Forensic Toxicology
Rare Weapon
The relationship hit the rocks, especially with Turner’s extravagant spending habits, so Thompson moved out and Turner went deep into debt. Thompson continued to see her and one evening early in 2001, after he had dinner with her, history repeated itself. Thompson, 32, reported to the emergency room complaining of a stomach-ache and constant vomiting. He was treated and released on January 21.
But to the family of Glenn Turner, something seemed wrong. Glenn’s mother saw the newspaper articles about Thompson and sent a letter to Randy’s mother to discuss the similarities between what appeared to have occurred with their respective sons. They brought this to the attention of Dr. Mark Koponen, deputy chief medical examiner of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Noticing calcium oxylate crystals in the man’s kidneys during the autopsy, Koponen, who had seen this symptom before in his practice elsewhere, sent several blood and urine samples to the crime lab. Yet toxicologist Chris Tilson said that the results indicated nothing amiss. But Koponen was not satisfied, so he sent samples to National Medical Services (NMS), an independent testing lab in
Randy Thompson had high levels of a toxin, ethylene glycol, the principle component of antifreeze, in his tissues and blood. Ingested, it produces slurred speech and a tipsy sensation before moving into severe headaches, nausea, delusions, dizziness, and a feeling of breathlessness. Death occurs from kidney failure or heart attack.
That substance would not naturally be found in the human body, which meant that Thompson had been exposed to it in large doses or had ingested it. Six months after he died, his cause of death was changed to antifreeze poisoning.
According to the Court TV coverage, which aired the case on television, these deaths were the only two in the state ever attributed to antifreeze ingestion.
On
DA Patrick Head assembled a number of damaging witnesses who testified to
Because it bore such striking similarities to the case in which Turner was charged, Superior Court Judge James Bodiford allowed prosecutors to present facts about Thompson’s death as well, though Turner had not been charged with it. Prosecutors called this evidence a “criminal signature” that linked the two incidents.
Lynn Turner’s defense attorney, Victor Reynolds, insisted that the deaths were not similar and that no evidence linked Turner with the death of her husband. The entire case was circumstantial. Reynolds indicated in media interviews that allowing evidence about Thompson’s death offered a way to appeal, maintaining that a jury that heard nothing about Thompson’s death would likely have a different reaction to the Turner case.
Yet the state of
The key testimony for the prosecution involved forensic toxicologists and medical examiners. Toxicologist William Dunn at NMS described the tests they had run on both victims, and easily deflected the defense’s theory that the toxin found in Turner had come from embalming fluids. (This idea was further undermined by chemists at the companies that had supplied embalming fluids to the funeral home that embalmed Turner in 1995 when they said their companies did not use substances that contained ethylene glycol.)
Chris Tilson, from the
In closing arguments, the prosecutor pointed out the there was one clearly common element in both unnatural deaths: Lynn Turner. “The simplest solution,” he said, “is correct.”
Each of the arguments the defense submitted had fallen short, as had several witnesses to Lynn Turner’s good character.
On the evening of
A grand jury will meet later in the year to consider the Thompson case.
