In at least one instance, Frye attempted to debunk important, credible evidence that he should have investigated if he truly was conducting a full and fair inquiry.  This is the matter of the dark, Mustang-like car that appears in several witnesses' statements.

Two of those witnesses were Richard and Patricia Smith, who answered questions from Frye and Lawson Lamar under oath on January 12. Each of the Smiths said that at 7:57 P.M. on Christmas Eve, they saw two cars parked in front of the furniture store.  One car was a full-sized sedan, they said, the other a smaller dark-colored automobile.  Richard Smith thought that the dark car was "boxy," which would describe an early-model Mustang, Patricia Smith said that she thought the smaller car was "an early-model Ford."

This was key testimony.  According to Frye's theory, relying on Felton Thomas's testimony, the only two cars that should have been parked in front of the store at that time were Perry Edwards's full-sized sedan and Curtis Dunaway's full-sized two-tone Oldsmobile.

Frye pressed the point hard; his questioning of the Smiths was far more aggressive than any recorded interview with Edward Williams for Felton Thomas.  But both Smiths insisted that the smaller car they saw was not two-toned.  Patricia Smith, who knew Dunaway's car, repeatedly told Frye that Dunaway's Oldsmobile was not the car she saw in front of the store.  Frye tried to convince her otherwise:

Q (FRYE): But, the car you saw parked on the curb, do you think it could have been Curtis Dunaway's car?

A (PATRICIA SMITH): No, Sir.

Q: Think hard on it.

A: The car I saw was dark.

Q. I don't deny that.  I'm not saying that.4

A. It was not two-toned.  It was a totally dark car.

Frye disregarded the Smiths' description of the dark car.  In May, he claimed that the Smiths actually confirmed his theory of the crime. This was how he remembered their testimony:

Q (DAVIDS): You said you correlated the time (when Zeigler led Mays into the store) by the statements of the witnesses that Dunaway's car was back there by 7:58?

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4   Frye accepted Felton Thomas’s description of that car as a “light” car.