Anatomy of Murder - Behind the Door (Christie, Trey and Celeste Fradeneck)

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

A sibling’s concern for her sister and her family, leads her to call the police. What they find behind the door of the family’s home, was worse than anyone imagined. For episode information and photos, please visit https://anatomyofmurder.com/ Can’t get enough AoM? Find us on social media!Instagram: @aom_podcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @AOM_podcast | @audiochuckFacebook: /listenAOMpod | /audiochuckllc

The only thing that really shocked me is that he was alive. Like when he opened that door, the wind could have knocked me over. Because I assumed that there was a investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff. I'm Anasiga Nicolazzi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of Investigation Discovery's True Conviction. And this is Anatomy of Murph. Today we're talking about a heartbreaking case out of East Point, Michigan. A triple slaying of a mother and her two children. Christy Fratnick, 37, her son Timothy, who was also known by Trey, was just eight years old.

And their daughter Celeste, who was only two. Now, just hearing the ages of two of the victims here, you all probably said, wait, oh no, children are involved. And you know that we don't normally cover these cases because they are just too heavy even for ourselves most of the time. But we're covering this one today because first of all, it came to us from a listener, Courtney Zaney, and she is Christy's sister. And when she reached out to us via Facebook, she said she really was hoping that we would cover this story, her family story, and I quote, to keep their memories alive and also possibly to help someone in the same situation. And after getting to know her a bit, it became abundantly clear that this was a story we needed to share.

We lived four blocks away from each other. We were raising our kids together. You know, the day of, the officer asked me, have you and your sister had a fight recently that she wouldn't call you back? And I said, in middle school over an outfit. Like, no, that's not who we are. The two were very close in all ways sisters can be. Just two years apart, close in proximity, and nearly inseparable. They spoke to each other every day. They even worked together

at a family-owned business with their mother, Leslie. It was a popular beauty salon. Now, Courtney Zaney, she is the younger sister of Christy. This is a woman who, in her own right, is a force to be reckoned with. She is strong and she is matter-of-fact. But one of the things that really stood out to me in speaking about such personal tragedy is that she's also fair-minded, and I think that will come through as you hear her tell what happened to their family. Let's start with the relationship between the two sisters. Christy and Courtney were close growing up. We always got along. It was kind of because my mom and her sister didn't always have a great relationship, so she really pushed us, and she used to say, you two are going to get along, and I don't care what you'd say. So like her plan worked,

even though we didn't realize it was working. And we were kind of total opposites, but also the same person. You know, I'm the hyper wild younger sister. She was the calm in the storm, just as steady as can be. And she always put up with me. I'm not sure how. I feel like all these stories talk about how the person that's gone is the greatest person in the room, but she really was. You know, I think Courtney also talked about how her sister Christy was a perfectionist. She enjoyed crafting, photography, gardening. She even loved writing and was already a published author. But most of all, she was a caring person who was an incredible sister. I just have to bring up the published author for a second because when I saw that,

I had to see if I could find what she had written. It's on Amazon. It's called The Gift Exchange. It was published in 2012 and it was a novel. I never really saw her as caring what people thought about her. She was an excellent student. She had a tight group of friends that are still around me, and she was an excellent friend. Friends moved out of state. She wrote letters.

She continued to keep in touch with people and put the stamp on the envelope and send postcards from out of town. And she was always there for everyone. And I know that. I didn't realize how much she did for everybody until now they're doing it for me in return. Just a little over 20, Christy got married to Timothy Fradnick, her sweetheart right out of high school. Let's go back to see how these two originally became a couple. I think they had a class together. I know that she had an inconvenient locker location and that he let her store some of her stuff in his locker.

He was the grade above her. So when I was a freshman, she would have been a junior. He would have been a senior. I was in school with him for one year. He had a brother in my grade. I remember being at parties that he was at. You know, everybody just kind of hung out together. They were teenagers.

And while they were friends for a while, eventually that friendship turned to love. Small wedding in a little church. We were all there. His family, our family. You know, we did the whole nine, made flowers, picked out dresses. They weren't a party type of people. So she had a sit down dinner without dancing and stuff, like a nice dinner. They were married on 9-9-99.

And she just picked that date because she figured he'd never forget. She was very funny, and he was kind of go with the flow with her. And eventually the couple went from a family of two to a family of four, and it was clear that there was nowhere that Christy shined brighter than with her children. She was the best mother. Christy loved her children more than anything. Christy struggled with infertility issues and miscarriages before her son, Trey, was born.

That little boy just touched my heart. It was my first nephew. I'd never had that experience ever. And so tiny. Christy worked hard to teach her son the values that she held dear. And young Trey soon showed that his heart was as big as his mom's. He was going to be the best person that she could make him out to be. He had a huge compassion for the bad kids in school because she told him that bad kids are normally probably pretty sad.

Like, you don't know what people are going through at home. So he befriended kids who got in trouble a lot because he was pretty convinced that they were sad and needed attention. She then watched him grow into this amazing child. But they were really hoping to have a second, but it didn't come any easier than it had been having their first.

But six years after Trey was born, Christy and her husband Timothy had a daughter, Celeste. My daughter and Celeste are so similar. They look similar. You would definitely be able to tell they were cousins, but the attitude. Their little angel proved to be a bit of a firecracker too. So here's one of my favorite Celeste memories. My mom's birthday was like two months before it

happened. We all went out to lunch. So it would have been me, my sister, the two kids, my son, my mom, and then my mom's aunt. And so we've got this big long booth and Celeste is in one of the high chair stalls at the end. And this little old lady walks by her and goes, oh, aren't you cute? And Celeste gave her the look of death. Like, why are you talking to me, lady? She would just give you that face. She would also wear her frozen dresses and spin around in a circle and sing songs and, you know, your typical little girl. But just with that little edge, they're like, oh, this one could take over the world one day. How about Timothy as a dad? He was a good dad. Normal, you know, rough house, tickle your kid, throw him around on the couch.

Normal dad, normal life. The last time the entire family was together was on Easter, April 5th, 2015. Sisters, grandparents, kids, everyone, they all gathered at Christy's cousin's house to celebrate. Our last big time together was all for Easter, the week before, because Easter was early in 2015. Oh, it was big. My cousin, he lived across the street. He rented the house across the street from them. It was kind of in the front yards, like, because the eggs were hidden everywhere.

I just remember them running everywhere, chalk all over the sidewalk. Everybody had baskets of eggs. There's a couple of very cute pictures of the kids all on the front porch with their baskets. Now, we all can envision that perfect Easter gathering. Beautiful spring weather, a fresh-caught lawn with multicolored eggs scattered all across, each egg filled with a different type of candy. Sure, it's mainly geared towards children, but the magic of this holiday, seeing kids sprint across the yard, their faces lighting up with each egg they grab, makes it just such a memorable holiday for the parents.

And it was a great day for all. And that included all the extended family that had gathered. But it was especially meaningful to Christy and Courtney's mom, Leslie. And I just want to sidestep here for a moment because Leslie raised her daughters as a single mom. Now, their father, her ex-husband, was still very much in the girls' lives. But as a single mom, it was extra important to her that her daughters were close. And to see now her daughters and their families

and her grandchildren, including her nieces and nephews, all together, it really meant everything for this woman who had tried so hard to make sure her children's lives would be full. I feel like it was the highlight of my mom's life, you know, to have all her grandkids running around, and it was really beautiful out. It was sunny. So we all just kind of hung out in the yard. It was just a great day,

but it just seems idyllic in the rearview mirror now. Everything seemed so bright for this big family, but then, just a few days later, everything would change. April 13, 2015. Along a tree-lined street full of cute homes, the Fratinex lived in a small gray bungalow. The tiny front yard is landscaped with trimmed shrubs and bright flowers. A place where Christy would spend time bringing beauty to the family's home. Children's toys and trampolines are visible when you look into the fence backyard. There's a detached garage nearby as well. And on the outside, everything seems so calm, peaceful, idyllic. But inside, things were very different.

I remember every minute of my life from that day. I woke up that morning, and I tried to call her, which is normally our normal thing, you know, in the morning, after you get your kids situated, see what's going on. It was a Monday. And I got an alert on my phone that something was wrong with some accounts. So like I did some bills and stuff and didn't think about the fact that she didn't answer. Tried to call her again a little bit later.

New answer. Okay. We're going to be together that evening. So I'm trying to see if she wanted to get snacks. Should I cut up some cheese? Like I just needed to chat with her. It was a planned event and the ladies were looking forward to it so much that it became a bit concerning as guests started to show up, but there was no sign of Christy.

People start to gather. I see my father, and I tell him I haven't talked to my sister all day. And he said, well, I don't like that. And I said, no, I know. like that. And I said, no, I know. So he walks away and I end up sitting with these ladies and I'm like, you know, I haven't talked to her all day, girls. And they said, we can't tell you how worried you should be. Only you know how worried you should be. And that made me like look inside. And I thought, okay, well, then I'm really worried. So Courtney jumps in her car

and she drives just a few minutes down the road to Christy's home, which was nearby on Cushing Street to check on her sister. So I get to her house and it's closed up. Curtains drawn, whole house. Looks like nothing's happened there all day. Her car's in the driveway.

I parked behind her, and I walked to the side door. They did not use their front door. The way her bungalow was set up, most of the time she had a chair in front of it. So I went to the side door, banged on that. Nothing, and I didn't feel like anything was coming. At that point in my head, I thought, oh my God, they're all dead. It was 6 p.m. on Monday. Two children lived in the house. It shouldn't have been this quiet or this calm. Courtney describes it as eerie.

And you can all just picture it. It doesn't matter whether you have children or not. You can just picture it that time of day. Kids are running around. They're being pulled inside for dinner. There's usually a lot going on in the home and outside at that time of day. Courtney and Christy had a cousin that lived right across the street. So after not getting a response at the house, Courtney went over to her cousin's house to ask for help. But I was like, I need you. Something's going on. Honestly, if I hadn't been pregnant, me and him probably would have broke into that house. Thank God we didn't. We walked around the house, banging on the window, and I'm like, I'm calling the police. I kind of asked a neighbor, like, have you seen anything?

They're like, no, I'm calling the police. When police arrived, it was 6.50 p.m. There was one cruiser, two officers. They walked to the front door. They 6.50 p.m. There was one cruiser, two officers. They walked to the front door, they knock, they pound. And then much to Courtney's surprise, this time someone answered. He opened the door, Timden, and he looked bewildered. He didn't even look like the person I knew, like crazy,, he had crazy eyes. The only thing that really shocked me is that he was alive.

Like, when he opened that door, the wind could have knocked me over. Because I assumed that there was a gas leak and something happened and they were all dead. And these officers start to, like, say something to him, like, you know, trying to be like, hi, you know, trying to do a well check on, you know, your family. Even though the officers don't know Timothy, they're likely to key in on his demeanor at the front door. He told the officers that his wife and children were sleeping and he didn't want to disturb them. But the officers insisted that she come to the door and bring the children. This is a welfare check.

The only way for them to complete their duty is to physically see Timothy's wife and his children. We've talked about welfare checks before, but a quick sidestep because it does become an important aspect in this story. A welfare check is a non-emergency service provided by law enforcement to check on the well-being of an individual who may be in distress or facing potential harm. Courtney was the person requesting officers to check on her sister and her family. In my time in uniform, this is a very typical call. I would respond, and to the majority of these calls, it's not a crime. While the officers are interacting and speaking with Timothy, remember, Courtney and her cousin are right across the street, so she's watching everything as it unfolds.

And she's starting to put the pieces together in her mind. And so I'm standing between what you would call the boulevard. I'm standing between the sidewalk and the street on the grass. And I take one giant step to the side and I yell, where the f*** is my sister? Police obviously wanted to know the answer to Courtney's question as well. After a brief exchange at the door, surprisingly, Timothy lets them enter the house, all the while insisting that his family were just sleeping. And I'm trying to stay calm because I'm pregnant. So I'm trying to breathe,

but I know at this point in my gut, and what solidifies it is now cop cars are pulling up. Ambulances are pulling up. And they're not lights and sirens. They start taping off the street in front of us as we're standing there. Nobody's going in for rescue. You know, Scott, just from Courtney's perspective for a moment, just like imagine she's across the street.

She hasn't found her sister. Something's not right. She didn't expect anyone to answer the door. And now the police are there. They go inside and she sees other personnel arriving, but they're not rushing in. And it's almost the lack of urgency that must have really been making her stomach, you know, flip. Yeah, obviously she's standing by the sidewalk close to the street. So all she sees is Timothy. She does not see Christy or her niece or nephew. So at that moment, there may have been some relief that someone answered the door.

So the whole thought of the gas leak obviously wasn't real. But still, she was screaming from the sidewalk, wanting him to bring them out, wanting to see them herself to make sure they were okay. Courtney would soon learn that after police entered the house and shut the door, Timothy had admitted to the officers that his family wasn't asleep. He admitted that he had killed them. Fratinick had admitted that he had killed them. Fratenik had admitted that he had killed his wife and his two children. He's placed in handcuffs, walked out the front door of their home into a patrol car to be taken to the precinct station house for questioning. Fratenik told police that on the day of the murders, he had tried to take his own life by ingesting pills and starting a fire, but that he fell asleep before he could start that fire.

About an hour after the discovery of the bodies of Christy and her children, investigators would sit down with Fratnick, who completely confessed, detailing how he carried out these murders. First, he killed his wife by strangling her, and then his eight-year-old son, Trey, and then his two-year-old daughter, Celeste, each by laying on them to force the air out of their lungs. And then he strangled them with a USB cable. Each victim was found in their bed. Most of you, probably like me, it makes you stop when you hear what he did to his wife,

but even more so when you hear what he did to his children. And I guess we should stop here and say that, of course, we already talked about a really heavy, brutal crime. But the reason that we talk about specifically what he did is because it all factors into the being held responsible later. Beyond the violence, the deliberateness, and even pre-planning of these attacks, wasn't mental disease alone at play or something more intentional? After he literally squeezed the life from each one of them, he put a Lego in his eight-year-old boy's hand. He laid all their heads back on their pillows.

He put their blankets up to their neck. He basically tucked them in after killing them. And then he stayed inside that house until the police knocked on his door. He first said that he was going to kill himself. He wanted to kill himself, and he didn't think they could survive without him or they wouldn't be okay without him. My biggest problem with that is then,

why are you alive? Investigators are going to go very quickly from welfare check mode to investigative homicide mode. So one of the first things they're going to start asking, is there any sort of history, you know, the domestic violence unrest in this family? It turns out that Timothy did not have a history of domestic violence with Christy, but he did plead guilty to disorderly conduct or reduced charge in a domestic violence situation that

involved another family member back in 2009. A neighbor also shared that Timothy once threatened them with a hay fork the summer before the murders. And Courtney had her moments with him too. I had some issues with him when I was in my late teens, early 20s. We would argue. We had an argument, me and him. I was in my sister teens, early 20s. We would argue. We had an argument, me and him. I was in my sister's kitchen at an apartment, highlighting her hair. And I don't know, I was not very nice to one of his friends or something.

And he tried to kick me out of the house. He just tried to like big brother me. You know, he tried to like kind of talk down to me and condescend to me. And I was never going to have any of his crap. Like I said, I'm kind of the pistol sister, you know, more a little more on edge. Like, you're not going to tell me what to do. Maybe the signs were there a little bit earlier than maybe we all thought that it wasn't great. And so often on these domestic homicides,

there are red flags, maybe not seen at the time, but when you go back and start to look at them. But here, there were not those warning signs that we usually or so often see in cases that end up like this. So while there were some previous issues dealing with violence, Courtney didn't think her sister had any real fear for herself or her children as a result of those incidents with Timothy. She would have never left her family in harm's way.

I don't believe she went to bed scared in this house. I think something flipped. So from Courtney's perspective, something may have flipped inside Timothy that day. Or did it? The couple were married 16 years, but their relationship was far from perfect. They were building a family which obviously comes with expenses. But they always had financial issues. Money was tight. And between the two of them, Christy was the one who steadily worked

and she had this nail salon, this business with her sister and her mom. And Timothy worked, he changed jobs here and there, but he also worked on and off. She used to tell him, you can lead, you can follow, or you can get the out of the way. That was her philosophy.

Like, this is how I'm running this house. If you want to be the leader of this ship, go for it. But if not, you need to follow behind it. That was kind of her attitude. Like, I'm going to do me. She always knew who she was. She was very self-assured, even if she didn't know where she was heading in life. You know, she always knew the right thing to say to people. She always had great advice. I really

believed that he just thought that she was the best thing that ever happened to him. You know, he didn't always say a whole lot, but I just really thought that maybe he wasn't successfully adulting and keeping his life together. But I really thought that he was going to just follow, you know what I mean, and do what he needed to do. And I think this is a pretty good example how we can fall into different roles within relationships. And really, there is no right or wrong way as long as both are on board. But here, while it was Christy who seemed to be the one taking the charge and Timothy that seemed to be happy in that backseat role, but the financial strains that they felt and various interpersonal dynamics were definitely leading to frustration,

at least for Christy. A lot of their financial problems were due to the fact that Timothy struggled to hold down a job. That one in itself can cause a marriage, obviously, to struggle. In fact, Timothy never seemed to find his way. He dropped out of college and then dropped out of an electrical apprenticeship. He was insulin dependent and had medical bills. And all that served to put a lot of stress on their marriage. She never seemed truly happy. I have a very happy marriage. We've been together 16 years, married 14.

She never seemed as happy as I feel. A lot of people were not sure what she saw in him. That's been a sentiment that I've heard from a lot of people. Timothy Fradnick, at the time of the murders was 38 years old. Back in high school, he had been a football player. He was a physically big guy. And by Courtney's account, by all accounts, it seemed that Timothy was a really good dad. You know, he was the guy who was playing with his kids. And while he may not have been that much of a go-getter, he wasn't a brute within his family. And everyone would say that, including Courtney, that Tim made an effort to be a good father and that he was trying to make things work with Christy.

But at the same time, he was fighting his own inner demons. I don't think he was a bad person. He definitely had depression and some issues. It presented pretty early after high school, I would think. Courtney believes Timothy was battling depression and added that he had had suicidal thoughts before. One thing that she said during your interview with her, Anna Segal, that really stayed with me was this about Timothy. She said he was broken and his wife, Christy, she held him together.

He really treasured her. He really, I believed, would take very good care of her, even if he was a mess himself. I always, I never thought she was in danger. She never thought she was in danger. He definitely fought some demons and some things went wrong in his brain. And I don't think that there is any question that he suffered from depression.

He was diagnosed as such, and everyone that knew him knew that was something that he had dealt with for much of his lifetime. But, you know, his mental health was definitely a point of contention within the marriage from time to time. I think she was frustrated over the fact that he couldn't successfully adult. You know, she was doing most of it on her own. For the most part, she was the provider in that home. She was the caregiver in that home. And there wasn't much added to it by him. She held him together like glue. He never really took strides and accountability for his own mental health, which is a problem.

If you can't work on yourself, somebody else cannot fix you and hold you together. And I think her frustration was starting to show. Timothy Fradnick's mental health is definitely going to end up being at play here, not just when it came to the crime, but certainly as he headed soon to court. And we're going to talk about how that may have worked its way in, or if it did or didn't, to what extent. When asked why he killed his family, Fradenik told investigators he did it to spare them the heartache they'd be left with after he took his own life, which he claimed he planned

to do. He didn't think they could survive without him or they wouldn't be okay without him. The looming question for prosecutors, was it his mental health that caused the crime or was it something more primal, darker, and his admitted mental health issues while real, now also being used as an excuse. Now, let's talk what could possibly be a motive. And there really isn't a clear, undeniable motive in this case. But we do know that financially, things were not good.

And as we know with history, money could often be enough motive to kill. But police explained that Fradnik had already planned to kill his family for several months. It started back in August when he was released from the hospital for unknown reasons. During her interview, Courtney had told us that during that period in August, she felt there was a glimmer of hope for the couple, that he was trying to get a job and they seemed to be getting along a little bit better. But looking back now, that was the very time that he was planning these vicious murders. I'm so confused by that because that's around the time that she thought he was

moving forward. That was kind of around the time where she was like, this might be getting better. And about the last year or two, she was actually working for like a city's DPW and was doing kind of good. And she almost felt like he was turning a corner and then he kind of stopped going again and was sick and didn't, you know. So I think that the upturn and then a backslide was what made her be so frustrated again, you know, like, wait, you were getting better. We were moving forward. And now you're not leaving the house again. You're in the basement playing video games on your computer all the time. You're not coming upstairs to participate with us. Like, I need help.

Fratnick went on to tell the police that April 13th, the day of these murders, that he chose that day because it presented in his word opportunity because his wife and his children were both asleep. He claimed that he had tried to kill himself. He said that he had taken some medication and that he fell asleep. And that then he says he took down smoke detectors because his intent was to burn down the house. That didn't happen because he fell asleep. I think I'm slowing down as I even say these words, Scott, because I'm looking at it and I'm like,

what, this just doesn't even make any sense, right? You're planning to kill yourself, but yet you're taking down smoke detectors because you're going to light a fire. Well, that to me speaks of covering up a crime, not trying to, you know, take all of you out together. To me, it sounds like he's attempting to set up a defense in advance to say that, you know, this is the evidence that I really was planning on setting a fire. I didn't want

the fire department to respond within a certain amount of time because I wanted to die. And I didn't believe that my family could survive without me. I want to make sure that I was thorough in my attempt to die by suicide. But in essence, he fell asleep. According to him, he woke up from his sleep and he murdered Christy and his two children one by one. And then when asked by detectives if he was remorseful, he said yes and no. So the one thing that is very clear is that this is a case of familicide, which is basically one family member killing multiple other family members. It's usually the significant other, the spouse and children. It's always the goal of the killer to destroy the family unit, and it's almost always

premeditated. And so remember, that is what Fratnick told the police. But there's a couple other things to keep in mind when we're talking about this unfortunate phenomenon that we see way too much of. The offender, the killer, often feels that they are responsible for the financial needs of that family. And this works into, again, because these killers are most often men, it works into their feelings about their own masculinity. You often hear that there were cracks within the marriage and that they were afraid of being left. So it is that fear of abandonment.

If I can't have you, no one else will. They would rather take these people from their earth than let them walk away from the family home. But it also really comes down to that the offender in their head basically looks at these family members almost like property in the sense that they start to believe that they have the right to take their lives. The pain of losing a loved one is something we've all likely had to deal with. The pain of losing someone to homicide, especially under these circumstances,

is unimaginable. This was a small community, and family members who lived within just walking distance, who talked every single day. And in just a flash, Christy and her two precious children were gone. The immediate aftermath for me was robotic. It made me feel good to do things. It made me feel good to move forward, to plan things. You don't know what else to do with your head, your idle thoughts. So setting up services and starting memorials and stuff,

that's the easiest thing to do for me. It was a hard balance of trying to not be hysterical. I would have this overwhelming concern about the child in my stomach, you know, that I was carrying. So I didn't feel like I could fall apart. You know, Scott, it really makes sense when Courtney talks about she just was very robotic, like just one step in front of the other afterwards. And again, everyone processes things differently. But time and time again, survivors have said to me that it's like this bad dream that you never wake up from. It's like you're living in a fog, at least initially, and you're just going through the motions because that's all you can do to like mentally stay alive. And it really struck me when

she was speaking, you know, the strength within her to just keep moving forward and get things done that needed to be done. One, because she was helping get all the arrangements to be made, but also to help her brain survive rather than process what had just occurred. And no one was surprised when it came time for the funeral that there was a large turnout from the community. Courtney shared that she and Christy ran a salon together for 15 years. So naturally, they met and made connections with a lot of people. We really had a very large community when this happened. I mean, the ripple effect. You don't think about the kids in the schools. You don't think about just like the

people that everybody works with and like the communities that are affected by this. And there was probably almost 800 people at the funeral. This has affected a lot of people in our community. The community showed their grief and support in so many different ways. There were three dozen stuffed animals on the front steps of the family home, which still had the yellow crime scene tape, you know, kind of strewn and stripped across the front porch.

There was a GoFundMe campaign that raised thousands and thousands of dollars to help with the funeral costs. And again, funerals, if you haven't been through one, they're really expensive. And this family didn't just have to bear the cost of one but three, but the community didn't want that to be what the family had to deal with. And so they helped them take that much off their plate. With Christy, Trey, and Celeste now laid to rest, the focus shift to finding justice for these victims. And there was no question as to who killed them, but instead, why. And more importantly, if an insanity defense would be used

to try to explain these actions away. His defense team signaled that they would try to prove serious mental illness at the time of the incident to the extent that he felt he was not responsible for the murder of his wife and his two children. Timothy's defense attorney claimed at the preliminary hearing that Fratnick was seriously mentally ill at the time of the murders

to the extent that in his mind he was compelled to kill his family and himself. His defense attorney went on to claim that his client was bipolar and also suffering from other mood disorders at the time of the crime. And that is going to be the huge question here. It's all going to be about Fratnick's mental state at the time. He tried to claim that, you know, they didn't get him proper medical attention when they arrested him. This is my point of view from when I started going to court. But the East Point police said, you know, we had the EMS come in. EMS could have taken you or not.

They chose not to take you. You didn't need medical attention. So he tried to legally maneuver a couple of things from my point of view. There was no question that he had suffered with depression for years. But here they

are saying that it impact his mind to such a degree that he did not know right from wrong, that he was completely not responsible for his actions. And basically what happens, you know, at trial or before trial is this. First, they have to see if he is able to aid in his own defense. There's going to be doctors involved from the beginning. But it seems like they got through that hurdle. So now if they're going for this not responsible defense, well, there are going to be experts involved to examine him to give their opinion. What's going to happen is that he's going to be examined

by two doctors. After examining him, their findings were this, that Tim Fradnick did suffer from depression. He did suffer from mental health disorders. However, they both found that those did not cause the murder, that he did know right from wrong. So now that is going to be the exact posture that they're going to walk in to trial. He decided to plead guilty, you know, to save probably not us, but at least his own parents, his own family, just the energy of a trial.

You know, I just want to talk a little about what happens with a plea like this. Once someone is found not responsible, well, then they are civilly committed, which means that you don't go to prison, but rather to a mental health facility where you are treated. However, you are not there voluntarily and you are not released until such time when and if a doctor finds that you are no longer a threat to yourself or to the community at large. However, here he went to prison because he pled guilty. He was not found unfit, but they give him that he did have some mental disability or impairment to make sure that he would receive mental health services while in jail.

They basically told us, like, he's getting the same sentence. It will not be in, like, a mental facility. The only attachment is so that they can treat him for mental illness in jail. During the sentencing phase, the courtroom was packed with family members. Several of them stood at the rear of the courtroom, holding up pictures of Christy, Trey, and Celeste. And since there wasn't a trial, this really was the only time that family members, loved ones got to say their piece about what Fratnik took

from them that day. But Fratnik also had the opportunity to speak. And some of what he said really struck me as me, me, me. That he despaired about getting help and so that his wife and children died by his hand. And he said that he murdered them to spare them the heartache of him killing himself. There's a rabbit hole you can go down to back and forth. You can have empathy for the mental health issues. But a lot of this really comes back to when they talk about familicide, that feeling that the world revolves around the offender and these other pieces, these people are at their disposal for what they, the offender, think is best.

Something that Courtney said in court that really stood out to me, Anastika, was she said, killing Christy was the single most ambitious thing that this man had ever accomplished. How powerful is that? And I also promised him in court, you're not taking my life too. You're not taking my happy life that I was skipping along with. I have children. I have a marriage. It needs to stop. Enough loss.

After family members had had their say, the judge gave out his sentence. And remember, this was a plea, so he was sentenced to what everyone already knew what was coming, which is life without the possibility of parole for the murder of his wife and two children. You know, I can't say enough about Courtney and the powerful interview that she did with Joanna Seeger.

Her strength, her determination. You know, many people crumble under the weight of grief, understandably, but she has done the exact opposite of that. And telling Fratnick in court that you're not taking my life and just the way that she has handled this unbelievable tragedy is nothing short of inspiring.

You don't know when the best time of your life is until later and you're like, oh man, that was really great. In speaking with Courtney, you can tell she is strong and she has done so much to put one foot in front of the other and make sure that Fradnick was not going to take her happiness from her, even though he has taken her sister and her niece and nephew. But there still is so much pain inside.

So how do I survive having this happen? The most heartbreaking thing I could think of besides it happening to my, you know, my personal family, my kids, my husband. What's gotten me through is looking for the silver linings and everything, trying to find that little sliver of, I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but how could it be worse? There's always ways that everybody's life could be worse. Everybody's story could be worse. I'm grateful for the fact that I didn't have to watch him lie on TV.

I didn't have to hear him accuse my sister of killing their children. I didn't have to hunt for bodies for 30 years. I know where my family's at. I know what happened. It's terrible. Courtney's grief can be heard in her words, but so can her empathy and her strength. I just wanted to live my life in a way that would make her proud. She invested a lot of time in me as her little sister, and she really wanted me to turn out good. And not turning out good would be a disservice to her and her children. I want my children to not have generational issues because their mom was too sad to take care of them. I just want to be okay, and I want everybody else to be okay, and that's what she would want.

So I work hard at that. Now, something that I found out about Courtney in speaking to her is that Courtney herself has a podcast and it focuses on grief. It's called Grief, Silver Lining, and I'll just say Other Stuff. And it really explores the depth of grief and trauma. You could find it on Apple, on Spotify. We're going to put up a link on the AOM website. But suffice it to say that she is continuing to take, as we have described it in other episodes, her pain and trying to turn it into purpose. All homicides are tragic. The experience of losing a loved one to violence can leave an indelible mark on an individual's life. However, many resilient people find solace and purpose

in transforming their pain into a driving force for change. When it comes to mental health issues and homicides, the connection is real. In fact, it's an epidemic. We as a society can't turn away from it. We must do better. Today, little Trey would be 17. Celeste would be 11. Courtney told us that what she misses most about her sister was to grow old side by side with Christy.

So much love and life taken away by the very person who should have been there to protect them. So, you know, in looking at their obituaries, I read about young Trey, how much that little boy loved dinosaurs. He wanted to be a paleontologist. He could name any dinosaur, no matter how long the name, and that he loved his sister, but he also loved his gecko, Molly, and he was compassionate and tenderhearted, and his favorite color was lime green. Celeste, just two years old. They

talked about her crazy curly hair, and she was feisty with a smile that could melt your heart, and she loved anything pink and purple, and she loved My Little Pony because she thought Princess Celestia was named after her, and she loved Frozen. She could recite the movie word for word, and Christy, their mom, who was a positive, successful person who loved connecting with the earth and all things natural. She was a force to be reckoned with, but above all, she loved her children. Courtney reached out to us because she wanted to share her family's story to hopefully help someone in the same situation find their way out of despair. So we hope that her words do that for anyone out there who needs them.

And she also wanted to speak with us, with all of you, to keep their memories alive of her sister, her nephew, and her niece. Courtney, their memories are very much alive. They are not, they will not be forgotten. Tune in next week for another new episode of Anatomy of Murder. Anatomy of Murder is an Audiochuck original. Produced and created by Weinberger Media and Frosetti Media. Ashley Flowers is executive producer.

So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?