WA WA - Ronald Frye, 15, Coupeville, 25 Sept 1993
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christine2448
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Links please?
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/365dmwa.html
Pretty sure the original poster was trying to link here. Anyway, I don't think it's a match. Frye is much taller, has a different hair color, and most importantly has a tattoo that the Grateful Dead fan lacks.
Pretty sure the original poster was trying to link here. Anyway, I don't think it's a match. Frye is much taller, has a different hair color, and most importantly has a tattoo that the Grateful Dead fan lacks.
christine2448
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NP. IMO, can't rule out based on tattoo...he was in MVA, did Jason Doe have any skin missing where there could have been a tattoo?
Best thing to do is match stats side by side and go from there..that is what I have been doing with these 2 today, just to start:
Frye went missing in 9/93, Jason found 6/95...could be.
Frye missing from Island City, WA, Jason found in Greenville City, VA. How far is this?
Frye is 6'2", I can't find Jason listed anywhere taller than 5'9". I would think the ME would be accurate on height only because Jason wasn't skeletal, found years later, it was MVA and they were found w/in 24 hours I suppose.
Dentals available for both. Dentals are quick and easy comparison. Why not, just for the heck of it, ask that they be compared? No stone unturned.
Has Frye been investigated? Was he a dead head fan? What do we know about him? Media Links about his disappearance?
I don't think it's him based on stats, BUT, and BIG BUT, stats for UID can be sooooo wrong. (as in any UID case) Never hurts to dig some more, then post what's found, see if we can rule out positively ourselves..if not, ask for dental comparison, that's easy.
Kat
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The Doe Network:
Case File 365DMWA
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/365dmwa.html
Ronald William Frye
Missing since September 25, 1993 from Coupeville, Island County, Washington.
Classification: Lost, Injured, Missing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: December 6, 1977
Age at Time of Disappearance: 15 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 6'2" (188 cm); 155 lbs (70 kg)
Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Brown hair; brown eyes.
Marks, Scars, Tattoos: A scar above his upper lip and a tattoo of a circle with the letter "A" inside of it.
Dentals: X-rays Available
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Circumstances of Disappearance
Frye was last seen on September 25, 1993 at a beach with friends. He never returned home and has not been heard from since. Initially presumed runaway, tipster later told police he may have been murdered.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Island County Sheriff's Office
360-678-4422
Agency Case Number: 10551-93
NCMEC #: NCMC787206
NCIC Number: M-915286382
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.
Source Information:
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Washington State Missing Persons
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/f/frye_ronald.html
https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/6086/0/
NamUs Profile:
Dental: Available to be entered later
DNA: NA
Fingerprints: NA
No archived articles found.
Ronald has been missing almost 17 years. Come home soon.
(age progression to the right, age notated at bottom of picture).
Case File 365DMWA
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/365dmwa.html
Ronald William Frye
Missing since September 25, 1993 from Coupeville, Island County, Washington.
Classification: Lost, Injured, Missing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: December 6, 1977
Age at Time of Disappearance: 15 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 6'2" (188 cm); 155 lbs (70 kg)
Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Brown hair; brown eyes.
Marks, Scars, Tattoos: A scar above his upper lip and a tattoo of a circle with the letter "A" inside of it.
Dentals: X-rays Available
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Circumstances of Disappearance
Frye was last seen on September 25, 1993 at a beach with friends. He never returned home and has not been heard from since. Initially presumed runaway, tipster later told police he may have been murdered.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Island County Sheriff's Office
360-678-4422
Agency Case Number: 10551-93
NCMEC #: NCMC787206
NCIC Number: M-915286382
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.
Source Information:
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Washington State Missing Persons
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/f/frye_ronald.html
https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/6086/0/
NamUs Profile:
Dental: Available to be entered later
DNA: NA
Fingerprints: NA
No archived articles found.
Ronald has been missing almost 17 years. Come home soon.
(age progression to the right, age notated at bottom of picture).
Attachments
I was going through old emails, and at one time sent a tip for a UID case so I thought i'd post the rule out on this thread and the email.. Incase its helpful to someone on either case
Sheriff's Office Case Number:
97-7151
Medical Examiner's 97C-337
Located on July 12, 1997 in Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado.
Estimated Date of Death: July 6, 1997
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/174umco.html
"We have finally been able to (unfortunately) rule out Mr. Ronald Frye
from Washington state as being our John Doe. Although Mr. Frye had a
similar tattoo, it was located on his arm, not his thumb.
Thank you for your tip. Please let us know if you come across any
other possible matches. At this point, this case will only be solved
with the public's interest and help!"
Sheriff's Office Case Number:
97-7151
Medical Examiner's 97C-337
Located on July 12, 1997 in Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado.
Estimated Date of Death: July 6, 1997
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/174umco.html
"We have finally been able to (unfortunately) rule out Mr. Ronald Frye
from Washington state as being our John Doe. Although Mr. Frye had a
similar tattoo, it was located on his arm, not his thumb.
Thank you for your tip. Please let us know if you come across any
other possible matches. At this point, this case will only be solved
with the public's interest and help!"
SheWhoMustNotBeNamed
Former Member
*bump*
Missing 18 years today.
Missing 18 years today.
SheWhoMustNotBeNamed
Former Member
BUMPING for Ronald, still missing after 19 years. 
MagnoliaMountain
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What happened to Ronald?
SheWhoMustNotBeNamed
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Missing 20 years today.
Cascadian
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I'm probably not telling anyone anything they don't already know, but the 'circle A' symbol is the 'anarchy symbol,' frequently seen on kids in the punk rock scene (as well as actual anarchists). Here's an Imgur image of just such a tattoo.
MagnoliaMountain
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Look at his Charley profile, what a beautiful smile...
Does LE suspect his friends may have hurt him?
Does LE suspect his friends may have hurt him?
hayaletcatcher
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Bump for Ronald, there is now dna listed as tests complete
https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/6086/0/
https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/6086/0/
I know this is an old post however, I would like to thank everyone for keeping my brother Ronny’s case active. After all these years it is nice to know he is not forgotten by not just his family. We still hold out hope that he is alive, though after all these years... If you are out there brother please know you have been and still are missed and loved.
~Little sis
~Little sis
mpnola
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MagnoliaMountain
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Updated Charley Project link: http://charleyproject.org/case/ronald-william-frye
CoupevilleResident
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Hi everybody. As this case approaches its 25th year anniversary, I wanted to revisit it with some details that I haven't seen mentioned in any other discussion of this case. My hope is that with this significant date drawing near, and with a few more leads to go on, perhaps the public would take interest in Ronny Frye again.
In 2000, an article in the Whidbey Times mentioned the cold case as among those that haunt the island, and said that in the "past year", detectives had been searching after getting a tip about Frye's whereabouts (with my deep apologies to RWFsister). Emphasis mine.
http://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/cold-cases-unsolved-murders-disappearances-haunt-island/
"Over the last year, [Island County Sheriff] Mike Hawley said his detectives have been using high-tech equipment from the Navy to look for the bodies of a couple of missing people. The imaging equipment allows investigators to look at the ground beneath a body of water to find a corpse that may be buried in the muck and mud. Based on a new tip, Hawley said they searched for remains of Ron Frye in marshes around the Coupeville area. Frye was a 17-year-old Coupeville resident when he disappeared in 1994. He was last seen at Ebey’s Landing with a man who later became a convicted sex offender and wound up in prison in Spokane. According to Detective Burns, the suspect said Frye walked off into a woods and that was the last time he saw him."
(Note that some details are incorrect. Frye was 15 at the time of his disappearance, and it was in 1993, not 1994.)
A few things here. I'm deeply familiar with Ebey's Landing; I'm not surprised that teenagers would go down there to hang out or party, there's not a lot of places in town to go if you're young. Here's a photo of the area:
See those bluffs? There's an entrance down on the beach where you can climb up and walk along them. The eagles used to patrol the area whenever my dad and I used to walk through. Notice there's a heavily wooded area near the end. And the last person to see Frye said he walked towards the woods.
Also note at the base of the bluffs, near the point, is an area heavy with marshes. Ebey's Landing in general is known for its marshes but that's probably the most significant one.
Here's a view of the path. As you can see, it is steep and a bit treacherous. The marsh lies below.
From above, this satellite image from Google shows us that while the detectives said they searched "marshes in the Coupeville area", there aren't actually many marshes, in fact, this is definitely the most significant one. You can see it here at the very south edge of the screen outside of where it says Ebey's Landing. As you can also see, the wooded area spirals out to Fort Ebey State Park and beyond.
Something else I want to highlight real quick-- other notable disappearances or murders during that time and in that area. This is from the same detective speaking about the Frye case:
"Five years ago this summer, Island County Sheriff Mike Hawley was a detective when 23-year-old Darrin Gerhke was shot and killed, then dumped near his trailer home off Goldie Road. Gerhke worked as a dishwasher in downtown Oak Harbor and was last seen at the City Beach Park at 11 p.m. June 19. A local man was arrested on suspicion of the murder, but he was released without any charges filed. Hawley said his best lead in the case was a couple of pine cones that were stuck to Gerhke’s body. The cones were DNA tested in order to determine which tree they came from, but the murder site has never been found.
Part of the difficulty in investigating the case, Hawley said, was that Gerhke apparently was part of the local gay scene, which is pushed underground because of the Navy. We really ran into a brick wall trying to get gay people in the Navy to talk to us, Hawley said. Then just last December, Gerhke’s friend and former neighbor, 47-year-old Russell Kunkel, was found dead on the beach near the Navy base. He was naked except for one sock and one boot. While he died from saltwater drowning, foul play is suspected. The drowning was totally suspicious, Island County Detective J.D. Burns said, but added that he has found no links between Gerhke and Kunkel’s deaths."
Since the timing of the article is 2000, that puts "five years ago" at 1995, and "last summer" at 1999. Oak Harbor is ten miles from Coupeville, but it's at least worth making note of (fwiw I'm not implying anything about Ronny's sexuality but rather, pointing out there were likely predators in the area around that time). It's likely unrelated, but you never know what might become relevant.
The timing of the article also suggests that even as late as seven years after the disappearance of Ronald Frye, detectives were receiving tips. Or rather, at least one. I've seen it mentioned elsewhere, though, that they were tipped off that it might be a murder, so who knows how long it actually took them to get the equipment and time they needed to search the marshes after receiving that tip.
A big struggle in finding information about this is that the local newspapers are of course not archived online, and even if they were, I have no idea how thorough they'd be or what new details would be provided in the case. The town is just so small, I can't imagine any dedicated reporters were on the beat. If they were, I suspect we'd have more publicly available information. I would give anything to interview the people who were there that night, or to know the name of the last person who saw him. Seems like there's just not enough to go on there at the moment--a former Whidbey Island resident who wound up in jail in Spokane is just too broad of details.
We still remember you Ronny. I didn't know you, but I knew your family, and I know the void you left behind.
In 2000, an article in the Whidbey Times mentioned the cold case as among those that haunt the island, and said that in the "past year", detectives had been searching after getting a tip about Frye's whereabouts (with my deep apologies to RWFsister). Emphasis mine.
http://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/cold-cases-unsolved-murders-disappearances-haunt-island/
"Over the last year, [Island County Sheriff] Mike Hawley said his detectives have been using high-tech equipment from the Navy to look for the bodies of a couple of missing people. The imaging equipment allows investigators to look at the ground beneath a body of water to find a corpse that may be buried in the muck and mud. Based on a new tip, Hawley said they searched for remains of Ron Frye in marshes around the Coupeville area. Frye was a 17-year-old Coupeville resident when he disappeared in 1994. He was last seen at Ebey’s Landing with a man who later became a convicted sex offender and wound up in prison in Spokane. According to Detective Burns, the suspect said Frye walked off into a woods and that was the last time he saw him."
(Note that some details are incorrect. Frye was 15 at the time of his disappearance, and it was in 1993, not 1994.)
A few things here. I'm deeply familiar with Ebey's Landing; I'm not surprised that teenagers would go down there to hang out or party, there's not a lot of places in town to go if you're young. Here's a photo of the area:
See those bluffs? There's an entrance down on the beach where you can climb up and walk along them. The eagles used to patrol the area whenever my dad and I used to walk through. Notice there's a heavily wooded area near the end. And the last person to see Frye said he walked towards the woods.
Also note at the base of the bluffs, near the point, is an area heavy with marshes. Ebey's Landing in general is known for its marshes but that's probably the most significant one.
Here's a view of the path. As you can see, it is steep and a bit treacherous. The marsh lies below.
From above, this satellite image from Google shows us that while the detectives said they searched "marshes in the Coupeville area", there aren't actually many marshes, in fact, this is definitely the most significant one. You can see it here at the very south edge of the screen outside of where it says Ebey's Landing. As you can also see, the wooded area spirals out to Fort Ebey State Park and beyond.
Something else I want to highlight real quick-- other notable disappearances or murders during that time and in that area. This is from the same detective speaking about the Frye case:
"Five years ago this summer, Island County Sheriff Mike Hawley was a detective when 23-year-old Darrin Gerhke was shot and killed, then dumped near his trailer home off Goldie Road. Gerhke worked as a dishwasher in downtown Oak Harbor and was last seen at the City Beach Park at 11 p.m. June 19. A local man was arrested on suspicion of the murder, but he was released without any charges filed. Hawley said his best lead in the case was a couple of pine cones that were stuck to Gerhke’s body. The cones were DNA tested in order to determine which tree they came from, but the murder site has never been found.
Part of the difficulty in investigating the case, Hawley said, was that Gerhke apparently was part of the local gay scene, which is pushed underground because of the Navy. We really ran into a brick wall trying to get gay people in the Navy to talk to us, Hawley said. Then just last December, Gerhke’s friend and former neighbor, 47-year-old Russell Kunkel, was found dead on the beach near the Navy base. He was naked except for one sock and one boot. While he died from saltwater drowning, foul play is suspected. The drowning was totally suspicious, Island County Detective J.D. Burns said, but added that he has found no links between Gerhke and Kunkel’s deaths."
Since the timing of the article is 2000, that puts "five years ago" at 1995, and "last summer" at 1999. Oak Harbor is ten miles from Coupeville, but it's at least worth making note of (fwiw I'm not implying anything about Ronny's sexuality but rather, pointing out there were likely predators in the area around that time). It's likely unrelated, but you never know what might become relevant.
The timing of the article also suggests that even as late as seven years after the disappearance of Ronald Frye, detectives were receiving tips. Or rather, at least one. I've seen it mentioned elsewhere, though, that they were tipped off that it might be a murder, so who knows how long it actually took them to get the equipment and time they needed to search the marshes after receiving that tip.
A big struggle in finding information about this is that the local newspapers are of course not archived online, and even if they were, I have no idea how thorough they'd be or what new details would be provided in the case. The town is just so small, I can't imagine any dedicated reporters were on the beat. If they were, I suspect we'd have more publicly available information. I would give anything to interview the people who were there that night, or to know the name of the last person who saw him. Seems like there's just not enough to go on there at the moment--a former Whidbey Island resident who wound up in jail in Spokane is just too broad of details.
We still remember you Ronny. I didn't know you, but I knew your family, and I know the void you left behind.
CoupevilleResident
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Sorry to come back to this but. I'm thinking about taking a trip to Whidbey Island to check some newspaper microfilms. Going by the tips, there are people out there who know what happened to Ronny and they're just not saying anything.
25 years is a long time, but maybe not all that long. I'm only in my early 30s, Ronny would be 40 by now. Maybe someone who was around that night can be tracked down. I'm a journalist, admittedly in another field, one that doesn't require deep investigatory skills but the fact that I can't find any more information on this, not even the name of any friends or eye witnesses who were there, makes me wonder if this is just a case of the early 90s not being well documented online (newspaper wise), or if those details were not released to the public in the first place. I moved away from the area months before Ronny went missing and I was just a kid, so I don't remember what the coverage was like locally at the time (and unfortunately my grandparents, with whom I lived, have since passed). Maybe I could go find out.
With the amount of time passed, I'm also curious if a Freedom of Information Act request would work.
25 years is a long time, but maybe not all that long. I'm only in my early 30s, Ronny would be 40 by now. Maybe someone who was around that night can be tracked down. I'm a journalist, admittedly in another field, one that doesn't require deep investigatory skills but the fact that I can't find any more information on this, not even the name of any friends or eye witnesses who were there, makes me wonder if this is just a case of the early 90s not being well documented online (newspaper wise), or if those details were not released to the public in the first place. I moved away from the area months before Ronny went missing and I was just a kid, so I don't remember what the coverage was like locally at the time (and unfortunately my grandparents, with whom I lived, have since passed). Maybe I could go find out.
With the amount of time passed, I'm also curious if a Freedom of Information Act request would work.