Stay ConnectedBLAME is a true-crime, investigative series by 9NEWS in Denver, Colorado. Learn more at 9news.com/blame.
Season 2, “BLAME: Lost at Home,” is a mystery about a man who was found more than a year after he was reported missing, dead in his own home.
The first season focuses on the death of Jill Wells. Her son, only 6 years old at the time of her death, was blamed for shooting her.
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Two women are bound together by family ties –- and by an attack that made no sense when it happened. It still makes no sense, and yet they’re similarly pulled apart by the fallout they’ve lived with over all these years. For them, that snowy night 35 years ago might as well have been yesterday.
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In this final episode, Jeremy returns to where this series began – Chuck’s home. There, he learns what’s next for the property as a man in an excavator begins to tear down the last remaining piece of Chuck’s life in the physical world. And what about Mystery Mike? A handwritten letter from jail shows up on Jeremy’s desk. And for the first time, Denver’s Chief of Police speaks about Chuck’s case. While Chuck was lost at home, can something be found in his story as the final chapter concludes?
Who was that stranger who came to Chuck’s family with a warning about their father? “Mystery Mike,” as Jeremy Jojola calls him, prompted Chuck’s sons to start searching for their father a year before he was finally found dead in his living room. In this episode, Jeremy takes you along on his journey to find Mystery Mike. What does Mike know?
Compulsive hoarding affects a surprisingly large number of people in the United States. To better understand this disorder, Jeremy sits down with Cory Chalmers, an expert who appears on the A&E show Hoarders. Turns out that Chuck was just one of millions who suffer from this “Hidden Epidemic.”
Jeremy uncovers the original 911 call made by a neighbor 383 days before Chuck was found in his living room. Prophetic words as she warns the city Chuck may dead in his home. However, it took police 9 months to contact Denver's Department of Public Health and Environment, the agency responsible for finally recovering Chuck’s remains. Jeremy questions how this agency took another 4 months to find Chuck Lost at Home.
Finally, police are going on the record to talk about Chuck Frary. Chuck’s remains sat in his home for more than a year even though police visited his house six times during that period. For weeks Denver police denied releasing information in this case, citing a pending investigation. Finally, police agreed to reveal what they did to try and find Chuck. Jeremy sits down with Denver Police Commander Barb Archer to hear how detectives handled the case.
Chuck’s children were a bit reluctant to talk about their father, but after some convincing, Jeremy was able to get all four of them together. They reveal what they did when they first realized Chuck was missing. Who was the stranger that knocked on their door announcing Chuck may be missing or dead? They describe what they saw in his home and also reveal Chuck’s backstory. Did they know he was hoarding? Why didn’t they have a good relationship with their father? Chuck’s kids answer a lot of questions about what they tried to do while questioning how the city handled their father’s case.
So much about life can be revealed by examining death. As macabre and disturbing as autopsy reports can be, they are often loaded with crucial details about a person’s life. After waiting for weeks, Jeremy finally obtains Chuck’s autopsy report. It reveals much about Chuck’s life inside his home. Jeremy also shows the autopsy report to a retired medical examiner who gives interesting insight into what the report really reveals.
Jeremy tracks down one of Chuck’s sons and learns a little about Chuck’s life and what the family experienced when they first realized their father was missing. Many initial questions are answered by talking with Jeff Frary, but more questions arise. Jeff reveals the confusion they experienced when a mysterious visitor came knocking, claiming Chuck was missing or dead.
Every neighborhood has that one homeowner who knows what’s happening on the street. Jeremy sits down with Kristi Petersen who lives two doors down from Chuck. She describes what she witnessed through her living room window and talks about her sole encounter with Chuck in her 15 years living next to him.
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