Sierra Friar, 18 years previous on the time of her unique interview with “48 Hours,” talks in regards to the morning of Oct. 2, 2017, when her father, Aaron, and 15-year-old sister, Ellie, vanished.
Sierra Friar wakes as much as yelling
At left, Sierra Friar, 18, throughout her interview with “48 Hours” in December 2024. She was 11 when she was an earwitness to her father’s homicide.
11-year-old Sierra Friar wakes as much as her father Aaron Friar yelling and the sound of glass breaking round 5:30 a.m. Terrified, she stayed in her room till she felt secure sufficient to come back out.
Household gone; blood in every single place
Blood spatter on the lounge partitions of Aaron Friar’s house.
Medford Police Division
Round 6:15 a.m., when the home is quiet, Sierra exits her room to seek out her father and her older sister Ellie have disappeared. She sees the lounge partitions coated in blood and shattered glass from an overhead mild fixture on the ground. She then requires assist.
Sierra is delivered to her mom Maggie Friar’s house a few blocks away.
A mom’s frantic 911 name
Maggie, left, and Ellie Friar.
Maggie Friar
Maggie Friar calls 911 at 6:42 a.m. “Something happened and nobody can find my ex-husband or my oldest daughter … there’s blood everywhere.”
The search is on for Aaron and Ellie Friar
Bodycam video reveals investigators placing up crime scene tape outdoors Aaron Friar’s house.
Medford Police Division
At 6:43 a.m., Medford, Oregon, cops are dispatched to Aaron Friar’s house for a welfare test and a lacking individuals case is said.
A path of blood to nowhere
A path of blood outdoors Aaron Friar’s house.
Medford Police Division
Officer Logan Boyd approaches Aaron Friar’s house and sees a visual blood path from the entrance door to a again gate that results in an alley. The blood path continues for a couple of ft then disappears. There are recent tire tracks close to the place the blood path ended.
Aaron Friar’s automotive is then reported lacking, too.
A significant dying investigation begins
Ellie Friar, left, and her father Aaron.
Ellie Friar/Instagram
Primarily based on the totality of the scene and suspicious circumstances regarding the lacking individuals, a MADIU — Main Assault and Demise Investigation Unit —callout is initiated.
All-hands-on-deck
At 7:40 a.m., a request goes out to all Medford Police detectives to answer the Friar house.
Sierra Friar ideas off investigators
Gavin MacFarlane
Gavin MacFarlane/Instagram
Round 9 a.m., Det. Shannon Reynolds interviews Sierra who says she was hiding in her bed room however then seemed via her window and noticed Ellie’s boyfriend Gavin MacFarlane outdoors the home. She mentions MacFarlane shouldn’t be allowed on the home and that Aaron Friar had forbidden Ellie from seeing Gavin after studying he was 19 years previous.
A break within the case
That is the break the police had been searching for. Detectives start monitoring MacFarlane’s cellphone.
Aaron Friar’s bloody automotive is situated
“We could see … there was blood on the outside of the bumper that had been dripping down,” Medford Police detective Invoice Ford tells “48 Hours.” When this trunk is opened up … there may be giant quantities of blood. I imply it’s soaked into the carpet.”
Medford Police Division
At 9:52 a.m., Aaron Friar’s lacking car is discovered about 5 miles east of his house.
Officers discover dried blood on the rear bumper and discover extra blood soaked into the carpet of the trunk.
Ellie Friar discovered alive, however not alone
Ellie Friar and Gavin MacFarlane
Ellie Friar/Instagram
At 10:48 a.m. — 4 hours after police are dispatched to the crime scene on the Friar home — Ellie is discovered unhurt strolling alongside a busy avenue only a few miles from her dad’s house.
Ellie is with two males: her 19-year-old boyfriend Gavin MacFarlane and his pal, 22-year-old Russell Jones.
Three detainees
From left, Gavin MacFarlane, Russell Jones and Ellie Friar.
Medford Police Division
At 10:51 a.m. the three are separated, handcuffed, and brought into custody for questioning.
Russell Jones reveals the place Aaron Friar is
Detective Invoice Ford, left, with Russell Jones.
Medford Police Division
Lead detective Invoice Ford decides to interview Jones earlier than MacFarlane, as Ford had had a earlier encounter with Jones and is aware of “he’s a talker.”
Ford decides to strive what he calls “smokin’ and jokin.’” He takes Russell outdoors for a cigarette break.
Simply barely over an hour after being detained, Jones tells Ford that he can take him to the placement the place Aaron Friar’s stays had been dumped
Aaron Friar’s physique discovered
Aaron Friar’s physique was discovered wrapped in a inexperienced tarp.
Medford Police Division
At 12:50 p.m., at Jones’s course, Aaron Friar’s stays are discovered wrapped in a inexperienced tarp and Tinkerbell fleece blanket off of a distant freeway simply 20 miles north of Friar’s house. With that discovery, the case formally went from a lacking particular person to a murder investigation
Homicide weapon discovered
A bloody baseball bat was present in a tree close to the place Aaron Friar;s stays had been discovered.
Medford Police Division
At 12:50 p.m., the homicide weapon – a baseball bat – is discovered lodged in a close-by tree about 8 ft off the bottom. Aaron Friar’s explanation for dying would later be decided to be from blunt drive trauma to the top.
Three suspects, three tales
Understanding that Aaron Friar was murdered, the police zero in on their three suspects. Complicating issues, all three begin pointing a finger at one another.
From left, Russell Jones, Ellie Friar and Gavin MacFarlane being questioned by Medford Police detectives.
Medford Police Division
Jones advised investigators that MacFarlane killed Aaron Friar in self-defense.
Ellie mentioned that she believed that Jones was her father’s killer.
MacFarlane mentioned Ellie was the one who needed Aaron Friar useless.
Three suspects, three pleas
In October 2018, Gavin MacFarlane pleads responsible to homicide and homicide conspiracy prices. He was sentenced to 25 years to life.
In January 2019, Ellie pleaded responsible to an grownup cost of conspiring to homicide her father, Aaron. She was later sentenced to 25 years.
In August 2021, Russell Jones entered a no-contest plea to conspiracy to commit homicide. He was sentenced to fifteen years.
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