BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C.–March 5 will mark the grim anniversary of Berkeley County’s biggest cold case: the homicide of Justin Turner.
After several days of extensive searching, the 5-year-old’s lifeless body was located in a storage box inside a camper that belonged to his stepmother and father near their home at 214 Horseshoe Road in Moncks Corner.
An autopsy showed that the little boy had been strangled with a strap and sexually assaulted with a cylindrical object.
Twenty-seven years later, no one has yet to be convicted for Turner’s murder. His mother, Elaine Pace, passed away nearly a decade ago without getting the chance to see her son’s killer brought to justice. Now Elaine’s surviving family members vow to keep the case alive for not only her but for Justin, too.
Had Justin been alive today, he’d be 32-years-old. Instead, he was sent to an early grave. Today, he is buried alongside his mother in Summerville.
On February 19th, 2016, several of Justin’s cousins and half-brother traveled from the Upstate to Berkeley County to speak personally with Sheriff Duane Lewis.
“I was very pleased with the meeting. It’s the first opportunity that we’ve had in any years to meet with the sheriff. They currently have a new set of eyes looking at the case and are hoping to maybe pursue some things,” stated Amy Finley Parsons, Justin and Elaine’s cousin.
For the family, they remain optimistic that Justin’s case will eventually be solved.
“The reason we’re here is because his whole immediate family with the exception of his brother and cousins–they’re all gone. They’ve passed away. His grandmother died three years ago. She was the last living immediate relative. We’re here to take their place,” stated Denise Finley, another cousin.
Denise Finley: “How can a person do that to an innocent child?”
March 3rd, 1989 started out just like any typical Friday for Little Justin who was just a kindergartner attending Whitesville Elementary School.
“Justin was a sweet little kid. He was just so lovable,” recalled Denise.
That morning, he woke up early to get ready for school. According to his stepmother, Pamela Turner, Justin got dressed, ate breakfast before walking out to the bus stop with the other kids while she enjoyed a nice, hot shower. His father, Victor Turner, had already left for work.
After Justin failed to get off the bus later that day–Pamela called 9-1-1 to report him missing, investigators stated. Approximately 100 people soon began searching for the little boy.
“I was there when the search was going on,” stated Denise. “We were not allowed to participate in the search. His mother’s family was not allowed to go on the property at all.”
Early on in the investigation, Denise said investigators believed that Justin’s disappearance was a case of parental abduction. Elaine received several phone calls from investigators during the course of the search.
“They were calling to find out what she had done with Justin,” stated Denise. “Her response each time was, ‘I do not have my son. Will you please find my son?'”
Amy Finley Parsons: “You can’t just take an innocent child and throw them out like trash.”
One of the challenges in solving this case early on was a discrepancy in some of the facts. The stepmother originally told authorities that she was in the shower when Justin told her he was leaving to go catch a ride to school. However, investigators said they talked to several witnesses who said he never made it to the bus stop to get on the bus.
By Sunday morning, the search came to a sad and tragic end. Investigators said that around 11 a.m., Justin’s father, Victor Turner, went inside the camper he owned and located his son’s dead body.
The find shocked first responders who swore up and down that they had searched that camper multiple times before. Investigators believed his body had been moved there. But the big question remains even today: By who?
“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,” stated Amy.
Amy was around 8-years-old when her cousin, Justin, was murdered.
“The following year, his little league team in Berkeley County had a memorial service for him. I remember going to that. Even at that age, I can remember being upset,” recalled Amy.
Today, Amy spends much of her time pushing to get Justin’s killer brought to justice. Several years ago, she launched Justice for Justin Lee Turner on Facebook.
“I’ve had a lot of people come forward and share their concern, their prayers and their thoughts. I’ve been very impressed,” stated Amy. “Someone has lived with this for almost 27 years. That’s a long time to live with a weight like this on your shoulder. Come forward. End it now. It’s as simple as that.”
Cody Pace: “It’s been very hard on my dad.”
After her split from Victor Turner, Elaine remarried a Summerville man by the name of Russell Pace. He was by Elaine’s side during the search for Justin and after his body was found. They remained married until her death.
“It’s been very hard for my dad. It’s been very hard for everybody,” stated Cody Pace, Justin’s half brother. “When she was dying, one of her last wishes was to have my dad pursue the case. So even as she was there dying, in was on her mind consuming her. Looking back, she was miserable.”
Elaine passed away one day after Christmas in 2004 from cirrhosis of the liver. While Cody never had a chance to know his older brother, the case stays with him due to the mental toll it took on his mother.
“It’s always going to be on my mind until something happens because that was my mom. She didn’t get closure. It affected her relationship with my dad a lot,” stated Cody. “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.”
Sidney Wrenn: “It won’t ever be solved unless the person confesses.”
About nine months after Justin’s body was located by his own father, Pamela was arrested for his murder after a coroner’s inquest determined that there was probable cause to charge her.
However, lead investigator Sidney Wrenn maintains that the so-call evidence presented in court amounted to bologna.
“He didn’t have probable cause to do what he’d done,” stated Wrenn. “All of the information that was presented to the jury was hearsay evidence that was never substantiated.”
To this day, Wrenn partly blames former Berkeley County Coroner William B. Smith Jr., now deceased, for “screwing the case up,” he said.
“The coroner at the time was only 21-years-old. I asked Smith to let me handle the investigation and don’t do anything until I completed it,” stated Wrenn. “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.”
Wrenn believed politics became intertwined with the case which, he said, complicated matters even more. According to Wrenn, Smith had plans to run for Berkeley County sheriff.
“He was doing everything to make the sheriff’s office look bad,” stated Wrenn. “I was going to need the real mother, Elaine, to help me connect the evidence that Victor’s mother had been providing me with. She 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 at the sheriff’s office and rumors of a romantic affair with someone in local law enforcement did not sit well with Elaine. In fact, it made her trust investigators even less, according to her family.
“I would never even try to recognize such a statement as that because it’s not true. I don’t know of anyone she 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,” stressed Wrenn.
According to Wrenn, the day before he went missing, Justin spoke on the phone to his mother, Elaine, as he did every night.
“He told his mother, ‘Moma, 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,” stated Wrenn.
Although never convicted in court and innocent until proven guilty, Wrenn believes the boy’s stepmother feared he was about to tell a secret she didn’t want out. The former investigator’s claims, however, were never fully substantiated.
Sadly, Justin made the second son of Victor Turner to die at a young age. He had another son who lost his life to Leukemia several years earlier, family members stated.
The day after Justin’s body was discovered, Wrenn stated that he took Pamela and Victor Turner up to Columbia for a polygraph at SLED headquarters on March 6th, 1989.
“She lied on every question. Very deceptive. She refused to cooperate. When I say she refused to cooperate, she refused to admit if she was guilty,” stated Wrenn.
The experienced investigator claimed that the boy’s stepmother had taken Valium before taking the polygraph. As a result, Wrenn made arrangements to have her retake the polygraph the next day.
However, that plan was foiled after he said that then Berkeley County sheriff, M.C. Cannon, told the media that the stepmother was considered a suspect in the case. After that, Wrenn said she refused to cooperate.
“By that time, she had contacted a lawyer, and the lawyer said, ‘Oh, no, no. You’re not going back,'” stated Wrenn. “I had Victor’s mother go to him 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.”
Unfortunately, Wrenn believes no DNA evidence will ever solve his case because everything in the house and camper had a right to be there.
“It won’t ever be solved unless that person confesses,,” stated Wrenn. “I wanted to solve this case more than anybody did. This case will always concern me.”
Steve Davis: “Some crimes take a long time to be resolved.”
The murder charge against Pamela was eventually dropped due to insufficient evidence, according to the solicitor’s office at the time.
Although she’s never been proven guilty of killing Justin, Pamela remains a suspect in the case, authorities have stated.
“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 wrong,” stated Steve Davis who was the deputy solicitor in the Justin Turner case.
Davis believes mistakes were, in fact, made early on–including the exact time of when Justin’s body was placed in the camper. Despite the search, Davis said that the evidence showed that the little boy’s body had been there the whole time.
“Those are the kinds of issues, I think, that initially caused tremendous problems with the eventual prosecution of the case,” he stated.
When recently asked if he felt comfortable with dropping the murder charge against Pamela, Davis answered “yes.”
“We can’t try cases on the whim of what we hope the facts are,” stated Davis. “Justice is slow, and I pray that eventually this case will be resolved.”
Pamela has since changed her name. She and Victor remain married and now call the Spartanburg area home.
How you can help:
If you have any information on this case, you’re asked to call the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office or Crimestoppers at (843) 554-1111. You can remain anonymous and even qualify for a cash reward.
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