‘C.T.’s’ Last Meal Led Detectives to Suspect Parents

Undigested pieces of hot dog in the stomach of a slain Mission Viejo toddler and contradictory statements by his mother regarding the time of the boy’s last meal led detectives to suspect the parents in the 1996 slaying, according to an investigator’s affidavit made public Wednesday.

The revelations about the unsolved slaying of Cecil “C.T.” Turner were contained in a sworn statement by an Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigator, who also said the 2-year-old’s parents would have been charged in the smothering death except that “there is insufficient evidence to determine which of the two committed the crime.”

Detective Roger Neumeister stated that food found in C.T.’s stomach during an autopsy suggests that the boy was killed less than four to six hours after he ate. That time frame contradicts statements by the boy’s mother, who told police he ate at 9 p.m. and disappeared from home the next morning, Neumeister stated.

The detective’s affidavit was quoted Wednesday in Orange County Superior Court by Martin J. DeVries, an attorney defending the Sheriff’s Department in a lawsuit filed in May by C.T.’s parents in Orange County Superior Court. Edith Marie and Feilong Wu, the boy’s mother and stepfather, claim in the defamation and civil rights lawsuit that sheriff’s officials improperly portrayed them to the public as murder suspects.

In the statement, Neumeister said Edith Marie Wu told him that she had fed C.T. hot dogs on the night of Aug. 11, then put the food away and washed the dishes--a story that changed, the detectives stated, after Wu talked to an attorney and recalled that she might have left food on the kitchen counter.

Neumeister also stated that investigators have other reasons to suspect the Wus, but he added that disclosing those facts would “seriously compromise the investigation,” which is continuing.

C.T. was reported missing by his mother and stepfather on the morning of Aug. 12, triggering a massive search. The child’s nude body was discovered the next day on a steep slope of Oso Creek, about a quarter-mile from home.

After the discovery, the Wus were extensively questioned by sheriff’s investigators and had their home searched. The couple later told reporters they had been accused of the crime by abusive investigators. Feilong Wu has also said he failed a polygraph test during those sessions, but the native of China blamed that on his difficulty with English.

The couple’s lawsuit claims that sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Ron Wilkerson and others in the department publicly labeled the Wus as suspects, either with direct statements or innuendo. Wilkerson has denied that accusation in sworn statements and past interviews, but on Wednesday he declined comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

Superior Court Commissioner Sheila Fell heard arguments from both sides over a motion by Sheriff’s Department attorneys to drop the defamation claim, but she did not issue a ruling.

DeVries argued that sheriff’s officials never identified the Wus as suspects, and said that even if they had, it would not qualify as defamation because the couple were indeed a focus of the investigation and “truth is a defense from defamation.”

DeVries also said the couple identified themselves as suspects in media interviews, deflating any argument that the Sheriff’s Department was responsible for their ruined reputations.

But the Wus’ attorney, Jeffrey N. Wilens, responded that publicly identifying someone as a suspect when no arrest is imminent is irresponsible and amounts to an “innuendo campaign” by detectives hoping for a break in the case.

Calling parents suspects in their child’s killing is as bad as calling them murderers, Wilens said after the hearing. “The implication is the same, and the damage to the person is the same,” he said. “You can think someone is totally guilty of a crime, but that doesn’t mean you can go and tell that to the press unless you can back it up.”

The Wus also claim in their suit that sheriff’s investigators ignored other leads and botched the hunt for the child’s killer. The suit, seeking unspecified damages, also claims the Wus’ civil rights were violated during lengthy and humiliating interrogations.