Dead Toddler’s Parents Still Being Questioned

Investigators continued to question the parents of a dead 2-year-old boy and scour the family’s home after an autopsy Tuesday failed to reveal what killed the toddler who was found in heavy brush along Oso Creek.

Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Ron Wilkerson said his department is pursuing the death of Cecil “C.T.” Turner as a homicide, although “we cannot at this time say conclusively that he was murdered.”

The toddler, who was wearing only a diaper when he disappeared, was found down a steep ravine and across the creek--a trek that investigators said a 2-year-old could not have made alone.

Only the toddler’s parents, Edith Marie Wu, 30, and stepfather Feilong Wu, 26, have “been brought in for questioning,” Wilkerson said. Neighbors and acquaintances of the family are being interviewed in their homes. Investigators said no one has been ruled out as a suspect.

Wilkerson said the parents “have been completely cooperative throughout the process.” They were sent home about 10 p.m. Tuesday by investigators and instructed to stay in the area, Wilkerson said.

“They are certainly not under arrest,” he said.

Late Tuesday, investigators brought in bloodhounds to help search the family’s Via Florecer apartment, about half a mile from where the boy’s body was found, Wilkerson said. They continued well into the night.

The apartment “was being searched as a possible crime scene,” Wilkerson said. He would not elaborate on anything found during the search.

The blue-eyed toddler disappeared from his family’s apartment early Monday and was found partially covered in debris Tuesday afternoon by two El Toro Marines, Lance Cpls. Coy Lee Busbea, 20, and Hector L. Martinez, 25.

Authorities had to use chain saws to clear heavy brush and retrieve the body from a 6-foot hollow about 6 feet from the creek.

Investigators from the coroner’s office had not yet determined what time C.T. died. They are conducting extensive toxicology tests, but results are not expected for weeks.

Edith Wu said Monday that she discovered C.T. missing when she was awakened by her 4-year-old daughter and found the front door ajar. She and her husband, who saw the boy just before beginning a morning run, surmised that the toddler had wandered away.

Wilkerson said Wednesday it was highly unlikely that a 2-year-old could have navigated the 76-step staircase leading down to the creek and ended up across the water from his home.

“It doesn’t seem like that could happen,” he said.

Toma Nott, 41, who stayed with Edith Wu during the search Monday, said C.T. had been afraid of the steep staircase. The family went for a walk recently and as they approached the stairs, C.T. started crying, she said.

“He didn’t want to go down stairs,” Nott said Wednesday. “The father had to carry him down.”

On Wednesday, a weary-looking Edith and Feilong Wu arrived at their apartment complex, which only a day earlier had been the hub of a hopeful search for their tow-headed son by scores of volunteers.

This time the couple tried to avoid the media cameras and reporters. “We’re not speaking to anyone,” Edith Wu said before shutting the door of their apartment.

Edith Wu, who is pregnant, was dressed in shorts and a white University of Texas T-shirt from her husband’s former employer. Feilong Wu, a former Chinese national champion diver, wore slacks and a button-down shirt. The couple had moved to Mission Viejo from Austin, Texas, three weeks ago--leaving behind C.T.’s doting maternal grandparents.

Wednesday their grandson’s death weighed heavily on Cecil and Carolyn Morrow, who often cared for the boy and his sister in Austin.

“I’m 61. I’ve been through wars and almost-wars and knocked around, and I’ve never hurt like this,” said Cecil Morrow, a retired attorney whom C.T. was named after.

Morrow said he and his 58-year-old wife baby-sat the children while their only child Edith Marie studied to become a teacher.

“I kept [C.T.] all last spring. He’s the sweetest little kid,” Cecil Morrow said. “He loves playing in the sand pile with his sister and grandpa. . . . Other times, he would crawl up and watch TV and fall asleep on my lap.”

Morrow, who is ill and unable to travel to California, said he spoke to his daughter Wednesday afternoon and said, “She’s grieving like I am.”

The Morrows have custody of Sterling, 10, their daughter’s eldest and an honor student. They have a bedroom for C.T. and 4-year-old Bryttnie, whose “toys are still in the backyard.”

Morrow said the investigation has been hard on his daughter and her new husband, and he believes investigators are focusing on Feilong Wu.

“They kept him in there for three days without an attorney,” Morrow said. “The police haven’t told him that they’re questioning him as a prime suspect . . . but it seems like it.”

But Morrow continually stressed that he believed his son-in-law played no part in C.T.’s death.

“I don’t think Feilong did it,” he said. “I don’t think he did it.”

Morrow said Max Turner, the biological father of C.T., planned to take the body to Austin for burial.

“This is his home,” Morrow said.

But for Edith Wu, home in Texas included numerous encounters with local police, one of them involving the temporary disappearance of eldest son Sterling.

In 1988, Edith Wu, whose surname was Morrow at the time, told police that Sterling was missing after an acquaintance failed to bring the boy to a local lake, according to a Williamson County, Texas, Sheriff’s Department report.

Hours later, the acquaintance returned with the boy, the report said. It is unclear what happened to the boy during the hours he was missing, a department spokesperson said.

Officials said the 5-foot 4-inch woman is well-known around Austin.

“She’s been arrested a lot,” said Williamson County Sheriff’s Sgt. Terry Dees, who first met Wu six years ago when she was working at a Whataburger restaurant. Her arrest records list her by half a dozen variations of her first two names and three different surnames.

Dees said Edith Wu, Feilong Wu and another man are suspects in a December 1995 residential burglary in Round Rock, Texas. During the incident, the homeowner was “beat up pretty bad,” Dees said. Nothing was taken, he said. No arrests have been made in the case.

Carolyn Morrow, Edith Wu’s mother, said Wednesday that she had no knowledge of the burglary investigation.

Edith Wu, who was born in Charlottesville, Va., pleaded guilty to the felony of writing “hot checks” in excess of $750 in November 1994 and is serving four years’ probation, according to Rick Zinsmeyer, director of community supervision and corrections for Williamson County. She has notified the department of her move to California, he said.

She was fined $1,000 and ordered to pay court costs and restitution, which she still owes, according to Williamson County district attorney’s office records.

Since December 1995, Edith Wu has filed four complaints with the Austin Police Department, said Michele Walker, a department spokesperson.

In December 1995, Edith Wu filed a report that someone had left a suspicious package with her, Walker said. The next month, she reported that an acquaintance had threatened her. In February 1996, she reported an attempted burglary of her home. And on March 3, she claimed she was being stalked by the same person who had earlier threatened her, Walker said.

“She has a history of being victimized here,” Walker said. “In most of the cases we looked into them and there was never any follow-up on her end. We haven’t found anything to charge anybody with.”

Wilkerson said Wednesday that investigators have been in contact with authorities in Texas and are aware of the couple’s history. But he said the inquiries were made as part of a routine background check on the parents.

He said investigators are looking into every aspect of the family’s life and every potential lead as a natural part of the homicide investigation.

While the investigation of C.T.’s death continued, the loss of the boy brought mourners to the hot, dusty creek bed Wednesday.

Many left bouquets of flowers and stuffed animals near the ravine where his body was found. At the entrance of the family’s apartment near Via Florecer and Marguerite Parkway, residents and volunteers crafted a shrine of balloons and sympathy notes.

Michelle Valdez, 22, carrying her 7-week-old son, had helped search for the boy. “I just can’t believe that this happened,” she said as tears slid down her face in the heat.

Valdez brought carnations and a purple ball for the boy, who would never get a chance to play with it. “I feel very very sad for him,” she said.

At the Mission Viejo Aquatic Center, home of the Nadadores dive team, Feilong Wu’s new co-workers expressed sadness for the young family they had welcomed West and helped support through hard times.

The club’s booster foundation has been financially supporting the family until Feilong Wu’s U.S. working papers are approved and he can accept a full-time coaching job, said Rick Earley, a Nadadores diving coach. Feilong Wu came to the United States on a diving scholarship to the University of Illinois in 1993. But the school dropped its program shortly after he arrived and Feilong Wu moved to Austin to be near a friend from China.

He served as a volunteer diving coach for one year at the University of Texas while he taught judo at Austin Community College, said UT Coach Matt Scoggin.

Feilong Wu met Edith in judo class and the couple married in April, Earley said. Feilong Wu began coaching the Nadadores in mid-May.

Since following her husband to Orange County last month, Edith Wu has been looking for a secretarial job, Earley said. The couple was just getting settled into their Mission Viejo apartment when the 2-year-old disappeared.

The Nadadores club “is in the process of trying to set up some sort of a fund,” Earley said. “We know [Feilong Wu] doesn’t have any money.”

Orange County Sheriff’s Department officials asked that anyone who may have seen the toddler early Monday in the area of Oso Creek between Jeronimo and La Paz roads call the department at (714) 647-7055 or after hours (714) 834-7370.

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writer Len Hall and researcher Sheila A. Kern.