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.

Turnbull, 33, a junior high school math and physical education teacher in this southern Minnesota town of about 550, was shot once in the head Friday as she sat on the floor of her living room. Her assailant fired only one shot through a locked screen door, and probably did not enter the house, Mower County Sheriff Wayne Goodnature said.

Authorities have provided only a sketchy outline of the case. At a press conference yesterday, Goodnature wouldn't say if investigators from his department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension have developed any solid leads. He said that it has been "a good investigation."

He said investigators are examining a pattern of vandalism against Turnbull over the past 18 months. Turnbull's home had been broken into twice and her car spray painted four times since 1980, he said. A TV set was stolen during one of the break-ins' obscene words were written on her car in one of the spray-painting incidents. About a week ago someone uprooted flowers around her house and a vegetable garden in her backyard. She was single and lived alone.

At least one other school employee was a target of vandalism once and suffered extensive property damage during that time.

A junior high school student was arrested in connection with one of the instances of spray painting Turnbull's car last year, but charges against him were dropped by a juvenile court judge. Goodnature would not say if the youth is a suspect in the shooting.

He said that Turnbull was concerned about the vandalism and too precautions, such as locking her screen door. But she was not "overly" cautious, he said, and the night she was killed she left open a heavy wooden front door because it was hot.

An electric fan was running a few feet from her body and her TV set was on when police arrived at her house Saturday morning. She had been doing needlepoint when she was killed.

Her body was discovered by a neighbor who received a call from her worried parents in Centuria, Wis. Turnbull had been expected at a family function the day before.

The killing has stunned people in Lyle, a farming community near the Iowa border. The last murder in the area occurred 31 years ago. Some Lyle residents have arranged for a bus to take people to Centuria to attend the funeral today.

Residents also report that they are locking their doors at night while the killer remains at large. One resident said he has begun sleeping with a shotgun next to his bed.