Contributed Photo/Courtesy Jeff Farrow/Modesto Bee: Phillip Duane Turley, 59, one of the prime suspects in the cold case murder of Mary Anne Holmes, sits in a police car after being arrested for attempted murder in California after stabbing two roommates on Nov. 22, 2016. He plead guilty on March 19, 2021, and was later sentenced to 18 years to life in prison.
Phillip Turley pleaded guilty to a 2016 double stabbing in California and was sentenced last year
By Jon Johnson
CALIFORNIA – Phillip Duane Turley, 59, of Modesto, Calif. – a prime suspect in the July 9, 1995, brutal murder of Mary Anne Holmes, 29, of Thatcher – will be imprisoned in California at least until nearly 2029.
Turley and his co-defendant, Alisha Nadine Gomes, 33, were initially arrested in the Nov. 22, 2016, stabbings of a 54-year-old woman and 56-year-old man at the Country Western Mobile Park in Modesto, Calif. Turley reportedly recently moved in with the pair after his mother, who had managed the park, moved back to Arizona a few months prior to the stabbings.
Turley had been featured on the TNT television show “Cold Justice” when it examined the murder of Holmes, 29. The male roommate advised that he had seen the show and when he began to inform other people, Turley stabbed him.
Five years after the double-stabbings, Turley and his co-defendant, Alisha Nadine Gomes, plead guilty in March 2021, with Turley pleading guilty to premeditated attempted murder, and Gomes pleading guilty to attempted murder. Gomes was sentenced to 13 years as stipulated in her plea agreement and is eligible for parole beginning in August 2026. Turley was sentenced the following month to 18 years to life. A previous aggravated assault with a deadly weapon conviction in Arizona enhanced his sentence. However, he is eligible for parole beginning in December 2028, according to the California Public Inmate Locater System. He currently resides in Folsom State Prison.
According to the Office of the District Attorney for Stanislaus County, Calif. where the crime took place, “his current conviction for premeditated attempted murder also counts as a “strike” offense and may be used to increase any future sentence should Turley be convicted of a felony if and when he is ever released from state prison.”
Turley was one of three suspects featured on “Cold Justice” when it examined Mary Anne Holmes’ murder. Holmes was horrifically murdered and sexually assaulted in her home with her 4-year-old and 18-month-old daughters present. Authorities located Holmes’ body the next day after her 4-year-old daughter ran across the street to her neighbor’s house naked and with her hands bound. Once there, the young girl told her neighbor her mother was dead. Later, the girl drew a grisly picture of the scene with what appeared to be a hatchet stuck in the side of her mother’s head.
Investigators informed the show that Holmes had been tortured and sexually victimized for hours in front of her children before ultimately being killed by blunt-force trauma. She was found handcuffed in the fetal position. Her 4-year-old daughter was also bound with rope and her underclothing cut off from her.
“The person who committed this crime wasn’t just a murderer, he was pure evil,” former Texas prosecutor Kelly Siegler said on the show. “This is the kind of freak that we would like to get off the streets more than anybody.”
Turley rose to the top of the suspect list after investigators learned of his obsession with Holmes, having drawn up elaborate plans for their life together after briefly dating; a life that Holmes did not appear to reciprocate. Circumstantial evidence at the scene including a shoe print also fit Turley’s profile, and his sexual fantasy proclivities were a match for what happened to Holmes as well.
According to attorney Murray Newman, a consultant for “Cold Justice”, Turley also kept a detailed journal about his plans for their life together.
“His fascination with Mary Anne was well documented in his own words, as he kept a very detailed journal on his feelings for her,” Newman wrote in a blog. “Woman that Turley had dated told investigators disturbing details of his ‘fantasy life’ that seemed consistent with details of the crime scene . . .”
Turley also is reportedly bipolar and may have been off his medications and acting erratically when his California victims learned of his connection to the Holmes murder. According to an article in the Modesto Bee, a neighbor said the male victim was stabbed in retaliation for informing others about Turley being featured in the “Cold Justice” episode.
“We have never stopped working on this case and will continue to exhaust all leads and possibilities available to us, until it is either resolved or we have no further leads,” Woods wrote in an email in November 2016. “We understand the desire from the public to bring the Holmes case to a close and to bring the suspect to justice. I can assure you that we are just as anxious as anyone. However, it is important to keep in mind the rights of all people and respect the due process afforded to us as Americans. It is often difficult to balance the need to be transparent and still protect the integrity of the investigation. We will do our best to accomplish both. However, at this time, we do not have any further information to release regarding those cases. We would like to extend our thoughts and prayers to the victims, families, friends, and anyone else who has been affected by these tragic crimes.”
