Rapist charged with murder

Spokane County prosecutors filed a first-degree murder charge Friday against a 23-year-old convicted rapist in connection with the January slaying of a 20-year-old woman.

Detectives continue to build the case against Brian W. Frawley, whose DNA was linked to the body of Margaret Cordova. Her remains were found Feb. 22 near the intersection of Freya Street and Fairview Road outside Spokane city limits.

In the last 18 months, Frawley changed oil, worked at a tire store and cooked pizzas for four different companies. That work put him in contact with dozens of customers.

And investigators want to talk to anyone who interacted with Frawley, Spokane County sheriff’s detective Fred Ruetsch said.

“As near as we can determine, he’s been here since January 2003,” Ruetsch said. “If he’s been here that long, somebody knows him. I’m just hoping … someone will come forward.”

Frawley remains in the Spokane County Jail on a $500,000 bond. Along with the first-degree murder charge, Frawley faces a new charge of failing to register as a sex offender. Earlier this week, he was charged in an unrelated case with first-degree rape, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree robbery with sexual motivation in connection with a reported attack on April 18.

Unlike most investigations, where detectives use witness statements, circumstantial clues and lastly DNA evidence to build a case, the DNA came first in the Cordova case. Ruetsch said Frawley’s name never came up in the Cordova investigation until earlier this month when the Washington State Patrol crime lab matched evidence from her body to a DNA sample Frawley was forced to provide a state database because of a previous rape conviction.

As a result, detectives continue to piece together information about how Cordova was killed after she disappeared about 2 a.m. on Jan. 17, near Crestline and Euclid.

“We’re interested in co-workers, vehicles he had access to and anyone who lent him a car,” Ruetsch said.

Investigators have determined that Frawley worked at Discount Tire Co, 8120 N. Division, cooked pizzas at a local Pizza Hut, worked at a local Domino’s Pizza and worked at all three Pro-Formance Lube Center locations.

“That’s the place where we are most interested,” Ruetsch said of Pro-Formance. “We have talked to a number of co-workers. He only worked there a short period of time.”

Cordova’s boyfriend often got his oil changed at the Pro-Formance on West Francis. Detectives believe that Cordova may have accompanied her boyfriend on one of those trips. If that’s the case, then Cordova may have recognized Frawley, or he recognized her, as she was walking to a friend’s house the night she disappeared, Ruetsch said. “But we haven’t been able to substantiate it.”

Miles McCollim, 20, who works as the assistant manager for the Pro-Formance at 406 W. Francis, said he talked to the sheriff’s detectives.

Frawley “was hired at the Division store. He only worked here three times,” McCollim said. “He didn’t work out at all. He got fired.”

After the DNA match provided Frawley’s name, detectives arrested him June 14 on several outstanding felony warrants. They included burglary, trafficking in stolen property, attempting to elude pursuit and failing to register as a sex offender in Yakima County. Frawley was convicted in 1998 in Cowlitz County of rape. He was 16 at the time of the crime, and his victim was 18, Ruetsch said.

Last week, prosecutors added the rape, kidnapping and robbery charges.

In that case, a 25-year-old woman identified Frawley as her attacker, according to court documents. On April 18, she said a man offered to give her a ride home but drove in the opposite direction.

After ending up at a construction site in Greenacres, the woman said the man tied her hands, raped her twice, stole the contents of her purse and left her tied with speaker wire to a tree, court documents show. She escaped and ran down a hill to Good Samaritan Retirement Village at 17128 E. Sprague Avenue.

Frawley, who declined a reporter’s request for a jailhouse interview, has told detectives little about either crime. “He said nothing other than, ‘I want a lawyer,’ ” Ruetsch said.

Asked how Frawley could get that many jobs with his criminal record, Ruetsch said most were part-time positions.

“I’m not 100 percent positive that he was very forthcoming with his criminal background” when applying for jobs, Ruetsch said.

McCollim confirmed that.

“He never put anything like that on his application. Everything we found out about him since was pretty much a big shock.”