Share and Follow
A Texas woman was horrified to inadvertently witness the ambush and murder of her neighbor across the street, as seen in a sneak peek of Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler.
Laura Hoelscher recounted her experience for Season 2, Episode 3 of the Oxygen original series, looking back at the case of doting mother-of-three Farah Fratta, who was killed in a hit-style shooting in the garage of her Humble-area home just outside Houston. As previously reported, Prosecutor Kelly Siegler and the Prosecuting Evil team revisit who killed the unsuspecting victim, and how the killer used his church and children to create what he believed would be a seal-tight alibi.
Kelly Siegler would get to the bottom of the truth.
What did Farah Fratta’s neighbor Laura Hoelscher see?
On Wednesday, November 9, 1994, at 7:38 p.m., Laura Hoelscher said her infant son, Caleb, began to cry, prompting her to nurse the child on the living room couch. It wasn’t unusual for her to see Fratta’s garage lights come on once Fratta returned home and reversed her vehicle into the driveway.
But this time, Hoelscher was surprised to hear “a pop.”
“I see Farah fall in her garage, and then I hear another pop,” Hoelscher told Prosecuting Evil. “Immediately in my mind, I’m thinking ‘She has boys [that] are playing around.’ And I looked at my husband; I said, ‘If she doesn’t get up in two seconds, I’m calling 911.’”
Farah Fratta failed to rise from the garage floor.
The investigation into Farah Fratta’s shooting death
Hoelscher immediately called police, bearing witness to the crime as it continued, even after she was connected with dispatchers. She told authorities what she just saw, explaining that the victim — whom she knew by name — was still on the ground, as heard in the recorded conversation.
“She’s been shot two times,” Hoelscher reported. “There were two shots.”
When asked if Fratta was shot by a passing motorist, the neighbor said there’d been “a guy” lying in wait.
“I just saw his pants, and then I saw a Black man, and he was dressed in black.”
Hoelscher pleaded for an ambulance, adding, “She’s down.”
Still on the line with 9-1-1 operators, Hoelsher watched the garage lights extinguish before seeing the suspect step out from behind a tree and meet a second person — the getaway driver — by the road.
“The suspect just got in the car that just pulled out,” Hoelscher reported. “It was a silver car, I believe, with one burnt-out headlight … The suspect just took off.”
What we know about Farah Fratta
Farah Fratta’s murder marks the third in this season of Prosecuting Evil, following the 1999 murder of expectant mother Belinda Temple and the separate murders of two Texas prosecutors (plus one of their wives) killed in the line of duty by a vengeful assassin.
The ambush and slaying of Fratta became a high-profile case in Texas, in which the victim’s 7-year-old son served as a key witness on the stand, with none other than Kelly Siegler as a prosecutor on a mission to convict those accused. Twists and turns abounded, until multiple people were charged, and an ex-cop would eventually be put to death for his role, as covered by Oxygen News at the time.
Discover more about the Farah Fratta homicide when Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler airs on Saturday, February 8, 2025, with new episodes released every Saturday at 8/7c on Oxygen.
