Poison was a common thread for convicted murderer Lynn Turner.
Serving two life sentences for killing her husband and boyfriend with antifreeze, Turner, 42, died in prison on Aug. 30 from a likely suicide after ingesting 15 times the recommended dosage of her prescribed blood pressure medication, Georgia Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kris Sperry said Wednesday.
“For a blood level that she had, she had to have saved up and taken it all at one time,” Sperry told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The amount of pills she would have to have taken demonstrates an intent to kill oneself.”
The former 911 operator’s death ended a curious double-murder saga that held Atlanta’s attention for the better part of a decade and drew national interest, centering around a woman depicted as calculating and capable of doing anything for money, including killing two lovers.
Three and a half years into her prison stay, Turner was found dead in her cell.
After an autopsy that day failed to show her cause of death, Sperry ordered a toxicology report. Results from blood tests released Wednesday showed that Turner overdosed on the prescription blood pressure drug propranolol.
The medicine typically is used to control anxiety disorders, migraine headaches and blood pressure problems by lowering blood pressure, but can kill if used in excess.
“In huge overdoses, it causes problems with making blood pressure too low or compromises the ability of the heart to pump blood,” said Dr. Robert Geller, medical director of the Georgia Poison center.
For Turner’s family, and even her victims’ loved ones, the medical examiner's finding didn’t make sense.
The day before Turner was found dead at Metro State Prison, her parents and Turner's children, 14 and 12, had visited her.
Helen Gregory, Turner's mother and a prison visitor every Sunday, even challenged the accuracy of the toxicology results.
“I can assure you that she did not take any medication,” Gregory said. “She would never have done this.”
However, D.L. Gregory, Turner's father, said he detected a change in his daughter on the final visit, though he wouldn't elaborate.
“Something was different,” he said.
Turner was convicted of the 1995 murder of her husband, Glenn Turner, 31, a Cobb County police officer. She also was convicted of the 2001 murder of Randy Thompson, 32, a Forsyth County firefighter, her boyfriend and the father of her children.
The men didn't know each other and their deaths were not linked initially despite similarities. They suffered flu-like symptoms before they were discovered alone and dead at home. They were believed to have died of cardiac dysrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat.
Lynn Turner moved in with Thompson four days after her husband had died, and they had a daughter 10 months following Glenn Turner's death.
Once Lynn Turner's connection was made in the two men's deaths, Glenn Turner's body was exhumed and tissues from both men were retested. It was determined they had died from poisoning by ethylene glycol, which was the sweet, odorless chemical in antifreeze.
Word that Lynn Turner likely committed suicide also was hard for family members of Turner's victims to comprehend.
“I don’t see her doing that," said Nita Thompson, Randy Thompson's mother. "She was trying to prove her innocence.”
“I thought she really wouldn’t do anything like that,” said Kathy Turner, Glenn Turner's mother.
Attorney Jimmy Berry, who defended Lynn Turner in her murder trials, said she had problems with fellow inmates, to the point she was getting moved to a different cell.
Berry had trouble believing a woman working to appeal her second conviction would kill herself.
“She had no reason to give up,” he said.
