Nearly a decade after Heather Turner's death, a Paulding County coroner opens an inquest into how she died: "This is a real person, and I want to be confident in my conclusions"

For nearly nine years, one word remained attached to the death of Heather Turner: undetermined.

Then, earlier this year, the Paulding County Sheriff's Office said it finally had an answer.

Now, the county's coroner is asking a jury to decide whether that answer should stand.

Paulding County Coroner Lindsey Eberhart announced Thursday that she will convene a coroner's inquest into the 2017 death of Turner, a 35-year-old woman found with a gunshot wound inside the bathroom of her Dallas-area home.

The proceeding, expected in January 2027, will come nearly a decade after Turner's death and months after Sheriff Ashley Henson announced his office had completed its investigation and concluded Turner died by suicide.

Eberhart told CBS News Atlanta in a phone interview Thursday that she has spent about five months conducting her own independent review of the case.

She said she was not included in the meeting involving the sheriff and district attorney when officials reached their conclusion about Turner's manner of death. Eberhart said she did not know the meeting was taking place and therefore could not endorse a conclusion she had not independently reached.

For Eberhart, the inquest is not about declaring that another person killed Turner. It is about putting the evidence before a jury and allowing that jury to determine her manner of death.

"The only way that I know I did the right thing for Heather Turner is to do this," Eberhart told CBS News Atlanta. "And this might not be popular opinion that I am doing this, but my obligation. And at the end of the day I need to do my job."

What happened to Heather Turner?

Turner was found dead May 4, 2017, from a gunshot wound inside the bathroom of her home on Buck Trail in Paulding County. Her husband, Andy Turner, called 911 and reported that she had died by suicide.

What followed was an investigation that stretched across nearly nine years and eventually attracted national attention through television programs, podcasts and online discussions.

Turner's manner of death remained listed as undetermined for years as investigators continued reviewing forensic evidence, witness statements and other records.

The prolonged uncertainty also fueled competing theories about what happened inside the Turner home.

In 2022, Henson, then a spokesperson for the Paulding County Sheriff's Office, said investigators still wanted to conduct a formal interview with Andy Turner. Turner denied involvement in his wife's death and told reporters at the time that he could not discuss the case because he was under contract for a book and movie project.

After becoming sheriff, Henson ordered a renewed review of the case.

Retired Cobb County police investigator Eddie Herman was brought in as an independent cold-case analyst, and investigators reexamined hundreds of reports, 911 recordings and forensic evidence while consulting with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Medical Examiner's Office, GBI agents and the Paulding County District Attorney's Office.

That review ultimately led Henson to announce Feb. 20 that the investigation was complete and Turner's death had been ruled a suicide.

Investigators said their conclusion was supported by forensic evidence including gunshot-residue testing, DNA evidence, analysis of a handwritten note and other evidence reviewed during the renewed investigation.

During the February announcement, investigators said Turner's DNA was the only DNA recovered from the trigger guard of the gun, her hands tested positive for gunshot residue and her husband's did not. Investigators also said a handwriting analysis determined a note found in the bathroom, reading, "I'm sorry, I love you," was written by Turner.

The sheriff's office also sought to rebut theories that had circulated publicly about the case, including claims that evidence was missing or the crime scene had been manipulated.

Henson acknowledged shortcomings in the original investigation, saying evidence collection and documentation had been mishandled before he became sheriff and that the department has since changed its crime-scene protocols. 

In a statement on Facebook, Turner's father said, "Our family is asking for transparency regarding how the evidence was evaluated and why certain information appears to have been given greater weight than other evidence."

But closing the sheriff's investigation did not end the question of what would appear on Turner's death certificate.

Coroner declined to endorse suicide ruling

Immediately after the sheriff's February announcement, Eberhart said she had not been formally presented with the evidence authorities relied upon to reach their conclusion.

She requested the complete investigative, medical and forensic record and said she would independently review the material before deciding whether to amend Turner's death certificate or convene an inquest.

By July 31, she had made her decision.

Eberhart said she would not support changing Turner's manner of death from undetermined to suicide, saying questions remained unresolved and that she had been excluded from key discussions surrounding the change.

She also maintained that observations documented early in the investigation should not simply be disregarded because investigators later obtained additional forensic findings. Instead of approving the change, she decided to call a coroner's inquest.

Eberhart told CBS News Atlanta that the sheriff's office first had to close its investigation before she could consider an inquest.

She said the years of theories, speculation and unanswered questions surrounding Turner's death contributed to her decision to use the rarely discussed process.

What happens during a coroner's inquest?

The January proceeding will not be a criminal trial.

Eberhart told CBS News Atlanta that five jurors will hear the case, with an additional alternate juror. The jurors will be summoned through the regular jury process.

The proceeding is civil and will determine Turner's manner of death — not whether anyone is criminally responsible for it.

Eberhart will preside over the inquest, question witnesses and ultimately charge the jury with deliberating.

Unlike a criminal jury, the five jurors will not need to reach a unanimous decision. A simple majority will determine the outcome.

Whatever they decide, Eberhart said she will accept it.

At that point, she plans to amend Turner's death certificate to reflect the jury's determination.

That means nearly 10 years after Turner was found dead, the final word on how she died may come not from the sheriff's office, the years of public speculation surrounding the case or even from the coroner herself.

It will come from a jury.

For Eberhart, she said the proceeding is also an attempt to move the conversation away from those years of speculation and back toward the woman at the center of it.

"We need to take the focus back to Heather Turner," Eberhart told CBS News Atlanta. "This is a real person, and I want to be confident in my conclusions."

The coroner's inquest is expected to take place in January 2027.