The mother of 3-month-old Soul Turany has spoken for the first time about his tragic last hours – and vehemently denies having anything to do with the catastrophic head injury that ended the infant’s life.
Storme Turany is today giving evidence at the inquest into her baby son’s death in 2014.
Until today, she has not shared her version of events from baby Soul’s last hours.
“I loved him with everything I had,” she said.
“Soul made me realise why I was put on this earth.
“I’m here to tell you the truth.”
Police say Turany and her then-boyfriend Tony Farmer are the only people who could have inflicted the fatal injuries on baby Soul at their Burnham home in August 2014.
No one has ever been charged in relation to Soul’s death but police have said they will act on any new information or evidence.
Over the last two weeks, Coroner Ian Telford has been holding an inquest into what happened to Soul.
Today, he called on Turany to give evidence.
“I think it’s always important to tell the truth and be honest,” she said.
She maintained she was telling the truth when first interviewed by police in 2014 while Soul was on life support.
“I would never hurt my baby… I’ve never even gotten angry at him I’ve never been rough with him. I’m just dumbfounded as to how this happened," she told a detective.
When asked if she had “shaken or hurt Soul”, she said:
“I promise you I have never hurt my baby, I would never.
“I have struggled, but no more than any other new mother... I would always put him down gently.”
Turany said in that interview she could “very easily recognise” that police suspected she had injured her child.
Soul suffered a catastrophic head injury – the result of “a hard impact” – at a house in Burnham on August 30, 2014.
Emergency services were called after Soul became “limp” and had difficulty breathing.
Soul was flown to Christchurch Hospital by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter in a critical condition.
His injuries were not survivable, and he was taken off life support just after 3am the following day.
Police launched a homicide investigation.
The only people at the house when Soul was hurt were his mother, Storme Turany and her then-partner, Tony Farmer.
They split up soon after the little boy died.
Nobody has ever been charged over the infant’s death, though police named Turany and Farmer as persons of interest in the months afterwards.
An inquest is now being held to establish the circumstances.
Over the past week, Coroner Telford has heard extensive evidence from doctors involved with Soul’s death, and about the criminal investigation.
Yesterday, he heard from former police psychologist David Scott, who provided a report to investigators advising he thought Turany was “more likely” to be responsible for harming Soul.
Before she began sharing her story, Coroner Telford explained to Turany that she had privilege in court against self-incrimination.
That meant that she could decline to answer any questions that she believed might incriminate her or increase the likelihood of her being prosecuted in relation to Soul’s death.
The coroner said Turany would not face any legal consequences for refusing to answer such questions.
She began by speaking about her childhood in Australia.
She said she lived with her mother, who had a “severe” health condition.
Her mother was violent when she was “younger” but Turany did not elaborate further on the details.
“She loved in her own way,” she said.
“She did love us all, but sometimes it did come with some challenges.”
Her mother moved to Tasmania without her when she was just 17.
Turany said she was “down” and “really sad and quite lonely” when she left.
She was prescribed antidepressants by her doctor, but only took them for two weeks, explaining they made her feel worse.
After that, her low mood “went away of its own accord”.
Turany denied ever being “depressed” and said she had never taken medication again for her mental health.
The court has heard from other witnesses that Turany’s pregnancy with Soul was “unwanted” and that she was suffering from post-partum depression when he died.
Today she rejected that evidence, saying she was “surprised” when she fell pregnant after a “one-night stand” but never regretted having her baby.
“Not one bit, not once,” she said.
She met Farmer on Tinder about two months before Soul died. He moved into the farm where Turany was working alongside her sister Skye Lamborn and her husband.
“Everything moved quite quickly for us,” she said.
In the week before Soul died, Turany said she was “fine”.
The “whole family” had a cold but “other than the sniffles it was a normal week”.
At 3am on August 30, Turany woke.
“Soul was due for a feed, but he was also quite grizzly,” she said.
“He was just unsettled ... nothing seemed to be working ... he just didn’t seem comfortable so [I] made the decision to get some advice from Skye.
“Skye didn’t answer ... I told Tony that I’d like to go to the hospital.”
Turany said she was “very overprotective” of Soul and generally did not let Farmer hold the baby.
“I am an overprotective mother, and I am proud of that,” she said.
“I remember how Soul would behave around Tony... he was just a baby, but ... I could tell that it just seemed off ... and quite strange.
“I didn’t like the way [Farmer] held him... Soul would grizzle, and he would cry, and he would want to come back to mum.”
Just before 6.30am, Turany called Healthline. She went outside to have a cigarette while she spoke to the service, and Farmer held the baby.
“I was outside looking at them through the window. Soul was still very much conscious – he was looking at me,” she said.
“I remember that like it was yesterday.
“It was the last time I saw my son looking at me...”
The calltaker asked Turany to check Soul’s ears.
She went back inside and did so, and reported a “waxy” substance.
She was adamant that at that moment, there was absolutely no sign of a head injury.
“I knew my baby back to front, there was no lump,” she said.
She went back inside, and Farmer spoke to her “in a shocked voice”.
“He looked really worried,” she said.
“He’s handed [Soul] to me ... and he was completely limp ... It had jumped from Soul is grizzly and had a cold and all of a sudden this was an emergency situation.
“I could not comprehend ... I was so confused.”
Turany said she was told Soul had a brain bleed and fractured skull.
However, she said she did not hear or understand the full extent of her baby’s injuries until the inquest.
She said the “extremely confronting” detail was that Soul would have been fatally injured very soon before his “collapse”.
“I was not made aware,” she said.
“I went down a rabbit hole of thinking about this ... and it was still very much open to the timing of when this could have happened.
“So for 12 years, I have been racking my brain as to when it could have happened.
“We’ve heard it over the last two weeks of how short now this timeframe is, so those questions that I have had have been answered already.”
Turany’s lawyer Allister Davis asked her in court if she had anything to do with Soul’s death.
“No, I did not,” she said.
“My kids are absolutely everything to me – particularly Soul.
“Soul made me realise what I was put on this earth for. I loved him with everything I had.”
Davis asked if she ever took “frustrations” out on the baby.
“Not once,” she said firmly.
Turany also addressed evidence Coroner Telford heard earlier this week that she told her sister she had “chucked” Soul “hard” on a bed.
“I am overdramatic with language ... and overprotective,” she explained.
“I was so careful with Soul ... I just put him down firmer than I would have put him down every other single time.”
Jamie O’Sullivan, counsel assisting Coroner Telford, quizzed Turany on her mood and mental health in the lead-up to Soul’s death.
Turany denied she was “struggling” at the time.
She said Soul was “still really little” and being a new mum was a challenge – but she rejected O’Sullivan’s suggestion that “everything just got on top” of her, that she was “exhausted and “stressed about everything”.
“I was tired, not struggling,” she said.
“Tired, but not short-fused.”
Turany’s evidence continues.
Scott told the coroner that his “preference” of who fatally harmed Soul was his mother.
That opinion was based on “dearth of psychological evidence” and “drew conclusions on a constellation of factors”.
“Though I have no sound evidence, clinical experience leads me to believe Storme Turany was the most likely perpetrator of Soul’s fatal injury,” he said.
“In my opinion, Storme felt she was losing control … resorted to violence in a desperate attempt to alleviate her helplessness,” he said.
“Soul had to behave on her terms – not his. She had post-partum depression … she was underreporting her level of distress.”
Scott said Turany was “ill-equipped to be a mother”.
“On the night … I believe Storme was physically and emotionally exhausted and in some distress. She was also sleep-deprived and barely tolerated Tony,” he said.
“Soul was inconsolable again … she had tried in vain to soothe him … Storme was trapped and losing control. Consequently, in a momentary flash of exhausted anger, she harmed Soul.”
Lawyers for Turany and Farmer challenged Scott’s evidence in court.
Turany’s sister Skye Lamborn also indicated that she rejected much of his opinion.
Farmer will give evidence tomorrow.
Coroner Telford has already heard evidence on Soul’s death from a number of medical experts, the head of the police investigation and those who interacted with the baby, his mother and Farmer, including Lamborn, a Plunket nurse, midwife and neighbours.
Anna Leask is a senior journalist who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 20 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz