14-year-old boy convicted in death of Lyle teacher

By Bill McAuliffe
Southern Minnesota Correspondent

Austin, Minn.
A 14-year-old boy was convicted Monday in the killing of Sharon Turnbull, the Lyle, Minn., school teacher who was shot to death as she sat in her living room watching television.

Olmsted County Judge Harold Krieger, who decided the matter without a jury, said the Lyle boy's confession was the most significant piece of evidence in the case.

Judge postpones verdict in Turnbull murder case

Announcement of a verdict in the murder case of Lyle, Minn., schoolteacher Sharon Turnbull has been postponed because of heavy snow in Southern Minnesota Wednesday.

Olmsted County Judge Harold Krieger was scheduled to announce his finding in the juvenile hearing today at the Mower County Courthouse in Austin, but the proceeding was delayed until 11 a.m. Monday.

Closing arguments presented in trial of boy accused of killing Lyle teacher

By Bill McAuliffe
Southern Minnesota Correspondent

Austin, Minn.
The attorney for the 14-year-old boy accused in the August shooting death of a Lyle, Minn., schoolteacher asked Wednesday for "a mandate that the perpetrator of this crime be found."

But the prosecutor argued that the boy was guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of 33-year-old Sharon Turnbull and urged the judge to find him delinquent.

Witness says other youth vowed to kill Turnbull

By Bill McAuliffe
Southern Minnesota Correspondent

Austin, Minn.
A schoolmate of the Lyle youth whose confession to the killing of schoolteacher Sharon Turnbull was rejected by investigators testified Tuesday that the youth had vowed last January to kill the teacher.

The witness was the last to be called by the defense in the murder hearing for a 14-year-old boy accused of killing Turnbull. Final arguments were scheduled this morning at Mower County Courthouse.

Parents of accused Lyle boy allege police manipulation

By Bill McAuliffe
Southern Minnesota Correspondent

Austin, Minn.
The parents of the 14-year-old Lyle, Minn., boy accused of killing a teacher testified Monday that investigators manipulated them into convincing their son to confess to the crime.

The parents testified after the defense began presenting its case as the murder hearing entered its second week at the Mower County Courthouse.

Sheriff describes youth's confession in Lyle teacher's death

By Bill McAuliffe
Southern Minnesota Correspondent

Austin, Minn.
A 14-year-old Lyle boy told authorities he shot Sharon Turnbull and then blacked out, according to testimony Thursday in the boy's murder hearing.

The confession, described in court by Mower County Sheriff Wayne Goodnature, was the second obtained by law-enforcement officials on Aug. 12, six days after the teacher was killed.

Another Lyle youth confessed to slaying

By Bill McAuliffe
Southern Minnesota Correspondent

Austin, Minn.
The 14-year-old charged in the shooting death of Lyle, Minn., school teacher Sharon Turnbull was not the first to confess to the crime, according to testimony in the youth's murder hearing Wednesday.

Mistrial denied in teacher's slaying

By Bill McAuliffe
Southern Minnesota Correspondent

Austin, Minn.
The murder hearing for a 14-year-old youth accessed in the shooting death of Lyle, Minn., schoolteacher Sharon Turnbull was recessed for a day Tuesday after a defense motion to declare a mistrial was denied.

Authorities didn't know teacher shot until 12 hours later

By Bill McAuliffe
Southern Minnesota Correspondent

Austin, Minn.
Investigators did not discover that Sharon Turnbull had been shot to death until 12 hours after neighbors found her body, testimony revealed Monday.

The testimony came during the first day of the first-degree-murder trial of a 14-year-old youth charged with shooting her in her home in Lyle, Minn., in August.

Turnbull, 31, a teacher, was shot while sitting on her living room floor, sewing and watching television.

Judge postpones trial of boy accused in teacher's death

Associated Press

Austin, Minn.
The trial of a 14-year-old boy charged in the shooting death of Lyle, Minn., teacher Sharon Turnbull has been postponed until Dec. 20.

The trial was to have begun Dec. 13 in Austin juvenile court, but Judge Harold Krieger rescheduled it because of late briefs filed by attorneys. The boy was a pupil of the 33-year-old teacher, who was shot in her house last August.

Dec. 13 trial set in teacher's death
Associated Press

Austin, Minn.
A 14-year-old boy accused in the shooting death of a Lyle, Minn., teacher, will go on trial Dec. 13 in Mower County District Court in Austin.

The boy will stand trial as a juvenile. Juvenile court proceedings normally are closed to the public, but Judge Harold Krieger ruled last week that the news media would be allowed to cover the trial, under certain restrictions.

Lyle boy's slaying trial to be open to media

By Staff Writer

The juvenile court trial of a Lyle, Minn., boy accused of killing his former teacher will be open to the press, Judge Harold G. Krieger of Rochester said Tuesday.

Krieger said news media representatives must agree not to disclose the boy's name, physical characteristics, relatives, addresses, family history or any other fact that could directly or indirectly identify him or his family. The judge also warned that photographs, tape recordings and sketches are not be made during the trial.

News organizations ask access to juvenile's trial

By Staff Correspondent

Austin, Minn.
Lawyer for news organizations asked Tuesday that the juvenile court trial of a Lyle, Minn., boy accused of killing his former teacher be open to the press.

They said news coverage would help the public understand how juvenile proceedings work and counter rumors and speculation with accurate reporting. They also said the youth's privacy would be protected because news organizations don't name defendants in juvenile court.

Lyle: Sheriff questions youths after teacher's home is vandalized

The Mower County sheriff's office is investigating a report of teacher harassment in the southeastern Minnesota town of Lyle.

Deputy John LaVelle said vandals spray-painted the message "You Next" Monday night or early Tuesday on the mobile home of Curt Bietz, an industrial arts and physical education teacher for grades 9 and 10. His car was also painted, they said.

Rochester: New judge assigned to trial of boy accused in slaying

The juvenile court trial of a 14-year-old Lyle, Minn., youth accused of killing school teacher Sharon Turnbull will be held in Rochester.

The case has been assigned to Judge Gerard Ring of Olmsted County Court. Mower County Judge Paul Kimball Jr. disqualified himself from the case after reviewing evidence in the adult reference hearing that would not be admissible in a trial.

Six months after slaying of teacher, life in Lyle goes on

By Bill McAuliffe
Southern Minnesota Correspondent

Lyle, Minn.
Lyle was busy Friday afternoon.

--Aaron S. Everest, a lawyer of some prominence in Austin, has been arrested charged with seducing Miss Emma Chandler, of Cedar City, Mower county, a girl of 19. He was attending court in Freeborn county when arrested. The Transcript, of Austin, prints, with apparent zest, the details of the case and draws the usual "moral." Everest was a politician of the opposite party in the fall.

Bold Robbery.
On Saturday before Christmas, John Chandler and his brother suffered a savy loss by theft and incendiarism, near Austin. By some means it leaked out that a boy by name of Welch was concerned in the matter, and was prevailed upon to turn States evidence in the case.

St. Paul Pioneer Press Classified Ads in this section Tuesday, December 21, 1982

Neighbor tells of finding Lyle teacher dead

By Lucy Dalglish
Staff Writer

AUSTIN- The neighbor of a Lyle schoolteacher found shot to death in her home Aug. 7 testified Monday that he thought something was amiss at Sharon Turnbull's home when he got up to make a pot of coffee that morning.

Austin: Lyle teen-ager convicted in teacher's death files appeal

The attorney for a Lyle, Minn., teen-ager convicted in the shooting death of school teacher Sharon Turnbull has filed an appeal in Mower County Court. Defense attorney Bruce Hanley of Minneapolis filed the appeal Tuesday on behalf of his client, whose name has not been made public.

Teacher in Lyle found shot to death

Associated Press

Lyle, Minn.

A 33-year old Lyle teacher was found shot to death in her home Saturday morning, authorities said.

Mower County sheriff's officers said the body of Sharon Turnbull was found about 8:30 a.m. by neighbors.

Sheriff Wayne Goodnature said a preliminary autopsy showed that she was shot in the head. He said the case is being considered a homicide. The exact time of death was not immediately determined.

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)."

Teacher acquaintances focus of Lyle probe

By Dan Oberdorfer
Southern Minnesota Correspondent

Lyle, Minn.

Friends, colleagues and students of Sharon Turnbull were questioned Tuesday at the Lyle City Hall as the search for a suspect in her murder focused on people living in the area.

Sheriff says no arrests imminent in Lyle slaying

By Dan Oberdorfer
Southern Minnesota Correspondent

Lyle, Minn.

In an apparent attempt to quell speculation that police were hot on the trail of a suspect in the Sharon Turnbull slaying, Mower County Sheriff Wayne Goodnature said Thursday that no arrests are imminent.

Goodnature declined to say how much progress investigators have made in the past week toward solving the killing of Turnbull, a junior high school teacher in the tiny southern Minnesota community of Lyle.

Neighbor boy, 14, held in death of Lyle schoolteacher

By Dan Oberdorfer
Southern Minnesota Correspondent

Lyle, Minn.

Sharon Turnbull was killed by a 14-year-old neighbor whom she had taught in school, police alleged Friday.

The boy, described by authorities as a good student and an experienced marksman, was arrested without incident at his house late Thursday night. A .22-caliber rifle, which authorities said they have identified as the weapon in the killing, had been taken from his home in a search earlier Thursday.