middle of the night. haunted for more than two decades, he would make a chilling discovery that would unlock this mystery. now you know the whole story. yes, sir. everything kind of clicked. it s just so unbelievable. i knew he was telling his mom s story. hello and welcome to dateline. aaron fraser was only 3 years old when his mom left the house, never to be seen or heard from again. police soon learned that aaron may have witnessed the unspeakable, the murder of his own mother. the boy would become a man before the whole truth was revealed. and though memories faded, the evidence pointing to the killer couldn t stay buried. here s dennis murphy with she never left. she d been gone from his life, unaccounted for, for more than 20 years. his mother, bonnie. it was odd to be the one that found her. because you d spent a lot of your life looking for her, right? yes, sir. there s a poignant video of the mother and child s last christmas morning toget
Stick i was trying to determine what she had on. Clothing. He got real quiet and whispered and said red blood. Chills up and down my spine. This kit saw this. A little boy witnessed something terrifying the night his mother vanished. It was ripping my heart. He was so traumatized. Everybodys life changed that night. What had happened to his mom . I wake up in the middle of the night. Haunted for two decades and he would make a chilling discovery that would unlock the mystery. Now you know the whole story. Its so unbelievable. I knew he was telling his moms story. Be hello, and welcome to dateline. Aaron frazier was three years old when his mom left the house, never to be seen or heard from again. Police soon learned that aaron may have witnessed the unspeakable, the murder of his own mother. The boy would become a man before the truth was revealed. Although memories faded, the evidence pointing to the killer could not stay buried. Here is Dennis Murphy with, she never left. She had bee
Her purse in the dumpster at the red roof inn and y all need to get out here. a maintenance man had come upon the purse in a dumpster behind the airport motel. inside were bonnie s i. d., keys, credit cards, and more than $1,000 in cash. bernie and evann got to the motel just before 9:00 a. m. mike was already there. by the time we got there mike and his dad, john, were in a room. the detectives were there. and they had her purse on the bed and they had everything laid out. mike, the husband, seemed perplexed by the amount of cash on the bed. he s like, what in the hell is she doing with all this money? given a wad of money like that not taken, robbery was quickly ruled out. i requested them to bring another dumpster right now, because we thought maybe bonnie was in a dumpster where they found her purse. so you re thinking foul play
Might be buried. but he and aaron never found anything. his investigation grew colder even as his relationship with the boy grew stronger. and the frasers for their part did everything they could to give aaron a normal life, the chance to be a kid again. he was into racing bicycles. he had motorcycles. he had played baseball. he took karate. and the most fun he had was fishing. he was a great fisherman. all these years later, aaron is grateful for the family who embraced him. tell me about the frasers. how did your life change once they came into your life? they re just special people. people of incredible character. opened their home to me. loved me like their own son. i never had to ask for anything. they gave me unconditional love. if i needed something, they were always there. aunt liz remained devoted to aaron and shared his gratitude toward the frasers. they have been fantastic.
That s weird, there s a coconut in here. why would somebody bury a coconut in a bag right here? but it wasn t a coconut. i picked it up. immediately i didn t know what it was. i hand it to thad. he was looking at it. we looked back in the hole and we could see some teeth. teeth? teeth. we could see her teeth. and at that point in time you could see the top portion of her eye socket on the skull. you know, and everything kind of clicked and we stopped what we were doing. it was a horrifying discovery. aaron, like hamlet, was holding a skull. he believed it was his mother s. how do you absorb that? yeah. it was just what was happening. it was odd to be the one to be the one that found her. aaron immediately called jean fraser, who was in church. i saw a missed call from him. so i called him back. and he said, what s detective robbie s phone number? and i said why? and he said, i found her. i found my mom. i get on the phone with jean