Man, 29, admits to killings of mom, stepdad

Keith Paul

Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2001 | 10:44 a.m.

A 29-year-old man told police he killed his mother and stepfather in June, then lived in their Henderson home with the bodies for several weeks before traveling around the country using their money, according to court records.

The bodies of Dorothy and Lee Jackson were found last week in their Book Wagon Street home, near Interstate 215 and Gibson Road.

Matthew S. Frenn told investigators he killed his 60-year-old mother days before Father's Day by hitting her with a wooden pole after an argument. Frenn was found Sunday in Texas and flown to Henderson to face murder charges.

"She was at my door yelling. I opened the door and she was walking away from me," Frenn told San Antonio Police Detective Luis Martinez, according to a Henderson Police report filed in Justice Court. "I picked up this stick and I hit her with it. I hit her until she was quiet."

Then he heard his 69-year-old stepfather come in through the garage.

"I picked up a tool, a hammer, and as soon as he walked through the door, I started hitting him with it," Frenn said in a statement. "He held up his arms, but I kept hitting him until he was quiet."

The slayings weren't discovered until Friday, when an officer was asked to check on them.

On the same day a transaction was made on Lee Jackson's bank account at an ATM in San Marcos, Texas.

The police had been called to the home twice in July to check on the couple's welfare, but had not seen anything out of the ordinary.

Lee Jackson's son, Tyron Jackson, had tried to call his dad on Father's Day, but Frenn told him the couple were out buying a new car. Frenn took a message.

Tyron Jackson called five days later, and Frenn said the couple went to Laughlin for the weekend and again took a message.

In early July Frenn told another member of Jackson's family that the couple had driven to Alabama and he didn't know how long they would be gone, exactly where in Alabama they went or how to reach them, court records state.

When the officers entered the home last week, they found the shelves inside the refrigerator had been taken out and a woman's body put inside, according to the report.

Frenn said he put his mother into the refrigerator and never opened it again. He dragged his stepfather into a bathroom, according to the court records.

"I filled the tub with water to keep him cool," Frenn said. "I covered the tub with black plastic. I remained in the house and would keep putting ice in the tub where Lee was."

Frenn left Henderson in early July, first heading to Los Angeles, then to Vancouver and from city to city until he reached San Antonio on Aug. 1, according to the court records.

He said he stayed at various motels in the San Antonio area, then became sick and went to a hospital for several days. Frenn has AIDS, according to the police report.

Frenn told a tale of verbal abuse by both his mother and his stepfather during the three years he lived with them in Henderson.

"Lee would only talk to me when he had some of his nasty things he wanted to call me," Frenn said.

He said the day of the killings, his mother was gambling at a bar and called him several times to bring more money. He said he often took more money to his mother when she was gambling.

When Frenn told her he didn't have any more money that night, she became angry and refused a ride home, he said. She walked home and got into a fight with her husband. As they argued, Frenn said, they came to the door of his room and started yelling at him, according to the report.

"He would call me every dirty name you could think of," Frenn said. "She would tell me nobody loved her and that I was an accident and that I shouldn't have happened. She told me she lives with two men and they were both useless to her."

In his statement to police, Frenn alternated between apologizing and describing details. He said he had been drinking heavily and taking prescription drugs before the slayings.

"I want to add that I still can't believe all of this. I keep thinking it is a dream," he said in his statement. "I have never told anyone, this is the first time I've talked about this."