[GA] Lynn Turner, who killed her police officer husband and firefighter ex-deputy boyfriend, found dead in cell

Forsyth County Firefighter, Ex-Deputy Randy Thompson

Cobb County Police Officer Maurice Glenn Turner

...[Julia Lynn Womack Turner] was convicted of the 1995 murder of her 31-year-old husband, Cobb County police officer Glenn Turner. She also was convicted of murdering her Forsyth County firefighter boyfriend and the father of her daughter, 32-year-old Randy Thompson, six years later... Both men were law enforcement officers when they became involved with Lynn Turner... Lynn Turner, painted by prosecutors as a classic black widow who lured two law enforcement officers into her life, then killed them for their money by poisoning them with antifreeze... The men didn't know each other and their deaths were not linked initially despite some similarities. Both suffered flu-like symptoms before they were discovered home alone, dead. Both were believed to have died of cardiac dysrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat... Kathy Turner, the woman's mother-in-law, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It comes around, doesn’t it?"... Kathy Turner didn't want to hear that Lynn Turner was still trying to defend herself, and got her wish. "I’m glad I will never have to see her in court again," the former mother-in-law said...

Lynn Turner with her lawyers, 2003.

LYNN TURNER'S DEATH STILL LEAVES QUESTIONS, SCARS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Marcus K. Garner and Dan Raley
Tuesday, August 30, 2010
[Excerpts] Lynn Turner’s victims died mysteriously, without warning or ready cause. On Monday, the same thing happened to the two-time convicted killer. Turner, 42, was found unresponsive in her cell at Metro State Prison just before 7 a.m. and declared dead 40 minutes later. An autopsy later in the day couldn't determine what killed her... The former 911 operator was serving life sentences for the fatal antifreeze poisonings of Glenn Turner, her husband, in 1995 and Randy Thompson, her boyfriend and the father of her two children... “I think she just didn't have anything to live for," Kathy Turner, the woman's mother-in-law, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It comes around, doesn’t it?" Juries had determined that Turner, described by those who knew her as attractive and personable, had killed a Cobb County police officer and a Forsyth County firefighter for nothing more than money, for their life insurance policies and pensions totaling $200,000, miscalculating she would receive double that... Convictions three years apart came next for Turner, the last one in 2007. Again, money was the motivation. Witnesses from Turner's first trial testified that she had collected more than $140,000 in insurance benefits and $700 per month from her husband's police pension after he died. In the second trial, evidence was presented that Turner had received $36,000 from an insurance payout and had hoped to cash in on another policy worth $200,000 that named her as the beneficiary, but it had lapsed... Kathy Turner didn't want to hear that Lynn Turner still trying to defend herself, and got her wish. "I’m glad I will never have to see her in court again," the former mother-in-law said. "There’s never really any closure," said Brandie McNeal, Thompson's sister. "My brother’s gone"... [Full article here]

VICTIM'S FAMILY SAYS "BLACK WIDOW" GOT EASY WAY OUT
WXIA11
Posted By - Kevin Rowson
8/30/2010 9:46:05 PM
[Excerpts] ...The family of one of her victims, former Cobb County police officer Glenn Turner, said they have forgiven Lynn for what she did to Glenn. But they don't feel like justice has been served by her losing her life. "No I don't," said Glenn Turner's mother Kathy Turner. "But I'm happy I don't have to see her anymore in the news or in court or anywhere." Asked if her death was some form of justice, James Turner said no, it wasn't. "Justice was her being there (in prison), living with this," said James Turner... Lynn Turner was found dead in her cell at Metro State Prison in DeKalb County. There were no signs of trauma to her body... [Full article here]

TOXICOLOGY RESULTS WILL DETERMINE LYNN TURNER'S CAUSE OF DEATH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Rhonda Cook and Marcus K. Garner
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
[Excerpts] Blood test results are needed before the Georgia Bureau of Investigation can say what killed Lynn Turner, convicted of using antifreeze to murder her husband and boyfriend, officials said Tuesday. "Hopefully we'll have the results back in a few weeks or sooner," said GBI spokesman John Bankhead. The test is being rushed, he said... Turner was convicted of the 1995 murder of her 31-year-old husband, Cobb County police officer Glenn Turner. She also was convicted of murdering her Forsyth County firefighter boyfriend and the father of her daughter, 32-year-old Randy Thompson, six years later. The men didn't know each other and their deaths were not linked initially despite some similarities. Both suffered flu-like symptoms before they were discovered home alone, dead. Both were believed to have died of cardiac dysrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat But Lynn Turner had moved in with Thompson four days after her husband's death and they had a daughter 10 months after Glenn Turner died. And once their Lynn Turner connection was realized, Glenn Turner's body was exhumed and tissues from both men were retested. Both had died from poisoning by ethylene glycol, the sweet, odorless chemical in antifreeze... "I don't think it’s unreasonable to think there might have been a third victim," [Forsyth County District Attorney Penny] Penn said... [Full article here]





2001

COP'S WIDOW 'DISTRESSED' BY SPOTLIGHT
The Atlanta Journal
Jane O. Hansen
Aug 11, 2001
[Excerpts] In her first public meeting with a horde of reporters and cameramen Friday, Lynn Turner said nothing. Instead, the Forsyth County woman who is a key figure in a reopened investigation into three deaths stood at her attorney's side, her mouth closed, her eyes mostly cast downward... Police recently have renewed investigations into the January death of Randy Thompson, 32, a former Forsyth sheriff's deputy, and the 1995 death of 31-year-old Maurice Glenn Turner, a Cobb County police officer. Lynn Turner, 33, is Glenn's widow and the mother of Thompson's children. Both men's deaths were sudden and similar. The GBI also is looking into the 1999 death of Lynn Turner's former boss, Maj. Ronald Casper of the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office... "Ms. Turner is naturally distressed by the degree of speculation and conjecture which has surrounded this case," [her attorney, Rafe Banks] said... She also recently lost her job with a Forsyth County judge "because of this," Banks said... Police reports show [Randy] Thompson took an overdose of pain pills and sleeping pills in February 1997... Thompson also pleaded guilty to simple battery against Lynn Turner involving a November 1997 incident of domestic violence... he hit her with his arm and fist, bloodying her lip, the sheriff's report says. She was pregnant at the time. Thompson was sentenced to 10 months' probation and ordered to stay away from Lynn Turner... It was not the first violent incident involving the two. In September 1996 she went to the emergency room with a dislocated shoulder and bruised ribs after telling authorities he'd pushed her to the floor following a day of drinking. The incident was never prosecuted. Thompson's parents said Friday they were upset by the statements about their son. "Randy had his problems just like everybody," said Randy's father, Perry Thompson. "But he was not the emotionally troubled person like I felt they were trying to portray him to be. Somebody, whoever it is, is trying to discredit Randy."

2003

CRITICAL HEARING WITNESSES DESCRIBE WOMAN IN ANTIFREEZE POISONING CASE
The Atlanta Journal
JANE O. HANSEN
Jul 8, 2003
[Excerpts] The woman charged with killing her husband by poisoning him with antifreeze expressed little sorrow when he died, a close friend of the Cobb County police officer testified Monday. Donald Cawthon, who described himself as Officer Maurice Glenn Turner's best friend, cast defendant Lynn Turner as a cold, controlling woman. Cawthon said Lynn Turner shed no tears at the funeral home and her behavior seemed inconsistent with a woman who had just lost her husband. He said he overheard her complaining loudly about plans for the pomp and circumstance of an official police funeral... Although Lynn Turner is not yet on trial, prosecutors will argue this week that Glenn Turner's death was so similar to the death six years later of a Forsyth County firefighter that the jury should hear the details of both in her upcoming trial... In 2001, [Cobb Medical Examiner Brian] Frist conducted a second autopsy after Turner's body was exhumed and concluded Turner had died of poisoning... Witnesses' testimony showed both men suffered from nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache and hallucinations before seeking medical help at local emergency rooms.

2007

TURNER FACES SECOND TRIAL IN POISONING
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Jane O. Hansen
Published on: 01/07/07
[Excerpts] Donald Cawthon remembers the first time he saw her. It was 1990, and she was with a group of cops in an apartment somewhere in Cobb County. They were planning to go clubbing in Buckhead. The lights were out in the living room. It was so dark that Cawthon joked to the officer who lived there: Did you forget to pay your light bill? Then she emerged from the shadows — a shapely female in a tight blue dress, with long brown hair, coming toward him down a hallway. She was brandishing two pistols. Oh, is she a police officer, too? Cawthon asked Lynn Turner wasn't a police officer. But she sure liked to be around them... Both men were law enforcement officers when they became involved with Lynn Turner. Both died in their early 30s after first becoming so violently ill that they sought help at a local hospital. Both later told family members they felt better before they were found dead, home alone. Both were dressed in undershorts and covered with blankets. Even their deaths were initially attributed to the same natural cause: cardiac dysrythmia, or an irregular heartbeat. It wasn't until Thompson died — nearly six years after Glenn Turner — that authorities learned that the two men shared a common bond: Lynn Turner. Following each of their deaths, she collected thousands in insurance and pension benefits. In the summer of 2001, Turner's body was exhumed from his Marietta grave, and his tissues and those of Thompson's were retested. Both men were found to have died from ethylene glycol, the colorless, odorless, sweet-tasting chemical that makes up antifreeze... She may have been sleeping with Thompson while still married to Glenn Turner, but that doesn't make her a murderer, her lawyers argued... Throughout it all, Turner has so far said nothing in her own defense... She seemed confident she wouldn't be spending the rest of her life in prison. It's not "if" she gets out, she corrected a reporter in 2004, just hours before she was convicted and sentenced to life. "It's when." [Full article here]

TURNER GUILTY, MAY FACE DEATH: Sentencing phase of trial to begin Monday
Gainesville Times, GA
By STEPHEN GURR
March 25th, 2007
[Excerpts] Randy Thompson can rest in peace now that the woman who slowly poisoned him for money has been found guilty of murder, his father said Saturday. A Whitfield County jury convicted 38-year-old Lynn Turner of malice murder Saturday after five hours of deliberations. Evidence showed that Turner used tea and soup laced with antifreeze to administer a slow, painful death to the Forsyth County firefighter, and father of her two children, in January 2001... "We have such mixed emotions," said Thompson's father, Perry Thompson, as he addressed reporters outside the courthouse with about a dozen family members standing behind him. "The sadness is that three families have lost loved ones and are scarred forever. Our grandchildren have lost their father and now their mother, and it appears from the evidence, all for money... He can rest in peace now," Thompson said. "After six years of living a nightmare, it's just a tremendous relief to get this part of it over with"... Perry Thompson and Randy Thompson's mother, Nita, lowered their heads and cried quietly after the jury foreperson announced the verdict... The prosecution's case was entirely circumstantial... [Full article here]

KILLER WHO ELUDED DETECTION FOR YEARS IS BROUGHT TO ACCOUNT
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Jane O. Hansen and Nancy Badertscher
Sunday, April 1, 2007
[Excerpts] Lynn Turner, painted by prosecutors as a classic black widow who lured two law enforcement officers into her life, then killed them for their money by poisoning them with antifreeze, was spared the death penalty Tuesday. After nearly five hours of deliberating her fate, the same jury that convicted her three days earlier of the murder of Randy Thompson, a former deputy sheriff in Forsyth County and the father of her two children, sentenced her to life in prison with no chance of parole... [Full article here]
[police officer involved domestic violence oidv intimate partner violence (IPV) abuse law enforcement public safety fatality fatalities lethal murder georgia state female perp perptetrator]