Voiceless No Longer: The Creator of 'Missing Alissa' Speaks Out

Murder Sheet

MurderSheet

True Crime, Murder, Unsolved Case, Killing, Murderer, Cold Case

3.8 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 21 June 2023

⏱️ 81 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sarah Turney is a prominent voice in true crime. She runs her own podcast, Voices for Justice. She previously was interviewed in journalist Ottavia Zappala's podcast Missing Alissa. That's because Turney's sister Alissa vanished years ago, and her father Michael was arrested in the case in 2020.

Recently, Turney has taken to social media and Voices for Justice to blast Ottavia and Missing Alissa. She's made all sorts of wild claims, including implying that Ottavia tried to sue her for speaking out about Alissa.

We were curious and dug into Turney's claims. We found that they're untrue. We also interviewed Ottavia about her story, what really happened between her and Turney, and what she has to say about some of Turney's claims.

Here's our past statements on lies that Sarah Turney told about us on The Fall Line: https://art19.com/shows/murder-sheet/episodes/1dd5469f-8bb5-4492-9dce-53324855c3b1

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Transcript

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0:00.0	In this episode, we'll be talking about subjects around ethics in true crime, as we do from
0:06.3	time to time.
0:07.8	If you prefer our newsier, case-centric episodes, it's one to skip.
0:13.2	Back in early April of this year, a series of tweets from Sarah Turnie that had been widely
0:18.8	liked popped up in my Twitter feed.
0:21.8	Turnie, of course, is a well-known figure in true crime circles.
0:25.7	Her sister, Alyssa, disappeared on May 17, 2001.
0:31.0	In 2020, Turnie's father, Michael, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in Alyssa's
0:37.0	case.
0:38.0	Sarah Turnie has spoken about the case widely, and she's also covered it herself on her
0:43.4	own ongoing podcast, Voices for Justice.
0:47.0	She also participated in another earlier podcast called Missing Alyssa.
0:52.0	Let me read from Turnie's recent tweets.
0:55.8	I had to create a whole other podcast because the creator of the Missing Alyssa podcast
1:00.9	did not want me or her intern advocating for my father's arrest.
1:05.7	Then when I did, she took me to court.
1:08.1	I was stunned.
1:09.1	I'd never had to hire a lawyer before.
1:11.8	I basically spent my life savings paying to get my right to talk about my sister back.
1:18.1	That caught my interest for a few reasons.
1:20.7	For one thing, if it was true, it would make journalist Atavia Zapala, the creator of
1:26.4	the Missing Alyssa podcast, a truly horrible person.
	...

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