Investigators say a store purchase, an emergency call and evidence inside a family home connect key moments before and after two deaths.
PEORIA, Ariz. — Hours before Tina and Fraser Turk were found dead inside their Peoria home, surveillance footage recorded their son buying a hammer at a local Walmart, according to police records. Investigators say the purchase became one link in a chain of evidence that now includes a 911 recording, weapons recovered from the house and video showing Jonathan Turk surrendering to officers.
The prosecution of Turk, 29, is built around a sequence that investigators say unfolded on March 31 and was documented through several independent sources rather than a single police account. Authorities accuse him of killing his 56-year-old mother and 63-year-old father with a hammer and knife, calling 911 shortly afterward and waiting outside the home for officers. He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and is scheduled for trial in early December, according to September reporting by Arizona’s Family.
The Walmart video is an important starting point in the publicly reported timeline because it records Turk before the deaths. Investigative material released months later shows him at the store buying a hammer on the day of the killings. Police believe the same hammer was used during the attack. The purchase itself does not establish criminal intent, and publicly available reporting does not identify a court ruling finding when or whether Turk formed any plan. Prosecutors would have to place the surveillance in context with the rest of their evidence.
Later that evening, Peoria police received an emergency call directing them to the family’s home near 83rd Avenue and Jomax Road. Police said the caller was Turk. According to transcripts obtained by Arizona’s Family, he told the dispatcher his parents were on the floor and acknowledged that he had killed them. The transcript attributes to him the statement that he had been angry with them. Authorities say he also linked that anger to medication his parents had wanted him to take.
The call contained information investigators say corresponded with what officers later encountered. Turk told the dispatcher that a hammer and knife were in a trash can in his room, according to the records. An arrest affidavit says officers searching the upstairs portion of the house saw a hammer and knife with apparent blood inside a trash can. Police reported additional blood evidence on the kitchen floor and staircase. The objects were recovered as part of the homicide investigation.
Officers also found the two victims in separate locations. Fraser Turk was discovered near a stair landing and had at least one stab wound, according to police and court documents. Tina Turk was found unresponsive in the master bathroom with head trauma. Paramedics were brought into the home and pronounced both dead. Authorities have described the deaths as homicides, and prosecutors subsequently filed two first-degree murder charges against their son.
The emergency recording also documented how police were told the arrest would unfold. According to an affidavit, Turk said he would walk outside holding a water bottle and wait for officers, adding that he would cooperate. Home-surveillance footage released in September shows him pacing outside after the call. When police arrived, the video shows him getting onto the ground and being handcuffed. Officers then turned their attention to the house and the possibility that someone inside might still need help.
Newly released body-camera footage provides another piece of the timeline. Officers can be seen moving through the property, clearing areas and then going upstairs. The recordings show the initial response from the officers’ perspective but were blurred where necessary around the victims. The footage does not independently establish who caused the deaths; instead, it documents the conditions officers encountered and the steps they took immediately after arresting Turk outside.
Police said from the beginning that there was no continuing threat to the neighborhood and that the killings appeared to be an isolated incident. Early news reports contained fewer details about the hours leading to the deaths. Those details emerged gradually as court filings, the arrest affidavit, surveillance images and roughly 300 pages of investigative records became available. Together, they expanded the public chronology from a brief account of a 911 call and arrest into a much more extensively documented case.
One distinction in those records may matter as the prosecution moves toward trial. Turk is quoted at length through the 911 transcript, but investigators say he did not later give them a full custodial statement. According to the arrest affidavit, he was advised of his rights after his arrest and declined to answer questions. The emergency call and later police interview therefore involve different circumstances, and the court may be asked to resolve any evidentiary challenges raised by attorneys before the material is presented to a jury.
Investigators also collected records concerning events before March 31. Arizona’s Family reported that documents describe troubling behavior dating to 2023, including letters sent to churches, neighbors and police departments. The reports characterize some of the letters as threatening and say Peoria police created an awareness bulletin concerning Turk. The precise language of the letters has not been fully reported, and previous police contacts are not proof that he committed the homicides charged in the current case.
Other records describe repeated attempts by Turk’s parents to secure mental health treatment. At an early court appearance, a prosecutor said Turk had multiple prior mental health petitions, including three during 2026. Advocates familiar with the family said Tina and Fraser Turk had sought help over several years. The advocates later argued that the killings exposed weaknesses in Arizona’s treatment system, including shortages of hospital capacity for people with severe psychiatric needs.
Those treatment records provide context but should not be confused with proof of motive or guilt. A mental health history does not establish that a person will act violently, and public reports do not support assigning the deaths to a diagnosis. The murder case instead rests on the evidence surrounding the specific events of March 31: what surveillance recorded, what Turk allegedly told the emergency dispatcher, what police saw when they entered the home and what forensic or other evidence prosecutors ultimately present.
That evidentiary trail also contains unanswered questions. Public reports have not disclosed every forensic result, the complete prosecution theory or the defense strategy. Nor have they established how attorneys will address the statements about medication or Turk’s prior treatment history at trial. Those matters could become clearer through motions, expert testimony or other proceedings as the case advances.
September’s release of police body-camera and doorbell video extended the public record beyond written reports. It visually documented Turk’s arrest and the officers’ entry into the residence, adding another contemporaneous source to the case. The footage joins store surveillance and the 911 record in creating a time-stamped series of events that investigators say links the day’s purchase, the deaths, the call for police and the recovery of evidence.
Turk remains jailed on a $2 million cash-only bond and faces two counts of first-degree murder. He has not been convicted of killing his parents, and the evidence has yet to be tested before a trial jury. With trial reported to be scheduled for early December, the focus is expected to move from the accumulation and public release of investigative material to the rules of evidence and the prosecution’s burden to prove each charge beyond a reasonable doubt.
Author note: Last updated September 22, 2026.