Lise Jane TURNER

Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Parricide
Number of victims: 3
Date of murders: 1980 - 1982
Date of birth: 1956
Victims profile: Megan Turner, 11-weeks-old (her daughter) / Cheney Louise Turner, 7-weeks-old (her daughter) / Michael Clark Tinnion, 8-month-old
Method of murder: Suffocation
Location: Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand
Status: Sentenced to life term + 10 years for attempted murders in 1984. Paroled in 1997

Megan Turner was eleven weeks old on January 11, 1980, when her mother rushed her to a hospital emergency ward in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The child had inexplicably stopped breathing, Lise Turner said, and help arrived too late to save her life. Physicians could not specify a cause of death, and so they blamed the tragedy on SIDS--the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome that strikes certain newborns without warning or apparent cause.

Lise Turners 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 stained with blood from Cheneys mouth. Again, no cause of death was ascertained.

Again, physicians put the blame on SIDS. Lise Turner would have no more children, but bad luck continued to haunt her, stretching out a lethal hand to others in her company. Nine months after Cheneys death, in October 1982, four-month-old Catherine Packer was left with Lise while her mother went shopping.

Mrs. Packer returned to find her child vomiting, bleeding from the mouth, but hospital physicians saved her life. At first, Catherine seemed to recover with no ill effects, but the strange attacks were repeated over the next six months, always occurring when Lise Turner came to call. Catherine's mother finally saw through the coincidence when Lise joined her on a visit to the hospital, her appearance prompting tearful screams from Catherine as she cowered in her bed.

Turner was henceforth barred from the Packer residence, but no charges were filed ... and there were always more children around. Katrina Hall, five weeks old, was stricken with vomiting and labored breathing in Lises care, but she recovered in the hospital and suffered no more ill effects.

Eight-month-old Michael Tinnion was less fortunate, found dead while Turner baby-sat, with sticky fluid seeping from his nose and mouth. This time, physicians diagnosed asphyxiation as the cause of death. prompting police to reexamine other cases from their files.

In November 1984, Lise 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 bad enough.

No motive was advanced, though Lises crimes are strongly reminiscent of several American killers, all diagnosed as suffering from Munchausens syndrome by proxy.

Convicted on all counts, Turner was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, plus five years on each of the attempted murder counts.

Michael Newton - An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers - Hunting Humans

Lisa Jane TURNER

Convicted child killer 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.

Turner, formerly of Christchurch was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of three babies, and to three five year sentences for the attempted murder of two others. Two of the murdered children, Megan and Cheney Louise, had been her own. The third was eight months old Michael Clark Tinnion whom she suffocated.

Children under her care developed cot-death syndrome or respiratory problems, some of which were very serious. The circumstances led to authorities asking questions and a case was made against her.

Turner was released this year on life parole, under the control of her probation officer. As a condition of her parole, she is 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 are now re-united.

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.

Crime.co.nz