In April 2002, Texas real estate agent, David Nixon, was found dead in a storm drain. At the time, his live-in girlfriend, Tracy Frame, were in the process of splitting up and were fighting over their house, but Tracy denied any involvement in David's murder. “48 Hours" Correspondent Troy Roberts reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 5/26/2007. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who was David Nixon and what was his background?
A friend of mine introduced us. All I knew was that he was in real estate. David was nice, very charming, easy to get along with. We've always had a good time. He had a lot of ambition, a lot of good ideas.
David is the kind of person that makes people feel good.
He could sell you just about anything.
He could sell a screen door to a submarine.
It's just how he was.
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Chapter 2: What was the nature of David Nixon and Tracy Frame's relationship?
Tracy was the new girlfriend. She really wanted to take over. She was going to be in charge. That was her mode of operation.
Donna, she was his ex-wife. It was weird. I liked him and his personality. If he had a son, that didn't matter to me.
Tracy was nice.
Just about everything was good at the beginning. Well, I started finding out stuff. He gambled like crazy. David owed everybody money.
Very paranoid. Taped everything.
Prostitutes, call girls.
David left with cash. He had $25,000 with him.
This was a pretty brutal crime. Just cold, calculated murder.
He was shot and burned.
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Chapter 3: How was David Nixon found and what were the initial crime scene details?
Tracy was the only one who had anything against him, really.
Somebody's lying. If I wasn't walking in my shoes, I wouldn't believe somebody telling me the story.
Secrets and Lies on Grapevine Lake.
It was the middle of the night when forensic death investigator John Briggs got the call to report to the scene of a homicide.
As soon as you get out of the vehicle, you can smell a burning odor. The body was wrapped in several items that had burned during the fire but were not totally consumed. There was the remains of a blue plastic camping tarp. Then around all that was rope.
The body was still smoldering as Riggs carefully rolled it over, hoping to identify the victim.
I could not even tell if it was a male or a female. But based upon the face, I knew it was a Caucasian person.
When police first arrived at this crime scene in Grand Prairie, TX in April of 2002, the intense heat from the fire had damaged the body to such a degree that crime scene investigators had to spend hours delicately recovering the remains. The police found tire tracks and some fiber materials, but little else by way of evidence.
The medical examiner determined the victim was a man in his 40s killed by a single gunshot wound to the heart. But his identity was a mystery. Dental records would later confirm the victim as 40-year-old David Nixon, a successful realtor from nearby Grapevine, Texas.
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Chapter 4: What were the key clues and evidence found by investigators?
Years later, she still has fond memories.
Charming, vivacious, and full of life. And you never know what you're going to get. Love surprises.
Love surprises.
Love surprises.
Nicholas, their only child, was born the following year. Anything for Nicholas.
Crazy about him.
David soon found success selling real estate, becoming a top agent, eventually brokering million-dollar deals on high-end properties in the affluent suburbs north of Dallas.
He hardly ever slept. It was bigger, better, faster. It was always a race. It was always about competition.
Their marriage ended badly in 1995 after David had an affair with flight attendant Lisa Hill. They married and divorced within two years. But David wasn't single for long. Before his divorce was final, he met another woman, an attractive 27-year-old accountant named Tracy Frame.
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Chapter 5: What was Tracy Frame's involvement and how did police interrogate her?
Yes.
At home, David and Tracy were fixtures in the social scene at Grapevine Lake.
I knew everybody out there and, you know, it was great.
That lake is a painting place, I'm telling you right now. It was amazing to see who woke up with who in the mornings. Jerry Val knows that scene very well. Everybody knew everybody, and there were a lot of really good times, a lot of fun times. Tracy and I just became friends. Tracy was especially popular among men. Good-looking. One of the most attractive women out there, I would say.
Some people didn't like her, maybe because she was that good-looking. But Tracy only had eyes for David. At the beginning, when I first met him, they loved each other. They were spending time together. They enjoyed doing things together. But their relationship was volatile. Most of the time, they were a lot of fun to be around. But boy, when they argued, you just wanted to get away from it.
The loudest and longest arguments were over finances and David's gambling debts. So the money was going out faster than it was coming in.
Absolutely. I hoped that things would get better, and it just didn't.
In fact, the arguing got worse.
It was cats and dogs. Every time we saw each other, there were a lot more angry words than there were happy.
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Chapter 6: What motives and conflicts existed between Tracy Frame and David Nixon?
No, not on a regular basis. Absolutely not.
Not on a regular basis. Did he ever batter you?
We got in some shoving matches, but I wouldn't say that's battering.
In the spring of 2002, after almost four years together, it was over. And so you said, we're done?
Yeah. I told him that this isn't what I wanted. And, you know, we should probably think about going our own ways.
But going their separate ways would be complicated. David reportedly owed more than $100,000 in back taxes to the IRS. To protect his property, he had the house put in Tracy's name. You wanted full ownership of the house.
Well, I had full ownership of the house.
Can I get an officer to come to my house?
David disagreed.
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Chapter 7: How did the investigation progress leading to Tracy Frame's arrest?
The police helped settle that argument. So after that domestic disturbance call on April the 9th, things were civil between the two of you.
I wouldn't say civil, it was business. I wasn't going to leave him high and dry.
Almost two weeks later, David Nixon was dead.
I was crying and they just said he had been murdered. He was... Shot and burned. Didn't even cross my mind that he had been hurt or injured in any way.
Tracy says she was stunned by the news. You must have been thinking, like, who could have done this?
Sure. I mean, it was, there was a lot of things going through my mind. I just, I just couldn't believe it.
Donna Lella, David's first wife, could believe it.
When I went to the police department, those were my first words that Sunday night I went there. Tracy Frame did it. David told me I had to tell you this.
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Chapter 8: What was the aftermath for Tracy Frame and the community?
It was eerie. He was preparing for the worst.
To hear Donalella tell the story, David Nixon, her ex-husband, had a premonition that he would be murdered.
He told me what was going to happen.
And what's more, he knew the person who would kill him.
He was gonna be murdered by Tracy. He used the word murder, that Tracy was gonna kill him.
He didn't call the police with his suspicions or his fears?
No, and I didn't think to tell him that.
Donna went to the police and reported David missing after he didn't return phone messages from their son, Nicholas. Donna then confronted Tracy Frame over the phone.
What did you ask her?
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