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Who Killed 5-Year-Old Justin Turner?



Authorities are asking for the public’s help in solving the murder of 5-year-old Justin Turner, who was found dead 29 years ago. Officials with the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office released a statement earlier this month asking the public for assistance and information in the 1989 cold case that occurred in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. “Today marks the 29th anniversary of the discovery of a dead child, Justin Turner,” the statement read. “Justin was just a sweet, 5-year-old boy and somebody out there knows something.”



* * *

Friday, March 3, 1989, was a mild day that ensured spring was just around the corner in the small historic town that once boasted several cotton and rice plantations. Justin, who lived with his father, Victor “Buddy” Turner, and stepmother, Pamela Turner, ate a bowl of cereal and got dressed for school. Mrs. Turner told investigators she was in the shower when the boy left that morning before 11 o’clock to walk across the road to the Smith home, where he and Justin Smith, his best friend, would take the bus to their kindergarten class at Whitesville Elementary School. But Justin never made it to the Smith’s house or to school that day.



According to the sheriff’s office, “That afternoon when Pamela Turner went to meet the school bus, she found that Justin was not on it, nor had he been at school that day. The neighbor whom Justin was supposed to meet that morning had gone outside with her grandson to meet the bus, but never saw Justin that morning.”



Initially, officers believed Justin’s disappearance was nothing more than a case of parental abduction and immediately contacted Elaine Pace, the child’s biological mother. Nonetheless, in excess of 100 people commenced searching the area near 214 Horseshoe Road, where the Turners lived. The search continued until after dark and throughout the following day. It wasn’t until around 11 o’clock Sunday morning that Bill Salisbury heard someone call out, “We found him! We found him!” The body of the blond, blue-eyed little boy had been stuffed into a storage area beneath a dining seat inside the pickup truck camper that belonged to his father and stepmother. His pants were pulled down and autopsy revealed he had been sexually-assaulted with a cylindrical object and strangled to death by someone using something similar to a narrow belt or perhaps a dog leash. He was clutching hair, which was later determined to be that of an animal.



It was Victor Turner who discovered his son’s corpse inside the camper, which shocked officers first on the scene, who swore they had searched the camper more than once. This led investigators to conclude the body had been moved to the camper from another location. But the big question was: Who moved it? But this wasn’t the only mystery: On the day Justin was found, the temperature reached 80° and it hadn’t dropped below freezing since the boy’s disappearance. Yet, one of those present later claimed the child’s corpse was “cold as ice,” much colder than it should have been – as if it had been frozen. There is no indication the medical examiner found any evidence of freezing.



On that same day, a young boy who lived in the neighborhood told his mother a strange story. The lad claimed he saw Justin leave his house and walk down the driveway toward a pine tree, at which point a man suddenly stood up from behind a pile of dirt that from his description was approximately four-feet high. Justin, he said, must have known the man because he went toward him and the man “put his hand over Justin’s mouth and pulled him off” to a dull-grey compact car. He described the suspect as having black, partially spiked hair and indicated he was under 6'2" and heavier than 150 pounds. The child’s mother was convinced her son saw something. “He’s not forgotten one thing that he’s told us,” she insisted. “His story has never changed. Not one bit of it.” When he talked about it, she said, “he’d just go stiff and wouldn’t say anything more. He knew the importance of what he saw, but was afraid of the other person.” The boy’s parents took him to the Medical University of South Carolina Hospital in Charleston, where three psychiatrists spoke with him for approximately an hour. Two of the doctors believed the child had become “totally confused” from watching TV news reports and made up the story.



According to Sydney Wrenn, the sheriff’s chief investigator, who agreed with the psychiatrists, officers nevertheless searched for a man fitting the description provided by the boy, “but could never find anyone, except one person, but he was totally eliminated.” This was the end of the investigation of the child’s claims.



“This was not overlooked and passed up,” former Lieutenant Jim Preacher of the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office, explained. “It was just that the child’s welfare came into play. The reason we didn’t pursue the lead with the child at that time was because of [his] emotional trauma.” However, after speaking with a child psychologist who later counseled the boy, Preacher admitted he believed the lad had seen something.



The counselor was adamant the boy’s family and authorities consider the child’s emotional welfare regardless of what he might be able to contribute to the investigation. “I didn’t hear or experience anything from this child that indicated he was making it up,” she said at the time. “Something has emotionally traumatized him and he very well could have been threatened – or feels threatened.” However, neither the counselor nor law enforcement officers considered the boy strong enough to withstand fierce questioning by a defense lawyer in a courtroom.



In the weeks following the gruesome discovery, fear gripped the small community. At one point, the sheriff assured citizens a blood-thirsty maniac was not on the loose. According to Wrenn, this was because investigators had already set their sights on Justin’s stepmother, the last person to report seeing the child alive. “There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind involved in the investigation as to who killed the boy,” he declared, explaining that investigators hoped to keep those suspicions under wraps while they built a case, but someone told reporters and it became public knowledge. “It blocked us completely from talking to this person after that night,” he said.



Another major obstacle, according to Wrenn, was then-Berkeley County Coroner William B. Smith, Jr., whom he [Wrenn] asked not to intervene in the investigation. “The coroner at the time was only 21-years-old,” Wrenn recalled. “I asked Smith to let me handle the investigation and don’t do anything until I completed it. I brought him in my office. He acted like he had no problems with that, but the very next day, the news media comes out with ‘Coroner Calls Big Inquest.’ He screwed it all to hell.” To this day, Wrenn partially blames Smith, now deceased, for “screwing the case up.” The investigator was also convinced politics had a lot to do with how the matter was handled because Smith had plans to run for sheriff of Berkeley County. “He was doing everything to make the sheriff’s office look bad,” Wrenn continued. “I was going to need the real mother, Elaine Pace, to help me connect the evidence that Victor’s mother [Justin’s grandmother] had been providing me with. She [Elaine Pace] refused to talk to me. She was mad as hell because the coroner had messed up her mind.” Allegations that Pamela Turner had family working for the sheriff’s office and rumors of a romantic affair with someone in local law enforcement did not sit well with Mrs. Pace. According to family members, it made her trust investigators even less. “I would never even try to recognize such a statement as that because it’s not true,” Wrenn insisted. “I don’t know of anyone she [Pamela Turner] was connected with like that. I know because I was the lead investigator and there’s no way I would have let that happen under any circumstances.”



Wrenn also remembered that the day before he went missing, Justin spoke on the phone to his mother, as he did every night. “He told his mother, ‘Momma, I’ve got something really important to tell you when you pick me up.’ Well, the stepmother took the phone out of his hand and wouldn’t let him talk anymore.” Wrenn is of the opinion the boy’s stepmother feared he was about to tell a secret she didn’t want told. The former investigator’s claims, however, have never been fully substantiated.



The day after Justin’s body was found, Wrenn drove Pamela and Victor Turner to SLED (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) headquarters in Columbia for polygraph examinations. “She lied on every question,” he alleged. “Very deceptive. She refused to cooperate. When I say she refused to cooperate, she refused to admit if she was guilty.” The veteran investigator claimed Pamela Turner had taken Valium prior to the examination and as a result, Wrenn made arrangements to have her retake the examination the following day. His plan, however, was foiled when Berkeley County Sheriff M.C. Cannon disclosed to the media that the stepmother was considered a suspect, after which she refused to cooperate. “By that time, she had contacted a lawyer, and the lawyer said, ‘Oh, no, no. You’re not going back,’” Wrenn added. “I had Victor’s mother go to him [Victor Turner] and get him by himself to talk to him in detail to get him to come forward. By this time, we knew he knew what went on, but she [Pamela] had something over his damn head so that he wouldn’t say anything. What it was, I’m not sure.”



Of the coroner’s inquest, Pamela Turner’s lawyer at the time said more than half the testimony was inadmissible, irrelevant or prejudicial. Witnesses had spoken of suspicions, psychic “visions” experienced by the boy’s grandfather and odd statements supposedly made by Mrs. Turner and her husband. Nevertheless, the jury recommended Pamela Turner be charged with Justin’s murder and investigators arrested her minutes thereafter. The charge was subsequently dropped due to lack of evidence.



Wrenn agreed with the attorney’s assessment of the grand jury, saying the so-called evidence presented amounted to “baloney.” He said there was no probable cause for an arrest because “All of the information that was presented to the jury was hearsay evidence that was never substantiated.”



* * *

Sadly, Justin was the second son of Victor Turner’s to die at a young age. Another son succumbed to leukemia several years earlier. The Turners ended up moving out of the area and Pamela, who had been a lifelong resident of Berkeley County, changed her name. She and her husband currently live in the Spartanburg area. When contacted by The Post and Courier, she failed to respond.



Elaine Pace, Justin’s mother, revealed to a reporter in a 1991 interview that she struggled with her grief and wondered how she could let it go. “You never stop bleeding on the inside,” she said. Mrs. Pace died December 26, 2004, of cirrhosis of the liver, never knowing what happened to her son. She and Justin now lie side-by-side in the mausoleum at Summerville Cemetery in Dorchester County.



Russell Pace, whom Elaine married after divorcing Victor Turner, told The Post and Courier he didn’t want to dig into the painful memories of the child’s death by talking about it. After 25 years, he said he felt he had fulfilled his promise to his late wife to keep the case alive. “It’s just too hard to talk about it,” he added.



“It’s been very hard for my dad. It’s been very hard for everybody,” Cody Pace, Justin’s half-brother, admitted. “When she [Elaine Pace] was dying, one of her last wishes was to have my dad pursue the case. So even as she was there dying, it was on her mind, consuming her. Looking back, she was miserable. It’s always going to be on my mind until something happens because that was my mom,” he continued. “She didn’t get closure. It affected her relationship with my dad a lot. I just don’t understand how someone can live with this for so long and not say anything. I just don’t understand how they can live with themselves.”



In 2014, the case, which had been stale for several years, was revived when Captain Rick Ollic reported someone had called with a new tip following the 25th anniversary of the boy’s death. He declined to go into details except to say the tip led authorities to research someone’s name. “We really want to bring closure to this case,” he insisted.



On February 19, 2016, Justin’s half-brother and several cousins traveled from their homes in western South Carolina to Berkeley County in order to speak personally with Sheriff Duane Lewis. “I was very pleased with the meeting. It’s the first opportunity that we’ve had in many years to meet with the sheriff,” said Amy Finley Parsons, Justin and Elaine’s cousin. “They currently have a new set of eyes looking at the case and are hoping to maybe pursue some things.” Several years ago, Amy created a “Justice for Justin Lee Turner” Facebook page to keep the case in the spotlight in hopes the killer would eventually be brought to justice. “I’ve had a lot of people come forward and share their concern, their prayers and their thoughts,” she continued. “Someone has lived with this for 27 years. That’s a long time to live with a weight like this on your shoulders. Come forward. End it now. It’s as simple as that. You can’t just take an innocent child like that and brutally murder them and throw them out like trash. Someone who does that is a monster. You just can’t do that.”



“The reason we’re here is because his whole immediate family, with the exception of his brother and cousins – they’re all gone,” added Denise Finley, another cousin. “They’ve passed away. His grandmother died three years ago. She was the last living immediate relative. We’re here to take their place. Justin was a sweet little kid. He was just so lovable.”



As in all cold cases, loved ones hope the day will come when DNA testing has advanced to the point Justin’s killer can be identified. Wrenn, however, who has since retired from law enforcement and owns a bail bond company in Moncks Corner, doubts DNA evidence will ever solve the case because those who entered the camper where the child was found had a right to be there. “It won’t ever be solved unless that person confesses,” he declared. “I wanted to solve this case more than anybody did. This case will always concern me.” He still believes he could have solved the murder had others cooperated. “Some people think I botched the investigation, which is totally ridiculous,” he added. “I don’t have any doubt in my mind. If they would have stayed out of my way, I could have built a circumstantial case. I could have solved the case, but it didn’t work out.”



Steve Davis, the deputy solicitor in the case, disagrees. “Sometimes when crimes occur, we may bring our biases and stereotypes as to who we think the actual perpetrator is. Sometimes you always look within the family for something that may have went [sic] wrong.” He is convinced mistakes were made early on, including the exact time Justin’s body was placed in the camper. Despite the previous searches and rumors to the contrary, Davis is satisfied the evidence indicated the little boy’s body had been in the camper the entire time. “Those are the kinds of issues, I think, that initially caused tremendous problems with the eventual prosecution of the case,” he continued. When asked if he was comfortable with dropping the charge against Pamela Turner, Davis said he was. “We can’t try cases on the whim of what we hope the facts are,” he concluded. “Justice is slow and I pray that eventually this case will be resolved.”



When Justin Smith visits his grandmother, who still lives across the road from the former Turner home, he readily admits “When I look over there, I still get nervous.” Growing up, the two Justins were like two peas in a pod. Not only did they share the same Christian name, they were the same age and both in the same classroom at school. The two were inseparable. “He was fun, outgoing, very gentle,” Smith recalled. “We’d always just play and hang out.”



Remembering that fateful day almost three decades ago, Smith reminisced, “He always came over in the morning to wait on the bus – only he didn’t. He wasn’t on the bus. The first thing I thought was that Justin must be sick. When my brother and I got home from school, we were at my grandma’s just playing. His stepmom came over and asked if we had seen him. I guess this was 4:30, 5:30 in the afternoon. She asked us if he was at school. I told her that he wasn’t on the bus and I thought he was home sick.” After speaking with Pamela Turner, Smith knew something was wrong and to this day, he is baffled by how trained officers could have searched the small camper several times without finding his friend’s body. “My cousin and brother actually helped search for him,” he added. “They had looked in the camper many times.”



But this isn’t the only thing that continues to disturb Smith. “Before he went missing, he was allowed to come over and play,” Smith continued. “However, he came over one time and he was nervous. I asked him, ‘why?’ He just said that he wasn’t allowed to be over here playing. He wasn’t supposed to be out of the yard. He wasn’t supposed to be over there playing with me. He just told me he would get in trouble.” This was one of the final occasions on which the two Justins were together. Even after all these years, Smith confides that not a day goes by that he doesn’t think about his friend and he often visits Justin Turner’s grave site in Summerville Cemetery.



Anyone with information on the case should call the sheriff’s office at (843) 719-4465. or submit an anonymous tip through Crime Stoppers of the Lowcountry by calling (843) 554-1111.



Author: Graveyardbride.

Sources: WCSC, March 5, 2018; Nikki Gaskins Campbell, The Berkeley Observer, March 3 and May 21, 2016; Natalie Caula Hauff, The Charleston Post and Courier, April 5, 2014; and The Associated Press, January 19, 1991.

