In the late hours of April 8, 2008, 22-year-old Jamie Michelle Fraley vanished from her Gastonia, North Carolina, apartment. She had been suffering from a severe stomach flu and had already been to the hospital twice that day. Around midnight, she spoke to her mother on the phone, mentioning she was still feeling ill. A short time later, at approximately 1:30 a.m., she told a friend that someone was coming to take her back to the hospital for a third time.
When her friend inquired who was picking her up, Jamie reportedly said it was a friend she referred to as 'he' and ended the call. Jamie Fraley has not been seen or heard from since. Investigators found her apartment locked, with her purse, keys, and identification left behind, suggesting she expected to return.
Two days after she was last heard from, a utility worker discovered her cell phone at an intersection about three miles from her home. Authorities believe the phone may have been thrown from a moving vehicle. While some calls were made from the phone around 4:30 a.m. on the day she disappeared, they were determined to be redials of recent numbers and did not provide any leads. The investigation soon focused on Ricky Simonds Sr., the father of Jamie's incarcerated fiancé. Simonds lived in the same apartment complex, had given Jamie a ride to the hospital earlier on the day she vanished, and had a previous manslaughter conviction for the strangulation of an ex-girlfriend in the 1980s. He was considered a person of interest but refused to take a polygraph test.
The investigation took a strange turn two months later when Simonds was found deceased in the trunk of another ex-girlfriend's car. It is believed he hid in the trunk to ambush her, became trapped, and succumbed to heat stroke. His death left many unanswered questions in Jamie's disappearance. Years later, in 2015, a convicted murderer named Jerry Douglas Case confessed to killing Jamie, but his confession was deemed not credible as he was in prison at the time of her disappearance. Despite the years that have passed and the lack of significant evidence, Jamie's case remains an active investigation. Her family continues to hold out hope for answers in the perplexing disappearance that left a community with more questions than answers.Last Seen: Apr 8, 2008
