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During emotional testimony in the federal trial of alleged racketeering boss Michael Miske, the girlfriend of the man prosecutors say Miske conspired to kill spoke about the day her boyfriend disappeared in 2016. 

Ashley Wong told jurors that when she realized her boyfriend, Johnathan Fraser, was missing, she immediately started to suspect Miske, a man she had been so close to she referred to him as “Uncle Mike.” 

“I was pissed off, I was so angry,” she said. “It came to me instantly, all the red flags that anybody should have seen. It was like being blinded by love.”

During the government’s examination, Wong painted a picture of a long con by Miske. He developed a close relationship with her and Fraser over time by taking them out to nice dinners and partnering with Fraser to work on a tribute car for Miske’s late son, Caleb, who was also Fraser’s best friend. Ultimately, Wong said Miske lured the young couple to live in a Hawaii Kai apartment with his daughter-in-law, Delia Fabro-Miske, and orchestrated a plan to separate Wong from Fraser on July 30, 2016 — the day he disappeared. 

Prosecutors say Miske falsely accused Fraser of being at fault for a 2015 car crash that led to Caleb’s death in 2016.  

But when defense attorney Lynn Panagakos began her cross examination of Wong, she tried to show that Wong had been the one to initiate a closer relationship with Miske after Caleb’s death and that Wong and Fraser had been desperate to find a new place to live before they moved into the Hawaii Kai apartment.

Panagakos also brought up the brain injury Fraser suffered in the crash, his mental state at the time of his disappearance and leads Wong pursued about his whereabouts in the days and weeks after he went missing. 

The defense has leaned on the fact that Fraser’s body was never found and consistently points to dozens of purported sightings of him since his disappearance. 

But prosecutors have maintained that they have enough evidence without the recovery of Fraser’s body to show that he was killed and even during jury selection if they understood that a body is not required to prove a murder charge.

Miske is charged in a 19-count indictment, which includes murder in aid of racketeering and murder-for-hire conspiracy resulting in death, both of which carry mandatory minimum life sentences upon conviction. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Spa Day 

Wong told jurors she woke up on the morning of July 30, 2016, to go to a planned spa day at the Aulani resort in Kapolei with Delia as a gift from Miske. She had recently announced she was pregnant with Fraser’s child, and the spa day was supposed to be a way for the two young women to pamper themselves, she said. 

“I had never been anywhere like it,” she said. “It feels like you’re walking in this weightless room with blue lights and soft music.” 

But Wong said she was having trouble relaxing and enjoying the day because Fraser wasn’t responding to her texts and calls. 

Fraser had suffered a traumatic brain injury in the 2015 car wreck with Caleb, and Wong always kept in close touch with him to make sure he was OK, she said. 

As hours ticked by, she started to panic. She called his friends at a vape shop he frequented to see if he had shown up there, but he hadn’t. 

After the spa, Wong said Delia dropped her off at her cousin’s wedding at the Kahala Hotel & Resort. Wong texted a friend and asked him to drive by the Hawaii Kai apartment to look for Fraser. 

He told her there was no sign of Fraser or his car, she said. 

“There was this sick feeling in my stomach, and I couldn’t stop shaking,” she said. “I just wanted to know why John hadn’t contacted me from 9 o’clock in the morning to 9 o’clock at night. This was very not like him at all.” 

At that point her friend warned her not to get back in the car with Delia because it might not be safe, she said. 

Rumors about Fraser having been behind the wheel at the time of his and Caleb’s crash had been swirling, and Wong said her loved ones were worried about the grudge Miske might be holding against him. Because of this, she didn’t tell many of her family members that she and Fraser had moved in with Delia or were seeing Miske regularly.

But that night, she said she was so desperate to find Fraser she got back in the car with Delia and let her drive her to their Hawaii Kai apartment. The first sign something was wrong was seeing her and Fraser’s dog, Nala, stuck outside with no water or food. 

“John would never leave Nala,” she said. “We looked at her like our first child. She was left outside with nothing.” 

Wong said she stayed up all night, driving to parts of the island where Fraser might be and frantically calling the police and hospitals.

Police told her she had to wait 24 hours to make a missing persons report. She spoke to a detective and wrote a report on July 31, 2016. 

“I was scared of writing a report against Michael Miske or even putting his name on the lines … ,” she said. “I knew that for I don’t know how long, this was going to follow me.” 

Searching For Fraser

Wong said after Fraser’s disappearance, Miske told her he’d have missing persons posters printed and put up a $50,000 reward for information about him, but he didn’t follow through with either offer. 

Prosecutors also played a phone call Wong recorded between her and Miske during which he asked her to ensure that either he or Delia was at the Hawaii Kai apartment if any police were going to go inside. He also asked Wong for the name and number of the lead detective on Fraser’s case. 

Even though she suspected Miske’s involvement, she kept her communication with him cordial. But on Aug. 30, 2016, she received an angry text from him written in mostly capital letters. He told her to stop “throwing Caleb under the bus” by continuing to tell people he had been driving at the time of the November crash. 

“ACCIDENTS HAPPEN BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP SAYING MY SON WAS DRIVING HE WASN’T!” the text said. 

He told her if she didn’t “stop lying” about Caleb, he would reveal proof that Fraser was driving. He also told her he had gone to see a psychic who told him Fraser was still alive. 

“SHE TOLD ME THINGS THAT NOBODY WOULD KNOW,” the text said. “SHE BROUGHT UP CALEB AND THE ACCIDENT. SHE ALSO WENT ON TO SAY HIS FRIEND, THE DRIVER, LEFT FOR THE MAINLAND AND WOULD COME BACK SOON. THAT WAS GREAT TO HEAR!!”

When Panagakos cross-examined Wong, she suggested that Fraser could still be a missing person and brought up various leads about his whereabouts that came up after his disappearance. 

She said Wong didn’t immediately tell Fraser’s parents that he was missing on the night of July 30, 2016, and because of that, potentially relevant information was held back. For example, Fraser’s father had seen him fighting with someone at the vape shop two days prior, Panagakos said. 

“By lying to him, he then didn’t share with you things that would’ve been relevant to looking for Johnathan,” she said.

She asked about the effects of Fraser’s traumatic brain injury, including angry outbursts and mood swings, and pointed out that he was smoking marijuana while not taking his medications as prescribed. In the days and weeks after his disappearance, she said Wong publicly stated that Fraser might be suffering from severe depression and amnesia. 

Wong said she told news reporters she thought Fraser might have gotten lost or could be wandering the streets. But she only said that because she was afraid to say what she really thought — that Miske had taken him, she told the jury. 

“That was the same story I told the news just to keep it consistent, for the safety of my life,” she said as she shook her head and broke into tears. 

Panagakos brought up a house on Kuliouou Road where police dogs tracked Fraser’s scent after his disappearance and said Wong talked to more than 10 people in Chinatown who claimed to have seen him.

“You believed that he could be wandering around because of his head injury and not taking his medication,” she said. 

“I did not believe that,” Wong replied. “I wanted to hang onto the fact that he was still alive.”

The trial will resume Tuesday, when cross-examination of Wong is expected to continue.