American woman Sarah Turney uses TikTok to help catch her sister’s alleged killer: her own father

For years, American woman Sarah Turney had suspected that her father was involved in the disappearance of her missing sister Alissa.

While Michael Turney has always denied any involvement in Alissa Turney’s disappearance, Sarah has spent years campaigning for police to act.

After exhausting all avenues from podcasts to her own investigations, Sarah turned to TikTok, where she shared videos in her bid to get “justice for Alissa.”

After being viewed by millions of people around the world, the clips gained renewed interest in the unsolved case, and Michael Turney was recently charged with second-degree murder.

It is a story that sounds like a movie straight out of Hollywood, but tragically it is a case of real life.

Seventeen-year-old Alissa disappeared in 2000 from the family home in Phoenix, Arizona, where she lived with her stepfather Michael and five other siblings.

Sarah said that Alissa had been like a mother to her after her mother, Barbara Strahm, died of cancer when they were young, leaving them in the sole care of their father.

The sisters didn’t share the same biological father, but they were incredibly close: Alissa even called Michael “daddy.”

The police initially believed that Alissa was a fugitive, but as Sarah grew older she realized that several things did not add up.

Her father had pulled the missing teenager from school early on the day she disappeared, the Buzzfeed News reported.

Later, police found a note from Alissa written on the day of her disappearance saying that she had escaped to California.

Later they also found strange contracts signed by the teenager saying that Michael had never abused her.

Authorities also found surveillance equipment inside the family home, which her stepfather admitted installing. He claimed that he was monitoring his children for safety reasons, ABC News reported.

Police also found that all incoming and outgoing calls were recorded.

In 2009, Michael Turney told ABC News that he came home the day Alissa disappeared and discovered the note. He denied being involved in her disappearance.

As a child, Sarah Turney was not suspicious of her father, but that changed over the years.

In 2017, he began campaigning in the media to have his father indicted, opening Instagram and Facebook accounts, followed by a podcast, Voices For Justice, in 2019.

Despite public interest, the case seemed stalled and no action was taken against Michael Turney by the US police.

That was until Sarah created a TikTok account in April, where interest in what happened to Alissa exploded.

He shared chilling surveillance footage allegedly taken by Michael of Alissa at work; A clip in which the teenager appears to be warning a young Sarah about alleged abuse garnered tens of millions of views.

Sarah told Elle.com that she started the TikTok account to reach a new, younger audience and included “as little of my own speculation as possible and just presenting the facts.”

One of Sarah’s most-viewed videos is a recorded conversation she says she had with her father following his release from jail in 2017, where he spent time for an unrelated crime, the illegal possession of unregistered destructive devices, after a raid on his home in 2010. that uncovered 26 tube bombs.

In the video, Sarah asks her dad if he is responsible for Alissa’s disappearance, to which he replies, “Be there on your deathbed, Sarah, and I’ll give you all the honest answers you want to hear.”

In August 2020, just four months after Sarah opened her TikTok account, a grand jury charged Michael with second-degree murder for Alissa’s disappearance.

Sarah tweeted at the time that she was “shaking and crying” at the news, telling people to “never give up hope that you can get justice.”

“I felt many different emotions [afterwards]”Sarah told Elle.com.

“I was sad because he still refused to give me answers … I was hoping that [putting those statements on TikTok] it would incite the police to finally take him to a grand jury for questioning. “

At a press conference after Michael Turney’s arrest, Maricopa County Prosecutor Allister Adel praised Sarah for displaying “perseverance and commitment” which is “a testament to a sister’s love.”

“This passion that she has shown during her journey is something that will keep Alissa’s memory alive forever,” she said.

Michael Turney is now 72 years old. Alissa Turney’s body has yet to be found.

Now Sarah is turning her attention to other missing persons cases in the United States and hopes that her presence and determination on TikTok can help other families in a position similar to her own.