A Scottish expat has been sentenced to 20 years in US prison for killing his wheelchair-bound wife hours after a romantic meal.
Wayne Fraser, 47, moved to America from Aberdeenshire after developing a relationship with university professor Natalie Ryan Fraser but was convicted of manslaughter after he shot and killed her.
The 55-year-old’s body was found in an apartment in Caledonia, Mississippi, in December 2021, a day after she posted on social media from a restaurant, “Dinner with my love.”
Sheriff’s deputies made the discovery after conducting a welfare check the following day after one of her brothers called 911. Fraser was arrested at the scene and a 9mm handgun was seized.
He had been charged with first-degree murder but was instead convicted of manslaughter by a jury at the Lowndes County Court House in Columbus.
Wayne Fraser, 47, moved to America from Aberdeenshire after developing a relationship with university professor Natalie Ryan Fraser but was convicted of manslaughter after he shot and killed her. The couple is pictured together
Ms Fraser’s body was found in an apartment in Caledonia, Mississippi (pictured) in December 2021, a day after she posted on social media from a restaurant: “Dinner with my love”.
Fraser had been charged with first-degree murder but was instead convicted of manslaughter by a jury at the Lowndes County Court House in Columbus
One of the victim’s brothers, George Brinton Ryan, told the court that Fraser called him and claimed she had shot herself.
Mr Ryan then contacted the emergency services.
Evidence was also heard from a 911 operator and the state coroner’s office.
Members of Ms Fraser’s grieving family, who have described her death as a “senseless tragedy”, were in court to hear District Attorney Scott Colum’s case against her husband.
Television footage showed Fraser, who has a gray beard and was dressed smartly in a white shirt, listening intently to the proceedings. He had denied murder.
On the second day of the trial, Mrs Fraser’s wheelchair was also brought into the courtroom.
At the age of 17, she was paralyzed after being in a car accident while intoxicated. She then pursued an academic career and was an English professor at Angelo State University in Texas.
The couple met in 2010 and Fraser moved out of his home in Mintlaw so they could be together. They married in 2014 and settled in Texas.
Fraser later secured employment as a foreman at an industrial painting company in Mississippi.
The indictment against Wayne Fraser (pictured) states that he “acted criminally, willfully and unlawfully with the premeditated intent to bring about the death of Natalie Fraser…without the authority of the law and not in necessary self-defense.”
Natalie Ryan-Fraser, 55, an English professor at Angelo State University in Texas, pictured with her Scottish-born husband Wayne Fraser. After her death, the university renamed its Department of English and Modern Languages in her honor
On the day of her death, his wife visited him at the home where he was staying while he was working away from home.
Fraser has been held at the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center since his arrest as bail would have required £388,000 to be released.
The indictment against him said he acted “willfully, intentionally and unlawfully with intent to bring about the death of Natalie Fraser…without the authority of the law and not in necessary self-defense.”
Fraser did not face the death penalty as he was not charged with murder, which is reserved for the most serious cases such as killing a police officer.
It took a jury three hours to convict the Scot on Friday on the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Presiding Judge James T. Kitchens Jr. imposed the prison sentence.
After her death, the university where Mrs. Fraser worked renamed the Department of English and Modern Languages in her honor.
Her brother Kristopher Ryan also paid tribute to her with the words: “It just doesn’t seem real to me.” We will miss her very much. This is just so hard to swallow.
“She was definitely one of a kind. Just such a senseless tragedy.’
