Valerie Turner was 16 when she was abducted from her mother’s beauty shop in Melrose, Florida, on June 25, 1972, and later found murdered in nearby woods. She was a white female and an employee at the shop when taken.

Her death is reported as part of a broader series of violent crimes linked to the McCrary-Taylor crime family, led by Sherman McCrary and his son-in-law Carl Taylor. That group carried out a multi-state spree during the early 1970s that included robberies, abductions and murders of predominantly young women, often targeting donut shops and similar workplaces. Law enforcement later connected the family to multiple murders through ballistic evidence and eyewitness accounts; Sherman McCrary died by suicide in prison in 1988 and Carl Taylor received life imprisonment. Valerie Turner’s murder did not produce specific charges or convictions and remains among the cases tied to the crime family that were not formally closed.

Does anyone have memories of the Melrose area in 1972 or information that could shed light on Valerie Turner’s abduction?