This is the final in a two part story on the murder of Dr Aubrey Fraser.

GIVING evidence in the celebrated Aubrey Fraser murder trial, Assistant Commissioner of Police Daniel Wray said Mrs Aileen Fraser, the accused wife of the deceased, told him that because their son Stuart and his friends were speaking loudly that night of November 29, 1988, while they were on the verandah, she had gone to her husband’s bedroom to see if he was being disturbed.

But when she went to check, the door was closed. She pushed it and found that there was an obstruction behind the door. She remained in the dining room until about 12:40 am. She went back to the bedroom, found the door still closed, and on pushing it, discovered it was blocked by a carton of books. She saw her husband’s briefcase open with documents strewn all over the floor. She put the documents back into the briefcase, looked across and said to her husband: “Man, what happened to you?”

When she got no response, she turned on the light — which she had earlier turned off — and saw her husband lying on his back. She felt him and he was cold. Wray said she later told him she had realised that her husband was dead. She thereupon went to Stuart and told him to ask his friends to leave “because something happened to your father”.

Wray said he had the place dusted for fingerprints, inclusive of the toilet tank cover and the briefcase. He gave instructions for the towels, the pillow and the garments being worn by Dr Fraser to be submitted to the Forensic Laboratory for testing.

The deceased was not fingerprinted. Wray was not aware on the night of the murder that Dr Fraser had been hit in the head. Mrs Fraser had reported, though, that a letter opener normally kept on a trolley beside the bed was missing. She also told him that Rowan Fraser (their son) had been picked up to go to work at about 8:50 that night.

Having regard to the injuries he saw, he considered the position of the body unusual — the blanket had remained tucked under and the legs of the deceased were crossed. He added: “That essentially was unusual, that so many stab wounds and no indication that he had moved at all.”

Wray testified further that the purpose of giving instructions in respect of dusting for fingerprints was to assist in determining whether or not any other persons beside members of the Fraser family had been in the room recently. Based upon what he was aware of in relation to these fingerprints, the police were in quest of some person other than members of the Fraser family.

Detective Corporal Hyman Smith, who answered a radio call early that morning, told the court that he arrived at the Frasers’ Sunset Drive home at 1:15 on November 30. He saw six policemen at the gate of the premises. Said he: “As I stepped in the door to the bedroom, a loud alarm went off; bell-ringing alarm.”

A man, whom he identified as Stuart Fraser, pushed his arm through the southern window and turned it off. The window was then open. Wray described the position of the body. Later on he recalled a conversation between Rowan and his sister, Allison Fraser-Hunt. He heard Rowan Fraser shouting: “Bull..it! Foolishness! Tell me something better than that.” Smith told the judge and jury that he regarded Mrs Fraser “as appearing unusually calm”.

No one, according to Smith’s testimony, had interfered with the body before his arrival and he had gotten there before Wray. He did not lean against the alarm to set it off because he did not touch the wall. “It just went off.”

Corporal Smith testified further that before the police photographer arrived, he had spoken to Allison Fraser-Hunt. She had asked him how long the body would remain in the bedroom. He told her until the police photographer and the undertakers arrived, whereupon she said that she had already taken photographs of the body. The witness told the Court he saw her with a camera.

George Cameron, who told the court he was employed to Chin’s Transport, a company which was contracted to take employees to the airport, testified that he picked up Rowan Fraser at the home, 1 Sunset Avenue, that night between 8:50 and 9:00.

On February 1, 1990, Detective Inspector Trevor Chin testified that he took a statement from Mrs Fraser at 79 Duke Street in Kingston, in the presence of Senior Superintendent Isadore ‘Dick’ Hibbert (now retired ACP) who had taken charge of the investigation in September 1989, replacing Assistant Commissioner Wray. The statement was given under caution and later tendered in evidence.

As the trial proceeded, the director of public prosecutions asked the senior superintendent:

Q. When you took charge of the case, were you aware of a fingerprint report?

A. Yes.

Q. Did that report assist you in any way in the investigations?

A. To some extent, yes.

Q. To what extent?

Much objection was taken by the defence to that question, but the learned trial judge overruled the objection and Hibbert was allowed to answer.

A. “I changed my direction with regard to my investigations… In other words, my investigations now turned inwards, that is, within the household itself.”

Detective Inspector Noel Asphall, who visited the Fraser home at about 3:45 am on November 30, 1988, told of taking a statement from Mrs Fraser at about 5:00 am.

The witness said he found a multi-coloured bath towel at the corner of Jack’s Hill Road and Sunset Avenue, about five chains from the house, and he took it back to the premises. He showed it to Mrs Fraser and she identified it as her property and said it had been placed folded on a table, in the master bedroom.

The witness checked for fingerprints under the windows of the master bedroom but found none. He returned to the premises on March 2, 1989 and collected a patterned blanket from Mrs Fraser.

Detective Sergeant Barrington Campbell arrived on the scene between 1:10 and 1:15 am and collected a statement in writing from Rowan Fraser, who came home about 20 minutes to half-an-hour after the policeman’s arrival.

Mrs Fraser handed over her husband’s briefcase on January 19, 1989 to Superintendent Rudolph Dwyer (now retired ACP) the court heard as the evidence further unfolded. Dwyer had visited the murder scene at about 2:00 am on November 30, 1988.

After relating his observations that morning, Dwyer said that on January 9, 1989, Mrs Fraser telephoned him and told him she had been searching her husband’s briefcase for some telephone bills and had found a steel letter opener which she believed could have been the weapon used to stab her husband.

At about 5:00 pm that very day, accompanied by Detective Superintendent Donald Brown (now retired ACP) the witness went to 1 Sunset Avenue where Mrs Fraser handed over to him a sword-shaped metal letter opener with a round top which appeared to be made from crystal.

She also handed over a plastic pen with a letter opener at one end. He handed these items over to Mrs Yvonne Cruickshank, government forensic analyst to whom he also handed over the deceased man’s briefcase he got from Mrs Fraser.

Dwyer left the island for Africa on April 29, 1989 and was away for one year.

Detective Superintendent Brown was to take two further statements in writing from Mrs Fraser in respect of the briefcase and the two letter openers exhibited.

In one of her earlier statements to the police tendered in evidence, Mrs Fraser is reported to have said that after finding the briefcase with documents strewn all over the bathroom floor: “I noticed that there were two towels and a pillow on my husband’s neck and face. I felt for his pulse. His hands were cold and his pupils were dilated and fixed. I removed the towels and pillow and noticed that his neck to the left side was bloody with three or four puncture marks and a streak of dried blood behind the ear.

“My husband was lying on his back with his arms on either side, dressed in a grey sweat suit and the lower part of his body covered with a rug. I noticed that the windows on the north were both closed. This was unusual. The other two were opened to the south.”

The statement recounted her asking her visitors to leave as “her husband was not very well”.

She spoke to Stuart (the couple’s fifth child), then called her husband’s nephew, Dr Cholmondeley, and asked him to call family friend, Dr Orrin Barrow. Then she called her neighbour, Dr John Martin, who came shortly after, examined the deceased and called the police. She called her daughter, Allison, who had been staying with a friend at Lord’s Way and lastly, her son, Rowan, at the airport (Air Jamaica).

On further examination of the house, Mrs Fraser said in her statement, she found out that the following items were missing from the master bedroom: one lady’s wristwatch; one gent’s wristwatch, the property of her husband; and one short wave radio.

“I went into Allison’s room, made a search and the following items were missing: one camera; one bedside clock/radio with the NCB insignia; one radio. I also noticed that the toilet tank cover in the master bedroom was missing and was found on my daughter’s bed.”

Rowan Fraser gave a statement in writing to the police on November 30, 1988 which was also admitted in evidence. The court heard that he had gone jogging on the afternoon of November 29, following which he had picked up his sister Allison at Lord’s Way and had returned to 1 Sunset Avenue. There, he gave his sister the car. He told of seeing his mother and father getting ready to have dinner. He had a shower and had his dinner in the television room.

He heard the dogs barking, he said, and being conscious of the security of the premises, he went to check the master bedroom. He found the windows there open and he locked them. He recalled watching television until about 8:35 pm, then he went to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. He saw his father enter the kitchen and take his orange-coloured water jug. His father then went towards the master bedroom.

Rowan added that he was picked up at approximately 8:50 pm to be transported to work. His sister, Allison, telephoned him sometime after 1:00 am with the news about his father. He took a taxi home.

In a second police statement taken from Rowan Fraser on January 20, 1989 he is reported to have said: “My father was wearing pyjamas when I saw him after locking the windows. I cannot be specific as to the colour; it was long pants and long sleeve top.

“The pyjamas my father had on had buttons at the top. I know the difference between a pair of sweat suit and a pair of pyjamas.

Then “when I saw my father at 8:45 pm he was still dressed the way I had seen him earlier that evening”.

And “on arrival at my father’s home” (after getting news of the death) “I entered his room and saw him in bed dressed in the same pyjamas that I had seen him wearing prior to my leaving to work.”

At the close of the prosecution’s case, the defence made a no-case submission but the trial judge ruled that there was a case to answer in respect of all three accused — Mrs Aileen Fraser, Allison and Rowan.

Aileen Fraser made an unsworn statement from the dock. She explained that she had requested the visitors to leave that night because she did not want them to share in her distress. Besides, she claimed, her husband was a private person and he would have expected her so to act.

She told the judge and jury: “I swear I did not kill my husband. I say again, I did not kill my husband. Nor did I arrange to have him killed, nor did any of my children. It is inconceivable that they would do such a vicious act.”

Character evidence was given on her behalf by the late retired chief justice of Jamaica, Kenneth G Smith.

Rowan Fraser also made an unsworn statement from the dock thus: “At no time at all that night did I injure my father. I was never in combination with anyone, and my mother and myself did not kill my father.”

Character evidence was given on his behalf by attorney-at-law Ashton Wright, retired contractor general; and Raymond Harrison, a commissioned land surveyor.

Allison Fraser-Hunt made an unsworn statement also denying any involvement in her father’s murder.

Following the judge’s summing-up, the jury returned guilty verdicts in respect of Aileen Fraser and her son, Rowan. Allison was found not guilty and discharged.

Sentence of death was then passed on mother and son. They successfully appealed against the convictions and sentence.

Next week: Maloney Gordon — the murder rap accused cop killer ‘Copper’ escaped

Sybil E Hibbert is a retired court reporting specialist. She is also the wife of Retired ACP Isadore ‘Dick’ Hibbert. Send your comments to allend@jamaicaobserver.com