MA MA - Ashley Turniak, 16, Longmeadow, 9 November 1998

[los2188]

Ashley Turniak

This case reminds me of Tawni Lee Mazzone or the Maricopa Jane Doe. What's curious about this case is that I have been unable to find a picture of her. It's seems like such an odd case. What happened was that on November 9th 1998 at 8 am, 16 year old Ashley Turniak was found dead on the breakdown lane of I-91 south in Longmeadow, Massachusetts just 1½ mile from the Connecticut border. Ashley had been seen in her high school parking lot before her first class started at 7:25 that morning. Less than an hour later, witnesses reported that she went feet-first from the passenger window of a car heading south towards Connecticut. Her backpack was found on Woodlawn Avenue in Enfield, Connecticut not far from a highway exit. At the time of her death witnesses observed a tan or light-brown mid-size vehicle, possibly a late-1980s model of a Ford Tempo, traveling at high speeds or in an erratic manner on I-91, Route 5 or Woodlawn Avenue in Enfield on Nov. 9. After Turniak's fall, the car was seen leaving I-91 at Exit 49 in Connecticut. Almost 16 years later many questions persist, was she pushed or did she fall? Who was the driver?

I know it's been a long time and all, but no one bothered to write down or memorize the license plate of this car?? I guess in this day and age, that's almost unheard of, but 1998 wasn't exactly the stone ages. I had a thought that maybe she was abducted, but then escaped only to meet her unfortunate demise on I-91 in Massachusetts. But the school principal said Turniak came to school Monday morning, but got into a car and left with someone before classes began. Witnesses on the highway told police that the girl had tried to flag down a state trooper parked along the road, but his cruiser was facing the other direction and he didn't see her pass by.

I'm just surprised that there isn't more about this young lady or at the very least, any pictures.

http://articles.courant.com/1998-11-14/news/9811140209_1_memorial-service-school-cafeteria-wink
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19981111/NEWS/311119966

 

[21merc7]

This may be her, scroll down:

http://www.reocities.com/Hollywood/interview/2977/page10.html

 

[los2188]

This may be her, scroll down:

http://www.reocities.com/Hollywood/interview/2977/page10.html

I appreciate you finding that.
Ashley Turniak

 

[los2188]

Nothing new here really, but nevertheless I thought I'd post it anyway..

http://articles.courant.com/1998-11-12/news/9811120233_1_police-barracks-school-lot-highway

Massachusetts state police are focusing on what happened at Agawam High School early Monday morning that might have led to the death of a teenage girl on I-91 less than 20 minutes later.

And:

State police are concentrating their investigation on a narrow time frame, from about 7:45 a.m. at Agawam High and its vicinity, Lt. Peter Higgins of the Massachusetts State Police said Wednesday.

Also:
I assume nothing of importance what found in the backpack.

The car in which she was a passenger left the scene, possibly leaving the highway at Exit 49 in Enfield. Witnesses said the car was either tan or blue. Later in the day, a backpack identified as belonging to Turniak was found lying on a side street off the highway.

Why would the security footage not be shown? I found that interesting. Makes me wonder..

Higgins declined to comment on whether footage from school surveillance cameras that scan the parking lot helped to determine the time of Turniak's departure.

For what it's worth, I found a website with a video link about Turniak's family stating that the family "remains certain they know who killed her". The only problem is that the link no longer exists. I tried to look it up elsewhere, but sadly I wasn't able to find anything or another link.

http://biophysically.rssing.com/chan-1424840/all_p76.html

 

[PoisonPill]

With this much time passed, it's likely the only way this will get solved is a DNA sample being retrieved off evidence that was missed initially. Or (less likely) someone coming forward. It is a very bizarre case. I grew up near the Connecticut-Massachusetts border and it's upsetting that her family has lived with this for so long with no answers. Hoping something breaks soon.

 

[Kerri in CT]

I did a google search about something else to do with Enfield CT today, and I came across Ashley's name I remembered it and it lead me to this site. I didn't know her but I often wondered if they ever found the monster that did this to her. After more googling it looks to be a cold case =( I wish news channels would highlight at least 1 case a week to try and get new leads, but I guess in this crazy world there must be too many new cases.

 

[PoisonPill]

I can't believe there were never any leads or developments in this case. Now 17 years later, it seems unlikely this will be solved without a confession or DNA hit. I found a memorial page to Ashley from her high school yearbook with a few photos of her.

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

Feet first seems normal. Jumping/pushed from a vehicle one would try to land on there feet somehow. If they said head first makes me think pushed. But feet first makes me think she excited the vehicle to get out,feet first.............

Left the school she thought she was going one place or to do something. And discovered she was going someplace else or do something else she didn't want to go or do. So she did what she had to do in that situation and just got out of the moving vehicle. Something terrorized her to the point of getting out.

According to what I read here, she got in a vehicle at the school. But no one knows if she left with someone she knew, or if she was forced to get in the vehicle at gunpoint whatever.

Dont recall reading any eyewitness statements she voluntarily got in the vehicle before leaving school grounds. Or maybe she did.

 

[scriptgirl]

This is one of the oddest and most intriguing cases I have seen here on WS and that says a lot.

 

[rats]

I just found this case on a list of CT/MA cold cases. Glad to see it's here on WS too...

Forever praying for whoever knows something to come forward.

:rose::rose:

 

[jessr927]

Bumping for Ashley :rose:

 

[indridcold]

I'm just hearing about this case today. Extremely odd and frustrating underreported. This is a true mystery every sense of the way. If anyone is better at doing internet research than me, I'm trying to find where she is buried as I'm adding her name to findagrave.com, I was able to obtain pretty much all other necessary information otherwise. I can't find an online obituary, but one article to refer to a memorial in Agawam. Hope more attention comes to this. As a Connecticut resident, this one hits closer to home and I'm amazed it's not more well known. This needs to be solved.

 

[Skigirl]

I am shocked that I've never heard of this case until now. I didn't live in Connecticut at the time of her disappearance, but I did live there for a number of years not long after she disappeared. I would think I would have noticed articles, TV news stories, etc. on anniversaries of her death, but I never heard a peep. I certainly heard about many other murder/missing persons cases that happened around that time. I wonder why her family is so quiet. I like to think that if I died in such a mysterious way twenty years ago that my family would still be granting interviews, maintaining websites, holding candlelight vigils... something.

 

[rats]

Bumping for Ashley. This case sticks in my mind, and I often wonder how nobody found the killer. It should have been so simple.

 

[rats]

Bumping for Ashley, deceased for 20 years as of this year.

 

[Jennifer_rose_3]

I am one of Ashleys best friends. A lot of these comments and thoughts are the same as we have. It will be twenty years that she has been gone and we all miss her. We pray one day we’ll know what happened to Ashley ❤️

 

[Verovitte]

Ashley Turniak

This case reminds me of Tawni Lee Mazzone or the Maricopa Jane Doe. What's curious about this case is that I have been unable to find a picture of her. It's seems like such an odd case. What happened was that on November 9th 1998 at 8 am, 16 year old Ashley Turniak was found dead on the breakdown lane of I-91 south in Longmeadow, Massachusetts just 1½ mile from the Connecticut border. Ashley had been seen in her high school parking lot before her first class started at 7:25 that morning. Less than an hour later, witnesses reported that she went feet-first from the passenger window of a car heading south towards Connecticut. Her backpack was found on Woodlawn Avenue in Enfield, Connecticut not far from a highway exit. At the time of her death witnesses observed a tan or light-brown mid-size vehicle, possibly a late-1980s model of a Ford Tempo, traveling at high speeds or in an erratic manner on I-91, Route 5 or Woodlawn Avenue in Enfield on Nov. 9. After Turniak's fall, the car was seen leaving I-91 at Exit 49 in Connecticut. Almost 16 years later many questions persist, was she pushed or did she fall? Who was the driver?

I know it's been a long time and all, but no one bothered to write down or memorize the license plate of this car?? I guess in this day and age, that's almost unheard of, but 1998 wasn't exactly the stone ages. I had a thought that maybe she was abducted, but then escaped only to meet her unfortunate demise on I-91 in Massachusetts. But the school principal said Turniak came to school Monday morning, but got into a car and left with someone before classes began. Witnesses on the highway told police that the girl had tried to flag down a state trooper parked along the road, but his cruiser was facing the other direction and he didn't see her pass by.

I'm just surprised that there isn't more about this young lady or at the very least, any pictures.

MOURNERS PAY SOLEMN TRIBUTE TO AGAWAM GIRL
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19981111/NEWS/311119966

Mother still searching for answers after daughter was found dead 22 years ago

 

[Richard]

ASHLEY TURNIAK

16 year-old Ashley Turniak was found dead on Interstate 91 in Longmeadow near the Massachusetts/Connecticut line on November 9, 1998.

Those with information about this case please contact the State Police Detective Unit at 413-505-5993 or the State Police Unresolved Cases Unit at 1-855-MA-SOLVE (1-855-627-6583) or you can text the word Solve to 274637 from your cell phone.

LINK:
Unsolved Homicides | Hampden District Attorney

 

[Harrietthespy27]

Lisa Ziegler was abducted 5 minutes from that high school. Her killer was caught but he was on the loose at that time. He has never been looked at as a suspect in Ashley’s case as far as I know. I wonder what he drove at that time

 

[UnderSea]

Media accounts had Turniak erroneously going “feet first” out the window. That was misreported, however, according to the lead state police detective, Ronald Gibbons, who is also now retired.

Gibbons remembers hearing the call over the scanner on that morning. “A witness said she saw a leg, barefoot, out of the window, but then saw her torso come out of the car,” Gibbons said. “Our theory was that she saw a trooper out of the window and she wanted to wave to get his attention, and she was either taken by the wind or gets pushed out.”

---

Most witnesses said they saw two people in a car. Several said they saw a young woman in a black tank top. One said she saw three people in the car as it was swerving across the highway. The most consistent accounts identified the vehicle as having been a tan-colored Ford sedan that hurtled off Exit 49 into Enfield.


It was there that residents reported the driver of a similar-looking car dumped Turniak’s backpack and her boots on Woodlawn Avenue, one of the first residential streets off the Enfield exit. Woodlawn is a dead-end road that backs up into some woods.

---

Police accounts say Turniak’s then-boyfriend, Alexis Maldonado — with convictions at the time for car theft and petty crimes, along with a suspended license, according to police and court records — was the only suspect.
---
As the investigation unfolded, the trucker later picked Maldonado’s photo from an array as having been the driver of the car, Gibbons said. But, that was not enough for an arrest. There is the detail that her boyfriend (Maldon

Detectives interviewed Maldonado twice, as well as his mother and friends, Gibbons said. Their accounts were contradictory. When they took a third run at Maldonado for a polygraph test and additional questions, he lawyered up.

24 years on, teen's death still haunts investigators

Ashley Turniak tumbled out the window of a car speeding south on Interstate 91 in Longmeadow on the morning of Nov. 9, 1998.

www.masslive.com

Article is behind paywall. There's a nice summary of what happened, and some background about Ashley. In the end, the investigators, mostly retired now, desperately want an answer, as does Ashley's mother. There is one detail about her boyfriend that I'm not sure I'd seen or noticed before, which is that he was a car thief and had a suspended license, though I'd imagine anyone who'd had a car matching the description might have come forward.