- What is up, EWU crew?
It's the last day of school, and 17-year-old Alissa Turney
has left early to get lunch with her father.
With summer right around the corner,
she's already made plans and was excited,
except there was a problem that could ruin her arrangements.
Alissa disliked having to constantly report her whereabouts
to her father and didn't want to come home early anymore.
Her father, Michael, was trying to reign her in.
He described her as out of control
and planned to send her to California
after claiming he found her smoking.
Her father wasn't particularly close
to his late wife's family,
but they agreed to take her in
until she was less rebellious.
But Alissa would never make it to California.
During lunch, Michael refused to give in
and let Alissa do as she pleased.
This wasn't the outcome Alissa wanted,
and when they returned home,
the situation got even stranger.
Her sister, Sarah, was away on a field trip
and wouldn't be picked up until later.
Reports vary here, with Michael saying
that he picked Sarah up and left Alissa at home
despite her being visibly distressed.
Sarah says that he never showed up
and she called him to tell him
she was staying at a friend's house
before eventually being picked up late in the evening.
On the journey back home, her father asked her
to call Alissa after telling her
that she wasn't answering the phone.
She called multiple times, but there was no answer,
and when they arrived home, she went to Alissa's room
and found her phone vibrating.
Her school bag had been emptied all over the floor,
and a note had been left.
The note, apparently from Alissa,
blamed her sister for her disappearance.
At one point, she says, "Sarah, you wanted me gone.
"Now you have it," something that upset Sarah.
The pair fought like normal siblings,
but those fights weren't what prompted her to disappear.
Some find this note to be suspicious.
Half siblings, Alissa was adopted by Michael
when she was three years old
and was never considered a step sibling.
Anything that could create a feeling
of being different within the family was forbidden,
and all the children were welcomed into the family
with open arms.
Alissa wouldn't have an easy life, however.
When she was just eight years old,
she lost her mother to cancer,
leaving Michael to raise two young daughters.
As she became a teenager,
her relationship with her father deteriorated,
causing serious friction between the pair.
Installing security cameras in the vents of her bedroom
and often forcing her to do homework twice,
he would frequently insist that she had special needs.
Nothing she did was neat enough for him,
and it seemed like an uphill battle
when it came to satisfying his constantly moving goalposts.
The invasion of privacy didn't apply to her siblings.
Her sister, Sarah, was even convinced that it was normal,
at one point even shown a clip
of Alissa and her boyfriend making out,
recorded by one of the many hidden cameras.
- [Alissa] Sarah!
Dad's a pervert!
- [Narrator] Brainwashed into believing it was done
out of concern after a robbery,
it was only years later that she questioned
why there was a camera hidden inside of the house.
When she was moved into Alissa's old room,
her father removed the cameras
and even gave her a device
to prove he wasn't monitoring her.
- [Michael] Alissa is stupid moron!
- [Narrator] The double standards
never bred resentment between the pair,
and Sarah now campaigns extensively to help find her sister.
Since leaving the house
and escaping the brainwashing of her father,
she can pinpoint many examples
of double standards within the family.
When Sarah smoked, despite being forbidden,
there was no punishment,
but even a hint of rebellion caused Alissa to be punished.
Very little can be confirmed
about the day Alissa went missing.
Her father picked her up from school
somewhere between 10 and 11 that morning,
though she'd stopped by her boyfriend's classroom
to say goodbye before leaving.
Over lunch, the conversation had become heated,
and Michael refused to let her stay out late
without at least knowing where she was.
This upset Alissa, but Michael stuck to his word,
telling her that he'd be a nervous wreck
if he didn't know where she was.
Even this conversation is up for debate.
Alissa and her father are the only ones who know the truth,
and many close to her doubt that he's being honest.
Refusing to submit a polygraph test
or even an interview with police,
the only evidence he has provided
was through faxes, emails, and phone calls.
Alissa hasn't been seen since her disappearance in 2001,
no activity from her bank account,
and no verifiable attempts to make contact since that day.
$1,800 was left in her account,
something out of character for a runaway.
Her makeup was untouched, hair brush left behind,
and phone still in her bedroom.
The only thing missing was her bag, a black backpack.
When investigating, detectives heard numerous stories
about her father and his attempts to assault his daughter.
Her boyfriend recounts an incident
where her father took her out of school early,
driving her to a deserted area
and attempting to assault her in a way
we can't exactly say on YouTube.
- [Michael] You guys don't want pictures?
- Stop!
Please?
- [Narrator] These stories spanned years,
and friends were able to mention graphic details
that prompted authorities to investigate.
His history of trying to hide this covers many years,
having called CPS only a year earlier about his daughter.
Though nobody knows what prompted the call,
the context is disturbing enough.
In the call, he said that if Alissa
ever reported him, she was lying.
He also clarified that the cameras
and phone monitoring systems were for security reasons
and had nothing to do with keeping an eye on his children.
As the investigation continued,
people continued to speak out about Michael.
This led police to the conclusion that perhaps Michael
would benefit from the disappearance of his daughter.
After all, she wouldn't be able to accuse him
of hurting her if she was gone.
In 2008, Michael was taken into police custody
after they discovered him carrying two guns and a knife
as he collected his mail.
The situation allowed them into his house,
and they discovered 30 homemade explosive devices
and a large collection of guns.
In their search, they also discovered a 98-page manifesto
containing a theory about Alissa's disappearance.
His manifesto describes how
the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
was responsible for Alissa's disappearance,
convinced the union was seeking revenge
after he complained about working conditions in the '80s.
This was nothing like his previous claims
of her running away to California,
and Sarah called his theory into question.
She says that, while his complaint
caused him to receive harassing phone calls,
something her brothers can attest to
and may have been responsible for one physical altercation,
there is no evidence that they kidnapped
and later killed Alissa.
Believing that the union is a scapegoat for her father
and that their actions had been blown out of proportion,
this only supported her belief
that her father knew something about her disappearance.
Looking around the house,
they found various homemade tapes of Alissa
along with a contract she'd signed.
A year before she disappeared, she signed a document
stating she'd never been mistreated by her father,
something he later had notarized.
These contracts that Michael created
were analyzed by a forensic psychiatrist
who concluded that Michael had an extreme need
to control and dominate Alissa,
this supported by his recording
of all phone calls to the house.
When asked about recordings from the home security system,
he said they showed nothing of interest and destroyed them.
This made police suspicious,
but what sealed the deal was his claims
that the phone recording system wasn't working
when she called him a week after her disappearance.
This call came from a payphone in California.
Alissa apparently swore at him before hanging up.
His unwillingness to share those recordings
and later his destruction of them
left more gaps in the case.
Even if the recordings only showed her arriving at home,
they may help to identify her and create posters.
The fact that he never gave police a chance
to conclude that there was, in fact,
nothing of interest there
only directed attention away from his daughter.
Instead of focusing on finding her,
people began to focus on finding him guilty.
His initial call was set up
to make her sound like a missing person, a runaway,
instead of someone that had disappeared
without warning after a vulnerable moment.
Leaving behind money in her bank account
meant she couldn't have gone far,
and her behavior was atypical at best.
Some recordings also came to light
after her disappearance, showing Alissa at work.
When questioned, Michael told reporters
that he wanted to make sure
she wasn't skipping work to party.
Those that were close to her described her father
as something akin to an abusive boyfriend
instead of a concerned parent,
and he consistently warned them of how gullible she was
and that she wasn't able to take care of herself.
It wasn't uncommon for him to sit in the car,
parked outside of her work, filming her and checking
that she was where she was supposed to be.
This made her and many of her colleagues uncomfortable,
as he would sometimes come into the restaurant
and sit, staring at her.
It was as if she couldn't escape him and his suspicions.
If she was where she was meant to be, he would find her,
but if she went elsewhere and avoided his watchful eye,
there would still be suspicion when she got home,
punishments and shaming with nowhere to escape.
At first, the family defended Michael,
but as time went on, they grew suspicious.
When Sarah heard how her sister had been treated
many years after her initial disappearance,
she shut down the website that defended her father
and instead started to question his involvement.
No longer advocating for her father's innocence,
she instead turned her attention
solely to finding Alissa, no matter the cost.
Her brothers also joined in, albeit to a lesser degree,
the family finding itself divided
and struggling to reconcile the fact
that the same father they had loved so dearly
was capable of such things, potentially even capable
of making their sister disappear.
With a history in policing
and knowledge of the deserted areas around their house,
the hours-long gap between Alissa being picked up
and Sarah arriving at home
began to appear a lot more sinister to her.
- You got me in trouble, Dad!
- [Michael] How'd I do that?
- 'Cause the freaking (censored) Mike, he loose and he goes,
"That's illegal! He can't do that!"
I was like, "That's my dad."
"Still, there's signs posted all in the office."
I was like, "Like my dad's gonna do anything."
I was like, "It's my first job,
"and my dad's video camera-ing me."
He's like, "So? That's illegal.
"Tell him not to do that."
I was like, ugh! He's a (censored).
I hate that guy.
- [Michael] Which one's Mike?
The one that was talking to you?
- No, the one ...
I don't know, the one that drives that nice Mustang.
Let me drive.
- [Michael] Which one's Mike?
- [Narrator] When Sarah searched the house,
a map was discovered.
Coordinates were written on it
that pointed to an isolate area of the California desert.
Despite submitting it to police, they never investigated.
Though bones were found in the area by a hiker,
reaching out to the coroner yielded no results,
Nobody willing to confirm whether or not
the bones were connected to her disappearance.
Police also began to decrease their support,
despite numerous petitions encouraging them
to investigate the case further.
Sarah's appeals to use ground-penetrating technology
at a shopping center her sister's body could be at
was also denied.
This pushed her to develop an online presence,
using various social media platforms
to raise awareness about her sister's disappearance.
These have gradually gained traction,
culminating in billboards and thousands upon thousands
of signatures supporting her search.
Sarah has appeared on various crime podcasts
in a bid to encourage police to reinvestigate the case.
She believes her father was involved
in her sister's disappearance and hopes that,
if there is enough attention on the case,
she may finally be able to find her sister.
She offered to pay for an investigation of the area
she believes Alissa may be, to no avail.
Some agencies still consider her a runaway,
despite her behavior being so extremely out of character.
Her rebellious behavior didn't include running away,
especially without warning,
and not even those closest to her
were sent a message after she left.
They believe foul play was involved as well.
After hearing years of stories about what she endured,
they wondered if this time she fought back.
The story of her father taking her out to the desert
is at the forefront of many minds.
Maybe she fought back and he grew enraged,
or she tried to escape to tell somebody,
or perhaps she tried to use the story to gain more freedom,
and he knew that she couldn't continue to live
with that knowledge; he knew she could destroy his life,
and that was a loss of control he couldn't face.
Maybe it was the loss of control,
or maybe it was the knowledge
of her strong relationship with her boyfriend.
Perhaps to make her realize she needed him,
he dropped her off in the desert and left her behind.
He placed a lot of value in control,
and losing that control could easily have pushed him
to take the situation to extremes.
The paranoia he lived with
may have caused him to act on impulse.
But whatever the cause, he's the most likely suspect.
Though Michael served time in custody
for his plans to kill or otherwise injure
the people of the union, he's now a free man.
This freedom comes despite a forensic psychologist
saying he had a high likelihood of future violent crimes.
Despite being required to undergo mental health treatments
for paranoid personality disorder after his release,
it brings little comfort to those that loved Alissa.
Many remember Alissa as a normal teenager
with a rebellious streak, someone with no enemies,
who was just beginning her life.
Despite skipping the occasional classes,
she was a successful student with a steady relationship
and a strong bond with her siblings.
There's a hint of sadness, however,
in the coverage of the case.
Some wonder why friends and teachers
never reported the graphic tales she told,
left to wonder if perhaps she'd be here today
if someone had spoken up.
A family already grieving the loss of a mother
was now left to grieve once more,
not only the loss of a sister,
one who they didn't even get to say goodbye to,
but also the loss of a father
and the absolute trust they had for him.
In early interviews, Sarah said that,
unless there was evidence on the contrary,
she would believe her sister was on a beach somewhere,
sipping margaritas and enjoying a new life.
As the years have worn on, that optimism has worn away,
but Sarah still hopes that one day she can find her sister,
no matter what.
With the case now being submitted to the prosecutor's office
in the hopes of charging Michael Turney at long last,
perhaps Alissa will finally be able to come home
and have her story told.
After all this time, he may be held accountable
for the disgusting behavior that haunted her.
Though an investigation will take time,
there are now appeals for leads or tips
from anybody who may know something.
With such strong support from around the world,
there's hope that Sarah will be reunited
with her sister once more.
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