Police arrest son of couple found dead in their home

Keith Paul and Angela Soo

Monday, Sept. 17, 2001 | 10:39 a.m.

The son of a Henderson couple found last week beaten and stabbed to death in their home was arrested in Texas Sunday.

Matthew S. Frenn, 29, was held in San Antonio this morning charged with two counts of murder. He is being held pending extradition, Officer Terry Bowler, a Henderson Police spokesman, said.

Two partially decomposed bodies were found about 6 a.m. Friday on Book Wagon Street, near Interstate 215 and Gibson Road, after a neighbor called police, asking to check on the elderly couple who lived there, Bowler said.

The two bodies had not been positively identified by the Clark County coroner's office this morning, but police suspect the bodies are those of 69-year-old Lee Jackson and his 60-year-old wife, Dorothy Jackson. The two had been dead for at least several weeks.

Frenn had been living with the couple, who bought the house in April 1998. Frenn is Dorothy Jackon's son from a previous relationship.

Detectives had been searching for Freen since the two bodies were found in the home.

"We didn't know positively who the bodies were, but when you have two bodies, not three, and there were three people living there, then there are a lot of questions to be answered, and he is the obvious source to get those answers," Bowler said.

The two people found dead in the house were killed from stab wounds and bludgeoning, police said.

Police were asked to check on Jacksons about a month ago, when neighbors had not seen them. An officer knocked on the door and got no answer, but found nothing else wrong and did not enter the home.

But then homeowner association notices started piling up on the couple's door for various violations, such as not picking up their mail and lawn maintenance, Bowler said.

"We were called back and the officers noticed some problems and determined they needed to go into the house," he said.

Neighbors said Sunday that they hadn't seen the couple who lived there in months.

"I wasn't that shocked when I found out they were dead, because they were always out and about," said a neighbor, who asked that her name not be used. "They were always doing landscaping work in the front or going out for walks."

The neighbor said the woman had another son who lived in California, who had been to Las Vegas in recent weeks asking about the couple.

"I remember her son driving from California and asking all the neighbors if we had seen them," the neighbor said. "I just assumed he would have the key to their house, but I guess he didn't. After that, I didn't see him again."

About a month later Henderson Police responded to the first call on Book Wagon Street.

A different set of neighbors, who also asked that their names not be used, said they noticed the couple's absence but assumed they were on vacation.

"We didn't see them for about two months and just assumed they were traveling," said the neighbor, who is an English teacher at Foothill High School. "They were real nice. The lady brought over bananas for us one time."