Was an Oregon 15-year-old the mastermind behind her father’s murder?

The quiet city of Medford, Oregon was shaken by Maggie Friar’s desperate 911 call in the early morning hours of Oct. 2, 2017.

MAGGIE FRIAR to 911: I don’t know where my ex-husband or my oldest daughter is.

911 OPERATOR: I understand that.

MAGGIE FRIAR to 911: Something happened at the house. Something happened over there.

Maggie Friar’s ex-husband, Aaron Friar, and their 15-year-old daughter Ellen, nicknamed Ellie, were missing.

MAGGIE FRIAR (to 911): My concern is for the both of them. We don’t know where they are … 

Maggie Friar: You can only imagine … all the things that were running around in my mind. I didn’t know who was dead, and who was alive.

When Medford Police Officer Logan Boyd arrived at Aaron Friar‘s house, he found a gruesome scene: blood spattered walls, shattered glass, and a trail of blood — to nowhere.

OFFICER BOYD (bodycam/outside by the front door): It starts from there, kinda goes all the way out in the dirt.

DETECTIVE: Goes out towards the carport.

OFFICER BOYD: Yeah.

DETECTIVE: That’s not good.

This led investigators to notice what also was missing: Aaron Friar’s car — seen on a neighbor’s security camera leaving the Friar home around 5:30 that morning.

Officer Logan Boyd: We’re kind of dealing with what I would describe as like a two-headed monster.

A FATHER AND DAUGHTER DISAPPEAR

An all-hands-on-deck call went out to every Medford Police detective, including to Det. Bill Ford.

Det. Bill Ford: We didn’t know at that particular time whether this was a missing person case or a kidnapping. … We just didn’t know.

Det. Shannon Reynolds, Ford’s colleague and wife of 20 years, had a different take.

Det. Shannon Reynolds: In my mind, I automatically assumed that the 15-year-old daughter was the victim … of a … homicide.

Natalie Morales: So, a case like this — where did this one sort of fit in?

Det. Shannon Reynolds: Probably one of the most interesting, heinous crimes I’ve seen in my career.

Investigators hoped Ellie’s younger sister, 11-year-old Sierra, might shed light on the unknown. Reynolds, who specializes in crimes against children, was tasked with interviewing her.

Det. Shannon Reynolds: Sierra wasn’t like outright crying, but you could tell, she was worried.

Natalie Morales: Who was she worried about?

Det. Shannon Reynolds: Her dad and Ellie.

Sierra Friar: I try not to really think about that time a lot, but …

Sierra, 18 years old at the time of this exclusive interview, still finds it difficult to speak about the day her father and sister vanished.

Sierra Friar: I was, you know, just a child and, um — I’m sorry. (cries)

The second of three girls, Sierra says she loved being in the middle.

Sierra Friar: I get to be an older sister and a younger sister, so I get like the best of both worlds. … I like the connection and the bonds that we have.

Sierra says her older sister Ellie loved music and could play many instruments — a skill Ellie seemed to have picked up from their father.

Sierra Friar: One time, he tried to teach me how to play the drums, but I wasn’t very good at it, so. (smiles)

In 2016, Sierra’s parents, Maggie and Aaron Friar, ended their marriage. Sierra says the divorce took a toll on her and her sisters.

Sierra Friar: It affected us a lot. It was actually not a very great experience for everyone involved.

Sierra says that when her parents separated, her dad moved into that small two-bedroom house. Maggie and Aaron Friar shared custody, and the girls would stay with their dad every other weekend. In September 2017, Sierra decided to live with her dad full-time.

Sierra Friar: I wanna be around him and fill my life with him.

Then, around 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 2, 2017, the Friar family was forever broken. Sierra was asleep in the bedroom she shared with her younger sister.

Sierra Friar: I woke up and it was just pitch black. … I remember waking up …  to — like a dinging noise over and over and over again … then I heard … glass shatter. … And I heard the fight that occurred.

The sound was coming from the living room.

Natalie Morales: So then what does she hear? Because she really is sort of an earwitness to all that happened.

Det. Shannon Reynolds: Yes. Yes. … She heard her dad yell the f-word. … She heard dragging. She heard things being moved.

Sierra Friar: After that, it was completely silent.

Natalie Morales: Did she have any idea what was going on at the time?

Det. Shannon Reynolds: No. … She was frightened enough to stay in her room until … she felt like it was OK to come out.

When Sierra finally did come out, she found that horrific scene.

Natalie Morales: Had to be so scary, though.

Det. Shannon Reynolds: So scary.

Sierra told Reynolds that before leaving her room, she had seen something out of her bedroom window.

Shannon Reynolds: She … could see people walking back and forth.

Sierra saw two young men outside of her dad’s house — one was a person Sierra didn’t know. The second was someone Sierra immediately recognized. It was Gavin MacFarlane.

Sierra Friar: He was Ellen’s boyfriend at the time. … This was her big love. … According to her, he was a great guy. But according to my parents, he was not a great guy.

Det. Shannon Reynolds: Sierra insinuated this was a little bit of a forbidden love. Dad had forbade … Ellie from seeing Gavin.

This was the break investigators had been hoping for.

Det. Bill Ford: Once we have a name: Gavin MacFarlane. Now we got a picture. … Now we know who we’re looking for.

The search for Aaron and Ellie Friar — and now Gavin MacFarlane — was on.

Det. Bill Ford: We probably had … 70, 75 people out on the streets of Medford.

Ellie and Aaron Friar’s phones were found in the house. Investigators now began tracking MacFarlane’s phone.

Det. Bill Ford: We started getting cellphone tower hits up in the East Medford area. 

Patrol officers immediately headed in that direction.

Det. Bill Ford: A patrol sergeant locates the car. … That was huge.

As the officers approached Aaron Friar’s vehicle, they realized that something wasn’t right.

Det. Bill Ford: We could see … there was blood on the outside of the bumper that had been dripping down … When this trunk is opened up … there is large amounts of blood. I mean it is soaked into the carpet.

But no Aaron Friar — and no Ellie. But the car was still warm, so the police knew they were close.

Det. Bill Ford: We had tons of people up there driving around, looking for them.

And then, just an hour later, investigators couldn’t believe who they found next.

THE SEARCH FOR AARON FRIAR

Then just four hours after that 911 call reporting her missing, Medford Police found Ellie Friar. She was alive, seemingly unharmed, and had been walking down a busy street with Gavin MacFarlane.

Det. Bill Ford: They’re walking down the sidewalk.

Natalie Morales: In plain sight.

Det. Bill Ford: Plain sight. … So, now we know Ellie is safe.

Which made two things clear: Aaron Friar was the victim, and, based on all that blood in his car and at the house, time was quickly running out to find him.

Det. Bill Ford: We had Aaron … out there, either seriously injured or deceased.

Walking along with MacFarlane and Ellie, was someone investigators hadn’t been looking for.

OFFICER (bodycam): Do you have ID with your name on there?

RUSSELL JONES: Uh, no. I don’t — I hardly ever carry my ID around.

OFFICER: OK.

He turned out to be Russell Jones, a friend of  MacFarlane’s.

RUSSELL JONES (bodycam/in police car): I won’t make it hard on you.

OFFICER: (laughs) Alright.

Jones had apparently made an impression on Sierra, says Reynolds. He matched the description of that second young man she saw at her father’s house that morning.

Natalie Morales: So, she got a really good —

Det. Shannon Reynolds: Yes.

Natalie Morales: — look at this person.

Det. Shannon Reynolds: Yes.

Investigators now had a witness placing MacFarlane and Jones at the crime scene. Ford says he wasn’t sure what to make of Ellie being found with them.

Det. Bill Ford: That doesn’t mean that Ellie is involved in something.

But Ford says that she, MacFarlane, or Jones might hold the key to finding Aaron Friar.

Det. Bill Ford: Ellie, Gavin, and Russell are separated, detained, and transported to the Medford Police Department for questioning.

Det. Stephanie Jackson was tasked with getting Ellie Friar’s account of the previous 24 hours.

DET. STEPHANIE JACKSON (interrogation): So what have you been up to today?

ELLIE FRIAR:  I haven’t been home and now I’m really concerned about what’s been going on.

DET. STEPHANIE JACKSON: Mm-hmm. Where were you?

ELLIE FRIAR: Out.

Ellie was saying everything had seemed normal when she left her father’s house for a long walk.

DET. STEPHANIE JACKSON (interrogation): And you were walking down the street, it sounds like today?

ELLIE FRIAR: Mm-hmm.

DET. STEPHANIE JACKSON: Who were you with?

ELLIE FRIAR: I was with my friends.

According to Ellie, she had run into those “friends”— MacFarlane and Jones—only by chance not long before being spotted by police.

DET. STEPHANIE JACKSON (interrogation): And so everybody’s really concerned … because we actually don’t know where your dad is right now.

ELLIE FRIAR: That’s really … disturbing to hear. … Maybe he was looking for me.

DET. STEPHANIE JACKSON: We are very worried about your dad.

ELLIE FRIAR: So am I.

Ellie was saying she had no idea where her father was or what happened at the house.

DET. STEPHANIE JACKSON (interrogation): So where did all the blood come from in your house?

ELLIE FRIAR: I don’t know.

Around that time, Ford was preparing to interrogate the other two detainees. Strategically, he decided to let Gavin wait in a holding cell and began interviewing Russell.

Det. Bill Ford: He’s a talker … very, very talkative. … so I kind of knew … he would … have a hard time keeping his mouth shut.

DET. BILL FORD (interrogation):  Spin around in the chair there and face me, so I can talk to ya.

RUSSELL JONES: Yeah, I have nothing to hide …

Jones was ready to talk. But he wanted something first: a cigarette.

RUSSELL JONES (interrogation): I talk better when I have a cigarette.

Ford took him outside.

Det. Bill Ford: Just kind of smokin’ and jokin‘ is what we call it.

The camera didn’t record audio, but Ford says Jones began telling him that he and MacFarlane had gone over to the Friar house early that morning.

Det. Bill Ford: He told us that he was trying to help get Ellie out of a bad situation.

That “bad situation,” according to Jones, was Aaron Friar.

Det. Bill Ford: And the first thing that he tells us is, “he’s not a good person.”

Natalie Morales: Aaron Friar is not a good person?

Det. Bill Ford: Correct.

He didn’t elaborate further about Aaron Friar, but Jones was claiming he and MacFarlane were only there to secretly move Ellie out.

Det. Bill Ford: So, the next thing I tell him is “look, Russell, we got detectives out there right now pulling video from every house, the alleys … So if this ain’t the truth … you need to be truthful with me right now.” And he looks me square in the eyes and he says, “Well, 95% of it’s the truth and … 5% of it is a lie.” So, I’m thinking automatically, what’s the lie here?

Ford decided it was time for a new tactic and tried appealing to Jones’s conscience.

Det. Bill Ford: I look at him and I’m like, “You know, Russell, I don’t want a child to find Aaron … out there somewhere, come across something like that.” … I said, “Can you take us to Aaron?” … he didn’t beat an eye. He’s just like, “Yeah, I’ll take you to him.”

The veteran detective wasted no time.

Det. Bill Ford (to Morales): We load Russell up. He’s actually sitting in the seat that you’re sitting in now.

Det. Bill Ford: We got him handcuffed in front. … he’s basically telling us, OK, turn right, turn left.

They were ascending a rural mountain pass 20 miles outside town.

Det. Bill Ford: And then all of a sudden Russell says “Stop.” … “Stop right here.”

THREE SUSPECTS, THREE DIFFERENT STORIES  

DET. FORD (bodycam at the site where Aaron Friar’s body was found): Where did you stop your car and back up?

RUSSELL JONES: Uh — Probably right where that rock is.

DET. FORD: Right here in this green tarp?

Natalie Morales (at the site where Aaron Friar’s body was found): Do you see the body right away?

Det. Bill Ford: You could see the tarp; you couldn’t see any portion of the body.

Detectives descended the wooded ravine and pulled back that tarp revealing that, just six hours after that 911 call, they had found Aaron Friar.

Det. Ford: It was … obvious that he was deceased.

Natalie Morales: When you found out your husband was dead, what did you think?

Maggie Friar: Uh … I was completely shocked; I didn’t know what to think.

Maggie Friar says the police hadn’t yet told her Ellie was in their custody being questioned — or even that she had been found.

Maggie Friar: I was very worried about the fate of my daughter. … I had no idea if my daughter was even alive, too.

Maggie Friar then faced the unimaginable task of sharing the news of Aaron’s death with their two younger daughters. The reality was almost too much for then-11-year-old Sierra.           

Sierra Friar: I just really didn’t wanna believe it for a really long time.

While investigators began processing the scene, Ford drove Russell Jones back to police headquarters. He says Jones was claiming that all he had done was help dispose of Aaron Friar’s remains.

Det. Bill Ford: He’s like … I’m not gonna be a witness against Gavin.

Russell was saying Gavin MacFarlane was Aaron Friar’s killer, but that MacFarlane had been provoked.

Det. Bill Ford: His story was … that Aaron had a rifle and was pointing it at Gavin.

Natalie Morales: So making it seem like a self-defense … because of — he had a gun pointed at him.

Det. Bill Ford: Exactly.

Back at the station, Ford returned Jones to the interrogation room, while detectives gathered for a briefing.

That’s when Russell began taunting them through the camera.

RUSSELL JONES (alone in interrogation room): you’re listening in on my conversations, aren’t you?

RUSSELL JONES (alone in interrogation room): I can still twist your little mind. Don’t piss me off.

Natalie Morales: This, I imagine, got everybody to stop what they were doing and gather around the monitor —

Bill Ford: Yeah.

Natalie Morales: — and watch this.

Det. Bill Ford: Yeah. That’s what you do. 

RUSSELL JONES (alone in interrogation room): So we can play it the easy way or the hard way.

Det. Bill Ford: He would go into these rants and … making demands and stuff.

RUSSELL JONES (alone in interrogation room): Gavin and Ellie are to be released to me.

And Jones was claiming he still hadn’t been totally truthful.

RUSSELL JONES  (alone in interrogation room): And Mr. Ford, you want the whole story? ‘Cause I did miss a few parts.

For her part, Ellie was now saying Jones was the one responsible.

ELLIE FRIAR (interrogation): I believe that Russell’s the one that killed my father.

With the conflicting claims, Ford decided it was finally time to interview MacFarlane.

GAVIN MACFARLANE (interrogation): I know I’m in serious trouble, aren’t I?

DET. BILL FORD: Well, we need to figure out what happened.

MacFarlane started by saying how volatile Aaron Friar could be.  

GAVIN MACFARLANE (interrogation): He’s threatened my life … He’s like, no, stay away from my daughter. … I’m gonna kill you.

One month earlier, MacFarlane had called the police claiming Aaron Friar had shown up at his house, banging on his door, threatening to kill him.

GAVIN MACFARLANE (interrogation): I don’t know what caused him to not like me anymore.

Detectives discovered at least one reason: MacFarlane’s age. He was 19 years old, dating 15-year-old Ellie. And making things worse, MacFarlane was now claiming Ellie was going to have his baby.

DETECTIVE: She told you she was pregnant?

GAVIN MACFARLANE (interrogation): I’ve known for about two weeks now.

While MacFarlane was admitting to having a sexual relationship with a minor — itself a crime — he was accusing Aaron Friar of being the one who had been abusive to Ellie.

GAVIN MACFARLANE (interrogation): The anger had just been building up ’cause of the things that Ellie had been telling me.

DET. BILL FORD: Mm-hmm.

GAVIN MACFARLANE: I was just trying to protect Ellie.

DET. BILL FORD: OK.

GAVIN MACFARLANE: And my possible child.

MacFarlane was claiming he and Jones had gone to the house that morning, but unlike what Jones said — that Aaron Friar had not confronted him with a gun. Instead, MacFarlane was saying Aaron Friar had been in the living room asleep on the couch and that MacFarlane had crept in armed with a baseball bat. Then, MacFarlane made a startling admission.

GAVIN MACFARLANE (interrogation):  I just acted on instinct.

DET. BILL FORD: OK. Tell us what happened.

GAVIN MACFARLANE: I just swung the bat downwards. It was dark, I couldn’t see.

DET. BILL FORD: How many times do you think you hit him?

GAVIN MACFARLANE: Like five or six maybe.

DET. BILL FORD: Five or six times?

GAVIN MACFARLANE: Yeah.

The physical evidence would back up MacFarlane’s story. Aaron Friar had died from blunt force trauma to his head, and a bloodied baseball bat was recovered from a tree branch above where his remains had been found.

Testing would confirm the blood was Aaron Friar’s.

Det. Bill Ford: And he demonstrated for us in the interview room. … how hard he swung it down on … Aaron’s head.

GAVIN MACFARLANE (demonstrating during interrogation): I went over the shoulder the first time. And then I started going up above my head.

Det. Bill Ford: I mean, there were five distinct blows to his head.

Explaining that dinging sound Sierra had heard.

Det. Bill Ford:  It fractured his skull. Caved his skull into his brain.

GAVIN MACFARLANE (interrogation):  I’m — I’m really sorry. (crying)

And investigators soon found evidence that Aaron’s murder had been meticulously plotted for weeks. They discovered notes — some in Russell’s handwriting — at Gavin’s house.

Det. Bill Ford: We found … several murder plans. … And they actually had plan A, plan B, there were multiple plans. And I think ultimately, they come up with the bat.

Natalie Morales: And based on what you could see from the planning … who’s the mastermind of all of this?

Det. Bill Ford: Ellie, believe it or not.

Ford says he believes it was Ellie who wanted Aaron Friar murdered, pointing to messages Ford says she sent to MacFarlane. In one she says, “We need to make sure he’s dead by the time we leave his house.” And in another, she asked “You want to kill him now dont you”… and then “…You can kill him in less than a min, right?”

Det. Bill Ford: She’s pushing it all. … She wants to be with Gavin. … She wants to be out from underneath the authority of her father.

GAVIN MACFARLANE (interrogation): Ellie wanted me to kill him, but I didn’t want to.

Ford says Ellie might have made up those abuse allegations possibly as a way to motivate MacFarlane to kill her father.

Det. Bill Ford: She is very manipulative.

Det. Bill Ford: For me watching that entire interview … she lied and lied and lied.

DET. STEPHANIE JACKSON (interrogation): Are you Ellie?

ELLIE FRIAR: No.

DET. STEPHANIE JACKSON: How old are you?

ELLIE FRIAR: 18.

DET. STEPHANIE JACKSON: How did Gavin get in the house this morning?

ELLIE FRIAR: He wasn’t in the house.

After several hours, Ellie did eventually admit some of her role — even saying that she had handed MacFarlane the murder weapon.

DET. STEPHANIE JACKSON (interrogation): And what do you say to Gavin?

ELLIE FRIAR: I said, “I’m ready when you are.”

STEPHANIE JACKSON: OK. What did you mean by that?

ELLIE FRIAR: “When you do this, we’re in it together.”

STEPHANIE JACKSON: What did you mean when you said, “when you do this?”

ELLIE FRIAR: Kill my dad.

With evidence they all conspired to kill Aaron Friar, Gavin MacFarlane, Russell Jones, and Ellie Friar were charged with his murder.

Aliza Kaplan|Ellie Friar’s defense attorney: From the day after she was arrested … there was this narrative and her side was never told

Until now.

Aliza Kaplan: The story that the state has … why is it the right one?

ELLIE FRIAR’S DEFENSE

Maggie Friar: My daughter left to go stay at my ex-husband’s house for the weekend, and never came home.

Natalie Morales: I imagine that moment haunts you still.

Maggie Friar (emotional): Of course, it does. My child never came home.

After hours of worry, Maggie Friar was finally told her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, had been located.

Maggie Friar: I got a phone call from a police officer … that they’d found her.

But worry morphed into anger, when she was then told Ellie had been arrested for her father’s murder.

Maggie Friar: And I said, “So you’ve had my daughter in your custody, and you’re interrogating her? And you never once called me to let me know so I can maybe get her some representation?”

Aliza Kaplan eventually became one of Ellie’s attorneys. She says the narrative about Ellie Friar has been wrong from the very beginning.

Aliza Kaplan: In this case … she was made out to be the — the … mastermind or something, you know? … She planned all of this, when she was 15 years old, and they were 19 and 22.

Natalie Morales: She was the manipulator.

Aliza Kaplan: She was the manipulator, right? And that this was all because of her relationship with an older man.

But Kaplan says this crime actually happened because of the alleged abuse Ellie suffered at the hands of her father, Aaron Friar.

Aliza Kaplan: She was sexually abused, emotionally abused, and physically abused.

Abuse that Ellie described in her police interrogation.

ELLIE FRIAR (interrogation): He used to be a good father, but he started getting abusive about three years ago.

Aliza Kaplan: I picked out a bunch of things, but …

Reading from the case file, Kaplan recounted several allegations of molestation and abuse. Warning: the following may be disturbing.

Aliza Kaplan (reading): Her father would grab at her breasts. … He told her to give in to him.

ELLIE FRIAR: He tried to take my clothes off. And I slapped him away. (crying)

Aliza Kaplan (reading): He would masturbate on top of her when he thought she was sleeping.

ELLIE FRIAR: I felt so dirty. … And so ashamed of myself.

Aliza Kaplan: He pushed her down stairs. Called her whore, idiot, stupid, slut shamed her.

ELLIE FRIAR: And he would pin me up against the wall and he would call me those names.

Aliza Kaplan: And then, when he would get drunk, it would all get worse.

According to the police report, three of Ellie’s friends told investigators that … “Ellie said her dad abuses her” …  Ellie shared “that her dad was rough on her and emotionally and physically abused her” … and Ellie said “her dad mentally and verbally abused her.” But Ellie admits she never told her friends about the sexual molestation, and neither Ellie nor her friends told the police about any kind of abuse before her father’s murder.

Natalie Morales: And as far as allegations of abuse … was there … any evidence whatsoever that your detectives could find to back up what Ellen Friar was saying happened to her?

Det. Bill Ford: No, there was none.

Ford says with Aaron’s death, the possibility of proving abuse may have died with him.

Det. Bill Ford: We can’t go to Aaron and ask “Aaron, were you abusing your daughter?” … We may never know the truth. If she told her mom, did she tell her mom ahead of time?

DET. STEPHANIE JACKSON (interrogation): Have you thought about having a conversation with your mom about that?

ELLIE FRIAR: No. I’m horrified to even talk about it. …

DET. STEPHANIE JACKSON: Who have you talked to about your dad masturbating?

ELLIE FRIAR: I told Gavin about it, but that’s it.

Ellie told Det. Jackson that the first time she had told Gavin was two days before he bludgeoned her father to death. 

DET. STEPHANIE JACKSON (interrogation): I know this is hard to talk about. I know.

ELLIE FRIAR: (crying) Why me? Why did he do it to me? I don’t — I have no idea what he’s done to my sisters. (crying)

Aliza Kaplan: I see … a teenager who … would do anything to survive and to protect her sisters.

Det. Shannon Reynolds says 11-year-old Sierra was asked if there were any problems at home.

Det. Shannon Reynolds: She actually only had good things to say about her father.

When Reynolds interviewed the youngest Friar daughter, she recalled the last conversation she had with Ellie minutes after their father’s murder.

Det. Shannon Reynolds: She had said that Ellie had woken her up … [Ellie] said she was leaving, and that she was leaving because mom and dad were abusive.

Before Reynolds could say anything, the 8-year-old gave her opinion on the matter.

Det. Shannon Reynolds: And she told me, “My mom and dad were not abusive.”

Both of Ellie’s sisters told Reynolds that what Ellie had called “abuse” was actually their parents disciplining her for sneaking around with Gavin.

Det. Shannon Reynolds: Because they took her electronics away and they yelled at her.

Natalie Morales: What do you say to that?

Aliza Kaplan: Yeah … Well, they were younger … right? … This is actually very common in families where there’s abuse. That there’s one child who takes on the majority of it … and … want to protect the others in the family.

Natalie Morales: You know, you, you described her as this protective older sister, but yet … she left them there at the house. How is that protecting them?

Aliza Kaplan: Yeah. … And I think, you know, those are things that Ellen will live with … for the rest of her life. … And she clearly understands how much damage she has caused her sister. 

Ford says that with no evidence to back up Ellie’s abuse claims, he remains suspicious that she may have made it all up to manipulate MacFarlane. And it turns out, Ellie was never pregnant.

Det. Bill Ford: I think you got to look at it two ways: maybe she thought she was pregnant or maybe she’s using that to influence Gavin to kill her dad.

Ellie’s legal team says Ellie did think she was pregnant, which is why she bought a pregnancy test at a store hours after her father’s murder.

Investigators say it’s clear Ellie has an issue with the truth.

Det. Shannon Reynolds: She lied during that interview for no reason.

Kaplan says much has been made of the many lies Ellie told during her police interrogation.

Aliza Kaplan: As a parent, we — we all know that our kids sometimes do that.

But Kaplan says the real focus should be on the hours, and hours, and hours Ellie spent in that interview room.

ELLIE FRIAR (interrogation): I have a right to remain silent.

Aliza Kaplan: She asked to not talk. She said, “I wanna remain silent,” right? … She was there for 10 hours — straight.

DET. STEPHANIE JACKSON: But with your wishing to remain silent, it’s really difficult to kinda get to the bottom of all of that. 

ELLIE FRIAR: Then let’s talk. 

A minor without a guardian or attorney.

Natalie Morales: Is it normal to keep a 15-year-old in an interrogation room … for 10 hours like that?

Det. Bill Ford: Yeah. I mean there’s no law against it. So we gave her breaks. … There was times where she laid on the floor and slept.

Kaplan says that although it may have been legal in Oregon, it wasn’t right.

Aliza Kaplan: And look, police have their jobs to do. I get it. I just think the rules are really different when you have a kid. And in that, she looks like a kid. She’s acting like a kid. She’s in fear like a kid would be.

A kid who Kaplan says was taken advantage of by someone she calls another abuser: 19-year-old Gavin MacFarlane.

Aliza Kaplan: A grown man reaching over to a 15-year-old girl who was so vulnerable. … No matter what her, text messages said, no matter what her involvement was … I don’t even understand how you don’t look at that as, him being the controller.

Reynolds says she saw some of that controlling behavior on display in letters MacFarlane wrote to Ellie after they were arrested.

Det. Shannon Reynolds: He was, saying that … she needed to be sure to say that her dad was abusing her. … And he was telling her, “We’re going to take this to a jury and we’re going to win the jury over, and the way to do that is to cry. Make sure you cry.”

WHO WAS THE MASTERMIND?

ELLIE FRIAR (interrogation): I’ve given everything I can. And when this goes to court, I would like to be tried as an adult. 

But there would be no trial. In January of 2019 — a little more than a year after her father’s death — Ellie Friar took a plea deal.

Natalie Morales: How did you feel about that decision?

Maggie Friar: I didn’t like it, ’cause I’m pretty sure that she did it ’cause she was scared. … I don’t think she wanted to go to court.

Ellie Friar pleaded guilty to an adult charge of conspiring to murder her father, Aaron.

ELLIE FRIAR (in court): I would first like to say that I’m sorry for all the pain that I’ve caused to others through this whole ordeal.

The deal was brokered by a different defense attorney. According to court documents, that attorney wrote that Ellie Friar’s co-defendants, Gavin McFarlane and Russell Jones, “were going to be testifying against” her and say that she “was the mastermind behind all of this; it was her idea from the beginning.” Ellie’s text messages would have been used against her at trial too.

Aliza Kaplan began working on Ellie Friar’s behalf in 2024.

Aliza Kaplan: I run the Criminal Justice Reform Clinic. … We are looking at Ellen’s case … mostly because we believe that she has an excessive sentence.

Natalie Morales: And what is her sentence?

Aliza Kaplan: 25 years.

Gavin MacFarlane and Russell Jones also took plea deals, with Gavin MacFarlane pleading guilty to murder and murder conspiracy charges. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Russell Jones entered a no-contest plea to conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to 15 years.

Kaplan is fighting to reduce Ellie Friar’s sentence. She says Ellie should not have been sentenced to 10 more years than Jones for the same crime.

Aliza Kaplan: She was 15, he was 22 and her sentence is so much bigger than his.

Natalie Morales: The idea that Ellen is the master manipulator, I mean she’s a 15-year-old. I mean, don’t [MacFarlane and Jones] bear more responsibility because they’re the adults?

Det. Bill Ford: Uh, I don’t — I wouldn’t agree with that. … Ellie is absolutely just as responsible as Gavin, except Gavin was the one that took and held the bat in his hands.

Detective Shannon Reynolds isn’t as certain as her husband about Ellie’s role.

Det. Shannon Reynolds: I go back and forth … The mastermind of it … I initially thought was Ellie. … Then reading the letters from Gavin that he wrote to Ellie, telling her what she needed to say … then I started to think maybe Gavin was the mastermind of all of this. I go back and forth.

Ford says regardless of who crafted the plan, all three are responsible in the eyes of the law.

Det. Bill Ford: Because without her, this wouldn’t have happened. Without Gavin, this wouldn’t have happened. I doubt without Russell, it could have happened.

Aliza Kaplan: I wanna be very clear, she was involved. She participated, she was a co-conspirator, no doubt, right? She takes full accountability for her role in this crime.

Ellie Friar, now 23, has been serving her sentence in a juvenile detention center. In December 2026, she will be moved to an adult prison. She recently earned two master’s degrees: one in psychology and another in justice studies.

Aliza Kaplan: Which, by the way, is not that easy to do when you’re in prison. … She’s really incredible.

Maggie Friar: I’m very proud of her. I’ve always been proud of her … after what she went through.

Det. Bill Ford: Aaron’s dead. …Who’s gonna speak out for Aaron? 

Sierra Friar will. 

Sierra Friar: My dad was a kind man who loved me and my sisters and always tried to fill my life with joy. … He was a great father to me. … He goes with me wherever I go.

 Sierra has joined the National Guard — something she says her father always wanted for her.

Det. Shannon Reynolds: It’s mind-blowing that the little girl I interviewed is now grown up. The fact that she is joining … the National Guard lets me know … she didn’t let this, you know, derail her life.

A life Sierra has had to live without her father, whose memory has been marred by those abuse allegations. A “48 Hours” producer asked Sierra about them.

Lauren A. White | “48 Hours”: Ellie claims that your father abused her. What do you have to say to that?

Sierra Friar: Uh, I don’t wanna talk about that just ’cause I have my own feelings about it.

Sierra is just as guarded when it comes to her thoughts about her sister, Ellie, though the two have maintained a relationship over the years.

Sierra Friar: It’s very hard to explain because a lot of people wouldn’t understand. … I’ve got my own feelings about her.

But Sierra’s feelings about her father are very clear.

Sierra Friar: I love him and I’m so sorry for everything that happened. (crying) … I have faith and I have hope that one day, that we’ll meet again. (voice cracks, nods)

Ellie Friar will be eligible for parole in 2032. She will be 30 years old.

Produced by Richard Fetzer and Lauren A. White. Greg Fisher is the development producer. Megan Kelly Brown is the associate producer. Grayce Arlotta-Berner, Diana Modica and Mike Baluzy  are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.