CONIFER, Colo. — It sounds like something straight out of a Hollywood movie.
A federal indictment alleges a Conifer woman stole thousands of dollars worth of artifacts belonging to the British scientist and mathematician Alan Turing.
Court documents say she hid medals, notes and pictures in her home for more than 30 years before federal officers conducted a search warrant and recovered the artifacts in 2018.
Turing was nothing short of a computing genius whose work deciphering codes and encrypted messaging is credited with saving thousands of lives during World War II.
An international search for Alan Turing’s missing artifacts led police to Conifer and the home of Julia Turing.
In dresser drawers and behind fake walls, agents with Homeland Security discovered more than a dozen stolen items they said Julia Turing took without permission from the computer genius’ school in England in 1984.
Among them was an Order of the British Empire medal awarded to Alan Turing. Also found were pictures of Alan Turing and a diploma he received from Princeton University.
Julia Turing said she was a relative of Alan Turing, when in fact she is not. Court documents say she changed her name in 1988.
After she stole the artifacts, she left behind a note saying, “Please forgive me for taking these materials into my possession.”
It wasn’t until more than 30 years later that archivists at the University of Colorado Boulder became suspicious of how she got the artifacts when she tried to donate them to be put on display.
Julia Turing has not been charged in this case, but the goal of federal officials is to take permanent control over these artifacts. Right now, they are all being stored in a climate-controlled warehouse by Homeland Security.
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