But Sarah, who firmly believed in her father's innocence when Andersen first interviewed her in 2008 (“I was as soon as in total denial,” she said in the Oxygen doc), doesn't purchase it.

Once she was convinced that he was as soon as in a position to harming Alissa, she devoted herself to telling her sister's anecdote.

“It's basically a memoir about how victims can fetch a brand fresh manner to take wait on an eye on of the memoir,” Jesse Sweet, who directed Family Secrets with Ricki Stern, instructed Oxygen.com, “to be active in the investigation, now not be passive.”

What came about to Alissa Turney?

Alissa went lacking on Could well perchance perchance 17, 2001, the closing day of her junior 365 days at Paradise Valley Excessive College. Sarah had true accomplished seventh grade.

Michael instructed police that he had picked the 17-365 days-veteran up early from faculty and taken her to lunch, per authorities. Alissa demanded more freedom and additionally they argued, he said, after which he dropped her off at dwelling and went to score Sarah from a self-discipline outing.

In the doc, Sarah recalled her dad telling her that Alissa wasn't picking up her cell phone. When they bought dwelling, she continued, Alissa's cell cell phone and backpack had been in her room, along with a handwritten repeat.

The repeat, proven in the doc, relayed that Alissa had taken $300 from her stepdad and was as soon as headed to California. When Michael known as police that night to document that his daughter had reputedly bustle away, Sarah said in Family Secrets, officers didn’t straight come to the dwelling to compare.

Det. Anderson outlined in the doc that runaway conditions, namely ones by which there was as soon as a repeat and reputedly a label of lifestyles in the get hang of of that alleged cell phone name, generally didn’t get hang of the the same attention as other lacking-particular person conditions.

A week after her sister disappeared, Sarah said in the Oxygen doc, her dad got right here into her room at 5 a.m. saying that Alissa was as soon as on the cell phone, cursing and telling him to leave her by myself, after which the determination cleave out. Michael known as the cell phone company, Sarah said, and the determination was as soon as traced to a convenience retailer in Riverside, Calif.

They basically traveled to California and went to the retailer, Sarah continued, but there was as soon as no security pictures and no manner to ticket who made the determination. After that, Sarah said, she made her first lacking poster and her dad put them up all over the set up town.

When did Alissa Turney's case flip into greater than a see a runaway?

When Andersen bought the case in 2008, a pair of issues him in regards to the speculation that Alissa true up and left.

For one thing, Alissa left her cell phone in the wait on of, Andersen said, which was as soon as unparalleled in his expertise when it got right here to young folks running away.

Andersen also learned that Michael had cameras put up all all over the dwelling, interior and out, and had been recording Alissa's cell phone calls. As successfully as to dwelling movies, Family Secrets ingredients audio and video clips from the surveillance Michael was as soon as conducting interior his possess dwelling.

Michael countered to police that Alissa was as soon as jumpy and he had to wait on a end glimpse on her.

“We opinion it was as soon as loopy how overbearing he was as soon as,” Alissa's buddy Jessica Lang said of Michael in Family Secrets. One other buddy, Charity Behrend, described Alissa as “very outgoing, very amusing” and “irregular in regards to the enviornment around her.” Charity also said they basically frolicked at her dwelling because Alissa didn't address being at dwelling—till, she added, Michael forbid Alissa from seeing Charity, calling her a “tainted affect.”

One other dwelling film integrated in the doc exhibits Alissa, dressed up and headed out to prom along with her guests, being instructed by her dad (who's in the wait on of the digicam) that she will be able to be able to't hunch. She appears to be like at him with disbelief as he insists he's serious. Finally the doc relays that she was as soon as allowed to transfer, but he demanded that she now not leave the building as soon as she bought there.

In 2008, Michael refused to come wait on in for a formal interview, Andersen said in the doc, but was as soon as “pretty cooperative” over the cell phone. But when he asked Michael to provide the tape from the day Alissa disappeared, the detective added, he “hems and haws.”

Why was as soon as Michael Turney arrested?

The abuse allegations “at closing forced [police] to peep at my sister's case,” Sarah instructed Dateline in 2020. “In case you asked me then if I opinion my father had any involvement, I would accept as true with said no. But over the years, he had so many renditions of what came about that day. Something wasn't ethical.”

Sgt. Cox instructed Dateline, “The totality of conditions acknowledged to police ended in the concentrate on Michael Turney because the suspect.”

And on Dec. 11, 2008, Phoenix police searched the Turney dwelling in connection with Alissa's disappearance.

Investigators had been basically purchasing for paperwork, cassettes and videotapes, but to their shock they realized a large different of weapons, ammunition and 26 homemade pipe bombs, per the FBI's Phoenix division.

In addition they realized a van on the property that was as soon as stout of containers of propane and bleach and had nails packed into the wheel wells, Andersen said in Family Secrets. As he detailed in the documentary, additionally they realized several envelopes in a stable, every made out to a undeniable files outlet and containing a thumb drive. On the drive was as soon as a manifesto, proven in the doc, by which Michael accused the electricians' union of being eager in Alissa's kidnapping and execute, and shared his opinion to accurate revenge by riding his homemade bomb of a van into the Global Brotherhood of Electrical Workers' union corridor.

The file was as soon as titled “Diary of a Madman Martyr.”

When Michael was as soon as arrested that very same day, he “had two pistols on his particular person,” Det. Stuart Somershoe instructed ABC News in 2009. “He had seven magazines stuffed with ammo. He had a knife. He had a recording instrument.”

How did Sarah Turney find yourself suspecting her dad Michael Turney of killing her sister Alissa Turney?

Sarah said in Family Secrets that, when her dad went to detention heart, she completely believed that he was as soon as innocent and had been framed by authorities. She started a “Free Michael Turney” web page and advocated for his unlock.

Nor was as soon as she fazed by suspicion that he'd harmed Alissa.

“We all know he had nothing to manufacture with the disappearance of my sister,” Sarah instructed ABC 15 after he was as soon as locked up. “He's the fitting dad I may well well search files from for.”

But because the years passed by, she got right here to the reverse conclusion.

She read in regards to the allegations of sexual abuse integrated in her sister's case file, and then went wait on and watched her dad's dwelling movies, she outlined in the documentary. In a 1997 video from a household tenting outing sampled in the film, Alissa is heard shouting, “Dad's a pervert!” On the time, Sarah said, she opinion nothing of it.

“Whereas I opinion my dad was as soon as mainly a superhero and the fitting dad ever,” Sarah said in Family Secrets, “it appears he was as soon as a monster.”

She continued, “My theory is, on the day she went lacking, he picked her up and took her to the desolate tract, tried it [sexually assaulting her] as soon as more, maybe she fought wait on, one thing went rude and he determined to shatter her.”

By the level Michael was as soon as launched early from detention heart in 2017, Sarah completely believed in his guilt and had instructed police she'd fabricate one thing else to abet put him away. She recorded a conversation she had along with her dad at a espresso store, by which he denied killing or molesting Alissa. But she interpreted a comment he made—tense Sarah to come wait on to his death bed and gaze what he had to relate then—as a confession.

But, as Andersen said in Family Secrets, there was as soon as no bodily proof and no crime scene, and police couldn't use “snippets of a conversation” to shatter their case.

What Michael said, he added, was as soon as “now not a confession to a homicide.”

Sure to repeat her sister's anecdote, Sarah started a blog and seemed on thoroughly different true crime podcasts. In July 2019 she launched her possess podcast, Voices for Justice, interviewing Alissa's guests, delving into the case file, recounting her dad's explosives case and sharing her suspicions about Michael's role in Alissa's disappearance.

“I'm never going to provide up,” Sarah instructed Dateline in June 2020. “Alissa is my total lifestyles. Checking out what came about to her has change into my lifestyles.”

Moreover, Sarah added, “She deserves her day in court docket. And I’m positive to provide her that.”

She also realized loads of true crime enthusiasts on TikTok and that's where, on Aug. 20, 2020, she shared along with her followers that Michael had been arrested for Alissa's execute.

What came about at Michael Turney's execute trial?

Michael, charged with 2d-level execute, pleaded now not guilty. The 75-365 days-veteran looked former and sat in a wheelchair when his case went to trial in July 2023.

The “total case is in step with circumstantial proof, speculation, perception,” defense attorney Jamie A. Jackson said in court docket, per video from the trial. “There's no proof.”

The defense also efficiently moved to wait on allegations of sexual abuse out of the complaints, which implies the folks that instructed police that Alissa had alleged her father tried to assault her couldn’t notify as powerful on the search stand.

After the prosecution rested its case on July 17, 2023, following 5 days of testimony, the defense moved for a bench acquittal. Attorney Olivia Hicks argued that the issue had now not made “sensible inference” that Michael killed Alissa.

Judge Sam J. Myers agreed and ordered Michael's unlock from custody.

“He is overjoyed that the need noticed it his manner,” Jackson instructed reporters afterward, per NBC News. “He's inflamed that he'll be in a self-discipline to get hang of out of custody. He is clearly serene very inflamed by the case and Alissa and attempting to search out who basically killed her.”

Michael was as soon as launched July 18, 2023. Jeopardy was as soon as connected, which implies he can now not be tried on the the same rate.

Where is Sarah Turney now?

Upset but undeterred, Sarah continued to press her dad for answers. She sat down with him for a February 2024 conversation captured on digicam for the Oxygen documentary by which he as soon as more denied molesting or killing Alissa and accused Sarah of destroying their household.

“I don't want a desire or a jury to repeat me what every person knows,” she said in the doc after their heated alternate. “I'm at peace with what I've performed for Alissa.”

Since early 2021 she's been delving into other lacking particular person and homicide conditions on her podcast, explaining that segment of her mission now may well well be to abet other households in their progressively frustrating quests for closure.

But she hasn't deserted her normal motivation: Sarah said on the Oct. 3 episode of Voices for Justice that a brand fresh season about Alissa's case is “currently in trend.”

Family Secrets: The Disappearance of Alissa Turney premieres Sunday, Oct. 13, at 8 p.m. on Oxygen. A long model premieres Tuesday, Oct. 15, on Peacock.

(E!, Oxygen and NBC are all participants of the NBCUniversal household.)