Grieving Dad Seeks Custody of Surviving Child

A juvenile court judge decided Friday that the father of a Mission Viejo toddler found dead near a steep ravine should have custody of the boy’s 4-year-old sister, who has spent the past four days in a children’s shelter.

Investigators are still trying to determine how 2-year-old Cecil “C.T.” Turner died, and on Friday they returned to the home of the boy’s mother and stepfather seeking evidence.

The couple reported C.T. missing Monday morning, saying he apparently wandered away while the stepfather went jogging.

Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Ron Wilkerson said coroner’s investigators have determined the approximate time that C.T. died, a crucial piece of evidence in the case, but he would not disclose the information.

The boy’s death is being treated as a homicide, although authorities said they still don’t know whether a crime was committed. Investigators have repeatedly questioned Edith Marie Wu, the boy’s mother, and her husband Feilong Wu, a championship diver from China.

“They are not ruled out as suspects, should there turn out to be a crime,” Wilkerson said.

Attorney Lloyd Freeberg, who represents Feilong Wu, said the stepfather is anxious to assist investigators.

“They told [the detectives] to go ahead and search. They have nothing to hide,” Freeberg said.

C.T.’s body was found Tuesday afternoon, several hundred yards from the family’s apartment and down a steep slope near Oso Creek. Authorities have asked anyone who may have seen the toddler Monday to call the Sheriff’s Department, but so far not a witness has surfaced, Wilkerson said.

The boy’s mother said he vanished about 8 a.m. while she and her daughter were sleeping and her husband was out running.

The children’s biological father, Maxwell Turner, went to court Friday seeking custody of his daughter, Bryttnie.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard F. Toohey granted the request, which means that social workers will review whether Turner is a suitable parent.

“I’m going to do everything in my power to get Bryttnie home where she belongs,” said Turner, a 27-year-old truck driver from Noblesville, Ind.

Turner and Edith Marie Wu divorced in May, and she moved to Orange County with her new husband last month.

Turner said he and his ex-wife, who previously had custody of Bryttnie and C.T., agreed on general terms of the new custody arrangement before Friday’s hearing.

“Everyone is in agreement,” said Edith Wu, 30. “Bryttnie is going with her father . . . she doesn’t need to be here at this time.”

Bryttnie Turner was placed at Orangewood, the county’s children’s shelter, on Tuesday, after the discovery of her brother’s body. She has been told about her brother’s death and had separate visits with her mother and father on Friday.

Edith Wu said she told her daughter, “I love her and I miss her.”

Feilong Wu, 26, said he and Edith are “still hurting.”

“We’re still waiting for more answers from the police,” he said after Friday morning’s hearing, as he and his wife left the courthouse.

Later in the day, a tearful Edith Wu, accompanied by her husband and a neighbor, appeared at Orangewood with a black duffel bag of clothes, some toys and a present for her daughter.

Edith Wu is “going through a substantial amount of grief and remorse,” attorney Freeberg said. “And she’s thinking that [Bryttnie’s] placement with the father is more appropriate at this time.”

Turner and his fiancee, Jayne Moore, who is nine months pregnant, also spent time with Bryttnie.

Turner, a Texas native, said he began the paperwork for his daughter’s release from Orangewood and is making plans to bury his son.

Turner said one of his biggest challenges with his daughter will be to explain C.T.’s death.

“She’s too young to understand what’s going on,” he said. “I’m not sure how to explain it to her.”