Lynsey Eidell is a contributing writer at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2022. Her work has previously appeared in GLAMOUR, Vanity Fair, Teen Vogue, Allure and more.
In May 2001, 17-year-old Alissa Turney vanished on the last day of her junior year of high school -- and hasn't been seen since.
For years, the Arizona teen was believed to be a runaway, thanks to a note claiming she had taken off for California. But holes began to emerge in that theory: Alissa left behind all her belongings, including her cell phone and car, and the nearly $1,800 she had saved in the bank remained untouched.
Over time, family and friends started to believe something more sinister had occurred to Alissa -- and alleged that someone close to her was to blame. In 2008, the investigation into her disappearance was reopened, and her stepfather, Michael Turney, emerged as the prime suspect.
Still, it would take 12 more years -- and a campaign led by Alissa's younger sister, Sarah Turney -- to bring charges against Michael. In 2020, Michael was arrested in connection with Alissa's disappearance, but walked free after a judge acquitted him of all charges due to insufficient evidence in 2023.
Now, a new documentary attempts to shed light on Alissa's case, which remains unsolved. Family Secrets: The Disappearance of Alissa Turney premieres on Sunday, Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Oxygen True Crime. Peacock will stream an extended version of the documentary beginning on Tuesday, Oct. 22.
So what happened to Alissa Turney? Here's everything to know about the disappearance case and the different turns it has taken over the past two-plus decades.
Alissa Turney was born on April 3, 1984, in Phoenix, Ariz., to Barbara Farner Strahm and Stephen Strahm, according to 20/20. After Alissa's parents divorced when she was 3 years old, her mother remarried Michael Turney, an electrician and father of three.
The couple welcomed a daughter together, Sarah, and became a large, blended family -- with Michael adopting Alissa and her older brother John.
Sadly, Barbara died of lung cancer when Alissa was 9 and Sarah was 4, leaving Michael to raise the two young girls solo. (The older four children were grown and living out of the home at that time.)
As Alissa became a teenager, she would often complain to friends that Michael was strict and overprotective, with him even installing surveillance cameras throughout their Phoenix home. Still, that didn't stop Alissa from having a steady boyfriend, a part-time job at Jack in the Box and dreams of moving to California.
"She knew he was watching her," Alissa's boyfriend, Jon Laakman, later told police in footage acquired by 20/20 and shared exclusively with PEOPLE.
Alissa disappeared on May 17, 2001, the last day of her junior year at Paradise Valley High School in Phoenix. She was 17 years old at the time.
The last person to reportedly see Alissa before she vanished was her stepfather, Michael. According to police records, Alissa stopped by her boyfriend Jon's workshop class around 11 a.m. that day to tell him she was leaving school early and Michael was picking her up. Michael later told authorities that he'd taken Alissa out for lunch that afternoon, and the two had an argument before he dropped her off at home around 1 p.m.
Hours later, Michael contacted Phoenix Police and told them that Alissa had run away -- but did not take her clothing, cell phone, makeup, jewelry or car. She also reportedly left behind a note in her bedroom that stated she was headed to California, where her aunt lived.
"I wasn't worried," Alissa's younger sister Sarah told PEOPLE in 2020. "I was under the impression she was going to be back. I don't think her being gone forever was anything that ever crossed my mind."
Despite Michael's claims that Alissa ran away, police opened a missing persons case. That said, they didn't drive to his house to interview him or search her room, even after her aunt revealed she never showed up in California.
In the meantime, Michael doubled down on the idea that Alissa was on the West Coast, telling authorities on May 24 that the missing teen had called him from a payphone in Riverside, Calif., before immediately hanging up.
That alleged tip yielded no leads, however, and the investigation into Alissa's disappearance stalled for several years.
"Nobody looked for her," Sarah said in a TikTok video. "Not anybody in my family. The police didn't do anything despite her being reported missing. Nothing really happened until 2006."
At that time, serial killer Thomas Hymer -- who was serving a life sentence in a Florida prison -- confessed to murdering Alissa, according to ABC News. When Phoenix police flew to Florida to question Hymer, though, they realized the confession was false.
While Hymer's claims didn't bring authorities any closer to locating Alissa, it renewed attention to her case -- and a new prime suspect: Michael.
After Hymer's false confession, detectives reopened the case of Alissa's disappearance in 2008 and began conducting more than 200 interviews with those closest to the teenager, per Buzzfeed News. In these interviews, many of Alissa's closest friends alleged that Michael had been verbally and sexually abusive to his stepdaughter for years.
"He always made me uncomfortable, from the moment I met him," Charity Behrend, Alissa's longtime friend, told PEOPLE in 2020.
As a result, detectives attempted to search Alissa's room in 2008 -- but Michael wouldn't let them into his home. Since then, "Michael Turney has refused to cooperate with the investigation" and "is the only member of the Turney family not to cooperate," according to police documents provided to PEOPLE at the time.
By December 2008, the police believed Michael was responsible for Alissa's disappearance, according to MEL magazine. They executed a search warrant on his home, which turned up an alarming discovery that had nothing to do with Alissa.
Police found dozens of homemade bombs, 19 firearms, two silencers and a 98-page manifesto detailing Michael's plot to commit mass murder at the local headquarters of the electrical workers union, according to the outlet.
In April 2010, Michael pleaded guilty to possession of unregistered destructive devices and spent the next seven years in federal prison.
"We bumbled, for lack of a better word, into his bombing plot," Detective William Andersen said during a 2020 press conference. "Him going to jail for that is not justice for Alissa."
With Michael behind bars on the bombing charges, detectives encouraged Sarah to generate publicity about her sister's case in hopes that it might produce new leads or evidence.
Sarah (who, along with her siblings, believes Michael is responsible for Alissa's presumed murder) did just that: She launched multiple social media pages dedicated to Alissa's disappearance, created a successful podcast about the case and started an online petition calling for Michael's arrest, which garnered nearly 300,000 signatures.
Sarah's podcast, Voices for Justice, and her viral TikTok videos, which have been viewed by tens of millions of people, helped renew interest in the cold case.
In her audio show, she presented evidence against her father, including audio from home footage of Alissa calling Michael a "pervert" in 1997 and secretly recorded audio from a 2017 conversation with her father where he said he would provide "all the honest answers you want to hear" on his deathbed.
These recordings helped make the case for Michael's arrest. On Aug. 20, 2020, he was arrested and charged with a single count of second-degree felony murder in Mesa, Ariz., for the death of Alissa, PEOPLE confirmed at the time.
"I'm shaking and I'm crying," Sarah wrote on X (formerly Twitter) about the news. "We did it you guys. He's been arrested. Omg 😠thank you. #justiceforalissa Never give up hope that you can get justice. It took almost 20 years but we did it."
At a press conference announcing Michael's indictment, Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel credited Sarah's efforts for her older sister.
"Sarah Turney, your perseverance and commitment to finding justice for your sister Alissa is a testament to the love of a sister," she said. "Because of that love, Alissa's light has never gone out and she lives on in the stories and photos you've shared with the community."
Adel continued, "This passion you have demonstrated to her during your journey is something that will keep Alissa's memory alive forever."
Michael's trial related to the presumed murder of Alissa began in July 2023, nearly three years after his initial arrest.
After six days of testimony from witnesses, including Phoenix police detectives Stuart Somershoe and William Andersen, Alissa's boyfriend at the time Jon and her sister Sarah, the defense submitted a motion for an acquittal under an Arizona statute.
It read, "the court must enter a judgment of acquittal ... if there is no substantial evidence to support a conviction," NBC News reported. The defense argued that the prosecution did not present any physical evidence that Alissa was dead -- or that Michael caused her presumed death.
"There has not been a shred of physical evidence in this case. No body, no crime scene, no evidence to suggest that a murder took place," defense attorney Olivia Hicks said in court.
The judge agreed with the defense and dismissed all of the charges against Michael. He was released from custody on July 18, 2023.
"While, of course, this is not the result any of us wanted, we're grateful for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for taking Alissa's case to trial," Sarah said in a statement released on her podcast, Voices for Justice. She continues to share on social media and on her podcast evidence of what she believes is her father's crime.
But Michael, who has maintained his innocence in Alissa's presumed death for years, has also turned to the internet since his acquittal.
He launched his own YouTube channel and has plans to start a podcast and write a book, according to Voices for Justice. Michael also filed a lawsuit against Phoenix police and county prosecutors in January 2024, alleging wrongful imprisonment and a violation of his rights, according to the Phoenix New Times.
"I would really like to clear my name before I die," Michael said in a YouTube video from September 2024, in which he also alleges that the Phoenix Police framed him out of revenge for exposing corruption. "The truth will always come out, it just takes time."
As of October 2024, Alissa's body has never been recovered. Her stepfather, Michael, insists to this day that he does not know what happened to her.
"I have no idea where Alissa is, alive or dead," he told NBC's Dateline.
Sarah, however, believes her older sister is deceased -- and remains on the hunt for justice.
"In my heart, I feel certain that Alissa is gone," she told The New York Times in 2020. "It took me a very, very long time to come to that conclusion, and there was so much guilt there when I did."
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