Haywire

Summary

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Five Miles From Home – Episode 6: "Haywire"

Host: Keith Morrison (NBC News/Dateline)
Date: June 24, 2026

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Overview

In this gripping episode, Keith Morrison unravels the aftermath of the murder of high schooler Michaela (Mickey) Costanzo in a small Nevada town. The focus is on the psychological underpinnings, personal histories, and tangled motives of the two convicted teens: Cody Patton and Tony Fratto. Through interviews, diaries, and parole hearing footage, Morrison explores the dynamics of jealousy, betrayal, rage, and the elusive search for truth behind a tragedy that shattered three families.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Central Questions

• Who bears the greater responsibility—Cody or Tony?
• Was Tony’s account of abusing, manipulated complicity genuine or a legal strategy?
• Did the pair set out to kill Mickey, or did events spiral out of control?

"Which one of those young people bore the greater responsibility for the attack on Mickey Costanzo? Was punishment for that crime fairly applied?"
— Keith Morrison [00:46]

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2. History of Relationships: Motives and Jealousy

a. Cody and Mickey’s Past

• Childhood friends; relationship described as "more like brother and sister."
  • "They were just best friends for a long time." — Tony Fratto [03:26]
• Brief innocent dating as tweens.

b. Tony’s Insecurity and Jealousy

• Tony’s diary reveals deep-seated insecurity and fixation on Michaela; jealousy intensified by a minor incident (a brief kiss between Cody and Mickey).
  • "He will be happier and can see her a lot, a lot more than he will ever see me." — Tony's Diary [03:31]
  • "She just wished Mikayla would just go away." — D.J., Michaela's Sister [02:31]
• Although both sides (Tony’s mother and Mickey’s sister) recount efforts to reconcile, DJ reports Tony’s animosity never ceased.
  • "The hatred with Tony grew more and more and more. And it went on till pretty much she died." — D.J. [06:35]

c. Escalating Tension and Violence

• Reports of Cody's aggression toward Mickey:
  • An incident of self-harm inflicted by Cody:

  "He swiped it [box cutter blade] across her arm... and he's laughing." — D.J. [06:50]

d. Mickey’s Withdrawal

• After the assault, Mickey cut off contact. Cody’s anger and attempts to regain communication increased.
  • "He grew really angry at her... he said he loved Michaela... didn't want her to ever go." — D.J. [07:55]

e. Suspicion and Fear

• Mickey reportedly expressed anxiety and reluctance to spend time with Cody and Tony in the weeks leading to her murder.

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3. The Day of the Murder: Competing Narratives

a. The Plea Deal and Cody’s Half-Confession

• A previously unreleased recording reveals Cody’s story:
  • Tony initiates a confrontation in a school hallway, calling Mickey derogatory names [11:35].
  • Postulates Mickey agreed to "duke it out" with Tony after school.
  • According to Cody, Mickey enters the car voluntarily, expecting a fight with Tony.

But Cody abruptly recants cooperation, declining a plea deal in apparent loyalty to Tony, believing she’d never testify against him.

"Cody, much to almost everyone's surprise, rejected the plea deal that could have kept him off death row." — Keith Morrison [13:57]

b. Attorney Olson’s Theory

• Believes confrontation at the desert was planned, only for events to spiral unexpectedly:
  • "A bad idea that became a horrible idea. A bad idea that went very, very bad." — John Olson (Cody's Attorney) [15:10]
  • Olson speculates on a spontaneous escalation rather than pure premeditation:

  "I think they were more reactionary than they were premeditative... I think it just went haywire" — Olson [15:18]

c. Detective Burnham’s Position

• Detective Burnham emphasizes the truth is likely locked between Cody and Tony, who “would tell the truth to anybody but each other.” [15:59]
• He asserts both participated.

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4. Tony Fratto’s Jailhouse Interview

a. Tony’s Current Story

• Downplays prior jealousy, denies ordering Cody to kill Mickey.
• Claims she had no idea Cody intended harm, receiving a text "I have her" and joining him to seek confirmation.
  • "People may find it hard to believe, but I still did not believe that he had her in that car until I had gotten in that car." — Tony Fratto [22:25]
• Denies active participation, claims paralysis from fear.
  • "I did what I was told because I was scared. I didn't know what to do." — Tony Fratto [26:13]
• Yet, she slips into language indicating prior knowledge/planning: referring to the "designated area" [23:40].

b. Contradictions

• Earlier confessions allegedly indicated collaborative action in the killing. At parole, Tony reverts to distancing herself from the murder.

c. Aftermath and Remorse

• Tony describes ongoing guilt and attempts to move on from Cody.
  • "Not a day that goes by that I don't think about what happened. I know sorry is not enough." — Tony Fratto [28:58]

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5. Parole Hearings and Justice

a. Tony’s Parole Hearings (2021 & 2024)

• Tony breaks down as she testifies, expressing remorse but also continuing to assert she acted out of fear.
  • "I regret that every single day of my life. And the only thing I can say is I was scared." — Tony Fratto [36:21]
• Both hearings result in denial of parole.

b. Family Statements

• Mickey’s family remains resolute:
  • "She should take the same price my daughter did. A life for a life." — Mickey’s Father [34:36]
  • Celia, Mickey’s mother, is adamant that neither perpetrator has told the full truth, vowing she’ll never forgive or forget.

    "There is nothing they can say or do that will make it better. They cannot fix this." — Celia [37:53]

c. Fate of the Perpetrators

• Cody Patton: Serving life; will never be released.
• Tony Fratto: Possibility of parole, next hearing in 2028.

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6. Legacy and Grief

a. Community and Family Aftermath

• Three families — the Costanzos, Frattos, and Pattons — left devastated.
  • "Three families have been torn apart by this." — Detective Kevin McKinney [38:16]

b. Mickey’s Memory

• School retires Mickey’s uniforms; a scholarship established in her honor; a memorial rock painted green.
• She rests at the family ranch, a place of peace for her loved ones.
  • "She's like sitting on top of the world." — Celia [39:27]

c. Closing Reflection

• Keith Morrison closes on the image of a town aged by grief, forever changed by what happened “five miles from home.”

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On truth and secrecy:
  "I don't think that Cody or Tony would tell the truth to anybody but each other." — Detective Donald Burnham [02:04], echoed at [15:59]
• On missed off-ramps:
  "There were so many chances for you to take the off ramp and you didn't." — Parole Board Member to Tony [36:14]
• On healing:
  "Of course, Mickey Costanzo's family will never heal nor likely ever be satisfied..." — Keith Morrison [28:46]
• On community loss:
  "Three families have been torn apart by this." — Detective Kevin McKinney [38:16]

---

Important Timestamps

• [02:04] Detective Burnham: "I don't think that Cody or Tony would tell the truth to anybody but each other."
• [03:31] Tony’s diary excerpt on jealousy and loneliness.
• [06:50] D.J. describes Cody’s act of violence against Mickey.
• [11:35] Cody’s account of the school confrontation.
• [13:57] Cody rejects plea deal.
• [15:10] Olson’s reflections: "A bad idea that became a horrible idea."
• [22:25] Tony’s account of being summoned by Cody’s text.
• [23:40] Tony refers to the "designated area."
• [26:13] Tony claims: "I did what I was told because I was scared."
• [34:36] Testimony from Mickey’s family at Tony’s parole hearing.
• [36:21] Tony’s regret at parole hearing.
• [37:53] Celia’s final statement of anger and loss.
• [38:16] Detective McKinney on three families torn apart.
• [39:27] Celia on Mickey’s resting place.

---

Tone & Atmosphere

The episode maintains Morrison's signature meticulous and evocative storytelling: both compassionate and unflinching. Dialogue alternates between analytic detachment and raw, emotional testimony—capturing the haunted, irrevocable losses felt by everyone touched by Mickey's murder.

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For anyone who hasn’t listened, this episode offers both procedural detail and emotional truth—a profound look into the lives forever marked by a night when everything went haywire, five miles from home.

Transcript

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[Keith Morrison]

choose to show up

[Tony Fratto]

with

[Keith Morrison]

the bold styling of the Mazda CX30.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

I wake up.

[Keith Morrison]

It all seemed was in fact incomplete. Somehow something was still hidden, something we didn't know. The question was, would we ever. This, for example. And after a simple why did they do it? This was perhaps the biggest question. Which one of those young people bore the greater responsibility for the attack on Mickey Costanzo? Was punishment for that crime fairly applied? Cody Patton, by refusing to blame his girlfriend, insured for himself a lifetime in prison. Yes, he avoided the death penalty, but he'll never be free again. He'll die in prison. Tony Fratto, on the other hand, piled the blame on Cody and more. She claimed she was an abused woman and though an accomplice, a frightened and reluctant one, Tony was imprisoned on the lesser charge of second degree murder with a built in possibility of parole. But was hers a true story or just a strategy? Was the fatal decision hers or Cody's? Well, Tony was just along for a ride that went bad. We asked Detective Donald Burnham. He didn't claim to have the answers either.

[Detective Donald Burnham]

I don't think that Cody or Tony would tell the truth to anybody but each other. It just doesn't appear that anybody has gotten the true answers to this. Reasons are the whys, and I think the only people that have the answer to those questions is Tony and Cody.

[Keith Morrison]

We wondered if their history would talk for them or at least offer clues. And so we went digging into the past.

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

Toni told me, I just hate her. I just hate her. She's just such a bad person. And how much she just wished Mikayla would just go away.

[Keith Morrison]

I'm Keith Morrison and this is five Miles from Home, a podcast from Dateline. Episode 6 haywire. There was, you'll recall, some significant history between Cody and Michaela. They'd grown up in the same apartment complex, were childhood friends, and at 12 or 13 or thereabouts, they played at being boyfriend and girlfriend. Though it was all quite innocent and very brief, said Mickey's sister Christina.

[Tony Fratto]

They never had the feelings that you would have for A boyfriend?

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

Girlfriend?

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

More like brother sister.

[Keith Morrison]

More like brother sister.

[Tony Fratto]

They were just best friends for a long time.

[Keith Morrison]

Then in high school, Cody met Tony Fratto. And that was the real deal. Cody fell hard in love for life, hard. But we know from Tony's diary that she feared their love wouldn't last. Her entries revealed deep insecurity and repeatedly intense jealousy directed towards the prettier and more popular Mickey. And though she and Cody were planning a wedding, Tony wrote that she was certain he'd soon want to leave her for Mickey. From the diary, he will be happier and can see her a lot, a lot more than he will ever see me. They hang out every single day, like all day long, too. I know anything I do is wrong. And then there was this. To be honest, I don't know why I'm even still living life. It's not worth my time. It's pointless. The source of all that angst seemed to be one incident in the high school. A minor thing, really, a misunderstanding of the sort of thing that happens at that age. Mickey and Cody, remember, were lifetime pals, had grown up together. And one day, Mickey's sister D.J. said it must have been a couple of years before Mickey was killed.

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

I guess they exchanged a kiss between each other from what Tony told me. Then Michaela found out that they were together and she felt horrible. So what my sister did was she walked up to Tony face to face and told her what happened and said, I'm really sorry. I didn't know and believe me, it won't ever happen again.

[Keith Morrison]

According to Tony's mother, Cassie, Mickey's apology appeared to ease the tension between the two, at least during the summer of 2010, several months before Mickey was murdered,

[Tony's Mother]

Tony and Michaela had coincidentally met up at our local swimming pool. And Tony had said, I thought that we had made peace because they talked about how silly they were as young girls and talked about Kody. And Michaela had said, don't worry about it. If you want Cody, you go for it, girl. They patched things up, came to an agreement, and Tony felt really comfortable about that. She did not have a beef with Micaela. At that point, things were fine.

[Keith Morrison]

But according to Mickey's sister, D.J. things were not so fine. Tony's jealousy only intensified. She said things, nasty things to Mickey,

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

and this was not just a few

[Keith Morrison]

times, this was a lot.

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

Oh, yeah. Toni really hated her. She'd walk by and say something so rude under her breath, making her feel bad, and Michaela would just pretend it didn't bother. When in Reality. It hurt her.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

We're talking about a couple years, though.

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

Yeah. The hatred with Toni grew more and more and more. And it went on till pretty much she died.

[Keith Morrison]

But it was even worse than that, said D.J. when Tony was mean, she said Cody got nasty, too.

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

I remember getting off work one day and I was sitting there and she ran in. She was bleeding on her arm. She said Cody had a little box cutter blade. And he swiped it across her arm. And at first she said, I didn't even know. And then I looked down and I'm bleeding. And I look at him and he's laughing.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

Was that kind of the straw that

[Keith Morrison]

broke the camel's back with her?

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

That was. She said, this is what's made me see that he's not worth it. And that I really don't want a person like that in my life at all. And at that point, he was just a nobody to her anymore.

[Keith Morrison]

So from then on, Mickey avoided Cody. Cut her old childhood pal right out of her life. Especially during the months before she was murdered. Mickey's mother, Celia.

[Michaela's Mother (Celia)]

They weren't talking, they weren't being friends. She already minimized any contact.

[Keith Morrison]

But Mickey's cold shoulder only seemed to fuel Cody's Fire. Here's D.J.

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

he grew really angry at her after that. Would do things to try to make her mad, just so she'd talk to him. When they didn't talk for a very long time, he said he loved Michaela. He just didn't want her to ever go. And he didn't understand why she went. It was a real shock to him to all of a sudden have her there through thick and thin and then never have her.

[Keith Morrison]

An angry and abandoned Cody, a jealous Tony. Maybe that's why Mickey had been so worried, said DJ about what those two might be up to weeks and even months before they killed her.

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

She says, he keeps trying to get me to go with them. Why is he talking to me now? Because he's never tried to reach out and say anything. And now all of a sudden, here he is. And she just felt really insecure.

[Keith Morrison]

Did he get her to go out

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

with him and Tony with the two of them? Yeah. And she just said, I don't get it. It's not right. Something's just wrong.

[Keith Morrison]

So why would Mickey get into a car with Cody that day after school? Well, maybe she didn't. Not voluntarily, anyway. Remember, the police found a zip tie around Mickey's arm. We still don't know exactly how or why Mickey ended up in that car with Cody and Tony. Their Shifting stories made it hard to know what was true. But Celia was emphatic. The idea that Mickey would willingly get into a car with either one or both of them, Not a chance. She was smart, she was careful, and she was afraid.

[Michaela's Mother (Celia)]

She'd already, for two years, been staying away from him. And then to hear that she got into a vehicle with Cody and Tony. Never in a million years.

[Keith Morrison]

Something else. Mickey's family is convinced that Cody and Tony knew that the few days around the time of the murder were the only days they would find alone after school.

[Michaela's Mother (Celia)]

The timing was too perfect. It was the one time that DJ was at college. Christina was out of town, I was at work. It's the one time that Mikayla would have actually had to walk home.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

Do you believe that they set out to kill her in the first place?

[Michaela's Father]

Yes.

[Michaela's Mother (Celia)]

This is a girl who was always with someone. She had friends. She was around people all the time. You could not get my daughter alone. If you're going to do something, you would have to plan it out.

[Keith Morrison]

There is one more story that just might reveal the trigger for what those two kids did to Mickey Costanzo. We found a recording buried deep in the case file. Never presented in public, never reported. Remember that plea deal Cody first accepted before suddenly changing his mind? It was January 2012, a little over 10 months after the murder. Cody had just started making a sworn statement to the da.

[Cody Patton]

All I'm asking you to do today is to tell me the truth. You understand that? Yes, I do.

[Keith Morrison]

It was to be a full and frank account of what really happened and why. Here was the part of Cody's whole new story. He managed to get out before he clammed up that morning between classes. And several hours before he did what he did to Mickey, Cody told the D.A. tony confronted Mickey in a school hallway.

[Cody Patton]

Tony called her a slut. She said, look at there. There's that slut. And I told her that she needed to stop, that. This was within Michaela's hearing. Yeah, she was right. One of us walking by. So what happened then? Tony called her a few more names, but I noticed the slut was what originally sparked it.

[Keith Morrison]

Sparked a big argument, that is. Cody said he intervened, told Tony, knock it off. Cody told the DA he didn't like it when people have a feud between them, especially with friends and family. So after school, he suggested to Mickey,

[Cody Patton]

why don't you guys just talk it out? And Tony had told me that she just wanted to duke it out with Michaela.

[Keith Morrison]

Duke it out?

[Cody Patton]

Fight, basically. And I said, okay, well, I'll ask Mickey. So I relayed the message to Mickey. I said, well, she just wants to find it out. And Mickey came to the resolution. She's like, okay.

[Keith Morrison]

So, said Cody, Mickey did get into his borrowed SUV after school that awful day, got into the car with just him voluntarily expecting to go and have it out with Tony. They drove around for a while, said Cody, and then they picked up Tony, and Cody drove out of town to the gravel pits. And what did Cody tell the DA about what happened there? Well, as it turned out, nothing. Because just then, Cody's attorney, John Olson, arrived, and the two conferred privately about what would happen if his case went to trial, that he would likely be convicted. And yet something in that moment shifted in Cody's mind, shifted. In spite of his attorney's warning, Cody returned to his meeting with the DA and announced that he had changed his mind.

[Cody Patton]

I decided to decline.

[John Olson (Cody's Attorney)]

So you're unwilling to accept the paper?

[Keith Morrison]

Which Cody's attorney, John Olson, further clarified by asking the DA and the offer

[Cody Patton]

is off the table.

[Parole Board Member]

Yes.

[John Olson (Cody's Attorney)]

Mr. Patton does not have the option of taking it anymore.

[Keith Morrison]

Not at this point. Did you get all that? Cody, much to almost everyone's surprise, rejected the plea deal that could have kept him off death row. Instead, he declared he would go to trial, let a jury decide, because he believed he would be found not guilty. And why would a jury acquit? Well, his attorney, John Olson, believes Cody was convinced Tony would never, ever testify against him, never betray him. After all, he had never betrayed her. So right then and there, Cody refused to say another word ever again about what happened in the desert on that terrible day. But attorney Olson, who has never disputed that Cody was involved, does have his own theory about what really happened when those three arrived at the gravel pits.

[John Olson (Cody's Attorney)]

My guess would be that there was an opportunity for Tony to confront Michaela,

[Keith Morrison]

and they went out to the desert

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

to have the confrontation, away from crying eyes. Then something happened.

[John Olson (Cody's Attorney)]

I think something bad happened.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

A bad idea that became a screw up.

[John Olson (Cody's Attorney)]

A bad idea that became a horrible idea. A bad idea that went very, very bad.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

Why do you think it happened?

[John Olson (Cody's Attorney)]

I'd have to just guess, but I think it's something that got out of hand that went very, very wrong. I think they were more reactionary than they were premeditative. I think that nobody intended for there to be a death in this in the beginning, that maybe there was an intention to do something else. And I think it just went haywire.

[Keith Morrison]

So what was it? A planned, premeditated attack to confront Michaela, simply scare her or actually kill her. Everybody we talked to seemed to have a different theory, but on this they agree, said Detective Donald Burnham.

[Detective Donald Burnham]

It appears to me that Cody and Tony carried this act out together. I don't think that Cody or Tony would tell the truth to anybody but each other.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

And they aren't talking.

[Detective Donald Burnham]

No, they're not.

[Keith Morrison]

Except we did talk to Tony in jail after she confessed and was sentenced, she had a lot to say, maybe just a little more than she intended.

[Detective Donald Burnham]

Foreign

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[Keith Morrison]

There's a dismal logic at work in jails around America. It's an architecture of purgatory. These are the places that house inmates in that gray zone of waiting. Waiting for trial, waiting to be sentenced, waiting to be transferred to a more permanent prison dwelling. In most of these places, inmates are stored in pods, as they call them, huge rooms of painted concrete in which metal bunks offer nothing like privacy. As inmates mill about under the gaze of all seeing cameras and keepers watching in some central control room, day and night, all the time. And the minutes and hours crawl aimlessly, endlessly. Tony Fratto waited for her transfer to prison while encased in just such a place, the Elko County Jail, where she languished in the constant company of a hundred or so other waiting women, day after day, night after night, in that concrete pod for 16 months. And she thought about things like the value of telling her story to us. And on the last possible day, the day before her transfer to the state prison, a jailer led her in to see me.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

I'm Keith.

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

Hey.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

Nice to meet you.

[Keith Morrison]

So here she was, Tony Fratto, the former Little Miss Wendover, still the picture of a child, tiny in her big girl prison outfit, her hair tightly braided in a bunch of. We'd arranged to have our meeting in a small courtroom not far from her pod. And this was a new one on me. The jail agreed to let Tony's mother watch from an adjoining room through a thick plate glass window, which meant she and Tony could make eye contact. Tony's mother could also hear us, though we could not hear her. So two lines of communication. Ours with Toni, hers silently with her mother. As our cameras rolled, we'd hoped, naturally, that she would finally tell the truth about that nightmare in the desert, tell us what really happened, and tell why. Instead, she began with what sounded like a bit of historical revision about the young woman she helped.

[Tony Fratto]

I knew of her, but I did not know Michaela. I knew her from school and from the apartment complex that Cody had lived at.

[Keith Morrison]

We'd been hoping for an honest conversation. Too much to ask, perhaps, when it came to the question, did Cody decide to attack Mickey, or did she?

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

There are people who say that you were very jealous and that you manipulated him into committing murder.

[Tony Fratto]

I was not jealous of Mikayla. Yes, that one thing that I had wrote in my diary. But that was way early in our relationship.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

Did you ever say to him, get rid of her?

[Tony Fratto]

No, I didn't.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

Get rid of her or you lose me. No, didn't give him that choice.

[Tony Fratto]

Absolutely not.

[Keith Morrison]

Tony insisted to us that on the day of the murder, she had no idea what was brewing. Only that earlier that week, Cody seemed angry and edgy about something and that things were building up. Otherwise, said Tony, it was just a normal Thursday. She went to school, then attended a town meeting with her mom. Things suddenly changed just before 7:00pm Said Tony, when she got that text message from Cody. I have her, it said.

[Tony Fratto]

So I Told him, come get me,

[Keith Morrison]

we'll talk this all out.

[Tony Fratto]

Yeah, well, I want to find out for myself what's going on. People may find it hard to believe, but I still did not believe that he had her in that car until I had gotten in that car. And just something on his face was not right.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

I guess that would have been another opportunity for you to decide not to go, right? What was the reason you walked out of that safe meeting? Sitting beside a parent? To go and see him.

[Tony Fratto]

To see proof for myself.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

Proof of what?

[Tony Fratto]

That he had her.

[Keith Morrison]

Which, when we heard that, made us wonder. Did Tony slip and reveal a hidden truth? When she made her deal to plead to second degree murder, giving her a shot at freedom someday, Tony claimed that she was just doing what Cody demanded she do and had no idea of what would transpire that awful night in the desert. But here she was admitting she actually wanted to join Cody, demanded he pick her up, in fact, with a kidnapped Mickey in the back of the car. Then another slip. Does this sound like some planning had been involved? Listen to this.

[Tony Fratto]

Well, when we finally got out to the designated area and everything.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

What do you mean, the designated area?

[Tony Fratto]

Where everything went down.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

That area was designated.

[Tony Fratto]

Well, just the area where we ended up.

[Keith Morrison]

No plan to go there, insisted Tony. So, designated area, maybe, maybe not.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

Okay, tell me what unfolded to me.

[Tony Fratto]

I'd rather not get into a lot of detail. It's still a blur to me. Just when everything started getting out of hand.

[Keith Morrison]

Which began, said Tony, when Cody got out of the car, leaving Mickey and her inside, and started digging what would be a grave.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

Why didn't you just leave? You and Mikayla? There were two of you. You could have just driven away when he got out of the car.

[Tony Fratto]

I was too much in fear. I was scared, terrified. Even if I tried to get away, drove off, he would still come and find us and it'd be 10 times worse.

[Keith Morrison]

Tony insisted she had no choice but to stay there, where she witnessed the last moments of Mickey Costanzo's.

[Tony Fratto]

He had told me to go, get in the car, turn the car around, face the headlights to where they were at. He had told me to stay in the car. Look away. Don't look. I stayed in the car. When all that went down,

[Keith Morrison]

Tony claimed insisted, in fact, that she did not take part at all in the killing. Which, as you may remember, was not what she said when she confessed to Cody's attorney that she was very much involved back then. She said they'd both murdered Mickey together using Cody's knife. But later she told the da and now, sitting with me, a much different story.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

You didn't hold the knife, but you didn't cut her.

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

Correct.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

So it reduced your culpability.

[Tony Fratto]

You can say, yeah, I'm not trying to diminish my actions or anything of what I did, but I won't take responsibility for something I did not do.

[Keith Morrison]

Frequently, as Toni kept distancing herself from the crime, she looked through the glass to her mother. Especially when the question turned to why.

[Tony Fratto]

I did what I was told because I was scared. I didn't know what to do.

[Keith Morrison]

So scared of Cody that she stayed there in the SUV and watched as he killed Mickey because she feared that if she didn't do what she was told, she'd be his next victim.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

Why would it kill you?

[Tony Fratto]

The only thing that I can even think that I would be next was because I was a witness and I was there with Michaela.

[Keith Morrison]

Even when it was all over and they got home, said Tony Cody kept her paralyzed in fear.

[Tony Fratto]

He told me he don't say a word. If he get caught, then he would take the complete blame. And I was to keep my mouth shut.

[Keith Morrison]

So why is Mickey Costanzo dead? You'd have to ask Cody, said Tony Fratto.

[Tony Fratto]

I don't know his motive. If I knew, I'd be more than willing to say why, so it would make sense.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

But he's just a lunatic or what? I mean, I don't know.

[Tony Fratto]

I don't have an answer for that.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

And when he says he doesn't know why, do you believe him?

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

No.

[Tony Fratto]

He's got to know why. There's a reason why he did this,

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

and it wasn't get rid of Mikayla so to please you?

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

No.

[Keith Morrison]

So did she avoid Kody once he was off in jail before her own arrest. This man she was so afraid of? No, she didn't. Jail calls are recorded.

[Tony's Mother]

Of course you are in a good mood.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

Do I love you?

[Tony Fratto]

I'm excited. And I think about you all the time.

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

I love you.

[Keith Morrison]

They were lovers once. Engaged to be married in the Mormon Church. Planning for a family. But now Tony told us she was trying to cleanse herself of Cody Patton.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

You think about him much?

[Tony Fratto]

No, I am just doing my best to move forward. No, I don't want him. A part of me and my family's life anymore.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

Is out of your mind?

[Tony Fratto]

He's out of my mind. There are times that, yes, things pop up, but I'm just working on healing myself.

[Keith Morrison]

Of course, Mickey Costanzo's family will never heal nor likely ever be satisfied with justifications or regrets that Tony Fratto tries to offer.

[Tony Fratto]

Not a day that goes by that I don't think about what happened. I know sorry is not enough. If I could go back, I would and protect her and she would still be here today.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

Can you see her face now in your mind?

[Tony Fratto]

Eye bits and pieces?

[Tony Fratto (Parole Hearing)]

Yeah.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

Probably be seeing her for a long time.

[Tony Fratto]

The rest of my life.

[Keith Morrison]

And with that, our interview ended. Tony Fratto never wavering from her latest story, the one that could set her free even sooner than she thought. Ten years after Mickey was kidnapped, beaten and stabbed to death in the Nevada desert, Tony Fratto sat for another interview, this time at a meeting of the parole board, whose members had the power to release her. So would they.

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[Angie.com Customer]

Why have we asked our contractor we found on Angie.com to be our kid's legal guardian? Because he took such good care when redoing our basement that we knew we could trust him to care for our kids.

[Keith Morrison]

We only met a month ago.

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[Keith Morrison]

They were sent to separate prisons. Cody Patton to one end of Nevada. Tony Fratto the other. Two different stories about the murder, too, and two quite different penalties. Cody Patton is a hardcore lifer. For years, he was locked up at the Ely State Prison, a place so notorious, so dangerous, some call it the graveyard. Then, in January 2026, he qualified to be transferred to a medium security facility, a safer, less violent prison. Meanwhile, Tony Fratto, from what we could tell, has kept a low profile at the women's prison outside Las Vegas. Unlike Cody, Tony has possibilities, parole possibilities. And in 2021, she took her first step towards freedom.

[Parole Board Member]

Good day, ma'.

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[Parole Board Member]

State your name and your NDOC number for the record, please.

[Tony Fratto (Parole Hearing)]

Tony Prado, 1092636.

[Keith Morrison]

Remember, Tony was given consecutive sentences for both murder and the use of a deadly weapon, which meant she would have to serve time separately for each conviction, a minimum total of 18 years. So this parole hearing was just for the murder charge. If parole was granted, she'd begin serving time for the weapons conviction.

[Parole Board Member]

We're all here on a discretionary parole hearing. You receive a sentence of what appears to be 120 months to life imprisonment.

[Keith Morrison]

Tony was 28. Prison had aged her. Still petite, but pale, her dark curly hair cut short. With her parents looking on, she wept through her testimony, wept without visible tears.

[Tony Fratto (Parole Hearing)]

My actions were wrong. And I just hope that one day I can give back and that I can show the people in society who I am today and not who I once was.

[Parole Board Member]

All right, obviously, this was a crime that was kind of beyond the pale here. What was your frame of mind when this was occurring here?

[Tony Fratto (Parole Hearing)]

I was not in a healthy state of mind at the time. I was not thinking of the consequences. I was not thinking of the pain and the hurt that I was going

[Keith Morrison]

to cause this family what I'm still causing. Ten years on, this was Celia to the parole board, just as she had pledged to do when Tony was sentenced years earlier.

[Michaela's Father]

Tony was in a position multiple times to stop what happened before Michaela was ever killed. She was not pressured into just going along. She got in that vehicle. She knew what was going on. She made the choice to. To take my daughter out in the middle of the desert, slit her throat. She should take the same price my daughter did. A life for a life.

[Keith Morrison]

Didn't take long. Parole was denied. And then three years later, they did it all again.

[Tony Fratto]

Good morning. Could you please state your name and NDOC number for.

[Tony Fratto (Parole Hearing)]

For the record, Tony Fratto, 1092636.

[Keith Morrison]

In February 2024, she was back in front of the board for the second time. Tony looked a little different by then. Her hair was long and stringy, her face thinner, expressionless.

[Tony Fratto (Parole Hearing)]

I would just like to say that I apologize to the family, that I am sorry for their loss, and I want to let them know that I am doing time for the family.

[Michaela's Sister (D.J.)]

Can you even begin to empathize with the loss that they've suffered in their lives?

[Tony Fratto (Parole Hearing)]

I can't even come close.

[Keith Morrison]

And then again, the commissioners asked the question, why. Why kill the. That innocent young woman?

[Parole Board Member]

One of the things that strikes me is there were so many chances for you to take the off ramp and you didn't.

[Keith Morrison]

Why is that?

[Tony Fratto (Parole Hearing)]

I regret that every single day of my life. And the only thing I can say is I was scared. And I wish I would have been strong enough to take that stand and save her life.

[Keith Morrison]

Let me ask you this. If it was someone in your family,

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if the roles were reversed, would you want that person to get out of prison?

[Tony Fratto]

No.

[Keith Morrison]

Once again, parole was denied. Toni's next hearing will be in 2028. She'll be 36 then, half her life behind bars. Well, Cody Patton is going to die in prison someday.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

Anything you want to say to either one of those two?

[Michaela's Mother (Celia)]

First off, I want them to look at me in the face and tell me why. And it better not be some BS that they pull like they did on their confessions. I want the truth. Will I ever get it? No, they'll never tell me. I want them to know that if it were possible for me every day to make their lives hell, I would, because they deserve to be in hell for doing that. And there is nothing they can say or do that will make it better. They cannot fix this.

[Keith Morrison]

Three families broken in West Wendover.

[Lead Detective Kevin McKinney]

I feel for Mikayla's family. I feel for Cody's family. I feel for Tony's family.

[Keith Morrison]

This is lead Detective Kevin McKinney.

[Lead Detective Kevin McKinney]

They're all devastated. You know, the Frattos and the Pattons are devastated as the Costanzos in this case. Three families have been torn apart by this.

[Keith Morrison]

Cody Patton will never come home. Tony Fratto might someday, but probably too late for her parents. I don't think I will still be alive when she gets out.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

I don't think that there will be

[Keith Morrison]

a time that we'll be together like that again. At West Wendover High School, they still remember Mickey. Her basketball and track uniforms have both been retired in her honor. Outside is a huge rock painted green, a memorial in her favorite color, signed by dozens of her classmates. A college scholarship fund has also been established in Mickey's memory. It's called the Spirit of Honoring the Life of Michaela Costanzo. And up in the high desert mountains overlooking West Wendover is a ranch with a small family cemetery, a peaceful, sacred place.

[Michaela's Mother (Celia)]

The ranch is home. It's home for Mikayla. It's home for D.J. it's home for me.

[Interviewer (Keith Morrison)]

And now it's where Mikayla is.

[Michaela's Mother (Celia)]

Yes, she's exactly where she would want to have been. She's laying right next to my father, and she is in the most beautiful spot in the world. To me, she's like sitting on top of the world.

[Keith Morrison]

And on the little strip along Interstate 80, that giant neon cowboy Wendover will still waves his grinning welcome, but he points to a place a little older now and sadder, as if the neon light strung up among desert casinos had picked up a layer of grief after that night in the desert. Five Miles From Home. Five Miles From Home has been a production of Dateline and NBC News. Robert Dean is the producer, Brian Drew, Marshall Housefelden, Meredith Greenstein are Audio editors, Molly DeRosa is Associate Producer, Adam Gorfin is co executive producer, Paul Ryan is executive producer, and Liz Cole is senior executive producer from NBC News. Audio sound mixing by Rich Cutler.

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[Tony's Mother]

Huh?

[Angie.com Customer (Pet Burial Story)]

Nibbles gone too soon. May he scurry in peace.

[Keith Morrison]

Hey, sorry about your pet, but I just wire stuff.

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Nibbles would have loved you like a brother.

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