People in positions of extreme wealth and privilege often think that they can get away with anything. Some even think they can get away with murder.
Emily Longley was born July 15th, 1993, to Mark and Caroline. She grew up with her younger sister, Hannah, and had cheerful, happy, loving childhood in New Zealand. Emily was described as very vibrant, and very outgoing.
As a teenage, Emily’s parents divorced. Emily took the change to the family dynamic very hard, and began acting out. She started skipping school, and hanging out with a rather rough crowd. It was decided that a change of pace would be the best for Emily, and she decided to pursue her education in the UK.
In 2010, Emily moved to the town of Bournemouth, and lived with her grandparents. She attended Brockenhurst College and studied business while also modelling part time, and working part-time at Top Shop. She began making good friends, and was focused on building her future for the better. She was 17 years old, full of life, and ready to charge ahead.
Then she crossed paths with 20-year-old Elliot Turner.
Elliot Turner was, and likely still is, the absolute definition of misoginystic male privilege.
He was known to his friends as All Talk Turner for his constant bragging, exaggerating, and outright lying about his life, and his exploits. Despite this, Turner and the group he socialized with were known for being obscenely wealthy – and for splashing their cash all over the community of Bournemouth.
Turner, like most heterosexual young men his age, was obsessed with women. However, his obsession was layered in intense misogyny. He referred to women as “birds” or “bitches”, and often felt like they owed him their time, and especially their attention and their bodies. Elliot Turner was, and likely still is, incapable of respecting any other human being, but he especially lacked respect for women.
He was known for “treating” the women he was with. He would lavish them with dinners and drinks. But he would always ensure that they would drink more than he would. Turner would set out to intoxicate his dates for the sole purpose of manipulating them into sexual situations where they would be unable to enthusiastically provide consent to the activities.
And of course, Turner paid for all of this with the allowance he received from his parents. Turner, though he was in school, didn’t work. His parents gifted him with anything he could ever want, and spoiled him completely rotten. Elliot Turner had never heard the word “no” a single day of his life. And his parents were just as insufferable as they raised their son to be.
Emily was having a night out with friends when she crossed paths with Turner. In the beginning, they seemed to get on well, and were attracted to each other. They soon decided to define their relationship, and were spending all of their time together.
However, it wasn’t long before the whirlwind romance became tumultuous. Turner had intense issues with jealousy, and was extremely controlling of his partners. Emily was no exception.
Adding to Turner’s controlling tendencies were his extreme bouts of aggression. He was a chronic cocaine user, which added fuel to the fire. He was prone to violent outbursts, and took his aggression out on Emily regularly.
Turner controlled how she spent her time, who she spent it with, whom she could communicate with, what she wore, and demanded all of her attention whenever and however he wanted it. And most of all, she was not to pay any attention to other men. At all.
On March 12th, 2011, Emily went to a photo shoot that her friend had booked for her. Emily was professional, and enjoyed the work. She left the shoot feeling great, but things were about to take a turn. Turner had seen a photo from after the shoot, and he was enraged. There was Emily, stood next to two shirtless men.
Turner took his rage out on the woman who had booked Emily for the shoot. He boasted in an email to her about violent harassment charges, restraining orders, and the use of sedative drugs, like roofies. Turner called the woman horrible names, and told her to leave Emily alone. (His language was much more colourful, but I refuse to repeat it here.)
Emily was not impressed by Turner’s show of bravado. In an attempt to smooth things over, Turner took Emily on a trip to the Isle of Wight. While the trip started off romantic, as was Turner’s pattern, it wasn’t long before he found fault in Emily, and took his aggression out on her.
Turner raged at Emily, and inflicted property damage by punching a wardrobe door so hard that it broke.
Emily felt misplaced responsibility. She felt the need to apologize to Turner, writing him a letter, pleading for him to be a better person. She told him that she loved him, and begged for him to stop being aggressive as she found it intimidating. She begged him to treat her better.
Returning from the trip, Emily had had enough of Turner and his mistreatment of her.
She returned to New Zealand to visit family. She seemed happy, going out with her friends, and catching up with her friends and her family. She snapped photos of herself out with her friends, having fun. And like any teenager would, she posted them on social media.
Turner saw these photos, and, of course, became enraged. Feeling the need to express himself, he left a friend a voice saying that Emily wasn’t acting like she loved him at all, that she was an asshole, and that she was disrespectful. While his friends laughed this behaviour off, it was a sign of how truly unhinged Elliot Turner truly was.
Before returning to the UK, Emily told her family that she was planning on ending her relationship with Turner. He wasn’t making her happy, and she knew that she deserved better.
Emily decided on ending things with him in public, in an attempt to curb Turner’s more aggressive tendencies. But it didn’t work. When she arrived, Turner attempted to make her jealous by buying other women drinks, and dancing with them. When he beckoned her to his table later on in the evening, witnesses watched as Turner slammed Emily’s head into the table, threw a glass down, and then stormed out of the bar. It wasn’t long before Emily was ushered out to safety by her own friends, whom she’d had the presence of mind to invite to the bar.
Physically harming Emily wasn’t enough for Turner though. He wanted her to suffer intensely. And that meant knowing where she would be, and when.
Turner logged into Emily’s Facebook account, and read through all of her private messages. He convinced himself that Emily had been cheating on him. She had made plans to meet a friend, and Turner wanted to cut her off at the pass. He made his way to the bar where they were supposed to meet, taking a lump hammer with him hidden in his trousers.
Arriving at the bar, Turner saw a man on the dance floor he believed to be Emily’s date. Turner confronted the man, and threatened him with the hammer before leaving.
But Emily was never at that bar, and the man Turner had threatened didn’t even know her at all.
Leaving the bar, Turner turned up at a friend’s house, and started crying hysterically, relaying a chilling story. He told his friend that he had killed Emily with the hammer, hitting her in the head with it, and then hid her in some bushes. While he was telling the story, they heard an ambulance going by. Turner then made an off-hand remark about them being on their way to retrieve Emily’s body.
Just as suddenly as Turner began telling the story, he stopped. Then he started laughing hysterically. He told his friend that the whole things was a joke. He just wanted to see his friend’s reaction.
The following day, Turner and another friend went out into the woods behind Turner’s parents’ home. There, they began discussing the various ways Turner could kill Emily. And how he was sure he would get away with it. Eventually, after ruling out drowning and setting her on fire, Turner settled on strangulation as his preferred method.
On another night out, Emily had the misfortune of running into Turner at a bar. He called her names, and then threw a tantrum in the bar – again causing property damage – when she threw a drink in his face. Once again, Turner gloated to all of his friends that he would likely get away with killing Emily, or at worst, he’d be out of prison in less than 10 years, and still be a millionaire.
Still not feeling any better, Turner vented to his worst enabler – his mother. He told her that he wanted to break Emily’s neck and beat her. In response, his mother told him not to do anything “inappropriate”, and that he had so much life ahead of him.
Either she was completely oblivious to her son’s bouts of rage and violent tendencies, or, as is most likely, she didn’t care. Every time Turner had found himself in trouble, his parents would buy his way out of it. Why would threats of murder be any different?
After texting his mother, Turner followed Emily to her friend’s house in his car. He arrived at around 11:30 PM on May 6th, 2011, and argued with Emily. A short while later, they seemingly made up, and he offered Emily a ride home.
But he wasn’t taking her home. He was taking her to his parents’ house. They arrived at 12:45 AM.
On May 7th, 2011, Turner’s mother called her husband at 9:16 AM and told him: “Come home, Emily’s dead.” 40 minutes later, she finally called emergency services.
During the call, Mrs. Turner informed the dispatcher that she had gone into her son’s room, and was unable to wake Emily up. She said that Emily wasn’t breathing, and emphasized that a necklace had been wrapped tightly around her neck.
When police arrived, Elliot Turner told them that Emily had attacked him. He said that he grabbed her by the neck in self-defence for a few seconds, and then he let her go. He ended his statement by saying that when he woke up the next morning, he and his mother found her dead.
Investigators knew that Turner was lying, and they knew that he had murdered Emily. They also know that his parents had attempted to cover it up.
Elliot Turner was arrested. When he was taken into custody, his luggage had been packed, and his passport was in his pocket. Investigators believed that his mother had planned to take him to her home country of Indonesia in order to run away.
In custody, Turner refused to cooperate, and refused to speak with investigators. He was released on bail, where he returned to his partying lifestyle without an ounce of remorse for the innocent life he’d taken.
While investigators had a fair amount of circumstantial evidence, their case hit a roadblock when the postmortem was returned as inconclusive. But they were undeterred – they knew that Elliot Turner had murdered Emily.
Presenting their case, investigators were granted permission to bug the Turner home for surveillance. What they heard turned the entire case around.
On May 18th, 2011, they captured a conversation through the course of their surveillance where a crystal clear confession occurred. The family, especially the parents, detailed the actions they had taken in order to cover up the murder and protect their son. They discussed the destruction of evidence, and Elliot was overheard stating that he “just flipped out” and grabbed her.
Investigators had enough evidence to arrest the entire Turner family. They were all charged with perverting the course of justice, while Elliot was also handed a murder charge.
Mr. and Mrs. Turner were released on bail, while Elliot remained in custody. Mrs. Turner went about throwing a slew of parties in support of her son. She pestered his friends relentlessly to write to him while he was in prison. And they did.
In one letter, Turner gloated that his Dad would reward him with a lavish acquittal party, and a brand new Porsche. He was also convinced that he would be released, and that he would be able to sell his story to Hollywood.
None of Elliot Turner’s actions were at all remorseful.
On April 19th, 2012, the trial began for the Turner family. Elliot Turner pleaded not guilty to murder, while he and his parents all plead guilty to the charge of perverting the course of justice.
During the murder trial, it was revealed that Turner had googled “how to get off a murder charge” and “strangulation” in the weeks before he killed Emily. He also took the stand for two full days of cross-examination, and was described as being uncaring and obnoxious through it all.
When the prosecution asked him why he didn’t appear to be upset over the murder of his girlfriend, he replied that it had all happened over a year ago. Callous and cold.
The jury found Elliot Turner guilty of the murder of Emily Longley.
He was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 16 years. His parents were each sentenced to 27 months on prison.
Turner attempted to appeal his sentence in 2013. His legal team argued that the recording of the Turner home had been obtained illegally. The appeal was very quickly thrown out.
Elliot Turner will remain in prison until at least 2027. At that time, he will be eligible for parole. Hopefully, he is never, ever released.
Mr. and Mrs. Turner were released after serving only half of their sentences.
They still reside in the house where their spoiled murderer son committed murder. A murder none of them got away with.
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Sources:
What happened to Emily Longley and where is Elliot Turner now? – Caroline Peacock – The Sun
Emily Longley murder: Elliot Turner loses appeal – BBC News
Family violence: Emily’s story – ‘The world was a better place with her in it’ – NZ Herald
Elliot Turner jailed for 16 years for strangling girlfriend Emily Longley – Martin Halfpenny – The Independent
RedHanded podcast – Episode 158 – Poisoned Privilege: The Murder of Emily Longley