Outrage after it's revealed serial rapist Bowen Turner, 19, visited victim Dallas Stoller's grave
ORANGEBURG, SOUTH CAROLINA: South Carolina teen serial rapist Bowen Turner, who avoided any prison sentence, visited the gravesite of one of his alleged victims after she died by suicide, her family members have claimed. The 19-year-old escaped with a sentence of probation in a plea deal last week in Orangeburg County Court after he admitted that he assaulted another woman, Chloe Bess, back in 2019. Turner also allegedly committed two sexual assaults as a minor, including attacking 18-year-old Dallas Stoller in 2018. However, when Dallas died in November 2021 before Turner could be brought to trial, charges in the case were dropped.
In interviews with Murdaugh Murders podcast, Dallas' father and sister have now revealed that she died of a self-inflicted injury after allegedly being abused and bullied by classmates and teachers after reporting the assault. The family also revealed that ankle monitor logs showed that in January, Turner had visited Dallas' gravesite for reasons that are not clear. "Bowen Turner, you are NOT welcomed here!", a sign on the grave now says.
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Turner was accused of raping Dallas at a lakeside party on October 7, 2018. Dallas' friends later found her lying unconscious as Turner put his pants on. Bruises and scratches were found all over Dallas' body, proving that she was violently assaulted. "I think this is just a tragedy for these families," Sarah Ford, an attorney for the victims' families, told the Daily Mail. "the overarching thing that we see with this case is just a failure of our system. We see people with power and privilege deciding what justice should look like for them." She added, "There is just issue after issue with this case, and it's a failure of our system -- victims deserve better."
Dallas' family has said that when she reported the assault, they expected backlash from the community considering Turner's father's connections. He was at the time an investigator for South Carolina First Circuit solicitor David Pascoe, the local prosecutor. "If she proceeded to move forward, I knew what was coming as far as the bullying, and the community just 100% against her,' Dallas' sister Brette Tabatabai told podcast host Mandy Matney.
Both Dallas and Turner attended Orangeburg Preparatory School. "She actually had to stay in school with him for two weeks while the school board decided what they were going to do when he was charged," Tabatabai said. "She had to walk the halls in school with him for two weeks after the fact."
"She was at the time her senior class president, so she was well known in her school and in her class. She was pushed around pretty badly by the kids who drew the line in the sand and took sides," Dallas' father Karl Stoller said. "That was pretty devastating to her, to have gone what she went through, and then have people basically saying that she was lying about it."
The sister said that despite the assault, Dallas never sought vengeance but only wanted Turner to get help before he hurt anybody else. "She had a big enough heart, saying that he was sick and he needed to get help, and she didn't want to ruin his life. Even though he ultimately ruined hers, she did not want to ruin his live, but she knew he was sick and he would hurt someone else," she said. "They were friends before all of this." "Even after this happened, she said, Bowen is my friend, I don't want him hurt, I just want him to get help because he's got something going on," Karl said.
In January 2019, Turner was arrested and charged with Dallas' rape. When he raped Chloe Bess at a party in June 2019, he was free on bond. He was briefly placed in juveline detention, following which he was again freed on bond and placed on an ankle monitor.