00:00:00
[Music]
00:00:04
up next
00:00:05
he made lots of money and liked to show
00:00:07
it off wasn't a phase with him
00:00:09
that's how he lived he was known to
00:00:11
gamble sometimes
00:00:13
too much he had had some gambling debts
00:00:15
he
00:00:16
had some problems with the irs when he
00:00:19
ends up dead
00:00:20
his two ex-wives and a girlfriend are
00:00:23
all suspects but someone
00:00:25
was sloppy you can plan and plan and
00:00:28
plan but you'll never plan for
00:00:29
everything
00:00:38
around 2002 the real estate market in
00:00:41
the dallas-fort worth area of texas was
00:00:44
booming
00:00:45
and david nixon made a fortune he had a
00:00:48
very big personality
00:00:50
he was always smiling he was always
00:00:52
happy he liked nice things nice clothes
00:00:54
nice cars
00:00:56
nice women nixon primarily sold real
00:00:59
estate in grapevine texas
00:01:01
just outside dallas fort worth well
00:01:04
grapevine
00:01:05
it's a very vibrant city very suburban
00:01:08
there is some money here but the main
00:01:11
focus is the lake people
00:01:13
want to live by it and and have very
00:01:15
nice homes around it
00:01:17
but david's idyllic life started to
00:01:19
unravel one sunday night when his
00:01:21
ex-wife walked into police headquarters
00:01:23
to report him missing she said he didn't
00:01:27
show up for a dinner meeting with their
00:01:29
10 year old son that evening
00:01:31
which was very unusual she said he
00:01:34
wasn't returning telephone calls either
00:01:37
david nixon was a great father who
00:01:40
kept in contact with his son even though
00:01:42
he was divorced from his wife
00:01:44
and would constantly keep in contact
00:01:47
with him
00:01:48
i can't really put my finger on anything
00:01:50
i just have a gut feeling that there's
00:01:52
something about this one
00:01:54
that you know there's more to it than
00:01:55
just the typical missing person
00:02:00
just a few hours later a motorist 10
00:02:03
miles away
00:02:04
spotted a fire in the parking lot of an
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abandoned building
00:02:09
when he got closer he was horrified to
00:02:12
see what looked like
00:02:14
a human body the upper portion
00:02:17
of the body was engulfed in flames an
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accelerant
00:02:21
was believed to have been used like
00:02:23
gasoline
00:02:28
the victim wrapped in a blue tarp and
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the blanket
00:02:32
was clearly a large white male with
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brown
00:02:36
hair dental records confirmed
00:02:39
it was david nixon looked like at some
00:02:43
point someone may have tried to
00:02:45
stuff the body down the drainage ditch
00:02:48
the body wouldn't fit
00:02:49
if david's body had had actually gone
00:02:53
all the way down
00:02:54
into that eight-foot drain pipe he might
00:02:57
have never been found
00:02:59
friends and family were shocked by his
00:03:01
murder
00:03:03
it's such a cruel way to die
00:03:04
[Music]
00:03:08
to light someone on fire
00:03:10
[Music]
00:03:16
there was no blood or any sign of a
00:03:18
struggle which meant david
00:03:19
had likely been killed elsewhere
00:03:23
but it was clear that where the body was
00:03:25
found was not the
00:03:27
primary scene that this was a dumping
00:03:29
site and that the body had been set on
00:03:31
fire to
00:03:32
destroy potential evidence and david's
00:03:35
body had been wrapped in a blanket
00:03:38
a possible clue to the murder site
00:03:42
there was a group of filamentous wires
00:03:44
meaning very fine wires
00:03:46
from the charred remnants of the blanket
00:03:48
your typical blanket does not include
00:03:50
metal
00:03:51
fibers unless it's a heat generating
00:03:54
blanket such as an electric blanket
00:03:57
a fractured rib alerted the medical
00:04:00
examiner to a bullet pathway
00:04:02
that led from david's left side
00:04:05
through his heart cause of death
00:04:09
was a single gunshot it was a small
00:04:13
caliber handgun
00:04:15
they couldn't determine you know what
00:04:18
caliber because we never found the
00:04:19
bullet
00:04:20
to investigators it seemed strange that
00:04:23
david's ex-wife reported him missing
00:04:26
just three hours before his body
00:04:28
was found and police soon learned
00:04:32
she had a possible motive
00:04:35
a half million dollar motive
00:04:42
at david nixon's autopsy the medical
00:04:44
examiner discovered that david had been
00:04:46
shot with a small caliber bullet
00:04:51
and tests showed his body had been
00:04:53
soaked with gasoline
00:04:55
before the fire despite the damage
00:04:59
the medical examiner was able to analyze
00:05:02
undamaged tissue
00:05:03
to estimate when david was shot
00:05:07
i was able to estimate that at room
00:05:09
temperature
00:05:10
the body was probably deceased for 36 to
00:05:12
48 hours prior
00:05:14
to the body being discovered since
00:05:17
david's body was discovered
00:05:19
sunday night past midnight he was
00:05:21
probably killed
00:05:22
either late thursday night or early
00:05:26
friday morning
00:05:28
david's murder bore striking
00:05:30
similarities to another unsolved murder
00:05:32
that occurred just four months earlier
00:05:37
literally happened across the street the
00:05:39
victim
00:05:40
a 22 year old prostitute named janet
00:05:43
dolan was killed with a single gunshot
00:05:47
before her body was transported doused
00:05:50
with gasoline and set on fire
00:05:53
it would appear to be more like uh an
00:05:56
execution or a message style murder when
00:05:58
you have somebody
00:05:59
shot and wrapped up and burned but while
00:06:02
the similarities between the cases were
00:06:04
striking
00:06:05
so were the differences
00:06:09
well first of all we had a female versus
00:06:11
a male victim
00:06:12
david nixon was wealthy had no criminal
00:06:15
history
00:06:16
and was not the type to put himself in
00:06:18
harm's way
00:06:20
janet dolan was just the opposite
00:06:23
she probably put herself in some very
00:06:26
strange situations
00:06:28
with people she did not know
00:06:32
and janet's murder seemed to be a crime
00:06:34
of opportunity
00:06:35
not something that had been planned
00:06:39
police concluded it was possible but
00:06:42
highly unlikely
00:06:44
the cases were connected but
00:06:47
investigators got a break when they
00:06:48
discovered forensic evidence at david
00:06:50
nixon's crime
00:06:52
scene there were tire impressions found
00:06:55
within 10 feet of david's body
00:06:59
obviously we believe was the vehicle
00:07:01
that transported him there
00:07:03
the tracks were from a dual axle vehicle
00:07:06
meaning it was a truck with two sets of
00:07:09
tires on the back
00:07:11
and one set on the front there's two
00:07:14
sets of tires two sets of
00:07:16
different tires the front and rear those
00:07:18
had
00:07:19
dramatically different tire tread
00:07:20
impressions but who
00:07:23
wanted david nixon dead
00:07:26
the thing that i've seen when you're
00:07:28
dealing with murder cases is there
00:07:29
there's generally two reasons people
00:07:31
kill love and money
00:07:35
david's ex-wife donna had both of these
00:07:38
motives
00:07:39
there were problems in in david and
00:07:41
donna's relationship
00:07:42
obviously he left her for a young flight
00:07:45
attendant
00:07:46
which of course hurt her deeply donna
00:07:49
would also benefit from david's half
00:07:51
million dollar insurance policy until
00:07:53
their young son
00:07:54
came of age in crime investigating
00:07:58
one of the cardinal rules is follow the
00:07:59
money and of course
00:08:01
the ex-wife had just been named a
00:08:03
beneficiary of an insurance policy and
00:08:05
the first thing police were going to do
00:08:06
under those circumstances was take a
00:08:08
good long hard look at her
00:08:10
but donna was cooperating fully with the
00:08:12
investigation
00:08:14
and was an unlikely killer
00:08:17
she also had an alibi for thursday night
00:08:20
and friday morning
00:08:21
the estimated time of death as the
00:08:24
investigation went along it was clear
00:08:26
that the evidence did not point into in
00:08:28
the direction of donna
00:08:30
david's second ex-wife also had an alibi
00:08:33
for the time of david's murder
00:08:35
an alibi confirmed by numerous witnesses
00:08:39
next
00:08:40
investigators questioned david's current
00:08:43
girlfriend
00:08:44
32 year old tracy frame tracy said she
00:08:48
last
00:08:48
saw david on thursday and she assumed he
00:08:51
was headed to las vegas where he liked
00:08:53
to gamble
00:08:54
he didn't hear from any thursday night
00:08:59
didn't talk to him nothing saturday
00:09:03
hadn't talked to him since he had to not
00:09:04
talk to anybody
00:09:06
it was discovered that he had had some
00:09:09
gambling debts
00:09:10
and he had some problems with the
00:09:14
irs tracy consented to a search of the
00:09:17
house she shared with david
00:09:20
we searched the home with luminol
00:09:23
we did a search with cadaver dogs
00:09:26
they found no evidence of blood and the
00:09:29
cadaver dogs didn't find anything either
00:09:32
but investigators did find one possible
00:09:36
clue as they searched the house they
00:09:38
found
00:09:39
electric blanket controls but they
00:09:40
didn't find an electric blanket
00:09:42
which was kind of odd because they found
00:09:45
david wrapped in an electric blanket
00:09:48
a day later police found david's white
00:09:51
lexus
00:09:52
abandoned in a supermarket parking lot
00:09:55
within walking distance of their house
00:09:58
there was no blood or sign of violence
00:10:00
in the car
00:10:02
but something immediately caught
00:10:05
investigators attention
00:10:07
one of the first things investigators
00:10:09
notice is that the seat is pushed up
00:10:11
toward the steering wheel which would
00:10:13
indicate that a much smaller person had
00:10:15
been in it last and
00:10:16
not a big man like david nixon
00:10:19
investigators hope the store's security
00:10:22
cameras might shed some light
00:10:23
on who left david's car in the lot
00:10:27
[Music]
00:10:31
when police interviewed david nixon's
00:10:33
live-in girlfriend tracy frame she
00:10:35
claimed david
00:10:36
was headed to las vegas on the night he
00:10:38
disappeared
00:10:40
tracy also revealed she didn't have an
00:10:43
alibi for the night david was murdered
00:10:45
she said
00:10:46
she was at home alone we as a family
00:10:49
didn't really know
00:10:50
much of anything he didn't bring her up
00:10:53
um
00:10:53
i never spoke to her on the phone
00:10:57
she was a mystery to all of us really
00:11:00
a background check revealed the two had
00:11:03
an interesting past
00:11:06
the couple met at a lake party shortly
00:11:08
after david's second wife left him
00:11:11
tracy was a successful accountant with
00:11:13
no children
00:11:15
shortly after they got together david
00:11:17
bought two matching cars
00:11:20
a black lexus for tracy a white one
00:11:23
for him and because he owed back taxes
00:11:27
to the irs
00:11:29
david decided to place his house in
00:11:31
tracy's name
00:11:33
a decision he came to regret
00:11:36
david wanted to regain control of the
00:11:38
house and tracy wanted to make sure that
00:11:41
that she kept the house in her name but
00:11:44
there was one
00:11:45
seemingly insurmountable hurdle to her
00:11:48
being a suspect
00:11:50
in looking at her investigators had to
00:11:51
decide how she could have moved the body
00:11:53
after all she was
00:11:54
although she was a trim and strong young
00:11:56
woman she was
00:11:57
almost half the weight of david and
00:11:59
moving him would have been no easy task
00:12:03
then tracy's neighbors told police they
00:12:06
saw
00:12:06
a large rental truck parked at their
00:12:08
house during the weekend
00:12:10
david went missing
00:12:13
[Music]
00:12:15
i mean he even um
00:12:18
a moving van like a u-haul
00:12:21
ride yeah we took we were getting a
00:12:24
truck to move um
00:12:26
a um some large stuff the uh cool stuff
00:12:29
pool chairs
00:12:30
that the uh dumpster wouldn't take
00:12:34
and they said that uh you'll have to
00:12:35
move it but we don't have a vehicle so
00:12:37
david's done in the lawn
00:12:39
next police analyzed the security video
00:12:41
of the supermarket parking lot where
00:12:43
they found david's car
00:12:45
at 1 34 a.m just 37 minutes before
00:12:49
david's burning body was found a woman
00:12:53
got out of david's white lexus walked
00:12:56
to a black lexus and drove away
00:13:00
you kind of look and go you know that
00:13:01
that looks like tracy
00:13:03
especially when she got in the black car
00:13:06
thinking
00:13:06
man four hours earlier the black lexus
00:13:10
drove
00:13:11
into the lot the same woman got out
00:13:14
walked across the lot to a rental truck
00:13:17
and drove away
00:13:19
tape showed that the previous afternoon
00:13:22
this same woman had parked the rental
00:13:24
truck in the lot
00:13:26
then left on foot with a large black dog
00:13:30
tracy had a large black dog it
00:13:33
does seem to be highly coincidental that
00:13:36
the same person that you're looking at
00:13:37
would also have a black lexus a white
00:13:39
lexus
00:13:40
access to a penske truck and to walk a
00:13:42
dog similar to the one that tracy frame
00:13:44
had
00:13:46
because the camera was so far away there
00:13:49
was no way to positively identify the
00:13:52
woman
00:13:54
if this was tracy frame they'd need
00:13:58
some way to prove it
00:14:12
i don't know thank you
00:14:18
[Music]
00:14:23
police had surveillance tape showing an
00:14:25
unidentified woman parking
00:14:27
two different cars in a shopping center
00:14:29
parking lot
00:14:30
next to a large rental truck
00:14:34
the two cars matched the make and model
00:14:36
of those owned
00:14:37
by david nixon and his girlfriend tracy
00:14:41
frame
00:14:42
police also had surveillance video of
00:14:45
the same woman
00:14:46
walking into the store on the night
00:14:48
david's body was discovered
00:14:51
wasn't able to really pick her up
00:14:53
throughout the store but
00:14:55
could pick her up at the at the register
00:14:57
again
00:14:58
the woman purchased garbage bags and
00:15:02
two bottles of muriatic acid
00:15:05
although muriatic acid is sold in small
00:15:07
amounts to private individuals mostly
00:15:09
it's used as a solvent or cleaner and
00:15:11
heavy
00:15:12
industry that's when investigators
00:15:14
noticed something important
00:15:16
in order to save 34 cents on her
00:15:19
purchase
00:15:20
the woman used her discount card
00:15:24
and store records showed the name on the
00:15:27
card
00:15:28
was none other than tracy frame
00:15:33
after the purchase she drove away in the
00:15:36
rental van
00:15:38
the rental agency told investigators
00:15:41
they had rented that same truck to three
00:15:43
other people in the days
00:15:44
after tracy returned it investigators
00:15:48
found
00:15:49
no blood or any trace of acid inside the
00:15:52
truck
00:15:53
but the tire impressions were potential
00:15:56
evidence
00:15:58
my job was to see if there was any
00:16:00
relation between the tires that were
00:16:02
photographed of the moving vehicle
00:16:04
and what was left at the scene by laying
00:16:08
the test impressions over the evidence
00:16:10
photos
00:16:11
analysts were able to compare all
00:16:14
six tires on the van to those found at
00:16:17
the scene
00:16:19
i was able to document that six
00:16:21
different tires
00:16:24
that had two different types of tire
00:16:26
tread impressions
00:16:28
two different sets of class
00:16:29
characteristics
00:16:31
were represented very neatly on the
00:16:34
scene
00:16:36
this meant it was virtually certain
00:16:39
tracy's moving van left these tire
00:16:42
tracks
00:16:44
but one question remained a lot of folks
00:16:48
have asked the question you know how
00:16:49
does a woman tracy size move a guy
00:16:51
that large the answer
00:16:55
a hand truck came with the moving
00:16:58
vehicle
00:16:58
[Music]
00:16:59
she merely has to place the hand truck
00:17:03
on the bed beside him and roll him over
00:17:05
on top of it
00:17:07
and strap him to it
00:17:10
once he is strapped to that hand truck
00:17:12
then it's just a matter of pulling the
00:17:14
hand truck around
00:17:17
investigators believe tracy knew david
00:17:19
was planning to leave her and she wanted
00:17:21
to keep the house that was still
00:17:23
in her name late thursday night
00:17:27
as he slept she shot him with an
00:17:31
unregistered handgun friends said he
00:17:33
kept in the house
00:17:35
she wrapped the body and blankets from
00:17:38
the bed
00:17:39
the next day friday she drove david's
00:17:42
car to the rental agency
00:17:45
where she rented a moving van
00:17:49
she waited until nightfall and used a
00:17:52
hand truck
00:17:53
to get david's body into the van
00:18:00
[Music]
00:18:03
then she drove 14 miles to the isolated
00:18:07
parking lot
00:18:08
where she tried to dispose of the body
00:18:11
in a large drain
00:18:14
[Music]
00:18:21
but it was too big it wouldn't fit
00:18:24
[Music]
00:18:27
she panicked and left leaving
00:18:30
the tire impressions worried
00:18:33
that she'd have to explain why the
00:18:35
moving van was parked at her house for
00:18:37
an extended period
00:18:39
she parked it at the supermarket and
00:18:42
walked home with her dog
00:18:45
[Music]
00:18:48
on sunday night she returned to the
00:18:51
supermarket
00:18:52
bought trash bags and muriatic acid
00:18:56
and identified herself by using her
00:18:58
discount card
00:19:00
to save 34 cents
00:19:04
that night she cleaned the truck
00:19:08
doused david's body with gasoline set it
00:19:11
on fire
00:19:12
then exchanged vehicles again
00:19:15
and returned home once in custody
00:19:20
tracy was found to have linear bruises
00:19:23
on her thighs
00:19:24
at exactly the height the hand truck
00:19:27
would have hit her body
00:19:29
police also found evidence that tracy
00:19:32
purchased a new mattress for her bedroom
00:19:35
and had the old one removed we don't
00:19:38
know where the new mattress came from
00:19:41
i would think that that mattress was
00:19:43
probably
00:19:44
taken in to
00:19:48
one of these illegal dumping sites as
00:19:49
opposed to
00:19:51
you know obviously being put in a in a
00:19:53
dumpster somewhere
00:19:54
police believe that money was the motive
00:19:59
tracy was complaining about david one
00:20:01
time her friend carol
00:20:02
she said well why don't you just leave
00:20:04
him and she said well without him
00:20:06
i'd be living in an apartment and
00:20:07
driving a honda
00:20:10
in march of 2005 a jury took just
00:20:14
four hours to convict tracy frame of
00:20:17
first
00:20:17
degree murder she was sentenced to 40
00:20:20
years in prison
00:20:22
she'll be eligible for parole after 20.
00:20:26
police were looking at the totality of
00:20:28
the coincidences the black lexus the
00:20:30
white lexus the
00:20:31
penske truck the woman walking the dog
00:20:33
and at the same time
00:20:34
her personal shopper's car being used to
00:20:37
buy some muriatic acid it was just too
00:20:39
much for
00:20:40
police not to determine that she was
00:20:41
probably the one
00:20:43
the fact that she ran that card over and
00:20:46
saved
00:20:47
uh i don't know what was it 34 cents
00:20:51
something like that um
00:20:54
nice science was this case
00:20:58
pure and simple i mean there was there's
00:21:01
really nothing else
00:21:03
that's what sealed it for you can plan
00:21:06
and plan
00:21:07
and plan but you'll never plan for
00:21:11
[Music]
00:21:13
everything
