Matthew Trussler Wiki

                 Matthew Trussler Biography

Melissa Turner, a former cosplay model, has spoken out about the murder of her fiancé Matthew Trussler after her body was found in her home in October 2019.

A COSPLAYER stabbed her fiancé to death, claiming it was self-defense before cops found evidence of the killer “screaming” at her lover.

On October 17, 2019, the couple went shopping and had lunch at their home in Tampa, Florida.

Death

Just hours later, Trussler’s body was found dead.

Turner claimed to have called the police when she discovered that her fiancée did not respond the next day.

She told the 911 operator, “she’s cold.”

Police officers found Trussler, 25, dead with stab wounds and lying in a pool of his own blood on October 18, 2019.

Turner initially told police she did not know how Trussler died before investigators found surveillance footage from a neighbor’s driveway outside the couple’s home.

Then-sheriff’s detective Ryan LaGasse said he heard loud voices at the couple’s home.

The former detective said he heard what sounded like a woman’s voice say things like “Get up now” and “Then die.”

When Turner was confronted about the voices and screams that could be heard coming from her and the Trusslers’ house throughout the night, she initially said that she did not remember screaming or yelling.

Investigation

She eventually told investigators about an argument she had with Trussler when the police continued to press her.

Turner said: “He woke me up and we argued about it, because he was still up at four in the morning drinking,” the outlet reports.

The cosplayer claimed that the dispute turned physical and her fiancé strangled her; she claimed that she grabbed her knife and stabbed him.

“I thought he was going to kill me,” Turner told the outlet.

When investigators found a large cut on Turner’s hand during her interview, she told them she had cut it when she picked up broken glass that morning.

A surveillance camera at the couple’s home revealed another chilling detail from that night after recording the movements of Turner and Trussler.

“He walks calmly, unarmed in the ADT videos, and she follows him hunched over and angry,” prosecutor Chinwe Fossett told the outlet.

The recording reportedly shows blood on Turner’s hand due to his cutting, prosecutors believe.

Prosecutors say Turner received the cut when she stabbed her fiancee.

Melissa Turner Arrested

Turner was arrested on October 19, 2019, and later charged with second-degree murder with a weapon, despite what she had told police.

She went to trial in February 2022, where she insisted that she acted in her own defense.

Turner told the jury, “I thought he was going to kill me and I was trying to get him to stop,” the outlet reports.

“And I loved him,” she added.

The defense argued that the neighbor’s camera that captured the couple’s voices was tampered with.

An audio expert testified that he thought voices recorded on camera had enhanced volume.

John Trevena, Turner’s lawyer, said: “I find it highly suspicious that Ms Turner’s voice is screeching loudly,” the outlet reports.

“But when it came to Matthew Trussler…you could barely hear murmurs.”

The prosecution denied that the recording was tampered with.

Turner, then 29, was convicted of second-degree murder after the week of the trial and sentenced to 20.5 years in prison.

“They could have walked away from each other and started a different life,” Donald Goodwin, a juror in Turner’s trial, told the outlet.