Who Killed Samira DS Frasch?

Dr. Frasch told investigators that his wife had been drinking throughout their last day together and that she had opened a fresh bottle of champagne when they had gotten home that night.  However, the toxicology report showed no alcohol in her system. In the trial, both medical examiners were asked if Samira had finished off two bottles of champagne from about midnight to 4 am would there still be any alcohol in her system in the morning? Both the State medical examiner and the expert for the defense said there would still be alcohol in her system.  However, Dr. Frasch had not told investigators that she had consumed two full bottles of champagne between midnight and 4 am. He had told them he had seen two empty champagne bottles on the kitchen counter when he had left that morning. And that her drinking had started earlier in the day. It was a second bottle that had been opened at midnight. Earlier in the trial, Detective Justin Vann was asked why police had not collected the champagne

A year after investigators searched the Frasch home on the day Samira was found dead in the family pool, a golf club appeared in the master bedroom. At this point, the house had been cleared out and been put up for sale. Only this golf club supposedly remained, leaning against a wall. The golf club was essential to the prosecution’s narrative. One of their witnesses was a prison snitch who we were told had voluntarily come to them with a story that Dr. Frasch had confessed to murdering his wife to him when they were cellmates in the county jail.  The State Medical Examiner said that in her opinion, it wasn’t a golf club that had struck Samira.  Although the facts said otherwise, prosecutor Georgia Cappleman continued to do interviews with the media after the trial to promote the idea that Samira had been struck by a golf club.  It was true that the driver that was shown to the jury had Samira’s DNA on it. It was because it was her golf club and the one she used when golfing with her hu

Was it true that he stood to lose everything if his wife divorced him? No, Dr. Frasch owned three other homes and two boats. It was Samira who had lost access to everything but the Golden Eagle property that the court had allowed her to remain in.  In addition to that, the Frasches were reconciling. They had only been separated for two months back in 2013. Samira had a bipolar condition that had led to a violent altercation with her husband in August of 2013, six months before her death. After being arrested and having the charges dropped, she had been permitted full visitation rights to her children, while Dr. Frasch had full custody, which was the state of things at the time of her death. She was in the process of getting back on medication for her condition and had an appointment with a therapist at the time of her death. 

When Dr. Frasch left his wife that morning, she was still in bed. He kissed her before leaving and they agreed that she would contact him later that day about joining him and the kids at their beach home in Panama City Beach.  From there, it is easy to track what happened. Dr. Frasch first stopped by a Pep Boys to pick up a gas cap for his wife’s Hummer. This was recorded on the store’s security cameras. From there, cell phone records show that he drove straight from Tallahassee to Panama City Beach, a 3-hour drive. In Panama City Beach, he was seen on Bank of America security cameras with their two daughters.  At the same time, back in Tallahassee, a neighbour and his daughter were passing by the Frasch home. Mr. Matthew Christiansen and Lauren Christiansen were out for a walk. Samira came out of the front door that morning, remote key in hand. She was heading for her Hummer SUT H2. Mr. Christiansen glanced at the scene and saw a tall, model-looking black woman put something into her

  Gerald Gardner was observed arriving at the Frasch home on the day of her murder by a neighbour, Farrell Bass, who was out working in his backyard. In the trial, Bass was asked if he had heard any altercation, any arguing or any splashing after Gardner arrived that day. He said no, which reinforced the prosecution's case that Samira’s husband had killed her earlier. But this was misleading because the altercation would have taken place in the pool enclosure. By that logic, Bass should have also been asked if he had ever heard the Frasches splashing around in their fully-enclosed pool. But the jury was left with a hazy impression of the layout of the Frasch property and from the way it was presented in court, would have imagined the whole thing taking place by an open-air pool - in which case, the lack of noise would have been more significant.