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This week's 48 Hours investigates the disappearance of a father and a daughter in Oregon. In 2017, Aaron Fryer and his
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teenage daughter Ellie were reported missing. After arriving at their home, police discovered signs of a violent
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struggle. Soon, investigators found Ellie unharmed walking with her boyfriend and his friend. But what led
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police to detain them? Here's an early look at Natalie Morales' 48 Hours report.
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On October 2nd, 2017, police officers arrived at the Medford, Oregon home of Fryer and his 15-year-old daughter
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Ellie, only to discover a bloody scene. Lead Detective Bill Ford. We treated it as missing person, serious
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assault. Everyone was out looking. Soon, Ellie Fryer was found. She was walking with her boyfriend, Gavin
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McFarland. They were with Gavin's friend, Russell Jones. Do you have ID with your name on there?
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Uh, no, I don't. All three were detained and brought in for questioning. I'm cool with that.
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Yeah, I have nothing to hide. Russell Jones surprised Detective Ford by claiming that Aaron was dead and that
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Gavin had killed him in self-defense. Then, he led detectives to Aaron's body. Right here in this green car.
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But when Russell was returned to the interrogation room alone, he began taunting investigators.
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You're listening in on my conversations, aren't you? This, I imagine, got everybody to stop
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what they were doing and gather around the monitor and watch this. that's what you do.
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I can still twist your little mind. Don't piss me off. For her part, Ellie was telling
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investigators Russell was responsible. I believe that Russell is the one that killed my father.
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But when Gavin McFarland was questioned, he pointed at Ellie. She wanted him dead, but I didn't want
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to kill him. Gavin told detectives Aaron had forbidden him from seeing Ally, suggesting a possible motive. But with
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all three pointing at each other, detectives didn't know who or what to believe.
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And Mr. Ford, you want the whole story? Cuz I did miss a few parts. And Natalie joins us now. Natalie, good
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morning. You know, the question here is why did Ally's father, Aaron, want to keep Ally
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and Gavin apart? But just in that 2 minutes, I get I can understand why. What did you learn?
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Well, Gavin was 19 years old at the time. Ally was 15, so she was a minor. So, she was forbidden to see him.
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Obviously, she continued with that relationship, but Gavin maintained that he was just trying to protect Ally
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because Ally had told him that her father was abusing her sexually. And so, that was therefore some motive for them
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to go through with this plan. But police say they had no evidence they could find
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no evidence to corroborate the story of abuse. Yeah, the plot thickens. How was Aaron
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Frier killed? Do we know? He was It was he was he died by blunt force trauma to the head, and
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investigators found a blood-soaked bat near the scene where his body was was found. So, but to find out who swung the
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bat, you're going to have to tune in Saturday night to 48 Hours. Well, Natalie, can you tell us what
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investigators thought of Gavin's friend, Russell Jones, who put on that performance there in the I guess the
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questioning room? Very creepy on the tape. Yeah. Yeah, very much so. You saw that it was
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quite Everybody stopped and watched as you saw that. And Russell Jones is a little bit complicated to describe, but
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he maintained he was also there trying to help Ally out of a bad situation with her father and that he was only trying
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to help protect her as well but he also as you saw told authorities that he wasn't being entirely entirely truthful.
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Wow, looking forward to this episode of 48 Hours. Natalie Morales, thank you very much. You can watch Natalie's 48
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Hours report first love then murder tomorrow night at 10:00 9:00 Central right here on CBS and streaming on
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Paramount Plus.