00:00:00
[Music] I've never spoken publicly before about any of this. Never really fully healed from any
00:00:24
of what happened. It's like waking up every morning and having the same phone call.
00:00:30
911. What is the address? That's your emergency. 911 call came in October 2nd, 2017. It was called in as a welfare
00:00:38
check. Something happened at my ex-husband's house over the evening and my two children came to my house this
00:00:45
morning. Okay. And what did they tell you exactly? That their dad's gone. Their older sister's gone.
00:00:53
Where are we? officer set the scene for us. This is Benson Street. And for me, this is just another welfare
00:01:00
check. But we don't know what we're walking into. What is your ex-husband's name? Aaron
00:01:07
Frier. I learned that he was a good guy. He was a good dad. What is your daughter's name? My oldest
00:01:17
daughter's name is Ellen Frier. How old is she? She's 15. Ellie was in the marching band. Very
00:01:26
bright, very intelligent. With the older daughter missing, it was very suspicious. We didn't really know how
00:01:32
suspicious it was until we saw what we saw when we got here. Not for police. Not yourself.
00:01:38
We clear the house and in the living room based on the blood splatter, there was a serious assault,
00:01:46
probable murder that occurred. So time was of the essence. Absolutely. Time is always of the essence. You know
00:01:53
it. The only information I had was from the patrol officers and what Sierra was able to tell us on scene.
00:02:02
[Music] I remember waking up in the middle of the night. We know at around 5:30 that Sierra heard
00:02:12
the glass breaking. I just started listening. Just listening to try and understand what was
00:02:19
happening. I was certain she had heard the assault, but she hadn't realized that. Thank God
00:02:26
she didn't walk out and interrupt this thing. I was very terrified. Based on what she had seen at the house, she knew
00:02:33
somebody wasn't okay. She went over to the couch. She felt something wet and when she pulled her hand up, it was
00:02:39
covered in blood. I just was in like a state of shock. Sierra could not locate her father Aaron
00:02:49
and her teenage sister Ellie. We treated it as a missing person's serious assault
00:02:56
until we know otherwise. Everyone was out looking. There was also a potential that
00:03:02
this was what we could refer to as a nobody homicide. And those cases are always tough to work.
00:03:10
As of right now in my family, there are two family members missing. It's still like an open wound
00:03:20
every day. [Music] [Music] The quiet city of Medford, Oregon, was shaken by Maggie Frier's desperate 911
00:04:16
call in the early morning hours of October 2nd, 2017. I don't know where my ex-husband or my oldest daughter is. I
00:04:24
understand that something happened at the house. Something happened over there. Maggie Frier's ex-husband, Aaron Frier,
00:04:32
and their 15-year-old daughter, Ellen, nicknamed Ellie, were missing. My concern is for the both of them. We
00:04:39
don't know where they are. You can only imagine all the things that were running
00:04:44
around in my mind. I didn't know who was dead and who was alive. When Medford Police Officer Logan Boyd
00:04:51
arrived at Aaron's house, he found that gruesome scene. Dude, there is blood everywhere.
00:04:59
Blood spattered walls, shattered glass, and a trail of blood to nowhere. See, it
00:05:05
starts from there and kind of goes all the way out in the dirt. It goes out towards the carport. Yeah, that's not
00:05:10
good. This led investigators to notice what also was missing. Aaron Frier's car. Seen here on a neighbor's security
00:05:19
camera leaving the Frier home around 5:30 that morning. We're kind of dealing with what I would describe as like a
00:05:26
two-headed monster. An all hands on deck call went out to every Medford police detective,
00:05:33
including Detective Bill Ford. We didn't know at that particular time whether this was a missing person case or a
00:05:39
kidnapping. We just didn't know. Detective Shannon Reynolds, Bill Ford's colleague and wife of 20 years, had a
00:05:48
different take. In my mind, I automatically assumed that the 15year-old daughter was the victim of a
00:05:55
homicide. So, a case like this, where did this one sort of fit in? Probably one of the most interesting um heinous
00:06:03
um crimes I've seen in my career. Investigators hoped Ellie's younger sister, 11-year-old Sierra, might shed
00:06:10
light on the unknown. Detective Reynolds, who specializes in crimes against children, was tasked with
00:06:17
interviewing her. Sarah wasn't like outright crying. Um, but you could tell she was worried. Who was she worried
00:06:24
about? Um, her dad and Ellie. I try not to really think about that time a lot. But Sierra, 18 years old at the time of
00:06:32
this exclusive interview, still finds it difficult to speak about the day her father and sister vanished.
00:06:39
I was, you know, just a child and um I'm sorry. The second of three girls, Sierra says
00:06:49
she loved being in the middle. I get to be an older sister and a younger sister,
00:06:54
so I get like the best of both worlds. I like the connection and the bonds that we have.
00:07:00
Sierra says her older sister, Ellie, loved music and could play many instruments.
00:07:06
[Music] a skill Ellie seemed to have picked up from their father. One time he tried to
00:07:15
teach me how to play the drums, but I wasn't very good at it. So, in 2016, Sierra's parents, Maggie and
00:07:22
Aaron, ended their marriage. Sierra says the divorce took a toll on her and her sisters.
00:07:29
It affected us a lot. It was actually not a very great experience for everyone involved.
00:07:36
Sierra says that when her parents separated, her dad moved into that small two-bedroom house. Maggie and Aaron
00:07:42
shared custody and the girls would stay with their dad every other weekend. In September 2017, Sierra decided to live
00:07:51
with her dad full time. I want to be around him and fill my life with him. Then around 5:30 a.m. on October 2nd,
00:08:03
2017, the Frier family was forever broken. Sierra was asleep in the bedroom she shared with her younger sister. I
00:08:14
woke up and it was just pitch black. I remember waking up to like a dinging noise over and over and over
00:08:22
again. Then I heard glass shatter and I heard the fight that occurred. The sound
00:08:28
was coming from the living room. So then what does she hear? Because she really is sort of an ear witness to all that
00:08:35
happened. She heard her dad yell the f-word. She heard dragging. She heard things being moved.
00:08:43
After that, it was completely silent. Did she have any idea what was going on at the time? No. She was frightened
00:08:49
enough to stay in her room until she felt like it was okay to come out. When Sierra finally did come
00:08:56
out, she found that horrific scene. It had to be so scary, though. So scary. Sierra told Detective Reynolds that
00:09:04
before leaving her room, she had seen something out of her bedroom window. She could see people walking back and forth.
00:09:12
Sierra saw two young men outside of her dad's house. One was a person Sierra didn't know. The second was someone
00:09:20
Sierra immediately recognized. It was Gavin McFarland. He was Ellen's boyfriend at the time.
00:09:27
This was her big love. According to her, he was a great guy, but according to my
00:09:33
parents, he was not a great guy. Sierra insinuated this was a little bit of a forbidden love. Dad had forbade
00:09:40
Ellie from seeing Gavin. This was the break investigators had been hoping for. Once we have a name, Gavin McFarland,
00:09:49
now we got a picture. Now we know who we're looking for. The search for Aaron and Ellie Frier and
00:09:56
now Gavin McFarland was on. We probably had 70 75 people out on the streets of Medford.
00:10:08
Ellie and Aaron's phones were found in the house. Investigators now began tracking Gavin's phone. We started
00:10:15
getting cell phone tower hits up in the East Medford area. Patrol officers immediately headed in that direction. A
00:10:24
patrol sergeant locates the car. That was huge. As the officers approached Aaron Frier's vehicle, they realized
00:10:32
that something wasn't right. We could see there was blood on the outside of the bumper that had been dripping down.
00:10:39
When this trunk is opened up, there is large amounts of blood. I mean, it is soaked into the carpet, but no Aaron and
00:10:48
no Ellie. But the car was still warm, so the police knew they were close. We had
00:10:55
tons of people up there driving around looking for them. And then just an hour later, investigators couldn't believe
00:11:03
who they found next. [Music] Their dad's gone. Their older sister's gone. Then just 4 hours after that 911 call
00:11:34
reporting her missing, Medford police found Ellie Frier. She was alive, seemingly unharmed, and had been walking
00:11:43
down a busy street with Gavin McFarland. They're walking down the sidewalk in plain sight. Plain sight. So now we know
00:11:52
Ellie's safe, which made two things clear. Aaron Frier was the victim and based on all that
00:12:00
blood in his car and at the house, time was quickly running out to find him. We had errands out there either seriously
00:12:10
injured or deceased. Walking along with Gavin and Elli was someone investigators hadn't been
00:12:18
looking for. Do you have ID with your name on there? Uh, no, I don't. I hardly ever carry my
00:12:24
ID around. Okay. He turned out to be Russell Jones. I'm super a friend of Gavins.
00:12:31
I won't make it hard on you. All right. Russell had apparently made an impression on Sierra Frier, says
00:12:37
Detective Shannon Reynolds. He matched the description of that second young man she saw at her father's house that
00:12:44
morning. So, she got a really good look at this person. Investigators now had a witness placing Gavin and Russell at the
00:12:52
crime scene. Detective Ford says he wasn't sure what to make of Ellie being found with them. That doesn't mean that
00:12:59
Ellie's involved in something, but Ford says that she, Gavin, or Russell might hold the key to finding Aaron.
00:13:10
Ellie, Gavin and Russell are separated with us. We're not, detained, and transported to
00:13:17
the Medford Police Department for questioning. Hi. Hello. Detective Stephanie Jackson
00:13:23
was tasked with getting Ellie Frier's account of the previous 24 hours. So, what have you been up to today? I
00:13:31
haven't been home and now I'm really concerned about what's been going on. Mhm. Where were you?
00:13:41
How? Ellie was saying everything had seemed normal when she left her father's house
00:13:46
for a long walk. And you were walking down the street, it sounds like, today? Mhm. Who were you with? I was with my
00:13:54
friends. According to Ellie, she had run into those friends, Gavin and Russell, only by chance, not long before being
00:14:03
spotted by police. And so, everybody is really concerned because we actually don't know where
00:14:09
your dad is right now. That's really disturbing to hear. Maybe he was looking for me.
00:14:16
We are very worried about your dad. So am I. Ellie was saying she had no idea where her father was or what happened at
00:14:25
the house. So where did all the blood come from in your house? I don't know. Around that time, Detective Ford was
00:14:35
preparing to interrogate the other two detainees. Strategically, he decided to let Gavin
00:14:41
wait in a holding cell and began interviewing Russell. Spin around in your chair there and face me so I can
00:14:48
talk to you. He's a talker. Very, very talkative. So, I kind of knew he would have a hard time keeping his mouth shut.
00:14:56
Yeah, I have nothing to hide. So, Russell was ready to talk, but he wanted something first. A cigarette. I talk
00:15:04
better when I have a cigarette. Detective Ford took him outside. Just kind of smoking and joking is what
00:15:12
we call it. The camera didn't record audio, but Detective Ford says Russell began telling him that he and Gavin had
00:15:20
gone over to the frier house early that morning. He told us that he was trying to help
00:15:27
get Ellie out of a bad situation. That bad situation, according to Russell, was Aaron Frier.
00:15:36
And the first thing that he tells us is he's not a good person. Aaron Frier is not a good person. Correct.
00:15:43
He didn't elaborate further about Aaron, but Russell was claiming he and Gavin were only there to secretly move Ellie
00:15:50
out. So the next thing I tell him is, "Look, Russell, we got detectives out there right now pulling video from every
00:15:58
house, the alleys. So if this ain't the truth, you need to be truthful with me right now." now. And he looks me square
00:16:04
in the eyes and he says, "Well, 95% of it's the truth and there's five 5% of it's a lie." So, I'm thinking
00:16:12
automatically, "Well, what's the lie here?" Detective Ford decided it was time for a new tactic and tried
00:16:18
appealing to Russell's conscience. I look at him and I'm like, you know, Russell, I don't want a child to find
00:16:27
Aaron out there somewhere, come across something like that. I said, "Can you take us to Aaron?" He
00:16:35
didn't beat an eye. He's just like, "Yeah, I'll take you to him." The veteran detective wasted no time.
00:16:43
We load Russell up. He's actually sitting in the seat that you're sitting in now. Okay. We got him handcuffed in
00:16:50
front. He's basically telling us, "Okay, turn right, turn left." They were ascending a rural mountain
00:16:59
pass 20 miles outside town. And all of a sudden, Russell says, "Stop. Stop right
00:17:07
here. [Music] [Music] Where did you stop your car back there? Uh, probably right where that rock is.
00:17:39
Do you see the body right away? You could see the tarp. You couldn't see any portion of the body right here in this
00:17:45
green tarp. Detectives descended the wooded ravine and pulled back that tarp, revealing
00:17:53
that just 6 hours after that 911 call, they had found Aaron Frier. It was obvious that he was deceased.
00:18:04
When you found out your husband was dead, what did you think? Uh, I was just completely shocked. I
00:18:15
didn't know what to think. Maggie says the police hadn't yet told her Ellie was in their custody being questioned or
00:18:22
even that she had been found. I was very worried about the fate of my daughter. I
00:18:27
had no idea if my daughter was even alive, too. Maggie then faced the unimaginable task
00:18:34
of sharing the news of Aaron's death with their two younger daughters. The reality was almost too much for them
00:18:42
11-year-old Sierra. I just really didn't want to believe it for a really long time.
00:18:50
While investigators began processing the scene, Detective Ford drove Russell Jones back to police
00:18:57
headquarters. He says Russell was claiming that all he had done was help dispose of Aaron's remains. He's like,
00:19:05
"I'm not going to be a witness against Gavin." Russell was saying Gavin was Aaron's
00:19:11
killer, but that Gavin had been provoked. His story was that Aaron had a rifle and was pointing at Gavin. So So
00:19:20
making it seem like a self-defense because if he had a gun pointed at him. Exactly. You can sit in that chair over
00:19:26
there. Okay. Back at the station, Detective Ford returned Russell to the interrogation room while detectives
00:19:32
gathered for a briefing. You're listening in on my conversations, aren't you? That's when Russell began taunting them
00:19:40
through the camera. I can still twist your little mind. Don't piss me off. This, I imagine, got everybody to stop
00:19:54
what they were doing and gather around the monitor and watch this. That's what you do. So, we can play it the easy way
00:20:02
or the hard way. He would go into these rants and making demands and stuff. Gavin and Ellie are to be released to
00:20:14
me. And Russell was claiming he still hadn't been totally truthful. And Mr. Ford, you want the whole
00:20:24
story? Cuz I did miss a few parts. For her part, Ellie was now saying Russell was the one responsible.
00:20:35
I I believe that Russell's the one that killed my father. All right. With the conflicting claims,
00:20:42
Detective Ford decided it was finally time to interview Gavin McFarland. I know I'm in serious trouble, aren't I?
00:20:51
Well, we need to figure out what happened. Gavin started by saying how volatile Aaron Frier could be.
00:20:58
He's threatened my life. He's lying. No, stay away from my daughter. I'm going to
00:21:01
kill you. One month earlier, Gavin had called the police, claiming Aaron had shown up at
00:21:08
his house, banging on his door, threatening to kill him. I don't know what caused him to not like me anymore.
00:21:17
Detectives discovered at least one reason, Gavin's age. He was 19 years old dating 15-year-old Ellie. And making
00:21:27
things worse, Gavin was now claiming Ellie was going to have his baby. She told you she was pregnant? I've known
00:21:34
for about 2 weeks now. While Gavin was admitting to having a sexual relationship with a minor, itself a
00:21:41
crime. He was accusing Aaron of being the one who had been abusive to Ellie. The anger had just been building up
00:21:49
because of the things that Ellie had been telling me. Mhm. Trying to protect Ellie. Okay. My possible trial.
00:21:58
Gavin was claiming he and Russell had gone to the house that morning. But unlike what Russell said that Aaron had
00:22:05
not confronted him with the gun. Instead, Gavin was saying Aaron had been in the living room asleep on the couch
00:22:13
and that Gavin had crept in armed with a baseball bat. Then Gavin made a startling admission. I just acted on
00:22:22
instinct. Okay, tell him what happened. I just swung the bat downwards. It was dark. I couldn't see. How many times do
00:22:31
you think you hit him? Like five or six, maybe? Five or six times. Yeah, the physical evidence would back up
00:22:41
Gavin's story. Aaron had died from blunt force trauma to his head and a bat was recovered from a tree branch above where
00:22:50
his remains had been found. So, this is aluminum bat discoloration. You can see it's red here. This is all blood.
00:23:00
testing would confirm the blood was Aaron's. And he demonstrated for us in the interview room how hard he swung it
00:23:07
down on Aaron's head. I went over the shoulder the first time and then I started going up above my
00:23:14
head. I mean, there were five distinct blows to his head. Explaining that dinging
00:23:21
sound Sierra Frier had heard. I fractured his skull, caved his skull into his brain.
00:23:30
I'm I'm really sorry. And investigators soon found evidence that Aaron's murder had been
00:23:39
meticulously plotted for weeks. They discovered notes, some in Russell's handwriting, at Gavin's house.
00:23:49
We found several murder plans and they actually had plan A, plan B. There were multiple plans and I think ultimately
00:23:59
they come up with the bat. And based on what you could see from the planning, who's the mastermind of all of
00:24:06
this? Ellie, believe it or not. Detective Ford says he believes it was Ellie who wanted
00:24:14
Aaron murdered, pointing to messages Ford says she sent to Gavin. In one, she says, "We need to make sure he's dead by
00:24:23
the time we leave his house." And in another, she asked, "You want to kill him now, don't you? And then you can
00:24:31
kill him in less than a minute, right?" She's pushing it all. She wants to be with Gavin. She
00:24:40
wants to be out from underneath the authority of her father. Ellie wanted me to kill him, but I didn't want to.
00:24:47
Detective Ford says Ellie might have made up those abuse allegations, possibly as a way to
00:24:54
motivate Gavin to kill her father. She is very manipulative. From me watching that
00:25:04
entire interview, she lied. Ellie. No. Then lied. How old are you? 18. And lied. How did Gavin get in the house
00:25:16
this morning? He wasn't in the house. After several hours, Ellie did eventually admit some of her role, even
00:25:26
saying that she had handed Gavin the murder weapon. And what do you say to Gavin? I said, "I'm ready when you are."
00:25:34
Okay. What did you mean by that? When you do this, we're in it together. What did you mean when you said when you
00:25:40
do this? Kill my dad. With evidence, they all conspired to kill Aaron. Gavin, Russell, and Ellie were
00:25:53
charged with his murder. From the day after she was arrested, there was this narrative and
00:26:02
her side was never told. until now. The story that the state has, why is it the right one?
00:26:13
[Music] My daughter left to go stay at my ex-husband's house for the weekend and
00:26:31
never came home. I imagine that moment haunts you still. Of course it does. My child never came
00:26:39
home. After hours of worry, Maggie Frier was finally told her 15-year-old daughter
00:26:48
Ellie had been located. I got a phone call from a police officer that they found her.
00:26:57
But worry morphed into anger when she was then told Ellie had been arrested for her father's murder. Go and take a
00:27:06
seat. And I said, "So, you've had my daughter in your custody interrogating her and you never once called me to let
00:27:13
me know so I could maybe get her some representation." Alisa Kaplan eventually became one of
00:27:19
Ellie's attorneys. She says the narrative about Ellie Frier has been wrong from the very beginning. In this
00:27:26
case, she was made out to be the mastermind or something. You know, she planned all of this when she was 15
00:27:35
years old and they were 19 and 22. She was the manipulator. She was the manipulator, right? And that this was
00:27:41
all because of her relationship with an older man. But Kaplan says this crime actually happened because of the alleged
00:27:49
abuse Ellie suffered at the hands of her father, Aaron. She was sexually abused,
00:27:55
emotionally abused, and physically abused. Abuse that Ellie described in her police
00:28:01
interrogation. He used to be a good father, but he started getting abusive about 3 years ago.
00:28:09
I picked out a bunch of things, but reading from the case file, Kaplan recounted several allegations of
00:28:15
molestation and abuse, warning, the following may be disturbing to hear. Her father would
00:28:23
grab at her breasts. He told her to give in to him. And he tried to take my clothes
00:28:30
off and I slapped him away. He was trying to He would masturbate on top of her when he thought she was sleeping.
00:28:38
Felt so dirty and so ashamed of myself. He pushed her downstairs. Called her idiot,
00:28:48
stupid. shamed her. and you would pin me up against the wall and you would call me those names. And then when he
00:28:55
would get drunk, it would all get worse. As a police report shows, three of Ellie's friends told investigators that
00:29:03
Ellie said her dad abuses her. Ellie shared that her dad was rough on her and emotionally and physically abused her.
00:29:11
And Ellie said her dad mentally and verbally abused her. But Ellie admits she never told her friends about the
00:29:18
sexual molestation. And neither Ellie nor her friends told the police about any kind of abuse before her father's
00:29:26
murder. And as far as allegations of abuse, was there any evidence whatsoever that your detectives could find to back
00:29:35
up what Ellen Frier was saying happened to her? No, there was not. Detective Ford says with Aaron's death,
00:29:44
the possibility of proving abuse may have died with him. We can't go to Aaron and ask Aaron,
00:29:51
"Were you abusing your daughter?" We may never know the truth. If she told her mom, did she tell her
00:29:57
mom ahead of time? Have you thought about having a conversation with your mom about that? No, I'm horrified to
00:30:05
even talk about it. Who have you talked to about your dad masturbating? I told Gavin about it, but that's it.
00:30:14
Ellie told Detective Jackson that the first time she had told Gavin was 2 days before he bludgeoned her father to
00:30:22
death. Cuz I know this is hard to talk about. I know. Why me? Why did he do it to me? I don't I
00:30:33
have no idea what he's done to my sisters. I see a teenager who would do anything
00:30:42
to survive and to protect her sisters. Detective Shannon Reynolds says 11-year-old Sierra was asked if there
00:30:50
were any problems at home. She actually only had good things to say about her father. When Detective Reynolds
00:30:58
interviewed the youngest Frier daughter, she recalled the last conversation she had with
00:31:04
Ellie. Minutes after their father's murder, she had said that Ellie had woken her up and she said she was
00:31:12
leaving and that she was leaving because mom and dad were abusive. Before Reynolds could say anything, the
00:31:19
8-year-old gave her opinion on the matter. And she told me, "My mom and dad were not abusive." Both of Ellie's
00:31:26
sisters told Reynolds that what Ellie had called abuse was actually their parents disciplining her for sneaking
00:31:34
around with Gavin. Cuz they took her electronics away and they yelled at her. What do you say to that? Yeah. Well,
00:31:42
they were younger, right? This is actually very common in families where there's abuse that there's one child who
00:31:49
takes on the majority of it and want to protect the others in the family. You know, you you describe her as this
00:31:58
protective older sister, but yet she left them there at the house. How is that protecting them? Yeah. And I think,
00:32:06
you know, those are things that Ellen will live with for the rest of her life. And she clearly understands how much
00:32:13
damage she has caused her sister. Detective Ford says that with no evidence to back up Ellie's abuse
00:32:21
claims, he remains suspicious that she may have made it all up to manipulate Gavin. Seen here with Ellie on a store
00:32:29
security camera hours after the murder. And it turns out Ellie was never pregnant. I think you got to look at it
00:32:37
two ways. Maybe she thought she was pregnant or maybe she's using that to influence
00:32:43
Gavin to kill her dad. Ellie's legal team says Ellie did think she was pregnant, which is why she
00:32:51
bought a pregnancy test while at the store. Investigators say it's clear Ellie Frier has an issue with the truth.
00:33:00
She lied during that interview for no reason. Kaplan says much has been made of the many lies Ellie told during her
00:33:08
police interrogation. As a parent, we all we all know that our kids sometimes do that. But Kaplan says
00:33:15
the real focus should be on the hours and hours and hours Ellie spent in that interview room. I have the right to
00:33:24
remain silent. She asked to not talk. She said, "I want to remain silent." Right. She was there for 10 hours
00:33:32
straight. But with your wishing to remain silent, it's really difficult to kind of get to the bottom of all of
00:33:38
that. Then let's talk. a minor without a guardian or attorney. Is it normal to keep a
00:33:48
15-year-old in an interrogation room for 10 hours like that? Yeah. I mean, there's no law against it. So, we gave
00:33:55
her breaks. I found blankets. There was times where she laid on the floor and slept.
00:34:03
Kaplan says that although it may have been legal in Oregon, it wasn't right. And look, police have their jobs to do.
00:34:10
I get it. I just think the rules are really different when you have a kid and in that she looks like a kid.
00:34:20
She's acting like a kid. She's in fear like a kid would be. A kid who Kaplan says was taken
00:34:29
advantage of by someone she calls another abuser. 19-year-old Gavin McFarland. a grown man reaching over to
00:34:40
a 15-year-old girl who was so vulnerable. No matter what her text messages said, no matter what her
00:34:47
involvement was, I don't even understand how you don't look at that as him being
00:34:53
the controller. Detective Reynolds says she saw some of that controlling behavior on
00:35:00
display in letters Gavin wrote to Ellie after they were arrested. [Music] He was saying that she needed to be sure
00:35:09
to say that her dad was abusing her. And he was telling her, "We're going to take
00:35:14
this to a jury and we're going to win the jury over." And the way to do that is to
00:35:20
cry. Make sure you cry. [Music] [Music] I've given everything I can and when this goes to court, I would like to be
00:35:52
tried as an adult. But there would be no trial. In January of 2019, a little more
00:35:59
than a year after her father's death, Ellie Frier took a plea deal. How did you feel about that decision?
00:36:07
I didn't like it cuz I'm pretty sure that she did it cuz she was scared. I don't think she wanted to go to court.
00:36:15
Ellie Frier pleaded guilty to an adult charge of conspiring to murder her father, Aaron.
00:36:22
I'm first like to say that I'm sorry for all the pain that I've caused to others.
00:36:28
The deal was brokered by a different defense attorney. According to court documents, that attorney wrote that
00:36:34
Ellie Frier's codefendants, Gavin McFarland and Russell Jones, were going to be testifying against her and say
00:36:41
that she was the mastermind behind all of this. It was her idea from the beginning. Ellie's text messages would
00:36:49
have been used against her at trial, too. Elisa Kaplan began working on Ellie Frier's behalf in 2024. I run the
00:36:58
criminal justice reform clinic. We are looking at Ellen's case mostly because we believe that she has an excessive
00:37:06
sentence. And what is her sentence? 25 years. McFarland and Jones also took plea deals with Gavin McFarland pleading
00:37:15
guilty to murder and murder conspiracy charges. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Russell Jones entered a
00:37:24
nocontest plea to conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to 15 years. Kaplan is fighting to reduce Ellie
00:37:32
Frier's sentence. She says Ellie should not have been sentenced to 10 more years
00:37:37
than Jones for the same crime. She was 15. He was 22 and her sentence is so much bigger
00:37:47
than his. The idea that Ellen is the master manipulator. I mean, she's a 15year-old. I mean, don't they bear more
00:37:54
responsibility because they're the adults? I don't I wouldn't agree with that. Ellie is absolutely just as responsible
00:38:03
as Gavin, except Gavin was the one that took and held the bat in his hands. Detective Shannon Reynolds isn't as
00:38:12
certain as her husband about Ellie Frier's role. I go back and forth. The mastermind of it, I initially thought
00:38:20
was Ellie. Then reading the letters from Gavin that he wrote to Ellie telling her
00:38:24
what she needed to say. Then I started to think maybe Gavin was the mastermind of all this. I go back and forth. Ford
00:38:31
says regardless of who crafted the plan, all three are responsible in the eyes of
00:38:37
the law because without her this wouldn't have happened. Without Gavin, this wouldn't have
00:38:43
happened. I doubt without Russell it could have happened. I want to be very clear. She was involved. She
00:38:51
participated. She was a co-conspirator. No doubt, right? She takes full accountability for her role
00:38:58
in this crime. Ellie Frier, now 23, has been serving her sentence in a juvenile detention center. In December of 2026,
00:39:07
she'll be moved to an adult prison. and she recently earned two master's degrees, one in psychology and another
00:39:15
in justice studies, which by the way is not that easy to do when you're in prison. She's really incredible. I am
00:39:23
very proud of her. I've always been proud of her after what she went [Music] through. Aaron's dead. Who's going to
00:39:35
speak out for Aaron? Sierra Frier will. My dad was a kind man who loved me and my sisters and always tried to fill my
00:39:47
life with joy. He was a great father to me. He goes with me wherever I go. Sierra has
00:39:57
joined the National Guard, something she says her father always wanted for her. It's mind-blowing that that little girl
00:40:04
I interviewed is now grown up. The fact that she's joining the National Guard lets me know she didn't let this, you
00:40:11
know, derail her life. A life Sierra has had to live without her father, whose memory has been marred by those abuse
00:40:19
allegations. A 48 hours producer asked Sierra about them. Ellie claims that your father abused her. What do you have
00:40:27
to say to that? Uh, I don't really want to talk about that just cuz I have my own feelings about it. Sierra is just as
00:40:36
guarded when it comes to her thoughts about her sister Ellie, though the two have maintained a relationship over the
00:40:43
years. It's very hard to explain because a lot of people wouldn't understand. I've got my own feelings about her.
00:40:52
[Music] But Sierra's feelings about her father are very clear. I love him and I'm so
00:41:01
sorry for everything that happened. I have faith and I have hope that one day, you know, we'll meet again.
00:41:13
[Music] [Music] Was the Ferris family a happy family? No. A wealthy man's murder leads to a
00:41:31
mother's unthinkable accusation. I want everyone, especially my children, to know I didn't do this. I know who did.
00:41:39
48 Hours is all new CBS next Saturday, 10:9 Central and streaming on Paramount Plus.