Man Held in Fatal Stabbing of Wife

A man who told authorities he found his wife slain in their Stanton mobile home Aug. 23 has been arrested as a suspect in her murder, police said Thursday.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies arrested Jack Michael Turner, 56, Wednesday evening on suspicion of beating and stabbing to death his wife, Ann Turner, 53.

“He had been interviewed after the original incident, and he came down here (Wednesday) night to be interviewed again,” said Lt. Richard J. Olson, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. “He was arrested after the interview as a result of inconsistencies in statements he made and evidence that was found at the scene.”

Olson said he could not discuss the statements or the evidence, but he said investigators became suspicious when they found no forced entry and nothing missing from the mobile home.

In their initial reports last month, officers said Jack Turner returned home from an errand about 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 23 and found his wife beaten and stabbed to death on the dining room floor of their home at the Fernwood Mobile Home Park in the 10500 block of Western Avenue.

Jack Turner was hospitalized for a few days after the slaying because of a heart problem but then returned to live in the mobile home, Olson said.

A neighbor, Fred Muncey, said Thursday that Turner appeared to be feeling better physically and was slowly adjusting to the death of his wife.

“He had his thumb in a cast, that’s about all we noticed,” Muncey said. “We first noticed it at the memorial service (on Aug. 28), and he had said something about it had gotten hit and he had broken his thumb. I never did question him about it.”

Muncey added that on the night of the murder, paramedics arrived about 9:30 p.m. but didn’t take Jack Turner to the hospital until about 1:30 a.m.

The Turners had been living in the mobile home for nearly three years with their 25-year-old daughter. Muncey said the daughter has not lived in the mobile home since the death, although she visited her father periodically.

Neighbors said Thursday they were shocked to hear Turner had been arrested.

“He told me he was going down to see the detectives (Wednesday) afternoon, to see about getting a construction company to repair the damage (in the home),” Muncey said, referring to paneling and carpeting that had been removed by investigators.

“At the memorial service it took three people to hold him up, but as the day went on, he was much better but shaky. He was just like his old self but still quite subdued. I told him to take it one day at a time,” Muncey said.

Neighbors said the Turners appeared to be a happy, friendly couple. Jack Turner used to take his wife, an accountant, to work every day.

“I saw Jack and Ann and talked to them on a number of different times,” neighbor Leo DeMoss said. “As far as arguing, no, they were just your average (people), they talked to everybody.”

Turner is being held in Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday morning in West Orange County Municipal Court.