PA PA - Judy Smith, 50, Philadelphia, 10 April 1997

[J. J. in Phila]

It may not have been Smith's car, assuming the witness accounts are correct.

 

[Trumpet]

I discovered this missing person case earlier this year, what a mystery! I don't think her husband was involved. How she ended up where she did is perplexing! Also, the whole missed flight part of the story is hard to decide if that was intentional on her part or not.

The anniversary of Judy going missing is in the next few days, I have been thinking about her.

 

[cuecard]

I only heard about Judy’s case fairly recently and I’m surprised it doesn’t have more interest on here. A genuinely perplexing case on nearly every level. Truly baffling. I hope, despite the odds, something comes up that leads to answers somewhere.

 

[TammyinVA]

I only heard about Judy’s case fairly recently and I’m surprised it doesn’t have more interest on here. A genuinely perplexing case on nearly every level. Truly baffling. I hope, despite the odds, something comes up that leads to answers somewhere.

I've only known of Judy's case for a few years, but it still bothers me. The investigation in Asheville was so poorly done by law enforcement not used to working homicides it's saddening. I truly believe this case should have been solvable. I also don't have faith in any of the eye witness accounts.

 

[LadyL]

where were the kids when she went 'sightseeing' and he attended the convention?

 

[TammyinVA]

where were the kids when she went 'sightseeing' and he attended the convention?

The children were adults and not living with them.

 

[cuecard]

I've only known of Judy's case for a few years, but it still bothers me. The investigation in Asheville was so poorly done by law enforcement not used to working homicides it's saddening. I truly believe this case should have been solvable. I also don't have faith in any of the eye witness accounts.

You really can’t rule anything out - literally nothing. There’s no proof she left voluntarily, there’s no proof she was taken by force, there’s no proof any later sightings were actually her and there’s no proof to how she got to where she was found. It’s maddening.

 

[kemo]

Judy was wearing clothing that was very consistent with what she would wear hiking. Her body was found up a hiking trail far enough to have made it impossible for someone to have carried her body there. The only reasonable conclusion is that she was hiking there on her own accord.

The hiking trail was miles from any town and no public transportation was available. It is almost a certainty that she arrived there by private automobile. No abandoned vehicle was found at the hiking area parking lot. This leaves two distinct possibilities: either she was killed by a hiking companion she drove to the site with or she was murdered by someone she encountered on the trail who then stole the vehicle she arrived in.
(In the later case, the killer either didn’t have a vehicle or there were two or more killers with a vehicle of their own).

My own WAG (wild *advertiser censored* guess) is that she rented a car in Philadelphia with a credit card in her name and took off to have a little vacation from her marriage. If the car was recovered abandoned, it would be returned to the Rental Company who would charge the full costs of the rental plus recovery to the credit card. As long as the total costs were within the credit limits of the card, the rental company would be made whole and this would become a routine collection problem for the Credit Card company.
In this case, the husband would either have been unaware of the credit card, or concealed its existence for fear he would be “on the hook” for the balance.

Whatever happened, this is a mystery within a mystery because Judy had apparently concealed what she was up to from not only her husband but her friends and adult children. It is pretty easy to get away with killing someone when nobody knows where they are; what they are doing.

 

[MissLaura]

I think about Judy's case all the time. Have there been any real updates in recent years? Most of info seems to stem from articles in the following 5 years or so after Judy was found and of course, the Unsolved Mysteries episode. Some of the cases on Unsolved Mysteries were not entirely accurate and were slanted in a certain way.

 

[NinerGirl]

Just curious if LE was able to obtain DNA from the clothing or the backpack with the sunglasses they found.

 

[DS2021]

Wild case. Bumping

 

[DS2021]

Wild case. Bumping

 

[cherrymeg]

Is there anything new?

 

[cherrymeg]

ChuckMaureen, I'm curious where you read the cuts aligned. Source you can link? I never saw a statement by the medical examiner she was definitely stabbed. My understanding, based on investigator statements, was she was murdered based on being found partially buried. I'd also never read there was blood on clothes which would seem likely from a stabbing. Thanks

That’s actually a good question. Have they tested DNA to make sure there isn’t a misidentification? Have they or can they test the clothes found on her to see if there is blood hers or someone else’s? She definitely was killed in Asheville? The not traveling with her husband because of a missing ID and a possibly unhappy marriage makes me wonder if she made it to Philadelphia at all. She was supposed to have 200 dollars on her and she was missing about 30 dollars and that was what a woman said she spent on food and a toy truck. I might be crazy. It almost seems too perfect. Like someone made sure she was seen.

I also wonder why people thought was a homeless women or several women that seemed like they were high or mentally ill. Was there a reason to believe that she would have a breakdown or have amnesia? I feel like if it was my mom I would be shocked if she fine in Boston and then I was looking for her on the streets of Philly. Idk

 

[smallhourinsomnia]

I stumbled onto this case yesterday and have a lot of thoughts.

• If she had rented a car with her own CC, law enforcement should have known this pretty easily and the details of her days after the rental would have been more clear.
  
  
• The sandwich purchase is considered a "credible" sighting - to me, this is a remarkable sighting that almost certainly suggests that she was with another person - possibly several other people. To give an idea of what $30 worth of sandwiches would have looked like back then - I have a very specific memory in 2000 (several years after this happened) of purchasing a sandwich between taking final exams from a Deli. I only had a $5 bill on me and I remember being barely able to afford roast beef and cheese on a roll. This was in Long Island, so probably considerably more expensive than Asheville. So we are talking no less than 6 sandwiches if she spent $30. That's a lot - even if you're eating them for every meal, that would take the average person probably 3 days to go through, at the end of which they'd be gross.
  
  This also could speak to the type of hiking she was doing. If you are going on an overnight hike, you are probably not taking deli sandwiches with you. You take non perishable packaged goods like granola bars, peanut butter, nuts, etc. If she was eating sandwiches, this would indicate she was day hiking for sure. Of course, the trail she was found on should indicate this as well but I can't find much information about the trail itself. All I've found is that the nature of the trail would make it very hard for her to have been killed elsewhere then transported and placed there, and indications are that she died at or near where her remains were found. The attire her remains were found in also support this.
  
  
• Regarding positively identifying her: She had apparently had extensive dental work and that is how the body was identified. If the work was extensive, this is a pretty good indication of positive identification. However, the lack of DNA evidence mentioned anywhere is notable. There is also a sighting in the area at a retailer which all but confirms she was in the area. The encounter had her talking about her husband, what he did for a living, where he was, etc.

A couple of other things I find very interesting:

• One of the area hotels in Philadelphia reported that a woman matching Judy's description had stayed there for several days between April 13 and 15 and had been a complete loon - diddling herself in front of an open window, speaking in tongues, etc. It seems unlikely to me that this was Judy. However, if the hotel staff mistook her for Judy, then who is to say that any of the other sightings of her in Philadelphia weren't this disturbed individual? I realize Philly is a relatively large city, and there was already a homeless person being mistaken for her, but this could just further add to the mystery as to whether she was ever even in Philadelphia. This was not the only account of a woman matching her description in the area appearing to be disturbed.
  
  
• The absence of worn clothing in my opinion is borderline damning. From personal experience, air travel for hefty individuals is miserable and uncomfortable. Even from Boston to Philadelphia back in the mid 90's you are talking about around a 4 or 5 hour ordeal - more if you consider that she had to run back home, come back to the airport, and switch to a later flight. I can't buy for a second that a woman, or any person, would want to wear the same clothing they wore through all that the following day. At minimum, you need to change your socks and underwear. It was April, so it's unlikely she was not wearing socks with any kind of footwear she would be on an airplane or touring a city in. So she would have had to wear the same underwear, and socks, that she had worn on the plane the day before. I could even buy her throwing out the underwear as an earlier poster suggested due to feminine stuff, but what about socks? This is very weird - I understand others corroborated her presence, but still, what happened to her clothes?
  
  
• On the other hand, being stabbed to death in the chest/abdomen usually indicates either rage, or a habitual (serial) killer. It seems unlikely and/or impossible that Jeff did this himself. If he hired someone to do it, then stabbing seems like a very messy way to have executed the murder. The perpetrator would have had a lot of cleaning up of themselves to do, especially since the clothing she was found in would suggest that the killing was unexpected.
  
  
• The toy truck, along with the account of a Macy's employee near the Philadelphia area having spotted her with someone in the store is further evidence that she was with someone (the employee stated a female, which could have passed for her daughter in terms of age) that she knew. What does a 50 year old woman have to gain by purchasing a toy truck? It seems to me that if she was purchasing a toy truck, it was as a gift. The guardian of whoever this gift was for was likely aware of the gift. To me this presents two possibilities - that the guardian either would remember this gift, and report it to the authorities after the remains were found, or that the guardian remembers the gift, but knows and were somehow involved in what happened to Judy, so they have not come forward to avoid incriminating themselves. There are other possibilities of course, including the truck never making it to its intended recipient. If that is the case, was it ever recovered? This leads me to...
  
  
• The car. How is there no information on the car? If it was a rental, there almost certainly should have been some record of it. I've already stated that it's very unlikely that Judy rented it herself or there would be a record on her CC statements. Also, if she did rent the car, then there would be some kind of record or memory that it either wasn't returned, was returned by someone else, or was returned in an otherwise odd fashion. Someone would remember that. Adding to this is that the car was seen to have been full of boxes and bags. If the car was simply abandoned after she was murdered, then for that to have gone un-noticed someone would have had to of cleaned it.
  
  That being the case, I'm inclined to believe that it wasn't a rental at all. Perhaps she borrowed it from someone she knew and/or was traveling with.
  
  
• Accounts state that the evidence found around the grave site indicate that she was with someone else at that location, which seems obvious, but I am very interested to know what type of evidence was found which supports this? The only thing I see is that there was a pair of expensive sunglasses that did not belong to her. Which leads me to...
  
  
• Was the clothing found around her remains clothing that belonged to her? This to me is a very important question going back to her presence (or lack thereof) in Philadelphia. Philadelphia in April does not generally require winter clothes as was described as what was around her remains. So where did they come from? Did she buy them new in her travels? Were they missing from the house in Boston?
  
  How about the possibility that her forgetting her ID gave her the opportunity to go back home and pack a separate bag to fly with to Philadelphia, knowing all along that she would abandon her husband there and take off to Asheville or somewhere she would need such clothing? Or even maybe, since there was a sighting of her in Easton, PA, she traveled back up to Boston by car to retrieve these items. Easton itself is a very interesting city for her to have been sighted in as it is a well known border town in PA. Many people travel to Easton from NJ and NY to do things they can't do in those states - namely buy fireworks - and go back to where they came in a short time, but I digress. I feel like where those clothes came from is a very important detail.
  
  This leads me to a theory - not one I'm particularly convinced of, but a theory nonetheless. If she did bring that clothing with her from home, then that to me supports that her moves were heavily calculated from the start. Maybe she was running off with an extra-marital lover of some sort? Perhaps a father or grandfather of a young child? Maybe she saw it as a fling and the lover did not, which led to a tragic ending and crime of passion. I want to be very clear - there is nothing to support this other than what I've mentioned above, and my intention is NOT to drag this woman's name through the mud. It is a thought, and nothing more.

 

[kemo]

This case has always been a mystery within a mystery to me. It would seem extremely unlikely that the identification was wrong and equally unlikely that she arrived at the place her body was found any other way than by her own volition. I have to assume it was a plan she concocted to take off while her husband was tied up running the convention. Obviously, a spouse can go on a little “getaway” at any time, for any reason. Why she chose to do while her husband would be involved in the Philadelphia gig is a mystery; it would certainly cause him career problems, but she may not have cared. The only reason I can think of is that she would have scheduled vacation time in advance to attend the convention and only later saw it as an opportunity for a solo adventure. If nothing else, it suggests it was somewhat spontaneous. It also worth noting that she didn’t tell her adult children or any friends or relatives. I’m wondering if her plan was be gone while her husband was tied up by the convention and she expected to be back by the time it was over.

The most credible sighting of her was the shop near Ashland. The local investigator declined to state the sex of the person she was with, but she was reported to have told the shopkeepers all about her husband. It would seem very unlikely that she would have done that if she was with a man. If the report is accurate and it was Judy, it is most probable that she was traveling with another woman. It does certainly raise the possibility of an illicit sexual liaison but it could have been a random person she met. She had gone on at least one trip by herself (to Thailand) so it would see unlikely that she would see fit to conceal from her husband a short trip to North Carolina with a friend.

The upshot of it all is that there is a very good chance that her traveling companion murdered her. If the mystery woman (if she actually existed) was local to Asheville and did not accompany her on the hike, you would expect her to come forward after the body was found and the identity discovered. It was big news in the region.

The couple had been married a short time and it is very possible that they had separate finances and separate credit cards. If a rental car is not returned or if it is found abandoned, the rental company will initiate criminal complaint and it is pretty certain that Law Enforcement investigating her murder would become aware of it. An exception would be if the total loss the rental company incurred could be put on her credit card. In that case, it would be a civil matter between her and the credit card company. If the credit card bill went to their home address, the husband would have seen it but he may have concealed it from Law Enforcement out of fear of being liable. Or, she had a PO Box he was unaware of.

I think there is a chance that she was set up by someone she met up with online. At this point, I doubt we will ever find out.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

• The absence of worn clothing in my opinion is borderline damning. From personal experience, air travel for hefty individuals is miserable and uncomfortable. Even from Boston to Philadelphia back in the mid 90's you are talking about around a 4 or 5 hour ordeal - more if you consider that she had to run back home, come back to the airport, and switch to a later flight. I can't buy for a second that a woman, or any person, would want to wear the same clothing they wore through all that the following day. At minimum, you need to change your socks and underwear. It was April, so it's unlikely she was not wearing socks with any kind of footwear she would be on an airplane or touring a city in. So she would have had to wear the same underwear, and socks, that she had worn on the plane the day before. I could even buy her throwing out the underwear as an earlier poster suggested due to feminine stuff, but what about socks? This is very weird - I understand others corroborated her presence, but still, what happened to her clothes?
  
  

Snipping just for emphasis.

On April 10, 1997 the high 49 F and the low was 29 F. You would have needed, even if you tended to overheat, at least a light jacket or a fleece pullover.

Philadelphia Weather in 1997

www.extremeweatherwatch.com

Boston was about the same, perhaps slightly colder: East Boston, MA Weather History | Weather Underground

JS might not have needed to freshen up, because it was relatively cold, but the no dirty clothes is interesting.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

I've heard JS being described as a "big woman," but she was 5' 1" and 135 lbs according to a post earlier on the thread. Maybe curvy, but I wouldn't call her "big." The flight time would be no more than 1 hour 45 minutes, and there was far less screening in 1997 than today. 4 hours, point to point, at the outside and it will in climate controlled areas and almost all sitting. All things considered, I would not be too worried about her getting hot and sweaty on the trip down.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

It is possible for someone to either fly to Ashville, NC from Philadelphia or get close to it by train. Greenville, SC is about 70 miles from where JS's body was found. There is currently a train from Phila to Greenville. She could get to the train station in Phila using mass transit; same with the Phila International.

Travel by car is actually a bit less direct. You have to turn on at least 3 different interstates to get there.

 

[ifindedout]

It is possible for someone to either fly to Ashville, NC from Philadelphia or get close to it by train. Greenville, SC is about 70 miles from where JS's body was found. There is currently a train from Phila to Greenville. She could get to the train station in Phila using mass transit; same with the Phila International.

Travel by car is actually a bit less direct. You have to turn on at least 3 different interstates to get there.

The nearest Amtrak station to Asheville, then as now with the Crescent, would be Spartanburg.

Spartanburg station - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Crescent (train) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org