PHOENIX — Jury selection is set to begin Monday for the trial of Michael Roy Turney, who was arrested in connection to the murder of his teenage stepdaughter.
Seventeen-year-old Alissa Turney went missing at the end of the school year at Paradise Valley High School in 2001. She was first reported as a runaway by Michael Turney, who told authorities that Alissa had left a note and was going to California.
In 2008, new information was brought to light and officials began a criminal investigation into Alissa's disappearance.
Officials conducted hundreds of interviews with coworkers, friends, and family.
When a search warrant was issued on Michael's home, they discovered a bombing plot, at which point he was brought into custody. Officials say Michael took a plea deal and served 10 years in prison in the bombing plot, unrelated to Alissa's disappearance.
He was arrested in 2020 by police in Mesa on second-degree murder charges in connection to Alissa’s presumed death.
Her body has never been recovered.
