12 replies to this topic

[Denise]

http://www.maysville...s/1964erica.txt

Fraysure mystery continues to frustrate police

By WENDY MITCHELL

Sunday, October 21, 2007 7:22 PM EDT

BROOKSVILLE -- It was a Tuesday evening, like so many other fall nights in Bracken County.

Weather conditions were similar to what area residents are experiencing this week, warm with an occasional need for a light jacket after dark.

As a nation watched on television, singer Reba McIntire belted out the National Anthem before the Florida Marlins began the third game on the way to beating the Cleveland Indians in the 1997 World Series.

And Germantown teen Erica Fraysure, who had been socializing with friends in Brooksville, was about to disappear.

After 9:30 p.m., Oct. 21, 1997, Fraysure was never seen or heard from again.

She never picked up her paycheck from working at a local restaurant and her black 1988 Pontiac Bonneville was found abandoned off Fronks Lane; the keys were missing.

Family members were frantic, friends were worried and those who didn't even know the pretty brunette were helping in the search. Police interviewed dozens of people, even conducting polygraph tests on some who allowed it.

Over the 10 years since her disappearance, there has been plenty of theory and conjecture, even national spotlight, but nothing has brought closure to the girl's family. Fraysure nor her body has ever been found.

Kentucky State Police are still treating it as an open missing person case.

"We are still open to all possibilities, but we are also, since it has been 10 years now, looking at putting some persistent rumors to rest," said KSP Detective Chris Jaskowiak, on Thursday.

Several people have been interviewed over the years and it has finally been determined that a party allegedly attended by Fraysure was actually held the day after Fraysure went missing.

"She was not there. The party was Oct. 22," said Jaskowiak.

Another was that Fraysure had run off on her own.

"If you were going to do that, we may have found your car broken down on the side of a highway, not in a field with your personal identification in it. That would be something a person would need. There is less than a 1 percent chance of that being the case here," said Jaskowiak. "She would have contacted somebody in all this time."

Because there has been no resolution and with gossip often helping reveal crimes to local police in small communities, a solitary individual is believed to have done something to Fraysure, said Jaskowiak.

According to Jaskowiak, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was asked to create a profile of what type of person would be capable of making a girl disappear the way Fraysure did.

"There is a profile by the FBI of a person of interest, a sociopath who may have had a history of animal abuse, strained family ties and they may have been in jail at one time or another. They tend to keep to themselves so much they have few friends and nobody they would confide in. They would be capable of killing someone and disposing of the body without ever feeling the need to share the information with anyone," he said. "They wouldn't brag about it."

It is also believed the person was from the community, familiar with the area and may still maintain a local address while moving around a lot. By local, police were not limiting the address to Brooksville, but including surrounding communities and cities.

In the initial investigation, the KSP detective handling the case, Bob Scott interviewed several people, including one who fit the profile as a person of interest, said Jaskowiak, who did not name the person.

According to published reports and court records, Shane Simcox, the last person seen with Fraysure, was interviewed by Scott and he denied any link to her disappearance. Simcox, who was living with his grandfather in 1997, later got into scrapes with the law which resulted in jail time in 1998. He had previously been arrested for breaking into a Brooksville store in 1995. He had declined Scott's request to take a polygraph test in 1997 and his current whereabouts are unknown.

"He moves around a lot," said Jaskowiak.

Chris Below, a suspect in other similar cases of missing young girls with long dark hair and slight builds, sent to prison in Ohio in 2004 for involuntary manslaughter in the disappearance of Kathern Fetzer, has also been "looked into thoroughly." said Jaskowiak.

"If you recall there was the serial killer tow truck driver theory too. In the time since I have been on the case there have also been four people who confessed to killing her, and all have been false confessions," said Jaskowiak.

The death of Chris Mineer, reportedly a friend of Fraysure's, and his girlfriend Carmen Moorhead in 1998 is not related to the case either.

"That was purely a domestic situation," said Jaskowiak.

A farm where Simcox worked was also investigated to no end, as were a laundry list of other locations where people claimed to believe she was buried.

"Cadaver dogs have gone over the parking lots a number of times. There are a lot of wells and places to dispose of a body in the area of Bracken, Robertson and Mason County. Remains would have been found by now if her body was just dumped. We believe it was probably buried or heavily concealed somehow," he said.

There are personal items which may help in the search. Fraysure was believed to be wearing a Winnie the Pooh watch, a purple sweater with white stripes, Keds sneakers and jeans when she went missing.

Posters with Fraysure's image, at 17, the age she was went she went missing and with age enhancement still appear in area businesses and in the Bracken County Courthouse.

Fraysure's mother, Maggie Doherty could not be reached for comment.

Anyone with information regarding the Erica Fraysure case is asked to call KSP Post 6 at 859-428-1212, Bracken County Sheriff at 606-735-3233.

[Denise]

Family website: http://www.geocities...dericafraysure/

http://www.charleypr...sure_erica.html
Charley Project

http://www.kentuckys...st6_missing.php

Ms. Erica Lee Fraysure is a white female who is 5'6" tall, 115lbs, with blue eyes & brown hair. Ms. Erica Lee Fraysure' date of birth is 05-06-1980 and would be 28 years old as of today.
Date of Last Contact 10-21-1997.(Been missing for 11 years as of today. )

Erica was last seen wearing a purple sweater with 2 white stripes across the chest and extending down the sleeves, dark blue Levi's and white Keds. She also was wearing a Winnie the Pooh watch, found gold rings on right hand, and one ring has a sapphire and diamond heart on it.

Erica was last seen in Brooksville, Bracken County, KY. around 10pm on 10-21-1997 and was reported missing. Her vehicle was found parked on an isolated road near Brooksville, KY. Her purse, with all its contents was found in the car. The keys to the vehicle are missing.

[Lori Davis]

https://www.findthem...org/cases/6079/
NamUs profile for Erica Fraysure - Case #6079

[Lori Davis]

http://www.wcpo.com/...-erica-fraysure

Search for Erica Fraysure continues 15 years later
Cold case from 1997

Posted: 07/23/2012
By: Suzanne Murray
By: Greg Singleton
By: Tanya O'Rourke





BROOKSVILLE, Ky. - Nearly 15 years ago, the biggest news to hit our area was about a missing teenage girl. Many probably remember the name Erica Fraysure.

She disappeared on an October night and has never been heard from again. 9 News went to Brooksville, Ky., where Fraysure was last seen, to find out if there are any new clues in this mystery.

In 1997 Bracken County Chief Deputy Bob Scott was the lead investigator on the Fraysure case for the Kentucky State Police.

"Everyone always had a case. The case they couldn't solve and this is mine. This is my case, it still haunts me,” he said.
Scott, like so many others in the town, spent many restless nights thinking of Fraysure.

Caroline Miller, who taught English and Geography at Bracken County High School, had Fraysure in class the day she went missing. She's also a family friend.

“After 15 years I believe [Fraysure] is dead, I believe [Fraysure] died the night of Oct. 21,1997,” Miller said.

"I truly believe that something happened that night that caused her death," she added.

Seventeen-year-old Fraysure was last seen driving around 9 p.m. in Bracken County on Oct. 21, 1997.  Police found Fraysure's Bonneville parked in a field, wedged between two large bales of hay, which was their first real clue.

The coverage of her mysterious disappearance in 1997 was extensive. Police found Fraysure's car unlocked with her purse and all its contents inside. Search teams from across the state spent months digging for clues by foot and air.

Devastated family members say she would never have run away and that she was really close to her mom.

The detectives involved in the case now admit she had been hanging around with a bad crowd. That crowd included Shane Simcox, who told everyone including a 9 News reporter, that he was the last one to see Fraysure alive.

“So she dropped me off at my house around 9 o'clock and that was the last time I seen her," Simcox said in a 1997 interview.

Simcox was later expelled for threatening a teacher and her daughter, according to Miller.

“He was expelled from this high school when he was a freshman, very bright, very, very intelligent, bright person,” said Miller.

“I just told her that I was going to kill her basically,” Simcox said in a past interview.

Even though fingers were pointing at Simcox, he refused to take a lie detector test. That fact still draws suspicion in the town. Kentucky State Police Detective Chris Jaskowiak now handles the case.

“When detective Scott tried to interview him, he evoked his right to council and a full interview was never completed,” said Jaskowjak.

KSP still considers Simcox a person of interest. Detective Jaskowiak still keeps tabs on his whereabouts.

“I've got a general idea of where he lives now,” said Jaskowiak.

This October will mark 15 years since Fraysure vanished. Investigators and people in her hometown haven't forgotten her.

“In the Bracken County community her disappearance is still fresh in everyone's minds,” said Jaskowiak.
Fraysure's mother never knew what happened.

"Erica's mother, Maggie, passed away not long ago and I truly wish we could've giver her her daughter back one way or another," said Scott.

The town and the people touched by the tragedy are hoping and praying for closure.

Deputy Scott asks that those involved with her disappearance come forward to police.

“I ask you now, please let's put this to rest. Call us and let us know what you did to [Fraysure].  Where is she?  It's time,” Scott said.

There is a new age progression of Fraysure. She would be 31 now.

We have tried to contact Simcox to talk to us about Fraysure.  All we could find on him is a P.O. box in Bracken County. 

We would be happy to talk to him if he reached out to us.

If you know anything about what happened to Fraysure, call the Kentucky State Police at (859) 428-1212.

[Shannon]

http://www.local12.c...hvhKahBhLw.cspx

New Leads, New Hope in 15 Year Search For Missing Teen

Published: 10/31 4:44 pm
Updated: 10/31 5:01 pm

Communities have their own ghost stories...it could be the haunted house on the hill or the scary images some believe they can see in the graveyard. For the tiny Kentucky town of Brooksville, Kentucky, Erica Fraysure is a sort of ghost story.

The popular teen, who disappeared 15 years ago this month, has never been found. Local 12 News Reporter Deborah Dixon says after all this time, some people who kept silent about Erica are now talking.

In Brooksville, some things have not changed in the 15 years since the popular 17 year old drove her car uptown and disappeared. Erica Fraysure's missing poster is still in the courthouse..but it's different. There is an age progression image of what she would look like now.

15 years ago, Kentucky State Police Detective Bob Scott worked out of a tiny office in the courthouse following leads. Erica drove up town and simply vanished. Her car was found in a field. Her purse still inside.

Scott retired, became the police chief of Falmouth, and now...he's back in Bracken County as the Sheriff's Chief Deputy. And he's back to looking for Erica. "People say 'remember that girl' but they don't remember her name. I say Erica. They say 'yea whatever came of that? Did you find more about that?'"

Bob Scott is getting calls about her again, such as the one that came in 9 days ago. "This is a new name. It also has twist of some of the old information about where she might be. DOES IT FIT WITH MURDER? Yes."

Erica's murder used to be a big topic at the town restaurant. Not much has changed here either. There are new owners, but homemade pies are still the specialty. The gossip table is still here. Some of the regulars are gone. Lately Erica's name comes up more than she has in years. "We all wonder and wish she could be found and laid to peace."

Bob Scott says he'll keep searching. "I was the one called out to that car. I was the one tasked to find their little girl. We continue to look for her. This will never go away."

In previous years, we've always included Erica's mother Maggie Dougherty in our stories. Sadly, she died a couple of years ago.

[Shannon]

http://www.maysville...mment_form=true

Erica Fraysure included in KSP Unsolved deck

December 28, 2012

By Wendy Mitchell

FRANKFORT | Kentucky State Police is renewing its effort to solve unsolved cases by asking the public for assistance with leads.

In 2010, KSP distributed more than 8,000 decks of playing cards to prisons across Kentucky depicting unsolved case information.

The deck of cards highlight 52 unsolved Kentucky homicide or missing person cases. Since 2010, three of those cases have been solved, including the recently resolved cases of the murder of Marlane Mauk and Donald Walker of Fleming County from 2005.

According to testimony in the cases, both were shot in a robbery attempt and their bodies left for a number of days before being discovered.

Ronald Wayne Dodson and Jason S. Jackson pled guilty to complicity to murder in September and earlier this month, Ronald Christopher Fairchild was found guilty by a jury of complicity to murder in the cases. Dodson was sentenced to 21 years in prison, Jackson to life in prison and Fairchild's penalty recommendation from the jury is 27 years in prison. Fairchild is to be sentenced next week.

The new deck includes missing Bracken County woman, Erica Fraysure, as the two of diamonds.

Fraysure went missing on Oct. 21, 1997, after a night with friends in Brooksville. Her car and personal items were found, but no sign of Fraysure's whereabouts has surfaced since.

KSP hopes that sharing information with the public again will provide fresh leads that can help solve these cases and bring some closure to families.

Trooper Michael Webb reviews the leads as they come in and disseminates the information to local posts, officials said.

“We have received hundreds of tips in the past two years that we hope will lead to more cases being solved,” says Webb. “Not only do these tips assist with solving cases, they sometimes provide additional information about other criminal activity taking place.”

KSP has placed copies of the complete deck of cards on its website at http://www.kentuckys...olved_cases.htm, and established a toll free phone line where tips can remain anonymous at 1-877-735-2648.

The public can also submit tips via email at kyunsolved@ky.gov., officials said.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.kypost.co...i-state_8473088

A look at famous missing children cases in the Tri-State

Posted: 05/07/2013
By: Greg Noble, WCPO Digital

CINCINNATI - A look at some famous missing children cases in the Tri-State:
Erica Baker, 9, disappeared Feb. 7, 1999.  The Kettering girl went out to walk her aunt’s dog at a nearby park on a Sunday afternoon. The dog returned but Erica did not. Prosecutors accused Christian Gabriel of driving a van that allegedly hit Baker as she ran into the street and then burying her body. Gabriel was convicted of corpse abuse and evidence tampering in 2005 even though Erica’s body has not been found.

Carrie Culberson, 22, disappeared Aug. 28, 1996. Carrie’s mother said the Blanchester woman was abused by her boyfriend, Vincent Doan. Doan told police Carrie drove to his house on the night she disappeared. He said he told her he didn’t love her anymore and she drove off. The ex-wife of Doan's half-brother testified that Doan appeared at their house at 3:15 a.m. with blood smeared on his clothes. She said Doan and his half-brother drove away with a gun and some garbage bags, and both men had blood on them when they returned. The former Blanchester police chief, Richard Payton, was a friend of Doan's family and allegedly warned them that Doan was a prime suspect. Payton allegedly allowed the Doan family's property to be left unattended during a search for evidence. Footprints were discovered on the floor of a drained pond the following morning. It was speculated that Culberson's body had been removed from the pond. Doan was convicted of murder in 1997 and sentenced to life without parole, even though Carrie’s body was never found.

Erica Fraysure, 17, disappeared Oct. 21, 1997. Erica had gone to school at Bracken County High that day and was last seen driving around  about 9 p.m.  Police found her car parked in a field, wedged between two large bales of hay. A classmate, Shane Simcox, said she dropped him off at his house about 9. Detectives said Erica had been hanging around with a bad crowd. Simcox was later expelled for threatening a teacher. Simcox refused to take a lie detector test about the Fraysure case, and the Kentucky State Police still considers him a person of interest.

Alana “Laney” Gwinner, 23, disappeared Dec. 9, 1997. The University of Cincinnati accounting student was last seen with friends at a bowling alley in Fairfield. After midnight, she left to drive to her boyfriend’s house, but she never made it. Her boyfriend and her family went back to the bowling alley, but Laney and her car were gone. Her friends took lie detector tests and passed. A month later, on the Ohio River, a worker on a tugboat found her body in the river near Warsaw, Ky., about 65 miles away. A Butler County detective theorized that she had been accosted outside the bowling alley, killed and put in her car. He believes the car was then dumped in the river. The car was never found.

John Hundley and James McQueary, 9, disappeared Oct. 15, 1964. John and James were best friends and were often seen together in Fairfax, where they lived.

The third-graders were last seen walking to John’s house from the Frisch's Mainliner on Wooster Pike about 4 p.m.  A 4-year-old girl disappeared from Fairfax two months earlier and was found murdered a few days later. A 13-year-old neighbor boy confessed. But authorities found no connection to the boys’ disappearance. Three years after John and James vanished, a 17-year-old Marine stationed in California confessed to their murders. He had lived in Fairfax in 1964 and said he stabbed the boys to death and buried their bodies. But he later recanted and said he'd made up the story to get out of the military. He passed a polygraph.

Paige Johnson, 17, disappeared Sept. 23, 2010: The single mother was last seen with an acquaintance, Jacob Bumpass, at 15th and Scott streets in Covington.  Police searched East Fork State Park after Bumpass’ cell phone records indicated that his phone pinged off towers near the park about the time he said he was dropping her off 30 miles away. Following tips, officials dug for Paige in a cistern in Covington and a farm in Barbourville, Ky.,to no avail. Paige’s daughter, 5, lives with Paige’s mother.


Katelyn Markham, 21, disappeared Aug. 14, 2011. The college art student was last seen at her Fairfield townhouse by her fiancé, John Carter. Searchers looked periodically for Katelyn for 20 months. Her skeletal remains were found April 7, 2013, near a rural creek in Franklin County, Ind. The cause of death is under investigation.

Karen Spencer, 17, disappeared Dec. 29, 1989.  The Reading High School senior left her house with her sister-in-law, Kristy. Karen was going to help her brother and Kristy box up for a move to Florida. But, Kristy said, as Karen was driving about 3 a.m. on I-275 near Loveland, they got into an argument. Karen pulled the car over and got out. Kristy told police a man in a red sports car, probably a Datsun, pulled over as well and asked if they needed help. Kristy drove away in her car and left Karen on the side of the highway with the man in the red car. Karen never came home.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.maysville...7568b3d0c4.html

 

Search for answers spans 18 years

 

October 22, 2015 2:32 pm  •  WENDY MITCHELL

 

BROOKSVILLE | Though she has been missing for 18 years, the memory of Erica Fraysure and the search that followed her disappearance in Bracken County continues.

 

On Oct. 21, 1997, Erica Lee Fraysure, 17, had been in Brooksville visiting with friends and was last seen around 9 p.m., driving her black, 1988 Pontiac Bonneville in town.

 

Fraysure was a senior at Bracken County High school who worked part-time at an area pizza restaurant and planned to attend college when she graduated.

 

According to police reports, her car was discovered Oct. 22, on Fronks Lane just outside of Brooksville, parked between rolls of hay, unlocked with her personal belongings inside.

 

The keys were later found across the road in the brush.

 

Fraysure was wearing white Keds sneakers, jeans and a purple sweater with white stripes across the chest and down the arms. She also wore four gold rings on her right hand, one a sapphire and diamond heart and a Winnie the Pooh watch.

 

An image of her wearing the sweater can be seen at www.maysville-online.com.

 

Kentucky State Police still have Fraysure's case open in the cold case investigation unit, police said on Thursday.

 

In the ensuing years there has been annual media attention, tips called in to police in state and local jurisdictions, and even a national attention when the case was mentioned on the Montel Williams Show with the late Sylvia Brown.

 

Brown, a psychic*, made statements on camera and off camera which led to a local lake being searched, but nothing found.

 

There have also been misidentifications, as with an area woman who resembled an age enhanced image of Fraysure circulated several years ago, but is not Fraysure.

 

Prison inmates have made claims of knowledge about the case, which have also been investigated, police said.

 

From the beginning of the case, KSP investigator Chris Jaskowiak worked on the investigation, until his retirement. Now KSP Lt. Stacy May is handling the case, KSP Spokesman David Jones said.

 

Police also cross checked information on other missing teen cases from the same time periods.

 

According to Bracken County Sheriff's Detective Bob Scott, who was with KSP in 1997, he continues to review leads or tips and passes the information on to KSP.

“There is nothing new on the case,” Scott said on Thursday.

A person of interest in 1997 was Shane M. Simcox, who was seen riding in the car with Fraysure on Oct. 21, and “lawyered up” after police questioned him about her disappearance, Scott said in 2013.

In media interviews done after the disappearance, Simcox denied any involvement in the disappearance of Fraysure, who he called a friend.

Fraysure had no inclination to run away from home, family members said at the time she disappeared.

Several people with alleged information were polygraphed, yet in 2011 Fraysure's mother, Maggie Doherty, died not knowing what happened to her daughter.

Anyone with information on Erica Fraysure case should call KSP Post 6 at 859-428-1212 or Bracken County Sheriff at 606-735-3233.

--
*Project Jason does NOT recommend the use of psychics in missing persons cases. There is not a single proven case in which a missing person was found using paranormal means. Use of psychics wastes police and other resources, causes prejudice against the case, and emotional harm to the families. 

To understand this issue, please see: 

http://voice4themissing.blogspot.com/2006/03/30606-pmp-introduction-to-psychics-and.html 

[Deborah]

Erica is still missing.

 

http://www.kentuckys...e_fraysure.html