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First Love, Then Murder

2025/4/21
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48 Hours

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Ellie Fryer
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Gavin McFarlane
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Maggie Fryer
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Russell Jones
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Sierra Fryer
叙述者
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叙述者:本集讲述了俄勒冈州一名少女失踪案,调查发现她的禁忌恋情导致了谋杀。案情复杂,涉及多方证词和多种解读,最终结果是三名涉案人员分别被判刑。 Maggie Fryer:我报警是因为我的前夫Aaron和女儿Ellie失踪了。我非常担心他们的安危,不知道发生了什么。 Logan Boyd:我了解Aaron,他是一个好人,也是一个好父亲。Ellie是一个非常聪明、有才华的女孩。 警官:案发现场有大量血迹,表明发生过严重的袭击,很可能是谋杀。 警探:案发时间紧迫,我们只有有限的信息。Sierra听到了袭击,并发现了血迹,但她当时没有意识到发生了什么。这是一个复杂的案件,我们不知道是失踪案还是绑架案。 Sierra Fryer:我很难谈论那天我父亲和姐姐失踪的事情。父母离婚对我和我的姐妹们影响很大。2017年9月,我决定和父亲住在一起。我被叮当声吵醒,然后听到玻璃碎裂声和争吵声。我听到了我父亲的喊叫声、拖拽声和移动声,之后就完全安静了。从卧室的窗户,我看到两个人在我父亲的房子外面走来走去,其中一个是Ellie的男朋友Gavin McFarlane。 Bill Ford:我们找到了Gavin McFarlane,现在知道要找谁了。我们追踪了Gavin的手机,并找到了Aaron的车。Aaron的车上有大量的血迹,但Aaron和Ellie都不在车里。我们不确定Ellie是否参与其中,但她、Gavin或Russell可能掌握着找到Aaron的关键。Russell很健谈,我预感到他很难保守秘密。Russell带我们找到了Aaron的尸体。在Gavin的房子里发现了谋杀计划,我怀疑是Ellie想让Aaron被杀。 Shannon Reynolds:我一开始认为Ellie是主谋,但后来我读了Gavin写给Ellie的信,我觉得Gavin可能是主谋。我一直在两者之间摇摆不定。Ellie在审讯中说了很多谎话,但她是一个孩子,受到了惊吓。 Stephanie Jackson:Ellie声称她离开父亲家去散步时一切都很正常。 Ellie Fryer:也许他是在找我。我向Gavin递了凶器。从我被捕那天起,我的说法就一直没有被倾听。 Gavin McFarlane:Aaron威胁过我的生命。Ellie怀孕了。我用球棒打了Aaron的头。 Russell Jones:我和Gavin早上去了Fryer家,试图帮助Ellie摆脱困境。我说的95%是实话,5%是谎话。我帮忙处理了Aaron的遗体,Gavin才是凶手,但Aaron先用枪指着Gavin。我还没说实话,还有几部分没说。 Aliza Kaplan:这起犯罪是因为Ellie遭受了父亲的虐待。Ellie遭受了父亲的性虐待、情感虐待和身体虐待。Ellie的父亲对她进行性骚扰和虐待。没有证据支持Ellie的虐待指控,但我们无法向Aaron求证他是否虐待了他的女儿。Gavin利用了Ellie的脆弱。

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I've never spoken publicly before about any of this. I've never really fully healed from any of what happened. It's like waking up every morning and having the same phone call.

911, what is the address at the emergency? 911 call came in October 2nd, 2017. It was called in as a welfare check. Something happened at my ex-husband's house over the evening and my two children came to my house this morning. Okay, and what did they tell you exactly? Their dad's gone, their older sister's gone. Where are we, officer? Set the scene for us. This is Benson Street, and for me, this is just another welfare check.

but we don't know what we're walking into. I learned that he was a good guy. He was a good dad. Ellie was in the marching band. Very bright, very intelligent.

With the older daughter missing, it was very suspicious. We didn't really know how suspicious it was until we saw what we saw when we got here. Left for police. Not yourself, the treasurer. We clear the house and in the living room, based on the blood splatter, there was a serious assault, probable murder that occurred.

So time was of the essence in this case. Absolutely. Time is always of the essence, you know. The only information I had was from the patrol officers and what Sierra was able to tell us on scene. I remember waking up in the middle of the night. We know at around 5:30 that Sierra heard the glass breaking. I just started listening, just listening to try and understand what was happening.

I was certain she had heard the assault, but she hadn't realized that. Thank God she didn't walk out and interrupt this thing. I was very terrified. Based on what she had seen at the house, she knew somebody wasn't okay. She went over to the couch. She felt something wet, and when she pulled her hand up, it was covered in blood. I just was in, like, a state of shock. Sierra could not locate her father, Aaron, and her teenage sister, Ellie.

We treated it as a missing person serious assault until we know otherwise. Everyone was out looking. There was also a potential that this was what we could refer to as a no-body homicide. And those cases are always tough to work. As of right now in my family, there are two family members missing. It's still like an open wound every day. ♪♪

The quiet city of Medford, Oregon was shaken by Maggie Fryer's desperate 911 call in the early morning hours of October 2nd, 2017. I don't know where my ex-husband or my oldest daughter is. I understand that. Something happened at the house. Something happened over there.

Maggie Fryer's ex-husband, Aaron Fryer, and their 15-year-old daughter, Ellen, nicknamed Ellie, were missing. My concern is for the both of them. We don't know where they are. You can only imagine all the things that were running around in my mind. I didn't know who was dead and who was alive. When Medford police officer Logan Boyd arrived at Aaron's house, he found that gruesome scene. There's blood everywhere.

Blood spattered walls, shattered glass, and a trail of blood to nowhere. It starts from there and kind of goes all the way out into the dirt. It goes out towards the cardboard? Yeah. That's not good. This led investigators to notice what also was missing, Aaron Fryer's car, seen here on a neighbor's security camera leaving the Fryer home around 5:30 that morning. We're kind of dealing with what I would describe as like a two-headed monster.

An all-hands-on-deck call went out to every Medford police detective, including Detective Bill Ford. We didn't know at that particular time whether this was a missing person case or a kidnapping. We just didn't know.

Detective Shannon Reynolds, Bill Ford's colleague and wife of 20 years, had a different take. In my mind, I automatically assumed that the 15-year-old daughter was the victim of a homicide. So a case like this, where did this one sort of fit in? Probably one of the most interesting, heinous crimes I've seen in my career.

Investigators hoped Ellie's younger sister, 11-year-old Sierra, might shed light on the unknown. Detective Reynolds, who specializes in crimes against children, was tasked with interviewing her. Sierra wasn't, like, outright crying, but you could tell she was worried. Who was she worried about? Her dad and Ellie. I was worried about her dad.

I try not to really think about that time a lot, but... Sierra, 18 years old at the time of this exclusive interview, still finds it difficult to speak about the day her father and sister vanished. I was, you know, just a child, and I'm sorry. The second of three girls, Sierra says she loved being in the middle. I get to be an older sister and a younger sister, so I get, like, the best of both worlds. I like the connection and the bonds that we have.

Ciara says her older sister, Ellie, loved music and could play many instruments, a skill Ellie seemed to have picked up from their father. One time he tried to teach me how to play the drums, but I wasn't very good at it, so. In 2016, Ciara's parents, Maggie and Aaron, ended their marriage. Ciara says the divorce took a toll on her and her sisters. It affected us a lot. It was actually not a very great experience for everyone involved.

Sierra says that when her parents separated, her dad moved into that small two-bedroom house. Maggie and Aaron shared custody, and the girls would stay with their dad every other weekend. In September 2017, Sierra decided to live 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 2, 2017, the Fryer family was forever broken.

- Sierra was asleep in the bedroom she shared with her younger sister. - I woke up and it was just pitch black.

I remember waking up to like a dinging noise over and over and over again. Then I heard glass shatter and I heard the fight that occurred. The sound was coming from the living room. So then what does she hear? Because she really is sort of an ear witness to all that happened. She heard her dad yell the F word. She heard dragging. She heard things being moved. After that, it was completely silent.

Did she have any idea what was going on at the time? No. She was frightened enough to stay in her room until she felt like it was okay to come out. When Sierra finally did come out, she found that horrific scene. It had to be so scary, though. So scary. Sierra told Detective Reynolds that before leaving her room, she had seen something out of her bedroom window. She could see people walking back and forth.

Sierra saw two young men outside of her dad's house. One was a person Sierra didn't know. The second was someone Sierra immediately recognized. It was Gavin McFarlane. He was Ellen's boyfriend at the time. This was her big love. According to her, he was a great guy, but according to my parents, he was not a great guy.

Sierra insinuated this was a little bit of a forbidden love. Dad had forbade Ellie from seeing Gavin. This was the break investigators had been hoping for. Once we have a name, Gavin McFarlane, now we got a picture. Now we know who we're looking for. The search for Aaron and Ellie Fryer, and now Gavin McFarlane was on. We probably had 70, 75 people out on the streets of Medford.

Ellie and Aaron's phones were found in the house. Investigators now began tracking Gavin's phone. We started getting cell phone tower hits up in the East Medford area. Patrol officers immediately headed in that direction. A patrol sergeant locates the car. That was huge.

As the officers approached Aaron Fryer's vehicle, they realized that something wasn't right. We could see there was blood on the outside of the bumper that had been dripping down. When this trunk is opened up, there is large amounts of blood. I mean, it is soaked into the carpet. But no Aaron and no Ellie.

But the car was still warm, so the police knew they were close. We had tons of people up there driving around looking for them. And then just an hour later, investigators couldn't believe who they found next. The missing child is Lucia Blix, nine years old. Please let her come back home safely.

The kidnappers plundered meticulously. If money is what it takes to get her back, we're going to pay it. The secrets they hide. You can't talk about this. You can't write about it. Are the clues. The mother's hiding something, I know it. To find her. Tell me where she is. The Stolen Girl. New episodes Thursdays. Stream on Hulu.

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Then just four hours after that 911 call reporting her missing, Medford police found Ellie Fryer. She was alive, seemingly unharmed, and had been walking down a busy street with Gavin McFarlane. They're walking down the sidewalk. In plain sight. Plain sight. So now we know Ellie's safe. Which made two things clear. Aaron Fryer was the victim.

And based on all that blood in his car and at the house, time was quickly running out to find him. We had Aaron out there either seriously injured or deceased. Walking along with Gavin and Ellie was someone investigators hadn't been looking for. Do you have ID with your name on there? No, I don't. I hardly ever carry my ID around. He turned out to be Russell Jones, a friend of Gavin's.

"I won't make it hard on you." "Oh, right." Russell had apparently made an impression on Sierra Fryer, says Detective Shannon Reynolds. He matched the description of that second young man she saw at her father's house that morning. "So she got a really good look at this person." Investigators now had a witness placing Gavin and Russell at the crime scene. Detective Ford says he wasn't sure what to make of Ellie being found with them.

That doesn't mean that Ellie's involved in something. But Ford says that she, Gavin, or Russell might hold the key to finding Aaron. Ellie, Gavin, and Russell are separated, detained, and transported to the Medford Police Department for questioning.

Detective Stephanie Jackson was tasked with getting Ellie Fryer's account of the previous 24 hours. Ellie was saying everything had seemed normal when she left her father's house for a long walk.

According to Ellie, she had run into those "friends," Gavin and Russell, only by chance, not long before being spotted by police. It's really disturbing to hear. Maybe he was looking for me.

Ellie was saying she had no idea where her father was or what happened at the house. Around that time, Detective Ford was preparing to interrogate the other two detainees. Strategically, he decided to let Gavin wait in a holding cell and began interviewing Russell.

He's a talker. Very, very talkative. So I kind of knew he would have a hard time keeping his mouth shut. Russell was ready to talk, but he wanted something first. A cigarette. Detective Ford took him outside. Just kind of smoking and joking is what we call it.

The camera didn't record audio, but Detective Ford says Russell began telling him that he and Gavin had gone over to the Fryer house early that morning. He told us that he was trying to help get Ellie out of a bad situation. That bad situation, according to Russell, was Aaron Fryer. And the first thing that he tells us is he's not a good person. Aaron Fryer's not a good person? Correct.

He didn't elaborate further about Aaron, but Russell was claiming he and Gavin were only there to secretly move Ellie out. So the next thing I tell him is, look, Russell, we got detectives out there right now pulling video from every house, the alleys. So if this ain't the truth, you need to be truthful with me right now. And he looks me square in the eyes and he says, well, 95% of it's the truth and there's 5% of it's a lie.

So I'm thinking automatically, well, what's the lie here? Detective Ford decided it was time for a new tactic and tried appealing to Russell's conscience. I look at him and I'm like, you know, Russell, I don't want a child to find Aaron out there somewhere, come across something like that. I said, can you take us to Aaron? He didn't beat an eye. He's just like, yeah, I'll take you to him. The veteran detective wasted no time

We load Russell up. He's actually sitting in the seat that you're sitting in now. Okay. We got him handcuffed in front. He's basically telling us, okay, turn right, turn left. They were ascending a rural mountain pass 20 miles outside town. And all of a sudden, Russell says, stop, stop right here. Where did you stop your car? Probably right where that rock is.

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 green part. Detectives descended the wooded ravine and pulled back that tarp, revealing that just six hours after that 911 call, they had found Aaron Fryer. It was obvious that he was deceased. When you found out your husband was dead, what did you think? I was completely shocked.

I didn't know what to think. Maggie says the police hadn't yet told her Ellie was in their custody being questioned or even that she had been found. I was very worried about the fate of my daughter. I had no idea if my daughter was even alive, too. Maggie then faced the unimaginable task of sharing the news of Aaron's death with their two younger daughters. The reality was almost too much for then 11-year-old Sierra.

I just really didn't want to believe it for a really long time. While investigators began processing the scene, Detective Ford drove Russell Jones back to police headquarters. He says Russell was claiming that all he had done was help dispose of Aaron's remains. He's like, "I'm not going to be a witness against Gavin." Russell was saying Gavin was Aaron's killer, but that Gavin had been provoked. His story was that Aaron had a rifle

and was pointed at Gavin. So making it seem like a self-defense because if he had a gun pointed at him. Exactly. You can sit in that chair over there. Back at the station, Detective Ford returned Russell to the interrogation room while detectives gathered for a briefing. You're listening in on my conversations, aren't you? That's when Russell began taunting them through the camera. I can still twist your little mind.

Don't piss me off. This, I imagine, got everybody to stop what they were doing and gather around the monitor and watch this. Yeah, that's what you do. So, we can play it the easy way or the hard way. He would go into these rants and making demands and stuff. Gavin and Ellie are to be released to me.

And Russell was claiming he still hadn't been totally truthful. And Mr. Ford, you want the whole story? Because I did miss a few parts. For her part, Ellie was now saying Russell was the one responsible. With the conflicting claims, Detective Ford decided it was finally time to interview Gavin McFarlane.

I know I'm in serious trouble, aren't I? Well, we need to figure out what happened. Gavin started by saying how volatile Aaron Fryer could be. He's threatened my life. He's lying. No, stay away from my daughter or I'm going to kill you. One month earlier, Gavin had called the police, claiming Aaron had shown up at his house, banging on his door, threatening to kill him. I don't know what caused him to not like me anymore.

Detectives discovered at least one reason, Gavin's age. He was 19 years old, dating 15-year-old Ellie. And making things worse, Gavin was now claiming Ellie was going to have his baby. You told me she was pregnant? I've known her for about two weeks now. While Gavin was admitting to having a sexual relationship with a minor, itself a crime, he was accusing Aaron of being the one who had been abusive to Ellie.

Gavin was claiming he and Russell had gone to the house that morning. But unlike what Russell said, that Aaron had not confronted him with the gun. Instead, Gavin was saying Aaron had been in the living room, asleep on the couch, and that Gavin had crept in, armed with a baseball bat.

Then Gavin made a startling admission. The physical evidence would back up Gavin's story. Aaron had died from blunt force trauma to his head.

And a bat was recovered from a tree branch above where his remains had been found. So this is an aluminum bat. This coloration, you can see it's red here. This is all blood. Testing would confirm the blood was Aaron's. And he demonstrated for us in the interview room how hard he swung it down on Aaron's head. I went over the shoulder the first time, and then I started going up above my head.

I mean, there were five distinct blows to his head. Explaining that dinging sound Sierra Fryer had heard. It fractured his skull, caved his skull into his brain. I'm really sorry. An investigator soon found evidence that Aaron's murder had been meticulously plotted for weeks. They discovered notes, some in Russell's handwriting,

at Gavin's house. We found several murder plans and they actually had plan A, plan B. There were multiple plans and I think ultimately they come up with the bat. And based on what you could see from the planning, who's the mastermind of all of this? Ellie, believe it or not.

Detective Ford says he believes it was Ellie who wanted Aaron murdered. Pointing to messages Ford says she sent to Gavin. In one, she says, "We need to make sure he's dead by the time we leave his house." And in another, she asked, "You want to kill him now, don't you? And then you can kill him in less than a minute, right?" She's pushing it all. She wants to be with Gavin. She wants to be out from underneath the authority of her father.

Detective Ford says Ellie might have made up those abuse allegations, possibly as a way to motivate Gavin to kill her father.

She is very manipulative. For me watching that entire interview, she lied. And lied. And lied. He wasn't in the house.

After several hours, Ellie did eventually admit some of her role, even saying that she had handed Gavin the murder weapon. And what do you say to Gavin? I said, I'm ready when you are. 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 do this? Kill my dad. With evidence they all conspired to kill Aaron, Gavin, Russell, and Ellie were charged with his murder.

From the day after she was arrested, there was this narrative and her side was never told. Until now. The story that the state has, why is it the right one?

Do you have a dark curiosity? Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings, and Mysteries is a weekly podcast hosted by me, Kaylin Moore. Each week, I'll take you on a dark journey through terrifying true urban legends, bizarre true crime cases, chilling tales of backwoods horror, and more. So if you're looking to join a passionate community of the darkly curious, check out Heart Starts Pounding on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. And remember, stay curious. My daughter,

After hours of worry, Maggie Fryer was finally told her 15-year-old daughter Ellie had been located. I got a phone call from a police officer that they found her.

But worry morphed into anger when she was then told Ellie had been arrested for her father's murder. And I said, so you've had my daughter in your custody? Interrogating her and you never once called me to let me know so I could maybe get her some representation?

Aliza Kaplan eventually became one of Ellie's attorneys. She says the narrative about Ellie Fryer has been wrong from the very beginning. In this case, she was made out to be the mastermind or something, you know. She planned all of this when she was 15 years old and they were 19 and 22. She was the manipulator. She was the manipulator, right? And that this was all because of her relationship with an older man.

But Kaplan says this crime actually happened because of the alleged abuse Ellie suffered at the hands of her father, Aaron. She was sexually abused, emotionally abused, and physically abused. Abuse that Ellie described in her police interrogation. He used to be a good father, but he started getting abusive about three years ago.

I picked out a bunch of things, but... Reading from the case file, Kaplan recounted several allegations of molestation and abuse. Warning, the following may be disturbing to hear. Her father would grab at her breasts. He told her to give in to him. He would masturbate on top of her when he thought she was sleeping.

He pushed her downstairs, called her whore, idiot, stupid, slut-shamed her. And then when he would get drunk, it would all get worse.

As the police report shows, three of Ellie's friends told investigators that Ellie said her dad abuses her. Ellie shared that her dad was rough on her and emotionally and physically abused her. And Ellie said her dad mentally and verbally abused her.

But Ellie admits she never told her friends about the sexual molestation. And neither Ellie nor her friends told the police about any kind of abuse before her father's murder. And as far as allegations of abuse, was there any evidence whatsoever that your detectives could find to back up what Ellen Fryer was saying happened to her? No, there was not.

Detective Ford says with Aaron's death, the possibility of proving abuse may have died with him. We can't go to Aaron and ask Aaron, were you abusing your daughter? We may never know the truth. If she told her mom, did she tell her mom ahead of time? Have you thought about having a conversation with your mom about that? I'm horrified to even talk about it. Who have you talked to about your dad masturbating? I told Gavin about it, but that's it.

Ellie told Detective Jackson that the first time she had told Gavin was two days before he bludgeoned her father to death. Because I know this is hard to talk about. I know. Why me? Why did you do it to me? I have no idea what he said to my sisters. I see a teenager who would do anything to survive.

and to protect her sisters. Detective Shannon Reynolds says 11-year-old Sierra was asked if there were any problems at home. She actually only had good things to say about her father. When Detective Reynolds interviewed the youngest Friar daughter, she recalled the last conversation she had with Ellie, minutes after their father's murder.

She had said that Ellie had woken her up, and she said she was leaving, and that she was leaving because mom and dad were abusive. Before Reynolds could say anything, the eight-year-old gave her opinion on the matter. And she told me my mom and dad were not abusive. Both of Ellie's sisters told Reynolds that what Ellie had called abuse was actually their parents disciplining her for sneaking around with Gavin.

Because they took her electronics away and they yelled at her. What do you say to that? Yeah. Well, they were younger, right? This is actually very common in families where there's abuse, that there's one child who takes on the majority of it and want to protect the others in the family. You know, you describe her as this protective older sister, but yet...

She left them there at the house. How is that protecting them? Yeah, and I think, you know, those are things that Ellen will live with for the rest of her life. And she clearly understands how much damage she has caused her sister.

Detective Ford says that with no evidence to back up Ellie's abuse claims, he remains suspicious that she may have made it all up to manipulate Gavin. Seen here with Ellie on a store security camera hours after the murder. And it turns out Ellie was never pregnant. I think you got to look at it two ways. Maybe she thought she was pregnant, or maybe she's using that to influence Gavin to kill her dad.

Ellie's legal team says Ellie did think she was pregnant, which is why she bought a pregnancy test while at the store. Investigators say it's clear Ellie Fryer has an issue with the truth. She lied during that interview for no reason. Kaplan says much has been made of the many lies Ellie told during her police interrogation.

As a parent, we all know that our kids sometimes do that. But Kaplan says the real focus should be on the hours and hours and hours Ellie spent in that interview room. She asked to not talk. She said, I want to remain silent, right? She was there for 10 hours straight.

A minor without a guardian or attorney. Is it normal to keep a 15-year-old in an interrogation room for 10 hours like that? Yeah. I mean, there's no law against it. So we gave her breaks. There was times where she laid on the floor and slept.

Kaplan says that although it may have been legal in Oregon, it wasn't right. And look, police have their jobs to do. I get it. I just think the rules are really different when you have a kid. And in that, she looks like a kid. She's acting like a kid. She's in fear like a kid would be. A kid who Kaplan says...

was taken advantage of by someone she calls another abuser, 19-year-old Gavin McFarlane. A grown man reaching over to a 15-year-old girl who was so vulnerable, no matter what her text messages said, no matter what her involvement was. I don't even understand how you don't look at that as him being the controller.

Detective Reynolds says she saw some of that controlling behavior on display in letters Gavin wrote to Ellie after they were arrested. He was saying that she needed to be sure to say that her dad was abusing her. And he was telling her, we're going to take this to a jury and we're going to win the jury over. And the way to do that is to cry. Make sure you cry.

I've given everything I can, and when this goes to court, I would like to be tried as an adult. But there would be no trial. In January of 2019, a little more than a year after her father's death, Ellie Fryer took a plea deal. How did you feel about that decision? I didn't like it because I'm pretty sure that she did it because she was scared. I don't think she wanted to go to court.

Ellie Fryer pleaded guilty to an adult charge of conspiring to murder her father, Aaron.

The deal was brokered by a different defense attorney. According to court documents, that attorney wrote that Ellie Fryer's co-defendants, Gavin McFarlane and Russell Jones, were going to be testifying against her and say that she was the mastermind behind all of this. It was her idea from the beginning. Ellie's text messages would have been used against her at trial, too.

Elisa Kaplan began working on Ellie Fryer's behalf in 2024. I run the Criminal Justice Reform Clinic. We are looking at Ellen's case mostly because we believe that she has an excessive sentence. And what is her sentence? 25 years. McFarlane and Jones also took plea deals, with Gavin McFarlane pleading guilty to murder and murder conspiracy charges.

He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Russell Jones entered a no-contest plea to conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to 15 years. Kaplan is fighting to reduce Ellie Fryer's sentence. She says Ellie should not have been sentenced to 10 more years than Jones for the same crime. She was 15, he was 22, and her sentence is so much longer

bigger than his. The idea that Ellen is the master manipulator, I mean, she's a 15-year-old. I mean, don't they bear more responsibility because they're the adults? I don't, I wouldn't agree with that. Ellie is absolutely just as responsible as Gavin, except Gavin was the one that took and held the bat in his hands. Detective Shannon Reynolds isn't as certain as her husband about Ellie Fryer's role.

I go back and forth. The mastermind of it, I initially thought was Ellie. Then reading the letters from Gavin that he wrote to Ellie, telling her what she needed to say. Then I started to think maybe Gavin was the mastermind of all of this. I go back and forth. Ford says regardless of who crafted the plan, all three are responsible in the eyes of the law. Because without her, this wouldn't have happened. Without Gavin, this wouldn't have happened.

I doubt without Russell it could have happened. I want to be very clear, she was involved. She participated. She was a co-conspirator. No doubt, right? She takes full accountability for her role in this crime.

Ellie Fryer, now 23, has been serving her sentence in a juvenile detention center. In December of 2026, she'll be moved to an adult prison. And she recently earned two master's degrees, one in psychology and another in justice studies. Which, by the way, is not that easy to do when you're in prison. She's really incredible. I'm very proud of her. I've always been proud of her after what she went through.

Aaron's dead. Who's going to speak out for Aaron? My dad was a kind man who loved me and my sisters and always tried to fill my life with joy. He was a great father to me. He goes with me wherever I go.

Sierra has joined the National Guard, something she says her father always wanted for her. It's mind-blowing that that little girl I interviewed is now a grown-up. The fact that she's joining the National Guard lets me know she didn't let this, you know, derail her life. A life Sierra has had to live without her father, whose memory has been marred by those abuse allegations.

A 48 Hours producer asks Ciara about them. Ellie claims that your father abused her. What do you have to say to that? I don't really want to talk about that just because I have my own feelings about it.

Sierra is just as guarded when it comes to her thoughts about her sister Ellie, though the two have maintained a relationship over the years. It's very hard to explain because a lot of people wouldn't understand. I've got my own feelings about her. But Sierra's feelings about her father are very clear. I love him and I'm so sorry for everything that happened. I have faith and I have hope.

that one day, you know, we'll meet again. Ellie Fryer will be eligible for parole in 2032. She will be 30 years old. Join me Tuesday for Postmortem from 48 Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case.