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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Police: Sex Abuse Allegations Led to Shootings
By Jeff Proctor
Journal Staff Writer
Police say trouble had been brewing at Kevin Frazier's West Side home for at least the past month.
It boiled over late Monday when Frazier's wife confronted him with an allegation from the couple's 9-year-old adopted daughter that Frazier had been sexually assaulting the girl, according to police.
The three were inside the couple's home on the 7400 block of Crepe Myrtle SW when Frazier allegedly became angry, pistol-whipped his wife, shot the girl in the chest, then turned the gun on himself, police said.
"He would've rather been known as a murderer than a pedophile," Albuquerque Police Cmdr. Mike Geier said. "That kind of tells the whole story."
The girl remained at University of New Mexico Hospital late Tuesday, police said. She suffered a collapsed lung but was expected to survive.
Frazier, 34, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. His wife, who is also the maternal aunt of the girl, was treated at the scene for nonlife-threatening injuries.
Also present inside the home were the couple's 3-year-old and 3-month-old biological children, officials said. Their 11-year-old adopted son was playing outside when the shootings occurred. All three children are now in foster care.
The 9-year-old girl began telling her mother at least a month ago that Frazier was molesting her, police said. But at first, her mother apparently did not believe her.
"It seems the mother was trying to protect her husband and was asking the little girl: 'Why would you say that?' " Geier said. "As things unfolded, though, (the mother) began to get a clearer picture of what was going on. And then things obviously came to a head."
It is unclear whether the mother will face charges.
The state Children, Youth and Families Department had received one report about the family in October 2008, spokeswoman Romaine Serna said. She would not disclose the nature of the report.
Serna did say, however, that the two adopted children had been in therapy twice a month and "the family was receiving services through a private organization."
CYFD has an open case on the family stemming from the October report, which Serna said was "screened out because the family was receiving services."
It has also become clear since the alleged shooting that the Frazier family is in "dire financial straits because of issues with gambling," she said.
The 9- and 11-year-old children, who are siblings, had been living with Frazier's wife's family in Arizona until November 2007, said Serna said. That's when they came to live with the Fraziers.
In October 2008, CYFD completed an adoption report, and in January, the Fraziers officially adopted the children, Serna said.
Neither of the Fraziers "has a criminal record, and our home study is rigorous," she said. "It was clean, it looked good. They were presenting as people who wanted to take care of kids whose own parents didn't want to. This is just a tragic case."
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