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This is Jessica Knoll, host of the new series Back in Crime. If you're a follower of true crime, you're probably familiar with some of the most shocking stories from our history. Horrific tragedies like the Columbine Massacre. He turned the gun straight at us and shot. Oh my God, the window went out. And the kid standing there with me, I think he got hit. Okay. Oh God. And notorious criminals like cult leader Charles Manson.
In a scene described by one investigator as reminiscent of a weird religious rite, five persons, including actress Sharon Tate, were found dead at the home of Miss Tate and her husband, screen director Roman Poliansky. But what if we were to turn back the hands of time and relive these events as they unfolded? Follow along each week as we take a fresh look at crimes from the past. Back in Crime is available now.
My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.
Today, I'm discussing the case of Jamie Fraley from North Carolina. In 2008, Jamie was 22 and thriving. She was in college, preparing for a career that she was incredibly excited for and passionate about. She was head over heels in love looking forward to getting married. And for the first time in her life, she was experiencing independence.
I feel like in your early 20s, some of those moments are just magic. The possibilities for what your life could be feels endless at times. While Jamie was dealing with some physical and mental health issues, it seemed like for the first time in a long time, she was genuinely happy and excited for her future with a solid plan to get what she wanted.
But on April 8th, Jamie really isn't feeling well. Her stomach hurts, and it just isn't getting better, so she's taken to the emergency room. The doctors tell her that she probably has a stomach flu. They give her some medication, a prescription for more medication, and send her home. But it just doesn't get any better.
So later that night, Jamie asks her future father-in-law to drive her back to the ER. But now the wait's up to almost four hours, so Jamie decides that instead of waiting in a likely very uncomfortable waiting room, she'll just go back home and hope she feels better. But she doesn't.
So, after midnight, Jamie calls someone to take her back to the ER for a third time. Jamie's on the phone with her friend when she has to end the call, saying that her ride is there. Specifically saying, he is here. Jamie hangs up with his friend, presumably gets into a vehicle with whomever this man was, and she's never seen again. This is the case of Jamie Fraley. Jamie Fraley never had an easy life.
When she was born in 1986, Jamie and her mother Kim nearly lost their lives in the process. Jamie was actually clinically dead when she was born. Doctors had to perform CPR to save her life. Even then, they told Kim that her daughter likely wouldn't survive. Her family says it's a miracle that she made it. As Jamie grew up, doctors kept telling her mother that she might not make it to her next birthday.
But she just kept beating the odds. Jamie did have health issues, though. She had trouble gaining weight and was extremely frail, often weighing less than 100 pounds.
Now, this did affect her schoolwork and her ability to attend class. She ended up dropping out of high school. When Jamie turned 18, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and anxiety. At this point, she was extremely dependent on her family due to her health. But Jamie didn't want to take her medication. She said it made her feel not like herself, and she was just extremely resistant to it. She was still living at home with her mom, she wasn't working, she didn't drive, and
and she was really struggling with her new diagnoses. But as Jamie was entering her 20s in the late 2000s, it seems like everything began to turn around. Jamie found medication that worked for her, and she was trying to carve her own path. Now, Jamie was very active in her church, and after seeing a program they provided for those struggling with substance use disorder, she knew what she wanted to do with her life.
See, like a lot of us, Jamie witnessed what substance use disorder can do to the people she loved. Her mother Kim says Jamie was just always that person who was a safe place for her friends to come to. A
a caring shoulder to lean on. So when Jamie saw this program at her church, she became inspired to become a counselor for those struggling with the disorder. She enrolled at Gaston College near her hometown in Gaston County, North Carolina. Here, she was studying to get her GED and was planning to eventually take classes to become a counselor.
Jamie also moves out of her mom's house and gets her own apartment just outside of Gastonia. So she's not far from home and where she grew up, and she still has a lot of help. But she finally has some semblance of independence. Now, Jamie did receive social security benefits to provide financial aid, and she was assigned a healthcare provider that helped Jamie live independently. They did things like drive Jamie to and from doctor's appointments and help her manage her money.
Kim admits that it was incredibly difficult for the entire family to take a step back and let Jamie embrace this newfound independence. But ultimately, Jamie seemed incredibly happy. She's transitioning from her teens to her twenties. She's found what she believes is her purpose in this world. And she meets a guy that she falls head over heels for.
In 2006, around the age of 20, Jamie begins dating a man named Ricky Simons Jr., and things move fast. Pretty soon, they're living together and engaged. Jamie even changes her last name to Simons on MySpace. It just seems like one of those whirlwind romances. While Jamie's family was definitely a bit concerned about how quickly things were moving and about Ricky Jr. himself, they seemed happy for Jamie.
She was absolutely thriving, and she was an adult now. They couldn't tell her what to do if they wanted to. From everything I found in my research, it does seem that Ricky Jr. is devoted to Jamie. But he does have a criminal history that the couple had to face. Before they can get married, Ricky Jr. ends up getting sentenced to 15 months in prison for theft-related charges.
When Ricky Jr. goes in to serve his time, Jamie remains as devoted as ever. On Investigation Discovery's episode of Disappeared that featured Jamie's case, her cousin Haley said Jamie wrote Ricky Jr. a letter every single day while he was in prison. During this time, Jamie becomes really close with Ricky Jr.'s father, Rick Sr., and his girlfriend, Kim Springer.
They actually live in the same apartment complex as Jamie. And Rick Sr. is also employed by the complex as a maintenance worker. Rick Sr. also appears to be very willing to help Jamie with things like driving her to the store, fixing things around her apartment, just general father-in-law stuff.
For the most part, Jamie's family sees Rick Sr. as a fatherly figure to her, someone who'd been extremely helpful. Rick Sr., Kim Springer, and Jamie end up spending a lot of time together. They would often cook meals together and just kind of hang out to alleviate Jamie's loneliness from Ricky Jr. being in prison. But it seems that Rick began to see Jamie as more than just a daughter figure.
Now, Jamie also spent a lot of time with her cousin Haley. Haley often saw how Rick Sr. would interact with Jamie and she became increasingly concerned about his intentions. While the rest of the family saw Rick Sr. as this fatherly figure, Jamie's cousin felt that Jamie was perhaps a little bit too dependent on Rick Sr. and she felt that he was developing romantic feelings for her.
Now, Jamie's family has described her as a firecracker. Someone with a lot of personality who you think would be outspoken about inappropriate interactions with her soon-to-be father-in-law. But her mother Kim says Jamie also has a huge heart and just always wanted to help others. She fears that Jamie trying to see the best in people may have gotten her into trouble.
So, when Rick Sr. begins making comments about perhaps being in favor of Jamie wearing things like low-cut tops or shorter shorts, Jamie doesn't think much of it, but her cousin does. She says she tried to talk to Jamie about Rick Sr., but Jamie just didn't see it, even when Jamie is confronted with Rick Sr.'s long criminal history.
Now, of course, we know that having a criminal history doesn't make you a terrible person. People make mistakes, people grow, and they change. Rick Sr. had faced charges for things like theft and drugs, but Jamie's cousin was more concerned with another conviction, a much scarier one. Back in 1986, at the age of 25, Rick Sr. was convicted of manslaughter for strangling his girlfriend to death.
Now, despite Rick Sr. being sentenced to 20 years in prison for this, somehow, someway, he only serves about 6 years, and he's released in 1992. But we know Jamie is that person. I mean, I get it, I am also that person. She wants to see the good in people, to understand them, to try to see them for more than their past and focus on growth and change.
I mean, all she wanted to do was help people. And this man in particular wasn't some stranger. This was her future father-in-law. She obviously cared for him greatly, and likely believed he cared for her as well. But of course, her cousin Haley is concerned. She knows about this conviction. She believes that Rick Sr. is becoming increasingly inappropriate with his comments about Jamie's looks. She just doesn't like this at all.
But by the spring of 2008, it seems that Jamie's dependence on Rick Sr. is going to end because Rick Jr. is set to be released from prison in April. The situation essentially had an expiration date, but then Jamie goes missing.
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On Thursday, April 8th, 2008, 22-year-old Jamie Fraley wakes up with a terrible stomach ache that's only getting worse. Eventually, it gets so bad that she calls her healthcare provider to ask for a ride to the emergency room. After seeing a doctor, she's told that she probably has some type of stomach flu.
They give her some medicine, a prescription for more, and send her on her way. But when Jamie gets home, she's not feeling better. She calls her mom to tell her that she thinks the doctors were wrong about her having the flu. Now, on this date, Jamie happened to already be watching Kim Springer's dog. She and Rick Sr. had actually broken up recently. So, not having Rick Sr. to depend on, she leaned on Jamie.
When Kim Springer gets to Jamie's apartment to pick up her dog, she finds Jamie in bed, obviously in a really bad state. She does some things for her around the house, takes care of her a bit, and offers to take her prescription to the pharmacy for her. A prescription Jamie would ultimately never pick up. Like I said, Jamie's stomachache just continued to get worse. Eventually, she asks Rick Sr. to take her back to the ER, and he does. He drops her off, and Jamie's on her own.
She waits around for a while, but once she realizes that the wait to be seen by a doctor is upwards of four hours, she decides she'll just go back home to ride it out. Jamie calls Rick Sr. for a ride home, but he doesn't answer. So another friend ends up driving her back to her apartment. Around midnight, Jamie calls her mom to tell her that her stomach ache has not gotten any better.
Now, her mom's about an hour away, but she offers to come pick Jamie up and drive her back to where she is and take care of her. But Jamie declines. She says she has a really important meeting at the social security office the next day. She was actually going to talk to them about managing her own finances. Just another step to becoming more independent. So Jamie says no, it's fine. I'm sure I'll feel better soon.
So, Kim Fraley tells her daughter, I love you, Jamie says, I love you too, and that's the last time they speak.
The next day, Jamie's healthcare provider arrives at her apartment to drive her to her appointment at the social security office. They knock and knock and knock and even try to enter the apartment, but it's locked. The following day on April 10th, the provider calls Jamie's mom Kim to tell her what's going on. Now Kim Fraley is really fearing the worst. She knows Jamie was super sick, and she's afraid she could be passed out somewhere. Maybe
Maybe she fell and hit her head. She doesn't know. She just knows that Jamie is not where she's supposed to be after being extremely ill, and she hasn't heard from her in almost two days now. So she calls the Gaston County Police Department for a welfare check. When the police arrive, they get into the apartment, but Jamie isn't there. There's also no sign of a struggle or forced entry. So they tell Jamie's mom not to worry. She's an adult. It looks like she just stepped out for a bit.
But Jamie's mom, cousin, and aunt are not satisfied with this answer. They know Jamie. They know this isn't like her. So they go to the apartment to look for themselves. They see what the police saw. It didn't look like anyone broke in or like there was any type of struggle. But they saw that Jamie had thrown up all over the apartment. And her purse, ID, and keys were all still there.
There was also just this one really weird thing. At the top of Jamie's stairs, they found her favorite pair of shoes, the ones she always wore, but there were no laces in them.
So of course, they're racking their brains. It really wasn't unusual for Jamie to take just her phone to go to a neighbor's house, leaving things like her purse behind. But that obviously wasn't the case here. So where could Jamie have gone without her purse and her ID? It seems unlikely that she'd go back to the emergency room without her ID, or a form of payment. The same thing goes for picking up her prescription. And how was Jamie's apartment door locked if her keys were still inside?
This family is just not convinced that Jamie simply walked away. So they call the police again and explain their concerns. But it's another one of those cases, you guys, where the police were like, oh, yeah, sorry, she's an adult, she can do whatever she wants to, bye. But while the police were still searching Jamie's apartment in the second sweep, her family is power calling Jamie's cell phone. If she just walked away, then she should answer her phone. Jamie always had her phone on her.
At one point, she apparently had two cell phones to make sure she could stay in touch with Ricky Jr. They know Jamie, and they know something is wrong. Then, after calling Jamie for what I'm sure felt like forever, they finally get an answer. Only, it isn't Jamie. It's a man.
So, of course, they're like, um, who is this and why do you have this phone? And the man says, hey, I work for the cable company and I'm just out here repairing some lines. I heard the phone ringing, so I picked it up. Basically, this guy doesn't know anything about Jamie, and he's never considered a person of interest. From everything I could find, it seems like he really just found this phone.
This is about a mile and a half away from Jamie's apartment, at the intersection of New Hope Road and Hudson Boulevard. Now, luckily, this makes the Gaston County Police Department spring into action. They talk to this man, and they take the phone. Finally, the family's concerns are being taken seriously, and the official search for Jamie begins.
The first place they search is the area where the phone was found. Now, according to Jamie's episode of Disappeared, the phone was found in the road, and it was scuffed up as if someone maybe tossed it out of a car. But this area has also been described as a wooded area. So they again are thinking maybe Jamie was desperate, was trying to seek medical attention, and for some reason just didn't call for help. Maybe somebody gave her a ride. They just don't know what to think at this point.
They search this area, they search nearby bodies of water, they search all around the apartment complex, and they talk to Jamie's neighbors, but there's no sign of her. One neighbor does report seeing Jamie walking toward her apartment around midnight, presumably right before she called her mom. This is the last confirmed physical sighting of Jamie.
Now, while these searches and interviews are happening, investigators are looking into Jamie's phone. Unfortunately, it appears that it was handled by so many people, they couldn't get any useful fingerprints off it. But in going through the phone, they were able to gather some additional clues.
They see that on the night Jamie went missing, she called her mom. We know that. But they also saw that she sent an email to a friend that seemed totally normal. Just a regular, how are you kind of check-in thing. But then, they see that not long after Jamie spoke with her mom and sent this email, she made another call to a friend.
This friend's name hasn't been released, and I don't know if it's the same friend that gave her the ride home from the hospital the second time, but it does seem like, again, this was an innocent interaction. Jamie tells this friend that she's sick, but she's getting a ride to go back to the emergency room for the third time. Jamie does not mention who is giving her the ride.
The friend says they just know that this person was driving a truck, and before getting off the phone, Jamie said, quote, he is here, end quote. But that's it. No one knows who he is. All they know is that this is the last person to speak with Jamie, and whomever this man that she mentioned is didn't take her to the hospital.
Once investigators start talking to Jamie's friends and family, specifically her cousin Haley, they narrow their focus on Rick Sr., and things really start to unravel.
Investigators learn that not only were Jamie and Rick Sr. close, but of course they see his prior manslaughter conviction for strangling his ex-girlfriend. They also speak to Haley about her concern over the interaction she witnessed between the two. Like I mentioned earlier, Rick Sr. and Kim Springer broke up before Jamie went missing, but Haley gives investigators a little more insight into why they broke up. She says that Jamie was a huge part of it, that
that Kim Springer would often come home to find Jamie and Rick Sr. alone.
And we don't have a ton of detail here, but I think it's easy to see why Kim was concerned. When investigators speak with Kim Springer, she confirms that she and Rick Sr. had broken up a few months prior, and Jamie was a factor in that. But that it was also Rick Sr.'s drug use, she just didn't want to be a part of that world anymore. So she separated herself from him, but continued her friendship with Jamie, who was trying to help both Kim and Rick Sr. to stop using.
As all of this unfolds, Jamie's mother and her aunt are in total shock. They had no idea about Rick Sr.'s prior criminal history, or that he'd been in any way inappropriate toward Jamie. They really saw him as a father figure to her, someone they could all trust to care for Jamie when she needed him. Now, things start to move really fast, and this image of who they thought Rick Sr. was was just falling apart.
Investigators also discover that Rick Sr. and his son Ricky Jr. didn't really get along. In fact, they fought a lot. And then they talk to Rick Sr. Investigators say he didn't give a lot of information, but he was cooperative. Rick Sr. admits that he gave Jamie a ride to the ER earlier in the night, but he was not the man with the truck that picked her up sometime after midnight.
Now, this is a tricky one for me. In the episode of Disappeared, investigators say that Rick Sr. didn't drive a truck, but he drove a white-paneled van that could be described as a truck. So it's something, but certainly not enough to charge him with anything related to Jamie's disappearance. So they continue to dig and follow leads.
And like I said, a lot starts to happen all at once. Jamie has been missing for a few weeks at this point. Rick Sr. is the main person of interest, and Ricky Jr. is released from prison. According to Kim Fraley, Ricky Jr. doesn't have anyone to pick him up from prison, and with Jamie being gone, he now really doesn't have a place to live either. So Jamie's family takes him in.
And when he finds out that his father is being investigated, he's extremely upset. Not in defense of his father, but in defense of Jamie. Ricky Jr. hasn't been in the public eye, so it's tough to know exactly how he feels. But it does seem like he had a lot of love for Jamie. He sticks by her family and helps in the search efforts.
At the same time, because again, like I said, all these things are happening so fast and kind of all at once, the Gaston County Police Department gets a warrant to track Rick Sr.'s vehicle. They're hoping that if he was involved with Jamie's disappearance, he might lead them to her. Now, I don't know if this next discovery happens because of this tracking, but it seems logical that it may have.
A lot of information for this episode comes from Jamie's episode of Disappeared. I mean, outside of that, there are some articles, specifically some consistent coverage from a journalist named Joe DePriest from the Charlotte Observer. But some of these details I could only find in that episode. So, in the show, investigators say that someone reported a mysterious bag of trash on the side of the road. This is about two and a half miles from Jamie's apartment, and a mile and a half from where her cell phone was found.
And they figured out that it belonged to Rick Sr.,
But it also appears that around this same time, they were tracking his movements. So I'm not sure if they went through the bag and found things with his name on it, or it was because they were tracking him that they were able to determine that this was his trash bag. I would honestly just love a little more clarification here on the timeline. But either way, it turns out that this bag of trash does belong to Rick Sr. Now, there doesn't appear to be anything nefarious in it.
Rick Sr. basically says, oh yeah, I got a flat tire and I tossed it out while I was trying to get to my spare tire. But in the episode, investigators say that between Jamie's apartment, where her cell phone was found, and this bag of trash, it's possible that if Rick Sr. is to blame, this could have been a route he may have taken. They specifically take the time to mention that the route creates a nearly perfect triangle.
Now, at this point, investigators don't really know if all of this ties together, but they continue to focus on Rick Sr., and it seems that while they were tracking his movements, looking for any sign that he could have been involved in Jamie's disappearance, they find something extremely concerning in his movements.
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By the end of May 2008, Jamie Fraley has been missing for about six weeks. They began tracking her future father-in-law, Rick Sr.'s vehicle for about a month, looking for any sign of Jamie, and they notice a pattern in his movements. But the pattern doesn't seem to be related to Jamie. They see that Rick Sr. appears to be stalking his ex-girlfriend, Kim Springer.
The Gaston County Police Department advises Kim to file for a restraining order, and on May 27th, she's granted one.
The investigation continues, and Kim Springer does her best to stay vigilant and as far away from Rick Sr. as she can. Less than two weeks after she gets the order, Kim is driving around in her car and smells something awful. Now, she doesn't think much of it. You guys know how random car odors can be. Sometimes you just drive past something and it sticks in your car. Maybe a random piece of produce from your last grocery run made it under your seat. So at first, Kim just ignores it.
But then, on Sunday, June 8th, Kim is driving some friends to church and the odor has definitely gotten worse. So she finally starts investigating the smell. And when she opens her trunk, she is horrified. She finds Rick Sr.'s dead body.
Now, I'm not going to leave you guys with a cliffhanger here. I want to tell you right away that Kim Springer did not kill Rick Sr. In the end, this is what appears to have happened. Investigators believe that Rick Sr. hid in Kim's trunk and was planning to ambush and possibly kill her when she got into the vehicle, as he was found with a knife on him.
But because it appears he was intoxicated and had illegal drugs in his system, he somehow locked himself in the trunk and was unable to find the emergency latch to get himself out. Then, he basically died from the heat as temperatures were in the 90s that weekend. They believe he'd been dead for about two days when he was found. He told some friends that he was going to give her the surprise of her life.
Despite their restraining order, it seems clear that Rick Sr. didn't stay away. About a week before he was found, Kim made a police report about some items stolen out of her car, including her purse and possibly her keys. When Rick Sr. was found, he had some of these items on him, including a set of keys in his pocket. Now, I'm not one to take speculation as fact, but I am one to call it like I see it. Most people believe that Rick Sr. fully intended on taking Kim Springer's life.
Obviously, this was devastating for Kim Springer and Jamie Fraley's family. Not only that their worst fears about Rick Sr. were seemingly confirmed, but if he did have information about Jamie, it died with him.
After this, Kim Fraley says Ricky Jr. kind of crumbled. And I mean, who wouldn't? You fall in love with this person you think you're going to marry, she sticks with you for over a year while you serve out your prison sentence, she writes you letters every single day, and when you get out, she's missing. And not only that, it's your dad who appears to be the main person of interest. And before you can even possibly wrap your head around that, he's found dead. And
accused of trying to possibly murder his ex-girlfriend. I mean, that is so much for any human to process. So this is basically where Ricky Jr.'s involvement in the case ends. Obviously, Ricky Jr. was in prison when Jamie went missing, so investigators have never considered him a person of interest. He basically just fades out of the family's life.
The searches for Jamie continued for years. There were billboards. She was featured on America's Most Wanted. Her family continued to push for answers. They'd go to sporting events to hand out flyers. Jamie's aunt, cousin, and a family friend even established their own group to look for Jamie and to speak to potential witnesses. But unfortunately, they didn't find much. Of course, it was extremely difficult on Kim Fraley as well.
She was so excited for her daughter. Her daughter, whom doctors kept telling her wouldn't live to her next birthday. She got to see her live so many more years than doctors expected. Her health wasn't perfect, but Jamie was thriving. For the first time in her life, she was ready to live independently. She was in love, looking forward to starting her career, getting married, and maybe even eventually having a family of her own.
And it just fell away right in front of Kim Frehley. Kim's sister would eventually move in with her to look after her after it all became too much to bear. So what happened to Jamie? Well, in 2010, there was one tip that gave Jamie's family a lot of hope.
A woman from Connecticut was vacationing in Hong Kong when she saw a large group of women. Among the group was a woman that looked like Jamie. Not only that, but this woman also says she saw her mouth the words, help me. So when she gets back from her trip, she starts looking up missing persons cases and finds Jamie. She reports what she saw to the police, convinced it was her. The FBI is even called in to investigate, but it seems like nothing came of it.
Another person did report seeing Jamie in an ad for female escorts online. While it appears that the woman did look very much like Jamie, according to investigators, it wasn't her. Of course, there's the possibility that Jamie could have been a victim of foul play by someone else. Whomever the person that picked Jamie up but never took her to the hospital was. But, as I said, I have to call it like I see it.
I think most people lean toward the theory that Rick Sr. was likely responsible for Jamie's disappearance. We know the evidence is kind of stacked against him at this point, but I do want to talk about a few loose ends that I'd love more information on. First, I really wish we had a little more information about the set of keys that was found in his pocket. We know that he worked maintenance in his and Jamie's apartment complex.
For this episode, I spoke with a friend of mine who worked for several years in maintenance for retirement communities with individual apartments. Now, of course, I can't say that this is the case for Jamie's apartment complex, but he told me that every single maintenance guy he knew had master keys to every single apartment, or at least a single key that would open every single apartment.
He also said that they did have access to a key copy machine, though he says it does depend on the type of key and the type of machine to say what type of copies you can make. He does specifically mention that car keys can be a lot trickier. So going off that, I have to imagine that Rick Sr. had access to a machine that creates copies of keys, if not a master key to the apartment complex itself. But that's why I want to know more.
Because if Rick Sr. could copy keys or just had a copy of the key to Jamie's apartment, that would explain how it was locked with the keys still inside. And if he was able to copy something like a car key, that might explain how he got into Kim's car. And there's another loose end that I love more information on, Jamie's shoelaces.
Why were they missing from her shoes? My mind goes in a few directions when I think about this. Honestly, first, I thought that Jamie maybe had some type of mental health crisis, and possibly spent the night in a hospital where they will often remove your shoelaces to prevent you from harming yourself. That would explain why the shoes didn't have laces, but it doesn't seem that they were able to find any record of Jamie being hospitalized anywhere after her second trip.
Then I thought about Rick Sr.'s past, and how he killed his ex-girlfriend in the 80s by strangling her.
There aren't a ton of statements out there about Rick Sr.'s character, but I did find one quote from a cousin that grew up with him. He says that he and Rick were really close growing up, and he was a good guy, but they lost touch after high school. When they reconnected, he wasn't the same Rick he knew. He told the Charlotte Observer, quote,
End quote. Jamie's mother says that after Jamie went missing, she had the chance to speak with Rick Sr., and he said something that haunts her to this day, that maybe someone has Jamie and just doesn't want to give her back.
We don't know what happened to Jamie Fraley, but investigators continue to look into the possibility that Rick Sr. was responsible, and they believe that someone in Gaston County has information that can finally give the Fraley family the answers they've been looking for for over 14 years now. So, please share Jamie's case.
It's been a long battle for her family, and they're still fighting for answers. Also, Jamie's mother Kim told the Gaston Gazette that if Jamie is out there, alive somewhere, she wants her to know that she still thinks about her every day and wants her home.
As a reminder, Jamie Fraley went missing from her apartment just outside of Gastonia, North Carolina on or about April 8th, 2008. Jamie was 22 when she went missing.
She's 4'8", weighed approximately 90 pounds at the time, and has blonde hair with brown eyes. Jamie does have a tattoo on her ankle that says Ricky. Anyone with information about Jamie is asked to call the Gaston County Police Department at 704-866-3320. Or you can call Crime Stoppers at 704-861-8000.
But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.
Voices for Justice is hosted and produced by me, Sarah Turney, and is a Voices for Justice media original. If you love what we do here, please don't forget to follow, rate, and review the show in your podcast player. The podcast player you're listening to right now. It's an easy and free way to help us and help more people find these cases in need of justice. And for even more content, check out my other podcast, Disappearances, only on Spotify.
Welcome to the Secret After Show. I just really hope that they can find Jamie someday and give her mom especially some, you know, and, you know, Kim Fraley has made statements about closure that I agree with. There's no closure, but she is looking for peace. So, um, yeah, I hope that, you know, they can find Jamie and hopefully give her some peace. Now, I do have an update and not a happy one. Um,
Gosh, so many of you guys sent me this one. Oh, I'm trying not to cry, you guys. So, remains were found very close to where Leah Croucher went missing from. Leah Croucher, I covered her case not too long ago. I believe it was July, so just a few months ago. But essentially just a few days ago, police said that they have identified, or they have found, I'm sorry, unidentified remains in
and a rucksack and personal items belonging to Leah Croucher. This was found at a property in Milton Keynes, in the vicinity of where she was last seen. Now, they have not been able to analyze these remains to say for sure whether or not it is Leah, but it does seem like most people seem to think so, and, you know, unfortunately, found with her items, it seems pretty likely.
It does seem like this entire thing came from a tip, a phone call from a member of the public. So I do just want to say that tips work, you guys. If you see something, say something. Even if it's not something you can piece together and you think that you can help with. I mean, obviously this seems pretty big, right? Like obviously this is something in someone, if not Leah. But if you see something that you find...
odd or out of place, or you think maybe it's not relevant, don't sit there and guess whether or not you should report it. Just report it. Let investigators see if they can piece that together for any case. But yeah, this is a new development, obviously, and there's not a ton of information out there. But I will include this in the update episode that will come out at the end of the year. And I do want to say also that, uh,
Leah's family is asking for privacy right now, privacy and respect. So I do want to respect that. I'm not trying to sensationalize it. I'm not going to make another episode about it. I'm not going to make an entire update about it because I want to respect their wishes. I don't want to make this any worse for them than it probably already is.
But that is what I have for you today. Other than that, some of you may have seen that on social media, I did announce that, and I announced this a long time ago too, that me and Kelsey German were finally going to get together to talk about her sister's case. And of course, I'm talking about Delphi, I'm talking about Liberty German, and Abigail Williams. So that is coming for you guys next week.
And I guess I'll save that one for the after show, but that, oh, interviewing Kelsey, it's so hard. It's, I mean, I care for all the families that I interview, but I mean, I met Kelsey right after it all happened. You know, she was still a teenager. And in my mind, you know, I'm about 10 years older than Kelsey. That's...
just a baby still. So I've basically watched her grow up in... I'm gonna cry. I watched her grow up in true crime. We do events together all the time. I see her outside of work stuff and I just, I love her to pieces. And doing interviews with people you love and you know, it's definitely different than doing it with somebody you may have just met or interacted with a few times. So...
This one's been a long time coming, and I'm not going to lie. I think I've avoided it for a while because it hurts me to see Kelsey hurt. But I do want to help. I want to get the word out there, and that's what it's all about. So I can't be selfish. I had to bite the bullet and get that done and get her sister's episode out there. Episodes, actually. It'll be two parts, just a little sneak preview here in the Secret After Show. But yeah, and it's going to be a little bit different.
Not to give everything away, but, you know, obviously with a two-parter, I'm not getting to everything in Delphi. Let's be real. There are people that have done entire series about Delphi. There is an entire podcast about Delphi down the hill, right? There's so much content out there. And to go down every single rabbit hole...
would take an entire series. I understand why there's entire series, but that's not what I'm trying to do with my episodes. I'm trying to do, you know, more of an overview. I'm trying to get the facts out there. I'm not trying to speculate. I'm not trying to say who I think did it. That's not what it's about. Just like every other episode I cover here on Voices for Justice, you guys know me. I'm not one. I'm not big on speculation. I just don't do it.
So yeah, don't expect a huge deep dive on Delphi. I just want to set the expectation there. Because let's also be real. The crowd behind Delphi is rowdy. They're rowdy in a similar way to Maura Murray. And, you know, I get into this with Kelsey. It's no shade. People really care about the case and that's amazing. But the crowd can be a little rowdy. So it's a little nerve wracking, but it's going to be great.
And not to double give too many things away, if double give is a term. I don't know, you guys. It's the secret after show. I don't have to script it out and be on top of my grammar. But I just want to say, look out for a big announcement from Kelsey at the end of our show.
That's it. That's all I'm going to say. That's all I'm going to say. Look out for an announcement from her, and I think that will give you a much better understanding of also why this is more of an overview versus a, you know, a deep dive or a series on Delphi. So, yeah.
Before I give it all away, before I spoil everything, I'm going to end this here because also I can't speak anymore. So I love you. Thank you for tolerating my rambling in the after show and almost crying the ups and downs we do here in the after show where we get really real. Did I do the whole outro? Hold on. I love you. Thank you for tolerating me. And I'll talk to you next time.