Lisa Jane Turner

Background

Lisa Jane Turner was convicted of killing three babies and attempting to murder two others. Her offences involved children in her care, including her own children, and other infants whom she baby-sat.

The offence

On January 11, 1980, Megan Turner was eleven weeks old when her mother rushed her to a hospital emergency ward in Christchurch, New Zealand. The child had stopped breathing, and help arrived too late to save her life. Physicians could not specify a cause of death and blamed the death on SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

Turner’s second child, daughter Cheney Louise, was born on January 31, 1982. Seven weeks later, on March 15, a visiting neighbor found the baby dead in her crib. The blanket was stained with blood from Cheney’s mouth. Again, no cause of death was ascertained and physicians blamed the death on SIDS.

In October 1982, nine months after Cheney Louise’s death, four-month-old Catherine Packer was left with Lise Turner while her mother went shopping. When Mrs. Packer returned, her child was vomiting and bleeding from the mouth. Hospital physicians saved her life. Catherine initially appeared to recover with no ill effects, but the attacks were repeated over the next six months, always occurring when Lise Turner came to call.

After Catherine’s mother joined her on a hospital visit, her appearance prompted tearful screams from Catherine as she cowered in her bed. Turner was henceforth barred from the Packer residence, but there were “always more children around.”

Katrina Hall, five weeks old, was stricken in Lise Turner’s care with vomiting and labored breathing. She recovered in the hospital and suffered no more ill effects.

Eight-month-old Michael Tinnion was found dead while Turner baby-sat. Sticky fluid seeped from his nose and mouth. Physicians diagnosed asphyxiation as the cause of death. Police re-examined other cases from their files.

Investigation

Police re-examined other cases from their files after Michael Tinnion’s death was diagnosed as asphyxiation.

No motive was advanced at trial. Turner’s crimes were described as strongly reminiscent of several American killers, all diagnosed as suffering from Munchausens syndrome by proxy.

Trial

In November 1984, Lisa Jane Turner stood trial in the High Court of Christchurch, charged with three counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.

Prosecutors referred to four other attacks, on children unnamed in the indictments, but the evidence on file was described as bad enough to allow these references in the case.

Turner was convicted on all counts.

Sentencing

Lisa Jane Turner was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and to additional terms for attempted murder. She received life imprisonment for murder, plus five years on each of the attempted murder counts.

Appeals

No appeal information was provided.

Outcome

Lisa Jane Turner, 41, was released from Arohata Women’s Prison in August 1997 after serving 13 years for killing three babies and attempting to murder two others.

At her trial, evidence was presented that she had tried to kill four other babies. She was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of three babies and to three five-year sentences for the attempted murder of two others.

The two murdered children, Megan and Cheney Louise, were described as her own. The third was eight-month-old Michael Clark Tinnion, whom she suffocated.

After her release, she was described as being released on life parole under the control of her probation officer. As a condition of her parole, she was not allowed unsupervised contact with children.

Dick Ashley, her de facto husband at the time she committed the crimes, waited out the 13 years she was in prison, and they were described as re-united by the time of her release.

Katrina Hall had recovered from the vomiting and labored breathing. Catherine Packer had survived the attacks initially and later screamed in response to Turner’s hospital presence. Megan was found to have died after stopping breathing at an emergency ward, and Cheney Louise was found dead in her crib with blood from her mouth; physicians had attributed both deaths to SIDS.

Aftermath

At the time of her release, Lauree and Kelvin Tinnion, whose son Michael was suffocated by Turner, issued a news release saying they felt freeing her was “the end of justice” for their son, who by then would have been a teenager.