OR OR - Terry Smith, 67, & Sharon Smith, 65, Grant County, 17 Jul 2018

Couple missing following house fire

Two people and a pickup truck are missing following a structure fire that completely destroyed a home in the Laycock Creek area on July 17.

The Grant County Sheriff’s Office is attempting to locate Terry Smith, 67, and Sharon Smith, 65, and the silver or light gray 2006 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck with the Oregon license plate 714 EGG registered to the Smiths.

Elkhorn Media Group

 

The lack of coverage on this is shocking. Two articles that I can find. Someone is commenting as a "friend" here:

Elkhorn Media Group

 

Following, for Terry and Sharon.

 

Search continues for missing couple

 

Cathy Hinshaw, Sharon’s sister who lives in Hawaii, said she spoke to Sharon the evening of the fire, and Sharon said they were headed to bed. Hinshaw said she then got a call about 4 a.m. from a friend of Sharon’s who lived near Nan’s Rock Road informing her about the fire.

That is from the article cyberv. posted. I wish I were better at pulling things from articles! Anyway, that article gives a lot more good info. If Sharon's sister spoke to her that evening, shortly before she and Terry went to bed, and someone from farther away reported a fire at 10-something PM ( though it took a couple more hours for the exact location to be found), it appears the fire began soon after they may have gone to bed. This is an odd one, and certainly doesn't bode well for one or both of them!

 

Are authorities convinced this was arson?

I wonder if something went wrong with their business, they decided to make themselves scarce, took their personal belongings and headed back to Bali. (LE probably can't tell what is missing among the ashes).

I hope they've checked manifest lists from the airport and perhaps their bank accounts.

 

I'm hoping we can get an official cause of the fire, if arson or not. It feels like it almost has to be, if they were going to bed, the fire began, and their truck as well as themselves are missing. I also remember a couple of cases where people's remains were found to have been inside a burned home or building after all, when it had been searched pretty well and no one had been found initially.

 

Umatilla County Sheriff's Office

MISSING PERSONS out of GRANT COUNTY, Oregon.
Grant County Sheriff's Office is attemping to locate Terry Smith, 67, and Sharon Smith, 65, from Mt. Vernon, Oregon. The bulletin was issued after Grant County SO responded to a structure fire on July 18, 2018. The couple's vehicle, a silver 2006 Toyota Tacoma with Oregon plate 714EGG is also missing (similiar to one pictured). Anyone having information please contact the Grant County Sheriff's Office at 541-575-1131 or in an emergency call 911. Please share this post.

 

Part-time Hawaii couple missing in Oregon

 

Ugh, this is so not good. I still wonder if it could be possible they were both in the home, asleep. No new news about further searching in the burned out home, or if anything is being tested.

I even wonder about the missing truck. Article posted said the man who is caretaker of the property wasn't there at the the time of the fire, that he had left. Maybe he usually wasn't around when this couple came and stayed at their Oregon home. No clue.

 

Former Springfield couple missing from John Day area after house fire
Just a bit of additional info.

 

From an article cybervampira posted upthread:

“According to Parker and Julleryd, the Smiths had made a living importing clothes from Bali and selling them in Birch Bay, Washington. Hinshaw said the Smiths got out of that business about 1998, and Terry got involved in other businesses including real estate. Sharon volunteered for hospice when she was in Hawaii, Hinshaw said.

[SBM]

The road off Laycock Creek Road is in a very isolated area, and the road was in rough condition, Smith said. There were no nearby neighbors who might have seen the fire and called it in right away, he said.

Smith said he saw remains of solar panels indicating the house may have been off the grid.”

Search continues for missing couple

I see that Razz already mentioned this upthread, but I, too, wonder about the Smiths’ business activities.

Could it be that a perhaps a partner or someone else they worked with, such as a customer or an employee, felt they had been wronged by the Smiths and harmed them? I find it interesting that it sounds as though their friends and family didn’t know much about thevbusinesses the couple was involved in in recent years.

If something like that took place, the perpetrator(s) may have burned the house to conceal the crime and then taken off in the couple’s truck along with their bodies .

The fire was first reported at 10:15 pm, but fire crews did not arrive at the location until approximately 12:15 am. Perpetrator(s) would have had plenty of time to do whatever that needed to be done, IMO.

 

I would never guess she was 65 years old. She looks much younger.

 

I'm 65, and you'd never, ever know it This case is driving me nutso!

 

Bumppppp for the Smiths! I googled around some yesterday and today, looking for any updates and nothing so far. I'm gobsmacked

 

No updates I can find either - I am baffled. I wonder if they have any family or friends that have started a facebook page or anything?

 

I just looked around again, and still nothing new. I'm not aware of any social media sites set up to look for the Smiths To me, the circumstances are so very, very baffling it's really difficult to understand why there isn't more media coverage.
I hope a family member or friend will stumble onto our thread here.

 

They were on their way to bed right before the fire was reported. I have a very bad feeling about this one and I think they were murdered and the fire was started to cover evidence of the crime. If their bodies are definitely not in the rubble, then they were put in the truck and dumped somewhere and the truck abandoned.

 

That's as possible as anything else at this time, TeaTime. If they were removed from the home and taken in the truck, where would the perp's vehicle have been? Unless there were more than one perp. I'm struggling with this one. I do wonder how much interest there is locally?

 

Waiting for some news and hoping they are safe.