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By PAUL GARBER | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: May 30, 2011
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Dedrick Smith's girlfriend went on a late-night food run, and when she got back home, he was gone.
That was in October 2006, and no one in Smith's family has heard from him since. Now, 4 1/2 years later, his mother and aunt are hoping to renew interest in the case in the hopes that someone anyone might have information that will let them know his whereabouts. He wasn't in any trouble, but he was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic and could be somewhere and not remember who he is, said his mother, Deborah Smith.
"There is hope," Smith said. "As long as he is missing, there is hope."
They have enlisted the help of Betty Brown, a local missing-persons advocate who volunteers for NAMUS, a public missing-persons database run by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Smiths got in touch with Brown after a story about her work ran in the Winston-Salem Journal in February.
"I just knew that it would be a godsend for the simple fact that it's a fresh set of eyes, and that's what we need," said Dedrick's aunt, Belinda Smith.
Dedrick Smith, who graduated from Parkland High School in 1998, was 26 when he went missing.
Deborah Smith said she talked to her son on the day he disappeared, Oct. 2, and he said he would come to her house the next day. But he didn't show up. When she got a call from his girlfriend asking where he was, Smith said, she knew something was wrong.
There are few facts known about his disappearance. Deborah Smith said it appears that after his girlfriend left the house on Booker Street in eastern Winston-Salem, Dedrick Smith changed shirts. Then he was gone, as was his 1993 Trans Am.
Deborah Smith said she was surprised that he left without his phone, which he always kept close to his side. And it's unusual that his car has never been found; in most missing-persons cases, the car is found even if the person is not. And Dedrick's car was distinctive, painted in a bright turquoise blue. Smith contacted police and starting putting out flyers about her missing son.
In the early months after his disappearance, she got a few tips from people who thought they might have seen him. One person said he might have been down at the local soup kitchen one day. Another said they saw someone with a similar description 6-foot-1, 178 pounds walking shirtless near Peters Creek Parkway.
But neither of those tips led anywhere, and eventually the case went cold.
Smith spoke to police investigators this year, but there was no new information on the case. Police said Dedrick Smith remains registered in the National Criminal Investigation Center's database of missing persons.
Brown has also updated his file on www.namus.gov, which is available free to the public. But her work on the case hasn't ended there.
On Wednesday, Brown and her husband, Joe, explored the thick brush alongside U.S. 52 between the Forsyth County line and Hickory Tree Road, a road that Dedrick Smith was known to travel frequently.
"Find the car, and you'll probably find him," she said.
Brown said it's possible that he went off the road in a remote, brush-covered area.
In the tangle of weeds and brush, the Browns found several snakes, some bones not human, as it turned out and some automobile parts, but nothing matching his car.
The Browns haven't given up, though. They plan to gather a small search party and make another search of the woods along U.S. 52 south of Hickory Tree Road in June. Deborah and Belinda Smith are planning to join them.
The Smiths aren't giving up, either. Many of the families of long-lost people acknowledge that their loved ones are probably dead and they want them found for the sake of closure.
But the Smiths don't think that's true in Dedrick Smith's case. He was doing well as a student at Forsyth Technical Community College. Because of his schizophrenia, they worry that he is in a mental-health setting or somewhere else and doesn't know who he is, said Deborah Smith.
Smith said the only way she's been able to get through the past four years without her son is through her faith and the support of friends and family. "There are no words to describe it when your child is missing," she said. "Your world is turned upside down. Your heart is broken into a million pieces."
http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2011/may/30/wsmain01-holding-on-to-hope-ar-1076484/
Published: May 30, 2011
» 2 Comments | Post a Comment
Dedrick Smith's girlfriend went on a late-night food run, and when she got back home, he was gone.
That was in October 2006, and no one in Smith's family has heard from him since. Now, 4 1/2 years later, his mother and aunt are hoping to renew interest in the case in the hopes that someone anyone might have information that will let them know his whereabouts. He wasn't in any trouble, but he was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic and could be somewhere and not remember who he is, said his mother, Deborah Smith.
"There is hope," Smith said. "As long as he is missing, there is hope."
They have enlisted the help of Betty Brown, a local missing-persons advocate who volunteers for NAMUS, a public missing-persons database run by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Smiths got in touch with Brown after a story about her work ran in the Winston-Salem Journal in February.
"I just knew that it would be a godsend for the simple fact that it's a fresh set of eyes, and that's what we need," said Dedrick's aunt, Belinda Smith.
Dedrick Smith, who graduated from Parkland High School in 1998, was 26 when he went missing.
Deborah Smith said she talked to her son on the day he disappeared, Oct. 2, and he said he would come to her house the next day. But he didn't show up. When she got a call from his girlfriend asking where he was, Smith said, she knew something was wrong.
There are few facts known about his disappearance. Deborah Smith said it appears that after his girlfriend left the house on Booker Street in eastern Winston-Salem, Dedrick Smith changed shirts. Then he was gone, as was his 1993 Trans Am.
Deborah Smith said she was surprised that he left without his phone, which he always kept close to his side. And it's unusual that his car has never been found; in most missing-persons cases, the car is found even if the person is not. And Dedrick's car was distinctive, painted in a bright turquoise blue. Smith contacted police and starting putting out flyers about her missing son.
In the early months after his disappearance, she got a few tips from people who thought they might have seen him. One person said he might have been down at the local soup kitchen one day. Another said they saw someone with a similar description 6-foot-1, 178 pounds walking shirtless near Peters Creek Parkway.
But neither of those tips led anywhere, and eventually the case went cold.
Smith spoke to police investigators this year, but there was no new information on the case. Police said Dedrick Smith remains registered in the National Criminal Investigation Center's database of missing persons.
Brown has also updated his file on www.namus.gov, which is available free to the public. But her work on the case hasn't ended there.
On Wednesday, Brown and her husband, Joe, explored the thick brush alongside U.S. 52 between the Forsyth County line and Hickory Tree Road, a road that Dedrick Smith was known to travel frequently.
"Find the car, and you'll probably find him," she said.
Brown said it's possible that he went off the road in a remote, brush-covered area.
In the tangle of weeds and brush, the Browns found several snakes, some bones not human, as it turned out and some automobile parts, but nothing matching his car.
The Browns haven't given up, though. They plan to gather a small search party and make another search of the woods along U.S. 52 south of Hickory Tree Road in June. Deborah and Belinda Smith are planning to join them.
The Smiths aren't giving up, either. Many of the families of long-lost people acknowledge that their loved ones are probably dead and they want them found for the sake of closure.
But the Smiths don't think that's true in Dedrick Smith's case. He was doing well as a student at Forsyth Technical Community College. Because of his schizophrenia, they worry that he is in a mental-health setting or somewhere else and doesn't know who he is, said Deborah Smith.
Smith said the only way she's been able to get through the past four years without her son is through her faith and the support of friends and family. "There are no words to describe it when your child is missing," she said. "Your world is turned upside down. Your heart is broken into a million pieces."
http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2011/may/30/wsmain01-holding-on-to-hope-ar-1076484/
