Bonnie Haim vanished without a trace in January 1993, but it wasn't until 2014 that her son Aaron stumbled across her remains while digging up the backyard of his childhood home.
FacebookBonnie Haim’s disappearance was a mystery for 21 years.
“Daddy hurt her.” This is what three-year-old Aaron Haim told Child Protective Services less than 48 hours after his mother, Bonnie Haim, disappeared from their Jacksonville, Florida home.
It was January 1993. Police had been called to a Red Roof Inn near Jacksonville International Airport after a hotel employee found Haim’s credit cards and photo ID, alongside hundreds of dollars in cash, in a dumpster. That night, police found Haim’s car in a long-term airport parking lot.
Bonnie’s husband, Michael Haim, told investigators that Bonnie had stormed off the night before after they had an argument about their marriage. But those who knew Bonnie believed that she wouldn’t simply abandon her young son, and while Michael became a top suspect in her disappearance, there simply wasn’t enough evidence to arrest him. Even Aaron’s own admission wasn’t damning enough. After all, he was just three years old.
But in December 2014, Aaron Haim would stumble upon the terrible truth — one he had known deep down all along. As he and his brother-in-law were preparing to demolish his childhood home, they made a grisly discovery: the remains of Bonnie Haim, buried in the backyard.
The Mystery Of Bonnie Haim’s Disappearance
Personal PhotoMichael Haim with his wife Bonnie and their son Aaron.
Although the intimate details of their relationship are not well known, it’s clear that by January 1993 Michael and Bonnie Haim’s marriage was falling apart. A 2015 affidavit reported that Michael Haim had become abusive toward his wife and young son and, according to The Florida Times-Union, Bonnie had started making plans to leave her husband.
First, Bonnie secretly opened a separate bank account. When Michael found out about it and forced her to close it, Bonnie Haim asked a friend to hold on to spare money for her. She was ultimately able to save $1,250.
At the beginning of 1993, Bonnie put deposits down on two separate apartments she’d found in a Jacksonville suburb. According to friends and relatives, she was planning to leave Michael on Jan. 23, when he was away on a business trip. Before Bonnie put this plan into action, however, she and Michael decided to set aside time to talk about their marital problems. On Jan. 6, Bonnie canceled a visit with a relative, and told them that she and Michael had made plans to discuss their marriage that evening.
The discussion didn’t go well — CNN reports that Bonnie Haim called her best friend that night, distraught, and promised to call the next morning with more details. But the next day, Jan. 7, 1993, Bonnie failed to show up for work. Later, Michael claimed that he and his wife had a fight around 11 p.m. and that she had stormed out of the house crying.
Then, when Bonnie’s belongings were found near Jacksonville International Airport, it seemed possible Bonnie had fled. But the pieces didn’t add up to Bonnie’s loved ones. They didn’t believe that she would abandon her three-year-old son, Aaron. And Aaron’s own eerie statements to Child Protective Services added another layer of suspicion. As WJXT reported, a 2015 arrest affidavit for Michael Haim documented, “Aaron also stated that ‘Daddy shot Mommy’ and ‘My daddy could not wake her up.'”
Unsolved MysteriesBonnie Haim with her young son Aaron.
But police were missing one important piece of evidence: a body. Michael Haim remained a suspect in the case for the next two decades, and Aaron was ultimately adopted by another family, the Frasers. When Aaron and his adoptive mother eventually won a wrongful death lawsuit against Michael, they were awarded the deed to Aaron’s boyhood home.
And in 2014, he would make a discovery there that changed everything.
Bonnie Haim’s Son Finds Her Body Buried In The Backyard Of His Childhood Home
For a few years, Aaron Fraser’s childhood home stood as a rental, but in December 2014, Fraser decided it was time to tear it down for good. He and his brother-in-law began by digging up the backyard’s broken pool and outdoor shower. As he dug his shovel into the earth, Fraser came into contact with a plastic bag. At first, he thought it contained a coconut. Then, upon closer examination, he realized it was something more gruesome.
YouTubeThe crime scene at the Haim home, as seen in a photo presented during Michael Haim’s trial.
“I accidentally busted the bag and saw something I describe as a coconut,” Aaron Fraser later testified in court. “I picked up the coconut object and it ended up being the top portion of her skull. I had it in my hand… Looked back in the hole and you could see teeth. At that point in time, you could see the top portion of her eye sockets.”
Suddenly, police had what they needed to arrest Michael Haim. As prosecutors and Michael’s defense attorneys prepared for trial, investigators got to work examining the remains.
It was known that Michael Haim owned a .22-caliber gun, and there, among the bones, was evidence of a matching gunshot wound. Eerily, this lined up with Aaron Fraser’s decades-old claim that “Daddy shot Mommy.”
FacebookBonnie Haim’s remains were found buried in the backyard of her former home in December 2014.
“[The medical examiner] examined the bone, essentially the pelvis bone, which she noticed there was a circular defect that was consistent with an injury that took place during life or right at death,” Assistant State Attorney Alan Mizrahi told the jury at Michael Haim’s trial.
Michael Haim’s lawyers argued his innocence. But ultimately, the jury didn’t buy it.
After More Than Two Decades, Michael Haim Is Sentenced For His Wife’s Murder
Jacksonville County Sheriff’s OfficeMichael Haim in police custody.
The defense mostly tried to argue that there was enough reasonable doubt in the case to say that Michael Haim could not be found guilty. However, as prosecutors presented their case, Haim’s guilt became harder to deny.
Not only did he have a motive — not wanting his wife to leave him — and a weapon with which to carry out the murder, he had also reportedly bragged to fellow inmates about how he hid his wife’s body.
“He started talking about, you know, how he killed his wife: how he choked her, how her son was mad at him. He buried her in the yard,” one of Michael Haim’s fellow inmates, Terrance Richardson, recalled.
Haim claimed that he had loved his wife and would never do anything to hurt her, but the arrest affidavit also said that he had been abusive toward Bonnie, which was what prompted her to attempt leaving him in the first place. In the end, Michael Haim was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife Bonnie Haim, putting an end to the agonizing saga.
To Aaron Fraser, who has long been haunted by memories of his missing mother — and a vague suspicion that she’d been buried — it’s a relief.
“I do not want to ever have to have to worry about him doing harm to me or to any member of my family,” Aaron Fraser stated in court. “I want everyone to be safe from him. The only way to achieve this is for him to spend the rest of his life in prison.”
After learning about the murder of Bonnie Haim, discover the story of the brutal murder of Robert Wone. Then, dive into the still-unsolved mystery of the Isdal Woman.
