Lisa Anne French was nine years old when she disappeared on Halloween night. She had been so excited about collecting as much candy as possible that her mom had to remind her to stay close to home. The weather had turned chilly, so Lisa’s original butterfly costume was replaced with a last-minute outfit thrown together from clothes around the house, including an oversized black hat. She was supposed to go trick-or-treating with a friend, but that friend got grounded, so Lisa went out alone at 6:00 p.
m. , promising to be back by 7:00. The neighborhood was tight-knit and considered safe. Other kids were out with their parents.
The community had even organized a Halloween party to keep children away from fears about candy tampering that had spread across the country. When Lisa didn’t return by 7:00, her mom figured she was just milking the evening for extra candy. By 8:00, worry set in. Her mom walked the nearby streets asking everyone she passed if they had seen Lisa.
Word spread fast, and soon dozens of neighbors joined the search. Nothing. Eventually, police were called. Investigators learned Lisa had only stopped at two houses that night—a classmate’s and a teacher’s.
After that, she vanished. Both homes were minutes from her own, meaning whatever happened happened almost immediately after she left. The search lasted all night and turned up nothing by morning. Over the next few days, more than 5,000 volunteers joined the hunt.
They combed streets, forests, fields, and rivers. People on horseback and ATVs scoured remote areas. Local gas stations offered free fuel to searchers. On November 3rd, three days after Lisa disappeared, a farmer driving through a small town just three miles from Lisa’s home spotted two trash bags by the roadside.
He had heard about the missing girl, so he stopped to check. Inside one bag was Lisa’s body. The other held her clothes. He rushed to a phone and called police.
By the time officers arrived, dozens of locals had gathered at the scene, all in shock. The medical examiner confirmed she had been assaulted and determined she had died from shock. There was no DNA testing back then. Forensic experts found a single strand of hair on her body, and some stray fibers on her clothes.
There wasn’t a single fingerprint, not on her, not on her clothing, not even on the trash bags. The brutal murder shook the entire country. Lisa’s funeral was held three days after her body was discovered. Thousands attended, so many that organizers set up multiple lines just to let everyone say goodbye.
Police retraced Lisa’s steps that night. She had stopped at her classmate’s house and her teacher’s house. After that, she was gone. Investigators considered two possibilities: either a stranger lured her away, or she knocked on another door and someone who lived there attacked her.
The first theory seemed unlikely—Lisa wasn’t the kind of kid who would go off with strangers or get into a random car, and none of the neighbors reported hearing screams. That left the second theory. Police went door to door questioning everyone on the street. Dozens of houses, and every resident claimed Lisa hadn’t stopped by.
Detectives ruled out homes where only women were present and eliminated the ones Lisa had already passed. They also knew Lisa had only been knocking on doors of families she knew well. Her mom gave them a few names of people Lisa felt comfortable visiting. One name stood out: Gerald Turner.
Turner was 24 years old. He lived with his girlfriend and their young daughter, a little further down the street. Lisa knew him well. His family had previously lived in a duplex with Lisa’s family, right on the other side of the wall.
Their families interacted all the time, and Lisa often ran over to play with his daughter. She would excitedly bring him new things her parents had bought for her, and he always seemed happy to listen. Three things made Turner a suspect. First, Lisa knew him and would have trusted him.
Second, when police questioned him, something about his answers felt off to the detectives, even though he showed no obvious signs of guilt. Third, the timeline. Lisa was attacked just minutes after she left the last house, and during that exact window, Turner was home alone. His girlfriend and their kid were at the Halloween party.
He had the perfect opportunity. Police questioned Turner multiple times, but he denied everything. He agreed to take a polygraph test, and the examiner flagged some of his answers as inconclusive. Detectives tried to pressure him into confessing, but he wouldn’t budge.
He refused to take a second test. With no confession, investigators went back to the physical evidence. The stray fibers found on Lisa’s clothing were the same color as the bedspread in Turner’s bedroom. The single hair matched in color too, but without DNA testing, there was no way to prove a definitive match.
Still, their suspicions deepened. They kept pressing Turner for months. He stuck to his story every time. For Lisa’s family, it was pure agony.
Not only had they lost their daughter, but they had to live with the torment of not knowing who had taken her life. Lisa’s mother was in the early stages of pregnancy at the time of the murder, grieving her daughter while preparing for the arrival of another child. Detectives spoke with Turner’s girlfriend. She told them she and her daughter had gone to the Halloween party and returned home around 7:15 p.
m. When she walked in, Gerald was lying on the couch in his bathrobe. He said he wasn’t feeling well and needed to rest. As she sat in the living room, he kept getting up and going to the bedroom, lying down for a moment, then coming back out.
Each time he told her not to disturb him. She found it odd but assumed he really was sick. A short while later, she and her daughter left again to visit her mother. That was the case until August 8th, 1974, nine months after the murder.
Turner was brought in for yet another interrogation, and something changed. He suddenly decided to confess. According to Turner, Lisa had indeed come to his house for candy, and he invited her inside. His girlfriend and daughter were still at the Halloween party.
From the very first second, he had one thing in mind: assaulting Lisa. He took her to the bedroom and committed the crime. Afterward, he realized Lisa wasn’t showing any signs of life. He panicked, claiming he never meant to kill her.
He tried to revive her, but right then he heard his girlfriend and daughter pulling up outside. Thinking fast, he moved Lisa’s body from the bed to the bathroom connected to the bedroom. Then he went out to the living room and laid down on the couch. As soon as his girlfriend walked in, he told her he wasn’t feeling well and asked her not to bother him.
That’s why he kept going back and forth to the bedroom—he was terrified that at any moment she’d walk in and see what he had done. He knew if his girlfriend decided to use the bathroom, she’d immediately see Lisa’s body. A short while later, his girlfriend left to visit her mother. Turner pulled socks over his hands to avoid leaving fingerprints, grabbed two trash bags, stuffed Lisa’s body and her belongings inside, carried everything out to his car, and drove to a nearby town.
He dumped the bags by the side of the road and headed home. By the time Lisa’s family and neighbors began searching, Turner had already covered his tracks. Turner’s confession shocked everyone, even the investigators. For nine months, they couldn’t charge him because the evidence was circumstantial.
But then he confessed in vivid detail, and he gave police information no innocent person could have possibly known. Turner was arrested, and the prosecution began preparing for trial. But right before the trial began, Turner recanted his confession. He claimed the police had written it themselves and that he had only signed it because he was exhausted from their constant pressure and harassment.
Despite this, there was little doubt about his guilt. His ex-girlfriend testified against him in court. The prosecution pointed to the fibers found on Lisa’s clothing matching the bedspread in Turner’s bedroom. But the strongest evidence was still his confession—it contained far too many specific details to be fabricated.
In the end, Turner was found guilty and sentenced to 38 years in prison. But his story didn’t end there. Despite the horrific nature of his crime, Turner was released early for good behavior. He walked free in 1992 after serving just 17 years behind bars.
He wasn’t released straight back into society. Instead, he was placed in a halfway house, a transitional facility where former inmates live under regular supervision. Still, Turner’s release sparked massive outrage. Lisa’s family was devastated, and the people of Milwaukee, where Turner was relocated, were furious.
The idea of such a dangerous criminal living in their community was unacceptable. Residents demanded authorities remove him immediately. City and state officials joined the public outcry. While they didn’t have the power to forcibly evict Turner, they began pressuring the correction system to overturn the decision and get him out of Milwaukee.
A year after Turner was released, the correction system finally decided to send him back to prison. Their investigation revealed that the parole board had made a mistake—Turner was never supposed to be eligible for early release in the first place. Around the same time, state officials began working on a new law to prevent dangerous criminals like Turner from ever being released again. The law proposed that individuals convicted of sexual assaults who posed a high risk of reoffending wouldn’t be sent back into society after serving their time.
Instead, they’d be transferred to secure medical facilities and held there until doctors determined they were no longer a threat to others. This law, named after Turner himself, was passed in 1994. Authorities hoped it would block any future attempts by Turner to gain his freedom. But just a few years later, they were hit with another setback.
In 1998, Turner once again applied for early release. To everyone’s disbelief, the parole board refused to classify him as a dangerous sexual offender, despite damning testimony from Turner’s ex-wife and several former girlfriends. Each of them shared similar stories—they said Turner had repeatedly abused them when they refused his advances. Even with these overwhelming testimonies, the board still wasn’t convinced.
In the end, Turner didn’t fall under his own law and was released once again. He moved back into a halfway house. A few months later, he nearly attacked a parole officer with a knife during a routine check. Even after that, Turner was allowed to remain free.
The following year, Turner filed a lawsuit against a waste management company that had refused to hire him. At the time, he was living in Wisconsin, where laws prohibited employers from denying someone a job based solely on their criminal record. Shockingly, the court ruled in Turner’s favor, and he was awarded an undisclosed amount of money from the company. This continued until 2003.
Turner was still living in a halfway house, with law enforcement regularly checking in on him. During one of these routine visits, officers discovered a massive collection of disturbing adult photos and videos on Turner’s computer. They also found out he had been watching three movies about serial killers. Under the terms of his parole, Turner was strictly prohibited from possessing or viewing any such materials.
As a result, he was immediately arrested, and the judge decided to send him back to prison for 15 years. Lisa’s family thought this would finally be the end—that Turner would spend the rest of his life behind bars. But once again, they faced another devastating twist. The parole board refused to extend his sentence, and Turner was scheduled for release in 2018.
Lisa’s mother refused to accept that Turner might walk free again. She launched a petition demanding to keep him behind bars. The petition quickly gathered thousands of signatures and drew nationwide attention. Local and state authorities also backed the movement, and together they began working to overturn the decision regarding his release.
This time, they once again invoked the law named after Turner, arguing that he should be transferred to a secure psychiatric facility instead of being set free. Naturally, Turner fought back, hiring lawyers to challenge the decision. The legal battle dragged on for several years. Finally, in 2022, a judge made the final ruling.
Turner did fall under the law that bore his name. The court determined that he posed a threat to others, and instead of being released, he was sent to a secure psychiatric facility. But even after this ruling, Turner’s lawyers filed an appeal and are still fighting to overturn the decision to this day. As of now, Turner is 75 years old and remains in a psychiatric facility.
Despite his age, opponents of his release firmly believe he is still a threat and argue that he should never be allowed back into society under any circumstances. It’s also worth noting that while Turner has refused to directly admit his guilt, he made several indirect but convincing confessions over the years. During his initial trial, right before sentencing, he walked past Lisa’s mother and quietly said, “I didn’t mean to do it. ” At one point during his time in prison, Turner even wrote a letter addressed to Lisa herself, apologizing and admitting that he had killed her.
There was another moment when he let his guilt slip: Turner once said that if he hadn’t committed the crime on Halloween, it wouldn’t have gotten so much attention from the public and the media, and no one would have cared. Because of all this, Lisa’s family knows their fight isn’t over. They’ll keep battling to make sure Turner never walks free again.
And given his history, this latest attempt to get released probably won’t be his last.
