Original subtitles

Smietana: At that point in time, I realized

this was a very serious situation.

There's a child in that house.

I was devastated, because now jeffrey was never

going to have what he should have.

Did he snap? Did something happen either accidentally

or on purpose?

We had to dig deeper.

Oh, my goodness, what did we just see?

♪

♪

[ phone number dialing ]

[ phone ringing ]

[ two high-pitched beeps ]

narrator: Within seconds, deputy dustin smietana,

already on patrol nearby, rushes to the scene,

a small house in a remote part of the county.

Once we arrived on the scene, no lights on the roads

or anything, and to see the big bright orange light in the sky,

it definitely got my attention.

It woke me up fast.

I ran up the driveway as fast

as I possibly could, but I was basically up to my shins,

if not more, in muck and mud.

And it is very hard to traverse in.

I turned on my body camera, because we record these events.

And this is a serious event that's unfolding in front of us.

As I was running up, I just -- I caught out of

the corner of my eye as I was running by,

I saw the silhouette of a person off to my right

as I was running up.

He said that his boy was in the house.

At that point in time,

I realized this was a very serious situation.

You know, there's a child in that house.

[ fire roaring ]

[ breaking glass ]

smietana: We're hearing popping sounds,

crackling of the fire, I mean, this is the biggest

fire I've seen in my career.

It was engulfing the house slowly,

and just the ashes were raining down on me.

[ distant sirens ]

we could hear sirens in the distance,

and quite honest,

I can't imagine a heavy apparatus, you know,

40, 50, 60,000 pounds try and traverse this type of terrain.

[ distant sirens ]

after me and my partner realized going around the back of

the house was not an option that we were able to do,

we went back down the driveway, and we make contact with

the guy that said he was the homeowner.

[ beeping noise ]

narrator: The homeowner, ernest franklin,

points to where his adopted son,

jeffrey, or jr,

is trapped inside the house.

Knowing that there was a victim inside that house,

I felt helpless, my partner felt helpless, too.

We stood by, and watched the house burn more and more

and realizing that there's nothing we could do.

Narrator: Minutes later,

local fire departments arrive on the scene.

They had to start running a line all the way

up this driving, which is -- it's a long way away.

Seconds seemed like minutes -- in my mind, it took forever.

There's firefighters scrambling all over place,

and they're just trying to establish

a foothold on anything they possibly can

to fight this fire.

Once they got their water lines established, they're starting

to fight it back, it's like, wow,

the hard part's over now, that they all came together,

did everything they possibly could in this situation.

Beckwith: It wasn't safe enough for us to

put our firefighters inside the building.

So once we determined exactly where jeffrey was last seen,

we decided to focus our attack

onto the fire by standing from the outside of the building,

and trying to extinguish that as quickly as we could.

♪

austin: Jeffrey --

he never had parents of his own.

He comes to our house, and it was a complete change for him.

Everybody loved him, so it was worth it to everybody.

He was a kid that just would make you smile,

and he loved everything.

Jeffrey was deaf.

He also had learning disabilities.

He had trouble learning and mastering his own language.

Behavior-wise, really,

he did things a typical 3-, 4-year-old would do,

it's just he was older doing them.

But he was a happy kid

even with all the challenges he had.

There was an opportunity for jeffrey

to have his own parents.

And we asked him, you know,

do you want to stay here with uncle ted and aunt jen?

Or do you want a mommy and daddy all of your own?

And he said he wanted a mom and dad all of his own.

It was difficult, um,

not wanting to let him go.

We loved him, but we also were taking comfort

in he's gonna get his own parents.

He deserves his own parents.

♪

-[ chord strikes ] -[ two high-pitched beeps ]

narrator: Back at the house, firefighters continue

to attack the blaze,

knowing jeffrey is inside.

Narrator: Ernest franklin is pulled aside for questioning.

Fern: The owner of the home was the only one there

at the scene, so he would probably have

the most knowledge of what took place,

so it was important to speak to him a soon as possible

and get the accounts of what took place that evening.

What's concerning about it is that you start to wonder,

you know, why isn't this guy,

uh, injured, partially burned?

Usually, people go back into the house,

they're injured, they're burned or sometimes even

they die themselves trying to recover children.

Narrator: Once the fire is out,

the firemen make a heart-wrenching discovery.

We started what we call de-layering the room.

So a lot of the debris and everything that fell off

from the ceiling or from the walls or anything.

We started removing some of those items piece by piece,

going through and looking for any type of remnants of jeffrey

that may remain.

One of the first things we found was actually

the bedsprings.

And then we eventually end up finding jeffrey's body.

We found him laying on the mattress as though

he was sleeping.

It's something you never forget,

and it takes a toll on everybody that's there.

Fern: All those things are adding up

that something's not right here.

There's something that was missing,

and we needed to find that.

[ two high-pitched beeps ]

♪

narrator: Fire investigators in chenango county, new york,

have just discovered 16-year-old jeffrey "jr" franklin,

dead inside his destroyed home.

Smietana: After the firefighters found jeffrey in his bedroom,

they carefully lifted him up,

and we carefully brought him down.

We carefully placed him into a body bag

that the funeral home brought out.

That's when it became real, it became very real,

and we carefully walked him down the drive, again,

through the mud, through the terrain.

We placed him inside of a hearse,

and it was my job just to follow that hearse

all the way down to the morgue.

I don't know -- I really -- I can't describe the feeling.

It was just...

People pass away every day,

but this kid suffered so much how he passed away.

♪

♪

narrator: Now, the investigation into the fire begins.

Detectives start by speaking with jeffrey's

adopted mother, heather.

Fern: I learned that heather was down at the neighbor's house,

and obviously we needed to get a statement from her.

So I made my way down there, made contact with her.

Narrator: Heather describes her evening in

the hours leading up to the fire.

Officer: Okay.

Heather was visibly upset, you know,

she was crying. She was emotional.

She was pregnant with her child,

you know, that brings a whole

nother level of emotions into play.

It could be very devastating.

So we had to sympathize with her.

She just lost a house and lost a child.

Narrator: While heather and ernest grapple with their loss,

fire investigators turn to the remains of the home,

hoping to uncover just what started the fire.

Beckwith: We started our investigation

by taking pictures -- we judged that against the story,

the information from the interviews that we were

receiving and trying to put everything back together.

And did notice that the stove door in the living room

was open, so we questioned that.

Also, the homeowner, who was home at the point in time,

tells us that he comes back out of the woods from looking

for his dogs, and the timeframe that he starts talking about

that he's gone,

and when he comes back, we really start questioning

the progression of the fire,

because using scientific methods, we can figure out,

you know, what the burn rate is in the building, based off

from the combustibles and the type of building construction.

So then we started piecing everything together and realize

that there was something that was not right here.

Narrator: Detectives need to know more about what

happened on the night of the fire.

They start by speaking with ernest's

neighbor, dominick gildersleeve.

We needed to continue to gather information

and provide that information to assist

the fire investigators.

Dominick was there at the fire,

and he witnessed ernest and his actions.

Dominick would help take care of the animals, uh,

the outside animals and the, you know,

inside dogs and cats when the franklins went away.

So it was important for us to talk to him

and see if there was something out of the ordinary.

And we wanted to see what kind of picture

he could paint for us of what type of person ernest was.

Narrator: But then dominick mentions something else

that could explain ernest's odd behavior.

Dominick was putting his own pieces together to

his puzzle that things weren't adding up to him,

and he was concerned that something triggered ernest,

something happened, and, uh, you know,

ernest was doing something to try to cover something up.

Narrator: Then, two days after the fire,

investigators receive a call from the medical examiner.

Fern: I was told there were some concerns.

For one, there was a lack of soot in the trachea

and the bronchi of jeffrey in the mouth and the tongue.

It didn't match up with that he died in the fire.

Also, the lack of carboxyhemoglobin

in jeffrey's body told us that he wasn't

breathing when the fire took place.

Given the information from the autopsy,

we knew that jeffrey was dead before the fire.

So my conversation with the pathologist

resulted in it going from a fire investigation

to a homicide investigation.

And we had to determine who did it.

So the person we would look at first,

and who we'd be leaning towards the most,

would be ernest.

We wanted to find out why he didn't try to get into

the house.

What did he do to try to help save jeffrey?

We had to dig deeper.

We had to find out what was he trying to hide?

♪

narrator: Sheriff's detectives

in chenango county, new york,

have just discovered that 16-year-old jeffrey franklin

was dead before the fire claimed his body.

Now, investigators are looking at a likely suspect.

Fern: It was looking more and more like

ernest was the person who did it.

You know, it was intentional and not accidental,

and so we had to continue our investigation

and try to figure out, you know,

why he was trying to cover something up.

Narrator: Investigators start by speaking with ernest's parents.

So we wanted to just see what ernest was like as a child,

what has he been like the last couple years?

What's his interaction between heather and jeffrey?

We wanted to see the household as a whole

and ernest as a person.

Ernest's parents had said that he had

told them that he was over in iraq.

They didn't really know the specifics,

but the only thing they did mention is that he definitely

came back different.

That's obviously something concerning for us.

Was he still having issues? Did he snap?

Did something happen,

you know, either accidentally or on purpose?

Is it the fact that heather's pregnant now,

that they've been trying for years to have their own kid,

and now this new baby comes along,

and the old kid's kind of out, and the new kid's in.

So we just don't know for sure,

but we're starting to kind of see a picture at this point.

Narrator: While detectives search for the truth,

those who knew jeffrey mourn for a child taken too soon.

Austin: He had so much potential,

even with...

All the challenges he had.

But he was never gonna be like everyday kids,

but he still had...

He still had a potential to have a really, really

good life.

I'm sorry.

♪

narrator: As detectives are seriously

considering ernest's motives for murder,

his sister arrives at the station with

information that may be pertinent to the investigation.

Well, I remember the entire time interviewing her that

she was very reluctant to give up some information,

but my gut was telling me that she wanted

to get more off of her chest.

To say, "there goes $2,000 a month,"

and not mention any sympathy towards losing your child,

it was a red flag to her, but it was also a red flag

to us.

[ music climbing ]

♪

♪

narrator: Detectives investigating

jeffrey franklin's death are no closer

to uncovering exactly what happened,

but they believe there is still more to

his adoptive father's story than meets the eye.

It was starting to look like jeffrey was becoming a burden.

Heather was unable to conceive for many years,

so they adopted a child.

And now that they were able to conceive their own child,

did they need jeffrey anymore?

There's obviously more behind that,

and ernest was the key to finding out more.

Narrator: So detectives begin taking apart ernest's story.

Gould: So during the investigation, we're trying

to figure out these alibis and try to

be able to prove one way or another if they're true or not.

Ernest's was probably the most difficult, obviously,

because he's at home, and he's up in the woods,

and his story chasing dogs,

there's not really a easy way to be able to prove that happened,

so that was, you know, kind of the hard thing for us.

On the other hand, heather was much easier

to get her alibis.

She stated she went to several different stores.

Obviously, we had investigators go pull

surveillance video,

and, in fact, we did find her on many store

surveillance cameras

at basically the times that she said she was there.

On the video, you do see

the truck pull up, you see her exit the vehicle,

you see her walk into the store, you can see heather

grab a cart, go through the aisles.

The next thing we saw was her checking out.

It's an overhead view of her just having a couple items,

and then she walks out of the store.

And then she gets into her car.

She sits there for maybe a minute or two.

Not sure what she's doing, but a minute or two,

nothing too out of the ordinary.

And then she pulls out of the parking lot.

So after leaving the first store, she did go to

at least one other store,

so at this point, her story makes sense.

So obviously, you know, ernest, again,

is the only one at the house,

and he's obviously the prime suspect.

Narrator: Growing increasingly suspicious of ernest,

detectives invite him down to the station

for further questioning.

We wanted ernest to know that we knew jeffrey was dead

before the fire,

and we wanted to provide that information to him

to see how he was gonna react.

We were hoping that he would then break down,

maybe give us confession,

tell us exactly what happened that night.

He reacted in more of

a stubborn way throughout the interview process.

He was cold. He was unsympathetic.

Never apologized for what happened to jeffrey.

Miller: We had already obtained his military records,

and we knew what he was stating wasn't the truth.

He'd never had any combat time in afghanistan.

While he's saying this,

it's making me further believe that he's lying and he could be

lying about other things throughout the investigation.

At that point in time, we have to stop talking

to him and get him the lawyer that he requested,

but it left a lot of unanswered questions.

Narrator: Since ernest isn't talking,

investigators need to build their case against him

a different way.

So they turn to his wife, heather.

During the interview with heather, we told her that

ernest was going to be charged with murder,

murdering jeffrey, and we told her that she needed to put

herself and her unborn child first.

And if she knew anything, she had to tell us.

She knew a lot more than what she was telling us,

and it was frustrating.

She just was trying to sidestep questions.

She was trying to avoid answering

questions by asking for bathroom breaks.

So we had to take it to the next step,

figure out what truly took place.

So the next step in the investigation was to obtain

a search warrant for the truck,

which would disclose a lot of information

about what took place that night.

Fern: So we executed the search warrant on the truck.

We found some extremely valuable evidence.

We did not expect to find a portable gps unit

in the truck that would basically just discredit

her entire story.

♪

♪

narrator: Sheriff's detectives in chenango county, new york,

have questioned ernest franklin about the death

of his adopted son, jeffrey, but have gotten nowhere.

And after speaking with ernest's wife, heather,

they have uncovered a gps in the couple's truck.

Gould: After taking the gps unit that was in the vehicle,

once you started looking at it,

and once you started seeing it timestamped

and gave a location of everywhere

that that vehicle went that night,

there was some shocking revelations that we were all

like, oh my goodness, what did we just see?

So it did start by showing

her leaving the residence that night,

about the time that she said, it does show her

showing up to walmart at the time she said.

But then the real bombshell for us and the one that we were

kind of taken back by was

the fact that after leaving walmart,

she goes back to the residence and sits there for

approximately five or six minutes at the residence.

So then the vehicle starts back up.

She goes to another store after that.

And that totally disproved her stories

previously -- she said she never went by the house,

never was around the house -- that, to us,

said that she has some involvement in this.

She either knew implicitly what he was gonna do or had

a pretty good idea of what he was gonna do while

she was gone.

So at this point, she was a solid suspect.

Narrator: Investigators confront heather

about this new information.

Narrator: Detectives also arrest ernest and charge both parents

with second-degree murder

in the death of their adopted son, jeffrey.

Fern: After arresting heather and ernest that day,

there was no doubt in our mind they were both equally involved

in committing this crime.

There are people out there that do things that

other people wouldn't even fathom of doing,

and why they did that,

we may not ever completely know the truth.

Austin: Why would somebody do that to jeff?

They took away someone that...

Was one of our most vulnerable,

one of the sweetest,

most compassionate people who needed protected.

And he's not here anymore

due to other people's behavior and choices.

They just wiped the slate clean.

He should not have been taken away.

This is not fair.

♪

narrator: In March 2019, news cameras photograph ernest

in court as the guilty verdict is read aloud.

He is sentenced to 21 years to life in prison.

Almost one month later, on the day before her trial,

heather pleads guilty to the lesser charge of

manslaughter and arson.

We'll never quite know for sure

exactly what happened that night.

Obviously, there's some working theories

and things that make sense to us.

We obviously know jeffrey was dead prior to the fire.

That's a fact that we always will know.

We know that the fire was set

to cover up the fact that jeffrey was dead

prior to the fire.

As far as the fine details, we'll never know for sure,

because they're the only ones that could tell us that.

Jeffrey was a child that couldn't speak anymore,

but using the evidence, we were able to give him a voice.

We had the gps and the forensics.

So jeffrey was able to say that, "hey, someone

did something to me."

I don't know the circumstances, I don't know

exactly what happened or what they did or whatever.

I can't even -- I can't imagine...

The fear that was going through his mind and...

That really bothers me.

♪

all I can hope is...

It was over quick and he didn't suffer.

Sorry.

♪

austin: We remember his laughs.

His favorite signs, you know,

things that he would do, his quirky little things

that he would do.

We remember those things, and we remember him often.

He deserved a lot more.

He should be living his best life.

Best life doesn't mean a career or a doctor,

just living your best life, being happy with who you are.

I miss him.

We all do.

I think...

He just should have had so much more.

He really should have.

♪