Mother of Strangled Tot Berates Detectives

The mother of Cecil “C.T.” Turner said Friday she will ask President Clinton to assign the FBI to investigate the mysterious death of her 2-year-old son because she has lost faith in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

At a press conference, Edith Marie Wu said sheriff’s detectives have failed to follow up on several significant leads provided by her private investigators in the slaying of her son. The toddler was found strangled to death Aug. 13 in a ravine near his family’s Mission Viejo apartment a day after his mother and stepfather reported him missing.

“I’m just afraid after four months’ time it may be too late,” said a teary-eyed Wu, speaking in front of a wooden cross that marks the spot where her son’s nude body was found.

But sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Ron Wilkerson said deputies checked out the leads provided by Wu’s private investigators. Deputies are continuing the investigation, Wilkerson said.

“Everything they provided us was checked on,” he said. “We have no new leads to work. . . . We certainly encourage anyone who has any new information to come forward.”

Wu and her husband, Feilong Wu, were questioned after the boy’s disappearance. At an October press conference, Wu lashed out at the Sheriff’s Department, saying investigators had not stepped forward to clear the names of her and her husband.

Wilkerson said Friday that “no one has been named as a suspect, but the Wus have not been eliminated as suspects. But that does not [imply] guilt.”

The boy’s disappearance prompted a massive search that included hundreds of volunteers scouring the area overnight. Wu had told investigators that C.T. apparently wandered away from home while she was sleeping and his stepfather was jogging.

On Friday the Wus’ attorney, Lloyd L. Freeberg, said the couple’s private investigators have turned up several leads, including a witness’s account of a possible suspect in the ravine area 35 minutes before C.T.’s body was found.

The witness reported seeing a suspicious-looking young man who rode away from the scene on a bicycle he removed from the bushes, said Freeberg, who accused sheriff’s investigators of failing to check out the report.

Wilkerson disputed that, saying investigators did interview the witness, whose account yielded no viable leads.

“The time element was completely wrong and had no bearing on this crime,” he said.