Police Say They Have Their Man: He’s a Woman

The police finally figured out where to find Freddy Lee Turner. But when they went to arrest him, they put the handcuffs on Valerie Nicole Taylor.

Ms. Taylor, arrested in Los Angeles last week, has been identified from fingerprints as Mr. Turner--the man wanted for 17 years in a South Carolina murder.

Burbank police said they believe the suspect, who was known as a transvestite, had a sex change operation some time after the killing.

“Upon the arrest, we actually had a medical evaluation performed [to determine] what jail facility the inmate should be housed at,” Burbank Police Lt. Larry Koch said. “The person is a female at this time. We wanted to make sure what gender we actually had.”

Police describe Freddy Turner as a fugitive wanted in the shooting death of his friend Billy Marshall Posey in Gaffney, S.C., in 1979. Police there issued a warrant for Turner’s arrest one week after the murder. But Turner, then a resident of Greenville, S.C., disappeared. An interstate warrant issued by the FBI was placed on inactive status in 1984, said Gaffney Police Det. Michael Segina.

South Carolina authorities had long since forgotten the case when a Burbank police detective called two months ago to report a tip that Valerie Taylor had admitted once killing a person in Gaffney, Segina said.

A new warrant was issued in Gaffney, and Burbank police arrested Taylor on May 9.

Segina said Taylor has been uncooperative in interviews, but added that he is confident that Taylor, who police believe has been living in the Los Angeles area for several years, is really Turner.

“Freddy was a known cross-dresser and transvestite back then. He had been seen with [Posey] dressed as a woman. The fingerprints show they are the same person,” Segina said.

Taylor is being held at the Sybil Brand Institute for Women without bail. Detectives from South Carolina will come to Los Angeles later this month to extradite her for prosecution.