Police still hoping for clues in 16-year missing person case

Alissa Marie Turney went missing when she was 17 on May 17, 2001.

“Our Phoenix Police Homicide and Missing Persons Units never stop,” Phoenix Police Sgt. Jamie Rothschild says.

“Just because a case isn’t solved immediately doesn’t mean they ever give up the efforts to get someone in custody and get justice for the family.”

Alissa left school a little early on the last day of her junior year at Paradise Valley High School near Bell Road and 34th Street.

She hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

“She was wonderful and tried to make everyone in her life so happy,” Sarah Turney, Alyssa’s little sister, says. Even though there’s a four-year age difference, they were still really close.

It was just Sarah, Alyssa and their dad.

Sara says Alissa was working at Jack in the Box, checking out beauty colleges and was a typical teenage girl. She loved junk food, MTV, hanging out with her friends and going to the mall.

“She was really just coming into her own at that time. She was 17 and kind of figuring out who she was and how she wanted to dress.”

She misses her sister and calls her a genuinely wonderful and kind person.

There have been no reported sightings of Alissa from the moment she disappeared.

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