Latest news with #DatelineNBC
Hindustan Times
14-06-2025
- Hindustan Times
Alissa Turney: What happened to her, and has she been found?
'Dateline NBC,' the longest-running primetime series in NBC's history, is now in its 33rd season. Anchored by Lester Holt and featuring correspondents Blayne Alexander, Andrea Canning, Josh Mankiewicz, Keith Morrison, and Dennis Murphy, the show returned Friday night with another haunting case: the 2001 disappearance of 17-year-old Alissa Turney. ALSO READ| Did US pizza joints really predict Israel's strike on Iran? X account dedicated to 'Pizza Index' theory claims Alissa Turney was just 17 years old when she vanished from Phoenix, Arizona, in her junior year in high school. It was 17 May 2001, and no one knew it would be the last time they'd ever see her. For years, Alissa was labelled a runaway. A note left behind in her room suggested she'd headed to California to live with her aunt. But that explanation didn't sit right with her loved ones for long. Alissa had left behind everything: her cellphone, makeup, car, and nearly $1,800 in her bank account. Her aunt also said she never arrived. 'I wasn't worried,' Alissa's younger sister Sarah told People Magazine in 2020. 'I was under the impression she was going to be back. I don't think her being gone forever was anything that ever crossed my mind.' Born on 3 April 1984, Alissa grew up in Phoenix in a blended family. After her mother died of cancer, her stepfather, Michael Turney, became her sole guardian. While he officially adopted Alissa, she often confided in friends that he was controlling, so much so that he installed surveillance cameras around their home. ALSO READ| 'Nobody's gonna be there': Trump fears empty birthday parade, insider says The last person to see Alissa was Michael. He later told police that they had lunch that day and got into an argument before he dropped her off at home. A few hours later, he reported her missing, claiming she had run away. Surprisingly, police did not immediately search the house or question Michael. Later, he told authorities he received a call from Alissa on a payphone in California, but nothing ever came of that lead. Years went by without any developments. 'Nobody looked for her,' Sarah later said in a TikTok video. 'Not anybody in my family. The police didn't do anything despite her being reported missing. Nothing really happened until 2006.' That year, the case was reopened, and Michael Turney became the primary suspect. In 2020, after tireless advocacy from Sarah, who turned to social media to demand justice, Michael was arrested. But the case fell apart in court, and in 2023, a judge acquitted him of all charges due to a lack of evidence. 'I have no idea where Alissa is, alive or dead,' Michael told NBC's Dateline. ALSO READ| Trump's military parade a big flop? Report reveals calls for seat fillers in exchange for $1,000 in crypto Till today, Alissa's body has never been found. The case remains open, and Sarah continues her search for answers. 'In my heart, I feel certain that Alissa is gone,' Sarah told The New York Times in 2020. 'It took me a very, very long time to come to that conclusion, and there was so much guilt there when I did.'
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Yahoo
17-year-old Alissa Turney's mysterious disappearance on ‘Dateline'
(NBC) — On Friday's 'Dateline,' 17-year-old Alissa Turney is reported missing in Phoenix. It takes years before detectives treat her case as a homicide and a new investigation unearths dark family secrets. Here is a preview of Andrea Canning's report: It was the last day of school in Paradise Valley. Alissa Turney's father, Mike, picked her up. They had important things to talk about, like what she'd be doing that summer. He had a lot of rules for Alissa and kept close tabs on where she went. He says they got lunch that day and then headed home. MICHAEL TURNEY: The discussion started going bad because she wanted to go to a party. Mike says Alissa stormed off to her bedroom. He left to run errands and later picked up her sister Sarah from a friend's house. And when they got home, a note. It said, 'You got it, I'm gone.' Alissa's dad went to the police, of course, but he says they told him there wasn't much they could do. For years, the case sat gathering dust in the Phoenix police department. But a new detective had questions — for everyone — having no idea what he would uncover next could blow up the whole investigation. Tune in to 'Dateline: The Day Alissa Disappeared' Friday at 9 p.m. on NBC4. 'Dateline NBC' is the longest-running series in NBC primetime history and is in its 33rd season. Dateline is anchored by Lester Holt and features correspondents Blayne Alexander, Andrea Canning, Josh Mankiewicz, Keith Morrison and Dennis Murphy. The stories range from compelling mysteries to powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. When major news breaks, they go to the scene, putting the pieces together to bring the viewer the full picture. And in every story they tell, they help the real people who lived the events share their journeys with the viewer. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
I Work At ‘Dateline.' Here's The 1 Question I Get Asked The Most — And My Answer Might Surprise You.
When I tell people I'm a writer at 'Dateline NBC,' I get a variety of reactions. Often I hear, 'Cool! What's Lester Holt really like?' Or 'Do you think that husband really disconnected his wife's oxygen tank while they were scuba diving on their honeymoon or was it just a bizarre accident?' However, sometimes I detect a look of mild horror, the kind I imagine trauma surgeons and cops get. It's a look that says, Wow, you spend every day immersed in all that darkness. Isn't it depressing? Actually ... no. When I first started at 'Dateline,' the show followed a different format. We covered consumer issues, did investigations and profiles (one was of a young and sunny Taylor Swift, no less), and offered plenty of human interest stories. But times change and so does the audience. True crime is where our audience went and we met it there with, I like to think, an arsenal of journalistic talents: expert storytelling that captures victims, families and killers in all their human, complicated glory; the highest standards of fairness; and maybe just as important as anything else, true respect for the lives that are taken and the loved ones left behind. Still, I admit the subject matter is dark. Nearly every episode involves a murder, or at least a disappearance. We do some powerful stories about the wrongfully convicted, but those people are usually convicted of killing someone. Death almost always figures into what happened in one way or another. I work on the 'open' of the show: the minute and a half at the top that highlights the most dramatic parts of the story. It includes things like: how many hearts the victim touched, how shocking the crime was, and how depraved the killer's actions were. In short, it's made up of the saddest, starkest, most potent stuff. Like my colleagues in this strange, very particular universe, I have developed an eye for small moments that reveal deep emotion, whether it's anger or grief. And I've written the words 'a chilling discovery,' 'a savage assault,' and 'a bizarre twist' more times than I care to count. So, yes … dark. And, of course, heartbreakingly sad. But depressing? No. Many of our greatest and most popular writers — including Stephen King, Gillian Flynn, Edgar Allen Poe and Agatha Christie, to name just a few — wrestle almost exclusively with sinister themes, like violence and murder. People don't tend to think of their work as 'depressing.' Spine-tingling? Yes. As well as engaging. Thought-provoking. I would argue one of the reasons great writers engage with this material is that the stakes in a murder mystery are so high. A human life is taken. In Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel 'The Hours,' Virginia Woolf says, 'Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more. It's contrast.' But dark stories offer a flip side as well: the possibility for redemption, hope and understanding. This is such a fundamental paradigm that it resonates even with children. Studies show that fairy tales, many of which are scary, help children process difficult emotions like fear, envy and loneliness. This reassures children that they are not alone and that they're 'normal.' Fairy tales give children a safe place to explore these feelings and can teach them how to express and deal with them in an effective, constructive way. For grown-up readers, different kinds of mysteries may offer different kinds of sustenance. In an astute essay for Time magazine, award-winning novelist Tana French argues these stories mostly fall into one of two camps. The first, like those written by Christie, are about restoring order and seeing justice meted out. Her offerings are tidy, self-contained, feature a satisfying resolution — and go perfectly with a cup of tea. 'In a world that can often be chaotic and reasonless, we need these stories,' French writes. Others, which French dubs 'wild mysteries,' ask us to engage with deeper questions about human nature. 'What are we capable of? How much of who we are is determined by choice, by circumstance, or by nature?' French asks. 'The questions stay unanswered because they're unanswerable.' I like to think 'Dateline' gives viewers a bit of both kinds of stories. By the end of the hour, you will (almost always) know who committed the crime. You will know how. You will usually know why. But we take on the deeper, thornier questions, too, like how well do we ever really know another person — even one we're married to? Can a person simply snap? And, in an increasingly complicated world, what constitutes justice? I know some people say that shows like 'Dateline' serve up the trauma and pain of real people for the entertainment of our viewers. But the show's producers tell me that the victims' loved ones say talking about the case provides a kind of balm. They refer to their experience working with 'Dateline' as cathartic and say it leaves them feeling 'lighter.' They feel like someone 'important' is really listening to them and they trust that we will take their story seriously and tell it correctly. It can be a truly transformative experience for them. One producer also told me that 'Dateline' creates 'an important historical record of serious crime. Something that people can always look back on to see what really happened, told by the people it happened to.' In these times of rampant mis- and disinformation, this is no small thing. I believe our stories also resonate with viewers because, though the terrible people are truly terrible, the heroes we feature really are heroic — whether it's the detective who picks up the ice cold case and keeps digging until she finds the truth or the prosecutor who refuses to give up on the impossible-to-prove case or the sister whose hands grow raw from putting up 'missing' posters. These people's resilience struck me in an especially personal way several years ago. Though I'm fortunate to never have experienced violent crime, my mother died when I was a child. One otherwise-unremarkable day, I realized that I was older than she was when she passed. I thought I'd made my peace with her death years earlier, but on that day I was suddenly acutely aware of just how little time she'd been given on this planet. I was stewing in the sour juice of helplessness, bitterness and sadness when I started working on my next 'Dateline' story. As I began to go through the interview tapes to find the best soundbites, I found myself appreciating the friends and family members of the victim in a way I never had before. They had confronted the most terrible thing life could throw at them and somehow kept going in surprising, inspiring ways. The same is true of the loved ones in most of our 'Dateline' stories. Some of these people have actually helped solve cases. Others have found inventive ways to help other families going through similar trauma. But no matter what they've experienced, there's one thing they all share: Despite any apprehension about becoming public people — which in this day and age can be unpleasant or even dangerous — they went on national TV to make sure we knew who their murdered cousin, aunt or friend was. They spoke up to keep their memories alive. Their unbelievable strength has moved and healed me. I now carry some of their words around with me, like an aspirin for a headache, or a railing when I feel wobbly. I work on a program that some have called 'The Murder Show.' They're not wrong, but maybe toiling in a dark world makes the light more visible. Maybe it's only because of sadness that we even know and understand joy. Maybe it's injustice that allows us to appreciate justice. As Virginia Woolf might say, it's contrast. Lorna Graham is the author of 'Where You Once Belonged' and 'The Ghost of Greenwich Village,' and is a writer at 'Dateline NBC.' She has written numerous documentaries, including 'Auschwitz,' produced by Steven Spielberg and narrated by Meryl Streep, which competed at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. Across numerous films, PSAs, and speeches, she's written for Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, and Morgan Freeman. She graduated from Barnard College and lives in Greenwich Village. Do you have a compelling personal story you'd like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what we're looking for here and send us a pitch at pitch@ My Experiences On 'Sex And The City' Left Me Reeling. A Recent Run-In With One Of Its Stars Left Me In Shock. I Was One Of The Most Famous Pop Stars In The World. No One Knew The Secret Pain I Hid. A Guy I Once Dated Is Now Famous, And It's As Weird As You'd Imagine
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Surreal moment': Lester Holt signs off, passes baton to Tom Llamas on NBC Nightly News
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Lester Holt officially signed off Friday, May 30, as the anchor of NBC Nightly News, following his final broadcast. He will transition to Dateline NBC full time now. He is now handing off the baton to Tom Llamas. KXAN's Avery Travis spoke with Tom Llamas about when he received the announcement he would take over as Lester's replacement and what his future holds for Travis: Tom, congratulations and thank you so much for joining us today. I want to start with when you found out you had been named the new anchor of NBC Nightly News. What were you feeling in that moment? And did you ever dream of being in this position? Tom Llamas: Yeah, you know, it was a surreal moment. It was incredibly emotional. There was every emotion you can imagine, happiness, laughter, anxiety. I mean, there was there was everything. It was great. And it was really great to tell my wife, who has always been by my side, and she's just been so incredible, my kids as well. I mean, we couldn't tell all my kids because it hadn't been announced yet. And my little guy's got a really big mouth. He's only 7 years old, so he learned pretty much last. But then just to talk to my parents, who sacrificed so much for me. I mean, there were a lot of tears there as well, but it's been a lot of happiness, and now it's excitement to kind of get going and to take over. Avery Travis: Well, just so deserving to be stepping into this big role. We want to note for people, you're not just the anchor, but the managing editor. So talk about what kind of pressures you're expecting taking over this job, and how are you preparing right now? Llamas: Yeah, you know the managing editor. It's interesting, because not everyone knows really what that means. So as a news anchor, you obviously read the news, but that's about, I'd say, a small percentage of the job. Most of the job, probably more than 90%, happens before that light comes on and millions of people tune in and how we put the show together. And as a managing editor, you're working with the reporters and the producers on the stories. What stories are inside to cover the questions we want to ask, the investigations we want to launch, and then we have this great franchise at the end of the show — there's Good News Tonight. Because regardless if you're a Democrat or Republican or you're independent — there are stories that bring us together as Americans. And I always want to spotlight those stories at the end of the day, because we live in some wild times. But there are still things that bring us together as a nation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lester Holt's last night as anchor of 'NBC Nightly News'
NEW YORK, N.Y. (WSAV) — On Friday, Lester Holt will step down from 'NBC Nightly News.' On Monday, Tom Llamas takes over anchoring duties. Holt has been a steady presence in the anchor seat for more than a decade. And, while Holt isn't leaving NBC completely — he will continue to host 'Dateline NBC,' he will be missed by those who have turned to him during many major events over the last decade. He reported weeknights during the pandemic, international conflicts and presidential elections, just to name a few. Earlier this month, Holt spoke with 'Variety' about his impending departure and his new role. 'The big buy-in was to be able to do more of the hours,' Holt told Variety. 'I once spent two nights in prison for a Dateline, and I've done heartbreaking stories on the asthma crisis and the economy. I've done a lot of things that are outside of what many would think is a traditional Dateline, but I want to do more of those, and I want to be able to tell a producer, 'Yes, I'll be there for that interview next week,' because I won't be jumping after whatever is happening for Nightly.' During the interview, Holt discussed how his decision didn't come quickly. 'It wasn't like one moment of epiphany. I never saw myself doing this job forever. I decided that I needed to come off the Nightly gig, but I still had gas in the tank.' You can see Lester Holt's final night as anchor of 'NBC Nightly News' Friday following WSAV News 3 at 6. Tom Llamas will take over as anchor of 'NBC Nightly News' on Monday, June 2. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
