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. My word, he said, was written inside this notebook. "I think this is your thoughts, exactly." "All right?" "Well, I'm wondrous as 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. "Nice. She just wasn't happy and she wanted to leave and I couldn't always stop her from leaving." His son, Aaron, however, tells a different story. "My dad killed my mom. And he threw the pocketbook away in a different place somewhere near our house in a dumpster. He buried my mom. We digged it the whole." 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's home 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 presence 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. "Follow me, Tesla!" 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 cliché 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 7, 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 on St. George Street. She looked at me, and I just felt this overwhelming feeling, who 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, Ben, that was just a random dream, that dream meant something. I knew I had to take care of Aaron, then on out." Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible, all-day-convy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue. Just plump, dewy, hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. "Maybe it's Mavilyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy." At around 8 a.m., police respond to a call at the Red Roof Inn, in Jacksonville, Florida, after a maintenance worker found a person 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 p.m., 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 person's 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 Robbie Henson from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office is assigned the missing person's 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 Henson 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, but 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 o'clock news to beg the public for help. Bonnie Haymes 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 Aaron Heim 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 Aaron's response when asked by his father, where his mommy is. Bonnie's husband, Michael, however, leaves 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, Aaron. 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 having 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 Henson 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 this sort. Henson 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. 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. Henson 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 do your mommy said was she okay or was she hurt? He is hot. Do you see mommy get hurt? Yes. How did she get hurt? I was dead now. And then spontaneously Aaron says daddy shot my mommy. When asked what Aaron says with a gun can you show me where mommy was hurt? When 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, and it's three years old. They cannot put him on the witness stand. Without a body, prosecutors would have a hard time convincing them. facing 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 Henson 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 thaw apart every visitation. Seeing some of the visits, Michael 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 in that pain anymore. I had to make that decision. Aaron is 5 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. 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 just six months 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 the word 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. All right, is this what you think? Well, I'm wondering, since you obviously are such smart kids, can you read this? Would you like me to read it? I do not want my dad to kill other people. Very good reason, and neither me either. Aaron then asks the social worker if she can read in his dad. My dad killed my mom, and then he threw the gun out in the water. He was standing on the bridge. 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 whole. The details written in the notebook are the only account of what really happened to Aaron's mom, Bonnie, and they showed 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 his mom. You know, Aaron, you know, yeah, that's a really important memory to have, but it's sort of a bad one, too, and 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 Gene hops in the car and drives him around. But there's one particular time when Aaron does something she did not expect. He said, "Can we go look for my mom and we go out to get in the car?" He runs to the backyard, and I'm going, "Where are you going?" He said, "To get a shovel." Because he knew that he was buried, he just didn't know where. Gene 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. The year is 1999, ten-year-old Aaron has been living with the Frazier's 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 Frazier. In his new family, the young boy is finally able to thrive and be happy. Others 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. And it didn't trigger any memory. 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 eighteen 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 and the hope of finding a trigger that would bring back those memories. "Trying 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 that threw in a half is different than it works now, but 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 of his wedding, Aaron is reminded how much his mom, Bonnie, has missed and how much he would have wanted her to be there. 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, twelve 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 outraged. She's not about to let him steal the money that she feels belongs to Aaron. He 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. 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. We had started the settle and the tiles were cracking and 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 Gene Frazier 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. 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 and 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 clipped. 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 that 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, Erin was telling the truth all those years ago. Three years old, he saw his dad shoot his mom and was then forced by his dad to dig her grave. When Erin 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 Heim is charged with second degree murder and taken into custody in North Carolina. April 8, 2019, Michael Heim'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, Erin, 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 is 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 as 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 Erin two days after his mom died can testify. Did Erin indicate that his mother had been hurt? Yes, she did. Did he identify who did that to his mother? Yes, he did. Who did he say? His daddy, his father. Upon hearing Erin's testimony, the room falls silent. The prosecution asks him, "Do you remember as a child the touch of your mother?" And Erin answers, "No, I have no memory of my mother, Bonnie." He's then asked, "So the only memory you have of your mother is when you were holding her skull in your hands," and Erin says, "Yes," April 12th. After an emotional trial that lasted five days, it only takes 90 minutes for the jury to deliberate. 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. It will take another month to finally know his sentence. But for Erin, the fight is not over. He has one last important request to make to the court. After the verdict is read, Erin 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. However, Peter Lee 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 in the subsequent abuse. I spent many years sleeping with a brick under my pillow, feeling the need to protect myself from someone who came in the middle of the night. Anytime there's been a 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 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, any 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 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 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 a, I was ready to do it, to be able to find her after all these years. After the trial, Bonnie's sisters organized a celebration of her life in a garden dedicated to her. "Tomorrow is our 50th birthday, well, I should probably want me to stay there." Aaron is there, and here's 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, open their home to me, love me like they're all the son, 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, and it's one of them 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.