Bagby murder evidence exposed
For the first time, a Canadian Supreme Court Justice has described in detail the evidence against Dr. Shirley Turner, who is charged with killing Dr. Andrew Bagby, 28, a first-year resident at Latrobe Area Hospital.
Turner, a former high school teacher who became a doctor, allegedly killed Bagby in a jealous rage after she told him she was pregnant and he told her he was seeing another woman, according to an opinion written by Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Justice Derek Green.
Westmoreland County authorities must wait until early next year to see when Turner will be extradited to Pennsylvania to face trial in the Nov. 5, 2001, killing.
The decision rests with Canadian Justice Minister Martin Cauchon, who has the final say in the matter now that a judge has paved the legal way for Turner's extradition. Meanwhile, her attorney said he will continue to appeal — a move that could further delay her return.
In his decision, Green outlined the last moments of Bagby's life, which ended in the parking lot of Keystone State Park, Derry Township. He was shot five times.
Turner, 41, fled to Canada last year just before state police investigators obtained a warrant for her arrest. She now is in prison in Newfoundland.
Her defense attorney, Anthony Mariani of Pittsburgh, said the circumstantial evidence against Turner is weak and based on hearsay. He contends Turner did not shoot Bagby. Mariani said he knows who shot Bagby but will not disclose the person's identity until the trial. He said he doubts whether some of the hearsay evidence can be admitted in a Pennsylvania court.
Turner's Canadian defense lawyer, Randolph Piercey, has argued the "evidence is susceptible to other innocent explanations." Piercey has withdrawn from the case, and Turner is seeking appointment of a public defender to represent her in Canada.
Green, in a November ruling, said Turner was driven by "jealousy or revenge flowing from the breakup of her relationship with Dr. Bagby." Bagby had been seeing another woman who worked at Latrobe Area Hospital, the judge wrote — and had purchased a box of condoms from a city drugstore in anticipation of a date with her.
A receipt for the condoms was found on Bagby's body, and the empty box, which matched the lot numbers on the receipt, was found by police during a search of Turner's residence in Iowa, the judge wrote.
Green said that "creates a web of circumstantial evidence" that could convince a jury that Turner killed Bagby. In his decision, Green details the evidence, starting with the time Bagby last was seen alive.
Turner flew to Latrobe and stayed with Bagby from Oct. 26 to Nov. 3, when she returned to Iowa, according to the document.
But state police charged that Turner immediately drove back to Pennsylvania to confront Bagby and tell him she was pregnant with his child. A son, who was born last summer, now is being cared for by his parents.
The judge describes how investigators traced Turner's return trip by tracking cellular telephone calls she made along the way. That information places her in Latrobe at the time of the shooting, the judge said.
Police said an agitated Turner appeared unannounced at Bagby's door about 5 a.m. on Nov. 5 , wanting to discuss their relationship. Bagby was last seen alive by a nurse at the Family Practice Clinic at Latrobe when he left work at 5 p.m. Police believe Turner and Bagby planned to meet at the state park where Bagby's frost-covered body was found the next day.
Initially, Turner told state police she did not return to Latrobe and did not give Bagby a gun she had purchased a month before the murder. She later admitted to police she had been less than truthful and changed her statement, Green wrote.
The judge also detailed other evidence that presented jealously as a motive for murder.
The other woman Bagby was seeing told investigators that a month before the killing, she received anonymous telephone calls from a female who advised her to ask Bagby about "the beautiful blond lady doc he's been with." In what may have been an effort to sour the relationship, the caller told the woman that Bagby "hurts people."
Investigators later discovered that the calls to the employee were made from Turner's cell phone.
"If, indeed, Dr. Turner was the maker of these calls, it reveals anger and a state of mind that might suggest a motive for the crime, namely jealously," Green wrote.
Green said the inconsistent statements Turner allegedly gave to state police, the condom box, the bullet and telephone records are damning but "none of these items, in themselves, of course clearly identifies Dr. Turner as the killer of Dr. Bagby."
But, he added, "Taken together, they lead inexorably to the inference that Dr. Turner was present in Latrobe and at the murder scene at the time of death and was the one who caused the death."
