PAULDING COUNTY, GA — Paulding County Sheriff Ashley Henson is speaking out after the county coroner announced plans for an inquest into the death of a woman whose case was ruled a suicide earlier this year.
Heather Turner, 35, was found dead from a gunshot wound inside her home on Buck Trail in May 2017. Her husband told investigators he found her dead from a self-inflicted gunshot in their bathroom.
Turner’s manner of death remained undetermined for years before the sheriff’s office officially determined in February that she died by suicide.
“Based on evidence, and based on all of the factors that were in play, we were able to determine that it was a suicide,” Henson said.
Henson says that conclusion followed nearly nine years of investigative work that included assistance from the GBI and a forensic pathologist.
“Nearly nine years of investigative action, consulting with our district attorney, working with the GBI, working with a forensic pathologist at the crime lab who is a physician,” Henson said.
Investigators say Turner’s DNA was the only DNA recovered from the gun. Gunshot residue was also found on her hands but not on her husband’s hands.
Henson says claims circulating online about multiple gunshot wounds and questions surrounding an insurance payout by Turner’s husband do not change the findings of the investigation.
“There’s a lot of things that have gotten, we’ll say, spun up because of internet rhetoric. I can tell you this, if there was probable cause that existed that indicated to us that a crime had occurred, we would 100 percent make an arrest in the case. But there’s not, and we haven’t,” Henson said.
Henson also addressed questions surrounding Turner’s gunshot wound.
“There was an entrance on the left temple and there was absolutely zero exit on the right,” Henson said.
The sheriff says the department would reopen its investigation if new evidence emerged but maintains there was no probable cause to believe a crime occurred.
The planned coroner’s inquest does not impact the sheriff’s office’s now-closed investigation.
Coroner Lindsey Eberhart Fuller will seat a jury in January 2027 to hear evidence and determine whether Turner’s manner of death was suicide, homicide or undetermined.
WSB Radio’s Ashley Simmons & Veronica Waters contributed to this story.
