He carried three notes in his shirt pocket. One was for a neighbor at the trailer park. Another had instructions for his burial. The third note, addressed to the Phoenix police, revealed a secret he had kept for eleven years.

Frank took out the hand gun he had carried with him into the restroom. He held the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. The bullet did not kill or even seriously injure Frank. It only creased his scull. It did succeed in having the police called to investigate the gunshot.

When the police arrived they found Frank still locked in the bathroom with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head. He was alert and talking to paramedics on the way to the hospital.

The police read the notes from Frank's pocket. The note addressed to the police explained that he had arrived home from work eleven years earlier to find his wife, Gloria, dead. The note suggested that they search his trailer. In the bedroom of the tiny trailer, police found Gloria's skeleton in bed under blankets and a pile of clothes. Her skull had a hole in it, possibly caused by a bullet.

The note went on to explain that Gloria had committed suicide, but that Frank was afraid to notify police because they would blame him. That was not an unreasonable fear.

Frank had shot his wife before. Arguments were common between the couple. As Frank would later tell investigators, Gloria was prone to violence, and had beaten him often during the 36 years they had been together.

On November 1, 1983, the couple's travel trailer was parked in a camping area on a California beach in western Ventura County. On this day they argued about their financial situation and from whom they should borrow money until they sold some personal property. The argument turned physical when Gloria began hitting Frank with a sheathed knife. He grabbed a rifle and threatened her with it. She then pointed a gun at him. They struggled for the gun and it went off, hitting her in the chest.

Frank immediately went for help for his 56 year old critically wounded wife. Gloria told ambulance attendants that the shooting was an accident. She told an emergency room doctor that the wound was self-inflected.

Gloria was on life support for several days after the shooting. After a 10-day investigation, Ventura County Sheriff's deputies ruled the shooting "accidental," and released Frank.

At first it appeared that the investigation of the 1998 shooting would have similar results. Investigators were initially unable to identify the 12 year old remains as that of Gloria Martinez. She had no driver's license, dental records, or credit history. If anyone noticed her disappearance, they were not concerned enough to look for her or report her missing.

Neighbors smelled something not long after Gloria's death, but the trailer was located near the park's dumpsters and Frank told them he had found a dead cat under his trailer. Frank continued to live in the tiny trailer which held his wife's decomposing body for eleven years.

Only when the roof began to leak and the trailer began to deteriorate did Frank move in with a neighbor. Perhaps it was the fear that Gloria's body would be found during the repair or disposal of the trailer that lead Frank to his suicide attempt.