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.

Turnbull, 33, the victim of repeated acts of vandalism during the last 18 months, was shot once in the head last Friday through a screen door at her home. She lived alone.

Police have disclosed only a sketchy outline of the slaying and the investigation. Perhaps the shortage of information prompted a wave of speculation and rumors that swept the Mower County courthouse in Austin Wednesday. The investigation is being conducted by Goodnature, one deputy and six agents from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Since Saturday, when a neighbor found Turnbull's body, Lyle, about 15 miles south of Austin, has been besieged by police and reporters. It is only a four-block by seven-block town of 550 people, but yesterday as many as eight police cars were parked in front of city hall, which has become a makeshift command post for police questioning Turnbull's acquaintances.

Although many residents of the town say they are concerned that the killer has not been caught, the streets are far from deserted. Children roller-skate or ride bicycles downtown in the evenings. Some adults visit the town's two drinking establishments.

"Everybody is a little bit on edge because we are waiting for something to happen," said Dave Anderson, who works at the Huntting Elevator in Lyle. "It is all so strange, because usually this is such a quiet town and now there are police cars roaming all over, day and night."

Rachel Hudson, a teacher colleague of Turnbull's who lives about two blocks away from Turnbull's rented house said she is stunned that police are concentrating their search in the Lyle area, where everyone knows everyone else. "I probably know the murderer. I may have even had him as a student in one of my classes," she said.