Zachary Turner

Shirley Jane Turner (28 January 1961 – 18 August 2003) was a Canadian-American daughter of a U.S. serviceman and local woman from St. Anthony, Newfoundland and Labrador.

She was raised with three siblings in Wichita, Kansas, but moved to Newfoundland with her mother after her parents separated; the parents later divorced.

In 1980, Turner enrolled at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's, seeking to embark on a medical career.

Upon becoming pregnant, Turner married a long-time boyfriend during Memorial University's 1981 winter recess.

The child, a boy, was born on 9 July 1982.

Turner's husband raised the child as a stay-at-home dad while Turner continued her studies.

Since 1982, Turner had taken out baby bonuses for her children from a scholarship fund, expecting to send them to college.

In 1983, Turner moved to Labrador City and worked as a science teacher.

Two years later, she gave birth to a daughter.

During this period, she resumed a previous relationship with a fisherman from Corner Brook.

Following the end of her first marriage on 29 January 1988, Turner married her boyfriend from Corner Brook the following July.

She also had an abortion that July, but the father was not known.

Turner gave birth to her second daughter on 8 March 1990, one year before she and her second husband separated.

Turner completed her undergraduate education while raising her children with help from her second husband.

In October 1993, a man boarding with Turner confided to his therapist that he had witnessed Turner physically and emotionally abusing two of her children.

Newfoundland social service workers interviewed the children, who stated that their "disciplinarian" mother punished them with spankings and beatings by belt.

Turner's second husband claimed that she only used the belt as a threat in his interview.

The case was closed on 11 January 1994 without an interview with Turner.

Three years later, Turner and her second husband divorced, and she was granted custody of their daughter.

Within days of the ruling, however, Turner sent her daughter back to live with her father in Portland Creek while her other two children were sent to Parson's Pond to live with their paternal grandmother.

Turner received her undergraduate degree from Memorial University in May 1994; four years later, she earned her medical degree.

Between 1998 and 2000, she served as a resident physician at teaching hospitals across Newfoundland.

During a 1999 residency at a family practice in St. John's, Turner's professionalism drew harsh criticism by her supervising physician, who stated she would become "quite hostile, yelling, crying, and accusing me of treating her unfairly."

However, in the summer of 2000, Turner confessed to a relative that she had spent the baby bonuses on her own living expenses and doctoral education.

Turner insisted that she would earn "big money" after completing her post-residency training and would repay the savings for her children's post-secondary education.

During her remedial second residency period in early 2000, Turner missed nine days of her three-month rotation and falsified clinical reports.

A patient of the clinic refused to return after an encounter with Turner.

The staff became "so concerned about Shirley Turner's approach to confrontation and the truth that we would never give her feedback or hold any major discussion [with her] alone."

These incidents left the supervising physician with the impression that:

"I felt I was being manipulated whenever I spoke with Shirley Turner. When negative items would come up[,] she would change the topic to one of my failings. She could be charming[,] friendly and lively, but when caught in an untruth, she would become angry, accusatory, and loud. I always felt Shirley Turner was putting on a show as if she were playing the role but had no feeling for her work. I cannot recall a trainee like Shirley Turner in that her approach lacked personal commitment, and her relationships with people seemed, at least to me, to be superficial when compared to the over 400 residents I have supervised during the past 21 years."

In a later interview with an assessment officer at the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate, the supervising physician, in hindsight, described Turner as "a manipulative, guiltless psychopath."

The experience with Turner led that St. John's practice to make "constructive changes" in its residency evaluation process.

By the summer of 2000, Turner had completed the requirements of her residency training and was qualified to practice medicine.

Zachary Andrew Turner (18 July 2002 – 18 August 2003) was a Canadian child from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, who was killed by his mother, Shirley Jane Turner, in a murder–suicide.

At the time, Shirley had been released on bail and awarded custody of the infant, even though she was in the process of being extradited to the United States to stand trial for the murder of Zachary's father, Andrew David Bagby.

The case led to a critical overview of Newfoundland's legal and child welfare systems as well as Canada's bail laws.

A 2006 inquiry found serious shortcomings in how the province's social services system handled the case, suggesting that the judges, prosecutors, and child welfare agencies involved were more concerned with presuming Shirley's innocence than with protecting Zachary.

The inquiry concluded that Zachary's death had been preventable.

The case led to the passage of Bill C-464, or Zachary's Bill, strengthening the conditions for bail in Canadian courts in cases involving the well-being of children.

The deaths of Andrew Bagby and Zachary Turner became the basis for the 2008 documentary film Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, directed by Kurt Kuenne.