Man Wanted for Murder Arrested As a Woman

A woman arrested in Los Angeles has been identified from fingerprints as a man wanted for 17 years for murder in South Carolina.

Burbank police said they believe that Valerie Nicole Taylor, who was known as a transvestite, had a sex change operation sometime after the killing.

“Upon the arrest, we actually had a medical evaluation performed [to determine] what jail facility the inmate should be housed at,” said Burbank Police Lt. Larry Koch.

“The person is a female at this time. We wanted to make sure what gender we actually had.”

Police believe Taylor is Freddy Lee Turner, a fugitive wanted in the shooting death of his friend, Billy Marshall Posey, 26, in Gaffney, S.C. Police there issued a warrant for Turner’s arrest one week after the death of Posey in 1979. 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, two months ago, a Burbank police detective called to report a tip that Taylor had admitted killing a person in Gaffney in the past, said Segina.

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

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

“Freddie 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.”

He said Posey’s mother and other family members were relieved to learn that an arrest had been made in the case. “They’ve been through a long, emotional ordeal,” Segina said.

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