Dateline Originals - Five Miles From Home - Ep. 5: Let's Make a Deal

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

As the case heads to trial, two very different accounts of the crime emerge. This episode originally published on June 22, 2026. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Detective Donald Burnham was stumped. Yes, decidedly stumped, because even though Cody and Tony were securely locked up in awaiting trial, there were things, important things. He just didn't understand about the murder of that poor young woman out in the desert. Two mysteries in particular. Which of those killer kids was driving the bus, so to say? That is, which one pronounced sentence on Mickey Costanzo?

It seemed like one of them had to be more in charge than the other. Or maybe not. But for now, it seemed a reasonable hypothesis. And the second mystery could be expressed in one three-letter word, why? Why kill Mickey? That smart, sweet, popular young woman had never harmed a living soul.

There was possibly wrong. one way to start answering those questions. Call a triangulation via cell phone. Buried in the phone records of Tony Frato and Cody Patton was a trove of digital data recorded the day Mickey was taken. That is, who texted whom, and when, and where. Here's Detective Donald Burnham. There was conversations and texts between Tony and Cody

from the beginning of the morning until up until 7 o'clock. How many calls are we talking about? Approximately over 100. Wow, so they were just constantly in communication. Definitely all day. They both knew each other's whereabouts and what was going on. 111 calls and texts, to be precise, over the course of 10 hours, except for one particular window of time.

Burnham and private investigator Bill Savage were convinced that the activity and its timing could tell them something. especially when they discovered that Cody and Mickey were also talking and texting just before Mickey vanished. Here's Bill Savage. We know Cody picked Mickey up at school. We know that Mickey didn't call like she regularly did. Phone had to have been taken away from her somehow.

As Savage kept digging through those cell records, he noticed that activity on Cody's phone dropped dramatically around $5.15,000. about the time Mickey went missing. Then just a few sporadic calls and texts between Cody and Tony up until 7 p.m. Nothing at all like the flurry of texts constantly pinging earlier in the day. So 5.15 to 7. What was Cody doing when he was off his phone? Savage had a theory.

Somewhere in that hour and 45 minutes, Cody tie-wrap. tie-wrapped Mickey's arms, and had her way in the back of the trailblazer. And then, during that window between 5.15 and 7 p.m., well, this is Tony's version of events. I had gotten a text saying that he had had her, and I didn't believe him. Wait a minute. I don't understand that. Saying that he had Michaela, and he said that he was out. somewhere in the desert and that he had her in the car with him. So I told him, you know what, come get me. I just had a knot in my stomach. I didn't know what was going on inside his head.

I'm Keith Morrison, and this is Five Miles from Home, a podcast from daytime. Episode five, let's make a deal. It was Christmas time in West Wendover, Nevada. The casinos on the Little Strip loved the holidays, and their bright lights burst. out across the nighttime desert. Even City Hall was a glow. Neighbor after neighbor lit the trees brought in from far away and sang the happy carols.

But not the Costanzo family. Not Celia. Not now. Christmas Day, it was not fun for me. It's not the same. And I don't ever think that's going to go away as much as I try. Patton and his fiance Tony Frato spent the holidays in jail, of course,

awaiting their respective murder trials. On New Year's Eve, just about 10 months since the murder, Cody turned 19. No one brought cake. How different his life had become. Just one year earlier, he had moved in with Tony and her family and was baptized into the Mormon church and was planning their wedding. And now Cody lived,

existed, might be a better word, in the shadow of the death penalty. But as the new year began, Cody got a birthday gift of sorts. His lawyer, John Olson, had been working behind the scenes with the DA to get him a deal. Plead guilty and get, in exchange, a long prison sentence with a chance at parole someday and no death penalty. That was the safest way to go. That was the way that would... present at least a possibility that Cody would see daylight again, and it would take the death penalty off the table.

In Cody's situation, that was a good deal, but the best he could hope for. There was a catch, however, Cody would have to testify against his fiancé, Tony Frato. In his confession to police, you may remember, he never even hinted Tony played a part in the murder. Now he'd have to reveal what really happened. And he decided he would do it. So two and a half weeks after his birthday, Cody and his attorneys met with the district attorney, ready finally to tell the whole story.

And then, suddenly, he changed his mind. He simply refused to implicate Tony at all. Instead, Cody Patton decided to, Turn down the deal and take his chances with a jury. And then, the very next day, the DA offered Tony Frato a deal. Well, not the same deal. Better, said Attorney John Olson. She was given a plea bargain to second agree in return for her cooperation and statement and agreement to testify.

Testify against Cody. Tell all the terrible things he did. she would not only avoid the death penalty, but just maybe get a chance at parole when she would still be young in her 30s. We were not in on the plea deal at all. That was a surprise to us. These are Tony's parents, Claude and Cassie Frato.

It happened very quickly and was because Cody was going to do a plea deal and then backed out of it. And her attorneys talked to her, and Tony said, you know what? Enough is enough. The truth needs to be told, and I'm going to tell it. So on a chilly January day in 2012,

little Tony Frato was led from her jail cell to an office at the sheriff's department to tell her story for the record. And there, face to face with the DA, she promised to tell the God's honest truth about who did what? out there in the desert. And why?

So, would she? It's a classic technique. Straight out of the police playbook and criminal justice 101. Got two suspects? Get one to take a deal and then rat on the other. Though rat on might not be the phrase that DA would actually use. The technique certainly helps crack a lot of cases. Takes a load off the legal system too.

And it certainly looked like it would help solve the murder of Mickey Costanzo. So now in the sheriff's office, surrounded by lawyers and cops, Tony Frato told her story to the district attorney. A whole new story, a very different story, of how her fiancé, Cody Patton, after threatening and abusing her, forced her to witness and even help commit the murder. I'm a person to tell the truth,

and deep down, I wanted people to know the truth because I knew Cody wasn't going to come forward. For three hours, Tony unloaded on Cody, how Cody was upset with Mickey, how he hated the sound of her voice, how things were building up. And then one detail of her story that did not change, the evening of March 3rd,

that text message, Cody. All it said was I have her, and I didn't believe him. We ended up feeling me a picture of Michaela. And what did you see in this picture? I saw Michaela in the backseat. You could tell that she was very scared. Cody picked her up around 7 p.m., she said, and she sat beside him with Mickey stuffed in the SUV's cargo area. And then he drove out into the desert. Now, the word was spoken, she said. As they approached the gravel pits, said Tony, Cody showed her a text he had typed on his phone. And it said, we have to kill her. Did you say anything? I didn't see anything. I just kind of looked why. And he just kind of shook up head and didn't see anything.

Cody pulled over, said Tony. Ordered her to get out and stand guard to watch Mickey. as he dug a hole, Tony said she peeked through the back window and saw Mickey sitting there silently. I could tell that she had been beaten up. As Cody finished digging the hole, Tony heard Mickey repeatedly ask, what's that for? What are you doing with that?

Then Cody took Mickey from the car, said Tony, and pushed her to the ground. I remember him, like, pulling back her hair and saying to hit her. Do it, it'll be okay, just do it. And I went up and he'd need her in the face. Then Cody punched her and kicked her, said Tony, before producing a knife, which he used to cut off Mickey's sweatshirt. That's when I had noticed that her arms were tied together.

In what way? with the zip tie. It got worse. As Cody issued yet another order, said Tony, to smack Mickey with a shovel, and Tony said she did on the back shoulder. Must have hurt. But it wasn't enough for Cody, she said.

He grabbed the shovel from her, she said, and hit Mickey in the head, and she blacked out. And then, said Tony, Mickey was suddenly in that hole, Cody dug. Or grave, as she called it. And he was on top of her. And then I remember going up and holding her legs down so she stopped kicking. And then all of a sudden, her legs went completely still and she wasn't moving. And though she had told Cody's lawyer, she helped cut Mickey's throat.

She now told the DA that wasn't true. Only Cody used the knife, she insisted. Cody and Cody alone. while she horrified, backed off, but couldn't stop watching and listening. She had looked up at Cody and asked, am I still here, am I still alive? And then she kept, okay, just take me home. I won't say anything. Just take me home.

Then, Tony said, Cody ordered her to get into the car. So she did as he demanded, she said, and listened to the last sounds of Mickey Costanzo's life. And I kind of glanced those were her way and she was down on the grave. And then, said Tony, she watched Cody bury Mickey by himself. You can't tell me to this day why this happened. No. You never told you that.

No. Cody abused her, forced her to witness the killing of a friend, and refused to tell her why. And with that, Tony Frasper. had her deal. The sworn statement she provided would now comprise much of the DA's case against her fiancé Cody Patton. And none of it was like the story she told the day she showed up in her pajamas to see Cody's lawyer. Not the same at all. Three months later, she was back in court to be sentenced, this time for all to see. Her family, Mickey's family, friends from both sides,

a horde of media. Tony's shackles clacked on the hardwood floors as she entered the crammed courtroom dressed in Jill House blues. Then one by one, Mickey's family went to the witness stand to give victim impact statements.

Here's Mickey's sister, Christina. I hope that you give her the maximum that you possibly can. That's what she took away from all of us. Mickey's father, Teddy, also spoke, shaking with rage. I don't know, nothing good for her. ever.

That's what I see. That's what I want. Tony's attorneys told the judge that their young client wasn't a black widow, but rather a sheep, controlled by a boyfriend who was jealous and possessive and isolating. And then Tony rose from her seat

and seemed to weep, though no tears were apparent, and read a short and simple speech, which was recorded in the back of the courtroom off mic. I'm sorry for what I did about you in the hospital. Celia Costanzo,

Mickey's mother, was listening just a few feet away. Furious. That was not an apology. It was BS. She did not look at us. She had no remorse. She was not sorry. She looked at a piece of paper. She read what she was supposed to read

because it was expected of her. I was so angry to hear that garbage. The judge was listening to, of course, and had read all the letters the many, many letters from Tony's family and friends, urging him to give her a lenient sentence. He looked out at all the eyes, staring back so intently at him,

and he paused and said, This is it violent a murder, as I've seen in 20 years on the... bench. The attack on Michaela was brutal. It was vicious. It was violent. All shockingly so. There was a hush. The courtroom leaned forward. And then? The judge sentenced Tony to the maximum penalty of the law allowed, life in prison, with an additional 20 years for the use of a deadly weapon. But because she had accepted a plea deal and that deal was for second-degree murder, The judge agreed to make her eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 18 years,

meaning Tony could have a chance of walking free when she would be just 36 years old. Am I happy that she can get parole at some point? No. This is Mickey's mother, Celia. I will be at every parole hearing saying keep her in because she does not deserve to get out. She deserves to spend the rest of her life in prison. prison, but due to the lack of physical evidence, we got the absolute maximum we could get, and I am happy with that.

Because the alternative was having a jury possibly set her free, never in a million years was not going to let that happen. Never. Tony looked shell-shocked as she was escorted from the courtroom. Her parents looked on, sad to be sure, but said the frados, with a sense of peace, too, as they told the local media. Her father, Claude. It's a big burden lifted off of her, I think. So we're pleased with her decision.

And mother, Cassie. She will be able to move forward with a clean mind and heart and nothing to hide. But as Mickey's family left the courthouse for the long drive back to West Wendover, they couldn't help but think that Tony Frato was still keeping secrets about how and why Mickey was murdered. Here again is Mickey's sister, Christina. She still doesn't want anybody to know what really happened, what her real true involvement was.

You think she's more culpable? Yes, I think that she participated in every minute of planning. And I believe that it was her idea, that she said this is what we have to do. She hasn't told it all yet. I do not think so. So, was there reading more to Tony's story?

Maybe. Because before she was arrested, Tony left something behind, something in her very own words that just might reveal the real motive for the murder of Mickey Costanzo. They had been sitting in storage for months,

two small, plastic, containers, full of papers and personal items. Nothing fancy or valuable. Not yet, anyway. They belonged to Tony Frato. She had left them with Cody Patton's parents. Left them there the day she climbed into Kit Patton's car and he drove her to that meeting with Cody's lawyer. Where, you'll recall, she confessed to murder.

Well, of course, Tony was later arrested. But those plastic containers said undisturbed until several weeks later when private investigator Bill Savage got a call from Cody's dad, Kip. And said, Bill, I've got these two plastic containers. I've had them in my storage, and there are some diaries in there,

and there's some information in there that I believe is important to the case. Diaries, the personal diaries of Tony Frado, little booklets, adorned in colorful graphics and handwritten entries in notes, revealing notes. In my opinion, there was some valuable information in there with regard to Tony's personality, her feelings.

In these little books, Tony unloaded her fears, lots of those, her hopes, and most particularly, her profound insecurity. She expressed an attitude of being a very lonely, person with no friends. She commented about Mickey's attractiveness, and she, Tony, being very unattractive, and conflicts between herself and Cody back and forth, breaking up, getting back together, breaking up.

This, for example, she worried, quote, that Cody will leave me for someone else, cheat on me, that Cody and I won't last forever. We won't get married. She wrote of her own terror that her relationship with Cody wouldn't work out. And if it didn't, there was no point in living anymore. Quote, you don't know how many times I have wanted to overdose on something so I wouldn't have to be here anymore. I'm very angry today, so angry that I'm trying to overdose.

After I got off the phone with Cody, I went and took four aspirins. In my opinion, a very troubled young lady. A troubled young lady who in many ways did not feel worse. I gather. That's correct. And who loved this guy, but at the same time was terrified of losing him. Yes. Afraid of losing him to the girl

he had grown up with, the attractive and popular Mickey Costanzo. Tony wrote, We might as well break up, so he can get back together with her. They're perfect for each other. Tears, tears, tears, tears, tears, tears. I don't know what to do anymore.

Tony was jealous of Mickey and if he were out of the picture then Cody and Tony would be together she was everything Tony wasn't yes absolutely from the diary they would be so happy together if I didn't steal him away

I know in my heart he really doesn't love me I felt that that was a piece of the puzzle which tended to show a motive for this killing In fact, said Cody's attorney, John Olson, those diaries were a true revelation. As he read Tony's desperate entries, the whole terrible thing seemed to him to fall into place. The diaries disclosed a real animosity that Tony had for Michaela. Right.

And we were never able to discern how it was or why Cody would have any animosity towards her. He didn't. No. They'd been friends for life. Yes. And no one's ever shown. me any reason that Cody had to hurt Michaela. But Tony?

Tony had reasons. So if you had to look for a motive in this crime, the only one that seemed apparent was her animosity. It was the only one on paper in her own handwriting. The conclusion was inescapable in Olson's mind. It must have been Tony who wanted Mickey Dead, not Cody. Maybe her big, strong boyfriend was just doing her dirty work. Do you think it's possible this kindy girl, 5-1, 90 pounds,

could make that big, would-be Marine commit murder? Well, you were a teenage boy once. Yeah. Could your girlfriend motivate you to do things? There's nothing more mindless than a teenage boy full of hormones. Nothing. In fact, private investigator Bill Savage is convinced Tony was pulling the strings. My opinion is that although Tony is a very small stature,

I believe that Tony exerted a great deal of influence over Cody. Mickey's family certainly seemed to think so too. And now, as they awaited Cody's trial, they remembered things. Sister Christina recalled how jealous and controlling Tony was. Tony used to get so upset if Michaela was seen talking to Cody and she would just yell and holler and say horrible things to Michaela you know don't talk to him and call her every name imaginable an intensely jealous young woman said Mickey's sister DJ

he couldn't be around girls especially my sister that was kind of the indication from her diary that she fought with them all the time but she really wanted to be with him for the rest of her life, and she was terrified losing him. Yeah. She just would be afraid of the fact that they wouldn't be together anymore. Oh, he'll end this with me, and then I'll be the last little wreck. And I'll have nobody.

She became, like, obsessed with him. And Cody? Well, Cody, said Christina, was on a very tight leash. I must have been doing laundry or something, and here Tony came walking, and he was like, got to go. And I was like, you can't even talk to me? He was like, no, I can't, I gotta go. I can't be seen, show you get mad.

Who was the driving force in that relationship? She was. Why did all of this matter now? After all, Tony had made her deal. Had been sent away to serve years in prison for second-degree murder. It mattered because Cody had yet to be tried. And per agreement with the DA, Tony would be the star witness against Cody.

Perhaps Olson could get this. the diary into evidence, perhaps not. But if the jury bought the story Tony told at her plea hearing, Cody's conviction would be all but assured. A ticket to death row very possible. Cody's attorney, John Olson. It wasn't until Tony agreed to take a plea bargain that she became a direct evidentiary threat to Cody.

And we were able to talk with him about what his trial was going to be like with Tony testifying and how it would impact his case. And that part of Tony Fratto's statement in which she said, Michaela sat up in the grave and said to Cody, am I still here? Can I go home?

Oh, my. Do you want to hear that when you're sitting on a jury? Devastating. Yeah. So it was perhaps understandable that soon after Tony goes, got her deal, Olson contacted the DA. Cody would like another chance to plead guilty to Mickey's murder

if the state withdrew the death penalty. At sentencing, the judge would decide if he got a shot at parole. And it was agreed. This time, Cody took the deal and stuck with it. It was Cody's decision. He was very firm about it and he was very positive about it when he entered his plea. For the next several months,

Cody waited in his little jail cell, hoping, perhaps praying, he might be given a chance of freedom some distant day. And then, in August 2012, on a hot, late summer day, they took Cody to the courthouse. He wore a suit and tie. He was clean-shaven. His hair was as neatly combed as a grooms at a wedding. Inside, a crowd waited.

And on the judge's signal, Mickey's family rose to offer their victim victim impact statements, Mickey's mother, Celia. This man, never see the light of day. He took my daughter's light. And Father Teddy. I want him to walk into that penitentiary. And when he leaves it, he'll be in a box. Cody's attorney, John Olson, gave an impassioned speech,

insisting that Tony Frato was the mastermind of the murder. And since the judge allowed him to make a reference to Tony's diary, Olson argued that her very own words were as clear a statement of motive as the court could ever see. Then Cody stood up to speak. A room went silent. He turned to Mickey's family, nervous, his voice quivering. I'm sorry, the only man to pain. This is caused you.

Weeping now, Cody took long and frequent pauses as he wiped the tears from his eyes. and for the first time he spoke publicly about his fiancé, the woman he had protected in his confession, having never revealed that she was with him at the crime scene. Listen to what he said now. To the court, I just want to state date. My co-defendant Tony, Tony was not all to blame. Tony was not all to blame?

Cody also went on to say, I am to blame as much as her. As to the motive of this crime, I believe it was jealousy, anger, senselessness. The rest of it, the rest of what he said to Mickey's family and the court, was an apology, no more really. No explanation beyond. There's no reason.

There's no why. There's no justification for it. Sorry, it's not enough, but I apologize for everything. He even recited. part of a poem written by Mickey of all people about a glimmer of beauty beneath all the ugly in the world. And then he sat down, well, the words Tony was not all to blame, hung in the air, and waited to be told if you'd have a chance to be a free man ever again. Then the judge began to speak. You always had the power and the ability, Mr. Patton, to stop when we all

of this murder that you put it to motion. Your blood runs cold. I sent you to a child of life in the loud apartment of co-wrestions. There shall be no possible in the pool. There would be no parole, after all. As Celia watched Cody taken away in handcuffs. She felt a small measure of satisfaction.

In Cody's case, live in prison for the rest of your life. And every day, I want you to think of what you did to my daughter. I want you to suffer every single day. Because dying, the death penalty, you're getting off easy. And I hope every day you live in the hell that I'm living because you took my daughter. But Mickey's sister, Christina, was conflicted about the kid, the neighbor whom she knew and once liked and trusted. Every time I started to say that I would wish that he would be away forever and that he would have the death penalty, I would have to stop myself because I would remember that Cody that has a heart.

I know that that does not make this any less tragic and that it doesn't make me want him to get out. I see the good in him. Despite of the fact that he killed your sister. I know. It doesn't make sense. to me either, but you have to sit there and go, oh my God, this person that I knew so well will never, ever have a chance of anything. Both Cody and the prison where he will spend the rest of his life turn down our request for an interview.

But Tony Frato? In our next episode, Tony will have a lot to say about that dark night in the Nevada desert. A whole new story about the killing of Mickey Costanzo. Oh, and just possibly we'll get to some truth, too. Next time, pointed questions for Tony Frato. Did you ever say to him, get rid of her? No, I don't know. Get rid of her or you lose me. No. And some revealing answers. When we finally got out to the designation area and everything. What do you mean the designated area. Where everything went down.

That area was designated? Five Miles from Home is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Robert Dean is the producer. Brian Drew, Marshall Housefeld, and Meredith Greenstein are audio editors. Molly DeRosa is associate producer. Adam Ghorfane is co-executive producer. Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer. From NBC News Audio, sound mixing by Rich Cutler.