Zachary Andrew Turner

Who was Zachary Andrew Turner?

Zachary Andrew Turner was a boy from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada who was killed by his mother, Shirley Jane Turner, in a murder-suicide on 18 August 2003. Turner drugged the infant and jumped into the Atlantic Ocean. At the time, Turner had been released on bail and awarded custody of the infant even though she was in the process of being extradited to the United States to stand trial for the murder of Zachary's father, Andrew David Bagby. The case led to a critical overview of Newfoundland's legal and child welfare systems as well as Canada's bail laws.

A 2006 inquiry found serious shortcomings in how the province's social services system handled the case, suggesting that the judges, prosecutors, and child welfare agencies involved were more concerned with presuming Shirley Turner's innocence than with protecting Zachary Turner. The inquiry reached the conclusion that Zachary Turner's death was preventable. The case led to the passage of Bill C-464, or Zachary's Bill, which strengthened the conditions for bail in Canadian courts in cases involving the wellbeing of children.

The deaths of Andrew Bagby and Zachary Turner later became the basis for the 2008 documentary Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, directed by Kurt Kuenne.