CAPITOL HILL: Tanya Frazier

1994 was a year that would forever change the city of Seattle. From the suicide of Kurt Cobain to the launch of Amazon.com - it was a uniquely important year that would go down in the city’s history books and news archives. But something else happened that year that should have made headlines, but most people haven’t heard about… until now. On this episode of Washed Away, I’m covering the tragic kidnapping and murder of 14 year old Tanya Frazier. 

Sources for this episode include: The Seattle Times, Facebook, Q13, and A&E.

Thank you to Sherry and Teara for sharing Tanya’s story with me.

Do you know who killed Tanya Frazier? Did you see something strange on Capitol Hill in July of 1994? Please call it in. No detail is too small and if you can provide a name of someone to look into or a license plate to look up, that info could absolutely break this case wide open.

Any and all tips should be sent to the Seattle Police Department’s cold case unit 206-684-5555 or the homicide tip line 206-233-5000 or you can submit a tip anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS

An important note: Every 68 seconds, someone in America is sexually assaulted. Learn more and take action at rainn.org.

Transcript-

Washed away is a true crime podcast. Meaning there will be talk of murder, suicide, domestic violence, sexual assault, and many other themes associated with true crime… listener discretion is advised.

Ashley: 1994 was a year that would forever change the city of Seattle, from the suicide of Kurt Cobain to the launch of amazon.com. It was a uniquely important year that would go down in the city's history books and news archives. But something else happened that year, that most people haven't heard about until now on this episode of washed away, I'm covering the tragic kidnapping and murder of 14 year old, Tanya Frazier.

Teara: I want it to be in the public eye enough for people to care enough for it to like go somewhere. I know people know, I know that there are people who know what happened besides the person who did it. I know that there are people who know, and I just think it needs to be out there enough for people to be like, damn this hasn't been solved yet?

Sherry: And so they hear something like this, or they see Tanya's photo or a article and it triggers their guilt. And they think like, okay, well I don't talk to this person anymore or whatever. I'm going to come forward with the tip of what they told me. That's like my gut feeling. I just feel like someone knows something and that they like, they have it packed away in their brain. They don't think about it. Cause they don't think about Tanya. They don't know Tanya, but like if they just get triggered, somehow it will be like, oh yeah, I'll come forward with that information. 

Ashley: The voices you just heard belong to Teara Frazier, Tanya's younger sister and Sherry Mammoser, Tanya's childhood friend. Tanya's mother's name is Theresa. You won't hear her voice. But her name is mentioned in this episode from time to time, Tanya Marie Frazier was born on October 29th, 1979, and was just a few months shy of her 15th birthday in July, 1994, when she suddenly went missing. She was a sweet, shy girl that was known for taking stuffed animals to school. She was responsible, always followed her mother's rules and even had a summer job.

Teara: We were into church. And we didn't get to hang out very much with a lot of friends. We just had a few select friends we could hang out with and you know, the neighborhood kids, Tanya was really shy. If you didn't know her, I think people would think she was like kind of shy, but she was just super sweet. Teara And Tanya were like a whole other level connected. Like they really were soulmates. It was, they were really, um, close the summer that she disappeared or the summer that she was killed. You know, she had just finished middle school and through the school, they get you like a summer job, but you have to do summer school for part of the day. And then you go to your summer job. So she had been doing that and was going to get her first paycheck. And it was a few weeks before my birthday. So she was going to go buy us pagers with her paycheck. I just have memories of like, you know, we were kids growing up in the nineties. Like we were just, we were interested in boys. You know, we like the night before we were talking on the phone with boys and, but like goofy stuff. We were just, I mean, we weren't doing anything with them, but it was just, just super innocent. 

Ashley: Tanya was last seen around noon on July 18th, near meany middle school, where she was taking classes over the summer and Tanya would never get into a stranger's car. That would be incredibly out of character for her. She wouldn't run away either, especially without telling her sister or taking her sister with her. So Tanya's sudden absence that day immediately stood out to those that knew her 

Teara: Sherry spent the night. Um, like she had said, we were kind of prank calling boys the night before, just stupid, like teenage girl stuff. Um, I remember her the previous night saying some weird guy was like trying to hit on her or whatever she wanted to see if I can just like, come get her. I think Sherry was still trying to see if we can go get her, um, meet her at her work. Cause it wasn't too far from where we lived and just walk home. But I remember, you know, calling her some silly name in the morning before, you know, she had to go to her little summer school and job and asking if we could go like later on that day, asking if we could, um, meet her and walk home with her. Yeah. That Theresa was at work. And so her mom's boyfriend at the time, he told us that we couldn't. 

Sherry: And so we were upset about that. And then we were supposed to, we were also supposed to meet up with some boys. I think later that day, anyway, she was supposed to be home around four and uh, she obviously didn't come home. And that was like, not like Tanya at all. Like there's just, no, there was no, there would be no reason for her to not come home right away. Like it just wasn't, it was very out of the ordinary. Yeah. I mean, we couldn't, we really couldn't go anywhere or do much. So it wasn't like she ever like, just didn't show up. Like, it's just not something that we did so right away It was alarming. Like, I didn't know where she was and she wasn't home. And then like around, I want to say 6:00 PM. Your mom called the cops. Yeah, because it had now been two hours and you know, we knew something was wrong and then they treated it like 

Teara: she probably ran away. Like, she's probably, she's a teenager. She's probably just ran away and they wouldn't even really do anything immediately. So then around, like they said to call back around like 10 or something. And so around 10, her mom called again. And of course she still wasn't home and we're panicking and there's no feeling, I don't know how to describe the feeling of someone missing and not knowing where they are and not knowing what to do. And so around 10 they sent a couple officers out and they never really talked to us, they didn't, you know, take Teara and I aside and be like, tell us about Tanya or whatever. It was just, she's only 14. I mean, yeah. She's like a teenager, but she's 14. Like that's so young for her. And they were just, you know, oh, is she in a gang? 

Sherry: Oh, is she pregnant? Did she get pregnant? Tanya was a virgin. And we know that for a fact like, you know, how, how girls relationships are. And like I said, Teara and Tanya were so close, so it's not like that even was a possibility. And they just were like, well, you know, she probably just ran away and we're like, she wouldn't do that. That just wouldn't happen. And it was very flippant and then they were gone. And then I don't remember seeing the cops again until like, they never, I mean, that was just it. And then she was just missing and just days, days going by where we were just like zombies, like I just remember walking around, putting up flyers, like trying to get people to put flyers in their store windows and just walking around like zombies. Like where is she? 

Ashley: It absolutely breaks my heart to listen to Teara and Sherry go over that day. And just how scary it must have been. And I hear this a lot from families of missing people. The not knowing is what's hardest. At least one witness saw Tanya talking to a man before she disappeared. Another witness claims that they saw her get into a car with that man, but either no description of the car was able to be given or that information just hasn't been released to the public. So unfortunately I can't give you a color or make a model or anything else to look out for. The only details we have about the man are that he was unkempt and light-skinned. And remember Tanya had told Teara and Sherry that weird guy had tried to hit on her just a day or two before. I can't help But wonder if that was the same guy, a similar thought that I've read from what little I could find about the case from law enforcement and that I've heard from the family… is that because Tanya wouldn't have talked to a stranger, let alone willingly got into a stranger's car, that she had to have known whoever took her. 

Teara: I mean, you never know what somebody does in, you know, the situation as it's happening, but we didn't, we weren't around that many people. We especially like that many adults. Like I don't, I don't know who else she would have gotten in the car with it baffles me. I can't figure out why Tanya would have gotten in the car with anybody.

Ashley: Less than a mile from the school on the corner of east Highland and 23rd on Capitol hill. There's a neighborhood watch sign on a pole, surrounded by million dollar homes. The house on the corner there has a large lot filled with dense green trees. You can hardly see from one side to the other. And there's a chain link fence that surrounds most of it. Somewhere in there in 1994 is where Tanya was found five days after she went missing. Tanya's case hasn't been covered that much. And as always, there are conflicting details about what happened to her. One article said that she had been stabbed, another said her throat had been cut. I suppose it's possible that both statements can be true. 

Sherry: A guy walking, his dog, smelled the body and had been in a war and he knew what it was. That's how they found her. We don't even know the day that she was killed because her death certificate says something different. So it says the 20th. Yeah, it says the 20th. And they found her on the 22nd because they just went with the middle date. So we don't even know. I hope it was the first day. And I hope, uh, two days later, or four days later. There used to be across. I think the neighborhood kids they'd put up a little cross on that side of the road where her, cause it was like a inclined area with a bunch of trees. Uh, it was like a rich neighborhood, but um, they put this little cross that said like, we don't know you, we don't know you. I don't remember everything it said anymore. It's been so long, but it wasn't far like we used to walk from, you know, in the summertime and we would try to get on the news. We would walk from meany middle school where she was last seen to the place her body was found. So it's within walking distance. 

Ashley: So you said he used to walk that hoping to get on the news, like hoping that they would cover, but you were like doing that route?

Sherry: Yeah. We would call it like she had family member, your cousins, I think too would like call the news and say, we're doing this Memorial walk, uh, for Tanya we're to get her name out there because no one knew about her murder. And uh, we were just trying to get her in the public eye and I think they may have come out once, but I don't even know if it made the news. I don't even remember. I don't know. I just know. I mean, everybody who went to school with her obviously knows about it, but I have met so many people. If you know me for any period of time, really, I'm going to talk about my sister and they're like, oh, I didn't, I never heard of it. And like, how do you grow up in Seattle? And especially if you're like from the central district or the south end, which is right by the central district and you haven't heard of it. You haven't heard of her. That it's crazy to me, but it, I mean, it's not crazy to me because it just wasn't publicized very much.

Ashley: So why wasn't Tanya's case in the media more? A young girl was kidnapped in broad daylight and found murdered days later. The news always cover stories like that sometimes for weeks on end, at least we know they do for white women. And it probably isn't surprising to hear that Seattle is a very white city. In fact, I found a census from 1990, which is four years before Tanya was killed. And it showed that Seattle's population at that time was 75.3% white. This matters because that means in all likelihood, the local newsrooms were probably mostly white and same goes for the police department. At the time I was reading in one of the old seattle times articles, there was an interview with Father Ralph. Um, he was the pastor. It was that he was a pastor at your church. Yeah. And he said that I feel that had Tanya not come from our neighborhood or not been mixed race would more people have known this terrible thing that had happened to her. And that's kind of your thought as well as like why this wasn't in the media enough. Yeah, 

Sherry: Yeah, yeah. That's, I mean, that's just, that's 100% true. Like yeah. You can't think anything else.. a black girl from the central district I feel like it was dismissed. Yeah. I feel like if it was a young white girl, if even it was me, I feel like there would have been a lot more coverage. The fact that they automatically jumped to like, oh, she's in a gang. Oh, she's pregnant, ran away. I mean that all of that had to do with her race and it couldn't be further from the truth and it couldn't be further from the truth. That's what's so frustrating.

Ashley: What's also frustrating is just how little we know about the progress in this case, or if there's even been any, I tried to call the cold case unit at the Seattle police department to ask questions, but they refuse to talk about Tanya's case with me because it's still considered an open investigation. Of course, I know that's not true because they discussed her case with Q13, a local station back in 2017, not to mention other detectives have spoken to me about cold cases in the past. You've heard them on previous episodes of washed away, but it is a sensitive case. So, I get it. But what I wanted to ask about was if there are opportunities for DNA testing that can still be done. I learned from Sherry and Teara, that skin was collected from under Tanya's fingernails. And it's possible that other forensic evidence was collected as well. Since sadly we know Tanya was raped. I was also curious if any of the persons of interest in Tanya's murder have been cleared or not. 

Teara: I know my mom's boyfriend at the time, there was a lot of people looking at him. I know the police were looking at him, but I know he like took a lie detector test and I think it came back inconclusive. I don't know. But for whatever reason, he was never like a real suspect. He was just a person of interest for quite a while. And I mean, at the time that she disappeared, apparently, I don't know. I feel like I have these blackouts of periods of time from right after she was killed. But apparently he had bought a camper days before and they could never like get inside to, I don't know, see if there was blood or anything. I don't know. He was, he was a strong person of interest though for at least all of the family. Cause he's he was not, he was just not a good person at all. And not even like a, I hate my mom's boyfriend kind of vibe. He was just not a good person. 

Ashley: What did your mom think of him? Like being, possibly being a suspect or like when she looks back now, what does she think of? Like, does she think he could have done something like that?

Teara: When she looks back now she feels guilty because he was like, it was, it was, it was a hard time with him living there, but she feels guilty, but she doesn't talk about what she thinks about him. Very often. They broke up right after, which is also weird. 

Ashley: Did you guys ever like fight with him at home or anything like that? 

Teara: But I mean, we fought with him regularly. I remember there was like a time he like took her in like the hallway to the basement and like threatened her. And this was like, not too, that didn't happen too soon before she ended up murdered. So the police are aware of all this. Like it's not just, I hate my mom's boyfriend. He was an awful person. He did not like us. And he showed us that he did not like us. And I just don't. I don't know. I always said he was the devil. My mom's mom said he was a devil. And I'm like, I don't understand how my sister, like how she could have met two devils in her lifetime.

Ashley: I'm not including the name of their mom's ex boyfriend since it hasn't been made public and he hasn't been charged and technically his physical description doesn't match the unkempt light-skinned man that was seen either walking near Tanya, talking to Tanya or driving the car that Tanya was last seen getting into. That man is unfortunately still a mystery, at least as far as I know, another mystery in this case is Tanya's backpack. It was a light purple school backpack. And she was wearing it when she disappeared. Do you remember if they recovered her backpack? They did in Seattle. Yeah. In west Seattle. Yeah. 

Ashley: And that was like years later, right? It was, it was later much later. That's really interesting.

Sherry: But from my understanding she wasn't wearing all it. When they found her, she didn't have all of her clothes on and I don't know that they ever found her clothes. Do you? I don't think they did. They always said she was partially clad for a long time. We didn't get a lot of information about that stuff. We didn't know how she died. We didn't know like that stuff. So now we do, but it was a while. 

Ashley: That's interesting. Cause I, I guess, depending on how it was found or like what condition it was in, like, I know that there's like a sparkly, like silver backpack near the park, near my house that I have walked by for like a week now. And I haven't, I haven't called anyone and now I'm thinking maybe I should, maybe I should call. And just like, how did they come into possession of it is…

Teara: What would have sparked a phone call about when it call about it back then? Yeah. 

Ashley: This might seem like a weird detail to get hung up on, but I'm just so curious to know how the backpack got from Capitol hill to West Seattle possibly years later. And how did the police get it? Like did someone turn it in? And if so, why? I just, I feel like this could have been the break that was needed in this case. My mind immediately jumps to, well, did any of the persons of interest have ties to West Seattle or was there DNA on that backpack that could have been matched to what was found at the scene and what was inside of the backpack and how are they so sure it was Tanya's like who put two and two together. We have an unsolved murder with a missing backpack and someone found a backpack. You know what I mean? I just, I really want to know more about that. 

Teara: I mean, she was five, five, maybe 140 pounds, maybe smaller than that. Um, very light skin, ton of freckles, dark curly hair, very like small frame. 

Ashley: That's what Tanya looked like. Here's what else she was wearing besides the backpack, a turquoise shirt with the word Hornets on it, light blue jeans and white sneakers. Again, Tanya was last seen on July 18th, 1994. Her classmates saw her at the bus stop on 23rd east and east John. And she was on her way to the chicken soup brigade where she worked at 24th and Jackson. Tanya's body was then found 11 blocks from that bus stop on 23rd and east Highland drive between volunteer park and the Arboretum. it's possible that maybe you saw her walking near meany middle school or waiting at that bus stop or even getting into someone's car. I mean a turquoise shirt and a purple backpack. I feel like that would stand out to me or it would catch my eye or maybe, you know, someone who lived in the area between volunteer park and the Arboretum on Capitol hill in July of 1994. And you can ask them if they saw or heard anything weird around then… you never know what people might remember. 

Teara: Like, I feel like everybody who was, you know, the teenagers at the time who maybe didn't speak up at the time and now they're, you know, 40, 40 plus years old and have 14 year olds have their own. Like, we need help. We need people to speak up people to like, come forward. If you know something, if you saw something like, I feel like there's such a, uh, code of, you know, not talking to the cops, but this is a 14 year old girl that was killed. Like we need help. We need people to come forward and say something. 

Ashley: There were hundreds of students, dozens of neighbors, people were driving down the street. I mean, it was broad daylight, lunchtime on a Monday when Tanya was taken. So someone had to see something and maybe now they're finally ready to talk or circumstances have changed enough since 1994 that they're now willing to come forward. I hope so. This poor family has been waiting for justice for 27 years. 

Sherry: And it's hard to put that on like the backs of the family and the friends, because we're all so traumatized. Like it's really hard to just constantly try to reach out and, and put it in the public eye. Like, why wasn't it publicized? Like why didn't she, it almost felt like she didn't matter enough for something.

Ashley: If you listen to this podcast. You of course know that Tanya mattered back then. And she still does now. And that maybe if we can get her name and photo in front of as many people as possible, we can all help put pressure on whoever can solve her case either by coming forward with information, by turning themselves in or by lighting a fire under SPDs investigation. Any and all tips can be called into the Seattle police department's cold case unit at 2 0 6 6 8 4 5 5 5 5. Or if you want to remain anonymous, you can call Crimestoppers at one eight hundred two, two, two tips. There might even still be a thousand dollar reward available, but that's for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of whoever killed Tanya.

Washed Away is cosmic big foot production, you can find show notes for each episode at washedawaypodcast.com. That includes photos, transcripts sources, and more follow the show on Instagram and Twitter at washed away pod. And please remember to subscribe or follow washed away wherever you listen to podcasts. If you like my work, you can leave a five star rating or review, or just tell a friend about the podcast. I really appreciate it. I'm Ashley Smith, the host producer, and everything else of this podcast. And I'll have another episode ready for you very soon.