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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsAlissa Turney was 17 when she disappeared from the Phoenix area on May 17, 2001. She was last seen at Paradise Valley High School after telling her boyfriend that her stepfather, Michael Turney, was taking her out of school early. She has never been found. Michael Turney was charged with her presumed murder in 2020, but a judge acquitted him in 2023 after finding the prosecution had not presented substantial evidence to support a conviction. The disappearance remains an open case; what happened to Alissa has not been established.
Where and when was Alissa Turney last seen?
Alissa Marie Turney was born April 3, 1984. On May 17, 2001, she appeared at her boyfriend’s woodshop class at Paradise Valley High School and said her stepfather was taking her out of school early. Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell described this as the last time anyone saw or heard from Alissa. She was 17.
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Michael Turney reported Alissa missing that day. The school encounter is the last known sighting in the case record; it does not establish what happened after she left school.
Did Alissa run away to California?
The initial explanation was that Alissa had run away. A note indicated she was going to California, and on May 24, Michael told police he had received a call from a California number. He said the caller was Alissa, who swore at him and hung up. Investigators did not establish any confirmed contact after that call.
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Several circumstances made the runaway account difficult to verify: her phone, keys, makeup and jewelry were left behind, and about $1,800 remained untouched in her bank account. Those details do not prove what happened to her, but they are part of why the disappearance later drew scrutiny as a possible homicide rather than being treated simply as a voluntary departure.
How did the investigation change?
The case’s classification shifted as investigators revisited the evidence. A 2006 claim by prisoner Thomas Hymer that he had killed Alissa was investigated, but no documented contact between him and Alissa was found and the confession was not substantiated. In 2008, Phoenix’s Missing Persons Unit reopened the case as a suspected homicide. After years of investigative work and public advocacy by Alissa’s half-sister Sarah Turney, Phoenix police reclassified the disappearance as a homicide in 2019.
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A homicide classification means investigators are pursuing the case as a suspected killing; it is not a court finding that a particular person committed a crime. No remains were found, and the public record described here does not establish a cause of death or where Alissa is.
What happened during the 2008 search of the Turney home?
On December 11, 2008, police searched Michael Turney’s home. They found 26 pipe bombs, three incendiary devices, firearms and silencers. The search also turned up a manifesto describing a planned attack on a labor-union building and making allegations about Alissa’s burial.
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Those items led to a separate federal explosives case. In 2010, Michael Turney pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of unregistered destructive devices; the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office said he admitted possessing 26 unregistered pipe bombs. He was sentenced to 10 years and released in 2017. That conviction concerned the destructive devices. The explosives and manifesto are not proof that Alissa was killed or that the manifesto’s allegations about her were true.
Was Michael Turney convicted of Alissa’s murder?
No. A Maricopa County grand jury indicted Michael Turney on one count of second-degree murder in August 2020, in connection with Alissa’s presumed death. He was arrested in Mesa and maintained his innocence.
In July 2023, after the prosecution rested, Judge Sam Myers granted a Rule 20 judgment of acquittal. He found that substantial evidence did not exist to warrant a conviction. In practical terms, the judge concluded the state’s evidence was legally insufficient for the case to proceed to a guilty verdict. Turney was released on July 18, 2023, and cannot be retried for the same murder charge. The acquittal resolved that criminal charge; it did not determine what happened to Alissa.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is Alissa Turney still missing?
Yes. Alissa has not been found, and the case remains open. Arizona’s Family reported in January 2024 that Phoenix had no dedicated missing-person cold-case unit. That report also quoted Sarah Turney asking whether investigators were still working on the case. The available facts leave the central questions—what happened after Alissa left school and where she is—unanswered.
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