On May 17, 2001, an Arizona teen named Alissa Turney experienced her last day of junior year at Paradise Valley High School in Phoenix. A few hours later, she had disappeared, allegedly leaving behind a note in her bedroom addressed to her family that revealed that the 17-year-old had run away to California. But as is the case with so many true crime documentaries, not everything was as it seemed.
Premiering tonight, October 13 at 7pm Eastern Time, the new Oxygen special Family Secrets: The Disappearance of Alissa Turney digs deep into the circumstances surrounding the shocking missing person's case, including the very different roles that Alissa's adoptive father Michael as well as her half-sister Sarah played in the investigation.
Using home video footage and reexamining their childhood, the special "will detail Alissa Turney's sister Sarah Turney's exhaustive search for answers, a journey that has prompted the young woman to become a podcaster and advocate for not just missing persons, but anyone impacted by violence and wrongdoing," per Oxygen.
The official synopsis for the documentary special reads: "The Voices for Justice Media founder Sarah Turney became a viral sensation when she posted suspicions on social media that her dad killed her sister, Alissa. Now Sarah gives unprecedented access to the continuation of her story, including a recently unearthed trove of home videos, as she re-examines her and Alissa’s childhood. Sarah makes chilling discoveries, breaking through years of manipulation to reconstruct the truth of the past and be free of her father’s influence. Sarah’s final conversation with her father is haunting and a testament to her tenacity and unending search for Alissa."
"It's really a story about how victims can find a new way to take control of the narrative, to be active in the investigation, not be passive," said Jesse Sweet, who co-directed the documentary with Ricki Stern. Stern told Oxygen.com: "Part of the way we wanted to tell a story was through Sarah's eyes, to really understand how you can go over a decade believing that your father had nothing to do with the disappearance of your sister, and then, it wasn't until her late 20s, where she started to become suspicious. How did that happen?"
To tune into tonight's Family Secrets: The Disappearance Of Alissa Turney special, you're going to need access to the Oxygen channel. Helpfully, Oxygen is available with most cable TV subscriptions. However, if you've cut the cord and still want to watch the true-crime doc, you have several live TV streaming service options so that you can catch the weekly action. Some of your options include Fubo TV, Sling TV, Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream. An extended cut of the documentary will premiere on Peacock on Tuesday, October 22.
