Tracking a Crime

Speaker 1 A friend of mine introduced us.

Speaker 1 All I knew was that he was in real estate.

Speaker 1 David was nice, very charming, easy to get along with.

Speaker 1 We've always had a good time.

Speaker 1 He had a lot of ambition, a lot of good ideas.

Speaker 2 David is the kind of person that makes people feel good.

Speaker 1 He could sell you just about anything.

Speaker 2 He could sell a screen door to a submarine.

Speaker 1 It's just how he was.

Speaker 3 Tracy was the new girlfriend. She really wanted to take over.
So she was going to be in charge. That was her mode of operation.

Speaker 1 Donna, she was his ex-wife. It was weird.

Speaker 1 I liked him and his personality. If he had a son, that didn't matter to me.

Speaker 4 Tracy was nice.

Speaker 4 Just about everything was good at the beginning.

Speaker 1 Well, I started finding out stuff.

Speaker 2 He gambled like crazy.

Speaker 1 David owed everybody money.

Speaker 2 Very paranoid.

Speaker 5 Taped everything.

Speaker 1 Prostitutes, call girls.

Speaker 6 David left with cash.

Speaker 2 He had $25,000 with him.

Speaker 7 This was a pretty brutal crime, just cold, calculated murder.

Speaker 1 He was shot

Speaker 1 and burned

Speaker 1 in a parking lot.

Speaker 7 He had been wrapped in what appeared to be an electric blanket, and then outside of that was what appeared to be a blue plastic tarp.

Speaker 6 If you're going to kill somebody, you would do it for a reason.

Speaker 2 David and Donna didn't get along.

Speaker 2 She had a half a million reasons.

Speaker 1 Donna has gained everything. She wanted the house.

Speaker 9 What happened to David?

Speaker 5 What happened to him? I don't know. I messed up.

Speaker 10 Tracy was the only one who had anything against them, really.

Speaker 11 Somebody's lying.

Speaker 1 If I wasn't walking in my shoes, I wouldn't believe somebody telling me the story.

Speaker 12 Secrets and lies on Grapevine Lake.

Speaker 12 It was the middle of the night when forensic death investigator John Briggs got the call to report to the scene of a homicide.

Speaker 2 As soon as you get out of the vehicle, you can smell a burning odor.

Speaker 2 The body was wrapped in several items that had burned during the fire, but were not totally consumed.

Speaker 2 There was the remains of a blue plastic camping tarp.

Speaker 2 Then around all that was rope.

Speaker 12 The body was still smoldering as Briggs carefully rolled it over, hoping to identify the victim.

Speaker 2 I could not even tell if it was a male or a female, but based upon the face, I knew it was a Caucasian person.

Speaker 12 When police first arrived at this crime scene in Grand Prairie, Texas in April of 2002, the intense heat from the fire had damaged the body to such a degree that crime scene investigators had to spend hours delicately recovering the remains.

Speaker 12 The police found tire tracks and some fiber materials, but little else by way of evidence.

Speaker 12 The medical examiner determined the victim was a man in his 40s killed by a single gunshot wound to the heart, but his identity was a mystery.

Speaker 12 Dental records would later confirm the victim as 40-year-old David Nixon, a successful realtor from nearby Grapevine, Texas.

Speaker 5 I knew this second he never called me back because he would never not call me back. I knew something had happened.

Speaker 12 14-year-old Nicholas is David Nixon's son.

Speaker 16 What's your favorite picture?

Speaker 13 Where was this?

Speaker 5 Cabo.

Speaker 10 I was deep-sea fishing. This is in steamboat.
We were snowmobile.

Speaker 12 You had a great smile, you were done.

Speaker 12 He idolized his father. a bear of a man at 6'4, 240 pounds.

Speaker 4 Trustworthy, dependable, protective.

Speaker 10 Anybody who knew him knew that he would do just about anything for anybody.

Speaker 18 Everyone that knew him well just talked about how much he loved you.

Speaker 4 He was always bragging about something I did.

Speaker 12 Nicholas's mother, Donna Lilla, is David Nixon's first wife.

Speaker 12 They married in 1990.

Speaker 12 You got a sign of things to come.

Speaker 12 Years later, she still has fond memories.

Speaker 3 Charming, vivacious, and full of life.

Speaker 5 And you never know what you're going to get.

Speaker 3 Love surprises. Love surprises.
Loves love surprises.

Speaker 12 Nicholas, their only child, was born the following year.

Speaker 3 Anything for Nicholas. Crazy about him.

Speaker 12 David soon found success selling real estate, becoming a top agent, eventually brokering million-dollar deals on high-end properties in the affluent suburbs north of Dallas.

Speaker 20 He hardly ever slept.

Speaker 3 It was bigger and better, faster. It was always a race.
It was always about competition.

Speaker 12 Their marriage ended badly in 1995 after David had an affair with flight attendant Lisa Hill.

Speaker 12 They married and divorced within two years.

Speaker 12 But David wasn't single for long. Before his divorce was final, he met another woman, an attractive 27-year-old accountant named Tracy Frame.

Speaker 1 He was nice, very charming, easy to get along with, very smooth. I wasn't interested in dating right then, but he was pretty persistent.

Speaker 12 And convincing. So.

Speaker 12 David and Tracy soon started living together in this house in Grapevine.

Speaker 12 They lived extravagantly, often taking ocean cruises together.

Speaker 3 The trips were amazing.

Speaker 22 Did he have a taste for the finer things in life?

Speaker 1 Absolutely. He always wanted to have the best of the best.
Drive Alexis, drive Mercedes.

Speaker 22 Did he live beyond his means?

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 12 At home, David and Tracy were fixtures in the social scene at Grapevine Lake.

Speaker 1 I knew everybody out there and he, you know, it was great.

Speaker 8 That lake is a Peyton place, I'm telling you right now.

Speaker 8 It was amazing to see who woke up with who in the mornings.

Speaker 12 Jerry Val knows that scene very well.

Speaker 8 Everybody knew everybody and there were a lot of really good times, a lot of fun times.

Speaker 8 Tracy and I just became friends.

Speaker 12 Tracy was especially popular among men.

Speaker 8 Good looking. One of the most attractive women out there, I would say.
Some people didn't like her, maybe because she was that good looking.

Speaker 12 But Tracy only had eyes for David.

Speaker 8 The beginning when I first met him, they loved each other, they were spending time together, they enjoyed doing things together, but their relationship was volatile.

Speaker 8 Most of the time they were a lot of fun to be around, but boy, when they argued, you just wanted to get away from it.

Speaker 12 The loudest and longest arguments were over finances and David's gambling debts.

Speaker 22 So the money was going out faster than it was coming in.

Speaker 1 Absolutely. I hoped that things would get better, and it just didn't.

Speaker 12 In fact, the arguing got worse.

Speaker 1 It was cats and dogs. Every time we saw each other, there were a lot more angry words than there were happy.

Speaker 12 Sometimes it got rough.

Speaker 8 Did he batter you?

Speaker 1 No, not on a regular basis. Absolutely not.

Speaker 9 Not on a regular basis.

Speaker 16 Did he ever batter you?

Speaker 1 We got in some shoving matches, but I wouldn't say that's battering.

Speaker 12 In the spring of 2002, after almost four years together, it was over.

Speaker 16 And so you said we're done.

Speaker 23 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I told him that this isn't what I wanted. And, you know, we should probably think about going our own ways.

Speaker 12 But going their separate ways would be complicated. David reportedly owed more than $100,000 in back taxes to the IRS.

Speaker 12 To protect his property, he had the house put in tracy's name you wanted full ownership of the house well i had full ownership of the house

Speaker 12 can i get an officer to come through uh my house david disagreed arguments over ownership of the house escalated on april 9th when he called the policeon he was livid that tracy had changed the locks to the house she has now locked me out of my own house i'm sitting out here in the driveway with nobody here, and I'm locked out.

Speaker 24 Okay. It's my house, and it's my stuff, and I want to know my rights.

Speaker 5 We'll get someone out there, and they can explain that all to you, okay?

Speaker 12 The police helped settle that argument.

Speaker 14 So, after that domestic disturbance call on April the 9th, things were civil between the two of you.

Speaker 1 I wouldn't say civil, it was business. I wasn't going to leave him high and dry.

Speaker 12 Almost two weeks later, David Nixon was dead.

Speaker 1 I was crying, and they just said he had been murdered. He was

Speaker 1 shot and burned. Didn't even cross my mind that he had been hurt or injured in any way.

Speaker 12 Tracy says she was stunned by the news.

Speaker 22 You must have been thinking, like, who could have done this?

Speaker 1 Sure. I mean, there was a lot of things going through my mind.

Speaker 1 I just couldn't believe it.

Speaker 12 Donna Lella, David's first wife, could believe it.

Speaker 3 When I went to the police department, those were my first words that Sunday night I went there. Tracy Frame did it.
David told me I had to tell you this.

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Speaker 3 It was eerie.

Speaker 3 He was preparing for the worst.

Speaker 12 To hear Donna Lella tell the story, David Nixon, her ex-husband, had a premonition that he would be murdered.

Speaker 3 He told me what was going to happen.

Speaker 12 And what's more, he knew the person who would kill him.

Speaker 3 He was going to be murdered by Tracy.

Speaker 3 He used the word murder.

Speaker 3 That Tracy was going to kill him.

Speaker 9 He didn't call the police with his suspicions or his fears.

Speaker 3 No, and I didn't think to tell him that.

Speaker 12 Donna went to the police and reported David missing after he didn't return phone messages from their son Nicholas.

Speaker 12 Donna then confronted Tracy Frame over the phone.

Speaker 9 What did you ask her?

Speaker 3 I asked her what she did with David.

Speaker 9 And what did she say?

Speaker 3 And she said, well, he's on vacation. What makes you think I did something to David? I said, David's missing, Tracy.

Speaker 4 What'd you do?

Speaker 3 I kept asking her that.

Speaker 12 Tracy wasn't worried about David's disappearance. What were you thinking?

Speaker 1 Nothing. I mean, that's normal.
At that point, it was not uncommon for him just to do what he wanted, to go out with the guys or go stay in a hotel.

Speaker 1 I didn't call him, beg him to come home or whatever. Absolutely not.

Speaker 12 She says David sometimes snuck off to Las Vegas for a weekend of gambling.

Speaker 9 What else happened in Vegas?

Speaker 1 I don't really know how to say this.

Speaker 1 Apparently there were prostitutes, call girls,

Speaker 5 other

Speaker 1 activities that

Speaker 1 happened.

Speaker 12 Despite their differences, Tracy and David were still living together at the house in Grapevine.

Speaker 12 But David had found another place to live and was making arrangements to move just days before his murder.

Speaker 16 You were discussing plans for him to move his things out of the house.

Speaker 16 And what did he ask you to do?

Speaker 1 To rent a van. I mean, we've rented them before.

Speaker 12 Tracy did rent a Penske moving van and furniture dolly, but David never returned.

Speaker 7 Since David and Tracy lived together,

Speaker 7 she was our key witness. She was the one we wanted to talk to the most.

Speaker 12 Grapevine Police Detective Larry Hallmark was assigned to investigate the murder of David Nixon.

Speaker 7 Once we met her, her demeanor was completely not what I expected or not what would be normal under those circumstances.

Speaker 1 They just said he had been murdered, gunshot wound, and they had to use the dental records.

Speaker 7 The first thing she asked was, how did they identify him? Which I thought was an extremely suspicious response.

Speaker 14 The detective is quoted as saying that you asked immediately, how did they identify the body?

Speaker 1 And that's not true.

Speaker 23 That's not true. No.

Speaker 12 Frayne told detectives that she was home alone the night David disappeared. She agreed to be questioned on videotape at the police station.

Speaker 12 Tracy tells them that she and David were having problems in the months leading to his murder.

Speaker 1 We just aren't getting along enough.

Speaker 27 I just lost the baby.

Speaker 12 Tracy learned she was pregnant the previous fall, just as her relationship with David was crumbling.

Speaker 1 David, you know, he was totally against it.

Speaker 1 Wasn't interested in it at all.

Speaker 12 Tracy now says health complications forced her to terminate the pregnancy.

Speaker 12 But at the time, she blamed David, writing to him, I have given you everything, heart and soul, including murder of her unborn baby. I hope you are happy because I am not.

Speaker 12 The loss of her unborn baby and David's reaction left Tracy bitter. But he was unapologetic.
He could be cruel.

Speaker 1 He could be very vicious with his tongue.

Speaker 12 But was she angry enough to commit murder?

Speaker 12 Homework and another detective, Matt Gudgel, start pressing Tracy for answers.

Speaker 27 Things have just turned real serious.

Speaker 20 Do you understand where I'm coming from?

Speaker 20 So it's time to be honest. What happened to Dave?

Speaker 5 What happened to him? I don't know. Why do you ask me that?

Speaker 20 Mask me, what happened today, baby?

Speaker 5 I don't know.

Speaker 7 She could never tell the truth during that entire interview. She was evasive and sometimes she just out and out lied.

Speaker 9 Did you shoot David Nixon?

Speaker 1 No, I didn't.

Speaker 22 Did you wrap him in an electric blanket and set him afire?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 22 Do you know the circumstances surrounding David Nixon's murder?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 14 While Hallmark had his suspicions about Tracy Frame, he had little to go on.

Speaker 12 As far as physical evidence, you don't have much to work with, do you?

Speaker 7 No.

Speaker 6 No. No gun?

Speaker 13 No gun. No bullets?

Speaker 6 No. No blood?

Speaker 7 No blood.

Speaker 12 And an exhaustive search of the crime scene, the storm drain, yielded few clues.

Speaker 12 The area had already been washed down by firefighters.

Speaker 14 You actually went down in the storm drain?

Speaker 7 It's an eight-foot-tall storm drain that's 15 feet below where we are standing right now.

Speaker 7 And I actually walked that 94 feet looking for any physical evidence. What I found was that this storm drain was clean.

Speaker 7 I didn't even find gravel or broken glass in here.

Speaker 12 The police did find a set of tire tracks at the scene providing Hallmark with an important clue.

Speaker 7 The tire tracks that backed up to this body were the same make, model, and size as the tires that were on the Penske truck that Tracy had rented.

Speaker 12 And Hallmark soon caught another break. Security cameras at a Tom Thumb supermarket near David and Tracy's house captured fleeting images over that weekend.

Speaker 12 Blurry at best, but recorded at very precise times. The videotape shows a Penske moving van that looks similar to the one Tracy rented driving through the parking lot.

Speaker 12 Also on tape, someone abandons David's white Lexus in the lot three days after his murder. The cameras show a woman walking outside the store.
Inside, she's seen buying several items and then leaving.

Speaker 7 Now she's going to come out of the store right there.

Speaker 12 Is that woman Tracy Frame? I did not know her.

Speaker 16 You're sure that's her?

Speaker 7 It's a woman that looks like her.

Speaker 16 But it wasn't you. No.

Speaker 1 Doesn't even look like me.

Speaker 23 Were you at the store with the truck that night?

Speaker 12 You weren't there?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 I was at my parents' house in Arlington Saturday and Sunday.

Speaker 12 But if it is Tracy caught on tape, she's caught without an explanation.

Speaker 9 What's your theory?

Speaker 1 What happened that night?

Speaker 7 Tracy had finally made the decision that

Speaker 7 she was just going to have to kill David. And she shot him while he was sleeping.

Speaker 7 Then she rented a moving truck and waited until the cover of night to move his body.

Speaker 28 How does a woman weighing 145 pounds

Speaker 9 dispose

Speaker 28 of a body weighing 245 pounds?

Speaker 9 You use a furniture dolly.

Speaker 7 It would just be a matter of rolling him onto that dolly and strapping him down.

Speaker 12 Homark says Tracy tried but failed to shove Nixon's body down into the storm drain.

Speaker 14 You believe that she dumped the body here and then two days later returned to set it afire to get rid of the evidence completely. Right.

Speaker 7 And then she could just sweep him into that storm drain and he would just disappear forever.

Speaker 12 That alleged plan fell apart after a passerby spotted the fire. But the question remained, why would Tracy want David dead?

Speaker 3 Money, greed, that's the only thing that I had to go on.

Speaker 1 There was nothing to gain.

Speaker 1 Nothing.

Speaker 12 Tracy is about to counterattack, and the new man in her life is leading the way.

Speaker 23 You'd believe that she knows nothing about the circumstances surrounding David Nixon's murder.

Speaker 2 I don't think she has a clue.

Speaker 5 I'm innocent.

Speaker 1 I've never been in trouble with the police. I've never thought the police were anything but out there to help you.

Speaker 27 And the last time you talked to him was Thursday.

Speaker 1 I didn't know what the heck was going on.

Speaker 19 I'm confused.

Speaker 5 Why is that a lie?

Speaker 1 That is not true.

Speaker 7 You need to listen to what I'm about to tell you.

Speaker 28 You really do.

Speaker 7 I'm going to promise you I'm not mad at you.

Speaker 27 But things have just turned really serious for you.

Speaker 5 Why?

Speaker 12 The day after Tracy Frame met with police detectives,

Speaker 12 she was arrested and charged with the murder of David Nixon.

Speaker 19 What are you thinking about right now?

Speaker 5 It's just been a horrible experience.

Speaker 1 I knew that it would happen.

Speaker 3 It was no surprise.

Speaker 3 I knew in my heart that she had done it.

Speaker 3 But would it stick? Was the question.

Speaker 12 Tracy was released on bond and fitted with an electronic monitoring device to be worn until her trial.

Speaker 1 To go to a restaurant or to go shopping in shorts when it's 105 degrees, it's hard. Everybody stares.

Speaker 1 leaves bruises on my ankle and stuff.

Speaker 12 But Tracy has her defenders. Okay.
A lot of cold, a lot of vibration, none of the P-word. And none is more loyal than dentist Roland Taylor, a native of Great Britain who settled in Texas.

Speaker 26 Everybody goes, what a bitch she is.

Speaker 5 And she's totally the opposite.

Speaker 12 And in her hour of need, he is standing behind her.

Speaker 14 Who would want David Nixon dead?

Speaker 2 Probably the people that he owed money to.

Speaker 2 And he owed a lot.

Speaker 14 And Tracy Frame did not have a motive.

Speaker 2 You know what? It would behoove her to keep him alive because he owed her a ton of money.

Speaker 12 Roland and Tracy were longtime friends from Grapevine Lake.

Speaker 2 I've never met anybody like her.

Speaker 5 She's very smart.

Speaker 2 She's fun.

Speaker 12 After her arrest, a romance developed.

Speaker 2 All Tracy's ever wanted to do is love and be loved.

Speaker 21 That's all she's ever wanted.

Speaker 28 And when they say, Roland, you better watch her back.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's why I put a ring on her finger.

Speaker 12 Roland and Tracy are engaged to be married.

Speaker 2 I will never, ever, ever stop loving her. I'll never leave.
I'm there.

Speaker 12 Donald Fear is Tracy's defense attorney.

Speaker 19 As the state said, this is purely a circumstantial case.

Speaker 12 Fear has worked on only three murder cases in his career, but he's confident he can quickly win an acquittal for frame.

Speaker 19 She was arrested in the first 36 hours in a homicide case, and that's just unheard of unless it happens to be standing there with the smoking gun screaming, I did it, I killed him.

Speaker 12 Fear says an ambitious detective Hallmark got it all wrong from the beginning.

Speaker 19 You have a detective corporal who wants to be a detective sergeant. A high-profile homicide case comes across his desk.
Make a quick arrest, make a quick case, you look good, you make sergeant.

Speaker 12 Fear says the case against his client doesn't add up. pointing out that no incriminating evidence was found at the house or in the moving truck.
Where did she kill him?

Speaker 19 They tore the house apart, and if she killed him in there, she had white carpet.

Speaker 19 Miami CSI needs to hire her to show how she can defeat all possible scientific trace evidence, dragging a body across a house through vehicles and then out on the ground.

Speaker 12 He says the videotaped interview with detectives was designed to trap his client.

Speaker 14 Did you find her evasive during that questioning?

Speaker 19 No, I found her confused.

Speaker 15 He would have called me Sunday or Monday.

Speaker 19 She saw interrogation questions aimed at trying to make her look bad and trip her up.

Speaker 7 Your car was still burning

Speaker 11 Sunday at 9 a.m.

Speaker 1 No, that's not true.

Speaker 5 I mean, it wasn't that.

Speaker 27 See, now we're getting back into everybody's line, but Tracy.

Speaker 5 I just don't know what I'm saying.

Speaker 9 And she looked bad.

Speaker 19 And she looked bad. And that's how it's supposed to work.

Speaker 12 Break them down.

Speaker 19 Who knows? Maybe they'll pull a Perry Mason. I did it.
I killed him.

Speaker 5 God help me.

Speaker 19 They didn't get that, so you just keep beating on her. And it worked.
It worked real well.

Speaker 12 Donald Fear and Tracy Frame also dismissed the videotape evidence allegedly showing Tracy abandoning the white Lexus parking the Penske truck and shopping at the convenience store who is that shadowy figure I don't know

Speaker 12 if I did they would be sitting here and I wouldn't be Tracy says no one can tell who that is But more than just a blurry figure is being recorded in this transaction.

Speaker 12 Store records show that whoever this person is, she uses Tracy's store discount card at the checkout, saving 19 cents.

Speaker 22 Someone using your discount card the weekend, David went missing.

Speaker 1 That's correct.

Speaker 23 But it wasn't you?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 Doesn't even look like me.

Speaker 12 Tracy admits the discount card is difficult to explain.

Speaker 1 So I don't have an answer for it, but I don't think that I would use a discount card if I was trying to sneak around town.

Speaker 1 One would think.

Speaker 5 It's pretty odd, though.

Speaker 1 I agree.

Speaker 12 Frame and her attorney throw out several theories about who may have killed David Nixon. First, they suggest Nixon could have been murdered during a robbery.

Speaker 14 Was it common for David to walk around with big wads of cash in his pockets?

Speaker 1 Oh, yes. When he had it, he liked to show everybody.
He liked to be flashy.

Speaker 12 Or that it was payback over gambling debts.

Speaker 1 Well, I mean, I knew he gambled. I just didn't know to the depth of it, I guess I could say.

Speaker 12 And they they point an accusing finger at someone who knew both David Nixon and Tracy Frame very well.

Speaker 8 Hey, Paul, this is Jerry Valt, best out of sales at Fort Worth.

Speaker 1 Jerry Val,

Speaker 1 friend at the lake,

Speaker 1 used to be a friend. He's into businesses of helping people, you know, if they need to borrow money or whatever.

Speaker 22 In the business of helping people who want to borrow money.

Speaker 1 Okay, hold on. Can I answer that?

Speaker 12 Fear stops Tracy from finishing her sentence.

Speaker 19 I think where y'all come from, they call them shylocks.

Speaker 8 I'm an easy target. I sell used cars.

Speaker 8 I take a thousand for it.

Speaker 8 At one time, David loaned me some money, and right after Christmas, I paid him back.

Speaker 12 Jury and David had a plan to meet the night he disappeared. Tracy and her lawyer insist the meeting was to discuss David's interests in a new boat.

Speaker 19 And he had $25,000 cash on him that he took from the bank to buy the boat.

Speaker 8 No, David didn't carry large sums of money. He didn't owe anybody money.
We were going to get together for a drink. Well, we ran out of time.
It was just getting too late for us to go out and meet.

Speaker 8 And so I spoke to him on the telephone. And that was the last time I spoke to David.

Speaker 12 And Donald Thier raises questions about yet another possible suspect.

Speaker 18 Did Tracy Frame stand to gain anything financially?

Speaker 23 with David Nixon's death?

Speaker 19 Not a thing.

Speaker 19 But the first ex-wife did.

Speaker 21 What are you suggesting?

Speaker 19 I'm suggesting stating the fact.

Speaker 12 Two months before he died, David Nixon took out a life insurance policy for half a million dollars.

Speaker 14 And Nicholas was named the primary beneficiary?

Speaker 12 Yes.

Speaker 19 She's secondary beneficiary, but in all reality, as her son is the primary beneficiary, she got the money. Tracy Frame got nothing.

Speaker 12 So who stood to gain the most?

Speaker 1 Well, that's obvious. I mean, Donna has gained everything.

Speaker 18 Did you receive anything from David Nixon's estate?

Speaker 3 Very little.

Speaker 3 Very little. Less than $10,000.

Speaker 3 I don't find losing

Speaker 3 David a gain at all.

Speaker 3 In fact, I find it the hardest part of my life

Speaker 3 for Nicholas.

Speaker 12 So

Speaker 9 when you found out that Tracy was arrested, what was

Speaker 18 going through your mind?

Speaker 14 Did you believe it was possible?

Speaker 17 It had to be her.

Speaker 10 Everybody else I knew that knew him, liked him.

Speaker 10 I mean, she was the only one who had anything against them, really.

Speaker 12 As the trial begins, the defense is confident the prosecution has no real case, no proof.

Speaker 19 We cannot get a handle on even what their theory of the crime was.

Speaker 12 Insisting that the police never investigated other suspects.

Speaker 19 Tracy Frame is the only person on the planet that would absolutely not have killed David, that would have put money into getting him a bodyguard if he had been threatened, because the only way she was ever going to get her money back out of the thousands she'd spent on him was to keep him alive and selling houses.

Speaker 29 Hey there, we're Corinne Bienn and Sabrina DeAnaroga here to introduce our newest podcast, Crimes of, a Crime House Original.

Speaker 30 Crimes of is a weekly series that explores a new theme each season, from Crimes of the Paranormal, Unsolved Murders, and more.

Speaker 30 Our first season is Crimes of Infamy: the true crime stories behind Hollywood's most iconic horror villains.

Speaker 29 Listen to and follow Crimes of, available now wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 12 More than three years after David Nixon's murder.

Speaker 26 Hello. Good morning.

Speaker 12 Tracy Frame is finally about to stand trial.

Speaker 1 I feel fine. I feel like everything's going to turn out right.

Speaker 9 What do you make of the prosecution's case against you?

Speaker 1 It's pretty apparent that they don't have as much as they would lead you to believe they had.

Speaker 18 There's no doubt in your mind that Tracy Frame killed David Nixon.

Speaker 18 No.

Speaker 12 Tarrant County, Texas Assistant DA Sean Colston is prosecuting the case against Tracy Frame.

Speaker 26 I think if you look at Tracy Frame, she's just an unpredictable type person and

Speaker 26 she's the type of person who could kill without a motive.

Speaker 22 What kind of personality are you talking about?

Speaker 26 Well, Tracy Frame has a personality where it's all about Tracy.

Speaker 26 Tracy is going to get what Tracy wants and she doesn't care how she gets it.

Speaker 22 Even if it means killing someone.

Speaker 26 If it means murder, Tracy's willing to do that.

Speaker 12 Tracy's fiancé, Roland Taylor, says prosecutors are trying the wrong woman.

Speaker 14 Is that Tracy inside the Tom Thumb store?

Speaker 22 No.

Speaker 23 The thighs.

Speaker 2 They were touching. And I'll tell you what, that lady has got a set of legs that don't quit.
There's no doubt in my mind that's not her.

Speaker 23 That's not her. No.

Speaker 5 Not at all.

Speaker 9 She says she was never at the Tom Thumb store.

Speaker 12 Do you believe that?

Speaker 7 Absolutely not.

Speaker 14 She says that someone else used her Tom-Thumb card.

Speaker 6 Do you believe that?

Speaker 26 Absolutely not.

Speaker 1 You thought we'd hang out here in the lobby.

Speaker 12 With little forensic evidence, no eyewitnesses, and the washdown crime scene, the defense believes the prosecution simply cannot make a case for murder.

Speaker 19 You know, we're going to show you the smoke and mirrors for two weeks, and you're just going to be overwhelmed by so much smoke, There must be a fire somewhere.

Speaker 23 So who's responsible for David Nixon's murder?

Speaker 1 Today,

Speaker 1 I don't think we'll ever find out because they never looked very far once they accused me.

Speaker 12 In the courtroom, Tracy's defense was to go in the offense, arguing that the prosecution failed to offer proof beyond a reasonable doubt, that there was no real evidence linking Tracy to the crime, that no blood was found at the house, nothing was found at the storm drain, that these tire tracks could have come from any number of other trucks, and that this woman is not Tracy Frame.

Speaker 12 And along with no apparent motive, there's no murder weapon, no gun.

Speaker 12 Or was there?

Speaker 6 Did your dad have a gun? Yeah.

Speaker 18 And where did he keep it?

Speaker 10 In his safe.

Speaker 9 You saw that? Yeah.

Speaker 14 You saw the gun? Yeah.

Speaker 17 He showed it to me just to, you know, make sure I was okay with it.

Speaker 12 David's safe was in the bedroom of the house he shared with Tracy.

Speaker 18 The police didn't find a gun in the safe in his house.

Speaker 13 I know.

Speaker 23 Where is he?

Speaker 5 I don't know.

Speaker 3 Lake grapevine, perhaps.

Speaker 3 Down a drain pipe. I don't know what she did with it.

Speaker 19 She?

Speaker 3 She. Tracy.

Speaker 16 Did David keep a gun in the house?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 12 He never did.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 22 He didn't keep a gun in the safe in the house. No.

Speaker 12 Police did not find a gun, but they did find two key witnesses to bolster their circumstantial case against Tracy. She just kept asking a lot of questions of how to get stains out.

Speaker 12 John Wright and Mike Heaton remember the day Tracy Frayne came into their janitorial supply company shopping for cleaning products to remove odor and blood.

Speaker 28 We sold her probably about $100 worth of stuff.

Speaker 12 It was one day after David disappeared.

Speaker 8 I mean, she was, I don't even want to use the word desperate, but appeared desperate for it's got to work.

Speaker 12 So Tracy asked the salesman if there was a foolproof way to remove bloodstains.

Speaker 28 Then we told her about the muriatic acid, which we don't sell.

Speaker 12 The next day, the shadowy figure who prosecutors say is Tracy Frame is at the Tom Thumb store buying just that, muriatic acid.

Speaker 7 Every item purchased by that woman was found in the home when we searched it.

Speaker 12 For the prosecution, all the pieces of the puzzle fit.

Speaker 26 I think once you put all of that information together, I think

Speaker 26 any reasonable person can say that that is Tracy Frame.

Speaker 12 And as for the defense suggestion that Donna may have had more to gain from David's death than Tracy, investigators say there was nothing to it.

Speaker 7 I'd heard some innuendo from Tracy and her attorneys that somehow there was this large insurance policy. Everything checked out.
There was never anything suspicious about Donna's behavior.

Speaker 7 Almost nothing Tracy told was checked out. Every trail led to Tracy.

Speaker 12 But will the jury agree? On the eve of the verdict, Tracy Frame, who did not take the stand, seems subdued and uncertain.

Speaker 1 I don't believe in justice very much right now, and I don't know how I'll feel after it, but I have to believe that the right thing will be done.

Speaker 3 I think Tracy saw an opportunity,

Speaker 3 and she took it.

Speaker 19 It was all inference, coincidence, could be, maybe, looks good. Well, that isn't enough to convict somebody of murder.

Speaker 12 After a two-week long trial, it is judgment day for Tracy Frank.

Speaker 13 Scared?

Speaker 1 Yes, of course. Very.

Speaker 12 If convicted of murder, she faces a possible sentence of life in prison.

Speaker 1 It's a reality, but I don't think that I'll have to worry about that.

Speaker 12 Defense lawyer Don Fear is anxious.

Speaker 19 Actually, we're confident that we're going to be successful, and the jury will say that clearly my client is not guilty.

Speaker 12 As a lawyer, who knows?

Speaker 12 The day, March 9th, 2005, would also have been David Nixon's 43rd birthday. Nicholas is feeling the stress.

Speaker 12 Members of David's family from New Hampshire have attended the trial.

Speaker 11 For three years now, we've been struggling with this and waiting for this day and we're glad it's here.

Speaker 3 Today's David's birthday.

Speaker 3 Our fingers crossed.

Speaker 12 Whatever the outcome, For Donna and Nicholas, some questions may never be answered.

Speaker 3 What was it that Tracy Frame had on David Nixon? Why couldn't she let him go? How did it get so out of control that she wanted to kill him? I don't know those answers.

Speaker 3 Am I sure they have the right person? Yes.

Speaker 12 And the moment of judgment finally arrives.

Speaker 31 The jury has reached a verdict.

Speaker 26 I'll ask the audience.

Speaker 31 I realize there are emotions in here, but we need for everyone to keep their composure.

Speaker 12 Judge Mike Thomas has not permitted cameras to cover the trial, but he does allow us inside for the verdict.

Speaker 31 Kid stand, please.

Speaker 31 We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of the offense of murder as charged in the indictment, signed by the four person.

Speaker 12 The jury takes less than four hours to find Tracy guilty.

Speaker 13 The sentence, 40 years.

Speaker 26 Yes, I'm very happy.

Speaker 3 Very happy with the jury's verdict.

Speaker 5 Hallelujah.

Speaker 12 David's family is elated. But later that night, the mood becomes thoughtful.

Speaker 11 David will never, ever, ever be with us again. She's taken the rest of his life away from us.
And I really don't think she deserves to have any freedom.

Speaker 17 I'm just glad it's finally

Speaker 15 over, you know.

Speaker 17 It's gone on long enough.

Speaker 12 Donna worries how Nicholas is coping without his father.

Speaker 3 The little things that his dad did. The big peacock chest sticking out going, that's my boy.

Speaker 3 That's what he's struggling with. That's what he misses.

Speaker 12 Donna wishes that somehow she had done more.

Speaker 3 Mad that I can't change anything.

Speaker 3 Can't bring him back.

Speaker 8 I know in my mind, Tracy killed David.

Speaker 12 Jerry Vowell is sure the jury got it right.

Speaker 6 She probably just said, heck with you, bang.

Speaker 14 So the motive was money.

Speaker 7 I think it was money, and I think it was a sense of entitlement.

Speaker 12 Entitlement, says Detective Larry Harmark, to her fair share of the house.

Speaker 4 David Nixon was killed for $80,000.

Speaker 7 I think he could have been killed for $80

Speaker 7 if it had suited Tracy.

Speaker 2 Tracy Frane was the person that ultimately has paid the price for this crime, not the person who did it.

Speaker 12 Roland Taylor remains loyal to his fiancé.

Speaker 16 Aren't Aren't you setting yourself up for many years of heartache?

Speaker 2 No, it's not heartache.

Speaker 16 Being engaged to a woman who's serving 40 years in the state penitentiary.

Speaker 23 No.

Speaker 2 It'd be heartache if she wasn't in my life.

Speaker 2 There's nothing here anymore

Speaker 2 except a memory.

Speaker 9 Do you think you have strong grounds for an appeal?

Speaker 1 Oh, God, I hope so.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 12 Tracy Frames spoke to us just weeks after her conviction.

Speaker 9 How did the prosecutors manage to convince the jury that you were guilty of murder?

Speaker 3 I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 They threw a lot of stuff at him.

Speaker 9 How have you been getting through these last couple of weeks?

Speaker 9 Just the best I can.

Speaker 9 What's your greatest fear right now?

Speaker 5 The unknown, I guess.

Speaker 9 Do you have any regrets right now?

Speaker 1 Yeah, in the justice system.

Speaker 16 Do you think you have the inner strength to get through this?

Speaker 1 No, no, we're pretty scared.

Speaker 9 What are you scared of the most?

Speaker 21 Seriously?

Speaker 1 It's the rest of my life.

Speaker 4 I don't really get the whole thing, you know, but

Speaker 10 I don't know. It's weird.

Speaker 18 Do you think when you get older you'll be able to understand it any better?

Speaker 10 You can't understand that kind of person.

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