Found Deceased MT - Sally Demarais-Smith, 52, found in vehicle in storage unit, Great Falls, 25 Sept 2020

[kspoon45]

I’m trying to come up with ideas of how she was seen last at home but then left a note.

this is all conjecture:
Let’s say the husband was at work, kids were at school. Neighbor sees sally at 1:00, so we have a last seen at home Friday afternoon sighting.

From there honestly I’m lost. The kids get home from school, see the note and think “yup, ok totally normal, nothing to see here”.

Dad gets home sees note, again everything is fine. Saturday rolls around and then “oh wait, where did she go? I’m going to start looking for her” Monday rolls around and they file a missing persons report.

All just thinking, trying to understand timelines and what could have actually happened here.

The weirdest thing in all this is the note.

Who writes a note (presumably to their spouse) that they're leaving town for a few days and under what circumstances? This is what I can think of:

• They didn't normally text/call and leaving notes for one another was how they communicated.
• There was a disagreement where she was upset and didn't want to "talk" to TS, so she left a note instead.
• She didn't write the note.
• She wrote the note under duress, not of her own volition. I feel like this may be slightly less likely than the above scenarios since the last place she was seen was in her own house and leaving in a specific car.

Am I leaving out anything in this list?

 

[steff13]

Are her kids teens? I would have sent a text to my family if I was going out and no one else was home. And have done, many times.

I wonder if she wrote a note rather than sent a text because there would be some back and forth with a text vs. a note. Also, if someone killed her, it would have been easier to send a text, I would have thought. No question over whether the note was in her handwriting, etc.

 

[steff13]

The weirdest thing in all this is the note.

Who writes a note (presumably to their spouse) that they're leaving town for a few days and under what circumstances? This is what I can think of:

• They didn't normally text/call and leaving notes for one another was how they communicated.
• There was a disagreement where she was upset and didn't want to "talk" to TS, so she left a note instead.
• She didn't write the note.
• She wrote the note under duress, not of her own volition. I feel like this may be slightly less likely than the above scenarios since the last place she was seen was in her own house and leaving in a specific car.

Am I leaving out anything in this list?

She wrote the note and left it at home, knowing that she would be long gone before anyone got there and saw it, and that there would be no text "conversation." If she was looking to harm herself, she may have thought that if she sent a text, her husband and/or kids would question her, etc., and maybe she didn't want that.

 

[mlhenn]

I’m trying to come up with ideas of how she was seen last at home but then left a note.

this is all conjecture:
Let’s say the husband was at work, kids were at school. Neighbor sees sally at 1:00, so we have a last seen at home Friday afternoon sighting.

From there honestly I’m lost. The kids get home from school, see the note and think “yup, ok totally normal, nothing to see here”.

Dad gets home sees note, again everything is fine. Saturday rolls around and then “oh wait, where did she go? I’m going to start looking for her” Monday rolls around and they file a missing persons report.

All just thinking, trying to understand timelines and what could have actually happened here.

The search for Sally Smith continues, family heartbroken after disappearance

By this article, I took it as she left possibly late that night.
The world of the Smith family came crumbling down the morning of September 26, 2020.

 

[mlhenn]

I could have sworn I read that it was theirs, but now I’m not actually seeing that anywhere in MSM. How would the husband have found her if it wasn’t theirs?

It hasn’t been shared in MSM or with LE that the storage unit belonged to them or that the husband found her.
That was under a post on the “find” fb page

 

[kspoon45]

The search for Sally Smith continues, family heartbroken after disappearance

By this article, I took it as she left possibly late that night.
The world of the Smith family came crumbling down the morning of September 26, 2020.

That's what made sense to me, too, but another article stated that she was last seen in the afternoon on Friday:

Investigation continues into the death of Sally Demarais-Smith

Smith, a 52-year-old mother beloved by the Great Falls community, had been missing since September 25. She was last seen that afternoon. Police reported that she may have been on her way to the Malta area before going missing. GFPD requested a Missing/Endangered Person Alert for Smith from the Montana Department of Justice on September 29.

So, if it was the afternoon, she wasn't home that night and wouldn't that be kind of out of the ordinary for a wife and mother of four?

 

[mlhenn]

I posted a few days back the street LE stated she was found at. It’s a short street by the AFB. The only thing I could tell looking at the satellite view (no street view available) was the AFB Fam Camp and a few other small structures.
Also I wanted to note:
I wander what they are referring to as a storage unit? It could be what most people think of to a railroad car type unit...

 

[mlhenn]

That's what made sense to me, too, but another article stated that she was last seen in the afternoon on Friday:



So, if it was the afternoon, she wasn't home that night and wouldn't that be kind of out of the ordinary for a wife and mother of four?

I don’t know this for sure, but possibly they mean she was seen that Friday afternoon (doing whatever she normally does during that time), everything went as it usually does through Friday evening, then when the family woke up Sat morning they found the note & assumed she left during the night.
Mere speculation

 

[iamnotagolem]

The search for Sally Smith continues, family heartbroken after disappearance

By this article, I took it as she left possibly late that night.
The world of the Smith family came crumbling down the morning of September 26, 2020.

That’s what bothers me so much. She left late at night and wasn’t seen after “afternoon”. I mean the kids and husband never saw her?

 

[kspoon45]

I don't know, mlhenn. It seems like a stretch to me. She was last seen the afternoon of 9/25 and she wasn't noticed to be missing until 9/26 - that's all that has been reported. We don't know when the note was found in relation to the when she was seen last. Was it later on the 25th or not until the 26th when they woke up?

 

[iamnotagolem]

I don’t know this for sure, but possibly they mean she was seen that Friday afternoon (doing whatever she normally does during that time), everything went as it usually does through Friday evening, then when the family woke up Sat morning they found the note & assumed she left during the night.
Mere speculation

Wouldn’t they then say she went to bed Friday night and was missing when they woke up on Saturday? Or say she was still watching tv or something and never came to bed, the family would still report seeing her Friday evening.

Where did she normally park her car? Street? Garage? I guess if she parked on the street she could sneak away with the family in the house, harder to do if she parked in the garage. Still seems like the kids would have reported seeing her Friday evening if she was there.

 

[iamnotagolem]

I don't know, mlhenn. It seems like a stretch to me. She was last seen the afternoon of 9/25 and she wasn't noticed to be missing until 9/26 - that's all that has been reported. We don't know when the note was found in relation to the when she was seen last. Was it later on the 25th or not until the 26th when they woke up?

I haven’t seen anything in MSM reported why they didn’t file the missing persons report until the 29th, has anyone else? It seems they noticed her missing the 26th, why the delay?

If leaving a note and being without contact was normal for her then why did they think she was missing the 26th? If it wasn’t normal, then why didnt they notice the 25th? And if it wasn’t normal then why wait until the 29th to notify LE?

 

[kspoon45]

I haven’t seen anything in MSM reported why they didn’t file the missing persons report until the 29th, has anyone else? It seems they noticed her missing the 26th, why the delay?

If leaving a note and being without contact was normal for her then why did they think she was missing the 26th? If it wasn’t normal, then why didnt they notice the 25th? And if it wasn’t normal then why wait until the 29th to notify LE?

I was wondering this, too. I tried looking up Montana's rules for filing a missing persons report to see if there was a time frame where adults have to be missing before they can be officially reported, but I didn't see anything. Maybe I just looked in the wrong place. It does seem like a large time gap between when she was last seen and when she was reported missing, especially if she was on a multi-hour car trip and not reachable for longer than she should have been. Did her husband reach out to his in-laws to see if she was there or if they'd heard from her?

She was an SLP at the local school district, right? What happened that Monday? Kids are back in school. Did she not show up to work? Did people at work try contacting her to see why she wasn't there?

 

[Coffiecat]

 

[swedeheart]

i have come across 2 stories in the last hour of people being found in storage units. what a strange trend this seems to be.

(suspected homicide):
Body found at storage unit in Hawaiian Gardens

(suspected murder):
La. Woman Reported Missing Last Month Is Found Dead in Empty Warehouse — and Cops Suspect Foul Play

 

[oviedo]

The search for Sally Smith continues, family heartbroken after disappearance

By this article, I took it as she left possibly late that night.
The world of the Smith family came crumbling down the morning of September 26, 2020.

Sally Demarais-Smith Still Missing | E-City Beat

Sally Demarais-Smith is still missing

Sally Demarais-Smith, who was reported missing on Tuesday, is still missing.

The Montana Department of Justice issued a Missing/Endangered Person Alert for Sally on Tuesday afternoon; on Wednesday, the MEPA expired, as they are only valid for 24 hours.

Despite the expiration, the DOJ says that Sally still has not been found nor heard from.

So reported missing Tuesday - but the world came crumbling down the morning of Sept. 26? - were they just not worried at all? This is all so odd. IMO

 

[kspoon45]

So reported missing Tuesday - but the world came crumbling down the morning of Sept. 26? - were they just not worried at all? This is all so odd. IMO

Right? I can't tell if it's just a case of crappy/rushed reporting or not.

Swedeheart, in either of those cases you linked above, did the police ever mention that the public at large may be in danger? Or, was it suspected before they were found that there was foul play involved? (I'll look, too, but in case you happen to already know... )

 

[MTSnowBunny]

Has anyone else noticed the language between news articles with their descriptive wording choices? i.e. "Found in storage Unit" and "Found in storage Container"?
Those are 2 entirely different things.

 

[Coffiecat]

I guess I didn't pan out far enough. There are two more sets of two, of the 4-door units.

 

[mlhenn]

So reported missing Tuesday - but the world came crumbling down the morning of Sept. 26? - were they just not worried at all? This is all so odd. IMO

I guess I’m misunderstanding??
She was last seen on Fri, Sept 25th, family noticed she was missing on Sat, Sept 26th.

As far as Tue, Sept 29, I’m not sure if that means the day she was reported missing to the Great Falls MT Police or if that’s the date The Montana Department of Justice issued a Missing/Endangered Person Alert for Sally.
I say that because the article continues by explaining on Wednesday (the next day), the MEPA expired, as they are only valid for 24 hours.
Or maybe there were some issues and the family actually thought she may be heading to Malta or needing some space so they waited to after that first weekend before deciding she’s missing.
Idk, just throwing out ideas.