Arizona Authorities Continue To Investigate Death of Shore Native

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By Linda Cicoira
The death of Kain Michael Turner, a Northern Arizona University student from Modest Town, is continuing to be investigated by Flagstaff, Ariz., police. The cause and manner of death have not yet been determined by the medical examiner’s office there.
On Dec. 3, Turner’s body was found facedown in about two feet of water in the Rio de Flag canal, near where he was last seen.
A 30-page police report was released to the Eastern Shore Post this week. According to the document, Turner had gone to a sorority semi-formal on the evening of Dec. 2. “He was very intoxicated by the end of the formal, but he went home and changed into clothes to go out to the bars downtown.” At about 1 a.m., he was “kicked out of a bar.”
Turner’s fraternity brothers from the Nu Alpha chapter of Phi Gamma Delta went looking for him the next day after learning of his disappearance. They read on social media about the women who offered to help him. A report of Turner’s disappearance had been made to college police.
Austin Jones, a frat brother, “stated he and his friends were advised by NAU Police to not search for Kain, but they decided that they were going to search for him anyway.” During the search, Jones saw “what he thought was a backpack in the shallow, iced over creek water. Upon closer inspection, he realized that it was a body, and it matched the description of what Kain was last seen wearing.”
After removing Turner’s body from the water, officers returned to the stream and raked the bottom where they found a wallet containing Turner’s ID, credit cards, photos, a cell phone, a vape, and a receipt from a local grocery store for alcohol Turner had purchased on Dec. 2.
Kristen Carney, of Flagstaff, told police she was downtown with two friends and saw the man she later learned was Turner, walking through shallow creek water. “She told me he looked extremely intoxicated,” an officer wrote. “He got out of the water … and then tried to jump in a pile of snow, but didn’t make it and instead, he fell into the snow.”
Carney said she tried to help him but he indicated that he didn’t need any assistance. “Kristen noted he was stumbling as he walked away, walking westbound on Phoenix (Avenue).” Many hours later, after seeing a post published online by his friends, she went back to see if he had dropped anything that would help find him. She found nothing.
Another woman, who had been with Carney, said as Turner walked on Phoenix, they followed but lost sight of him near a bus transfer station. A worker from the medical examiner’s office said it was typical for it to take up to six weeks for a cause of death to be determined.
Turner had a black belt in karate and was a star high school wrestler and soccer player at Arcadia High School. His obituary said, “Kain had an infectious zest for life and was a born leader, always there to help those in need without question or complaint.”

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