Going West: True Crime - Jamie Fraley // 86

Episode Date: September 16, 2020

In April 2008, a 22-year-old girl in North Carolina woke up feeling incredibly sick, so she was in and out of the emergency room throughout the day. But as day turned to night, she spoke on the phone with a friend and explained that she was going to the hospital yet again, and her ride was almost there. After she hung up the phone, she was never seen again- and a peculiar scene was left at her apartment. This is the disappearance of Jamie Fraley. PATREON BONUS EPISODES: http://patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/ricky-simonds-obituary?pid=111379289 https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/c0tao4/first_my_fiancée_goes_missing_then_my_dad_climbs/ https://medium.com/@horsfall/where-is-jamie-fraley-1a5f60bc1d31 http://charleyproject.org/case/jamie-michelle-fraley https://medium.com/@horsfall/where-is-jamie-fraley-1a5f60bc1d31 https://talkmurder.com/jamie-fraley/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime vans? I'm your host Heet and I'm your other host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Thank you so much everybody for joining us today. It's really cold in the studio and I had a larger than usual lavender ice coffee so I'm feeling like more jazzed than shaky than I usually do. Yeah it's usually it's usually really hot in here. Well I guess that's only because we've been in this place since the beginning of summer. So the only time we've recorded in here is when it's hot as hell so it's kind of nice to have a little bit cooler atmosphere

Yeah, it's usually warm in here, but it's cold and I'm shaky and I'm ready to tell this story But first I wanted to just mention that I hope everyone's doing okay with the wildfires and hope that no one is Being directly affected by them even though I know a lot of people are Heath and I live really close to one of the fires in Oregon right now, so we're experiencing really, really hazardous, horrible air outside, but luckily we're doing well and safe, so I hope the same for you guys. We love you guys. Please stay safe out there.

I know a lot of communities are being affected by these fires, so we're really pulling for all of you guys. If you guys, by the way, are all caught up on going west and you want more episodes, we're releasing a brand new bonus episode this week. And that is on patreon.com slash going west podcast. We have over 20 bonus episodes right now on there right now for you to binge if you're looking for some more content. Yeah, definitely.

And also, we're going gonna have some really crazy episodes for you guys coming out in October. Obviously, fall is coming. That means Halloween is coming. Yay! And if you guys haven't already heard, we're coming out with a second podcast called The Dark Parts.

It's gonna be about creepy tales and some spooky urban legends. I think you guys are really gonna dig it, especially if you're a big fan of Halloween. Yeah, we're coming out with the first three episodes on October 1st, which is a Thursday. We're gonna be releasing episodes. I believe on Thursday evenings is what we're gonna be doing. And yeah, so you're gonna get more heat and daffinny content. Alright guys, without further ado, this is episode 86 of Going Going West so let's get into it. In April 2008, a 22-year-old girl in North Carolina woke up feeling incredibly sick, and she was in and

out of the hospital all afternoon. But as day turned to night, she spoke on the phone with a friend and explained that she was going to the hospital yet again, and her ride was almost there. After she hung up the phone, she was never seen again. And a peculiar scene was left at her apartment. This is the disappearance of Jamie Freyly. Jamie Freyly was born on March 5, 1986 in Gastonia, North Carolina to her mother, Kim Freyly. And we couldn't find information on her dad and he's not brought up in this story, so we assume he's out of the picture.

Gastonia seems to be known as a very lovely city that's just an hour away from Charlotte North Carolina, and it's filled with lots of trails and state parks, and it has a pretty charming downtown area, which I'm personally a sucker for. Going back to Jamie's birth, it was incredibly traumatic for both her and her mother, Kim, and they both almost died during labor, and Jamie had to be given CPR to revive her as soon as she came out of her mother's womb. Jamie wasn't expected to live much longer after her birth, and they gave her a life expectancy of just one year.

But despite it all, she survived. And as she grew up, doctors consistently told her mom Kim, not really to keep her hopes up, because Jamie's health could decline at any time and she could die, which is such a scary thing to hear as a parent, I'm sure. And I mean, you just gotta feel like you're walking on eggshells all the time.

Yeah, you have to be prepared for something tragic. Yeah, so super scary situation. And of course, then throughout Jamie's life, she did have a lot of health issues, and it's stunted her growth a bit. And she had a really tough time putting on weight, and the biggest that she got was 4'8", tall, and 90 pounds, or 40 kg. She also suffered from anxiety and bipolar disorder. So this poor girl had a really rough upbringing because of all of this. But she had the undying support of her

mom, so Jamie grew up to be a very caring and loving person. Jamie's bipolar disorder and anxiety gave her a lot of trouble when it came to her school courses and driving. So much so that she couldn't even finish high school and she had to rely on a lot of people to help her with daily things as she got older. Because of the hardships and the struggles that she had to overcome throughout her life, she wanted to use that as fuel to help other people during their troubles. So in her early 20s, she decided to begin attending Gaston College, which is a community college in the neighboring town of Dallas, North Carolina. And at Gaston College, she would work part-time towards becoming a substance abuse counselor. She had been there for one of her friends who became sober,

and that inspired Jamie enough to want to make a career out of it. And she started by going to all of her church's sobriety meetings. This was a super exciting decision for her because she wanted to hear people's stories and help turn their lives around. It was especially exciting since she had been dealing with a great deal of depression so this gave her something to look forward to. Before she began studying substance abuse counseling, she was still living with her mom who helped her get to her appointments and was her built-in

support system for everything Jamie needed. But Jamie also had a lot of other family members that would help out as well as a more primary caregiver if you will, which was her social worker. Her social worker helped her manage her finances and also drove her to most of her appointments. In 2006, when she was newly 20 years old, she decided it was time to get her own apartment and start her adult life. She had been seeing her friends moving on

and getting their own places, starting their own careers, and she just wanted to be able to experience the same things. But it still felt really different for her since she couldn't drive and she couldn't even work because of her health issues, so she was getting money from disability. Her mental health issues were also debilitating and she had to go to the doctor monthly, so her motivation and happiness levels were understandably very low. Since Jamie didn't graduate from high school,

she first needed to get her GED, so she enrolled in a program to do so. And making the decision to get her GED and then start attending college and get her own apartment was the first steps towards shaping the life that she wanted for herself. Her apartment was an hour away from where her mom lived, so this was a huge step towards independence.

And then, she met a guy, and that love only made her happier, and his name was Ricky Simmons Jr. And almost as soon as they began dating, they were engaged and living together in that apartment in Gastonia. Jamie and Ricky Jr. met while Jamie was at her apartment complex. His father, Ricky Simmons Sr. worked in maintenance for the building and lived just two doors down from Jamie. His 30-year-old son, Ricky Jr. was there one day after Jamie moved in, and he helped her with her verbal argument she was having with another tenant. After that, Jamie and Ricky Jr. started talking, and just felt really fast into a relationship.

Jamie's family was super happy for her that she found someone she wanted to be with, but they weren't the biggest fans of Ricky Jr. Because he had a criminal past and the fact that he was about 10 years older than her kind of threw them off. Ricky Jr. mostly committed crimes regarding theft and larceny, but he also had done a lot of drugs. When he met Jamie, he was in the process of getting clean, which you can imagine was a good project for Jamie since she was so passionate about helping people get their lives together and helping them get clean.

This being Jamie's first real relationship, her family was worried that he would mistreat her or screw up her big plans of starting a career of her own. But Jamie constantly stood up for Ricky Jr and told her family that she was really happy with him and she was excited for their marriage. But months after they began dating, in January 2007, Ricky Jr. was arrested for his previous crimes relating to Lersony, and he was sentenced to 15 months in prison, meaning he would be released in April 2008. This obviously threw a wrench in he and Jamie's marriage plans, but she was committed to supporting him during his time in prison, and she even wrote him letters all the time.

But while he was away, this did give her a chance to kind of focus even more on herself and her studies. And she did do this, but she also started getting close to Ricky Jr.'s father, Ricky Sr. Ricky Sr. again was just a couple doors down from her, so it was easy to spend time together, and he was living in his apartment with his girlfriend Kim Springer. Ricky Sr. had a criminal past as well, and far worse than his son's charges, because Ricky senior had spent 20 years in prison for manslaughter after he strangled his ex-girlfriend Donna and killed her. He was sent to a mental hospital since he had threatened suicide and he, in 1992, was released from prison after serving his full 20-year sentence. Then he went on to commit

smaller crimes relating to theft and drugs. But again, Jamie saw the best in people and she got along really well with Ricky Senior, and he kept her company and even helped her run errands. So that was really helpful because, again, she had to rely on so many people to just do daily things even to get groceries to get medication, refills to rely on so many people to just do daily things, even to get groceries, to get medication, refills, to go to the doctor, or everything. She also enjoyed the aspect of helping Ricky Senior and Kim get on a better path since they were both drug users at the time. So this was kind of another project for her.

And at the same time, she could spend time with people she liked. And by the way, Ricky Sr. and Ricky Jr. weren't very close because Ricky Sr. had been in prison for manslaughter for all those years. So he missed almost Ricky Jr.'s entire upbringing, and he did have a couple other children. So same thing with them. About four months into Ricky Jr.'s 15-month prison sentence, his dad and girlfriend Kim broke up. And this led 48-year-old Ricky Sr. to show interest in Jamie, so he acted very flirty around her. But she wasn't known to show the same interest towards him since she was in love with his son. She looked at Ricky Sr. as a father figure and nothing else, but the sexual innuendos from Ricky Sr. kept on coming and other people witnessed this. And that's what are the main reasons why he and Kim broke up, because she felt like he was way too

interested in Jamie instead of her. And they're like 30 years apart, he's almost 30 years older than Jamie, so. So he'd be creeping. Yeah, and imagine being his girlfriend, and he's creeping on this younger, very much younger girl. And remember, she's about 4, 8, and 90 pounds. So she does look a lot younger than 21 years old. Jamie spent her days working on her schooling, and she actually happened to be super interested in missing person's cases cases because again, she just wanted to help people. There were a couple of cases that particularly caught her eye, which was the Jambane Ramsey case, and then a local Gastonia disappearance of a 15-year-old girl named Samantha Rai

Mendez. She made my space profiles for these cases to help spread the word on them, so that was another one of her passions and something that she really enjoyed working on. And super ironic. I don't think I've ever read a, read details or research to disappearance or murder case where the person was specifically interested in true crime. Yeah, that's kind of a kind of a different one, huh? Totally. So the following year in April 2008, Ricky Jr. was just weeks away from his release from prison. And Jamie, of course, was getting super excited. But she also wanted to make sure that she had everything organized and ready before he came home. And that included her finances.

She was hoping that he would return and then they'd be able to get married and start their lives together. So she decided to talk to somebody about her finances and set up a meeting for Wednesday, April 9, 2008. And she had scheduled her social worker to come and take her to this meeting. But the morning before her meeting, which was Tuesday, April 8, she woke up feeling very sick with awful stomach pains and she was throwing up. And this just got worse throughout the day. She was worried that something was terribly wrong, so she called her social worker to get a ride to the hospital. When she arrived to the hospital

and explained her symptoms to a doctor, they told her that she probably just had a stomach bug and they gave her some medication for it. And they didn't even run a bunch of tests or anything to conclusively determine that this is what she had, but they just figured that the medication would either help her or not. And if not, she'd be back

and they could run further analysis. So I think she was probably just like, oh, I've been throwing up, I have a stomach ache. And then they're just like, oh, you probably just have like food poisoning or a stomach bug and it'll go away tomorrow. You're kind of weird though that they wouldn't just do those tests knowing that

she's probably in there quite often because of her illnesses throughout her life, and the fact that they just give her like this medication and they're like, okay, just go on home. And by the way, if this medication doesn't work, then just come on back to us. That's just kind of strange to me. Yeah, I totally agree.

And you made a good point regarding her, probably having been in there before. I know she had a primary care doctor, of course, who she most likely went to the most. So I don't know how much she was in the ER, probably not too often. And especially since she had just moved to this apartment a year prior. I don't know how

many times she had been to this particular hospital and if they knew all of her medical history. And I'm not a doctor, but it seems a little bit irresponsible to just assume that she has something and not really further test into it. Right. Yeah. Just kind of give you some sort of medication that they think is going to work and then just, you know, go from there, I guess. And I know there are a lot of poisons and things like that. So, again, I'm not a doctor. I don't know how it works if they can just give you a general test and kind of check your stuff

and see what's going on, or if it ends up being a super lengthy process and maybe she wasn't interested in getting a bunch of tests done like I wasn't in the room, but I feel like there should have been more done here. Well, alongside that, I would also assume that before she was initially checked out by the doctor, she probably had to give them some of her information regarding her health.

Yeah, totally. So because I mean, anytime you go to the doctor, they're like, okay, like, are you allergic to this? Do you have problems with this? Blah, blah, blah. You know, you got to fill out the sheet. Yeah, totally. So unfortunately, they just kind of center off and hoped for the best. Even though she had gone to the doctor, Jamie didn't drop off her prescription slip at the local pharmacy because she didn't believe that it was a stomach bug and didn't think that the medication would help. As the day went on, the pain and vomiting worsened, and she started thinking that it would have

been a good idea to get them filled. Jamie was dog sitting for Kim Spranger that day, who remember is Ricky Sr. ex-girlfriend. Since Jamie didn't work, she would sometimes help out Kim by dog sitting for her while she was at work, and that Tuesday was one of those days that she agreed to do that. So later on, when Kim returned to pick up her dog, Jamie told her how terrible she was feeling, and she also mentioned that she didn't get her prescription dropped off that day. Kim felt terrible for her, and knowing Jamie couldn't drive, she offered to at least

drop off the prescription for her, and then have Jamie get someone else to pick it up for her when it was ready. Jamie agreed to this, but shortly after Kim left, Jamie felt even more sick. So at this point, she asks Ricky Sr. if he could take her to the hospital again. Ricky Sr. agreed to drop her off at the emergency room, but when he did, Jime was told that there would be a three-hour wait. So, meaning that Ricky Sr. just dropped her off of the entrance and then kind of drove off to go back to whatever he was doing that day. I think three hours having to sit in a waiting room.

Oh yeah, and since she felt so sick and she was throwing up, she obviously didn't want to be sitting in the ER by herself. So she actually then called a different friend to take her home, where she planned to just kind of wait for her want to be sitting in the ER by herself. So she actually then called a different friend to take her home where she planned to just kind of wait for her prescription to be ready and then take her medication. So if Ricky Senior would have just waited like five minutes, she could have gotten a ride back home,

but then she had to call someone else. So this just kind of shows this is only one day, but she's already had to call three people to help her this day, or no, sorry, four. So there's a social worker to get to and from the hospital the first time came to drop off the medication ricky senior to take her to the hospital the second time and then a friend to take her home for the second time. i mean i honestly she just has a really i don't know if every day is this stressful for jame but that particular day she was having a rough one. Well, especially when you feel like you always have to ask people for things, she probably, like I wonder if she kind of felt bad doing that, which she shouldn't because it's totally not her fault that she can't drive, but it just must be horrible to have to constantly ask people for

things. Right. So this friend picked her up from the ER and then took her home and saw her into her apartment after dropping her off. But since her medication wasn't ready, she still was, you know, home and empty-handed. She then talked to her mom on the phone and just kind of told her about how her afternoon was going and about the two separate ER trips. And her mom obviously felt so horrible that Jamie wasn't getting the help she needed and that she was feeling sick and that she was all by herself. So she offered to have Jamie over at her house to take care of her. And Jamie said that she was fine and mostly because she didn't want to be so far away,

because her mom lived an hour from her apartment, and she didn't want to have to get a ride back the next day for her meeting because remember she had that really important finance meeting in the morning. So she just thanked her mom and told her that she'd keep her updated on how she was feeling. Unfortunately, Jamie was sick throughout the entire night. So once again, she felt she needed to go to the emergency room. At 1.30 a.m. that morning, so now it's Wednesday, April 9th, she spoke to another friend on the phone about how sick she was, and she mentioned to them that she had a ride to the hospital and that he was on his way to her apartment in his truck, but she didn't mention who

exactly this man was. While on the phone, the man arrived to Jamie's apartment and she told her friend, I have to go, my right is here, he's here. With that, Jamie hung up the phone. But local records would prove that Jamie frayley never checked in nor was treated that morning in any hospital and she was never heard from again. Since Jamie was picked up by an unknown man in a truck at 130 in the morning, there was no immediate notice of her disappearance. But hours later, when her social worker arrived at her apartment to bring her to that finance appointment, there was no answer at the door.

She knocked and knocked, but Jamie did not open up. And the door was locked, so she couldn't just walk inside. Figuring that she may have slept in, the social worker called Jamie multiple times but didn't receive an answer there either. Two days later, the social worker informed Jamie's mom that Jamie had missed her finance appointment, and Kim was super upset. Because she wondered why the social worker wouldn't have informed her of this earlier, because something could have been wrong.

Kim called her daughter multiple times and didn't get an answer either. So since she was an hour away, she called the Gastonia Police Department immediately and asked them to do a welfare check on Jamie. And I wonder why red flags weren't raised earlier because Jamie and her mom were really close and Jamie had a bunch of friends who had been helping her out. And especially since Jamie was super sick, you'd imagine that someone would have tried calling her and it would have been worried about not hearing back from her by this time, but I guess not. Knowing that she's a very unhealthy person, not unhealthy, but she has health issues and the fact that that particular day multiple people knew that she was not feeling well and had gone to the ER,

why wouldn't you check on her? Right, and I'm nowhere near as dependent on my mom at all, as Jamie unfortunately had to be on her mom. I mean, they're an hour away, but they talked all the time, and I talked to my mom all the time, but if we go a day without texting, it's just kind of like, hey, weird, how are you? Like we talk every single day, just like Jamie and her mom.

So I would imagine two whole days going by, no one heard from her. Like I wonder what was going on with that. Yeah, and I'm not trying to victim blame or anything like that. I'm just saying, it just seems kind of odd given the circumstances that nobody had heard from Jamie and vice versa.

Well, especially in this particular situation, since she was super sick and she was violently ill and then two days pass and because of this situation, you know, unfortunately, this is one of those or something bad does happen to the person. So it's just really unfortunate that two whole days passed before anyone really noticed that, hey, oh my god, where is she? Yeah, we see in a lot of cases when those initial first days pass without any sort of evidence or anybody thinking anything of anything.

We see that a lot of times police lose time and they lose precious evidence because of lost time. Exactly. So when Gastonia police arrived to Jamie's apartment, they had the building manager unlock her door for them after their knocking didn't yield any results. They didn't notice any signs of struggle in the apartment, but they did see some dried vomit on the floor. Since Jamie was 22 years old, they felt that she had probably just gone out somewhere and would return at some point, since she had the right to do this as an adult.

But Jamie's mom Kim didn't understand where Jamie could be. She hadn't been heard from in two days, and the last that anyone had heard, she was incredibly sick. And Jamie didn't drive, so where could she even be? Kim recruited her sister and Jamie's aunt Stacey, and Jamie's cousin Halley to make the drive with her over to Jamie's apartment so they could check it out for themselves. And they found some strange things inside. First of all, her keys and her purse were in the apartment, yet Jamie was nowhere. Then

they saw the vomit, which was a red flag for them, unlike for police, because it was all over her bedroom. Jamie was a pretty clean person, so why would she just leave vomit on the floor and not clean it up? Her mom didn't think this was in line with Jamie's character. At the top of the stairs in Jamie's apartment was her favorite pair of sneakers, but the laces were missing, which was just really odd to them. Regarding Jamie's door, I couldn't find whether it was the top lock that was locked or if it was

just the lock that was on the actual door knob, but I'm definitely one of those people who will just twist the door knob lock as I'm leaving and close the door behind me. So it's possible that Jamie just did this exact thing and forgot her keys inside. And since it was late, and she was feeling sick enough to go the emergency room for the third time that day, she was probably just out of it and didn't realize. But I do think it's really strange that her purse was inside. Because when you go to the hospital, you at least have to have your ID and your insurance card.

So I don't see her leaving that stuff behind, especially since she'd been to the ER twice that day. So she'd know exactly what she needed to bring. So I have no idea why she would leave these things behind, which is why it's so suspicious. And then the whole thing about the shoelaces being out of the shoes is also really odd to me. Because this was her like number one pair of shoes that she wore all the time. So I don't know where the laces would be. Well one scenario that I could think of is that whoever came to pick her up attacked her in the apartment and that's why she wouldn't have been able to take these things with her

and possibly she had her phone in her pocket or something like that so obviously that couldn't be left behind. It's very possible that somebody used those shoelaces to tie up her legs or her wrists. Maybe she didn't have a lot of rope in her apartment or anything to really, you know, of that kind of material that you could tie somebody up with. I don't know. It seems super tedious to take two pairs of laces out of a pair of shoes, but that's definitely possible. And we'll get into more about that later for sure, but definitely a super weird

scene to come into because her purse and her keys were in there. She was nowhere to be found, and then of course the dried vomit on the floor is pretty strange. At this point, Jamie's family was very concerned. Jamie hadn't been taking any bipolar or depression medication for a while because of the side effects, but she had been doing well. So her family originally wondered if the lack of medication caught up to her and she acted, but they also wondered if someone could have done something to her since she lived alone. They called the police again and basically demanded that they help them because they knew

that something was wrong. Jamie's mom, Kim Freyly, continued to call Jamie's phone, hoping that she would answer and give a reasonable explanation for her whereabouts. But during a phone call made to Jamie's phone, a man picked up. Kim asked who he was and why he had her daughter's phone, and the man explained that he worked for a local cable company and he was spending the day repairing lines next to a road when he heard the phone ringing. He was confused to hear the sound since there was no one nearby, and he found the phone laying in some grass in the road's median strip. When police arrived at the scene,

they noted that it was three miles away from Jamie's apartment at the intersection of East Hudson Boulevard and New Hope Road and Gastonia. And the phone was very scuffed up, so they felt this meant that someone had thrown her phone from a moving car window Since the cable company guy had touched it along with some other officers They were unfortunately unable to test it for prints thanks to the contamination

Which is so frustrating. I never understand when police will touch something without gloves on like anything I don't care what it is if you're if you're arriving to a scene for whatever reason put on some fucking gloves. Yeah, definitely. That's definitely your responsibility to do that to put on those gloves. As far as the cable cable guy goes, it's he didn't know. But if only he had touched it, then they could have still lifted prints because that's only one other person so then maybe they would have been able to get Jamie's prints, the cable company's prints, and then whoever through the phone out the windows, Prince, you know, but once four or five people have touched the phone, it's just like, okay, this is just not going to happen now. Yeah, it's kind of useless at that point.

Yeah, but of course, because they had found the phone, police suddenly were very suspicious, and this really set this investigation into play, the finding of the phone. And they wondered if foul play was involved, and if someone had possibly dumped Jamie's body somewhere in the area. And I'm sure whoever dumped her phone there didn't expect for anyone to find it, because they wouldn't have just thrown it out the window, thinking that someone was gonna, like, what are the chances this cable dude found it?

Like, a very slim chance this guy found it but he did right right there were some woods nearby so police began checking that area as well as talking to everyone in Jamie's life and everyone who lived in her building no one saw Jamie leave that evening since it was so late or so early depending on the way you look at it. And no one heard anything suspicious either. Ricky Simmons Sr. was home when the police knocked, and he didn't want to talk to them or give them any information. And this was suspicious, considering he was very involved in Jamie's life, and had been one of the last people to see her when he took her to the hospital.

But he was also a criminal who had served a lot of time in prison, so maybe that's why he didn't want to talk to them. Ricky Jr. was still a couple weeks away from being released, so he had no idea where Jamie was. Investigators continued to question Jamie's friends and were able to piece together her final known night, which was April 8th. That's when they learned from the friend Jamie spoke to on the phone around 1.30 a.m. that a guy was picking her up in a truck and taking her to the emergency room.

Investigators tried to figure out if anyone in Jamie's life drove a truck, but no one did. Not even Ricky Sr. He drove a white panel van. Which seems very on brand for him. It really does. So this was really strange because it just doesn't seem Jamie knew anyone that drove a truck, let alone someone close enough to her to take her to the ER, and Uber didn't exist yet, so it's not like this was an option that she had. When they looked at her phone records, they saw that the last call was made around 1.30am to a friend who was about an hour and a half away. This was the call where she said, I have to go, my right is here, he's here. Knowing she had planned

to go to the hospital, they checked with all the local hospitals to see if Jamie had checked in or been treated after 1.30 a.m. and they all said no. Days later, someone called police regarding a trash bag that was located about two and a half miles from Jamie's apartment. The area was somewhat isolated so the person was concerned why there would just be a trash bag sitting there so they called it it in. Which I feel like, so I, when we lived in Oregon before our more recent move, when, before we moved to LA last year, I worked far away and I had to drive on a rural country road to work every day. And I feel like once in a while I would see a garbage bag on the side of the road and I

always thought, what's in that thing? But I never did anything about it. But every time I see a trash bag, that's just super out of place. I always am like, why is that there? And is there a body in it? Yeah, especially the fact that you're the host of going west through crime, you're probably like, there's definitely gotta be a body

in that bag. Right, so I mean, good for this person for calling the police on this bag. And there was nothing really suspicious about it. It was just a trash bag, but they're like, I wonder why that's there. So I'm just going to call it in just to see. And weirdly enough, they were able to determine that this trash bag belonged to none other than Ricky Simmons Sr. When police went over to ask him about it, he admitted right away that it was his,

and he had only dumped it because he'd been driving down that road in his van when he got a flat tire. That trash bag had been on top of his spare tire, so he needed to get it out of the way to replace his flat, and he just decided to leave it there. There wasn't anything suspicious inside the trash bag that would connect him to any crime nor connect him to Jamie's disappearance, But they thought it was very strange that the location of this trash bag, the location of Jamie's phone, and Jamie's apartment building formed a near-perfect triangle. Oh my gosh.

Isn't that just odd? Like, what are the, what are the chances that this trash bag belonged to him? What are the chances? Every red flag is just shooting into the air for me right now. But again, there was nothing in it. It's not like there was blood in it or there was a piece of her clothing in it or whatever. Like it was just like normal trash, but still weird.

Yeah, especially that it forms a triangle, like in the town, because then that makes you, that leads you to believe that he had gone out there somewhere and then made his way back. So, like, what was he doing out there? I, like, I don't know. I wonder if police asked him, like,

specifically where he was going. I mean, I'm sure they did, because they were so suspicious of him. They're like, this guy's weird. He did time for manslaughter. He's her neighbor. Everyone's reporting that he had this creepy crush on her. So I'm sure they, they asked all this stuff. I wasn't able to look at the police report obviously, but all I know

is that nothing came from this. That's, uh, that's so frustrating. But yeah, I mean, he was definitely a very easy suspect in this case. And when he and Jamie's mom Kim spoke on the phone about Jamie, he told her that he felt like Jamie had most likely been abducted and the person who took her wasn't ready to give her up yet. Between all of this weirdness, investigators were able to obtain a warrant to track Ricky senior's movements and then follow him. And it only made them more suspicious of Ricky.

As they tracked him, they noticed that he appeared to be stalking his ex-girlfriend, Kim Springer, the woman that Jamie Dogg sat for the last day that she was seen. Investigators explained this to Kim for her own safety, and she was very scared by this news. She told police that she was afraid of Ricky Sr. because of his often violent temper. And they had been broken up for almost a year at that point, so she didn't know why he would be following her.

Kim was so worried about Ricky Sr. doing something to her that she filed a restraining order, which was obtained on May 9th, one month after Jamie disappeared. By that time, Ricky Jr. was out of prison and wondering where the hell his fiance was. But again, since he'd been locked up, he couldn't be of any assistance to police. The weeks rolled on, and Jamie's family only became more fearful of Jamie's whereabouts, and things only got more strange. Because on June 7, 2008, so almost exactly two months after Jamie was last seen, Kim's

springer was in her car and noticed a bizarre smell inside. She let it go originally, but the smell only got worse over the next two days. On June 9, Kim opened up her trunk to find the deceased and decomposing body of her ex-boyfriend, Ricky Senior. Understandably horrified, she called 911. Okay, I'm gonna admit I did not fucking see that coming. How weird is that? That is what a twist. What a fucking twist. Isn't that insane? When police came to investigate the scene, they found multiple items under Ricky Sr.'s

body that Kim Springer had reported missing or stolen from her home one week earlier. They also found a knife next to Ricky Sr. and his cause of death was ruled Hyperthermia, which means he had a heat stroke likely from being inside the trunk of that car for who knows how long. This led investigators to believe that he had crawled into her car hoping to ambush her with the knife, but had died before he could do so, possibly because he was locked inside and was unable to get out. The car did have an emergency latch that could be pushed from the inside in case you got trapped, but he likely didn't know that it was there.

Alcohol and illegal drugs were found in a system and it was determined that he had been in there for two whole days, which is the same day that Kim began smelling something strange. When police interviewed Kim's friends, they said that Ricky Sr. wanted to give Kim the surprise of her life. And we don't know if that means that the friends knew he was going to surprise her or if he said to them, like said that to them in general, or if that was their words on how they felt about him and his stalking antics. So I have no idea really what they meant by that, but they probably all just thought he was weird. Considering Kim did, I'm sure they were kind of on her side because this guy's a creep. Oh my god, yeah, total creep.

And what a weird thing to occur. And I know police have their theory that he was wasted and hid in there to surprise Kim, but I just don't see why anyone would lock themselves in someone's trunk. It's just really suspicious to me that the prime suspect in Jamie's case dies in this really strange manner,

exactly two months after she went missing. And I don't have any theories regarding this, and I'm not necessarily saying that his death has to do with Jamie's disappearance, but it's just odd. And yes, he was on drugs and he was intoxicated. Sure thing, I'm not sure which drugs, but I still don't know why he would lock himself in her car. Like, and also what, so she's gonna open it

and you're gonna be at a major disadvantage because you're just in this little trunk and she's over top of you. You know, like what are you gonna do just stab up? Like what the hell was going through his mind? Yeah, I don't know what was going through his mind. It's also possible that maybe he thought he could crawl from the trunk

like in between the back seats and get out that way. But why don't you put yourself in there then? I don't, I don't really know. I don't know what the hell this guy was thinking. Well, that's why I don't even know, I don't know, like what if, what if somebody else put him in there? Like I just don't really know if I believe that

he was just trying to be creepy and go in her trunk and ambush her. I just don't know if I believe that. And then the whole thing about some missing items from her house being in the trunk, like did he sneak into her house and steal shit and then have it on him and the trunk, it just doesn't make sense. That's why I'm like, there's gotta be more to this story. Either way, this was really devastating for Jamie's case as well because he was the main person of interest in her case.

Before his death, the police were unable to get any of their questions answered by him, and they didn't have enough to get a search warrant of his home. And since he didn't cooperate, there was pretty much nothing they could do. While they followed him around, the only thing suspicious that stood out to them was that he was stalking Kim. So all they had to go off of was that he had an interest in Jamie. He was one of the last people to see her and he dumped a random trash bag relatively close to where Jamie's phone was found. But again, this was only 2.5 miles from both Jamie and Ricky seniors' apartments,

so it's not unusual for him to be out somewhere near his home, his own home, obviously, and he didn't drive a truck. So unfortunately, to this day, it's still unknown where Jamie is and what happened to her that April night in 2008. So one thing that really stands out to me is the phone record situation. Since police have her phone records and were able to check her computer, assuming she had one, I feel like the answer has to be there because she would have had to have called or texted or even emailed someone to ask them to pick her up since she had been homesick all night.

And it's not like this was scheduled prior because she had only gotten sick that day. So it had to have been a very last minute request. So I just don't know how there wouldn't be record of this. And maybe there is and police aren't releasing that information since it's still an open case. But you would think that there would have been an arrest made if they had such information. I just don't see how else she could have possibly asked someone for a ride. Yeah, you have to think about the fact that how many phone numbers could have possibly been

in her cell phone. I mean, think about that fact. If you went, let's say there's 30 people, 30 phone numbers in her phone, you can't investigate 30 people? Well, yeah, but that's what I'm saying is, so she got sick that day. She went to the emergency room for the second time

and didn't expect to go a third time at that point. And for the rest of the night, she was home alone. And within that evening, she somehow contacted somebody to say, hey, can you take me to the hospital? And then they came to pick her up. So if somebody came to pick her up that means that they had to have been notified by her to do so. So how did they how did they communicate? Right, that's that's my point though. Yeah, it's like how how are police not able to find that information?

The only thing I could think of is that she had a home phone, but even at that, they could still probably track that number. I wonder if there's someone from her class that could be behind this because most of her friends lived far away, and I fully believe that whoever drove the truck and planned to pick her up is behind this, because no such person ever came forward to say that they were the person with the truck who was going to pick her up, which means they're hiding something. And although there was no obvious signs of struggle, the man had to have come to Jamie's door, because he didn't text or call her to say he was there, or we'd have record of it, meaning he must have knocked on the door for her to tell her friend, oh he's here I gotta go.

And since her laces were missing from her shoes, and they were never found, and she left her purse and her keys, I have a feeling that she was abducted by said a truck man, and the whole thing started in her apartment. And I really feel like she was probably tied up with those laces or something and forced out of her apartment, but I read another theory that maybe Ricky Senior came over with heroin or something Thinking it would make her feel better, which is where the shoelaces came in like to be used as like a tourniquet You know, but it killed her and then maybe that was why there was all the dried vomit on the floor

And then Ricky senior had to get rid of her body But again, who's the truck man? And I don't I also either way. I don't see Jamie taking heroin She was trying to be a substance abuse counselor. Yeah, that to me sounds a little bit outlandish as a theory. Is it possible? I guess so, but not very likely. Right, but I just feel like the center of this whole thing is still surrounded by this truck man. And a big part of me does not feel like Ricky senior did this because of the whole truck thing and the picking up thing because the fact that she said her ride was there is really telling. So hear me out. Not only do we know that Ricky senior drove

a van, but he also lived there on the premises. So if he was taking her to the hospital again, he wouldn't have picked her up at all. There are only two dollars apart. So I just don't think it could have been him unless Ricky Senior was involved and maybe had his friend pick her up. But the main theory is that he was jealous that his son was coming home and he didn't want him to take Jamie away from him. So he killed her, which is definitely possible because we have officially decided that Ricky senior is a creep. So maybe he was the one to knock on her door knowing she was home. Then what about the truck dude? He would have come forward.

If he never was able to pick her up, he would have told please hey, I was supposed to pick her up and yes she didn't come to the door. Here's one scenario that I have. It's possible, and I know people like this, that's when they see a van, they call it a truck, or they see a truck and they call it a van, or whatever. I know that people sometimes just say things like that. I mean, Daphne, you oftentimes call like the closet door, the refrigerator, some crazy shit like that.

So that's just, that's just, just, but my point is my point is my point is is that it's possible that Ricky senior was out for the day and she had called him and he said, well, hey, I'm out. I can come pick you up here in a little bit. And that's how he came to pick her up. So the fact that they live two doors apart from each other doesn't really make me believe that it couldn't have been him.

Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I mean, I totally hear what you're saying and I did read about that too. That people are like, well, it's not like she said us a Dan was picking her up and, you know, versus a van. So a truck and a van, I get how you could get the two confused. But at the same time, what's weird to me is why she didn't say the name to her friend because all of her friends

and family knew who Ricky Sr. was because it was her future father-in-law. So I don't see her just saying, oh, someone's coming to pick me up in a truck and he's almost here kind of thing. Instead of just being like, oh yeah, Ricky's taking me to the hospital again. And he had taken her earlier, so why didn't he just do something to her then? Right, but at the same time, you think about

like when people talk, talk that way, like thinking about the fact that Ricky Sr. is close to her, it's her fiance's father. It's not like she said, hey, my friend Daniel from my class is coming to pick me up or whatever. You know what I'm saying? So maybe the fact that it wasn't so personal means that she didn't feel the need to make it personal to her friend by identifying who this person is. Do you see what I'm saying? Where I'm going with that? I totally do. I just feel like if I'm talking to you, I mean, we're a lot, I'm assuming we're a lot closer than Jamie and her, her friend were.

But if I was talking to you, I mean I also say things extra I would say, this is who's picking me up, this is where I'm going, because it's just safety. But if someone was picking me up, I wouldn't just tell you, oh, I'm getting a ride from someone in a Jeep and she's almost here. Like I would be like, so and so is picking me up. You know, meaning maybe this person on the other line didn't know the person and that's why she didn't specify the name because her friend didn't know them anyway. But wouldn't you think that if the other person on the other line didn't know that person that Jamie would feel the need to make it more personal and say exactly who it was. I mean, either way, we could get into this forever, you know, to the little details and whatnot, because it's not like we have a record of her saying, hey, you know, Joe with his Ford F-150 is coming to pick me up.

You know what I'm saying? That's just what makes this whole thing so frustrating. The fact that we don't have details like that, because if we did, this whole thing would be solved. Right, but it also goes both ways, because if it was her social worker, for example, who is coming to pick her up, I would assume she would just say, oh, my social worker is coming to pick me up. So I think either way, it's just weird that she didn't specify who it was. But to me, I feel like it's probably more likely that she wouldn't specify if it was. But to me, I feel like it's probably more likely that she wouldn't specify if it was someone who the friend didn't know, because maybe she didn't want to get into this whole thing

and explain who the person was. She was just saying, I got a ride, he's almost here. She also had to have not felt like she was in danger, since she was into true crime. I'm sure she would have said, by the way, I'm getting picked up by this person, this is who they are just in case I go missing kind of thing, but she didn't. So I'm I'm getting picked up by this person, this is who they are just in case I go missing kind of thing, but she didn't.

So I'm assuming she felt relatively safe with this person. Yeah, I would assume the same that she was probably comfortable with this person, or comfortable enough to not even mention their name on the phone. And comfortable enough, it had to have been somebody that she knew that she was at least close enough with to ask them for a ride to the emergency room. I just don't know how there's no record of it. And the only way that I could explain this

is if it wasn't Ricky Senior and there's no record of a call or a text or an email asking for a ride, the only other thing I could think of is it was another neighbor. All the neighbors in her building were super cooperative with police, but at that point, she had been living there for over a year, so she likely knew a bunch of others in the building. So maybe she went to a different neighbor and asked them if they could take her to the hospital,

and they maybe said they had to go somewhere that night, but could pick her up when they were home later around 1.30am. But I would also think that police would have checked to see what cars everyone in the building had. Unless of course, said neighbor got rid of that truck. But I don't know, I just can't imagine how else she could have asked for a ride that night without there being a record of it. But then going back to Ricky Sr., it really sticks out to me that he told Jamie's mom

that he believed someone abducted Jamie and wasn't ready to give her back. Because it's like kind of weirdly specific. Like was he referring to himself or possibly a friend? Like who says that? How does she's probably abducted and they just don't want to give her back? Like what's wrong with you?

Why would you say that to her mom? Yeah, I mean, I would understand him saying like, you know, it's a likely scenario that she was abducted, but you don't go off saying that that person probably wasn't ready to give her back. That's just fucking weird. Yeah, it's weird. So obviously Ricky seeing your super suspect, okay, one last thing, because I could talk about this and just run in circles with this case for a freaking ever. But I can't help but wonder what Jamie was sick from and if she was possibly poisoned as silly as it may sound. But again, I really do wish the hospital actually did test

instead of just assuming that she had a stomach bug because of her symptoms. But since she wasn't examined a second or third time at the hospital, we just will never know. So lots of frustrating stuff in this case, lots of questions. It's just a lot. And we definitely want to hear all of your guys theories and we want to talk about this case because I really think this can be solvable and I think Daphne you feel the same way. Totally. Again, when you look at the whole, she had to have asked someone that was either right next to her or

she had to have called someone. There's no way, like, how have they not figured this out? So we do have a Facebook discussion group aside from our actual Facebook group that you can like. It's called Going West Discussion Group. Yeah. And if you join that, you can kind of post about what you think about this case then other people can comment and we can get into this whole freaking tizzy. Yeah, let's let's talk about this case. I really want to have a conversation with you guys about this because you know, you guys are true crime people as well and we want to solve cases. So, let's talk about it. Today Today Jamie would be 34 years old.

She was a white female with blonde hair and blue eyes standing 4 foot, 8 inches tall, and weighing around 90 pounds. She had the name Ricky Tattooed on her right ankle. Check out our social media accounts for photos. You can head over to our Instagram at GoingWest Podcast or our Twitter at Going West Pod or our Facebook Going West True Crime. And if you have any information about the disappearance of Jamie Frailey, please contact the 866-6702 Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and next week we'll have an

all new case for you guys to dive into. Again, we would really love to hear what you guys thought about this case and what your personal theories are. I just feel so terrible for this family and for poor Jamie because we just have no idea what happened to her and it's just terrible. So thank you guys for tuning in to this episode and thank you so much to everyone who left us a five star review on Apple podcasts this week. We love that shit.

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