A Florida man has been sentenced to life behind bars for murdering his wife in 1993 and burying her in the backyard of their home — where his son would return and uncover her remains more than two decades later.
A jury in April found Michael Haim guilty of second-degree murder in the death of his 23-year-old wife Bonnie Haim. The 52-year-old killer lived off of her life insurance policy for years until he was arrested in 2015, shortly after her remains were uncovered in a shallow grave behind the couple’s Jacksonville home, The Florida Times-Union reported.
Haim was long a suspect in the disappearance of his wife and that speculation only intensified when their 3-year-old son, Aaron Fraser, made a startling comment to law enforcement.
“Daddy hurt mommy,” he told a child investigator more than 20 years ago.
When Fraser returned to his boyhood home in 2014 to excavate parts of the yard, he discovered his mother’s skull — prompting law enforcement to reopen the investigation that would ultimately culminate in his father’s arrest.
“I accidentally busted the bag and saw something I describe as a coconut. I picked up the coconut object and it ended up being the top portion of her skull. I had it in my hand,” Fraser testified last month.
“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.”
State prosecutor Alan Mizrahi said the discovery of Bonnie’s body in 2014 was the break they needed to crack the case, according to Action News Jax.
“Finding her in the location we found her was the key piece of evidence,” he said. “Law enforcement always suspected Michael Haim. He was found responsible in a civil court and we just needed the one piece of evidence to make proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
And after decades of waiting, Bonnie Haim’s family have achieved some closure in the tragedy.
“We got justice but we don’t have Bonnie,” her sister, Liz Peak said. “So we’re just going to take one day at a time. Learn what I feels like to not have to keep searching anymore.”
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