Thursday, September 04, 2003

By Michael A. Fuoco, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A physician who was fighting extradition from Canada to Westmoreland County on charges of killing her ex-lover drowned her 13-month-old son before killing herself last month, an investigation by police authorities in Newfoundland has concluded.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary in St. John's said the drowning deaths of Dr. Shirley Turner and her son, Zachary, were the result of a murder-suicide.

"The investigative team from the Major Crime Unit is satisfied of no third-party involvement in this tragedy," the constabulary said.

Turner, 42, disappeared late on the night of Aug. 17; her body and Zachary's were found the next night washed up on a beach at Conception Bay, a large body of frigid water ringed by summer homes. Authorities believe the bodies washed up roughly four miles from where the pair entered the water.

A Canadian medical examiner ruled the deaths were a murder-suicide last month, but the constabulary continued to investigate until it reached the same conclusion.

In Westmoreland County, Turner was charged with killing her former lover, Dr. Andrew Bagby, 28, a first-year resident at Latrobe Area Hospital. His body was found Nov. 6, 2001, in Keystone State Park, Derry Township. He had been shot five times in the head, chest and buttocks.

Turner had said that Bagby was Zachary's father. Investigators contended Turner killed Bagby because he wanted to end their relationship even though she told him she was pregnant with their child.

Turner, a divorcee with three other children, had been practicing in Council Bluffs, Iowa, at the time of the killing and went to Newfoundland before an arrest warrant was issued for her Nov. 29, 2001, in Westmoreland County.

Yesterday, Bagby's father, David Bagby, tearfully blamed the Canadian justice system for failing to keep Turner behind bars.

"We believe that the legal system helped her to kill our grandson," David Bagby said at a news conference in St. John's.

Turner, who held both U.S. and Canadian citizenship, had staunchly fought extradition and had been free on bond since the first week of January. Before that, she had been in custody since November, when a Newfoundland Supreme Court judge decided she could be sent to Westmoreland County to face homicide charges.

Turner appealed, but in June the Canadian justice minister upheld the extradition. She remained free on bond pending appeals.

Choking back tears, Bagby told a news conference that he and his wife, Kathleen, were astounded when Turner was freed from custody to fight extradition to Pennsylvania. Bagby said he and his wife had refrained from commenting publicly on the case until yesterday to avoid any perception of trying to influence the extradition process or police investigation.

"We didn't want to appear like arrogant Americans telling Canadians what to do," he said.

"We believe that Shirley Turner bears 100 percent of the responsibility for the murder of our son Andrew," he said in a trembling voice, as Kathleen Bagby also wept beside him. "We believe that the legal system helped kill our grandson, Zachary."

The Bagbys said they want Canada to change bail laws to prevent anyone charged with premeditated murder from being released before trial.

"Now we have nothing except perhaps to save another Zachary," Kathleen Bagby said yesterday in a television interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. "We do not want another grandmother, grandfather, mother, father to suffer this."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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