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Illinois Unsolved: The Lake Mattoon Case Explained | What the Court Documents Reveal · Kat Has Questions: True Crime and Unsolved Mysteries

0:07
Speaker 1: Welcome to Kat Has Questions. Curiosity, stories, and the strange
0:12
Speaker 1: corners of everyday life. Hello, hello. I'm Kat. Today, we're
0:22
Speaker 1: continuing the Illinois Unsolved series with a case that's still
0:27
Speaker 1: unfolding in real time. So, I have a story you
0:31
Speaker 1: may have seen recently on the news or online. It
0:35
Speaker 1: literally just happened within the last couple of weeks or
0:38
Speaker 1: so and is local to me, so I have been
0:41
Speaker 1: keeping a very close eye on it. When I say
0:45
Speaker 1: close to home, I'm able to see people posting about
0:47
Speaker 1: it on Facebook, seeing what locals are saying about the
0:51
Speaker 1: case and the murmurs going around the small town of Mattoon. However,
0:56
Speaker 1: I got a hold of court documents that were released yesterday.
1:00
Speaker 1: So today we are talking about the Lake Mattoon murder case.
1:05
Speaker 1: Let's get into it. June 28th, 2026. For most people
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Speaker 1: spending a summer afternoon on Lake Mattoon, the day looked
1:15
Speaker 1: completely ordinary. Boats drifted across the water. Families fished from
1:19
Speaker 1: the shoreline. Others enjoyed one of central Illinois' most popular
1:24
Speaker 1: recreation lakes. Unaware that beneath the calm surface, investigators would
1:29
Speaker 1: soon uncover one of the most disturbing crime scenes the
1:32
Speaker 1: state has seen in several years. It began with something
1:37
Speaker 1: floating in the water. From a distance, it didn't seem unusual.
1:41
Speaker 1: One group of recreational boaters noticed what they assumed was
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Speaker 1: a dead fish. As they moved closer, though, something didn't
1:48
Speaker 1: look right. What they were looking at wasn't a fish
1:52
Speaker 1: at all. It was a human arm. Within minutes, calls
1:56
Speaker 1: were placed to authorities. The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office responded first.
2:01
Speaker 1: before requesting assistance from the Illinois State Police Division of
2:04
Speaker 1: Criminal Investigation. Very quickly, what had begun as a suspicious
2:09
Speaker 1: death investigation would evolve into a case spanning hundreds of miles,
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Speaker 1: from the quiet waters of Lake Mattoon to a suburban
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Speaker 1: home nearly three hours away in Plainfield, Illinois. At that moment,
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Speaker 1: investigators had almost nothing to work with. No missing persons
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Speaker 1: report connected to the remains, No witnesses who knew how
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Speaker 1: the arm ended up in the lake. No obvious crime scene.
2:35
Speaker 1: Just a single, horrifying discovery. But over the next several days,
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Speaker 1: investigators would recover far more than that first arm. According
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Speaker 1: to court records, search teams used sonar equipment to begin
2:50
Speaker 1: searching the lake. Divers and recovery crews slowly worked through
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Speaker 1: the area where the arm had been found. Then the
2:57
Speaker 1: discoveries continued. black plastic trash bags began surfacing from the water.
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Speaker 1: Inside those bags were additional human remains. Investigators also found
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Speaker 1: five-pound exercise weights, concrete, duct tape, and clear packing tape.
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Speaker 1: According to prosecutors, the remains had been cut into numerous
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Speaker 1: pieces before being placed into the bags and submerged in
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Speaker 1: the lake. The crime scene immediately raised more questions than answers.
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Speaker 1: Who was this person? Why had someone gone to such
3:32
Speaker 1: extraordinary lengths to conceal the body? And perhaps, most importantly,
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Speaker 1: where had this killing actually happened? Because there was one
3:41
Speaker 1: thing investigators quickly realized. Whoever left these remains in Lake
3:45
Speaker 1: Mattoon likely hadn't committed the crime there. This looked like
3:50
Speaker 1: a body disposal site, which meant somewhere else, there was
3:54
Speaker 1: almost certainly a primary crime scene waiting to be discovered.
3:58
Speaker 1: Before investigators could answer any of those questions, they needed
4:02
Speaker 1: to know one thing. Who was in that lake? The
4:06
Speaker 1: recovered remains offered very few immediate clues. But several tattoos
4:11
Speaker 1: had survived. Investigators carefully documented each one. One depicted a
4:18
Speaker 1: skeleton wearing or holding a Green Bay Packers helmet. Another
4:22
Speaker 1: featured the classic Laugh Now, Cry Later theater masks. There
4:27
Speaker 1: was also a Chicago Bears-themed tattoo, lettering across part of
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Speaker 1: the arm and several additional identifying markings. The victim was
4:36
Speaker 1: also wearing multiple rings. One immediately stood out. Engraved across
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Speaker 1: it was a single word. Dale W. Robin. At the time,
4:47
Speaker 1: investigators had no way of knowing whether that ring represented
4:51
Speaker 1: two people, a nickname, or perhaps something far more significant.
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Speaker 1: but they knew someone somewhere would likely recognize those tattoos.
5:01
Speaker 1: So Illinois State Police made an unusual decision. Rather than
5:06
Speaker 1: releasing a photograph of the victim, investigators publicly released photographs
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Speaker 1: of the tattoos themselves. They hoped someone scrolling through Facebook
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Speaker 1: or watching the evening news would recognize the artwork. And
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Speaker 1: somebody did. According to the court filings, Investigators compared one
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Speaker 1: of the released tattoos with publicly available Facebook photographs, and
5:27
Speaker 1: the images matched. One thing that often surprises people is
5:31
Speaker 1: that investigators don't always identify someone through fingerprints or, like, DNA.
5:36
Speaker 1: In many cases, tattoos, jewelry, scars, and even social media
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Speaker 1: photos become the first breakthrough. In this case, investigators compared
5:45
Speaker 1: the tattooed recovered from the remains with publicly available Facebook photos.
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Speaker 1: The victim was identified as 38-year-old Dale Wayne Turner of Plainfield, Illinois.
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Speaker 1: For Dale Wayne's family, the confirmation was devastating. His family
6:02
Speaker 1: wants him to be remembered for who he was. Fun, outgoing,
6:07
Speaker 1: and always there for his family members. What had started
6:11
Speaker 1: as a mystery playing out on the evening news had
6:14
Speaker 1: suddenly become deeply personal for them. But for investigators, the
6:18
Speaker 1: identification changed everything. Because once they knew who Dale Wayne was,
6:23
Speaker 1: they could begin asking an entirely different set of questions.
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Speaker 1: Where had he last been seen? Who lived with him?
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Speaker 1: Who spoke to him last? Who had reasons to want
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Speaker 1: him dead? And perhaps most importantly, how had a man
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Speaker 1: from Plainfield, nearly 180 miles from Lake Mattoon, end up
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Speaker 1: dismembered and submerged in the central Illinois lake? Those answers
6:48
Speaker 1: would eventually lead investigators to to a quiet neighborhood in Plainfield,
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Speaker 1: a maroon Dodge Ram pickup, a basement freezer, and court
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Speaker 1: documents alleging a chain of events that is almost difficult
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Speaker 1: to comprehend. But at this point in the investigation, none
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Speaker 1: of that had been discovered yet. All investigators had was
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Speaker 1: a name, and the clock was ticking. The identification of
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Speaker 1: Dale Wayne Turner gave investigators their first real lead. But
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Speaker 1: it also opened the door to an even larger mystery.
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Speaker 1: Who was Dale Wayne? Who was waiting for him back
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Speaker 1: in Plainfield? And why would someone allegedly transport human remains
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Speaker 1: nearly three hours before leaving them beneath the waters of
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Speaker 1: Lake Mattoon? Those answers would begin with the people who
7:36
Speaker 1: knew him best. By the time Illinois State Police publicly
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Speaker 1: identified the victim, investigators had already begun shifting their focus
7:44
Speaker 1: away from Lake Mattoon. The lake was no longer the mystery.
7:48
Speaker 1: the mystery had become Dale Wayne Turner himself. Dale Wayne
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Speaker 1: Turner was 38 years old and lived in Plainfield, Illinois,
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Speaker 1: a growing suburb about 40 miles southwest of downtown Chicago.
8:01
Speaker 1: On paper, there was nothing to immediately suggest that his
8:05
Speaker 1: life would become the center of one of Illinois' most
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Speaker 1: disturbing homicide investigations. According to court records, Dale Wayne lived
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Speaker 1: on Ruth Fitzgerald Drive with his wife, Robin Turner, and
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Speaker 1: his half-brother, James Adams. That address would soon become one
8:22
Speaker 1: of the most important locations in the investigation. But investigators
8:26
Speaker 1: didn't know that yet. At first, they simply began doing
8:30
Speaker 1: what detectives always do after identifying a victim. They started
8:34
Speaker 1: reconstructing the last days of his life. They looked for
8:37
Speaker 1: missing persons reports. They searched for recent police calls, and
8:41
Speaker 1: they interviewed family members. They identified everyone living inside the home.
8:46
Speaker 1: And almost immediately, investigators noticed something unusual. Despite Dale Wayne's
8:52
Speaker 1: remains being discovered nearly 180 miles away in Lake Mattoon,
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Speaker 1: no one had officially reported him missing. That doesn't automatically
9:01
Speaker 1: indicate foul play. Adults disappear voluntarily every day. Sometimes families
9:07
Speaker 1: assume someone is staying with friends. Sometimes people intentionally disconnect
9:11
Speaker 1: from those around them. But when detectives are investigating a
9:14
Speaker 1: suspicious death, the absence of a missing person report often
9:18
Speaker 1: becomes an important piece of that timeline. If no one
9:22
Speaker 1: is looking for someone, why? Investigators also began learning about
9:27
Speaker 1: the people closest to Dale Wayne. His wife, Robin Turner,
9:31
Speaker 1: was 62. his half-brother, James Adams, who's 26, and another brother,
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Speaker 1: Stephen Turner. At this point, all three were simply people
9:42
Speaker 1: detectives needed to speak with. There was no public indication
9:46
Speaker 1: that investigators considered any of them suspects. As detectives worked
9:51
Speaker 1: to reconstruct Dale Wayne's final days, they also examined publicly
9:55
Speaker 1: available information. One of the biggest breakthroughs came from something
9:59
Speaker 1: many of us post online without much thought. Facebook. According
10:04
Speaker 1: to court records, investigators compared the distinctive tattoos found on
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Speaker 1: the recovered remains with photographs from Dale Wayne's Facebook. One
10:13
Speaker 1: tattoo in particular, the classic laugh now, cry later theater masks,
10:18
Speaker 1: matched perfectly. Now detectives had family members, vehicles associated with
10:23
Speaker 1: the residents, phones to locate, financial records to review, security
10:28
Speaker 1: cameras to obtain, license plate readers to analyze, and a
10:32
Speaker 1: timeline to build. The next question is almost always, what
10:36
Speaker 1: happened during their final days? As detectives interviewed people connected
10:40
Speaker 1: to Dale Wayne, one story quickly emerged. According to Robin Turner,
10:45
Speaker 1: his wife, the last time she believed she saw Dale
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Speaker 1: Wayne was on June 21, 2026. She told investigators that
10:53
Speaker 1: morning had started with an argument. She said Dale Wayne
10:57
Speaker 1: and James, his half-brother, had gotten into a disagreement over
11:00
Speaker 1: sports cards. Robin told investigators she then left the house
11:04
Speaker 1: to visit her mother, who lived in a memory care facility.
11:08
Speaker 1: While she was away, she said James called her. According
11:12
Speaker 1: to Robin, James told her Dale Wayne was upset and
11:15
Speaker 1: planned to leave. Robin said she then called Dale Wayne herself.
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Speaker 1: She claimed Dale Wayne told her he was unhappy and
11:23
Speaker 1: intended to stay with a friend in Kankakee. On the surface,
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Speaker 1: it sounds plausible. Family arguments happen, people cool off, people
11:31
Speaker 1: stay with friends. Especially considering the three of them lived together,
11:35
Speaker 1: so to cool off, he would need to go somewhere else.
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Speaker 1: Nothing about that explanation by itself necessarily suggested a crime
11:41
Speaker 1: had occurred. Robin told investigators that when she returned home,
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Speaker 1: Dale Wayne was gone. She also mentioned something she didn't
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Speaker 1: initially think much about. She noticed a faint smell of
11:53
Speaker 1: bleach inside the home. She believed James had simply washed
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Speaker 1: the floors. Again, on its own, that detail might not
12:02
Speaker 1: have seemed significant. But investigators weren't looking at a single detail.
12:07
Speaker 1: They were looking at hundreds. Each interview, each phone call,
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Speaker 1: each receipt, each search history, each piece of physical evidence.
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Speaker 1: They would eventually paint a picture prosecutors now allege shows
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Speaker 1: a deliberate effort to conceal a homicide. But investigators weren't
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Speaker 1: there yet. They still had far more questions than answers.
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Speaker 1: Did Dale Wayne actually leave for Kankakee? Who was the
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Speaker 1: friend he supposedly planned to stay with? Had anyone spoken
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Speaker 1: to him after June 21st when his wife alleges she
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Speaker 1: spoke to him? Had anyone seen him, used his phone,
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Speaker 1: his credit cards, his vehicle? Every answer would either strengthen
12:47
Speaker 1: or weaken the timeline investigators were beginning to build. Meanwhile,
12:53
Speaker 1: nearly three hours away, the recovery operation at Lake Mattoon continued.
12:59
Speaker 1: Additional remains had been recovered. Detectives now knew whose body
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Speaker 1: they belonged to, but they still didn't know exactly where
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Speaker 1: he had been killed or who was responsible. That would
13:10
Speaker 1: begin to change because of something no detective can ever
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Speaker 1: predict— a conversation inside a suburban home, a conversation that
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Speaker 1: one family member simply couldn't keep to himself, and one
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Speaker 1: phone call to 911 that would change the entire direction
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Speaker 1: of the investigation. For nearly two days after Dale Wayne's identification,
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Speaker 1: investigators continued piecing together his final movements. Then, on the
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Speaker 1: evening of June 30th, A man named Stephen Turner walked
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Speaker 1: out of the Plainfield home, dialed 911, and told dispatchers
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Speaker 1: something almost unimaginable. According to investigators, his own family had
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Speaker 1: just confessed to killing Dale Wayne. And if you remember,
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Speaker 1: Stephen Turner is Dale Wayne's other brother. By the end
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Speaker 1: of June, investigators had made significant progress. They knew the
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Speaker 1: victim's identity. They knew he lived in Plainfield. and they
14:05
Speaker 1: had begun reconstructing his final days. But despite all of that,
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Speaker 1: they still didn't know where Dale Wayne Turner had been killed.
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Speaker 1: Lake Mattoon didn't appear to be the primary crime scene.
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Speaker 1: Investigators believed someone had transported his remains after his death.
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Speaker 1: What they needed now was a break. And according to
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Speaker 1: court records, that break came on the evening of June 30, 2026. Ironically,
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Speaker 1: it didn't come from sophisticated forensic testing. It didn't come
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Speaker 1: from DNA. It didn't come from surveillance cameras. But it
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Speaker 1: came from a member of Dale Wayne's own family, Stephen Turner.
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Speaker 1: According to investigators, Stephen had recently moved into the home
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Speaker 1: on Ruth Fitzgerald Drive in Plainfield, where Dale Wayne, Robin,
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Speaker 1: and James all lived together. That evening started out like
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Speaker 1: any other. Stephen, Robin, and James moved drove to Indiana
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Speaker 1: to buy fireworks. Court documents allege James was driving, Stephen
15:08
Speaker 1: sat in the front passenger seat, Robin rode in the
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Speaker 1: back seat. According to Stephen's interview, Robin spent approximately $ 500
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Speaker 1: on fireworks before the group headed back toward Plainfield. Nothing
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Speaker 1: about the trip appeared unusual. They even stopped at a
15:25
Speaker 1: KFC drive-thru near their house before returning home. If you
15:31
Speaker 1: had driven past them that evening, you never would have
15:34
Speaker 1: guessed investigators were already trying to determine what had happened
15:37
Speaker 1: to Dale Wayne Turner. Back at the house, the three
15:41
Speaker 1: settled into what sounded like an ordinary evening. They turned
15:44
Speaker 1: on the television. The show they were watching was Landman,
15:48
Speaker 1: the Paramount Plus drama starring Billy Bob Thornton. It's such
15:52
Speaker 1: an oddly specific detail that it almost sounds fictional. But
15:56
Speaker 1: details like this are often what make witness statements believable.
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Speaker 1: People rarely remember exact times, and they don't often remember
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Speaker 1: precise conversations. But they remember where they were, what they
16:08
Speaker 1: were watching, what they were eating. These ordinary details become
16:12
Speaker 1: anchors in memory. Stephen later told investigators they had been
16:17
Speaker 1: watching the show when James suddenly paused it. Then James
16:21
Speaker 1: said something that immediately changed the atmosphere in the room.
16:25
Speaker 1: According to Stephen, James told him, I have something I
16:29
Speaker 1: need to tell you. At that moment, Stephen had no
16:33
Speaker 1: idea that the conversation was about to place him in
16:36
Speaker 1: the center of a homicide investigation. According to court documents,
16:41
Speaker 1: James and Robin began telling Stephen about events they claimed
16:45
Speaker 1: had happened roughly nine days earlier. They described an argument
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Speaker 1: involving Dale Wayne. According to Stephen's account, they said the
16:55
Speaker 1: confrontation became physical. James allegedly admitted grabbing a knife... He
17:01
Speaker 1: allegedly said he stabbed Dale Wayne multiple times, and according
17:06
Speaker 1: to the court filings, James and Robin told Stephen that
17:10
Speaker 1: Dale Wayne bled out and died inside that home. Then
17:14
Speaker 1: came the part Stephen later told investigators he struggled to process.
17:19
Speaker 1: According to Stephen, James and Robin said they had dismembered
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Speaker 1: Dale Wayne's body. They allegedly told him portions of the
17:26
Speaker 1: remains had been placed into a freezer in their basement.
17:31
Speaker 1: other body parts they claimed had been taken to a
17:33
Speaker 1: lake and disposed of there. Imagine hearing that, you're sitting
17:38
Speaker 1: on a couch, watching TV, when two members of your
17:43
Speaker 1: own family suddenly begin describing what prosecutors now allege was
17:47
Speaker 1: the killing and dismemberment of your brother. Stephen also told
17:51
Speaker 1: investigators that James and Robin said it had taken approximately
17:55
Speaker 1: four hours to clean blood from the house after Dale
17:58
Speaker 1: Wayne's death. Investigators would later compare that statement with what
18:03
Speaker 1: they found inside the residence. According to the filings, Stephen
18:07
Speaker 1: said he personally had not noticed obvious bloodstains around the house.
18:12
Speaker 1: He also said he had not observed any injuries on Robin.
18:16
Speaker 1: He did remember seeing a bruise on James' arm. When
18:19
Speaker 1: he asked about it, James allegedly told him it happened
18:23
Speaker 1: after falling down the stairs. At the time, so this
18:26
Speaker 1: would have been what I said. what, 10 days prior
18:29
Speaker 1: to them telling him. So at the time, Stephen had
18:33
Speaker 1: no way of knowing whether anything he had just been
18:35
Speaker 1: told was true. Maybe it was some bizarre joke. Maybe
18:39
Speaker 1: James was exaggerating. Maybe there was another explanation. But according
18:44
Speaker 1: to investigators, Stephen wasn't willing to take that chance. Thank God.
18:50
Speaker 1: He hugged James, walked out of the house, and called 911.
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Speaker 1: That decision may have changed the course of the entire investigation.
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Speaker 1: At approximately 9.03 p.m., Joliet Police notified Illinois State Police
19:07
Speaker 1: that Stephen Turner had reported an extraordinary allegation. According to
19:13
Speaker 1: dispatch information summarized in the court filings, Stephen told authorities
19:18
Speaker 1: that Robin Turner and James Adams had confessed to killing
19:22
Speaker 1: Dale Wayne Turner. He also reported something even more alarming.
19:26
Speaker 1: he said they told him Dale Wayne's body was still
19:30
Speaker 1: inside the basement freezer. By coincidence, or perhaps by timing
19:35
Speaker 1: investigators would later consider fortunate, members of the Illinois State
19:39
Speaker 1: Police Major Case Assistance Team, known as J-MANS, were already
19:45
Speaker 1: in the area conducting surveillance connected to the investigation. When
19:49
Speaker 1: they learned Stephen had left the residence on foot, they
19:52
Speaker 1: located him nearby. Investigators made contact. Stephen agreed to accompany
19:58
Speaker 1: them to Illinois State Police Headquarters in Lockport. While Stephen
20:02
Speaker 1: was being interviewed, the investigators accelerated dramatically. According to court records,
20:08
Speaker 1: Investigators learned James and Robin had begun driving around the
20:12
Speaker 1: neighborhood looking for Stephen. They were allegedly calling his phone repeatedly.
20:17
Speaker 1: If true, investigators now had two people who had allegedly
20:21
Speaker 1: confessed to a homicide searching for the person who had
20:25
Speaker 1: just reported them to the police. J-Mans made the decision
20:29
Speaker 1: to intervene. Officers stopped the maroon Dodge Ram. James Adams
20:35
Speaker 1: and Robin Turner were detained, and the truck was seized.
20:39
Speaker 1: And this is probably for the best to make sure
20:41
Speaker 1: Stephen stayed safe, because who's to say they wouldn't do
20:44
Speaker 1: something about that? Especially if they think that he had
20:47
Speaker 1: said something to the police or they were worried he
20:51
Speaker 1: was going to say something. Investigators began preparing what would
20:54
Speaker 1: become one of the most significant search warrants in the
20:57
Speaker 1: entire case. Because if Stephen was telling the truth, then
21:01
Speaker 1: inside the house on Ruth Fitzgerald Drive... Investigators were about
21:05
Speaker 1: to encounter a crime scene unlike anything they had expected
21:09
Speaker 1: when a single human arm surfaced in Lake Mattoon just
21:12
Speaker 1: days earlier. At this point, investigators had a witness. They
21:17
Speaker 1: had a growing collection of evidence. Cell phone searches, text messages,
21:23
Speaker 1: surveillance cameras, a home they urgently needed to search, and
21:27
Speaker 1: a timeline that prosecutors now allege showed the cover-up had
21:31
Speaker 1: begun recently. long before anyone discovered Dale Wayne Turner's remains
21:35
Speaker 1: in Lake Mattoon. Investigators started to piece together more about
21:40
Speaker 1: the case. Not just of where people went, but of
21:43
Speaker 1: what they searched, what they bought, what they texted, and
21:47
Speaker 1: what allegedly changed inside the house after June 21st. According
21:52
Speaker 1: to prosecutors, those individual pieces would eventually become one of
21:56
Speaker 1: the strongest parts of their case. Because unlike eyewitness testimony,
22:01
Speaker 1: digital evidence doesn't rely on memory. Search histories are timestamped.
22:06
Speaker 1: Text messages are preserved. Store receipts record purchases down to
22:10
Speaker 1: the minute. Together, prosecutors allege they tell the story of
22:15
Speaker 1: an attempted cover-up. License plate reader cameras capture vehicles automatically.
22:21
Speaker 1: But to understand why investigators believe that, we have to
22:25
Speaker 1: go back several weeks before Dale Wayne's death. According to investigators,
22:30
Speaker 1: they recovered Robin Turner's Google search history from her phone
22:34
Speaker 1: after obtaining a search warrant. What they found immediately caught
22:38
Speaker 1: investigators' attention. The search begins on June 2nd. Remember, she
22:44
Speaker 1: said the last day he was seen was June 21st,
22:46
Speaker 1: so this is almost 20 days before. More than two
22:52
Speaker 1: weeks before Dale Wayne was allegedly killed, according to the
22:57
Speaker 1: court filings, Robin searched... I'm going to read out all
23:00
Speaker 1: these things she searched. Does chloroform really knock you out?
23:06
Speaker 1: And then just six days later on June 8th, investigators
23:10
Speaker 1: say she searched, can you die from an overdose of lithium?
23:14
Speaker 1: Followed by, can you die from an overdose of Adderall?
23:18
Speaker 1: On June 14th, she searched, can you commit suicide with
23:21
Speaker 1: sleeping pills? And then on June 16th, how much Tide
23:25
Speaker 1: Pod can make someone sick? By themselves, internet searches don't
23:31
Speaker 1: necessarily prove a crime. People search strange things every day.
23:36
Speaker 1: I mean, don't go looking in my search history, especially
23:38
Speaker 1: with doing this podcast. Curiosity alone isn't evidence of murder.
23:44
Speaker 1: But prosecutors allege the pattern became more significant as the
23:49
Speaker 1: dates moved closer to June 21st. On June 18th, three
23:53
Speaker 1: days before the killing, Robyn allegedly searched, what does an
23:57
Speaker 1: overdose of Adderall look like? Then, is it easy to
24:01
Speaker 1: crack your head from a fall? Another search asked, can
24:05
Speaker 1: Adderall make you lightheaded? And finally, one search stood out
24:09
Speaker 1: because of what investigators would later discover inside the Plainfield home.
24:14
Speaker 1: The search simply read, chest freezer. According to Robyn, she
24:20
Speaker 1: purchased a new freezer from Best Buy on June 19th,
24:24
Speaker 1: explaining that the previous freezer had stopped working. That purchase
24:28
Speaker 1: by itself is not illegal or even necessarily suspicious. But
24:33
Speaker 1: prosecutors point to its timing in relation to later events
24:36
Speaker 1: as part of the overall timeline they allege shows planning
24:40
Speaker 1: and concealment. So we're going to move to the day
24:43
Speaker 1: of June 21st. According to Robin's interview with investigators, the
24:48
Speaker 1: morning began with a disagreement. She said James Adams and
24:51
Speaker 1: Dale Wayne Turner argued over sports cards. I assume that
24:55
Speaker 1: means like baseball cards, that sort of thing. Robin then
24:59
Speaker 1: left the home to visit her mother at a memory
25:01
Speaker 1: care facility. While she was gone, she said James called her.
25:06
Speaker 1: He allegedly told her Dale Wayne was upset and planned
25:09
Speaker 1: to leave. Robin then called Dale Wayne herself. She told
25:14
Speaker 1: investigators Dale Wayne said he intended to stay with a
25:16
Speaker 1: friend in Kankakee. When she returned home, She said Dale
25:20
Speaker 1: Wayne was gone. She also noticed something she initially described
25:24
Speaker 1: as unusual. It was a faint smell of bleach. She
25:28
Speaker 1: believed James had simply washed the floors, like I said earlier.
25:32
Speaker 1: At the time, she said she didn't think much of it. Investigators, however,
25:37
Speaker 1: would later compare that statement with everything else they uncovered.
25:41
Speaker 1: And then we get to the text messages. According to prosecutors,
25:45
Speaker 1: June 22nd became one of the most revealing days in
25:48
Speaker 1: the digital evidence. Investigators recovered text conversations between Robin and
25:54
Speaker 1: James sent that morning. The messages discussed practical problems. Finding
26:00
Speaker 1: a dolly. Buying carpet cleaner. Going to Home Depot. Possibly
26:06
Speaker 1: needing a hoist. One message allegedly referenced continuing to pour
26:11
Speaker 1: bleach if something started to smell. Another message discussed deleting communications.
26:18
Speaker 1: According to the filing... One text read, be sure to
26:21
Speaker 1: fully delete everything. And again, a single message doesn't tell
26:27
Speaker 1: the whole story. People delete texts for countless reasons, but
26:31
Speaker 1: prosecutors argue these messages cannot be viewed in isolation. Instead,
26:37
Speaker 1: the text should be considered alongside what happened next. Robin
26:41
Speaker 1: acknowledged to investigators that a surprising number of projects were
26:45
Speaker 1: completed around the home during the days following June 21st.
26:49
Speaker 1: a little home renovation. According to her own statement, the
26:54
Speaker 1: stairway was repainted, wood paneling was removed from the staircase,
26:59
Speaker 1: those panels were later burned in the backyard fire pit,
27:03
Speaker 1: the front door was repainted, the ceramic tile landing near
27:07
Speaker 1: the front entrance was repainted or altered, the living room
27:11
Speaker 1: rug was replaced with two new rugs. Each project might
27:15
Speaker 1: sound ordinary on its own. Many homeowners repaint, replace flooring,
27:21
Speaker 1: burn wood, but prosecutors allege these renovations were not routine
27:27
Speaker 1: home improvements. They argue they were part of an effort
27:30
Speaker 1: to remove or conceal evidence from inside the residence. Whether
27:35
Speaker 1: that allegation ultimately holds up in the court will be
27:37
Speaker 1: decided at trial, but it became a major focus of
27:41
Speaker 1: the investigation. Then came another purchase. Investigators reviewed surveillance video
27:47
Speaker 1: from a Menards in Crest Hill. According to the court filing,
27:52
Speaker 1: the footage showed James Adams and Robin Turner arriving together
27:55
Speaker 1: on June 23rd, so two days after the last day
27:59
Speaker 1: he was seen. They allegedly purchased approximately 20 bags of concrete,
28:05
Speaker 1: along with other miscellaneous items. Later that same afternoon, license
28:11
Speaker 1: plate reader cameras captured the maroon Dodge Ram traveling through Joliet.
28:16
Speaker 1: Visible in the truck bed, investigators say, appeared to be
28:19
Speaker 1: those same bags of concrete. At this point, detectives still
28:23
Speaker 1: didn't know exactly where the investigation would lead, but they
28:26
Speaker 1: were documenting everything. Meanwhile, as they run these errands and
28:31
Speaker 1: continue doing home renovations, Robyn's alleged search history continued. On
28:37
Speaker 1: June 24th, she searched, how long does it take a
28:41
Speaker 1: fresh 26-pound turkey to freeze? which is just kind of
28:44
Speaker 1: horrifying knowing that turkey probably wasn't the thing she was
28:47
Speaker 1: actually searching for. Then, why are there so many missing
28:52
Speaker 1: people that never get found? And perhaps the most haunting
28:56
Speaker 1: search of all, how do you divorce someone you can't find?
29:00
Speaker 1: The following day, investigators say Robin searched concrete mixer and
29:05
Speaker 1: then can spoiled meat stink if frozen? And finally, do
29:11
Speaker 1: you have to have a body embalmed? Again, these are
29:15
Speaker 1: allegations contained in the court filings. Prosecutors argue they become
29:20
Speaker 1: significant when viewed alongside all of the other evidence that
29:23
Speaker 1: they are uncovering. By now, investigators weren't looking at isolated facts.
29:29
Speaker 1: They were assembling a pretty good timeline with the searches,
29:31
Speaker 1: the texts, the purchases, the home renovations, the new freezer
29:35
Speaker 1: a couple days earlier. Each item was entered into the chronology. Still,
29:42
Speaker 1: there was one major question investigators couldn't answer yet. If
29:46
Speaker 1: Dale Wayne had been killed inside the Plainfield home, why
29:49
Speaker 1: did part of his body end up nearly 180 miles
29:52
Speaker 1: away in Lake Mattoon? The answer, prosecutors allege, would come
29:57
Speaker 1: from something that most drivers never even notice. Automatic license
30:02
Speaker 1: plate reader cameras. And those cameras would document a road
30:06
Speaker 1: trip that investigators now believe connected the Plainfield house to
30:10
Speaker 1: the discovery at Lake Mattoon. According to prosecutors, the most
30:15
Speaker 1: important witness in this part of the investigation wasn't a
30:18
Speaker 1: person at all. It was a network of cameras, placed
30:22
Speaker 1: silently along highways and intersections across Illinois. Those cameras would
30:27
Speaker 1: capture a maroon Dodge Ram, a pair of gray storage totes,
30:32
Speaker 1: and a journey south that investigators now allege ended at
30:35
Speaker 1: the waters of Lake Mattoon. I would just like to interject, too.
30:40
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of speculation online of how some
30:45
Speaker 1: of the remains ended up in Lake Mattoon. I've seen
30:48
Speaker 1: some crazy stuff like, oh, maybe it blew from the
30:51
Speaker 1: house into the lake with the tornadoes. There have been
30:54
Speaker 1: a lot of bad tornadoes in central Illinois. things like that.
30:57
Speaker 1: But this timeline, I feel like really, the evidence here
31:01
Speaker 1: really rules all of those things out. By the end
31:05
Speaker 1: of June, Illinois State Police had accumulated an extraordinary amount
31:09
Speaker 1: of information from interviews, search histories, texts, receipts, statements from
31:15
Speaker 1: family members. But one question still loomed over the investigation.
31:22
Speaker 1: If prosecutors were correct, And if Dale Wayne Turner had
31:25
Speaker 1: died inside the home in Plainfield, then someone still had
31:28
Speaker 1: to move those remains. And that meant there had to
31:32
Speaker 1: be a route. A vehicle, a destination, probably not a tornado.
31:37
Speaker 1: Investigators believed that route existed. They just had to find it. Fortunately,
31:43
Speaker 1: modern investigations often leave behind silent witnesses. Not people. Technology.
31:51
Speaker 1: Every day, thousands of vehicles travel Illinois highways without their
31:54
Speaker 1: drivers giving much thought to the cameras mounted above intersections
31:58
Speaker 1: and along roadways. Most motorists never notice them. They are
32:03
Speaker 1: license plate reader cameras, often called LPRs. Their primary purpose
32:08
Speaker 1: is simple. Capture license plates, record the exact data, the
32:12
Speaker 1: exact time, the exact location. Sometimes, even a clear image
32:17
Speaker 1: of the vehicle itself. Those cameras don't forget, they don't
32:21
Speaker 1: confuse dates, and according to prosecutors, they became one of
32:25
Speaker 1: the most important witnesses in this entire investigation. So investigators
32:31
Speaker 1: began reviewing license plate reader hits connected to a maroon
32:35
Speaker 1: Dodge Ram registered to James Adams and Robin Turner. One
32:41
Speaker 1: image after another. A timeline began taking shape. The first
32:46
Speaker 1: significant image investigators described came on June 23rd, just days
32:51
Speaker 1: after prosecutors allege Dale Wayne was killed. At approximately 4.10 p.m.,
32:57
Speaker 1: a license plate reader captured the Dodge Ram traveling through Joliet.
33:01
Speaker 1: Visible in the truck bed, investigators believed they could see
33:04
Speaker 1: bags of concrete. That detail immediately stood out because surveillance
33:09
Speaker 1: footage from Menards had already shown James and Robin allegedly
33:13
Speaker 1: purchasing approximately 20 bags of concrete earlier that afternoon. The
33:18
Speaker 1: purchases and the cameras matched. It was another piece fitting
33:23
Speaker 1: neatly into the growing timeline. Still, concrete alone didn't explain
33:27
Speaker 1: Lake Mattoon. That connection wouldn't come for three days. On
33:32
Speaker 1: June 26th, the first camera that morning captured the truck
33:36
Speaker 1: and Joliet at approximately 9.27 a.m. Nothing unusual appeared in
33:42
Speaker 1: the truck bed. No totes, no obvious cargo, just the
33:45
Speaker 1: maroon Dodge Ram. Hours passed. Then, nearly 100 miles south,
33:52
Speaker 1: another camera captured the same truck. This time, the image
33:56
Speaker 1: looked different. At approximately 7.18 p.m., a license plate reader
34:01
Speaker 1: in Mahomet, Illinois, photographed the Dodge Ram. According to investigators,
34:07
Speaker 1: two gray plastic storage totes were now sitting in the
34:10
Speaker 1: bed of the truck. The totes appeared to be wrapped
34:13
Speaker 1: with duct tape, and that observation immediately became important. because
34:18
Speaker 1: investigators had already begun finding duct tape associated with the
34:22
Speaker 1: recovered remains. So these are happening, like, simultaneously. At that moment, though,
34:29
Speaker 1: the totes were still inside the truck. The journey continued.
34:32
Speaker 1: And then less than an hour later, another camera, at
34:35
Speaker 1: approximately 8.05 p.m., the truck entered Mattoon. And something had changed.
34:43
Speaker 1: According to investigators, the gray totes were gone. The truck
34:47
Speaker 1: bed appeared empty. No storage containers. No duct tape totes. Nothing.
34:53
Speaker 1: That image immediately raised a question investigators could not ignore.
34:58
Speaker 1: What happened between Mahomet and Mattoon? The distance between those
35:03
Speaker 1: two communities is roughly 70 miles. Somewhere during that drive,
35:08
Speaker 1: according to prosecutors, the truck lost its cargo. The night
35:13
Speaker 1: wasn't over, though. Just two hours later, another license plate
35:17
Speaker 1: reader captured the same Dodge Ram. This time it was
35:20
Speaker 1: near Effingham, which is further south, so it's approximately 28
35:24
Speaker 1: miles south of Mattoon, so they're continuing south. Again, investigators
35:29
Speaker 1: noted nothing visible in the truck bed. Whatever had been
35:32
Speaker 1: there earlier was gone. To detectives, the sequence became increasingly significant. Joliet, Muhammad, Mattoon, Effingham.
35:41
Speaker 1: Each camera formed what prosecutors now argue is a travel
35:44
Speaker 1: timeline leading directly through the area where human remains would
35:49
Speaker 1: later be recovered. Investigators weren't finished, though, because after reviewing
35:54
Speaker 1: the license plate reader data, one stop quickly caught their attention,
35:57
Speaker 1: and it was a Walmart in Effingham, so that stop
36:00
Speaker 1: that was even further south than Mattoon. Security footage allegedly
36:04
Speaker 1: show James Adams entering the store later that evening. What
36:10
Speaker 1: happened next struck investigators as unusual. According to court records,
36:14
Speaker 1: James purchased a change of clothes. A white t-shirt, red, white,
36:19
Speaker 1: and blue shorts. Then, he walked into the men's restroom.
36:23
Speaker 1: A short time later, he exited wearing the new clothes.
36:27
Speaker 1: His previous clothing had disappeared. Investigators later learned Walmart employees
36:32
Speaker 1: emptied restroom trash into the store dumpster. Officers searched that dumpster,
36:38
Speaker 1: and according to prosecutors, they recovered the clothes James had
36:41
Speaker 1: discarded there. Throwing away old clothes is not a crime.
36:45
Speaker 1: But the alleged clothing change occurred only hours after the
36:49
Speaker 1: Dodge Ram had traveled through Mattoon. Only hours after investigators
36:53
Speaker 1: believe the gray totes disappeared from the truck. Another event
36:57
Speaker 1: added to the growing timeline. Then the investigation produced another
37:02
Speaker 1: unexpected break. On June 30th, a Mattoon area resident contacted
37:07
Speaker 1: Illinois State Police. She reported seeing two gray plastic storage
37:12
Speaker 1: totes abandoned in an overgrown ditch near her property. Investigators responded.
37:18
Speaker 1: The location immediately caught their attention. The totes were found
37:22
Speaker 1: approximately seven-tenths of a mile west of where human remains
37:27
Speaker 1: had been recovered from Lake Mattoon. So very close. According
37:32
Speaker 1: to the court filings, investigators recovered two gray totes, two
37:37
Speaker 1: matching lids, and duct tape still attached to them. To detectives,
37:42
Speaker 1: they looked remarkably similar to the same gray totes visible
37:46
Speaker 1: in the Muhammad license plate reader photograph. Investigators had now
37:51
Speaker 1: connected surveillance cameras, recovered physical evidence, and the Lake Mattoon
37:56
Speaker 1: recovery site. And the picture was becoming clearer, not because
38:00
Speaker 1: of a single witness or one confession, but because of
38:03
Speaker 1: dozens of independent pieces of evidence appeared to be pointing
38:07
Speaker 1: investigators toward the same conclusion. By this point, the route
38:12
Speaker 1: from Plainfield to central Illinois was no longer just an idea.
38:16
Speaker 1: It was becoming something prosecutors believed they could demonstrate using receipts.
38:21
Speaker 1: Cameras recovered evidence and digital records. Still, one question remained.
38:27
Speaker 1: If Dale Wayne Turner had never truly left the house alive,
38:30
Speaker 1: would investigators find proof inside the residence itself? They were
38:34
Speaker 1: about to find out. Because on July 1st, armed with
38:38
Speaker 1: search warrants, investigators walked through the front door of the
38:42
Speaker 1: home on Ruth Fitzgerald Drive. And according to court filings,
38:47
Speaker 1: what they found inside was even more disturbing than anyone
38:50
Speaker 1: had imagined. One of the mysteries investigators still haven't answered
38:54
Speaker 1: is is why Lake Mattoon was chosen. It's nearly 180
38:59
Speaker 1: miles from Plainfield. Whether there was a personal connection to
39:03
Speaker 1: the area or whether investigators believe it was selected simply
39:07
Speaker 1: because of its distance has not yet been publicly explained.
39:13
Speaker 1: So by the morning of July 1st, investigators had spent
39:16
Speaker 1: days assembling what they believed was a compelling timeline. The
39:20
Speaker 1: investigators had a lot of circumstantial evidence. even a family member,
39:24
Speaker 1: reporting that James and Robin allegedly confessed to killing Dale Wayne.
39:29
Speaker 1: But investigators still needed one thing, physical evidence. Without it,
39:34
Speaker 1: the case remained largely circumstantial. If Stephen Turner's account was accurate,
39:40
Speaker 1: then the answers investigators were looking for weren't in Lake
39:43
Speaker 1: Mattoon anymore. They were nearly 200 miles north, inside that
39:47
Speaker 1: house on Ruth Fitzgerald Drive. At approximately 1.13 on July 1st,
39:53
Speaker 1: investigators obtained a search warrant for two locations. The first
39:58
Speaker 1: was the home. The second was the maroon Dodge Ram
40:01
Speaker 1: pickup that investigators had spent days tracking through surveillance footage.
40:07
Speaker 1: Before entering the home, Illinois State Police crime scene investigators
40:11
Speaker 1: began processing the truck. Inside, investigators recovered two cell phones.
40:16
Speaker 1: One was identified as belonging to James Adams and the
40:19
Speaker 1: second phone would later become much more significant. According to
40:23
Speaker 1: court documents, investigators determined it belonged to Dale Wayne Turner.
40:28
Speaker 1: Even though Dale Wayne himself had been missing for days,
40:31
Speaker 1: his phone had allegedly remained with the truck. Another piece
40:34
Speaker 1: of the timeline, another unanswered question. Later that afternoon, investigators
40:41
Speaker 1: did enter the Plainfield home. On the surface, nothing immediately
40:46
Speaker 1: suggested the scene prosecutors now allege unfolded there. It looked ordinary.
40:51
Speaker 1: A quiet suburban neighborhood, a family home. But investigators weren't
40:55
Speaker 1: looking at the home the way most people would. They
40:58
Speaker 1: were looking for subtle changes. Fresh paint. Replaced flooring. Signs
41:04
Speaker 1: that parts of the house had been altered. And according
41:07
Speaker 1: to the filings, they found exactly that. As we talked
41:11
Speaker 1: about earlier, freshly painted walls. Painted stairways, painted front door,
41:16
Speaker 1: new carpeting, evidence that wood paneling had been removed. Earlier
41:21
Speaker 1: interviews had already indicated that some remodeling occurred after June 21st. Now,
41:27
Speaker 1: investigators were seeing those changes for themselves. Then the investigators
41:32
Speaker 1: moved downstairs. According to the court filings, they located a freezer.
41:36
Speaker 1: It wasn't sitting out in the open. The freezer had
41:39
Speaker 1: been locked shut. And it had been wrapped with duct tape.
41:44
Speaker 1: a blanket had been draped over it, and cinder blocks
41:47
Speaker 1: had been placed on top. So a lot of unusual
41:51
Speaker 1: things with the way this freezer was in the basement.
41:56
Speaker 1: Investigators immediately recognized that the freezer would need to be
41:59
Speaker 1: processed carefully. Before opening it, they documented everything. And one
42:04
Speaker 1: detail immediately caught their attention. Lying beneath the blanket was
42:08
Speaker 1: a reciprocating saw blade. According to investigators... the blade appeared
42:13
Speaker 1: to have a blood-like substance on it. Nearby, they located
42:18
Speaker 1: packaging for that saw, but the saw itself was missing.
42:24
Speaker 1: Investigators also observed what they described as red, blood-like stains
42:28
Speaker 1: near the freezer's drain opening. At this point, they still
42:32
Speaker 1: hadn't even opened it. Everything they had seen so far
42:36
Speaker 1: felt like it had led them to this single moment.
42:39
Speaker 1: Crime scene investigators carefully opened the freezer, Inside, according to
42:44
Speaker 1: the filings, they found human remains. Specifically, investigators documented the
42:50
Speaker 1: victim's torso, neck, and head. The limbs were absent. Those
42:56
Speaker 1: investigators believed had been transported elsewhere. For detectives, the discovery
43:01
Speaker 1: fundamentally changed the case. No longer were they simply investigating
43:05
Speaker 1: remains found in Lake Mattoon. They had now located what
43:09
Speaker 1: prosecutors allege was the primary crime scene. The victim was
43:13
Speaker 1: identified as Dale Wayne Turner in the freezer. The same
43:17
Speaker 1: man whose tattoos had helped investigators identify the remains recovered
43:22
Speaker 1: from the lake only days earlier. The pieces of the
43:25
Speaker 1: investigation were finally beginning to connect. As investigators continued processing
43:31
Speaker 1: the residence, additional evidence was documented. According to the court filings,
43:37
Speaker 1: they observed red blood-like stains in multiple areas of the home,
43:42
Speaker 1: And they photographed all the freshly painted surfaces, the replaced flooring,
43:47
Speaker 1: every room, every hallway. Each piece was carefully documented. Because
43:54
Speaker 1: investigators understood something important, the story they would eventually present
43:57
Speaker 1: in court wouldn't rely on a single dramatic discovery. It
44:01
Speaker 1: would rely on hundreds of small observations. Meanwhile, investigators continued
44:07
Speaker 1: examining the evidence recovered from the truck. One of the
44:10
Speaker 1: phones found during the search warrant was identified as Dale
44:13
Speaker 1: Wayne Turner's. Court documents state investigators confirmed the phone number
44:18
Speaker 1: associated with it and noted that the device itself was
44:22
Speaker 1: labeled Dale. Search warrants were later obtained to examine the
44:26
Speaker 1: phones and recover digital evidence. You really have to think
44:30
Speaker 1: about how much this investigation changed in only a few
44:34
Speaker 1: short days. This is so much evidence in such a
44:37
Speaker 1: short amount of time. It started with that single human
44:41
Speaker 1: arm floating in Lake Mattoon. They didn't know the victim.
44:44
Speaker 1: They didn't know where the crime had occurred. They didn't
44:46
Speaker 1: know whether it was an accident, a homicide, or something
44:49
Speaker 1: else entirely. Now, according to prosecutors, they had all of it.
44:54
Speaker 1: A victim, a suspected crime scene, witness statements, digital evidence,
44:59
Speaker 1: surveillance footage, and physical evidence recovered from the residence. And
45:04
Speaker 1: allegations that two members of the victim's own household had
45:07
Speaker 1: attempted to conceal what happened. But despite everything, many of
45:11
Speaker 1: the biggest questions still remained unanswered. What exactly happened inside
45:16
Speaker 1: that house on June 21st? What was the motive? Was
45:21
Speaker 1: this truly self-defense, as James Adams claimed in his spontaneous statement?
45:26
Speaker 1: Or would prosecutors ultimately argue something very different? Those questions
45:31
Speaker 1: have not been answered yet. And at this stage in
45:33
Speaker 1: the investigation... Neither investigators nor the public knew how this
45:38
Speaker 1: case would ultimately unfold in court. By early July, the
45:42
Speaker 1: investigation that began with the horrifying discovery in Lake Mattoon
45:46
Speaker 1: had expanded into a multi-agency homicide investigation stretching nearly 200
45:51
Speaker 1: miles across Illinois. Investigators had recovered human remains from the lake.
45:56
Speaker 1: They had identified the victim as Dale Wayne Turner. They
45:59
Speaker 1: had traced the investigation back to the home in Plainfield.
46:03
Speaker 1: And after executing search warrants and interviewing witnesses, prosecutors believed
46:07
Speaker 1: they had enough evidence to begin filing criminal charges. But interestingly,
46:12
Speaker 1: the first charges filed were not murder. Instead, prosecutors charged
46:18
Speaker 1: James Adams and Robin Turner with dismembering a human body
46:22
Speaker 1: and concealment of a homicidal death. For many people following
46:26
Speaker 1: the case, that immediately raised questions. If prosecutors believed Dale
46:30
Speaker 1: Wayne was killed... why weren't homicide charges filed immediately? The
46:35
Speaker 1: answer is actually more common than many people realize. Sometimes
46:39
Speaker 1: investigators have enough evidence to prove someone helped conceal a
46:42
Speaker 1: death or illegally dispose of a body before they're ready
46:46
Speaker 1: to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, exactly who caused the
46:50
Speaker 1: death and under what circumstances. Rather than rushing the most
46:54
Speaker 1: serious charge, prosecutors often continue building the homicide cases while
46:59
Speaker 1: moving forward on charges they believe are already supported by
47:02
Speaker 1: the available evidence. That appears to be what may be
47:06
Speaker 1: going on here. Illinois State Police have publicly stated that
47:11
Speaker 1: additional charges are expected, signaling that investigators believe the case
47:15
Speaker 1: is still developing. It's also important to remember something that
47:19
Speaker 1: can easily get lost in a high-profile investigation. Everything we've
47:23
Speaker 1: discussed from the court filings, the Google searches, the text messages,
47:27
Speaker 1: their surveillance footage, Stephen Turner's account, the alleged confession, all
47:32
Speaker 1: of it represents the prosecution's version of events at this stage.
47:36
Speaker 1: James Adams and Robin Turner are presumed innocent unless and
47:40
Speaker 1: until they are proven guilty in court. Their attorneys will
47:44
Speaker 1: have the opportunity to challenge every allegation and every witness,
47:48
Speaker 1: and every piece of forensic evidence, and every interpretation offered
47:53
Speaker 1: by investigators. That's how the criminal justice system is designed
47:56
Speaker 1: to work. Among all of the allegations contained in the
48:00
Speaker 1: detention petitions, one statement continues to stand out. According to investigators,
48:07
Speaker 1: after James Adams invoked his Miranda rights and declined a
48:10
Speaker 1: formal interview, he allegedly made a spontaneous remark. Court records
48:15
Speaker 1: quote him as saying, quote, That single sentence raises almost
48:27
Speaker 1: as many questions as it answers. If prosecutors argue this
48:31
Speaker 1: was an intentional homicide, what evidence will they present? If
48:35
Speaker 1: James claims self-defense, what facts will his attorneys rely on?
48:39
Speaker 1: What happened inside that house on June 21st? Those answers
48:44
Speaker 1: have not yet been presented in open court. And until then,
48:48
Speaker 1: the full story remains incomplete. Even after reviewing hundreds of
48:53
Speaker 1: pages of investigative material, several major questions remain unanswered. One
48:57
Speaker 1: of the biggest is motive. Court documents describe an argument,
49:02
Speaker 1: but was that truly enough to trigger the violence prosecutors
49:05
Speaker 1: allege occurred? Also, the fact that there had been searches
49:09
Speaker 1: about different things seemingly related to murder or setting up
49:15
Speaker 1: a staged suicide prior to that argument. Were there other
49:20
Speaker 1: factors investigators have not yet made public? Another unanswered question
49:25
Speaker 1: is the exact sequence of events. According to the detention petitions,
49:30
Speaker 1: investigators believe Dale Wayne was stabbed, but how many times,
49:34
Speaker 1: where exactly, what forensic evidence supports that conclusion? The public
49:38
Speaker 1: doesn't know yet. The medical examiner's complete findings had not
49:42
Speaker 1: yet been included in the documents that were reviewed today.
49:46
Speaker 1: Those findings could become an important part of the future
49:49
Speaker 1: court proceedings. So an autopsy was completed, but it's just
49:52
Speaker 1: not public yet. Will investigators recover DNA from the gray
49:55
Speaker 1: storage totes, the reciprocating saw blade, the truck, the concrete?
50:00
Speaker 1: Will blood pattern analysis inside the home support the prosecution's timeline?
50:06
Speaker 1: And what additional evidence will be recovered from the cell phones?
50:10
Speaker 1: And perhaps one of the biggest unanswered questions of all,
50:13
Speaker 1: will homicide charges eventually be filed? Illinois State Police have
50:17
Speaker 1: already indicated that more charges are expected. Whether those charges
50:22
Speaker 1: include first-degree murder or something else entirely remains to be seen.
50:28
Speaker 1: Behind every court filing, every search warrant, every news headline,
50:32
Speaker 1: there is a family trying to process an unimaginable loss.
50:36
Speaker 1: Dale Wayne Turner wasn't simply the victim. He was a husband,
50:41
Speaker 1: a brother, a cousin, a son, someone whose loved ones
50:45
Speaker 1: are now navigating grief while also watching every new court
50:48
Speaker 1: filing become public. His cousin, Crystal Mann, has spoken publicly
50:52
Speaker 1: about the emotional toll the case has taken on the family.
50:56
Speaker 1: She described feeling physically sick after learning the allegations and
51:00
Speaker 1: said she had spoken with Robin Turner shortly before the arrests,
51:03
Speaker 1: believing Dale Wayne was still alive. If true, that realization
51:08
Speaker 1: is almost impossible to imagine. As this case moves forward,
51:12
Speaker 1: the Turner family, like so many families affected by violent crime,
51:16
Speaker 1: will likely spend months or even years waiting for answers
51:19
Speaker 1: inside the courtroom. Also, unfortunately, this would not be the
51:23
Speaker 1: first time violent crime has affected this family specifically. Dale
51:28
Speaker 1: Wayne Turner's mother, Kendra Turner Adams, so this would be
51:32
Speaker 1: Dale Wayne and James' mother, Kendra Turner Adams, was murdered
51:37
Speaker 1: in 2014 by his stepfather, John Adams. And Dale Wayne
51:42
Speaker 1: actually had custody of James after their mother was murdered
51:46
Speaker 1: 12 years ago. And this is all according to Crystal,
51:51
Speaker 1: their cousin. So Dale Wayne was actually technically James's legal guardian,
51:56
Speaker 1: I guess. Cases like this don't capture public attention simply
52:01
Speaker 1: because they're shocking. They capture attention because they challenge our assumptions.
52:05
Speaker 1: A quiet suburban neighborhood, a family home, a summer afternoon
52:09
Speaker 1: at the lake, Nothing about those settings suggests a story
52:13
Speaker 1: like this. Yet according to prosecutors, those ordinary places become
52:18
Speaker 1: connected by one of the most disturbing criminal investigations Illinois
52:22
Speaker 1: has seen in recent memory. It's a reminder that investigations
52:27
Speaker 1: rarely unfold the way they do on television. They aren't
52:30
Speaker 1: solved by one dramatic clue. They are built piece by piece.
52:34
Speaker 1: A tattoo, a phone search, a text message, a witness
52:39
Speaker 1: willing to call 911, Investigators allege they will reveal a
52:43
Speaker 1: much larger picture. Whether that picture ultimately convinces a jury
52:47
Speaker 1: is a question only time will answer. As of the
52:51
Speaker 1: recording of this episode, James Adams and Robin Turner have
52:55
Speaker 1: been charged with dismembering a human body and concealment of
52:58
Speaker 1: a homicidal death. They have not been convicted of those charges.
53:02
Speaker 1: The investigation remains active. We'll continue following this case as
53:06
Speaker 1: new court filings, forensic evidence, and future hearings provide more answers.
53:11
Speaker 1: Because despite everything investigators have uncovered so far, there are
53:15
Speaker 1: still so many questions that only a courtroom can answer.
53:19
Speaker 1: And until those answers come, the Lake Mattoon investigation remains
53:23
Speaker 1: one of the most significant and still evolving criminal cases
53:27
Speaker 1: in Illinois. Thanks for listening to Cat Has Questions. If
53:32
Speaker 1: you found this episode informative, I'd really appreciate it if
53:35
Speaker 1: you'd follow the show on your favorite podcast platform, and
53:39
Speaker 1: leave a rating or review. If you'd like to share
53:42
Speaker 1: your thoughts on this case or any other case, you
53:45
Speaker 1: can find me on Instagram at Cat Has Questions. As always,
53:50
Speaker 1: stay curious. Thanks for listening to Cat Has Questions. If
53:57
Speaker 1: you liked this episode, follow the show and share it
53:59
Speaker 1: with someone who loves a good spiral. See you next week.