The House, the Hole & Buried Secrets: The Boy Who Saw the Unthinkable | The Case Of Aaron Fraser | UNSEEN

This killer thinks he got away, but he has no idea this little boy saw everything. I do not want my dad to kill other people. This is 6-year-old Aaron Frazier. In 1995, Aaron met with a social worker after he shared the most disturbing details about his father. Every word he said was written inside this notebook. I think this is your thoughts exactly. Am I right? Well, I'm wondering since you obviously are such a smarty pants. Can you read this? Would you like me to read it? What the social worker doesn't know is that Aaron is in witness protection because he's the only one who saw what happened to his mom. About three years before this footage was recorded, Aaron's mother, Bonnie, disappeared without a trace after her car was found abandoned at the airport. Aaron's father, Michael, told police his wife stormed out after an argument. Actually, she just wasn't happy and she wanted to leave and I couldn't really stop her from leaving. His son, Aaron, however, tells a different story. My dad killed my mom. Then he threw the pocketbook away in a different place, somewhere near our house in a dumpster. He buried my mom. We digged it, the hole. The problem is, Aaron can't remember where his mom was buried and without her body, his father, Michael, can never be charged. For the next 20 years, the circumstances in which Bonnie Heim disappeared will remain a mystery until Aaron, who has never stopped searching for his mother, finds that the truth has been hiding in plain sight. Christmas Day, 1992. Three-year-old Aaron opens his presents while his father, Michael, captures the moment on camera. The little boy is excited and happy and there's not a trace of worry on his face. Tell me that, Mom! Yes! We're going to watch that later. You like that? Yeah! His mother, Bonnie, made sure this would be a special day for him. She really adored everything about Aaron. Some parents really revolve around their children. That's not a cliche with Bonnie. Aaron made Bonnie very happy. But behind that loving smile, Bonnie hides a heartbreaking secret. Her relationship with Michael is making her miserable. And just days before this video was filmed, Bonnie told her sister, Liz, she's made up her mind. Bonnie and I went shopping together and she said, this is it, I'm leaving. Her sister learns that Bonnie has put down a deposit on a new apartment and that she's already found a new school for Aaron. Her plan is to take Aaron and leave one month from now when Michael is out of town. But just two weeks later, something terrible happens. On January 7th, 1993, at around 3 o'clock in the morning, Bonnie's sister, Liz, wakes up from a terrifying dream. In it, she saw Bonnie. In this dream, Bonnie and I were at the cathedral in St. George, a street. She looked at me and I just felt this overwhelming feeling. She said, take care of Aaron. The next morning, Liz receives the worst phone call of her entire life. Bonnie has gone missing. I knew then that wasn't just a random dream, that dream meant something. So I knew I had to take care of Aaron. From then on out. This episode is brought to you by Nordstrom. For 125 years, Nordstrom has been part of your story. The stylist who found the perfect outfit for your big interview. The first pair of walking shoes for your one year old. The tomato soup you shared with your sister at the cafe. These are the moments that make Nordstrom, Nordstrom. Big or small, we're here for all of it. Celebrating 125 years with new moments still ahead. Discover it all. In Nordstrom stores and at nordstrom.com. At around 8:00 AM, police respond to a call at the Red Roof Inn in Jacksonville, Florida, after a maintenance worker found a purse in a dumpster belonging to a 23-year-old Bonnie Heim. Michael is quickly notified and arrives shortly after. When questioned, he tells police he and his wife had an argument the night before and that she stormed out at around 11:00 PM. Later that night, he went out looking for her and drove by her mother's house, but saw her car wasn't there. Michael hasn't heard from her since. Police now know they have a missing persons case on their hands. However, the purse still contains money and credit cards, which quickly rules out robbery. They start to wonder if foul play is involved. That morning, homicide detective Robby Hinson from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office is assigned the missing persons case. His first thought is to try and find Bonnie's car. He immediately scours the Jacksonville International Airport's long-term parking lot. This is where he finds Bonnie's Toyota Camry, less than two miles from where her purse was discovered. Detective Hinson wonders, is it possible Bonnie simply decided to catch a plane and skip town? That theory is disproven when he finds out Bonnie's name is not on any of the flight manifests, and no one, not even security footage, can prove that Bonnie was ever even at the airport. That evening, friends and family go on the 11:00 news to beg the public for help. Bonnie Haim's family just can't put the pieces together. They don't know why she's not here at home with them. And there's her little boy. She wouldn't leave him. Three-year-old Erin Haim doesn't know where his mommy is. And if anyone has seen her or has, you know, can shed any light on this story, just please, please let us know something. Everyone is heartbroken to see little Erin's response when asked by his father where his mommy is. Bonnie's husband, Michael, however, leaves and most viewers puzzled by his seeming lack of emotion. Actually, she just wasn't happy and she wanted to leave. And I couldn't stop her from leaving. The problem is those closest to Bonnie know very well she would never abandon her three-year-old son, Erin. January 8th, Bonnie has been missing for over 24 hours. Police launch a massive search. Family members distribute flyers, posters, helicopters fly over wooded areas near the airport. But there's no trace of her. Just haven't given up. The family hadn't given up, you know, looking for Bonnie. During this time, investigators process Bonnie's car for evidence. They discover a shoe print on the driver's side made by a man's size 10 sneaker. The print is intact, which indicates it could only have been left by the last person who drove the car. What's more, the driver's seat is pushed too far back for a woman Bonnie's size. It appears the last person who sat there was much taller than Bonnie. Detective Robbie Hinson and his team get a search warrant for Michael and Bonnie's home. What they're looking for is evidence that a crime took place, or signs of a struggle, but there's nothing of the sort. Hinson believes there's one other person who could shed some light onto what happened at the house the night Bonnie disappeared. The three-year-old boy who lost his mom. You think you might be able to help me? A little bit. You told me your mom was in heaven. Did your mom die? She did. This stunning new development increases the stakes. If he's telling the truth, they should be able to find evidence. But it also means Aaron is a potential witness. Hinson arranges for a child protection service worker to interview the three-year-old boy to see what else he can reveal. The footage you're about to see was filmed less than 48 hours after Bonnie went missing. At that time, Aaron Heim is three and a half years old. Did you ever think your mommy's sad? Mm-hmm. Was she okay, or was she hurt? She was hurt. Did you see mommy get hurt? Yes. How did she get hurt? They pushed her down. And then, spontaneously, Aaron says, "Daddy shot my mommy." When asked with what, Aaron says, "With a gun." Can you show me where mommy was hurt? I felt pain. On her tummy? He would talk about the things that were so horrible that he'd seen. He would whisper. I'll never forget the most poignant moment. I was trying to determine what she had on, you know, clothing. And he whispered, and he said, "Red blood." I've interviewed lots of kids, but this was like I knew this kid saw this. When asked where his daddy had put mommy, Aaron whispers, "It's a secret place." With this new information, investigators wonder if Michael could have buried Bonnie's body in their backyard. But as they search the property, looking for areas where the soil has been recently disturbed, they find nothing, no place that looks like a freshly dug grave. Detective Hinson is at a loss. Without a body or a crime scene, there's no way to build a case against Michael. The state attorney didn't think there was enough evidence. Aaron's three years old. They cannot put him on the witness stand. Without a body, prosecutors would have a hard time convincing a jury to convict Michael, and if they do go to trial and Michael is acquitted, they will never be able to try him again. Because of this, Michael is never charged. However, because of what he said he witnessed, Detective Hinson feels Aaron would be in danger if he stayed in his father's care. The state removes Aaron from Michael's custody and places him with his Aunt Liz. There's just one caveat: his father Michael is allowed to see his son twice a week, which means Liz has to let the man whom she believes killed her sister into her house. Before every visitation, Aaron starts acting out, throwing tantrums, because he knows his dad is coming. "I would always have to scoop him up and hold him as he fell apart. Every visitation." "During some of the visits. Mike will give you the details. Get Aaron really close and help whisper in his ear the look of terror on Aaron's face." Liz promised her sister Bonnie she would take care of her son, but as long as Michael is allowed into her home, Aaron won't be safe. The only way to really protect him is to place him in foster care, because then the visitations would stop. "I would have loved to have him continue to be my son. I just couldn't bear seeing him." "I just couldn't stand him in that pain anymore. I had to make that decision." Aaron is five years old when he goes to live with the foster family. Because his aunt Liz successfully petitioned to have Aaron declared a protected witness, no one, not even Liz, knows where he is. And Aaron's new parents, Jean and Ronnie Frazier, are never told anything about the boy's past. It's the perfect scenario for Aaron to start moving on and put his past behind him. But… After he moved in, Aaron starts to share a disturbing story with his foster mom, Jean. "He started talking occasionally about his dad shooting his mom." At first, Aaron is hesitant to give too many details. But as time passes, he becomes more and more comfortable to share. "He got to where he would say so much, I would have to write it down." Aaron's foster mom, Jean, writes down every word he says in a notebook and shows it to the psychologist caring for Aaron. The footage you're about to see: was recorded during one of the sessions. "Something else about this is special. Because I think this is your thoughts exactly, am I right? Is this what you think? Well, I wonder, since you obviously are such a smarty pants, can you read this? Would you like me to read it?" "I do not want my parents to read this." "I want my dad to kill other people." "Very good reading, and me either." "Me either." Aaron then asks the social worker if she can read in his stead. "My dad killed my mom, and then he threw the gun out in the water. He was standing on the bridge. He buried my mom. We digged it, the hole." The details written in the notebook are the only account of what really happened to Aaron's mom, Bonnie, and they show just how much Aaron witnessed. The notes read: "When my mom got shot, I was in the living room looking out the window, I was standing on my tippy toes. I watched as he shot her. I said to myself, 'No, don't shoot her, that's my mom.' My dad took my mom's pocketbook with him in the car. I was in the front seat, in my car seat." "He knew exactly what had happened, and he just couldn't find her." Along with the notes, there's a picture that Aaron drew of his house. In it, you can see his mom wearing a skirt, standing in front of his dad, who's holding a gun. And the gun is pointed straight at him. "You know, Aaron, that's a really important memory to have, but it's sort of a bad one too, isn't it? I'm sorry that you have to have that memory." While the story told by Aaron paints a vivid picture of what happened, there still isn't enough to prosecute his father. For now, the only thing Aaron's foster parents can do… Is help him as best they can by giving him the normal childhood he deserves. However, Aaron is not ready to give up on his mom so easily. Every once in a while, he'll ask his foster mom to go look for Bonnie. And every time, Jean hops in the car and drives him around. But there's one particular time when Aaron does something she did not expect. "I said, 'Can we go look for my mom?' And we go out to get in the car, and he runs to the backyard, and I'm going, 'Where are you going?'" "I said, 'I'm going to get a shovel!'" "Because he knew that she was buried, he just didn't know where." Jean is not the only one trying to help Aaron find his mom. Around the same time, three years after Bonnie disappeared, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Department receives an anonymous tip. It reads, "Bonnie Heim, Dolphin Avenue, Jacksonville. The body is buried in the backyard. Bring a dog with you. Hurry." But the police never follow up on it. Here is 1999. Ten-year-old Aaron has been living with the Frasiers for nearly six years. When they surprise him with adoption papers, Aaron is thrilled. "They have been fantastic. That was the best thing that happened to Aaron." For the adoption to happen, Liz goes to court and has her sister declared legally dead. Michael's parental rights are also revoked, and Aaron Heim becomes Aaron Frasier. In his new family, the young boy is finally able to thrive and be happy. Years pass, and after a while, Aaron is unable to recall any of the disturbing events that happened in his childhood. And while he has never stopped thinking about his biological mother, he has no actual memories of her anymore. "Yeah, recently I've seen some, um, a Christmas video." "Tell me that, Mom!" "Mmm." "Yes!" "We can watch that later." "You like that?" "Yeah." "Okay." "Yeah." "You like that?" "Yeah." "Yeah." and it didn't trigger any memory. It kind of feels like I'm watching somebody else. Even though I have the emotions of going through it, I don't remember it, so there's a little bit of a disconnect. When Aaron is 18 years old, he's determined to recover what memories he had as a boy. The good times with his mom, but also the details of the murder and where his father made them dig the hole. He begins studying how the brain works in the hope of finding a trigger that would bring back those memories. I tried to see if I could decipher it myself. I had been told that even if I could remember it, that the way the brain worked at three and a half is different than it works now, so it may not even make sense if I was able to get it. His biological father, Michael, still walks free, and without his mother's body, he can never be charged. The only hope for justice lies in Aaron remembering where the body was buried. However, years pass without any result. The day after, Aaron is reminded how much his mom, Bonnie, has missed and how much he would have wanted her to be there. But as he begins building a future with his wife, Aaron has no idea his disturbing past is about to creep its way back into his life. In 2005, 12 years after her sister's disappearance, Liz gets more devastating news. Michael and his parents are trying to profit off of Bonnie's death by getting their hands on her 401k. Liz is now a mother of two. She's outraged. She's not about to let him steal the money that she feels belongs to Aaron. She decides to sue Michael in civil court for the wrongful death of Bonnie. She wins, and the court issues a judgment against Michael. Because of Liz, Aaron gets Bonnie's 401k, Michael's company shares, and the old house on Dolphin Avenue. In 2014, Aaron is 24 years old and the sole owner of the house where he grew up, where videos of his mom were filmed, and he has only one desire: to get rid of it. I didn't really want anything to do with the house. I didn't have any desire to have it. You know, it's a tough spot about my life. He decides he's going to sell the house as soon as he can. For years, there's been a tenant living there, but now that the place is vacant, Aaron can finally see the house is in total disrepair. Instead of hiring a contractor, Aaron decides to fix up the place himself. But as he gets to the backyard, he finds the pool and the outdoor shower are also in need of serious work. I had a decision to make about the swimming pool. It had started to settle, and the tiles were cracking. It needed to be completely redone, and it was going to be an expensive project. Aaron decides he's going to fill the pool and remove the shower. But as he starts extracting the bricks covering the concrete slab that's underneath the shower, a thought occurs to him. I told Jean Fraser, my adopted parents then, that I thought if she was anywhere in the yard, it would be there. But the thought quickly goes away, and he focuses on finishing the work. Aaron doesn't want to get his hopes up being around this house is already messing with his mind. Two weeks later, he rents a small excavator and asks his brother-in-law to help out. But as they start digging, removing the structures around the pool, they hit a pipe near the outdoor shower, which causes a leak. Both of them grab their shovels and start digging, to find where the water is coming from, but nothing could have prepared Aaron for what he's about to uncover. "We start digging up against the house, so I see a piece of plastic." Aaron finds a plastic bag that appears to have been buried under the concrete slab. "I think when I was digging with the shovel, I broke the bag. I was like, 'Oh, that's weird. There's a coconut in here. Why would somebody bury a coconut in a bag right here?' I picked it up, and we looked back in the hole, and we could see some teeth, and everything kind of clicked." "I saw a missed call from him, so I called him back, and he said, 'I found her. I found my mom.'" "It's a possible break in a cold case. The disappearance of this young mother more than two decades ago." DNA testing will later confirm the remains are, in fact, those of Bonnie Heim. When looking at pictures taken by the evidence technicians back in 1993, there's one key difference. There was no shower pad back then. Instead, chlorine containers were stacked above the location where Bonnie's body was buried. In hindsight, this was a diversion. You wouldn't expect to see grass where someone keeps their chlorine bottles, and the strong chlorine smell would have covered up the stench of a shallow grave. 21 years later, at the old house on Dolphin Avenue, a crime scene is finally revealed. After digging up the remains, investigators also find Bonnie's ring, the acrylic fingernails she wore, and her clothes, as well as a shotgun shell casing that matches a gun owned by Michael. As it turns out, Aaron was telling the truth all those years ago. At three years old, he saw his dad shoot his mom and was then forced by his dad to dig her grave. "When Aaron said that he found mom, I was happy all this time, struggling trying to figure out where Bonnie is. We finally found her. How could Mike live with himself? How could Mike live in that house, with her right there?" In August of 2015, Michael Hoyt was found dead. He died of a heart attack at the age of 15. In April of 2019, Michael Hoyt is charged with second-degree murder and taken into custody in North Carolina. "Do you think of anything from Jacksonville that would come back to you?" "Yeah, my wife. My new wife. That's why we're here. She was recovered." "We'd like to go over, if we can, just the circumstances where she disappeared." "I will not make any statements at all." "Nothing at all or nothing about that?" "Nothing about anything." "Okay." April 8th, 2019. Michaelheim's trial for the 1993 murder of his wife Bonnie begins. Unfortunately, the prosecution faces an uphill battle. The biggest problem is that the key witness, Aaron, no longer remembers anything about the crime itself, and therefore won't be able to answer any questions on the stand. The evidence is mostly circumstantial, and even with the victim's DNA at the scene, the defense will argue that a tenant has lived in the house for years, and that at any time the killer could have come back to bury her there. That argument, however, is quickly shut down when the prosecution provides evidence that Michael forced his tenant to sign an agreement that she would not allow her dog to tear up the backyard, or to ever dig it up herself. What's more, the court rules that the Child Protection Service worker who interviewed Aaron two days after his mom died can testify. "Did Aaron indicate that his mother had been hurt?" "Yes, he did." "Did he identify who did that to his mother?" "Yes, he did." "And who did he say?" "His daddy. His father." Upon hearing Aaron's testimony, the room falls silent. The prosecution asks him, "Do you remember as a child the touch of your mother?" And Aaron answers, "No, I have no memory of my mother Bonnie." He is then asked, "So the only memory you have of your mother is when you were holding her skull in your hands?" And Aaron says, "Yes." April 12th. After an emotional trial that lasted five days, it only takes 90 minutes for the jury to deliberate. "We, the jury, have found the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree." Michael Heim is found guilty of murdering his wife Bonnie. He's also found guilty of committing the crime in front of their three-year-old boy. "The crime was committed in the presence of a victim's family member to wit her son, Aaron." It will take two days. Another month to finally know his sentence. But for Aaron, the fight is not over. He has one last important request to make to the court. After the verdict is read, Aaron is allowed to read his statement. And for the first time, everyone in the room understands the true impact this crime has had on his life. "People have repeatedly asked me how I feel. Isn't it great that Michael was found guilty? That's not at all how I feel. My mother is still dead. I am forever scarred. Scarred by the trauma of witnessing her murder and the subsequent abuse. I spent many years sleeping with a brick under my pillow, feeling the need to protect myself if ever someone came in the middle of the night. Anytime there's been a turbulent time in my life, I have a burning desire to try to resolve where my mother was buried. One of these times was when I was 18. I drove to a place in Nassau County, a place where it was suspected I was trying to describe when I was younger. I drove there alone, with a shovel. Obviously, this was to no avail. I have searched for my mom my entire life. I have no active memory of the events of January 6, 1993. It seems that my brain has locked out my ability to access these memories. I have never wavered in my belief that Bonnie was killed by Michael Hain that night. I drew pictures of my mom in a hole curled in the same position she was found on Dauphin Avenue when I found her. I said she had been shot. I said she had been buried. I said that Michael killed her. Today, we know all of this to be true. I do not know what a fair sentence would be. I do know that every day Michael Hain was free, I lived in fear that he may come and get me like he said he would. Once Michael was arrested on August 24, 2015, there was a sense of relief. I would ask that Michael get a sentence that would ensure that he would be released. I would ask that Michael get a sentence that would ensure that I do not have to be concerned about running into him ever again. Most importantly, I do not want to have to worry about him doing harm to me or any of my family members. The only way to achieve this is for him to spend the rest of his life in prison. On May 21, 2019, Aaron gets his wish. Michael Hain is sentenced to life in prison. It was just a sense of relief. You know, after all this time, it's finally going to be the end of the story. It wasn't cops who solved Bonnie's murder, but her own son, who through all those years never stopped thinking about her. Yeah, I think, I mean, God had it. I was ready to do it, to be able to find her after all these years. After the trial, Bonnie's sisters organize a celebration of her life in a garden dedicated to her. Tomorrow is her 50th birthday, although she probably wouldn't want me to say that. Aaron is there and hears stories of her life in prison. Aaron is there and hears stories about the mother he never got to know. Still, Aaron is grateful for the love he got from the Frazier family, who welcomed him as their own son. They're just special people, people of incredible character, opened their home to me, loved me like their own son. I never had to ask for anything. They gave me unconditional love. If I needed something, they were always there. I never wanted to take Bonnie's place at all. I just wanted him to have the best life he could. Aaron is now turning the page of a new chapter in his life and hopes that others can learn from his story, that victims of childhood trauma can get through it. He urges anyone with children who are in an abusive relationship to remember the children are watching, and they see everything, no matter how young. Tammy regularly hauls stuff to her kids at college. That's why she shops at BJ's Wholesale Club, saving up to 25% off grocery store prices. Beef jerky, microwave meals, laundry pods, even they can't screw up. Have you met my kids? And with BJ's gas, she gets there for less. They call me the road warrior. This is your home, road warrior mom. Home of the Save. 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