Camilla Frazier
Snapped: Women Who Murder
The episode chronicles the disappearance and murder of Joel Frazier, a rancher from Dalhart, Texas. What initially appeared to be a kidnappi
Key takeaways
- Cammie Frazier used diphenhydramine (Benadryl) in a milkshake to sedate Joel before the attack.
- The motive was linked to an unsigned will that would have disinherited Cammie in favor of her sister, Jamie.
Main topics
- The disappearance of Joel Frazier
- The fraudulent ransom text messages
Notable quotes
In my heart, I knew, I mean, without a doubt, that was Joel Frazier I was looking at.
Conclusion
The case highlights the devastating impact of greed and substance abus
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:03) a Texan rancher mysteriously disappears. Speaker 8 (0:07) His wallet's still at the house. His keys are there. His truck's still there. Speaker 3 (0:12) Did he intentionally leave to get away from something, or is there something more at play? Speaker 2 (0:18) Until the case is turned on its head. Speaker 3 (0:21) Somebody had him, and Speaker 8 (0:22) they were asking for a ransom. We never in our wildest dreams felt like this could possibly be an abduction. Speaker 2 (0:29) And a grisly discovery breaks the case wide open. There Speaker 5 (0:34) was rumors on the investigation that he'd been cut up by the butcher. Right away, I noticed what I recognized to be a human skull. Speaker 2 (0:43) When evidence points to his inner circle, police home in on an unlikely criminal. They Speaker 7 (0:51) moved in. They didn't have a job. Had no place to go. He Speaker 1 (0:55) sped up with all of the trouble that comes along with this lifestyle. Speaker 7 (1:01) She was going to lose everything and have nothing. Speaker 8 (1:05) That's the whole piece that set this dynamite into motion. Speaker 3 (1:09) I think this is even wilder than any type of TV script they could have written. Speaker 2 (1:29) The small town of Dalhart is in the West Texas Panhandle, about 80 miles north of Amarillo. Speaker 3 (1:37) Dalhart's a really tight-knit community. They always look out for each other. It's a real big agricultural place. The big thing is the XIT rodeo that comes around every year. Everybody really looks forward to it. Speaker 2 (1:51) But on July 14, 2017, one of the residents of this idyllic countryside town has gone missing. Speaker 3 (2:02) One of our patrol officers had a call to the police department on reference of a missing person. When he got there, he met with Jamie Frazier and Kami Frazier. Speaker 2 (2:11) The Frazier sisters have deep roots in the community and the local rodeo circuit. Jamie tells police that when she came to the family ranch to tend to her horse on July 11th, she noticed that their 65-year-old father, Joel Frazier, was nowhere to be found. Speaker 3 (2:32) Jamie was not living in Dauhard at the time, but she spoke to her dad on a regular basis. He lives there with his daughter, Cammie, and her husband, Corey, Tidrow. And then they have a son that lives there as well. Jamie comes back Speaker 5 (2:47) to the house on the 12th, but she doesn't see her father anywhere. The 13th, she comes back to feed the horse. Same scenario. Joel's truck's there. Joel's not there. Two days later, nobody's seen him. Speaker 2 (3:02) When Jamie checked the house on the 14th, another red flag stood out. She Speaker 3 (3:08) located Joel's hat, boots, and his wallet. It was very rare for Joel to leave the house without his wallet. Speaker 2 (3:14) When Jamie questioned her sister, Cammie had no inkling of Joel's whereabouts. Speaker 3 (3:21) After Joel's wife had passed away, Cammie had lived there for several years with Joel and her husband, Corey. Speaker 5 (3:27) Cammie said Joel was an alcoholic, would go for days at a time on a drinking binge. And so that's what she was alluding to, that he was on a bender, he was out drinking. She just Speaker 3 (3:37) believed her dad was off on a gallivanting weekend with a girlfriend somewhere. To Cammie, that was his normal, and there was no reason really to be concerned at that time. Speaker 5 (3:49) Kami's like, I don't know where he's at. And so Jamie started getting suspicious. Hey, something's not right here. Dad wouldn't just leave. I'm going to call the police. Speaker 2 (4:01) Police try to pinpoint a timeline of Joel's disappearance. Speaker 3 (4:06) Kami reported the last time she saw her dad was the 12th and that he wasn't feeling well and she made him a milkshake. According Speaker 8 (4:14) to Kami, she would make him milkshakes because evidently he wasn't eating very well. And she's Speaker 7 (4:20) taking care of her dad. Speaker 7 (4:22) You know, after his wife passed away, Joel got to drinking pretty heavy and stuff, and his health was declining. Speaker 2 (4:30) Cammie says she assumed Joel was feeling better the next morning because when she went to check on him, he was gone. Speaker 3 (4:40) Talking to Cammie, she stated that it was not abnormal for her dad to just up and leave for, you know, several days at a time and not contact. Speaker 2 (4:50) Jamie doesn't agree with Cami. She remains convinced something has happened to their father. Speaker 8 (4:59) His wallet's still at the house. His keys are there. His truck's still there. Medication, overnight bag is still there. If you're going somewhere, you take that stuff with you. Speaker 2 (5:12) With Jamie's dire concerns and Cami's dismissal, officers assess every possibility. Speaker 3 (5:20) There are some red flags whenever, you know, there's two separate stories from the reporting parties. One of them was very concerned, and the other one just believed it was him being out on one of his normal weekend getaways. Unfortunately, there's a lot of parameters that have to be met to show that, you know, this person's in danger before we can move forward. We had to see what's going on with this person. Did they intentionally leave to get away from something, or is there something more at play? Speaker 2 (5:54) Joel Frazier was born December 18, 1951, and seemed destined for the life of a cowboy. He and his brother both grew up on the family ranch. Speaker 7 (6:07) Joel grew up here in the Panhandle in part of New Mexico. He's been here pretty much all of his life. They owned a ranch, his dad and him, and he grew up on a ranch just outside of Delaware. Speaker 6 (6:20) They really didn't do anything ordinary than what a farm and ranch kid would do growing up. Their dad kept them busy as a cowboy, raising cattle and, you know, doing a lot of farming. And then that went into their adult lives. Speaker 2 (6:43) In 1978, Joel started a family of his own with a successful young woman named Donna Petty. Joel Speaker 1 (6:50) meets Donna Speaker 2 (6:51) in Speaker 1 (6:51) his 20s. Donna's in real estate, so she's kind of got her career going. That would have been very intriguing for a man from small town Dalhart. And so they fall in love, they get married, and end up inheriting the ranch. Speaker 2 (7:10) Less than a year after they got married, Joel and Donna welcomed their daughter Cammie into the world. Joel delighted in raising her in the cowboy lifestyle. Speaker 1 (7:27) In these small towns where we have these huge rodeos, most dads who are into the rodeo scene that have little girls, their little girls are going to grow up learning the whole rodeo scene. And it's huge bonding for a dad and a daughter. Speaker 7 (7:43) Cammy, she wanted to be the Rodeo Queen. Speaker 1 (7:46) A Rodeo Queen is like the homecoming queen of the rodeo. You have to be good at all of the different events in the rodeo. The mutton busting, the roping, the riding. Speaker 7 (7:56) When she won the Rodeo Queen at Bellhart XIT Rodeo, he was so proud of Cammy. And I think for Cammy, it was just the spotlight. She wanted to be the center of the kitchen. Speaker 2 (8:14) When Cammie was 13, Joel and Donna added a second daughter to the family, Jamie. She proved to be just as dedicated to the rodeo as her sister. Speaker 6 (8:25) When Jamie got up at high school, she got the opportunity to run Speaker 7 (8:30) for Rodeo Queen. Jamie was definitely a better hand on the horse and she was just better at roping. You could tell that Joel was a proud man, that he was very proud of Jamie. I think, you know, there was a lot of jealousy there because Jamie roped with her dad a lot and Cammie didn't follow through like Jamie did. Cammie was a little proud for her, but Speaker 6 (8:54) it took the spotlight off of her. Speaker 2 (9:02) As Cammie and Jamie got older, they moved out and started lives of their own. Cammie married Corey Tidrow, and the couple had a son, while Jamie moved to nearby Canyon, Texas. Through it all, the Fraziers remained close-knit. Speaker 7 (9:19) They at one time had a pawn shop here that belonged to Joel and Donna, and the girls actually run it. And they were pretty popular Speaker 6 (9:27) people in town. Donna was the backbone of that family, 100%. And I think that's where, you know, Cammy and Jamie both kind of get a little bit of their tenacity from. Speaker 2 (9:43) In 2015, tragedy struck when Donna became fatally ill. Speaker 7 (9:51) She didn't last long. It was a pretty quick death. I know Joel was a different person. He felt like he'd lost his whole world. Speaker 1 (10:01) It was at this time that Cammie and Corey come back and move back in with her father. You know, her father was alone now. She was worried about him. Speaker 7