◼ Family secrets; killer's son brings decades-old Humboldt County murder to light
Nearly 22 years ago, the body of 27-year-old Lysandra Marie Turpin was dumped in a Fieldbrook ditch and burned in a pile of tires and gasoline.
In February, Humboldt County Sheriff's deputies found Turpin's remains, just 14 teeth, some bone fragments and a few articles of burnt clothing. On Wednesday, those teeth were positively identified by a forensic odontologist in Cloverdale as Turpin's, bringing an end to a long-cold missing person's report.
Detective Steve Quenell said that Turpin's life came to an end after weeks of physical abuse, and before the eyes of her murderer's son. And Turpin was apparently not the only victim of such abuse, Quenell said the son told him recently.
After corroborating statements and discovering evidence, detectives believe that Ernest Samuel Christie Jr. was Turpin's killer, and behind at least two other drug-related kidnapping and torture cases that were never reported. Christie died on June 29, 2006, of congestive heart failure.
It was his son, Ernest Samuel Christie III, who recently informed detectives of what he witnessed when he was 16. Quenell said the younger Christie told him that his father, who was a frequent methamphetamine user, had picked up Turpin and brought her back to his house on Fieldbrook Road. The younger Christie said the woman was held captive in a bedroom for weeks, and that her condition worsened over time.
Sometime in June 1988, the son told Quenell, his father said they would be getting rid of Turpin, and loaded her, wrapped in a blanket, into the trunk of his car. The son said that he saw his father take a hard object -- described as a pestle -- and repeatedly strike Turpin in the head. The son said that they then drove a short distance away to an 80-acre parcel owned by his family, put the body in an open ditch, piled tires on it, doused the pile with gasoline and burned it....
◼ Son Says Dad Killed Missing Woman In 1988
,,,,.Son Calls Deputies To Say He Witnessed Father Kill Woman
◼ Cold Case of Lysandra Marie Turpin Solved!
