Authorities seemingly first took seriously the possibility that Michael Turney was responsible for his daughter Alissa’s disappearance in 2008 when, as reported by Distractify, Turney was arrested after officers found two silencers, explosive devices, and pipe bombs in his house. In a 2009 ABC interview, he claimed he was planning to kill himself in order to bring more attention to his missing daughter’s case and denied any involvement: “They have no proof whatsoever of anything other than rumors and innuendos and lies. There’s only two people that can confirm whether I did it, and one is me, and the other is Alissa. Alissa’s not here and I’m sitting here and all I can say until hell freezes over, I didn’t do a damned thing to my daughter.”

Upon Michael Turney’s release from prison after serving seven years for weapons possession, Sarah Turney continued uploading videos concerning her sister’s case, including a video of Alissa saying “Dad’s a pervert” four years before her disappearance, and a 2017 conversation Sarah and her father had in a Starbucks in which she attempted to get more information. It wasn’t until she began using TikTok that she started getting leads. Sarah compiled these, along with facts and other evidence, and submitted them to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. On August 20, 2020, per the New Phoenix Times, Michael Turney was arrested on a second-degree murder charge. Sarah Turney tweeted that very day “I’m shaking and I’m crying. We did it, you guys. He’s been arrested … Never give up hope that you can get justice. It took almost 20 years but we did it.”