Current EVEntS – Rebekah Turner Maxwell Shoots and Kills Her Mother, Betty Tice Turner, at their Family Store

Rebekah Turner Maxwell, 38

What makes the actions of this despicable witch, even worse than it appears, is that her family had already suffered multiple, ungodly, tragedies not long before Maxwell decided to murder her mother on Monday.

John Turner

Her father, John Turner, 69, has been the owner of J. T. Tire, a used tire company, in Durham, North Carolina for 28 years. According to friends and family members, he is a generous, church-going, supportive member of the community and well-liked.

O’Brian McNeil White was charged with 2 counts of 1st degree murder, 3 counts of assault with a deadly weapon and robbery. His trial begins on March 2.

The family’s travail would begin at 3:30 pm on Friday, March 23, 2012, when O’Brian McNeil White, 24, strode into John Turner, and his wife Betty’s, store, brandishing a .45 caliber handgun. He approached John Turner’s cousin, and cashier, Naomi Turner Wright and demanded money.

Naomi Turner Wright

JoAnne Suzanne Wright

Mrs. Wright, 65, was shocked by the demand and began to fumble with the cash. When she did not turn over the cash fast enough for White, he shot and killed her where she sat.

Days later, her daughter JoAnne Suzanne Wright, 26, would say that her mother was a very devout Christian. She would go on to say that the Tabernacle of Life Church was very important in her mother’s life. Naomi had played organ at the church for more than 40 years and hardly ever missed a service. JoAnne continued to say that her mother’s faith would give her some comfort, but that she still prayed for justice.

Mrs. Wright’s brother, and JoAnne’s uncle, Roby Alan Turner, is the Pastor of the Tabernacle of Life Church. JoAnne, who was very distraught over her mother’s murder, would later say, “I know she is in a better place now, but I hate that my mother is gone and she has been taken from me … I pray they catch this guy.” And, thank God, the cops finally did.

Abedelgadir Mergany Abdelganir and his daughter

Also shot and killed, in the melee of that horrible day in March, was long-time customer, family man and cab driver Abedelgadir Mergany Abdelganir. He was in the store to have a tire changed. He had emigrated from the Sudan, in Africa, 12 years earlier and was considered, by friends, to be a very nice man and wonderful father. Not only was he supporting his own family in the United States but he was also supporting family members who remained in Africa.

Another customer, Javier Ramirez, and store employee Terry Shaw, 51, were critically wounded during the shooting and robbery. Owner John Turner was pistol whipped during the assault as well. He said White had a gun pointed to his head, but when he pulled the trigger, the gun was out of bullets. In a fury, White beat Turner instead.

Both Ramirez and Shaw would eventually recover from their wounds. And, although Rebekah Turner Maxwell’s father John was not seriously injured in the fiasco, he was devastated by the killings and did not return to work for weeks.

And then, on August 9th, 2013, just 16 months after Naomi Turner Wright was murdered, her 27-year-old daughter, JoAnne, would die too. She was engaged to be married to Timothy Green when she unexpectedly passed away at the Duke Medical Center in Durham. Her family said she grieved bitterly over the death of her beloved mother Naomi.

Tony Morris Turner

And then, just 15 months after JoAnne Suzanne Turner’s tragic, and untimely death, this already grief-stricken family would be devastated once again.

At 8:30 pm, on Saturday, November 15, 2014, Naomi Turner Wright’s younger brother, and JoAnne’s uncle, Tony Morris Turner, 56, was struck and killed, by a hit and run driver, while cycling on North Roxboro Street in Durham.

Tony never regained consciousness, and died at the scene of the accident, leaving his 20-year-old son, fatherless. Mr. Turner’s killer has yet to be found.

And then, just 2 months after Tony Morris Turner’s murder, the unthinkable would happen again. On January 13, 2015, the daughter of Tony’s 1st cousin John Turner, Rebekah Turner Maxwell, 38, would walk into her father’s tire store and senselessly shoot her mother in the back.

Rebekah would nearly repeat the same tragic, sequence of events, enacted by O’Brian McNeil White, just 3 years earlier. Maxwell entered her parent’s store, J. T. Tires, at 2202 E. Geer St., at 4 pm (just 1/2 hour later than White had) and approached her mother, Betty Tice Turner, 62.

Betty was at the same cashier’s window that Naomi Turner Wright was, on that fateful day in 2012, when the gun-totting White entered the store. Only this time, the two people knew each other, and would argue, before the daughter would shoot and kill her mother with a shotgun.

Once again, a friend would remember, another member of the Turner family, only this time it was Betty Turner. The friend said that Betty was, “A good person. Holidays she would make our family cakes and desserts. She was always there for my family when we needed her.” Another friend wrote, on the funeral home webpage, that Betty was a loving wife with a big heart.

Pastor Roby Turner, Jr. – Brother of Naomi and Tony and uncle of JoAnne – Founded the Tabernacle of Life Church in 1966

Now you can see why, Rebekah Jane Turner’s murder of her mother, while horrific, fails to encompass the depravity, and gravity, of her actions.

In less than three years, Pastor Roby Turner, Rebekah’s second cousin, had buried his murdered sister Naomi, his young niece JoAnne, his murdered brother Tony and now his first cousin’s murdered wife, Betty!

And, if convicted of first degree murder, Pastor Turner will be present at, his second cousin, Rebekah’s execution.

Sadly, it’s obvious that Maxwell did not embrace her family’s deep devotion to their Christian faith. If she had, her mother would still be alive today because this type of evil behavior would be impossible for a true Christian to undertake.

So, until her trial reveals the motive behind this madness, we are left to ask, “What kind of a sick, wicked, debased creature would deliberately add to the mountain of grief her father, and his family, were suffering, especially by killing her own mother? ”

Without the protective constraints, and restraints, of her parent’s Christian faith, my guess is that Maxwell succumb to the debauched lifestyle espoused by radical, third-wave feminism, and finally went off the deep end.

For now, only God knows, and I’m sure, He will sort it out.