A woman sentenced to spend life in prison for the murders of her husband and boyfriend committed suicide, authorities said Wednesday.
Lynn Turner’s body was found Aug. 30 in her bed in her cell at Metro State Prison in Atlanta. The initial autopsy was inconclusive.
John Bankhead, spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said Wednesday morning that Turner used a blood pressure medicine take her life.
“She was prescribed the medication and apparently, the theory is, she just hoarded them and took a bunch at one time,” Bankhead said.
According to a statement from Kris Sperry, the state’s chief medical examiner, Turner overdosed on propranolol.
“Toxicology studies revealed that Ms. Turner had a lethal level of this drug in her blood, indicating that she had ingested an amount well above the prescribed dosage,” Sperry said.
“No evidence of injury or foul play was detected in the course of the autopsy examination.”
Turner was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to life without parole for the 2001 poisoning death of her boyfriend, Forsyth County firefighter Randy Thompson.
He was also the father of Turner’s two children, who are in the custody of her mother.
At the time she was convicted of Thompson’s death, she was already serving a life sentence for using antifreeze to kill husband Glen Turner, a former Cobb County police officer, in 1995.
She was convicted in 2004 for that death.
Forsyth County District Attorney Penny Penn has said Turner had begun to appeal her 2007 conviction, but a judge had not yet heard her motion for a new trial.
Turner unsuccessfully sought a new trial for her first conviction, partly because prosecutors in that trial were allowed to refer to Thompson’s death.
The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously denied her request and wrote in its decision that “there was logical connection between the Thompson murder and the murder of Turner’s husband.”
Both Thompson and Glenn Turner showed "flu-like symptoms" before they died.
Family members alerted authorities to similarities between the two men’s deaths, though initially they were attributed to natural causes.
As a result, Turner's body was exhumed and Thompson's blood was re-tested.
Ethylene glycol, a sweet, odorless chemical used in antifreeze, was found in samples taken from each man's body.
Investigators in both cases thought Turner could have laced Jell-O, sweet tea or soup with the deadly chemical.
Evidence presented during the 2007 trial showed that Turner, a former Forsyth County courthouse secretary and 911 dispatcher, slowly poisoned both men six years apart for insurance money.
Brandie McNeal, Thompson's sister, said earlier this month that news of Turner's death stirred a wave of emotions but failed to bring any closure to her family.
"We think about him every day and miss him every day, so it didn't change anything for us as far as that goes," McNeal said.
Lynn Turner’s body was found Aug. 30 in her bed in her cell at Metro State Prison in Atlanta. The initial autopsy was inconclusive.
John Bankhead, spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said Wednesday morning that Turner used a blood pressure medicine take her life.
“She was prescribed the medication and apparently, the theory is, she just hoarded them and took a bunch at one time,” Bankhead said.
According to a statement from Kris Sperry, the state’s chief medical examiner, Turner overdosed on propranolol.
“Toxicology studies revealed that Ms. Turner had a lethal level of this drug in her blood, indicating that she had ingested an amount well above the prescribed dosage,” Sperry said.
“No evidence of injury or foul play was detected in the course of the autopsy examination.”
Turner was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to life without parole for the 2001 poisoning death of her boyfriend, Forsyth County firefighter Randy Thompson.
He was also the father of Turner’s two children, who are in the custody of her mother.
At the time she was convicted of Thompson’s death, she was already serving a life sentence for using antifreeze to kill husband Glen Turner, a former Cobb County police officer, in 1995.
She was convicted in 2004 for that death.
Forsyth County District Attorney Penny Penn has said Turner had begun to appeal her 2007 conviction, but a judge had not yet heard her motion for a new trial.
Turner unsuccessfully sought a new trial for her first conviction, partly because prosecutors in that trial were allowed to refer to Thompson’s death.
The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously denied her request and wrote in its decision that “there was logical connection between the Thompson murder and the murder of Turner’s husband.”
Both Thompson and Glenn Turner showed "flu-like symptoms" before they died.
Family members alerted authorities to similarities between the two men’s deaths, though initially they were attributed to natural causes.
As a result, Turner's body was exhumed and Thompson's blood was re-tested.
Ethylene glycol, a sweet, odorless chemical used in antifreeze, was found in samples taken from each man's body.
Investigators in both cases thought Turner could have laced Jell-O, sweet tea or soup with the deadly chemical.
Evidence presented during the 2007 trial showed that Turner, a former Forsyth County courthouse secretary and 911 dispatcher, slowly poisoned both men six years apart for insurance money.
Brandie McNeal, Thompson's sister, said earlier this month that news of Turner's death stirred a wave of emotions but failed to bring any closure to her family.
"We think about him every day and miss him every day, so it didn't change anything for us as far as that goes," McNeal said.
