by Yasmin Chaudhary — The Inkwell Times
On November 9, 1994, Farah Fratta returned to her home in Atascocita, Texas, after a haircut. She was shot twice in the head in her garage. Neighbors called 911, and she was taken to Hermann Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. She was 33 years old and a mother of three.
The investigation exposed a murder-for-hire plot arranged by her estranged husband, Robert Alan Fratta, a Missouri City public safety officer. Joseph Andrew Prystash acted as the middleman, recruiting Howard Paul Guidry to carry out the shooting.
Farah’s death left three children without their mother and began a legal process that would stretch across decades.
Threats Before the Murder
Farah and Robert were going through divorce proceedings and a custody dispute when she was killed. Court records describe testimony from people who heard Robert discuss killing her or ask whether they knew someone who would do it.
Several witnesses initially dismissed those remarks as jokes or angry talk. One acquaintance, however, testified that he came to believe Robert was serious after Robert discussed payment and showed him a schedule of Farah’s activities.
These accounts make the case especially troubling. The threats described in court were repeated statements about arranging a killing, rather than a single remark recalled after the crime.
Subject: Atascocita Presbyterian Church Source: The Church’s Facebook Page
A Church Visit Did Not Establish Innocence
On the evening of the murder, Robert took the children to a Catholic church in Humble. He attended a meeting for parents while the children were in a nursery and a catechism class.
His presence there placed him away from the shooting. It did not establish that he had no role in planning it.
Court records describe witnesses seeing him repeatedly leave the meeting to use a telephone. Phone records became part of the evidence examined in the case.
The Investigation Uncovered the Plot
A major development came in March 1995, when Guidry was arrested following a bank robbery. He had a firearm that investigators traced to Robert.
Mary Gipp, Prystash’s girlfriend and Guidry’s neighbor, also provided information connecting the men to Farah’s killing. The evidence identified distinct roles: Robert arranged the murder, Prystash recruited the shooter, and Guidry carried it out.
All three men were convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in separate proceedings.
Decades of Court Proceedings
Robert’s first conviction was overturned after courts found constitutional problems with the admission of his co-conspirators’ statements. Because those men did not testify, he had been denied the opportunity to confront them as witnesses.
He was tried again in 2009, convicted and sentenced to death. Texas executed him by lethal injection on January 10, 2023, more than 28 years after Farah’s murder.
Prystash died on June 19, 2025, while awaiting execution. KPRC reported that Texas prison officials attributed his death to natural causes. Guidry remains listed on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s death-row roster.
Remembering Farah
Farah’s parents raised her three children after her death. Her father, Lex Baquer, died in 2018, before Robert’s execution.
The convictions established accountability, but no sentence could return the years Farah should have shared with her family. Her children lost their mother, and her parents took on the responsibility of raising them while living with their own grief.
Remembering this case means keeping Farah at its center. A divorce and custody dispute formed the background to her murder; responsibility belonged to the men who chose to arrange and carry it out.
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