The Murder Behind The Most Bizarre Interrogation You Have Ever Seen

Hank joined BJ's Wholesale Club the day he became a father of 30. I coach football. Now, Coach Hank saves up to 25% off grocery store prices. 30 pounds of pasta, 3 cases of protein bars, 75 sports drinks. And that's just pregame. He knows teamwork, and BJ's knows savings. This is your home, Coach. Home of the Save. Join for just $20 at bjs.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for 6 months. Open soon. Limited time offer. New members only. BJ's. Home of the Save. This case starts with a missing 15-year-old girl that was possibly being abused and preyed on by multiple adults in her life. This is a case of betrayal. One that makes you question who's the real victim and who is the real monster. I don't know where my ex-husband or my oldest daughter is. Something happened at the house. Something happened over there. But this case is problematic. You're probably most well-known for having the most bizarre interrogation footage that you have ever seen in your entire life. So, we can do this the nice way and we negotiate. Or we can do it the hard way and I can release my bipolar. You're listening in on my conversations, aren't you? Camera off. There's actually a really good chance that some, if not most of you, have already seen clips from that interrogation footage. But how many of you know the murder behind that interrogation footage? Well, that was what I wanted to dive into today. This is the case of Ellie and Aaron Fryer. My name is Brianna and I'm hot on the case. I've tried so many times to figure out my finances and find smarter ways to budget and save my money. But with all the different accounts and bills to keep track of, it's tough to stay consistent. Which is where today's sponsor, Rocket Money, comes in. Rocket Money keeps everything in one place. My checking accounts, saving accounts, bills, and subscriptions, all on just one app. That way, I don't have to log into 10 different places to try and stay up to date. I can do it all by myself. I can manage and cancel my subscriptions, see what bills I have left to pay, and even receive alerts in real time for those upcoming bills or any transactions on my accounts. It's truly an all-in-one finance app that helps you be smarter with your money. You can get a free premium trial and try out Rocket Money for yourself by using my link, rocketmoney.com slash Brianna, down in the description, or by using the QR code that is on the screen now. Thank you so much, Rocket Money, for sponsoring this week's episode. I'll see you next time. There was a very sudden switch. Before 2017, Ellie Fryer was in the marching band. She was very smart, academically gifted even. She was a sweet, innocent girl with lots of friends. But at the start of her freshman year, Ellie started dating an older boy. Except he wasn't a boy at all. He was an adult. Gavin McFarlane was 19 years old and already out of high school. And despite already being out of high school, he was that kind of guy that was always lurking around outside of school and trying to talk with the younger students. Ellie was only 15 years old when the pair started dating. And I use air quotes because in the eyes of the law, this is not a relationship. This is grooming and eventually statutory assault. And it wasn't just the law that didn't approve of Ellie and Gavin being together. Ellie's parents, after learning of Gavin's age, forbid her from seeing him ever again. But Ellie was a teenage girl. And typically, when you tell a teenager that they can't do something, it just makes them want to do it a thousand times more. The more her parents tried to keep her and Gavin apart, the more it seemed to just push them together. It made them feel like they were these star-crossed lovers and the entire world was out to get them. Both of Ellie's parents would try and ground her, discipline her, take her phone away, anything to keep her from Gavin. Erin. Her father even attempted to file statutory assault charges against Gavin on behalf of his daughter, Ellie. But nothing seemed to keep the two of them apart. And then things even started to get very dangerous. Allegedly, after Erin saw Gavin over at his house one night, he actually threatened to kill Gavin if Gavin wouldn't stay away from his daughter. This adult trying to hang around his 15-year-old daughter wasn't the only thing that Erin Fryer had to worry about. Going into the fall of 2017. On September 30th, a weekend that Erin did not have his daughters, there was an attempted break-in on his home in the middle of the night. The intruders attempted to break in through one of his bedroom windows, but the intruders only fled the scene after finding Erin and Erin's girlfriend Michelle at the time sleeping in bed, like they weren't expecting anyone to be home. Ever since then, Erin slept with a metal baseball bat for protection. The following weekend was Erin's weekend to have his three daughters over, and according to everything I can find, it seemed like a totally normal weekend. Sunday night, Sierra and Olivia went to bed in the second bedroom, and Ellie went to sleep in her father's room, and Erin fell asleep on the couch in the living room like they did every single time. But then around 5.30 in the morning, 11-year-old Sierra woke up to the sound of broken glass, and her father screaming out, the F-word, along with other really strange sounds. She was really, really scared, scared to even get out of bed to see what was happening. And by the time that she actually did get out of her bed and left her bedroom and started looking around her home, her father and her older sister Ellie were both missing, and there was lots and lots of blood. Sierra and Olivia rushed over to their mother's home and told their mother everything, and it was Maggie that called, 9-1-1 to report that something awful had happened to her ex-husband and her oldest daughter. 9-1-1, what is the address at the emergency? Something happened at my ex-husband's house over the evening, and my two children came to my house this morning. Okay, and what did they tell you exactly? Their dad's gone. Their older sister's gone. What is your daughter's name? My oldest daughter's name is Ellen Fryer. How old is she? She's 15. I understand that. Police arrived at the home to perform what they believed was a welfare check. But very shortly after entering the home and entering the living room and seeing the sheer amount of blood, it was very clear that something sinister had happened in that home that night. Not for police. Not yourself, it's your in-hands. And blood everywhere. Yeah. That's, uh. Brain matter. Brain matter. Investigators were absolutely terrified. You have a missing father, a missing 15-year-old daughter, and blood is splattered throughout this entire home. The father and daughter weren't all that were missing from the home. Aaron's car was also missing, and there was a trail of blood leading out the house to where his car should have been parked. See, it starts from there and kind of goes all the way out into the dirt. He goes out towards the car? Yeah. That's not good. A neighbor's home security camera caught Aaron's car driving out of the neighborhood around 5.30 in the morning, the same time that Ellie's little sister, Sierra, woke up to the sounds of what was possibly an attack. Detectives questioned Sierra that morning, only hours after her father and her older sister were reported missing. They knew that this was an 11-year-old girl that possibly heard her father and older sister being attacked, and that, hopefully, she would be able to provide them some clues, but what they didn't expect was that this 11-year-old girl saw the intruder, and she knew exactly who it was. I coach football. Now, Coach Hank saves up to 25% off grocery store prices, 30 pounds of pasta, three cases of protein bars, 75 sports drinks. This is your home, Home code. This episode is brought to you by Palmolive. Family time isn't just the big moments. It's weeknight dinners. Sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palmolive Ultra. Palmolive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9% of grease, leaving your dishes sparkling clean. And the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier, so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at palmolive.com. After being woken up in the middle of the night to the sounds of broken glass and her father screaming out obscenities, but before going to check on her father, Sierra got out of bed and she peeked out her bedroom window, just in time to see two young men fleeing her home. She got a good look at both of them, but didn't recognize the one man at all. The other one she definitely knew. It was her missing sister's boyfriend, Gavin McFarlane. Investigators know that they're in a rush against time. Not only do we have a missing man, but we have a missing minor. And now there's an adult that has already been reported to the police for abusing her that has now been confirmed to be at the scene of the crime. Unfortunately, both Ellie and Aaron's cell phones were left at Aaron's home. So they were not able to be tracked, but they were able to track Gavin's phone. And it was pinging all around East Medford. So they sent a bunch of officers to that area, hoping to find Gavin and also hoping to find Ellie and Aaron Fryer alive. They didn't find them and they did not find Gavin right away, but they did find something else. Aaron Fryer's car just left abandoned on the side of the road with blood dripping out. And they found Aaron Fryer's car on the side of the road with blood dripping out. But when they got the trunk of this car opened, it was empty. But the trunk was absolutely covered in blood. At this point, there was enough blood found that investigators knew that at least one of the two missing people that they were looking for was likely dead. When they found Aaron Fryer's car, it was still warm, like the engine had only recently been turned off. So they knew that Gavin was around here somewhere. So they keep driving around the area, and that's when they finally find 19-year-old Gavin McFarland just walking around down the sidewalk of a busy road in broad daylight without a care in the world. With him was 22-year-old Russell Jones, a young man that matched the description that Sierra gave exactly of the guy that was with Gavin outside her home just six hours earlier. And with both of them was somebody else. Ellie Fryer, the 15-year-old girl that was supposed to be missing. All three of them are brought into custody, and they are separated to be questioned. Early on in this case, investigators were pretty certain that Ellie Fryer was unfortunately the victim of a violent crime committed by this adult predator and his friend. Now we know is Russell Jones. But now they've found her with both of these guys that were outside of her family home when whatever happened, her father is still missing and there's lots and lots of blood. Things are not looking good for Ellie Fryer, and she just makes them look so much worse when her interrogation begins. When a detective comes in to question Ellie Fryer, Ellie, at only 15 years old, believes that she's clever enough to outsmart the police and that they'll just take her home. And then she'll just walk out of there. The detective walks in and first asks, are you Ellie? And Ellie says, no. She is then asked, well, what is your name? And Ellie says her name is Rain. They say, Rain, how old are you? And Ellie is 15, but she tells them that she's 18 years old. And she acts like she has absolutely zero. Idea why she's here. She has no idea why her father's missing, and she has no idea why there was blood in her father's home or blood in her father's car. Ellie said that when she left her father's home, her sisters were there. Her father was there, and she only left her father's home because she didn't like the vibe and just wanted to go hang out with her friends. And she suggests that maybe her father's not actually missing, but he's just out looking for her. Because she left his house without asking permission or telling him where she was going. Doesn't exactly explain the pools of blood in the living room or the abandoned blood-soaked car, though. Hey, hello. Are you Ellie? No. What's your name? I have a right to remain silent. Okay, you do have a right to remain silent. I at least need to know your name now. Rain. Rain? Okay, Rain. Well, okay. Well, how old are you? Eighteen. I would like to know why I'm in handcuffs and why I'm, did I have the right to know? This morning, your little sisters told your mom about something that worried them, that they saw the large amount of blood. And what did they see? That's what I'm going to ask you. To be honest, I don't have a clue. You said that there was a large amount of blood? Is everybody okay? So I feel a little bit tiny, that like we might just be like playing cat and mouse and going back and forth. So what was going on yesterday to make you leave? Just didn't really like the environment. Didn't like the vibe. Meanwhile, Gavin McFarlane is being ignored completely. He's not even in an official interrogation room yet. They're just having him sit in this like tiny little like hallway like room. They're doing this on purpose because at this point they believe that Gavin McFarlane is like the mastermind and they want to make him like sweat. So they. They decide to talk to Russell. Russell Jones is 22 years old. He's friends with Gavin and he seems to be very cooperative with police. Definitely a lot more cooperative than Ellen or Rain is being at this point. Russell asks if he can have a cigarette because he thinks that he talks better if he gets to smoke. So an officer takes him out to smoke. And once he's smoking, he does open up a lot more. Russell explains to the detectives that. Ellie's father, Aaron, was a really, really bad guy. That he was actually abusive. And that's the reason that him and Gavin went over to Aaron's home that morning because they were going to help Ellie run away from her father and his horrific abuse. But that was all that he knew. He had no idea where Aaron was and why there was blood everywhere. And that's when a detective asks Russell, well, are you telling me the truth? And Russell tells him, I'm telling you the truth. And 95%, but 5%, I'm still lying to you. So that's when an officer says that he wants to appeal to Russell's heart a little bit. He says, Russell, please just bring us to Aaron's body because we don't want a child to be the one that accidentally finds Aaron's body and has to live with a child finding a dead body. And that's when Russell says, okay, I will take you to where Aaron is. They load Russell into the passenger seat of a police. And then Russell directs them, turn here, turn here, turn here until they eventually find Aaron Fryer's body. 50-year-old Aaron Fryer was found thrown down a dirt embankment on the side of a mountain back road in the middle of nowhere. He had clearly been bludgeoned to death. Russell explains that Ellie's father was extremely abusive in more ways than one. And Ellie wanted him and Gavin to help her. But then she wanted their help in killing her father so that he couldn't come find her and also to protect her sisters from his abuse. Russell told detectives that it was Gavin that was the one that physically actually murdered Aaron, but that Russell helped Gavin carry Aaron's body out of the home and into the trunk of his own car. After the discovery of Aaron's body and Russell's confession, he's brought back to the police station and they place him in an interrogation room alone while they try and figure out their next step. And what happens next is probably the most infamous part of this entire case and is definitely the most bizarre interrogation footage that I have ever seen in my entire life. And that is definitely saying something because doing what I do, I've seen a lot of interrogation footage and I can confidently say I've never seen any of it. Anything else quite like Russell Jones's interrogation footage. Up until this point, Russell Jones has been extremely cooperative and nice with the officers. But at this point, when he's brought into this interrogation room and he's left alone, there's this switch. It's literally like like a light switch, one that I can't even begin to explain. Russell is rude and cocky, like he's playing a character, putting on a show like he thinks he's in a movie. He's saying things that don't make sense. He's very dramatic, like he's a dick. channel movie villain literally and he's making all of these demands even though he has no room at all to negotiate or demand things from these officers he demands that ellie and gavin be released and be released into his custody and that they all just get to walk away from this entire situation even though just a few moments later he confessed to the murder and showed them where the body was he has no room to negotiate but he thinks he can demand that him ellie and gavin just get to walk out of this police station i'll even hold the door open for you is that a camera right there i'd rather not have a camera aimed at me you do know i know you're listening right so listen here ellie fryer is my client my protect e i would like to see her asking being polite i know you're looking directly at me aren't you the information i gave is not worth six bucks it's worth a lot uh more three all charges are to be dropped and every recording due to that is to be destroyed i know cops are really good at that oh i misplaced that file i know you're sick twisted games boy two hours hank joined bj's wholesale club the day he became a father of 30. i coach football now coach hank saves up to 25 off grocery store prices 30 pounds of pasta three cases of protein bars 75 sports drinks and that's just pre-game he knows teamwork and bj's knows savings this is your home coach home of the save join for just 20 at bj's.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months open soon limited time offer new members only bj's home of the save this episode is brought to you by palm olive family time isn't just the big moments it's weeknight dinners sitting around the table everyone talking all at once so when the plates are empty and the sink is full use palm olive ultra palm olive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9 percent of grease leaving your dishes sparkling clean and the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together shop now at palmolive.com you you can find us on our website at palmolive.com and you can also find us on our website at palmolive.com if they can hear him or can't hear him or not red means you can't hear me green you can gavin and ellie are to be released to me because the assault her father did the morning of the incident defending a female now here's the thing about palmolive.com is that they don't have a I know the cops twisted little pathetic rule game and actually sometimes I like to think that I invented the rule book. I'm not exactly bragging but I use reverse psychology which makes me be able to make you think it's not Gavin but in fact your own kid by reverse psychology making you look like the lunatic. I'm going to be putting in throughout like all of this so many clips of this interrogation because it truly is something that you need to see and hear to fully comprehend and understand how bizarre it is. You want to play hardball? I played baseball when I was younger. I wouldn't go there. And I know everything that I'm saying is being recorded and I'm doing it on purpose. I can easily turn the speaker off and rant and then you guys will come in thinking I'm a loony because you don't hear me. Here's the thing. I'm not the one with the donut fetish. Give a cop a donut and he'll want a coffee to go with it. Give a mouse a cookie and he'll want a glass of milk. Give a moose a drink and he'll want something else. But here's my favorite one. What is it when a cop car is towed by a tow truck? Poor part. But probably the most infamous part and arguably the most bizarre part is when Russell Jones says we can either do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way and I release my bipolar. That's actually something that he says. I'm going to release my bipolar like he's the Hulk and he's oh my goodness it's actually crazy. If you told me that this was a skit and that this was satire I would believe you but it's 100% real and that's like literally blows my mind every single time. I forget how crazy this interrogation footage is so many times at this point but every single time I go back and watch it it's like I'm seeing it for the first time because that's how wild and unbelievable it is. So we can do this the nice way and we negotiate or we can do it the hard way and I can release my bipolar. I don't know if maybe Russell after confessing and showing them where the body is he realizes that he's in serious hot water and he starts trying to like plant the seeds of like an insanity. Because that's like the only thing that can make sense to me why he's doing and saying these things and acting this way in the interrogation footage. Right there. That's soft. That's not actually nicer than the hospital ones. I suppose they're kind of mean. You know what would go good with these? These are furry. I don't know what would go good with these? These are furry. claims that she believes Russell was the one that murdered her father she believes that if she just tells them things again like she's 18 and her name's Rain and Russell's the one that did it that she'll just get to walk out of the police station but when Gavin is finally brought in to finally be interrogated he actually does make a confession and his confession lines up with Russell's story the detectives are interrogating Gavin try and use this strategy where they are going to make Gavin believe that they are on his side that they understand that he was just trying to protect Ellie and that he's a hero and if he killed Aaron then he was completely justified and this strategy does completely work and Gavin starts talking he says a similar thing that we've already heard already that Aaron Fryer was abusing his daughter and his daughter Ellie was Gavin's girlfriend and that his girlfriend's father did not like him and actually threatened to kill him before and did not want him dating his daughter at all and that he was actually afraid of Aaron and afraid for his life because Aaron had tried to kill him or threatened to kill him previously he was also afraid for his girlfriend because Ellie's father was abusing her he explains to the detective that he had been planning to help Ellie run away for weeks but eventually Ellie did not just want to run away she wanted her father dead she wanted Gavin to murder her father for her but Gavin explains to the detectives that he did not want to kill Aaron but he had to protect their baby you heard me right Gavin tells the detectives that two weeks before he murdered Aaron Fryer Ellie told him that she was pregnant with Gavin's baby he also confesses that the weekend before he killed Aaron Fryer where there was that attempted break-in that actually was Aaron and Russell attempting to break in and kill Aaron that day they weren't expecting for Aaron's girlfriend to be over and when they saw her that spooked them and that's why they fled and ran away even still though Gavin told detectives that he didn't actually want to kill Aaron but he told Ellie that he would so on October 2nd him and Russell drove over to Aaron's house and they were able to get together and they were able to get together at Aaron's house Ellie gave Gavin the baseball bat that her father slept with for protection and then she snuck out the window and waited in the car with Russell while Gavin went to murder her father but Gavin explains to detectives that he planned to actually lie and he was gonna pretend to kill Ellie's father and then he was gonna lie to her and say that he killed him and that they would just run off together and she would never know but while he was in the house just kind of sorting things out Aaron actually woke up and that Gavin was forced to just act on instinct and that's why he killed Aaron but that story was actually totally bs it was not true at all the evidence proves that Aaron Fryer was bludgeoned to death while he was sleeping on the couch and eventually Gavin did admit that that original story was a lie and he actually bludgeoned this man to death with his two daughters 11 and 8 years old sleeping in the other room all three of them 22 year old Russell Jones 19 year old Gavin McFarlane and 15 year old Ellie Fryer were arrested for the murder of 50 year old Aaron Fryer but this is where the real controversy in this case begins was Ellie Fryer this innocent child the victim of horrific abuse or is she a manipulative mastermind and a cold blooded killer for 16 long hours Ellie Fryer's mother Maggie had no idea where her 15 year old daughter was and for 10 of those hours police were holding her daughter in an interrogation room and never once told her that they found her daughter until they called her to let her know that her underage daughter was being charged with murder and in that time while they had Ellie in police custody they found Aaron's body and they actually called Maggie to let them know hey we found your ex-husband's body and he has been murdered and at that time her 15 year old daughter is missing but she's actually at the police station they know where she is and they don't tell Maggie so for 10 hours she knows that her husband and her daughter were both missing now her husband has been found murdered and she has no idea where her daughter is but she's actually being interrogated by police in an interrogation room being interrogated by police and in those 10 hours Maggie could have gone to the station and sat with her daughter while she's being interrogated or she could have gotten her daughter a lawyer these are things that really really frustrated Maggie Fryer when she found out that the entire time she believed that her 15 year old daughter was possibly murdered she was actually being interrogated by police and they never told her that they found her at one point because they were interrogating Ellie Fryer for so long they actually made a bed for her on the floor of the interrogation room so she could get some sleep Ellie looks like a child she's actually drawing with crayons during her entire interrogation but is that actually part of the manipulation investigators and the prosecution on this case both 100% believe that Ellie Fryer was the mastermind and that she was able to manipulate Russell Jones and Gavin McFarland into killing her father for her because she was mad at her father for trying to keep her away from the guy that she wanted to date they claim that during the interrogation Ellie was using a fake baby voice to try and manipulate the officers and then she tried to outsmart them by lying about her name and her age 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 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 join for just $20 at bjs.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months open soon limited time offer new members only BJ's home of the save this episode is brought to you by palm olive family time isn't just the big moments it's weeknight dinners sitting around the table everyone talking all at once so when the plates are empty and the sink is full use palm olive ultra palm olive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9% of grease leaving your dishes sparkling clean and the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together shop now at palmolive.com they found in Gavin's home written out plans on how to murder Aaron Fryer there was plan a and plan b and it detailed the entire murder plans they also found text messages between Gavin and Ellie where there's very clear one of them is really pushing the idea of murdering Aaron Fryer and it wasn't Gavin it was Ellie sending all these text messages to Gavin trying to pressure him into ending her father's life police also give Ellie a pregnancy test and they confirm that Ellie Fryer was not and never was pregnant this was just a lie that she told Gavin she lied to Gavin about a baby that did not exist possibly to create more motivation for him to want to murder her father and if she's lying about a pregnancy lying about a baby was it possible that she was lying about her father abusing her as well now if you know me you know that I'm always someone that chooses to side with a victim and believe victim stories there is absolutely no evidence to prove that Aaron Fryer was not abusing his 15 year old daughter but the facts are that there's also zero evidence that Aaron Fryer was abusing his daughter and both of Ellie Fryer's younger siblings have said separately and unprompted that their father was not abusive and that the only thing he ever tried to do was discipline Ellie and try and keep her away from this 19 year old that was grooming her and abusing her and both of her little siblings say that Ellie did not like that and if she was claiming that her father was abusing her that it was actually that she was mad that he would yell at her and try to keep her away from a 19 year old in fact both of Ellie's younger siblings then and to this day have only ever had extremely positive things to say about their father Aaron Fryer but there are still plenty of people that support Ellie believe her story and believe that she was a victim and that she was actually the one being manipulated and that she was being taken advantage of by an adult male that bludgeoned her father to death are you more likely to believe that a 15 year old girl was the mastermind in a murder plot when there are two adult men a 19 year old and a 22 year old also involved in the murder plot supporters of Ellie also bring up the fact that after the three them were arrested and charged and sitting behind bars, Gavin would send letters to Ellie. And in these letters, he's definitely looking more like the manipulator and the mastermind. He's telling her that she can't take a plea deal and they're going to trial and they're going to win because the jury is going to believe Ellie. Ellie needs to make sure to tell the jury that her father was abusing her and to make sure that she cries because it will be more believable if she cries and it will definitely help. He tells her, make sure that you tell them that we were all afraid for our lives and make sure that they drop the sexual assault charges against me because you always consented to being with me, even though she was 15 years old and legally could not consent. In 2018, Gavin McFarlane would plead guilty to murder and conspiracy to commit murder as part of a police investigation. He was also accused of murder and conspiracy to commit murder as part of a police investigation. He was also accused of murder and conspiracy to commit murder as part It's just pregame. Home of the Save. Join for just $20 at BJ's.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Limited time offer. New members only. BJ's. Home of the Save. Hello. Look what TJ Maxx dragged in. The Devil Wears Prada 2 is now streaming on Disney Plus and Hulu. We are digital. We are downloadable. We are streamable. The fashion event of the year is certified fresh. Pull yourself together. We have work to do. Critics say it's smart and witty and the perfect sequel. That's all. Get runway ready for The Devil Wears Prada 2 on Disney Plus and Hulu. Rated PG-13.