00:00:00
this ad is about AT&T's deal on the new iPhone 15 Pro and it's real guaranteed that's not always the case with other
00:00:06
ads the view of a lifetime only with a pricey upgrade breathe in to find inner peace then pay extra to remove the ads
00:00:14
at AT&T we mean what we say learn how to get iPhone 15 Pro with Titanium on us with eligible tradein guaranteed
00:00:21
connecting changes everything AT&T c.com iPhone for details about the guarantee trade in promo for new and
00:00:27
existing customers available for limited time terms and restrictions app when it comes to Quality sleep Ashley
00:00:33
has you covered with top mattress brands at winning prices and with special financing options available you can
00:00:39
snooze now and pay later plus your mattress purchase helps give the gift of better sleep to children in need and US
00:00:47
Special Operations forces visit your local Ashley store or shop online today and make every snooze count financing is
00:00:56
subject to credit approval C store or ashley.com for [Music] [Applause] details [Music]
00:01:42
welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and
00:01:48
with me as always is the Master of Ceremonies in all of the reindeer games I give you the captain I don't give a
00:01:55
[ __ ] what Santa Claus says second place will still be called first losers this
00:02:01
year it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a
00:02:07
[Music] friend tonight we are drinking holy city pillner by the good people at Holy City
00:02:16
Brewing garage grade four out of five bottle caps this is the first Flagship beer in the Holy City Arsenal this is a
00:02:24
crisp and clean hopped up Bohemian style pilsner holy city will quench your thirst and please pette all in one glass
00:02:31
and today's beer was brought to us by these pleasing peeps first up we have Sam and Frasier and London England and a
00:02:39
big shout out to Lindsay in Fort Wright Kentucky next up we have Audrey from Northfolk Virginia serving this great
00:02:45
country in the Navy so Audrey thank you for your service and also in Virginia we
00:02:49
have Allen in the town of Raven and a big we like your jib to Michael in pintown South Africa and a long distance
00:02:57
cheers to Kia borin Haagen and Oslo Norway and last but not least we have Charles in bodymore murderland that was
00:03:05
my nickname in high school Captain Boyen Haagen all right well a big salute to you Captain Boyen Hagen and a big salute
00:03:12
to everybody near and far that contributed to this week's beer fund if you want to help out for next week go to
00:03:19
True Crim garage.com and click on the Donate button and we're a little behind to hold your horses and that's enough of
00:03:26
the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
00:03:33
[Music] crime [Music] June 1st 1985 3:10 a.m. I love you all last will and testament I love you mommy daddy
00:04:16
Robert Dawn and Richard and everyone else and all the other friends and relatives I'll be with my father now so
00:04:26
please please don't worry just remember my witty personality and great special times we all shared together please
00:04:34
don't ever let this ruin your lives just keep living one day at a time for Jesus
00:04:41
some good will come out of this my thoughts will always be with and in you casket
00:04:49
closed I love you all so damn much sorry Dad I had to cuss for once Jesus forgive
00:04:58
me Rich Richard sweetie I really did and always will love you and treasure our special moments I ask one thing though
00:05:08
accept Jesus as your personal savior my family has been the greatest influence on my life sorry about the
00:05:16
cruise money someday please go in my place I am sorry if I ever disappointed you in any way I only wanted to make you
00:05:26
proud of me because I have always been proud of my family mom dad Robert and Dawn there's
00:05:35
so much I want to say that I should have said before now I love you I know you all love me and will
00:05:44
miss me very much but if you all stick together like we always did you all can do
00:05:51
it please do not become hard or upset everything works out for the good for those that love the Lord all of my love
00:06:01
always I love you all with all my heart Sharon Sherry Smith P.S nana I love you so much I kind of always felt like your
00:06:14
favorite you were mine I love you a [Music] lot Friday May 31st 1985 at 3:38 p.m. Bob Smith discovered
00:06:36
his daughter Sherry's car unattended with the driver's door open in the motor running at the end of the long driveway
00:06:44
leading to the family's home he called out her name several times and got no response he checked the vehicle and
00:06:52
found Sherry's purse on the seat but where was his daughter Cherry's father started searching for her when his
00:06:59
efforts failed Mr Smith contacted the police this is just 2 days before 17-year-old Sherry fa Smith was
00:07:08
scheduled to sing the national anthem at her high school graduation so while most
00:07:13
of her friends and classmates were packing for their High School graduation trip Sherry was abducted from the
00:07:19
driveway of her Lexington County South Carolina home what followed was the largest search in South Carolina history
00:07:28
the inv investigation was Bleak they had no Witnesses and no leads Sherry is what
00:07:34
law enforcement would consider to be an extremely lowrisk victim therefore it was important to clear the family as
00:07:42
fast as possible and move on to other possibilities police very quickly ruled out any involvement by the immediate
00:07:50
family or any of the members of the immediate family they're hoping for a ransom demand so police put a trace on
00:07:58
the Smith's home home phone the next day the Smiths received a phone call on the
00:08:04
line a strangely distorted voice of a man who claims he has Sherry captive he tells Sherry's mother Hilda who answered
00:08:14
the phone so you'll know this is not a hoax Sherry had on a black and yellow bathing suit beneath her shirt and
00:08:22
shorts then the caller says you'll get a letter from Sherry later State officials
00:08:28
intercepted her letter this was entitled last will in Testament from the mail the
00:08:35
letter we read during the trailer was that exact letter apparently her abductor had Sherry drafted shortly
00:08:42
before her death this was a two-page handwritten letter and while it clearly displayed an amazing amount of strength
00:08:50
and courage on Sherry's behalf after reading the letter no one was optimistic the papers were sent for
00:08:58
fingerprint analysis local law enforcement was all over this one the FBI was very quickly sent in and
00:09:06
the FBI feared the worst their theory is that the abductor most likely killed Sherry by the time that they arrived to
00:09:13
assist in the case and the killer would now be ready to search for another victim they believe the kidnapper saw
00:09:21
Sher and her boyfriend Richard kissing at the local shopping mall and from there he followed her home she stopped
00:09:28
at the mailbox box and that's where he snatched her seems like a lot of creeps are hanging out at the local malls so
00:09:34
that was their working Theory and after this first call was received they decided to set up recording equipment at
00:09:40
the Smith home because now they're anticipating another phone call on june3rd they received a call asking if
00:09:47
they had received the letter and the caller asked do you believe me now to which Hilda this is Sherry's mother
00:09:55
replied no I have not heard from Sherry and I need to know if she is alive and well so basically if I'm following you
00:10:02
correctly this dirt bag calls the family and he says I have her mhm and then he says you're going to receive a letter
00:10:10
right but the letter is the last will in Testament so it's almost implying that she's dead and then he calls them back
00:10:18
and says do you believe me now right right he wants to know if they've received the letter
00:10:24
they as said it was intercepted by law enforcement and this this is actually a really good move by sher's mother Hilda
00:10:32
to not kind of cower to this distorted voice on the other end of the phone yeah she's saying look I've not heard from my
00:10:40
daughter I need to know if she's alive and well I don't believe anything you're saying you say you have her captive will
00:10:46
let me talk to my daughter right and so in a sense she's kind of calling his bluff right or hoping so yeah and he
00:10:55
says that when she ask him I need a know if Sherry's alive and well he then responds that you will know in 2 or 3
00:11:03
days and he hangs up the phone now later that same day he did call again this time saying Sherry was alive and he
00:11:11
would release her soon and that he wanted to tell her one thing that Sherry is now a part of him physically mentally
00:11:21
emotionally and spiritually he says our souls are now one Hilda asked again if her daughter was alive and well the man
00:11:30
said Sherry is protected and she is a part of me now and God looks after all of us okay so this guy's
00:11:39
a wacka do weirdo well these are not clear and simple answers to very clear and simple questions from Hilda and the
00:11:49
other thing too Captain using those words Sherry's now a part of me physically mentally emotionally and
00:11:56
spiritually our souls are now one I I can't feel like anybody's got any good feelings in the Smith home hearing
00:12:04
that that sounds very Bleak sounds very bad I mean it just sounds bad well on top of that you have you know her car is
00:12:15
found on mhm so the fact that this individual was able to just pull up behind her grab her take her captive and
00:12:24
now this comeb back is going to bring the Lord Jesus Christ and our savior into this so because of the first call
00:12:30
that was received they were anticipating these two phone calls and attempting to
00:12:36
trace the location of these two phone calls now they did they did have some luck with that they were able to
00:12:44
determine that these two phone calls did come from the general area you know they
00:12:48
were they local let's say right but there are some issues there were some issues with the phone trace according to
00:12:55
the FBI in 1985 it took about 15 minutes to get get a Pinpoint location of the exact phone from which the calls were
00:13:03
placed even with the strength and courage shown by Hilda Smith the caller never stayed on the phone for that
00:13:09
length of time now the man called again this time it was 4 days after the abduction and this time sher's
00:13:17
21-year-old sister Dawn answered the phone the man gave her details about the kidnapping saying he stopped his car
00:13:26
when he saw her at the mailbox he said he took a few photos of her then approached her acting friendly and when
00:13:33
he got close enough he forced her into his vehicle at gunpoint mhm he told Dawn he was regretful that the whole thing
00:13:40
got way out of hand he then went on to tell her that at 3:10 a.m. Saturday the 1st of June Sherry wrote the letter you
00:13:49
received and then at 4:58 Saturday the 1st of June we became one Soul he said don't there he goes with the weird talk
00:13:57
again right and and he says don't ask me any questions he told Don Sherry would be returned the following evening and
00:14:04
that they should have an ambulance on standby adding you'll receive instructions on where to find us well
00:14:11
and this makes you wonder because you take somebody like dmer for example and he would talk about possessing his
00:14:18
victim by eating his victim and that they would become a part of him by doing so so that's where my head goes with
00:14:25
these comments my head actually goes in two directions one what you just said there Talent one right there is is is
00:14:32
the possessing um you know we even hear zodiac wrote in his letters that they will become slaves my slaves in the
00:14:39
afterlife yeah but the weird thing that I find here is a bit of the opposite that we've seen with like when we talked
00:14:47
about keer and we talked about BTK where both of them said you know after I killed
00:14:52
somebody I just immediately went into pure paranoia where I felt the whole world knew what I just did
00:14:59
and at any second they're going to come and get me you know they're going to come and apprehend me and here you know
00:15:05
we have the FBI who stating well we believed by receiving this letter that she was probably
00:15:13
already dead before we arrived on the scene to help and this dude's probably out looking for another victim he might
00:15:20
be but he's also busy spending his time communicating with the family I wonder what happened to give them that
00:15:26
impression that he already killed her I think the letter you know the letter is weird enough that it might steer you in
00:15:32
that direction the same way that it steered us to The Possession possessing the victim MH okay they have become one
00:15:40
all of that Kookie talk right Ro could do but here's one thing I do want to point out and I I read a lot of books by
00:15:49
retired FBI agents humble brag what what what what kind of brag is that that that
00:15:54
I can read I read a lot of books no that just means nothing else to do this is after uh did
00:16:02
you start reading a lot after you studied computer well the thing that I want to point out here that I see Time
00:16:08
and Time Again by these retired FBI agents and don't get me wrong I I enjoy them very much that's why I purchased
00:16:16
their books so I can read them however they're always kind of the smartest guy in the room and I wonder a lot of times
00:16:24
like after the fact they're telling these stories 20 30 years later and they're like we knew already that uh
00:16:30
this is what was going on and it's you kind of I question it sometimes you couldn't have been right every single
00:16:37
time you know what I mean it just doesn't work out that way maybe this is why you identify with the books right
00:16:44
remember he's now telling them that they will receive instructions on where to find us more of the cookie talk and
00:16:50
letting them know that hey I'm going to let Sherry go she will be returned the following evening make sure you have an
00:16:56
ambulance on standby so to me I go on a different route thinking why is so much communication going on if you haven't
00:17:03
kept her alive the paranoia though at noon the next day the man called again and said follow these instructions
00:17:11
listen carefully he said take Highway 378 West to Traffic Circle take Prosperity exit and go 1 and A2 miles
00:17:22
turn right at the Moose Lodge sign go one4 mile and then turn left at the white building go to the backyard there
00:17:31
we will be waiting God chose us and then he hung up the phone yeah this godp is just
00:17:39
creepy well it's South Carolina and it's I I think you know it's part of that no
00:17:45
I don't mind God talk I don't mind that at all you know I'm a spiritual person what I do mind is when you kidnap a
00:17:53
person possibly have already murdered her you made her write her last will in test Testament and now you're saying
00:18:00
that you have became one and then you keep bringing God into this MH so that's uh don't like that much well and given
00:18:08
all these instructions pretty detailed instructions it's good for law enforcement that this call like the
00:18:15
others was recorded So the sheriff's department followed the directions and this led them to the body of Sheri Fay
00:18:22
Smith the decomposition of the body suggested that she had been dead for some time likely since 458 on June 1st
00:18:32
like was noted in the letter right they were pretty sure of this so she was clothed and they could tell she was once
00:18:40
bound with duct tape but the the tape had been removed so we have the residue left over from the duct tape and they
00:18:47
believed that sher's body was likely in this location since shortly after her death unfortunately by the time sher's
00:18:55
body was located due to the advanced decom the pathologist could not ascertain either the cause of death or
00:19:03
whether or not she had been sexually assaulted the pathologist believed however that Sherry either suffocated or
00:19:10
died from dehydration this resulting from a rare form of diabetes from which Sherry suffered evidence suggested she
00:19:18
was killed elsewhere investigators believed her killer placed her there and returned to visit with the corpse and it
00:19:26
was only until the body was to too far decomposed for his liking or decomposed enough to hide SL destroy evidence that
00:19:35
he told the family where to find her it's strange for me with the FBI involved you'd think that they would be
00:19:40
able to determine the cause of death well using the information that they had the FBI unit put together a profile of
00:19:48
the offender they believed that the offender was in his late 20s to early 30s probably divorced living alone or
00:19:56
with his parents white he has uh yeah that they actually will update this profile later and they didn't
00:20:06
include white as part of the first profile uh but probably divorced living alone or with his parents he has some
00:20:14
kind of criminal record this would include assaults on women or at least obscene phone calls if he has previously
00:20:21
murdered anyone the victims would be children or young girls they believed when he was on the phone was Sherry's
00:20:29
family he was reading from a script they believed the killer was rigid orderly and obsessively neat he would take notes
00:20:36
obsessively and keep many list did they say anything about possible military background uh they did not but usually
00:20:44
they will include that if they believe that he does have some type of military background and the reason why I bring
00:20:49
that up is because the neat and orderly possibly wants to create list yeah You' think that would be somebody that you
00:20:55
know had some regiment schedule at some point in their existence they believe that he owned a vehicle likely three
00:21:01
years old or newer and the vehicle is clean well-maintained and cared for outwardly he is arrogant and displays
00:21:09
contempt for the world but on the inside he is insecure and harbors strong feelings of inadequacy he possibly goes
00:21:15
around telling people he reads a lot of books yes and then and then uh doesn't speak too highly of the
00:21:22
authors they said that the man is local having lived in the area for most of his life he had access to a secluded
00:21:30
area where he knew he would have time to spend with Sher and her body they figured that the reason that the
00:21:37
caller's voice sounded distorted is because he was using some type of device to achieve this they determined the
00:21:43
caller was using something called a variable speed device they were now in the process of tracking down
00:21:51
manufacturers of these types of devices and retailers this suggested that the suspect had a background in
00:21:58
Electronics so it's it's always interesting to me Captain how they come up with this some of it more detailed
00:22:04
than other profiles that we've reviewed in the past the stuff about the books is
00:22:09
fascinating right no what gets me is when they say we believe that he has a car that's 3 years old or newer mhm like
00:22:17
that's so Random me and it's like you don't know do they have any eyewitnesses that would make them lean that way or or
00:22:28
is this just kind of a random guess according to the information I could find there was no I Witnesses mhm right
00:22:37
that's that's why it's so Random to me we believe that he has a newer three-year-old car on newer that's so
00:22:45
pinpoint I think they come up with this for a couple of reasons one I think they're working off of the idea that
00:22:52
this guy is driving a lot that he's spending a lot of time driving and they may also believe him to be careful if
00:23:00
they believe him to be careful and driving all the time they're probably going off of the thought that he would
00:23:06
prefer to drive a newer vehicle something that's well maintained and well cared for because it would be too
00:23:12
risky to spend all that time driving and he wouldn't do that because he's careful
00:23:16
or possibly the idea that this guy was married divorced so he possibly has a career is living with somebody or living
00:23:24
with his parents so therefore he has the money where he would have enough nier vehicle because that would be his only
00:23:30
opportunity to maybe impress a female also that's interesting that you picked up on that because with having a
00:23:37
background in electronics they're almost suggesting that they believe this individual has a job and like you said
00:23:44
if they believe he's living with his parents he has more money than somebody not living with their parents but the
00:23:51
obvious thing here is usually when they base off of uh the situation is this individual local or or not and that
00:23:58
seems to be pretty quick to come to that assumption and I think here really exemplifies that to Perfection you know
00:24:07
we have a situation where he gives very detailed directions to find her body and
00:24:13
I have to believe that law enforcement's working off of the thought that that's not just a place that this guy stumbled
00:24:19
upon that this is an area that he knew and knew well and therefore he's a local guy he didn't just drive in and happen
00:24:26
to see her at the mailbox and take her [Music] away this show is sponsored by better
00:24:37
help do you look forward to the holidays maybe you struggle with seasonal Blues this time of year can be a lot and it's
00:24:43
natural to feel some sadness or even anxiety about it but adding something new and positive to your life can
00:24:49
counteract some of those feelings therapy can be a bright spot something to look forward to to make you feel
00:24:56
grounded and to give you the tools to manage everything going on if you're thinking of starting therapy give better
00:25:03
help a try it's entirely online designed to be convenient flexible and suited to
00:25:08
your schedule just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapist
00:25:14
at any time for no additional charge find your bright spot this season with betterhelp visit betterhelp.com garage
00:25:22
today to get 10% off your first month that's better help HP ./ garage dreaming of overseas Adventures
00:25:34
or connecting more deeply with family from afar Rosetta Stone Bridges the language Gap I've tried others but
00:25:40
Rosetta Stone's immersive lessons and voice feedback technology or game changers dive into 25 Languages by
00:25:47
learning intuitively just like when you were a kid and here's the holiday Sparkle grab a lifetime membership now
00:25:54
and save 50% gift yourself the world head to rosettastone.com now and save 50% you can start your day off right
00:26:05
when you find a professional on Angie to get your plumbing right first connect with skilled professionals
00:26:12
to get all your home projects done well visit angie.com you can do this when you
00:26:17
Angie [Music] that make sure you check our show off the record on Stitcher premium this week
00:26:31
it's Q&A part one the easiest way to find off the Record is to go to our website and click on the off the Record
00:26:40
link the day after they found the body of Sherry Smith the killer called the home again and this time he called
00:26:48
collect he asked to speak with Dawn he told her he would be sending the family the photos of Sherry and he asked her
00:26:57
for for forgiveness and for their prayers he said he was going to commit suicide because this thing got out of
00:27:04
hand and all he wanted to do in the beginning was to make love to Dawn and that is why he was watching her Dawn
00:27:12
startled by this interrupted the man and asked the man make love to whom then he
00:27:18
corrected himself and he said the name Sherry and he hung up the phone later that same day the killer called a local
00:27:25
TV network and asked for a specific reporter and told that reporter he planned to turn himself in at some point
00:27:32
and he would give the reporter an exclusive interview yeah this guy's changing his stories I'm going to kill
00:27:38
myself I'm going to turn myself in he should have just killed himself yeah you wonder if it's just does he need to get
00:27:45
forgiveness from the family for some reason or is this attention seeking it seems like a lot of work and a lot of
00:27:53
effort risky behavior for some attention yeah but he's a complete whacka do mhm and the FBI didn't believe or they say
00:28:05
they didn't believe the man would turn himself in or kill himself at any point they believe that the calls were in fact
00:28:12
seeking forgiveness from sher's family but also to manipulate and control the situation as much as he possibly could
00:28:20
and that this guy would eventually kill again yeah well this guy's a giant piece
00:28:25
of [ __ ] what what would have been nice though is if he would have put himself in a brown paper bag and then rang
00:28:31
somebody's doorbell and lit himself on fire okay so I do want to touch on this though because we do know from this last
00:28:38
phone call that he says that in the beginning all he wanted to do is make love to Dawn Dawn's 21 years old Sher
00:28:46
Smith is 17 and they actually you can find there's quite a bit of uh photos and images of both of them on the Internet
00:28:56
and you can see that the two of them look very much alike okay so this is when he makes this slip when he says
00:29:05
Dawn instead of Sherry when he's on the phone with Dawn I was really curious why
00:29:10
the FBI didn't update their profile because remember they said at one point that if he had killed before his victims
00:29:18
would have been children or young girls right okay well Sherry yes she's 17 and that's more closer to being an adult but
00:29:27
Dawn is absolutely an adult so you almost wonder if now at this point if you're going to say if he is killed
00:29:33
before is there a chance that Dawn was actually the intended victim you know because he he's not going to see her or
00:29:40
see a girl that he perceives to be Dawn at the mailbox and walk up and ask her if that's are you Dawn you know right
00:29:47
but he did take some pictures before so then you wander thrown and out there maybe this individual's supposed to wear
00:29:54
glasses but doesn't and so is it is it that simple of a mistake and then when he gets closer it's the wrong girl but
00:30:02
it's too late at that point I think it's I think it's very much like that I think
00:30:07
it's he the intended victim was Dawn he hoped to abduct her and do whatever he did with Sherry with her but I think at
00:30:16
some point he would accept the substitution or like you said I mean I think it's kind of too late look he
00:30:25
probably opened up the door for the person mhm and and at that point it's too late in his mind well the man called
00:30:34
Don Smith again at this time he told Don that he gave Sherry a choice of how she
00:30:40
would be killed and the choices were overdose shooting or Suffocation and Sherry chose Suffocation he told Dawn he
00:30:48
killed Sherry by placing duct tape over her mouth and nose until she died 2 weeks after the Abduction of Sherry
00:30:56
99-year-old de deorah May helck was playing with her three-year-old brother at their home in Richland County when
00:31:03
she was abducted from the front yard of the family's home a neighbor saw a vehicle pull up and a man get out of the
00:31:10
car the man spoke with Deborah then grabbed her threw the screaming girl into his car and drove off now the
00:31:18
neighbor immediately alerted Deborah's father who was inside their home they called police and after the two of them
00:31:26
jumped into a vehicle and they went speeding after the abductor car but were unable to track down the vehicle well
00:31:33
this sounds similar to is the FBI immediately thinking this is our guy in Sherry's case yeah yeah they believe the
00:31:41
offender is one and the same and with the addition of the second victim especially a younger victim the FBI
00:31:48
didn't really change their profile but they did add to the profile they added that the Killer and abductor is a white
00:31:57
man outwardly shy may be overweight but at the very least is not attractive to women so he's not Bradley Cooper those
00:32:06
close to him May notice one or more of the following the offender is experiencing weight loss drinking
00:32:13
heavily not shaving regularly and he would be eager to talk about the crimes as he is following the investigation
00:32:21
coverage on the evening news or in the papers he's also collector of pornography that likely focused on
00:32:30
bondage and or is of satom masochistic nature so not good old-fashioned Christian porn and because of the young
00:32:38
age of the second abducted victim Deborah only being 9 years old they believe the offender would be too
00:32:45
ashamed to call or correspond with Deborah's family well this turned out to be true
00:32:51
no phone calls and no letters the killer also stopped calling the Smith house the
00:32:57
the FBI believed that the phone calls would be the easiest way to trap the killer yeah I believe it would be as
00:33:03
well and since he's not calling a writing it's almost like they would want to put out a taunt to him like you know
00:33:10
he already contacted news reporters before have that same news reporter do a report on how this guy uh has become
00:33:17
weak and vulnerable because he hasn't reached out to the FBI so knowing that the Unknown Subject Was following the
00:33:24
case in the news and in the papers the FBI decided to enlist the help of a reporter of a single reporter see they
00:33:32
wanted to force this man out into the open or at the very least get him to call the Smith's home once again they
00:33:40
wanted to use Dawn Smith as bait for their trap now the Smiths begrudgingly went along with this so they held a
00:33:49
memorial service for Sherry Fay Smith they wanted the Smith family and Dawn present at this memorial service and
00:33:57
during the ceremony they had reporters Snap photos of dawn holding a stuffed animal belonging to Sherry and flowers
00:34:05
for her Memorial meanwhile undercover agents wrote down license plate numbers for all the vehicles that were present
00:34:12
in the area now this didn't seem to flush out the killer out into the open but he did once again call the Smith
00:34:20
home this time calling long distance and collect you have a collect call from a giant piece of shot well that's it's
00:34:27
interesting that you say that Captain because okay so in these collect calls you would if you were calling someone
00:34:33
collect you would be given a brief uh set of time there where you could announce who you are so it would say you
00:34:39
have a collect call from so and so and then the person receiving the call who would be paying for it can decide if
00:34:45
they're going to accept the call accept the charges or not so during this portion where the caller can announce
00:34:52
their name and who they are it's a man's voice but he says that his name is Sherry F Smith okay Dawn
00:35:00
does accept this call this time the man was not using the voice Distortion device he told Don that God wants her to
00:35:08
join Sherry Fay saying it's just a matter of time this month next month this year next year you can't be
00:35:16
protected forever then he asked Don if she had heard of Deborah May helmi Don said she
00:35:23
had to which he tells her listen carefully go One Mile West turn left at Bill's Grill go 3 and2 miles through
00:35:33
Gilbert turn right at the last dirt road before you come to Two Notch Road go through the no trespassing sign go 50
00:35:43
yards Deborah May is waiting God forgive us all yeah I don't need this turd stain
00:35:49
to be confessing for my sins the FBI is now worried and regretting the ploy of Using Dawn as bait because of the
00:35:56
received threat uh during all of this law enforcement was still submitting the letter from Sherry titled the last will
00:36:03
in Testament to every possible test the letter was drafted on yellow lined legal
00:36:10
paper from a pad so they decided to use an SD machine this device can detect even the slightest indentations on a
00:36:19
piece of paper they wanted to see if they could pull any possible information from indentations that were made from
00:36:27
writing on pieces of paper above the last will in the legal pad and they found some interesting leads they found
00:36:34
a partial grocery list and a sequence of numbers with further testing they could
00:36:40
detect nine numbers of a possible 10 digigit sequence the numbers are in this order
00:36:47
205 83713 blank 8 this was a phone number in Huntsville Alabama so working with the phone
00:36:59
company they checked all 10 possible phone numbers for a connection to Lexington County South Carolina where
00:37:06
Sherry and the Smith family lived one of the numbers in Huntsville received several calls from a residence just 15
00:37:14
miles from Sherry Fay's home the home belonged to Ellis and Sharon Shepard law enforcement went to the home
00:37:23
and interviewed Ellis and Sharon the Shepherds told police they had made phone calls to Huntsville
00:37:29
where their son was stationed in the Army but they were out of town when both of the murders were committed they
00:37:35
explained a man who worked for Ellis as an electrician Larry Jean Bell was put in charge of house sitting for the 6
00:37:43
weeks that they were away Larry was in his early 30s divorced lived with his parents he was neat and orderly and when
00:37:52
he picked them up from the airport he spoke constantly about about the unsolved murders that occurred while
00:37:58
they were away he had noticeably lost weight he was unshaven and he was irritable the sheriff asked Mr Shepard
00:38:06
to show him the room where Larry stayed while watching the home under the bed they found Mr Shephard's handgun jammed
00:38:14
in pornographic magazines featuring bondage on the cover now regarding the sequence of numbers the couple wrote
00:38:20
down the telephone number for their son and gave it to Larry Jean Bell before they left for their vacation with
00:38:27
instructions that if anything were to come up with the house to call their son the police played a portion of the last
00:38:35
call received by The Smiths this is the one where the killer did not use the voice Distortion device right and the
00:38:41
Shepherds confirmed it sounded just like Larry's voice armed with this information they did some digging and
00:38:49
they found that a vehicle registered to Bell was seen at the memorial service for Sherry Fay the office officer wrote
00:38:57
down the plate number and noted that the driver did not exit the vehicle he simply drove by the vehicle was less
00:39:04
than 3 years old early the next morning police surrounded Larry's parents home and arrested him as he was leaving their
00:39:12
home to go off to work a quick background check revealed Bell was twice arrested for attempted assaults on women
00:39:20
on both of these occasions he attempted to force a young woman into his car at knife point unsuccessfully
00:39:27
under questioning Bell admitted to nothing inside Belle's parents' home in his bedroom police found hairs on the
00:39:34
bed matching hairs from Sherry F Smith in Larry's desk they found a sheet of stamps from which the stamp used to
00:39:42
marry Sherry's last will and testament originated from the neighbor that witnessed the Abduction of Deborah May
00:39:49
told police after the arrest it was in fact Belle who he saw pulling the screaming child into his car that day
00:39:57
under further questioning Bell still admitted nothing so they played the tape of his voice from the phone calls for
00:40:05
him and still Bell admitted nothing so they brought in the FBI to further continue the questioning they took a
00:40:13
different approach rather than to continue to question him they explained to him that they had a lot of experience
00:40:20
in dealing with these types of crimes and that the perpetrator of these types of crimes never gets the opportunity to
00:40:26
explain themselves and their side of the story often the offender is too afraid and ashamed to admit what they have done
00:40:35
and once they are in court their attorney will not let them take the stand right so this individual is then
00:40:41
trapped in a nightmare that never goes away and he goes away to a lengthy prison sentence and no one understands
00:40:49
him no one knows what the hell he was going through at that time well I like their tactic here but we could always
00:40:56
employ my scary clowns where we dress up like clowns and we beat the guy to the inch of his life to get him to start
00:41:03
confessing well as they're explaining this to Larry they notice that Larry Bell is nodding his head up and down
00:41:09
he's he's agreeing with what they have to say uhhuh and seeing that he's responding they leaned in for the kill
00:41:16
and asked him when did you start to feel sorry about the crime Larry did they whisper this I don't know okay seems
00:41:24
like it' be a powerful move you know come on Larry tell us what you know we got you
00:41:32
well they asked him when he started to feel sorry about this crime and to which he says it was when he saw a photograph
00:41:39
of the Smith family right then they asked him if he could have possibly done this sort of thing and Larry told them
00:41:47
quote all I know is the Larry Jean Bell sitting here could not have done this but the bad Larry Jean Bell could have
00:41:57
so that is going to be the closest thing to a confession that Larry Jean Bell would ever give regarding both of these
00:42:04
murders so we do have a confession or a loose confession right implied confession we have some of Sherry's hair
00:42:13
is found in his room on his pillow in his bedroom okay and then we have eyewitness that saw him taking the
00:42:21
9-year-old girl away and the and and then the car registered the yeah so him driving by the memorial
00:42:29
is not really any evidence you know it's stacking pieces on the case right yeah but but there is a lot of evidence like
00:42:37
you said you not only do you have the hairs that match Sherry F Smith's hair in his bedroom I mean how the hell is
00:42:44
that going to get there two you have the sheet from which the stamp came from that the last whe in Testament was
00:42:51
mailed you also have all these little connecting factors to the letter itself you know the indentations that they
00:42:58
found using that SD machine and then you have the uh Shepherds for which he is home you know he's house sitting for and
00:43:07
they say yeah that's his voice on right right on that recording and this is the killer that's calling and taunting the
00:43:14
Smith family and that's not as good as picking them out of a lineup or anything but that's that's something right and
00:43:20
and to which I guess for the lineup purposes you have a bit of less evidence regarding the abduction and murder of
00:43:29
the little girl of Deborah May helmi yeah but you do have that eyewitness who says okay you know I see this picture of
00:43:38
Larry Jean Bell on the news and he calls up police and says that's the same guy that I saw take that little girl so we
00:43:45
have all this evidence mounting up and like you said this real Lucy goosey somewhat of a confession you know he
00:43:52
doesn't say I didn't kill these girls he says the bad Larry Jean Bell could have
00:43:59
done this would have been uh capable I guess of doing this but the good Larry you know he's serving his community and
00:44:06
he's serving God Sherry Fay Smith's older sister Dawn she was super brave and strong during the investigation into
00:44:14
her sister's abduction and murder she went on to be crowned Miss South Carolina and the following year she was
00:44:22
the runner up in the Miss America contest and Fe February of 1986 Larry Jean Bell was convicted of murdering and
00:44:30
kidnapping Sherry F Smith the jury recommended the death sentence and the trial judge imposed the sentence in
00:44:38
accordance with the jury's findings in 1987 in a separate trial Bell was convicted of murdering and kidnapping
00:44:46
Deborah May helck and again he was given a sentence of death for 9 years Larry Jean Bell filed and played the appeals
00:44:55
game trying to work the courts but on October 4th 1996 the state of South Carolina in accordance with his
00:45:04
sentences Larry Jean Bell was strapped into the electric chair and killed a large crowd cheered as the hearse
00:45:11
carrying Bell's body left the broad rer Correctional Institution one of his defense lawyers said quote we have
00:45:20
executed a sick delusional psychotic man [Music] it's beyond fascinating how correct
00:45:35
their profile was in this case now Mr I read a lot of books do we have any recommended reading for this week we do
00:45:45
and I'm happy to announce that it's not a book by a retired FBI agent so you be written on higher than a third grade
00:45:54
level you know what though captain I feel like I want to punch myself in the face for saying that during the episode
00:46:00
because that's like my favorite reading is now you know how I how I feel every episode constantly just fighting the
00:46:07
urge to attack your co-host so this week recommending a book called handsome Johnny the life and death of Johnny
00:46:15
roselli gentleman gangster Hollywood producer and CIA assassin so take a deep dive into the American underworld Johnny
00:46:25
s in handsome Johnny this book I've been looking forward to this one you don't have to write down the title right now
00:46:31
though captain or anybody out there because you can go to our website true Crim garage.com click on the recommended
00:46:37
page we have books and recommendations there for you yeah and head out to the website click on the store Page cuz
00:46:44
there's tons of shirts left uh we're running out of some of the shirts but they should if you order now they'll be
00:46:51
shipped in time for Christmas and real quick before we close out today Captain m um last week I got an email from Carly
00:46:59
she said she was listening to my favorite murder and there's an episode I guess where Georgia mentions True Crime
00:47:06
garage did a four-part series on the boys on the tracks case so Carly excited you know she listens to our show she
00:47:14
went and she tried to find the boys on the tracks and she emailed me and said I cannot find these episodes on your feed
00:47:21
So I responded to her get the Stitcher app because all of our old old episodes are on there and it's free you can
00:47:28
listen to all of our huge giant catalog that Georgia recommends so much on the Stitcher app and join us tomorrow in the
00:47:37
garage as we cover another case instead of just doing one part this week we decided to do two one parters that's
00:47:45
right we will be right back here in the garage tomorrow we expect to see you here until then be good be kind and
00:47:52
don't litter [Music] [Applause] the Angie's List you know and trust is now Angie and we're so much more than
00:48:27
just a list we still connect you with top local pros and show you ratings and reviews but now we also let you compare
00:48:34
upfront prices on hundreds of projects and book a service instantly we can even handle the rest of your project from
00:48:41
start to finish so remember Angie's List is now Angie and we're here to get your
00:48:46
job done right get started at angie.com that's AI or download the app today