Father Seeks Answers in Boy’s Death

The father of a 2-year-old boy whose body was found near a steep ravine was traveling to Orange County from Indiana on Thursday to help arrange his son’s funeral and search for answers to the toddler’s mysterious death.

Maxwell Turner last saw his son C.T. five weeks ago when he returned the boy and his 4-year-old sister to their mother and stepfather after a summer stay in Noblesville, Ind.

On Thursday, the 27-year-old truck driver and his girlfriend, who helped care for the children this summer, were still trying to find out what happened to C.T., who was found dead Tuesday afternoon under heavy brush near Oso Creek.

The boy’s mother told investigators the toddler apparently wandered from the family’s apartment early Monday while she was sleeping and his stepfather was out jogging.

Cecil “C.T.” Turner, who turned 2 last month, was found dead the next day. An autopsy failed to determine a cause of death.

“We just keep hearing different stories,” said Gina Moore, 21, Turner’s girlfriend’s daughter, as her mother and Max Turner packed for the trip west Thursday. “I just fell in love with that little boy.”

It was particularly painful for the family not to find out until hours after the boy’s body had been identified, Turner and Moore said.

Ex-wife Edith Marie Wu, C.T.’s mother, did not call Turner until 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, hours after the news had been made public in California, Moore said. The father and his girlfriend, Janey Moore, have gotten most of their details about the death from the tabloid television show “Hard Copy,” Gina Moore said.

Since C.T. disappeared, his 4-year-old sister, Bryttnie, has been staying at Orangewood Children’s Home, the county’s shelter for children.

Max Turner talked to Bryttnie for the first time Wednesday during a call to Orangewood, Moore said. The girl told Turner that C.T. was missing and the police were looking for him.

Moore said counselors are being brought in to break the news to Bryttnie, who discovered her brother was missing and awakened her mother.

This morning, a Juvenile Court judge will hold a custody hearing to consider the girl’s future.

“One of my main concerns right now is what’s best for her,” said her mother, Edith Marie Wu, from her Via Florecer apartment. “We’re not sure what’s going to happen. . . . She may stay with my parents.”

Orange County sheriff’s investigators questioned Wu and her new husband, Feilong Wu, a champion diver from China, for 12 hours Tuesday and returned to the home Thursday with more inquiries.

Detectives are treating the case as a homicide, although they have not yet determined how the boy died.

Orangewood officials said it is normal procedure for children to stay at the children’s shelter during a police investigation, especially when other relatives do not live in the area.

Carolyn Morrow, Edith Wu’s mother, said she would be delighted to care for 4-year-old Bryttnie while her daughter “has a chance to recover and heal.”

Morrow, who lives in Austin, Texas, said that if a judge agrees, the girl will be flown to Texas as soon as Saturday. “[Edith Marie Wu] doesn’t want to lose her baby,” Morrow said. “But she thinks this is best. . . . She has suffered quite a lot.”

Edith Marie Wu and Max Turner married in February 1992 and had their two children before divorcing in May 1996. Their divorce papers were finalized on the same day that she and Feilong Wu were married, according to court papers. The pair had met in a judo class at Austin Community College, friends said.

Edith Marie Wu was married twice before that, the first time when she was 18, court records show.

In Austin, Edith Marie Wu had written bad checks in excess of $750 and was sentenced to four years’ probation. Texas authorities also said that she and her new husband are suspects in a burglary.

“The hot checks, I admit, I did do,” said Edith Marie Wu, who added that she is on probation for that crime. “But I’ve never been arrested, unless you count walking into the police station as an arrest.”

Wu and her husband, a diving coach for the Nadadores swim club in Mission Viejo, moved to Orange County from Texas about three weeks ago. She said she plans to return the toddler’s body to Austin for burial.

“Both Feilong and I will be attending the funeral,” she said. “At this point, I don’t see any problems with that.”