Man who cried on TV claiming to discover five-year-old son’s body charged with murder
Back in 1989, Victor Lee Turner appeared inconsolable on the television screens of millions of viewers after discovering the dead body of his missing five-year-old son Justin Lee Turner on his property.
The youngster had been reported missing from his home on March 3, 1989.
Justin's stepmother Megan Turner - known as Pamela Turner at the time - claimed she'd been in the shower at their Moncks Corner home when her stepson set off to catch the school bus from outside a neighbor's house.
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His body was tragically discovered two days later by his father Victor in a camper at the property.
The South Carolina man was filmed by news outlets breaking down in tears, telling police: "My son’s in there. Someone hurt him."
An autopsy later showed that Justin had been both sexually assaulted and strangled.
And this week - nearly 35 years after the brutal killing - a startling new revelation made by police officials has resulted in the arrest and charge of Justin's own father Victor and his stepmother Megan in relation to the murder.
Almost four decades after claiming he'd stumbled across his son's lifeless body, a now 69-year-old Victor was picked up from his Cross Hill home Tuesday (January 9).
Alongside wife Megan, now 63, the man has been charged with his little boy's vicious murder.
According to police, the initial investigation into Justin's death at the time stalled out - though officials chose not to specify exactly when the case was closed.
Within a matter of weeks, Victor and Meghan Lee Turner upped and left their home, moving to the Cross Hill area.
Since the move, the man that once broke down in tears on national television at the reality of their son's death, never asked for an update on the crime.
"Isn’t that strange?" Sheriff Duane Lewis told a Wednesday (January 10) press conference.
"I never got one phone call, one phone call from his daddy or stepmother. ‘What are y’all doing about my son’s death?’ Not one. What does that tell you?"
With the assistance of brand new technology, the cold case was re-opened back in 2021 after a new lead re-emerged.
It turned out, a day prior to Justin allegedly going 'missing', Megan had been arguing with the tot, cited the new arrest warrant.
And days before the little boy's body was discovered, Victor had even been heard asking a law enforcement agent what would happen if a family member had 'done harm to the victim, such as killed him', the warrant went on.
It was that 'transparent question' which showed an 'apparent awareness' of Justin's death before his body had even been discovered.
News footage that aired on television back in 1989 saw Victor stumble across his son's body 'within seconds of entering the camper', the document added.
The warrant continued: "Rather than react to finding his son and personally checking for any indication of life whatsoever, [Victor Turner] instead backed out of the camper commenting, 'He’s in there, my son is in there. Somebody’s hurt him'."
The document added that Victor told investigators: "He looked dead. I could feel that something was wrong with him. I did not touch him."
A ligature found in the Turners' house matched the wounds on Justin's neck and its fibres were consistent with his shirt collar material.
"This is an amazing day," Lewis said of the murder charges. "We have a lot of forensic evidence.
"We got here because of new technology and forensic medicine. Y’all, we all know how things have progressed over the years.
"And we kept pushing and plugging and pulling to finally get what we needed to make an arrest."
Topics: Crime, True crime, US News
Rhianna Benson