in the tight-knit community where everyone knew each other, no one reported spotting any strangers or hearing any disturbances, it was as if Justin had vanished into thin air on his short walk to the bus stop.

By the next day, Saturday, March 4th, the search effort had grown exponentially.

Over 100 people joined in the hunt for the missing boy, including Berkeley County Sheriff’s deputies, local police, firefighters, and civilian volunteers.

Search and rescue units scoured a widening radius around the Turner property.

Neighbors kept their eyes peeled and their doors unlocked, hoping the little boy might wander up looking for help.

But Justin was nowhere to be found.

Fear and anxiety gripped the community of Monk’s Corner.

Parents kept their children indoors, and one worried grandfather in the neighborhood even insisted that his own young grandson not play in the front yard until the mystery was solved.

He would only allow the child to play in the fenced backyard under watchful eyes.

The notion that a child could disappear in broad daylight on a quiet country road left residents on edge.

Rumors swirled.

Had Justin run away.

Unlikely.

He was only five and not known to wander.

Was it a custody kidnapping by a family member? Possibly given a recent divorce in the family.

or worst of all, had a predator snatched him off the road? The latter possibility made everyone shudder, as it implied a sinister stranger could be lurking in their midst.

Gaz searchers pressed on into a second night with no trace of Justin.

The case increasingly looked like an abduction.

Berkeley County Sheriff’s Latin Sydney Ren, who had been one of the lead investigators, later remarked how dozens of investigators were on the property all weekend long without finding the boy.

This raised a troubling question.

If Justin was there to be found, how had everyone missed him? Conversely, if he truly wasn’t on the property, that meant someone had taken him far away.

With each hour that passed, Justin’s family grew more frantic.

His mother’s relatives, in particular, were distraught.

Justin’s maternal grandfather was actually the first in that family to hear the news, receiving a phone call on Friday afternoon that Justin hadn’t gotten off the school bus.

Family members rushed to Monk’s Corner to support the search efforts, fearing the worst, but still hoping for the best.

After two agonizing days of searching, the tense atmosphere broke with a startling discovery on Sunday morning, March 5th, 1989.

Justin’s father, Victor Turner, was combing through the family’s property yet again alongside investigators.

This time, Victor approached a travel camper that was parked on the Turner’s own land.

A camper that, by all accounts, had been checked multiple times already.

According to Latim Ren, Victor pulled open a cabinet door inside the camper and immediately shouted, “Here he is.

Here he is.” Other searchers nearby heard Victor’s panicked voice and rushed over.

Something’s in there.

Everybody, stand back,” one of the men cried out as they realized what Victor had found.

Inside a built-in storage compartment of the camper lay the small, lifeless body of Justin Turner.

The scene that unfolded was every parents nightmare.

Justin’s body was curled up inside the camper’s cabinet, as if someone had hastily hidden him there.

Victor Turner had located his own missing son, but it was far from a joyous discovery.

The little boy was clearly deceased.

As people crowded around in shock, Victor and others were ushered away and the area was taped off as a crime scene.

Some searchers broke down in tears at the grim site.

The surrounding community was devastated by the news that the bright, friendly child they’d all been praying for had been found dead right under their noses.

Even more disturbing, evidence at the scene suggested Justin had met a brutal end.

When Berkeley County deputies and forensic technicians carefully removed Justin’s body from the camper, they noted several critical details.

Justin had been strangled and showed signs of sexual assault.

An autopsy would later confirm that the boy had been killed by liature strangulation, likely with some kind of strap or leash, and he had been sexually violated with a cylindrical object.

These findings horrified even veteran investigators.

As Latin Ren would say years later, “I can’t think of a more tragic, horrendous murder of a 5-year-old boy.” The autopsy also found undigested food in Justin’s stomach, indicating he died roughly between late morning and early afternoon on March 3rd, not long after his last meal that day.

In other words, Justin was likely killed within hours of when he disappeared that Friday.

One eerie detail particularly stuck out.

Justin’s body felt unusually cold to the touch when recovered, far colder than expected, for a body that had been lying at ambient temperatures for 2 days.

Several searchers remarked on how strangely cold Justin’s remains felt, almost as if he had been refrigerated or frozen at some point before being placed in the camper.

This macab clue led investigators to speculate that the killer might have stored Justin’s body in a freezer or other cold place to slow decomposition and avoid odor while the intensive search was underway.

In fact, during their crime scene sweep of the Turner property, deputies seized a chest freezer and examined it for any evidence that a body had been inside.

They also collected various potential evidence items from a storage shed and the house, hoping to find forensic links to the crime.

Equally puzzling was how Justin’s body ended up in the camper after it had supposedly been searched multiple times.

In the frantic days of the search, numerous officers, family members, and volunteers had opened every closet and compartment in that camper, or so they thought, and found nothing.

Yet by Sunday, the boy’s corpse was unmistakably there.

This raised a chilling possibility.

Perhaps Justin’s killer had hidden his body elsewhere during those first two days, and only after searches began to wind down did the perpetrators sneak the body into the camper.

Sheriff’s investigators immediately suspected that Justin’s body had indeed been moved.

Sheriff Dwayne Lewis later confirmed that reports from the search teams indicated Justin wasn’t there before in the very spot he was found.

In other words, the area inside the camper cabinet had been empty during earlier searches, strongly suggesting that someone with access to the secured crime scene had later placed Justin’s body there.

This revelation sent shivers through everyone involved in the case.

If true, it meant that Justin’s killer was likely among those who remained in the vicinity during the search.

It also implied a brazen effort to stage or conceal the crime under the noses of law enforcement.

Investigators noted that Justin’s clothing and shoes were remarkably clean with no mud, grass, or pine needles on them despite the rural outdoors setting.

This indicated Justin probably hadn’t been running through the woods or lying exposed outside.

Instead, it appeared he had been killed indoors or in a clean area and then carried to the hiding spot in the camper, already lifeless.

The camper itself was on the Turner’s private property and usually kept locked.

According to a later affidavit, only Victor and Pamela Turner had keys and access to that camper before Justin’s body was discovered.

All of these facts pointed uncomfortably toward an insider being responsible for Justin’s death.

With the heartbreaking discovery of Justin’s body, the missing child case tragically shifted to a homicide investigation.

Berkeley County detectives joined by agents from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, Sledy, descended on the Turner’s property to process the scene.

Crime scene tape encircled the camper and the yard as forensic teams gathered evidence late into Sunday night.

They swabbed for fingerprints, collected hairs and fibers, and seized items like bedding, clothing, and that household freezer for laboratory analysis.

The search for a stranger abductor was now giving way to a harder reality, the likelihood that someone in Justin’s own household or social circle had perpetrated this horrific crime.

Almost immediately, investigators turned a suspicious eye toward Justin’s immediate family since no outsider had been seen on the rural road that morning and because of the circumstances of the body’s discovery.

Justin’s biological mother, 26-year-old Vivian Elaine Pace, often called Elaine, was considered at first not as a suspect in murder, but as a potential party to a parental abduction scenario.

Elaine and Victor Turner had gone through a bitter divorce a few years prior with Victor gaining primary custody of Justin, much to Ela’s anguish.

Elaine remained a devoted mother within the confines of her custody arrangement, maintaining frequent phone calls and weekend visits with her son, and she had openly wished to regain custody.

In cases of missing children, police often look at estranged parents.

So authorities initially had to consider whether Elaine or someone acting for her might have taken Justin.

However, that theory was quickly dispelled.

Elaine Pace had a rock solid alibi for the time of Justin’s disappearance.

Both she and her new husband Russell, sometimes reported as Randall Pace, were at their jobs in a different town on March 3rd and hadn’t been anywhere near Monk’s Corner.

When frantic Berkeley County deputies called Elaine at work that Friday asking if she knew where Justin was, her distraught response was reportedly, “I do not have my son.

Will you please find my son?” She rushed to join the search effort along with other maternal relatives.

Any notion that Justin’s mother had secretly taken him dissolved in her palpable panic and grief.

In fact, one of Justin’s cousins later recounted riding with Justin’s grandfather back to the area as soon as they got the call that Justin was missing, arriving during the active search on March 3rd.

Elaine’s side of the family was fully cooperative and just as desperate for answers as everyone else.

With the biological mother ruled out, attention swung back to the household where Justin lived, his father and stepmother.

The idea that Victor or Pamela Turner could harm Justin was an unthinkable shock to those who knew the family.

By most accounts, Justin was an affectionate child who loved both his dad and stepmom.

There had been no prior reports to social services of abuse or neglect in the Turner home.

Nonetheless, detectives could not ignore the red flags now emerging.

Pamela Turner’s initial statements contained inconsistencies.

She told investigators that she had been in the shower that morning and assumed Justin left for the bus on his own.

At first, Pamela even claimed that Justin got on the school bus and went to school that day, implying he disappeared from school grounds or on the way home.

This was quickly proven false when the school confirmed Justin never arrived that day.

Neighbors also refuted seeing Justin that morning at all.

Caught in this lie, Pamela amended her story to simply say she hadn’t seen Justin after 11 or a.m.

and only realized something was wrong when he didn’t come home on the bus that afternoon.

The shifting narrative raised suspicions that she was hiding something.

No eyewitnesses saw Justin walking to the bus stop that day, even though normally the neighbor’s grandson, Justin’s friend, also named Justin, would meet him.

The friend Justin Smith later recalled that he waited at his grandmother’s for Justin to come over as usual, but Justin never showed up.

The neighbors family also did not see Justin on the road that morning.

This suggests Justin may have never left his house that day, contrary to Pamela’s account.

Pamela Turner’s behavior raised eyebrows in the immediate aftermath.

She was the one who reported Justin missing and appeared appropriately distraught at first.

But according to later witness statements, Pamela had actually had a heated confrontation with Justin that morning before his supposed departure.

A few people told investigators that they heard or saw Pamela disciplining Justin earlier on March 3rd.

Under pressure, Pamela did admit that she’d had an argument with the 5-year-old over his behavior that morning, a detail she hadn’t shared initially.

If true, this altercation could have been a flash point leading to Justin’s death.

For example, an accidental loss of temper that went too far.

Victor Turner’s discovery of the body also invited scrutiny.

Fellow searchers were perplexed at how directly Victor zeroed in on the camper cabinet on March 5th.

Liten Ren noted that Victor pulled the cabinet right open, as if he knew where to look.

Some wondered if Victor had received a tip or if more darkly he already knew his son was there.

Additionally, just after the body was found, Victor was overheard asking a law enforcement officer, “What would happen if someone in the family had done this, a strange, incriminating question to pose at the crime scene.” Investigators noted Victor’s tone as nervous when he asked it, almost as if he was seeking reassurance or probing how the law would treat a family member who harmed Justin.

Prior searches of the camper turned up nothing, and yet when Victor entered, he found Justin within seconds.

Deputy Philip Mason, who had been among the first responders, insisted that he personally had searched the camper thoroughly on the first day.

However, when subjected to a polygraph test about the thoroughess of that search, Deputy Mason failed the lie detector.

This fueled theories that perhaps no one had actually opened that particular cabinet on day one, or worse, that someone might have interfered with the search.

It later emerged that not only did Mason claimed to search the camper, but Justin’s paternal grandmother and a neighbor had also peered inside it on day two, finding nothing a miss.

All were adamant the body was not there initially.

The unsettling implication was that the killer might have inserted Justin’s corpse into the camper after those early searches, a tactic that likely required intimate knowledge of the ongoing search and access to the property.

By March 6th, 1989, the Monday after Justin’s body was found, the investigation was honing in on Pamela Turner as the prime suspect.

Pamela agreed to take a polygraph test that day, presumably to clear herself.

The result did not go in her favor.

She failed the lie detector exam according to law enforcement accounts.

It was later noted that Pamela had taken Valium prior to the polygraph which could affect results.

So, a second test was scheduled.

Before that second attempt could happen, however, the case took a dramatic turn in the media.

The Berkeley County Sheriff at the time publicly announced to reporters that Pamela K.

Turner was being considered a suspect in Justin’s murder.

This announcement infuriated Pamela and her family.

Feeling cornered and vilified by the press before any formal charges, Pamela immediately ceased cooperating with investigators on advice of an attorney.

The planned follow-up polygraph was scrapped, and from that point on, Pamela exercised her right to remain silent.

Despite this setback, the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office continued building a circumstantial case against the stepmother.

Detectives, including Lutin Sydney Ren, believed that Pamela’s lies and inconsistent accounts, combined with her failure of the polygraph and the sheer improbability of an outside abductor, pointed strongly to her involvement in Justin’s death.

However, as Ren later lamented, no DNA evidence will ever go back to solve this case because it had a right to be where it was at.

No hair particles could ever be brought back because it had a right to be where it was at.

In other words, the forensic evidence gathered, hair, fibers, fingerprints, was largely useless for proving guilt because Justin and his family all lived in the same home.

Finding Victor’s or Pamela’s fingerprints or hair on Justin or in the camper meant nothing unusual.

There was no smoking gun like a distinct foreign fingerprint or unknown DNA profile.

Everything at the scene could be explained as belonging there under normal circumstances.

Thus, investigators were left with a case built on motive, opportunity, and behavior rather than physical proof.

Quick pause.

If this case matters to you, hit like and subscribe to Cold Case Desk.

Drop your thoughts in the comments.

What detail stands out to you most so far? With circumstantial evidence mounting, but nothing definitive, a Berkeley County grand jury convened in late 1989 to hear the case.

In December 1989, about 9 months after Justin’s death, Pamela Turner was formally charged with homicide in the death of her stepson.

She was arrested, booked into jail, and released on a $100,000 bond shortly thereafter.

This arrest brought a media firestorm as the community grappled with the idea that Justin’s stepmother might truly be a child killer.

The local newspapers headlined the shocking development, and sentiment in Monk’s Corner ran hot.

Many were convinced Pamela had done it, and there were even calls for the death penalty if she were proven guilty.

Justin’s childhood friend, Justin Smith, would later say, “I hope they find the people who did it and put them in the electric chair.” Others who knew Pamela found it hard to accept.

She had no history of violence, and caring for Justin was part of her daily life.

Pamela steadfastly proclaimed her innocence.

Meanwhile, Victor Turner was not charged at that time, although law enforcement had some lingering suspicions about his role, whether in the act itself or in covering it up.

It’s believed investigators initially lacked enough evidence to implicate Victor, and perhaps they hoped Pamela, if guilty, would crack and confess, possibly implicating Victor if he were involved.

But Pamela did not waver.

Through her attorney, she denied harming Justin and pointed out that she had raised him like her own for several years.

The community was sharply divided and the case was far from airtight.

In early 1990, during preliminary proceedings, more details about the crime emerged.

The Berkeley County Medical Examiner testified about Justin’s autopsy findings, confirming the cause of death as ligature strangulation and the signs of sexual assault.

The ME estimated Justin’s time of death to be within a window of roughly 10 a.m.

to 300 p.m.

on March 3rd based on the serial contents found in his stomach and the degree of digestion.

This suggested Justin was killed during the same span of time he was supposed to be on route to or at school, reinforcing that he never made it out of the immediate vicinity of his home that day.

A forensic analyst also refuted the earlier refrigeration theory.

Upon closer study, it was determined there was no conclusive evidence that Justin’s body had been artificially chilled.

The coldness noted could have been due to normal post-mortem cooling in the cool early spring nights of South Carolina, or simply a subjective impression by searchers.

The chest freezer seized from the Turner property revealed no blood or biological traces of Justin.

Thus, while the idea of the body being stored on ice was considered, it could not be proven and was eventually set aside by investigators.

Yet, one mystery remained.

If Pamela or anyone in the family had killed Justin inside the house that morning, how did she manage to hide the body so effectively for 2 days? The Turner’s house had been searched thoroughly, under beds, in closets, even the attic.

Nothing was found.

Some investigators theorize that Justin might have been temporarily hidden in an obscure spot on the property or even off site, for example, in that storage shed or another vehicle before being moved to the camper when it was safe.

But no one could identify a definitive hiding place.

This unanswered question made securing an indictment challenging.

In mid 1990, the Berkeley County prosecutors presented the evidence against Pamela K.

turn her to a grand jury seeking to formally indict her for murder.

The result was not what the investigators had hoped.

The grand jury refused to indict Pamela, meaning they did not find sufficient evidence to send the case to trial.

The murder charge against her was dropped.

Legally, Pamela was now free of immediate jeopardy and the case reverted to an unsolved homicide with no one held accountable.

Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office publicly stated that Pamela Turner would remain a suspect and that the case was still open.

But without an indictment, the momentum of the investigation stalled.

Pamela, for her part, was reported to have shown little reaction when the initial arrest warrant was served.

And now, after the charge was dropped, she quietly slipped out of the spotlight.

In the aftermath, Victor and Pamela Turner essentially shut down all communication with law enforcement.

Investigators noted that just days after failing their polygraph exams in 1989, the Turners hired an attorney and ceased answering detectives questions altogether.

Now, with no active charges, the Turners had even less incentive to speak.

Not long after, the couple relocated away from Berkeley County, perhaps seeking a fresh start away from the cloud of suspicion.

Pamela even legally changed her first name from Pamela to Megan in an effort to distance herself from the infamy attached to her name.

Victor and Pamela, now Megan, moved to a different county in South Carolina and lived a low-profile life for the next decades.

Notably, they never again contacted the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office to check on the status of the investigation or to inquire if new leads had emerged on Justin’s case.

To some in law enforcement, this lack of interest from the parents of a murdered child was telling.

It stood in stark contrast to Justin’s maternal relatives who continually kept in touch with authorities and pushed for the case to remain active.

With the case growing cold, a few other odd leads surfaced over the years but led nowhere.

In January 1991, for example, a six-year-old child, a neighborhood boy, claimed to have witnessed Justin’s abduction on the day he vanished.

This boy said he saw a man take Justin.

However, when detectives interviewed him, it became apparent that his story lacked consistency and was likely influenced by things he’d overheard adults saying.

Investigators concluded the child was imagining events based on community rumor and no evidence supported his account.

The lead was dismissed as unreliable.

Meanwhile, Justin’s mother, Elaine Pace, struggled with overwhelming grief and the frustration of seeing the case go unsolved.

She harbored suspicions.

In particular, Elaine believed Pamela knew more than she was saying, but concrete proof was out of reach.

Elaine became a vocal advocate for her son, regularly contacting the sheriff’s office and media to remind them that Justin’s killer was still at large.

She vowed not to let her son’s case be forgotten.

Tragically, Elaine would not live to see justice done.

In 2004, at the age of 47, Elaine Pace passed away after a long illness.

For 15 years she had fought for answers and in her final days she made her husband Russell promise to continue that fight on her behalf.

She told me not to give up.

Russell later said, “Keep it in the news.

Fight the battle for her.” He committed to fulfilling that dying wish, carrying the torch of justice for Justin even after Elaine was gone.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Justin Turner’s case remained technically open, but inactive.

However, his extended family, especially on his mother’s side, refused to let it rest.

They kept Justin’s memory alive with photos and stories, and they continued to quietly collect any bits of information or rumor they heard around Monk’s Corner.

Pamela Megan and Victor Turner living their new life were still regarded with suspicion by much of the local community.

The case gained a degree of local infamy as an unsolved child murder in which everyone think they know who did it but no one can prove it.

By 2014, on the 25th anniversary of Justin’s death, his relatives decided to take a more public stand to reignite interest in the cold case.

That year, Justin’s cousin, Amy Parsons, created a Justice for Justin Lee Turner Facebook page and began organizing efforts to put pressure on authorities to re-examine the evidence.

She and other family members gave interviews to local media, reminding the public of the innocent little boy who never got to grow up.

They emphasized that a killer had literally gotten away with murder and could still be out there.

Somebody has lived with this for now over 25 years.

Amy told reporters, “That’s a long time to live with a weight on your shoulders.

Come forward.

End it now.

It’s as simple as that.” Her plea was both to anyone who might know something and perhaps to the perpetrator’s conscience as well.

In March 2016, 27 years after the crime, Berkeley County Sheriff Dwayne Lewis met with Justin’s family and publicly announced he was reopening the cold case.

Sheriff Lewis had taken office in 2015, inheriting a stack of unsolved cases.

Justin’s case particularly stood out due to its nature and the community interest.

In that 2016 meeting, the family, including cousin Amy Parsons and others, shared all their recollections and suspicions with the sheriff’s new investigative team.

Sheriff Lewis assigned a new set of eyes to review the case file from scratch.

This included re-interviewing old witnesses where possible, examining physical evidence with fresh techniques, and following up on any leads that might have been overlooked.

The sheriff acknowledged that there were some items in the 1989 case file that he may be able to use with modern forensic testing.

That cautious optimism galvanized the family and supporters.

One of the original investigators, Latun Sydney Ren, now long retired, was consulted during this renewed effort.

Ren remained convinced that the scene had been staged and that the Turners were hiding the truth.

In interviews around that time, Ren did not mince words about his suspicions.

He found it highly suspicious that no investigator was able to find the child’s body in the camper during the initial search.

Yet, Victor found him so readily.

Ren believed that if he’d been allowed to continue pursuing Pamela back in 1990, he could have led to a considerable case against her.

Nevertheless, in 2016, Ren passed the baton to Sheriff Lewis’s cold case unit, hoping they might finally crack what he could not.

From 2016 onward, the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office cold case team methodically re-examined Justin Turner’s murder.

The renewed investigation benefited from technological advancements that hadn’t been available in 1989, such as modern DNA profiling, advanced fiber analysis, and computerized databases for offenders.

Forensic experts took another look at the physical evidence stored in the case, clothing, the suspected liature, hair samples, etc.

In addition, the sheriff’s office digitized and reviewed hours of old witness interviews and police reports.

Sometimes the passage of decades can loosen tongues or yield new tips.

And indeed, a few new leads trickled in.

By 2020, over three decades after Justin’s death, Sheriff Lewis revealed that the cold case team was actively pursuing promising information.

One crucial piece of evidence the team scrutinized was the liature used to strangle Justin.

Back in 1989, investigators had noted a strap was likely used, but it wasn’t crystal clear what the murder weapon was.

A dog leash had been taken from the Turner’s home as a potential item of interest since marks on Justin’s neck were consistent with something like a thin strap or cord.

The cold case detectives had this leash preserved in evidence.

Using modern microscopy and forensic fiber analysis, they discovered that tiny fibers from this leash or a similar strap in the home matched fibers embedded in the neck wounds on Justin’s body and on his shirt collar.

In essence, they finally found a forensic link tying an object from the Turner household to the murder.

Sheriff Lewis credited this breakthrough to new technology and forensic medicine, explaining that persistent testing and retesting of evidence over the years had finally gotten what we needed.

Investigators felt this was the missing piece that had eluded them decades earlier.

Additionally, the reopened case reemphasized certain facts that had long been known, but now took on greater weight.

Justin’s body and clothing lacked any soil or leaves, suggesting he was carried to the camper rather than walking there on his own.

Also, the very specific location where the body was concealed inside a built-in camper cabinet indicated the person who hid him knew that camper’s layout intimately.

This wasn’t a spot a random passer by would likely choose.

It was someone comfortable on the property, probably even someone who knew the camper was seldom used.

According to a probable cause affidavit later filed, Victor and Pamela Turner were the only individuals with keys and regular access to that camper before Justin’s body was discovered.

All signs still pointed internally.

By April 2021, the cold case team felt they had finally gathered enough evidence to make an arrest.

They compiled their findings, the fiber analysis, the inconsistencies in the Turner’s past statements, the suspicious circumstances of discovery into a case file for the prosecutors.

Sheriff Lewis was confident.

In a later statement reflecting on the case, he said, “We know for a fact that Justin was strangled to death.

There were liature marks on his neck.

We recovered what we believe to be the evidence of the murder.

We have a lot of forensic evidence.

We got here because of new technology and forensic science.

The stage was set to finally hold someone accountable for the crime that had haunted Berkeley County for over 30 years.

On January 9th, 2024, Berkeley County Sheriff’s deputies made the move that Justin’s family had awaited for so long.

They arrested Justin’s stepmother, 66-year-old Meghan Pamela Turner, and his father, 68-year-old Victor Turner, and charged each of them with one count of murder.

The arrests took place at the couple’s home in Cross Hill, South Carolina, Lawrence County, where they had been living quietly.

Both were taken into custody without incident.

The news sent shock waves through the community and made headlines across the state.

The 34year-old cold case of Justin Turner had finally led to charges and against the very people many had long suspected.

Sheriff Lewis held a press conference on Jano Doriten 2024, displaying an image of Justin and announcing the breakthrough arrests.

He credited the tireless dedication of his cold case team and advancements in forensics for making the arrest possible.

At the press conference, Sheriff Lewis and his investigators outlined some of the evidence that had led to the charges.

The fiber match between a liature in the Turner home and fibers on Justin’s body was highlighted as a key new finding.

Authorities also referenced strange statements and behavior by the Turners back in 1989 that now combined with forensic evidence bolstered the case.

For instance, they noted how Victor found the body in the camper within moments of cameras rolling.

An eerie moment actually caught on video by a news crew at the time, which suggested fornowledge.

They reminded the public of Victors and Pamela’s lies during the initial investigation, such as the bus story, and how those had impeded justice.

One particularly damning piece of the affidavit was the detail that Victor Turner discovered Justin’s body within seconds of entering the camper, immediately calling out as soon as he opened the cabinet.

Investigators argued this was beyond coincidence, implying Victor likely knew his son’s body was there.

Additionally, it was revealed that multiple witnesses back in 1989 had reported incriminating statements from the Turners.

For example, at least one neighbor recalled Pamela making a disturbing comment, implying she’d had a big fight with Justin that she won.

A chilling way to describe an encounter with a child.

Another witness remembered one of the Turners asking hypothetically what would happen to someone who didn’t live there versus a family member if they were responsible, insinuating the Turners themselves were trying to gauge how much suspicion was on insiders.

All these pieces, prosecutors believed, established probable cause that Victor and Pamela Meghan Turner were jointly involved in Justin’s murder.

After their arrests, Victor and Meghan Turner were transported back to Berkeley County to face the charges.

At a bond hearing in February 2024, both defendants appeared before a judge.

They were each granted release on a $50,000 shity bond, a relatively low amount given the severity of the charge, likely because they had known ties to the community and had cooperated with surrendering and perhaps due to health and age considerations.

Meghgan Turner was released from jail on February 8th, 2024, and Victor Turner was released the next day after posting bond.

The conditions of their bond mandated that they surrender their passports, remain in South Carolina, and have no contact with Justin’s maternal family.

The last condition was put in place because emotions were running extremely high.

Justin’s surviving relatives, cousins, aunts, etc.

were furious that the people they believed responsible had been free for 35 years, and tensions were at a boiling point whenever the two sides encountered each other in court.

Indeed, Justin’s family members, especially cousin Amy Parsons, were a visible presence at every hearing.

They wore buttons with Justin’s face and t-shirts demanding justice.

After the arrest, Amy expressed a mix of relief and resolve.

She told local media that while it was gratifying to see some justice after all these years, this was only the first step.

They would not rest until there was a conviction.

On social media, Amy addressed the Turners directly in a fiery statement, writing, “For 30 years, you enjoyed your freedom.

You did not observe one day inside of a prison cell for what you did to Justin.

You were supposed to take care of him, love him, and instead you tortured, abused, and murdered your own child.

It takes a sick individual to do what you did to that baby, and I hope you never see life outside of prison walls.” These strong words reflected the depth of pain and anger felt by Justin’s maternal family, who had waited decades for this moment.

They fully believed Victor and Pamela Megan were guilty, and they wanted nothing less than a life sentence for both.

Despite the outward confidence of law enforcement and family, the case against the Turners was largely circumstantial.

Even in 2024, there was no direct DNA evidence linking them to the act.

unsurprising since any DNA on Justin’s body from them could be explained by normal contact.

The prosecution was relying on the fiber evidence, the suspicious conduct, and alleged statements.

The Turner’s defense attorneys wasted no time in mounting a counter offensive.

By March 2024, defense lawyer Sha Kent, representing the couple, filed motions to dismiss the charges, arguing that the state’s case was fatally flawed and that a fair trial would be impossible after so much time had passed.

In a March 2024 motions hearing, Kent dropped a bombshell theory.

He suggested that the real culprit might have been a serial killer named Richard Mark Evenitz, not Victor or Megan Turner.

This claim introduced a dramatic twist.

Richard Mark Evenitz was indeed a convicted serial killer responsible for the abduction and murder of at least three girls in Virginia in the late 1990s and he had died by suicide in 2002 as police closed in on him.

Crucially, even had been a US Navy sailor stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, about 30 miles from Monk’s Corner in 1989.

The defense presented information purportedly obtained via the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia that Evanit’s methods in his known crimes, kidnapping children, strangling them, and sexual assault, bore similarities to Justin Turner’s case.

They pointed out that if Evanit were involved, it could explain some aspects of the crime.

An external predator who then perhaps hid the body on the property to frame the family or simply conceal it.

Furthermore, because Evanitz was cremated, no DNA comparison could be made to either include or exclude him, and many evidence samples from 1989 had degraded, thus making it even harder for the Turners to defend themselves by definitively proving someone else did it.

At the March hearing, prosecutors were caught somewhat offg guard by this alternate suspect theory.

One prosecutor conceded, “This is pretty explosive evidence,” and requested additional time to investigate the evidence claim and incorporate it into their case analysis before proceeding.

The presiding judge, Circuit Judge Roger Young, Senior, agreed that such significant information warranted careful consideration.

He postponed any immediate ruling on the defense’s motions, essentially pumping the brakes on the case to allow both sides to delve deeper into the Evernit’s angle.

Meanwhile, prosecutors countered the defense narrative by highlighting what physical evidence they did have.

They noted that a dog leash found in the Turner home back in 1989 was believed to be the strangulation weapon.

However, medical experts had debated whether that leash alone could have caused the particular liature marks on Justin’s neck.

Some thought the width of the mark suggested a dog collar used in conjunction with the leash.

It turned out the Turners had owned a dog in 1989 and a matching collar would logically have been on the dog or somewhere in the house.

Investigators looked for the old collar, but couldn’t find it among evidence.

In a rather macab step, they even exumed the remains of the Turner’s long deceased pet dog to see if the collar was buried with it, but came up empty-handed.

The defense seized on this to argue that the state was changing theories on the fly.

Initially saying it was a leash, now speculating about a collar, and that crucial items like the collar were no longer available for examination by the defense due to the passage of time.

This, Kent argued, was prejuditial and unfair.

Through the spring of 2024, as pre-trial legal battles raged, Justin’s family braced themselves for either a long-awaited justice or another bitter disappointment.

On one hand, they had faith in the new sheriff’s determination and the evidence pointing to the Turners.

On the other hand, the defense was clearly working hard to dismantle the case.

Outside the courtroom, emotions ran high.

One family member was quoted saying, “It’s just hard to believe that the person who did it can live their life for 25 now 35 years knowing and thinking that they got away with it.

It’s mind-boggling.” This reflected the family’s belief that the Turners had been essentially getting away with murder for decades and their incredul that the couple might still evade punishment.

In June 2024, the case of South Carolina versus Victor Turner and Megan Turner took a dramatic and final turn.

On June 7th, 2024, Judge Roger Young issued his decision on the defense’s motion to dismiss, and it was a decision that stunned Justin’s family and investigators.

The judge granted the motion and throughout the murder charges against Victor and Meghan Turner, citing fundamental issues of fairness and a lack of new evidence, Judge Young ruled that proceeding to trial 35 years after the crime would violate the defendant’s rights.

The judge’s order painstakingly explained the reasoning.

First, he noted that the prosecution had not actually presented any truly new evidence against the Turners, only new interpretations of existing evidence.

The fiber analysis from 2021, while new in technique, was based on fibers and items that had been available since 1989.

Theoretically, the state could have examined them back then.

Using a microscope decades later was not the same as discovering a brand new piece of evidence.

Thus, the judge saw the cold case revival as more of a second bite at the apple with old facts which troubled him.

Second, and most importantly, Judge Young highlighted the issue of lost evidence and deceased witnesses.

Over three decades, many of the key figures in the investigation had died or were unable to testify.

By 2024, it was reported that more than 20 potential witnesses were dead or otherwise unavailable.

This included at least one of the original deputies, possibly the medical examiner, and certainly Justin’s mother, Elaine, who, while not a witness to the crime, could speak to context.

The defense argued, and the judge agreed that this severely hampered the Turner’s ability to receive a fair trial.

For instance, various neighbors had allegedly heard incriminating statements back in 1989, like the fight or the questions the Turners asked, but now those neighbors were not around to be cross-examined on the stand.

A trial would thus rely on secondhand or recorded statements without the live witnesses, which is inherently prejuditial to the defense.

The judge wrote that the unavailability of those witnesses for cross-examination would be highly prejuditial and that the defendants could not adequately challenge the old evidence in these circumstances.

Judge Young also pointed to investigative missteps.

He noted that the original detectives had perhaps changed interpretations of evidence over the years and that mistakes made in 1989 in preserving evidence could never be remedied now.

For example, had the crime scene been better secured from the start, or had forensic technology been what it is today, things might be different.

But one cannot conduct a 21st century trial on a 20th century investigation, without running into problems.

The judge emphasized that the delay in filing charges, especially against Victor, who was not charged in 1990, caused actual prejudice to their ability to defend themselves.

In essence, if the state suspected Victor back then, waiting 34 years to charge him was unjust.

Finally, Judge Young took the rare step of barring prosecutors from ever charging Victor or Meghan Turner again in connection with Justin’s murder.

This dismissal was with prejudice, meaning the case is legally closed unless successfully appealed.

He reasoned that it would simply be impossible to have a fair trial under any circumstances now.

So continuing to leave the Turners under a cloud of possible future prosecution would also be unjust.

This decision meant that in the eyes of the law, Victor and Megan Turner are cleared of the murder and will not face another trial for it.

The reaction to this outcome was intensely emotional and polarized.

The Turners themselves, now officially free, spoke out publicly for the first time in decades.

It’s been a living hell, Meghan Turner said of living under suspicion for 35 years.

She described how she changed her name and tried to hide from the infamy, always fearing someone would recognize her.

She claimed that from the beginning, investigators had it in for her and Victor.

Everything went so wrong with the investigation.

If we said anything, they tried to turn it against us.

She lamented.

Victor Turner, while expressing relief that the legal ordeal was over, voiced bitterness that the focus on them had meant, “We really won’t ever know too much about what happened.

All I wanted was to get the person who did this.” He felt that by zeroing in on the family early on, law enforcement failed to investigate other leads that might have caught the real killer.

The Turners maintained their innocence steadfastly, as they always had.

Victor said he was glad he could hold my head up a little bit.

now without the community’s scorn, but added that the pain of losing Justin never went away.

On the other side, Justin’s surviving family members were disconsulate and furious.

In a statement released through the 9inth Circuit Solicitor’s Office, prosecutor Scarlett Wilson’s office, the family said, “Today, our justice system failed an innocent 5-year-old boy, the ones responsible for Justin’s death, had the chance to face justice here, but instead chose to stay silent and will face the final justice handed out by God for eternity.” They thanked Sheriff Lewis and his cold case team for fighting for Justin and expressed deep disappointment that legal technicalities thwarted a jury from hearing the case.

To them, the evidence, though circumstantial, was overwhelming in pointing to Victor and Megan.

The family vowed, “My fight for Justin will never stop,” indicating they would continue to seek ways to hold the guilty accountable, even if only in the court of public opinion.

Prosecutor Scarlett Wilson also released a thoughtful statement acknowledging the outcome.

She extended sympathies to Justin’s loved ones and praised Sheriff Lewis’s unwavering commitment to solving the case.

Wilson noted that while the warrants against the Turners were supported by probable cause, the judge’s ruling underscored the harsh reality of prosecuting a decades old case.

Mistakes that were made 35 years ago could not be remedied, she admitted, referencing lost evidence and forensic limitations back then.

Wilson agreed that they had no grounds to effectively challenge the judge’s decision.

Essentially, the state would not appeal.

It was a somber concession that sometimes justice cannot be obtained after so long, even when everyone did all they could do to find truth and justice.

Sheriff Dwayne Lewis, who had poured years into the case, voiced his own disappointment.

“This is not the outcome we were seeking.

However, we understand the technicality of cases from years ago,” he said in a statement.

He thanked the prosecutors and his team, and though clearly unhappy, he respected the court’s ruling.

“It was an unfortunate reality that the passage of time had essentially insulated the suspects from conviction.” In interviews after the dismissal, Victor Turner struck a tone both defensive and accusatory.

He suggested that law enforcement failed us at the beginning.

A lot of bad people made a lot of bad decisions, Victor said, referring to the initial investigation, making it hard for the good people.

I think they failed us.

By good people, he presumably meant himself and Pamela, implying they were innocent and ills served by authorities tunnel vision.

It was a painful irony.

The man whom Justin’s other family members believed responsible was now essentially blaming the police for not finding the real killer.

Thus, in a startling reversal, Victor and Megan Turner walked free, legally cleared and immune from further prosecution in Justin’s case.

The long cold case was effectively closed without a resolution that satisfied everyone.

Officially, the murder of Justin Lee Turner remains unsolved.

There is no convicted perpetrator.

Unofficially, however, many in the community and Justin’s family feel they know exactly who got away with murder.

For Justin’s family, the decadesl long saga has been a roller coaster of hope and heartbreak.

The outcome in 2024 was not the justice they had envisioned.

As one family statement put it, “The truth is there, the justice is not.” They take some solace in believing that ultimate justice lies in higher hands and that if the Turners are indeed guilty, they will face judgment beyond this world.

In the meantime, Justin’s relatives continue to honor his memory.

His cousin Amy Parsons, who was only 8 years old when Justin was killed, has emerged as the family spokesperson over the years.

She spearheaded the Justice for Justin movement on social media and never hesitated to call out what she viewed as misinformation or attempts to undermine the case.

Even when the defense floated the serial killer theory, Amy urged the public to look at the evidence and not be swayed by sensational claims.

The saddest aspect for the family is that Justin’s mother, Elaine Pace, did not live to see even the brief moment when charges were brought.

Amy and others have said that the hardest part was Elaine not being here to witness someone finally being held accountable, as that had been her singular focus in life.

Elaine’s unwavering resolve, spending 15 years pushing for answers is remembered as a testament to a mother’s love.

In a way, Elaine’s persistence did help lead to the case being reopened thanks to the family’s continued efforts in her absence.

The community of Monks Corner and Berkeley County at large also felt the impact of Justin’s case across generations.

What happened to Justin in 1989 changed local parenting norms.

Suddenly, families who once allowed kids to roam freely in the neighborhood kept them much closer.

The idea that a child could vanish and be murdered in their community, possibly by someone they knew, was a lasting trauma.

Even after the Turner’s charges were dropped, many locals remained convinced of their guilt.

To them, the legal concept of innocent until proven guilty is cold comfort in a case where the proof never came.

There is a lingering sense that a little boy was failed, perhaps by his guardians and then by the system meant to deliver him justice.

Yet Justin Lee Turner’s short life continues to be remembered.

He was laid to rest in Somerville Cemetery in Dorchester County, SC, not far from his mother, Elaine’s grave site.

At his funeral in March 1989, over 200 mourners came to say goodbye, a reflection of how deeply the tragedy had touched people.

The small casket was surrounded by some of Justin’s favorite toys and belongings, tokens of the childhood that was stolen from him.

Instead of celebrating graduations, birthdays, and milestones, Justin’s family has only a frozen memory of a forever 5-year-old boy.

They recall Justin as a vibrant, innocent child who loved to play and laugh and who brightened the lives of those around him in his brief time on Earth.

Even today, more than 36 years later, one can visit Justin’s grave and see flowers or toys left by loved ones or even strangers who know his story.

Justin’s childhood friend, Justin Smith, the boy who waited for him at the bus stop that fateful morning, has a tattoo of Justin Turner’s face on his calf, a permanent tribute to his lost friend.

Smith, now an adult, still visits the grave and has said not a day goes by that he doesn’t think of his buddy and wonder what really happened.

In early 2024, when the charges were first announced, one of Justin’s relatives said, “I’m hoping and praying that Justin is looking down from heaven, rejoicing that today there’s some justice.” They believed Justin’s spirit could finally be at peace, knowing that the truth was coming to light.

Unfortunately, the subsequent dismissal of the case complicated that hope.

Whether justice was truly served is a matter of perspective.

For the Turners, justice meant being exonerated after decades of hell.

For Justin’s family, justice meant a conviction that never materialized.

What remains unequivocal is the loss of a beautiful young life.

Justin Lee Turner’s story stands as a sobering example of how a case can haunt a family and a community for generations.

It underscores the importance of meticulous investigation and evidence preservation, as those first days can determine the path of a case decades later.

It’s also a story of a family’s undying love and advocacy, Justin’s relatives did everything in their power to speak for a boy who could no longer speak for himself.

Though the legal case is closed, the cold case of Justin Turner will forever live on in local law and in the hearts of those who remember the little boy with the shy smile.

His family continues to keep his memory alive, certain of one thing.

Justin deserved so much more from life, and they will love him always, and perhaps that is the final form of justice, that Justin Lee Turner is not forgotten, and that those who loved him remain united in seeking the truth in his honor.

If you found this investigation useful, please like the video, subscribe to Cold Case Desk, and share it to keep Justin’s story alive.

Comment your take on the evidence and which lead you’d pursue next.

Thank you for supporting thorough, respectful, true crime reporting.

On the morning of March 3rd, 1989, 5-year-old Justin Lee Turner began his day like any other kindergartener.