This is Missing Alyssa, a podcast documentary series about the unsolved disappearance of Alyssa

Turnie, a teenage girl from Phoenix, Arizona.

Alyssa has been missing since 2001.

Hi everybody, I'm Otavia Zapala, the host of Missing Alyssa.

In this episode, I want to share with you the amazing chat I had with charity, one of Alyssa's closest friends.

I had never spoken to charity before and I found out she has some rare insight into what was going on in Alyssa's life.

You have to keep in mind that Sarah Turnie was so young at the time Alyssa disappeared, that she couldn't have picked up on some of the things that were going on, so charity fills in some of those gaps for me.

Alyssa and charity had a beautiful friendship, until Michael Turnie decided to put an end to it, probably because Alyssa's stepfather felt threatened by their friendship.

You can hear more about why during the episode.

Charity also provided me with a stack of letters that Alyssa wrote her in the months prior to her disappearance, and we also discussed a secret recording between Sarah and Michael.

So here it is.

Thanks for coming, charity, I know this is hard for you.

Yeah.

You didn't, you know, when I was producing the podcast, you didn't want to be involved.

Was it because of fear?

There was a lot of different things actually at the time, we were going through a lot in my family, we had a death in the family, and yeah, there was a little bit of fear.

Fear of, I love it a fear with Michael having been released, and what he might feel about my opinions on the matter.

Right.

It's understandable.

Yeah.

But I will have to say, mostly it was just too much going on for me at the time, and I definitely regretted it after listening.

Well, I really appreciate you reaching out afterwards.

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