Town 'devastated' by teacher's slaying

By Dan Oberdorfer and George Monaghan
Staff Writers

Lyle, Minn.

Elliott Young doesn't like to go outside anymore.

"Every time I go out I look at her house, and it gives me a sick feeling right here, in the stomach," said Young, 74, next-door neighbor of a Lyle school teacher who was slain at home last week. "I can't eat: I haven't had a good meal since Saturday night, when I got back from fishing (and learned of the killing)."

Young, a retired electrician who lives along, is one of many residents of this tiny southern Minnesota community who say they are bewildered that a senseless slaying would occur in their town-- and that they are nervous because no killer has been caught.

Lyle, pop. 550, hasn't had a murder since 1952, Mower County Sheriff Wayne Goodnature said Monday. "The community is devastated by it. This person is obviously deranged."

The killing of Sharon Turnbull, 33, presumable occurred sometime between midnight Thursday, when she left a friend's house, and noon Friday, when she was supposed to leave Lyle to visit her parents in Centuria, Wis., authorities said.

Although no motive for the killing has emerged, over the last 18 months Turnbull was the victim of a series of acts of vandalism at home, Goodnature said.

She died in her living room, where she was watching television and doing needlepoint when somebody fired a shot through her front window, the sheriff said. The bullet struck her just above the right ear. A small-caliber shell casing was found on the porch.

Her body was discovered, fully clothed, about 8:30 a.m. Saturday by her neighbor and landlord, John Lindberg, who had received a call from her worried parents.

Turnbull, who lived alone, came to Lyle in 1973. She taught junior high school math and physical education, and was active in Lyle civic affairs, especially the Lioness Club, of which she was the president-elect.

The vandalism started in 1980, Goodnature said. Her home was broken into twice. Her car was spray-painted four times, he said. Once vandals wrote obscene words on her car. A week ago someone uprooted flowers she had planted around her house.

A junior-high student was apprehended after the painting of her car last year, and was dealt with by the juvenile justice system, Goodnature said.

At least one other Lyle school employee was the victim of serious vandalism. Former superintendent Gerhard Meidt, now superintendent at Minneota, said furniture and carpets in his home were destroyed more than a year ago by someone who broke into his house and poured motor oil on them. He said someone broke into Turnbull's house the same night and stole a TV set. The cases were never solved, Meidt said.

Bob Nelson, who lives across the street, said Turnbull didn't seem scared by the violence. But he said a group of men working in town frequently would drive by her house at night to make sure everything was all right.

"Sharon had never been worried about her safety," said Roy Turnbull, her father. "She hated the vandalism. She was hurt by it, but she wasn't scared. The worst thing was when they caught one guy doing it and they let him go. That made her mad."

Roy Turnbull said his daughter was happy living in Lyle, and had turned down job offers elsewhere.

She had a small circle of friends whom she liked very much, said Sharon's mother, Mildred Turnbull. But most of all, Mildred Turnbull said, she loved athletics.

"Basketball was her favorite," said Lyle postmaster Dorothy DeBoer, one of Turnbull's good friends. DeBoer said she saw Turnbull last on Thursday morning, when Turnbull visited the post office to have her mail forwarded to her parents' home while she was away.

Holly Hueman, 18, senior class president at Lyle High School, said she also visited with Turnbull on Thursday. The two made plans for Hueman to help out with the cheerleading squad, of which Turnbull was the adviser.

Huemann said Turnbull had a reputation as a strict, but fair, math teacher. She was much respected by the cheerleading squad.

Except for her community activities, said a colleague, David Dahlquist, "she stayed pretty much to herself. She mentioned the vandalism to me, but it was never in a complaining tone. It was in the tone of wondering why it happened."

Turnbull was an only child. She was raised in Centuria, a few miles northeast of St. Croix Falls in western Wisconsin, about 45 miles from the Twin Cities area.

She taught in North Branch a year before moving to Lyle. She was planning ot return to her teaching job this fall, school officials said.

Funeral services are set for Wednesday at St. John's Church in Centuria.