Court records say the suspect called police and waited outside the home for officers to arrive.
PEORIA, Ariz. — A 29-year-old man is accused of killing his parents inside their Peoria home Tuesday evening, then calling police to report the deaths before officers found him waiting outside, according to investigators and court records released the next day.
Authorities identified the suspect as Jonathan Turk and the victims as Fraser Turk, 63, and Tina Turk, 56. The case quickly moved from an active homicide response to a first-degree murder prosecution after police said the caller admitted responsibility and officers recovered evidence inside the house near 83rd Avenue and Jomax Road. The killings rattled neighbors in the north Peoria area and raised new attention on the family’s prior efforts to seek mental health intervention for their son.
Police said the violence unfolded on March 31 at a home near 83rd Avenue and Jomax Road. Court documents say Jonathan Turk called Peoria police at about 6:29 p.m. and told a dispatcher he had killed his parents. Investigators said he also told dispatchers he used a hammer and a knife and would step outside with a water bottle and wait for officers. By the time police reached the scene around the dinner hour, officers found him outside and took him into custody without a public struggle. Sgt. Aracelia Montez later said the son of the victims had called and reported that he had just killed his parents. Fire-medical crews confirmed both adults were dead inside the home.
Inside, officers found Fraser Turk and Tina Turk dead in separate parts of the house, according to court documents summarized by local news outlets. Records said Fraser Turk had been stabbed at least once, while Tina Turk suffered head trauma. Investigators said they later found a bloody hammer and knife in a trash can in an upstairs bedroom. Court papers also said Jonathan Turk told dispatchers he was angry because his parents had put him on medication. After officers arrested him, investigators said, he refused to make a statement during a police interview. Authorities have called the case an isolated crime and said there was no broader threat to the public, but they have not publicly explained what happened inside the home in the minutes before the killings or whether anyone else witnessed the attack.
The allegations turned a quiet residential block into the center of a homicide investigation that spread through the neighborhood overnight. Neighbors told local television stations the couple appeared kind and ordinary in casual encounters. One woman said Tina Turk had always seemed friendly. Another neighbor, who asked not to be named publicly, said she had long felt uneasy around Jonathan Turk and would cross the street when she saw him outside. Those reactions added to a growing picture of a family that had struggled privately for some time. Court records cited by reporters say Fraser and Tina Turk had filed multiple mental health petitions involving their son, including three in 2026 alone. Prosecutors raised those petitions in court as they argued that the case involved serious concerns about his mental health and stability.
Maricopa County prosecutors have accused Jonathan Turk of two counts of first-degree murder. One report on the initial court proceedings also said records listed two second-degree murder counts alongside the first-degree charges, though local outlets have focused primarily on the first-degree murder case as it moves forward. A judge set bond at $2 million cash only. That amount kept Turk in custody after his first court appearance and signaled the seriousness of the allegations. Arizona law allows first-degree murder cases to proceed toward a preliminary hearing or grand jury review before a trial date is set, and prosecutors now face the task of presenting the physical evidence, the 911 call and the medical findings in court.
Outside the legal process, the case left a sharp emotional mark on neighbors who were still trying to make sense of what happened on their street. Several described the block as strangely quiet after police vehicles cleared. Others returned to the same question investigators have not fully answered: what changed inside the home in the final hours before the call for help. For now, the public record offers only fragments — a reported confession, two dead parents, a pair of weapons recovered upstairs and a history of earlier mental health petitions. Taken together, those details outline a case that prosecutors are expected to present as deliberate and violent, while defense lawyers may closely examine his mental state and the circumstances behind the statements attributed to him.
The case remained in its early court phase Thursday, with Jonathan Turk jailed on a cash-only bond and the next hearing scheduled for early April. The next public milestone is a preliminary hearing set for April 9, unless prosecutors seek a different procedural path before then.
Author note: Last updated April 2, 2026.