CONCORD, N.C.-- A man wanted for the brutal murders of his wife and mother-in-law in Texas was arrested in Concord Friday, after people who had been unwittingly helping him saw his face on a clip of America’s Most Wanted.
Concord Police arrested Albert James Turner without incident at 12:30pm in Carolina Mall, after the tipsters told police he would likely be there. At first Turner gave a fictitious name, said Sgt. A.T. Rankin, who made the arrest. But then Rankin turned the tables on Turner.
“I told him that I saw him on TV this morning and I knew that his name was Turner,” said Rankin. “And he just stared at me with almost like a look of, ‘I've finally been caught’.”
Turner was on the U.S. Marshal’s 15 Most Wanted list for the December 26th murder of his wife Keitha Turner, and mother-in-law Betty-Jo Frank. Both women had their throats slashed, even as the couple’s four children and Keitha’s father, Gene Frank, slept. Turner had been on the run ever since. His car was found partially submerged in a river outside of Atlanta, Georgia, but Turner wasn’t in it.
Friday morning, John Walsh, founder and host of America’s Most Wanted, appeared on “Live! With Regis and Kelly” as part of a media blitz promoting AMW’s 1000th episode. During his appearance, he showed a clip about Turner’s case, which would be highlighted on his show Saturday. People from a church who had been helping Turner recognized him immediately and called police.
"They truly believed this person was the individual that was on America’s Most Wanted," said Rankin.
Sgt. Rankin said officers followed up by checking a few places the church members said Turner liked to frequent. They found a homeless encampment under an overpass, but no one was there. The other place they checked was the mall.
Sgt. Rankin and another officer spotted a man fitting Turner’s description sitting on a bench in a public area of the mall. They approached and ask the man’s name; Turner gave a fictitious name – but it was the same name church members told them Turner went by.
That’s when Sgt. Rankin bluffed him. “I said, ‘You've been on the run long enough, I saw you on TV this morning’,” said Rankin. Turner stared at him with “a look of relief that it was over -- that he was not running anymore.”
Police arrested Turner and turned him over to U.S. Marshals. They have taken him to Greensboro, where he’ll face a federal judge in an extradition hearing back to Fort Bend County, Texas, for trial.
