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Dr. Shirley Turner's attorneys thought their client was ready to face a September hearing in her continuing legal efforts to avoid extradition to the United States to face a murder charge in the shooting death of Dr. Andrew Bagby, of Latrobe, once her lover and father of her 13-month-old son, Zachary.

Legal efforts to return the 42-year-old Canadian-American physician to Pennsylvania ended when mother and child were found dead Monday night along a beach in Conception Bay, just south of St. John's, Newfoundland.

Newfoundland's Chief Medical Examiner's Office Tuesday listed the cause of their deaths as drowning.

"I'm shocked by this because Dr. Turner was fully prepared to defend herself," said Anthony Mariani, who represented Turner's legal interests here. "We were preparing for a full defense. We were not kidding around. She had always maintained her innocence."

Turner wasn't scheduled to appear again in court until next month when the latest appeal was to be argued. Mariani said he was shocked by her death because it came at a "quiet time" in the legal process.

Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck, who was planning to prosecute Turner on a charge of first-degree murder, said the deaths are another tragedy for the family of Dr. Andrew Bagby, a first-year resident at Latrobe Area Hospital.

Bagby was shot five times in the parking lot of Keystone State Park in Derry Township on Nov. 5, 2001.

Peck said it is sad that David and Kathleen Bagby, who had formed a relationship with their grandson, have lost the last link to their son.

"It was just an incredible tragedy that she would kill yet another person," said Peck, even though the Newfoundland Chief Medical Examiner has not yet issued a manner of death.

According to police accounts, Turner took her baby from his bed at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday and left her residence in the capital city of Newfoundland. She drove her older son's 1994 Mercury Topaz to Avalon Peninsula, just south of St. John's, and parked in Kelligrews, one of the small towns along the coast.

"The night she left, I saw her because she needed the car," said her son, T.J. Shears, 21, of St. John's. "I had to give her the car keys. I thought she was going to the store or something. She seemed all right to me. Didn't seem like anything was wrong."

Shears said he seldom discussed the pending murder case with his mother because he didn't want to know much about it.

"She was a great mom and she was caring," he said. "She always put us first."

When Turner did not return home with the car, a bail bondsman, worried that she had fled, notified the Newfoundland Royal Constabulary. Police distributed photos of Turner and her child, seeking the public's help in finding them.

On Monday evening, a couple walking their dog on the beach found their bodies at Conception Bay near the town of Long Pond-Manuels. Police notified her Newfoundland attorney, Randolph Piercey, who identified the bodies.

"I got a call from the investigating officer asking me to identify the bodies because the family was too distraught to do so," Piercey said.

He also told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that Turner did not show any indication she was suicidal.

"Absolutely 100 percent not," he said. "These were serious charges, particularly being in a foreign country would make it more of a worry, and certainly she was worried, but I never, ever for a moment imagined that this would happen."

According to police affidavits, Turner tried to commit suicide in 1999 in West Chester, Pa., after the breakup of another romantic relationship. Police reports indicate she was treated at a hospital after taking an overdose of over-the-counter sleep medication. Police said she left suicide notes directing that the payout from her life insurance policy should go to her children.

But Mariani said Turner told him the 1999 incident was not a suicide attempt.

"She disputed that," he said. "We didn't believe that to be relevant (to the current case). If that evidence was attempted to be used, we were prepared to dispute that."

Turner was supposed to meet with Piercey this week to discuss her case. She wasn't due in court until Sept. 25 for her latest appeal of an extradition order issued in June by Canadian Justice Minister Martin Cauchon.

Turner had been fighting extradition to the United States since January 2002 when Peck filed a formal request with the Canadian government for her extradition. To speed the process, he agreed to drop his intention to seek the death penalty.

In one of her few public comments about the case, Turner maintained her innocence in a January story in The Telegram, a St. John's newspaper.

"I realize the alleged crime is horrible. I also know I am innocent of the alleged crime," she said.

Turner lost custody of her infant son when she was imprisoned after the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador ruled she could be extradited to Pennsylvania. While she was in custody, Zachary was cared for by Andrew Bagby's parents, who left their home in California to live in Newfoundland.

She appealed, won her release on bond and regained custody, according to Mariani.

Although Turner was accused of killing their son, the Bagbys and Turner remained on cordial terms, Mariani said. The Bagbys brought the child to the prison for regular visits. Later, when the child was in Turner's care, the Bagbys had visitation rights, he added.

"My impression was until the present, the relationship wasn't hostile," he said. "The grandparents saw the child every other day. There were some overnights involved as well."

Turner's legal odyssey began in December 2001 when she left Iowa for Canada. Although she said she went to help one of her children who was injured in an auto accident, authorities argued she fled to avoid arrest and prosecution.

According to a police affidavit, Turner told Kathleen Bagby that an attorney had advised her to flee to Canada and that she had no intention of returning to the United States.

A year after the slaying, a Supreme Court justice in Newfoundland ordered Turner taken into custody after he ruled there was sufficient evidence for an American or Canadian jury to conclude Turner killed her former lover.

She argued the evidence against her in Westmoreland County was "flimsy" and based entirely on circumstantial evidence. She appealed that decision and was released on bond pending further appeals.

Born in Kansas to an American father and a Canadian mother, Turner grew up in Daniel's Harbour, a small, rural community on the western edge of the northern peninsula of Newfoundland.

Canadian newspapers reported that Turner, who majored in chemistry in college, had aspirations to become a doctor but gave up her goal in 1980. She taught high school chemistry for a decade before resuming her medical school studies. By the time she went back to medical school, she was in her second marriage and had three children ranging in age from 5 to 12.

It was during medical school at Memorial University of Newfoundland that she met Bagby, a California native. After graduation, Bagby went to the State University of New York at Syracuse for a surgical residency and eventually was accepted into a family practice residency program at Latrobe Area Hospital.

Turner went on to practice medicine in Iowa.

Police said Turner visited Bagby in Latrobe the week before his death. During the visit, state police believe, Turner told Bagby that she was pregnant with his child and became angry at him when she learned he was seeing another woman.

State police said after Turner flew back to Iowa, she immediately turned around and drove 945 miles back to Latrobe with a gun to confront Bagby. During a meeting in the park, an angry Turner shot Bagby five times, police allege.

Troopers traced her movements by tracking cellular telephone calls that she made en route to Pennsylvania. Turner also implicated herself in the crime, according to police affidavits filed in connection with the criminal charge.

Police said she telephoned a friend in Nova Scotia on Nov. 30 and told him she was in the parking lot at Keystone State Park on the night Bagby died. She also told her friend she had given Bagby a gun.

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