48 Hours - Tracking A Crime
Episode Date: January 11, 2026In April 2002, Texas real estate agent, David Nixon, was found dead in a storm drain. At the time, his live-in girlfriend, Tracy Frame, were in the process of splitting up and were fighting over their... house, but Tracy denied any involvement in David's murder. “48 Hours" Correspondent Troy Roberts reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 5/26/2007. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
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A friend of mine introduced us.
All I knew was that he was in real estate.
David was nice, very charming, easy to get along with.
We've always had a good time.
He had a lot of ambition, a lot of good ideas.
David is the kind of person that makes people feel good.
He could sell you just about anything.
He could sell a screen daughter's a submarine.
a submarine.
It's just how he was.
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.
Donna, she was his ex-wife.
It was weird.
I liked him and his personality.
If he had a son, that didn't matter to me.
Tracy was nice.
Just about everything was good at the beginning.
Well, I started finding out stuff.
He gambled like crazy.
David owed everything.
Everybody money.
Very paranoid.
Taped everything.
Prostitutes call girls.
David left with cash.
He had $25,000 with him.
This was a pretty brutal crime.
Just cold, calculated murder.
He was shot and burned in the parking lot.
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
If you're going to kill somebody, you would do it for a reason.
David and Donna didn't get along.
She had a half a million reasons.
Donna has gained everything.
She wanted the house.
What happened to me?
What happened to me?
Tracy was the only one who had anything against them, really.
Somebody's lying.
If I wasn't walking in my shoes, I wouldn't believe somebody telling me the story.
Secrets and lies on Grapevine Lake.
It was the middle of the night when forensic death investigator John Briggs got the call to report to the scene of a homicide.
As soon as you get out of the vehicle, you can smell a burning odor.
The body was wrapped in several items that had burned during the fire, but were not totally consumed.
There was the remains of a blue plastic camping tarp.
Then around all that was rope.
The body was still smoldering, as Briggs carefully rolled it over, hoping to identify the victim.
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.
When police first arrived at this crime scene in Grand Prairie, Texas in April of 2002,
the intensity from the fire had damaged the body to such a degree that caused the crime.
crime scene investigators had to spend hours delicately recovering the remains.
The police found tire tracks and some fiber materials, but little else by way of evidence.
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.
Dental records would later confirm the victim as 40-year-old David Nixon,
a successful realtor from nearby Grapevine, Texas.
I knew the second he never called me back
because he would never not call me back
I knew something that happened
14-year-old Nicholas is David Nixon's son
That's your favorite picture?
Where was this?
Cabo.
I was deep-sea fishing.
This is in steamboat with snowmobile.
He had a great smile here, Dad.
He idolized his father,
A bear of a man at 6'4, 240 pounds.
Trustworthy, dependable, protective.
Anybody who knew him knew that he would do just about anything for anybody.
Everyone knew him well, just talked about how much he loved you.
He was always bragging about something I did.
Come on.
Nicholas's mother, Donna Lella, is David Nixon's first wife.
They married in 1990.
1990. Years later, she still has fond memories. Charming, vivacious, and full of life. And you never know
what you're going to get. Love surprises. Love surprises. Love surprises. Nicholas, their only child,
was born the following year. Anything for Nicholas. Crazy about him. 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. He hardly ever slept. It was bigger, better,
faster. It was always a race. It was always about competition. Their marriage ended badly in
1995 after David had an affair with flat attendant Lisa Hill. They married and divorced,
within two years.
But David wasn't single for long.
Before his divorce was final, he met another woman,
an attractive 27-year-old accountant named Tracy Frayne.
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.
And convincing.
So.
David and Tracy soon started living together in this house in Graefine.
They lived extravagantly, often taking ocean cruises together.
The trips were amazing.
Did he have a taste for the finer things in life?
Absolutely.
He always wanted to have the best of the best.
Drive a Lex, drive Mercedes.
Do he live beyond his means?
Yes.
At home, David and Tracy were fixtures
in the social scene at Great Fine Lake.
I knew everybody out there, and
And he, you know, it was great.
LA is a patent place.
I'm telling you right now.
It was amazing to see who woke up with who in the mornings.
Jerry Val knows that scene very well.
Everybody knew everybody.
And there were a lot of really good times,
a lot of fun times.
Tracy and I just became friends.
Tracy was especially popular among men.
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.
But Tracy only had eyes for David.
At 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.
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.
The loudest and longest arguments were over finances
and David's gambling debts.
So the money was going out faster than it was coming in?
Absolutely.
I hoped that things would get better and it just didn't.
In fact, the arguing got worse.
It was cats and dogs.
Every time we saw each other, there were a lot more angry words than they were happy.
Sometimes it got rough.
Did he batter you?
No. Not on a regular basis, absolutely not.
Not on a regular basis.
Did he ever batter you?
We got in some shoving matches, but I wouldn't say that's battering.
In the spring of 2002, after almost four years,
after almost four years together, it was over.
And so you said, we're done?
Yeah.
I told him that this isn't what I wanted.
And, you know, we should probably think about going our own ways.
But going their separate ways would be complicated.
David reportedly owed more than $100,000 in back taxes to the IRS.
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.
Can I get an officer to come through my house?
David disagreed.
Arguments over ownership of the house escalated on April 9th when he called the police.
Okay, in your name, sir?
David Nixon.
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.
Okay.
My house and it's my stuff and I want to know my life.
We'll get someone out there and they can explain that all to you, okay?
The police helped settle that argument.
So after that domestic disturbance call in April, the 9th,
things were civil between the two of you.
I wouldn't say civil.
It was business.
I wasn't going to leave him high and dry.
Almost two weeks later, David Nixon was dead.
I was crying, and they just said he had been murdered.
He was shot and burned.
Didn't even cross my eyes.
mind that he had been hurt or injured in any way.
Tracy says she was stunned by the news.
You must have been thinking, like, who could have done this?
Sure.
I mean, it was, there was a lot of things going through my mind.
I just, I just couldn't believe it.
Donna Lella, David's first wife, could believe it.
When I went to the police department,
those were my first words at Sunday night I went there.
Tracy framed it.
David told me I had to tell you this.
It was eerie.
He was preparing for the worst.
To hear Donalella tell the story, David Nixon, her ex-husband, had a premonition that he would be murdered.
He told me what was going to happen.
And what's more, he knew the person who would kill him.
He was going to be murdered by Tracy.
He used the word murder that Tracy was going to kill him.
He didn't call the police with his suspicions or his fears.
No, and I didn't think to tell him that.
Donna went to the police and reported David missing after he didn't return
phone messages from their son Nicholas.
Donna then confronted Tracy Frame over the phone.
What did you ask her?
I asked her what she did with David.
And what did she say?
And she said, well, he's on vacation.
What makes you think I did something to David?
I said, David's missing, Tracy.
What'd you do?
I kept asking for that.
Tracy wasn't worried about David's disappearance.
What were you thinking?
Nothing.
I mean, that's normal.
At that point, it was not uncommon for him to do what he wanted,
to go out with the guys or go stay in a hotel.
I didn't call him beg him to come home or whatever.
Absolutely not.
She says David sometimes snuck off to him.
to Las Vegas for a weekend of gambling.
What else happened in Vegas?
I don't really know how to say this.
Apparently there were prostitutes, call girls,
other activities that happened.
Despite their differences, Tracy and David
were still living together at the house in grapevine.
But David had found another place to live
and was making arrangements to move just days before.
his murder. You were discussing plans for him to move his things out of the house.
And what did he ask you to do? To rent a van. I mean, we've rented them before. Tracy
did rent a Penske moving van and furniture dolly, but David never returned. Since David and
Tracy lived together, she was, she was our key witness. She was the one we wanted to
talk to the most. Great Fine police detective Larry Hallmark was assigned to investigate
murder of David Nixon. Once we met her, her demeanor was completely not what I expected or not
what would be normal under those circumstances. They just said he had been murdered, gunshot wound,
and they had to use the dental records. The first thing she asked was, how did they identify him,
which I thought was an extremely suspicious response. The detective was quoted as saying that you
who asked immediately, how do they identify the body?
And that's not true.
That's not true.
No.
Frayne told detectives that she was home alone the night David disappeared.
She agreed to be questioned on videotape at the police station.
Tracy tells them that she and David were having problems in the months leading to his murder.
We just aren't getting along enough.
I just lost to be.
Tracy learned she was pregnant the previous fall,
just as her relationship with David was crumbling.
David, you know, he was totally against it.
Um, wasn't interested in it at all.
Tracy now says health complications forced her to terminate the pregnancy.
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.
The loss of her unborn baby and David's reaction
left Tracy bitter.
But he was unapologetic.
He could be cruel.
He could be very vicious with his tongue.
But was she angry enough to commit murder?
Homework and another detective, Matt Gudgell,
start pressing Tracy for answers.
The things have disarmed world series.
Do you understand where I'm coming from?
Yes, sir.
So it's time to be honest.
What happened to me?
I don't know.
I'm asking you that.
I don't know.
What happened today?
I don't know.
She could never tell the truth during that entire interview.
She was evasive and sometimes she just out and out lied.
Did you shoot David Nixon?
No, I didn't.
Did you wrap him an electric blanket and set him a fire?
No.
Do you know the circumstances surrounding David Nixon's murder?
No.
While Hallmark had his suspicions about Tracy Frame, he had little to go on.
As far as physical evidence, you don't have much to work with, do you?
No, no. No gun?
No guns? No bullets? No. No blood? No blood.
And an exhaustive search of the crime scene, the storm drain, yielded few clues.
The area had already been washed down by firefighters.
You actually went down in the storm drain?
It's an eight foot tall storm drain that's 15 feet below where we are standing right now.
And I actually walked that 94 feet looking for any physical evidence.
What I found was that this storm drain was clean.
I didn't even find gravel or broken glass in here.
The police did find a set of tire tracks at the scene, providing hallmark with an important clue.
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.
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.
Blurry at best, but recorded at very precise times.
The videotape shows a Penske moving vase.
that looks similar to the one Tracy rented driving through the parking lot.
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.
Now she's going to come out of the store right there.
Is that woman Tracy Frame?
You're sure that's her.
It's a woman that looks like her.
like her.
But it wasn't you.
No.
Doesn't even look like me.
Were you at the store with the truck that night?
You weren't there?
No.
I was at my parents' house in Arlington Saturday and Sunday.
But if it is Tracy caught on tape, she's caught without an explanation.
What's your theory?
What happened that night?
Tracy had finally made the decision that she was just going to have to kill David.
killed David. And she shot him while he was sleeping. Then she rented a moving truck and waited
until the cover of night to move his body. How does a woman weighing 145 pounds dispose of a body
weighing 245 pounds? You use a furniture dolly. It would just be a matter of rolling him onto that dolly
strapping him down.
Homework says Tracy tried but failed to shove Nixon's body down into the storm drain.
You believe that she dumped the body here and then two days later returned to set
of the fire to get rid of the evidence completely.
Right.
And she could just sweep him into that storm drain and he would just disappear forever.
That alleged plan fell apart after a passerby spotted the fire.
But the question remained, why would Tracy want David dead?
Money, greed, that's the only thing that I had to go on.
There was nothing to gain.
Nothing.
Tracy is about to counterattack, and the new man in her life is leading the way.
You believe that she knows nothing about the circumstances surrounding David Nixon's
murder.
I don't think she has a clue.
I mean, so.
I've never been in trouble with the police.
I've never thought the police were anything but out there to help you.
And that the last time he talked to him was Thursday.
I didn't know what the heck was going on.
I'm confused.
Why is that lying?
Right.
That is not true.
You need to listen to what I'm about to tell you.
You really knew.
I'm going to promise you I'm not mad at you.
But things have just turned to real serious for you.
The day after Tracy Frayme met with police detectives, she was arrested and charged with the murder of David Nixon.
What are you thinking about right now?
It's just been a horrible experience.
I knew that it would happen.
It was no surprise.
I knew in my heart that she had done her.
But would it stick was the question.
Tracy was released on Bond and fitted with an electronic monitoring device to be worn until her trial.
To go to a restaurant or to go shopping in shorts when it's 105 degrees, it's hard.
Everybody stares.
It leaves bruises on my ankle and stuff.
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, a native of Great Britain,
who settled in Texas.
Everybody goes, what a bitch she is.
She's totally the opposite.
And in her hour of need, he is standing behind her.
Who would want David Nixon did?
Probably the people that he owed money to.
And he owed a lot.
And Tracy Frame did not have a motive.
You know what?
It would behoove her to keep him alive
because he owed her a ton of money.
Roland and Tracy were longtime friends from Grapevine Lake.
I've never met anybody like her.
She's very smart. She's fun.
After her arrest, a romance developed.
All Tracy's ever wanted to do is love and be loved.
That's all she's ever wanted.
And when they say, Roland, you better watch her back.
That's why I put a ring on her finger.
Roland and Tracy are engaged to be married.
I will never, ever, ever stop loving her. I'll never leave.
I'm there.
Donald Fear is Tracy's defense attorney.
attorney. As the state said, this is purely a circumstantial case. Fear has worked on only three
murder cases in his career, but he's confident he can quickly win an acquittal for frame. 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. Fear says an ambitious
detective hallmark got it all wrong from the beginning. 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. 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? They tore the house apart, and if she killed him in there, she had
white carpet. 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.
He says the videotaped interview with detectives was designed to trap his client.
Did you find her evasive during that questioning?
No, I found her confused.
He would have called me Sunday or Monday or not.
You saw interrogation question aimed at trying to make her look bad and trip her up.
It's not true.
It wasn't, it.
See, now we're getting back into everybody's line.
That's not.
That's not what I was saying.
And she looked bad.
And she looked bad.
And that's how it's supposed to work.
Break them down.
Who knows?
Maybe they'll pull of Perry Mason.
I did it.
I killed him.
God help me.
They didn't get that, so you just keep beating on her.
And it worked.
It worked real well.
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.
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.
Store records show that whoever this person is,
she uses Tracy's store discount card at the checkout,
saving 19 cents.
Someone using your discount card the weekend,
weekend, Dave went missing. That's correct. But it wasn't you. No. Doesn't even look like me.
Tracy admits the discount card is difficult to explain. 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. One would think.
It's pretty odd, though. I agree. 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.
Was it common for David to walk around with big wads of cash in his pocket?
Oh, yes. When he had it, he liked to show everybody.
He liked to be flashy.
Or that it was payback over gambling debts.
Oh, I mean, I knew he gambled.
I just didn't know to the depth of it, I guess, I could say.
And they point an accusing finger at someone who knew both David Nixon and Tracy Frang very well.
Hey, Paul, this is Jerry Val at Best Auto Sales in Fort Worth.
Jerry Val, a friend at the lake, used to be a friend.
He's into businesses of helping people, you know, if they need to borrow money or whatever.
In the business of helping people who want to borrow money.
Okay, hold on. Can I answer that?
Fear stops Tracy from finishing her sentence.
I think where y'all come from, they call them shot locks.
I'm an easy target. I sell used cars.
I'd take a thousand for it.
At one time, David loaned me some money.
And right after Christmas, I paid him back.
Jerry 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.
And he had $25,000 cash on him that he took from the bank to buy the boat.
Now, David didn't carry large money to 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.
And so I spoke to him on the telephone.
And that was the last time I spoke to David.
And Donald Thier raises questions about yet another possible suspect.
Did Tracy Frame stand to gain anything financially with David Nixon's death?
Not a thing.
But the first ex-wife did.
What he's suggesting?
I'm suggesting stating a fact.
Two months before he died, David Nixon took out a life insurance policy for half a million dollars.
And Nicholas was named the primary beneficiary.
Yes.
She's secondary beneficiary, but in all reality, as her son is the primary beneficiary, she got the money.
Tracy Frame got nothing.
So who stood to gain them most?
Well, that's obvious.
I mean, Donna has gained everything.
Did you receive anything from David Nixon's estate?
Very little, very little, less than $10,000.
I don't find losing David a gain at all.
In fact, I find it the hardest part of my life for Nicholas.
So when you found out that Tracy was arrested,
what was going through your mind?
Did you believe it was possible?
It had to be here.
Everybody else I knew that.
I knew they knew him, like them.
I mean, she was the only one who had anything against them, really.
As the trial begins, the defense is confident
the prosecution has no real case, no proof.
We cannot get a handle on even what their theory of the crime was.
Insisting that the police never investigated other suspects.
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 spend on him was to keep him alive and selling houses.
Do you have a dark curiosity?
Heart starts pounding, horrors, hauntings, and mysteries
is a weekly podcast hosted by me, Kailen Moore.
Each week, I'll take you on a dark journey through terrifying true urban legends,
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So if you're looking to join a passionate community,
the Darkly Curious, check out Heart Starts pounding on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get
your podcasts. And remember, stay curious. More than three years after David Nixon's murder,
Hello.
Good morning. Tracy Frame is finally about to stand trial. I feel fine. I feel like everything's
going to turn out right. What do you make of the prosecution's case against you?
It's pretty apparent that they don't have as much as they would lead you to.
believe they had. There's no doubt in your mind that that Tracy Frame killed David Nixon.
Tarrant County, Texas Assistant DA, Sean Colston is prosecuting the case against Tracy Frame.
I think if you look at Tracy Frame, she's just an unpredictable type person and
she's the type of person who could kill without a motive. What kind of personality are you
talking about? Well, Tracy Frame has a personality where it's all about Tracy.
Tracy is going to get what Tracy wants and she doesn't care how she gets it.
Even if it means killing someone.
If it means murder, Tracy's willing to do that.
Tracy's fiancé Roland Taylor says prosecutors are trying the wrong woman.
Is that Tracy inside the Tom Thumb store?
No.
I know how you're the thighs.
They were touching.
And I'll tell you want, that lady.
has got a set of legs that don't quit.
There's no doubt in my mind, that's not her.
That's not her.
No, not at all.
She says she was never at the Tom Thumb Store.
Do you believe that?
Absolutely not.
She says that someone else used her Tom Thumb card.
Do you believe that?
Absolutely not.
I thought we'd hang out here in the law.
With little forensic evidence, no eyewitnesses,
and the watchdown crime scene, the
defense believes the prosecution simply cannot make a case for murder.
You know, we're going to show you the smoking mirrors for two weeks and you're just going to be
overwhelmed by that so much smoke there must be a fire somewhere. So who's responsible for
David Nixon's murder? Today, I don't think we'll ever find out because they never looked
very far once they accused me. 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.
And along with no apparent motive,
there's no murder weapon, no gun.
Or was there?
Did your dad have a gun?
Yeah.
And where did he keep it?
In a safe.
You saw that?
Yeah.
You saw the gun?
Yeah.
He showed it to me just to, you know, make sure I was okay with it.
David's safe was in the bedroom of the house he shared with Tracy.
The police didn't find a gun in the safe in his house.
I know.
Where is it?
I don't know.
Lake grapevine, perhaps.
Down a drain pipe.
I don't know what she did with it.
She?
She.
Tracy.
Did David keep a gun in the house?
No.
You never did?
No.
He didn't keep a gun in the safe in the house.
No.
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.
John Wright and Mike Heedon remember the day Tracy Frang came into their janitorial supply company shopping shopping for
for cleaning products to remove odor and blood.
We sold her probably about $100 worth of stuff.
It was one day after David disappeared.
I mean, she was, I don't even want to use the word desperate,
but appeared desperate for it's gotta work.
So Tracy asked the salesman if there was a foolproof way
to remove blood stains.
Then we told her about the mirrored cash which we don't sell.
The next day, the shadowy figure
who prosecutors say is Tracy Frame,
is at the Tom Thumb store,
buying just that, muriatic acid.
Every item purchased by that woman
was found in the home when we searched it.
For the prosecution, all the pieces of the puzzle fit.
I think once you put all of that information together,
I think any reasonable person can say that that is Tracy Frame.
And as for the defense suggestion,
that Donna may have had more to gain from David's death
and Tracy, investigators
say there was nothing to it.
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.
Almost nothing Tracy told us checked out.
Every trail led to Tracy.
But will the jury agree?
On the eve of the verdict, Tracy Frame, who did not take the stand,
seems subdued and uncertain.
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.
I think Tracy saw an opportunity, and she took it.
It was all inference, coincidence, could be, maybe, looks good.
Well, that isn't enough to convict somebody at murder.
After a two-week-long trial, it is Judgment Day for Tracy Frang.
Scared?
Yes, of course.
Very.
If convicted of murder, she faces a possible sentence of life in prison.
It's a reality, but I don't think that I'll have to worry about that.
Defense lawyer Don Fear is anxious.
Actually, we're confident that we're going to be successful,
and the jury will see that clearly my client is not guilty.
As a lawyer, who knows.
The day, March 9, 2005, would also have been David Nixon's 43rd birth.
Nicholas is feeling the stress.
Members of David's family from New Hampshire have attended the trial.
For three years now we've been struggling with this and waiting for this day and we're glad it's here.
Today's David's birthday.
Our fingers crossed.
Whatever the outcome, for Donna and Nicholas some questions may never be answered.
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.
Am I sure they have the right person?
Yes.
And the moment of judgment finally arrives.
The jury has reached a verdict.
I'll ask the audience, realize their emotions in here, but we need for everyone to keep their
composure.
Judge Mike Thomas has not permitted cameras to cover the trial, but he does allow us
inside for the verdict.
Should stand, please.
We the jury find the defendant guilty of the offensive murder is charged in the indictment.
The jury takes less than four hours to find Tracy guilty.
The sentence 40 years.
Yes, I'm very happy.
Very happy with the jury's verdict.
About time.
David's family is elated, but later that night, the mood becomes thoughtful.
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.
Just glad it's finally over, you know.
It's gone on long enough.
Donna worries how Nicholas is coping without his father.
The little things that his dad did,
the big peacock chest sticking out going,
that's my boy.
That's what he's struggling with.
That's what he misses.
Donna wishes that somehow she had done more.
Mad that I can't change anything.
Can't bring it.
I know in my mind Tracy killed David.
Jerry Vowell is sure the jury got it right.
She probably just said, heck with you, bang.
So the motive was money.
I think it was money, and I think it was a sense of entitlement.
Entitlement, says Detective Larry Hallmark, to her fair share of the house.
David Nixon was killed for $80,000.
I think he could have been killed for $80 if it had suited Tracy.
Tracy Frang was the person that ultimately has paid the price for this crime, not the person who did it.
Roland Taylor remains loyal to his fiancé.
Aren't you setting yourself up for many years of heartache?
No, it's not harding.
Being engaged to a woman who's...
No.
No.
Who's serving 40 years in the state penitentiary?
No.
It'd be a heartache if she wasn't in my life.
There's nothing here anymore, except a memory.
Do you think you have strong grounds for an appeal?
Oh, God, I hope so.
Yes.
Tracy Frames spoke to us just weeks after her conviction.
How did the prosecutors manage to convince the jury that you were guilty of murder?
I'm not sure.
They threw a lot of stuff at them.
How have you been getting through these last couple of weeks?
Just the best of can.
What's your greatest fear right now?
The unknown, I guess.
Do you have any regrets right now?
Yeah, in the justice system.
Do you think you have the inner strength to get through this?
No, no, I'm pretty scared.
What are you scared of the most?
Seriously.
It's the rest of my life.
I don't really get the whole thing, you know, but I don't know.
It's weird.
Do you think when you get older you'll be able to understand it any better?
You can't understand that kind of person.
