Found Deceased TN - Blake Smith, 20, Knoxville, 3 Feb 2018

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So if my car is stuck in mud, and I'm going to try to push it out from the rear area of the driver's side, and I decide to use a cement block on the accelerator to have the tires moving while I push on the car, why would I have the car in reverse so that if it did become unstuck it would run over me?

and if that worked, and the car was "unstuck", then what? how would he have stopped it? It would have gone careening in FWD or REV.

I understand the case is closed and his family sounds satisfied with what they have been told but I have been just dumbstruck since hearing the final report and then seeing the picture, I'll be honest. I just don't even know what to say.
 
Wow, after seeing that car I have even more questions. A car door doesn’t get bent back like that from hitting something head on. And the back of the car is also damaged.


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I don’t see that the air bag was deployed, if there was one. Moo


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So if my car is stuck in mud, and I'm going to try to push it out from the rear area of the driver's side, and I decide to use a cement block on the accelerator to have the tires moving while I push on the car, why would I have the car in reverse so that if it did become unstuck it would run over me?

Yes! Makes no sense! Add it to the fact that the dogs brought in afterwards would not even detect your scent outside the car after you did all this!!

How is any of this possible?! Is there a reasonable explanation for any of it?


JMO
 
So if my car is stuck in mud, and I'm going to try to push it out from the rear area of the driver's side, and I decide to use a cement block on the accelerator to have the tires moving while I push on the car, why would I have the car in reverse so that if it did become unstuck it would run over me?

unless that was my motive all along? idk, trying to make sense hurts my head.
 
So if my car is stuck in mud, and I'm going to try to push it out from the rear area of the driver's side, and I decide to use a cement block on the accelerator to have the tires moving while I push on the car, why would I have the car in reverse so that if it did become unstuck it would run over me?

Maybe he was pushing from the front to push it away from the house and therefore had it in reverse? I think I read there were hand prints on the front driver's side.
 
Maybe he was pushing from the front to push it away from the house and therefore had it in reverse? I think I read there were hand prints on the front driver's side.

but then what? how would he capture the moving car? it can't be an automatic so it would begin moving...

ETA: or perhaps he had already freed it from the mud and that's where the car ended up, which would explain why the driver's side door is bent forward.
 
So if my car is stuck in mud, and I'm going to try to push it out from the rear area of the driver's side, and I decide to use a cement block on the accelerator to have the tires moving while I push on the car, why would I have the car in reverse so that if it did become unstuck it would run over me?
Was it reported that the car was in reverse? That would be odd.

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Yes, I agree with all that the scene is weird and it's hard to imagine the steps that got the car where it is but having been bogged in both mud and snow I can admit that you can get yourself in some pretty weird angles trying to gain traction. I think he probably came around the house following the tracks left by construction crew's 4WD vehicles, but got caught in his 2WD sedan (a Camry - has front wheel drive only). I can see him starting the descent at the rear corner of the house, getting stuck, perhaps deciding to try to reverse back to higher ground. When one wheel has traction and the other side doesn't, you can get a kind of pivoting which kind of spins a vehicle in place. I think he tried several strategies, going backwards and forwards, and then the weighted pedal was probably a last resort that went very wrong - with the acceleration and pushing suddenly giving traction and the car shooting away in an arc...

Just my interpretation given what we know and from personal experience of being stranded. See arrows:
BW4.jpg
 
Young men & outdoor water sources seem to be a terribly bad mix.

May God have mercy on his family during these difficult days.

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So another accidental drowning...but how do they explain the crash and the cinder block? (Sorry if I missed that)
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The cinder block is perplexing but I've heard it might be untrue and just a rumor. As for the photo, BS took it at a park (Admiral Farragut Park) about 10-15 minutes away before being at the house.

I'm a local and I'm calling BS on their 'investigation'

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It strikes me that there was no mud spatter on the car, or on the walls of the tires. It doesn't add up.
 
It strikes me that there was no mud spatter on the car, or on the walls of the tires. It doesn't add up.

SO this got me to thinking what the rainfall was during that time. I checked this site: https://www.wunderground.com/histor...reqdb.zip=37804&reqdb.magic=1&reqdb.wmo=99999

January 2018 received 1.54 inches; Feb 1 0.40 inches; Feb 2 0.03 inches; Feb 3 0.0 inches; Feb 4 0.71 inches; and Feb a Trace amount. Now I live in California and this amount wouldn't create muddy conditions. But this location? Also, it does seem odd that with 0.71 inches falling on Sunday, it seems like there would be splatter on the car, especially if he was there since Saturday, just from that much rain falling. And do the tires, with no mud, really seem stuck in the picture? From my experience, a stuck tire is usually grooved into the mud. That doesn't seem to be a picture of a car stuck in the mud for a couple of days while it rained close to an inch on Sunday?
 
attachment.php

Agree with everyone that this does not look like a car that had been previously stuck in red clay. I have lived in TN, MS, AL and GA....I know all about red clay and have been with people stuck in it. There is splatter all over the car. And if the door was open when the car was either in the process of being unstuck or moving, there would be red clay splatter on the inside of that light colored bottom half of the door.

What about the possibility that he was chased to this location by another vehicle and he was attempting to hide behind this house?

Any of the possibilities being discussed, would depend on what vehicle tracks and foot tracks were there and those being discovered and investigated by LEO.
 
Wow, I was not expecting to see so much damage to the car.

My theory is that he was out in the middle of the countryside, way off the road, at an uninhabited house for a romantic tryst that may have involved drugs or alcohol. Perhaps something hard to detect since he knew that he had to go back to the dorm afterwards.

Something went wrong with the tryst, causing him to flee in his car in the dark (perhaps he kept the lights of the car off so as not to attract attention, and this led to a crash into the house. Or the drugs or alcohol were the reason for the crash. Or both. He was gone overnight, right? He couldn't call anyone at school for help for numerous reasons.

So, he tried to fix the problem himself, in the dark, leading to an injury. Not able to face curious insurance adjusters and parents and school regarding:

1. Why he was out all night.
2. Why he was at an uninhabited home.
3. Who he was with and why.
4. Why he didn't call for help if he was doing nothing wrong.
5. Why he didn't seek medical help.

And more, he felt shattered! His life would be completely different from that point on, and it must have been unbearable.


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JMO. Another thought, considering there's not any obvious visible evidence of a car "spinning its wheels" to try to get unstuck: What if "stuck" in this situation meant hung up on something, or wedged into a tight spot? Maybe, in the dark, he ran over a piece (or pieces) of construction equipment that became wedged under the drivetrain?

If you look at the interior of the driver's side door, the rubber gasket has been dislodged, and (more telling, I think) there's damage along the width of the inside trim of that door. I can imagine something like the deck post with its metal footer getting between the door and frame, and then scraping along the interior of the door as the car moved in the opposite direction while in "reverse."

I don't know. . . just thinking out loud. IMO.
 
JMO. Another thought, considering there's not any obvious visible evidence of a car "spinning its wheels" to try to get unstuck: What if "stuck" in this situation meant hung up on something, or wedged into a tight spot? Maybe, in the dark, he ran over a piece (or pieces) of construction equipment that became wedged under the drivetrain?

If you look at the interior of the driver's side door, the rubber gasket has been dislodged, and (more telling, I think) there's damage along the width of the inside trim of that door. I can imagine something like the deck post with its metal footer getting between the door and frame, and then scraping along the interior of the door as the car moved in the opposite direction while in "reverse."

I don't know. . . just thinking out loud. IMO.
Yes!!! It looks like he ran over a fence in the pics. It extends way out.

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Wow, I was not expecting to see so much damage to the car.

My theory is that he was out in the middle of the countryside, way off the road, at an uninhabited house for a romantic tryst that may have involved drugs or alcohol. Perhaps something hard to detect since he knew that he had to go back to the dorm afterwards.

Something went wrong with the tryst, causing him to flee in his car in the dark (perhaps he kept the lights of the car off so as not to attract attention, and this led to a crash into the house. Or the drugs or alcohol were the reason for the crash. Or both. He was gone overnight, right? He couldn't call anyone at school for help for numerous reasons.

So, he tried to fix the problem himself, in the dark, leading to an injury. Not able to face curious insurance adjusters and parents and school regarding:

1. Why he was out all night.
2. Why he was at an uninhabited home.
3. Who he was with and why.
4. Why he didn't call for help if he was doing nothing wrong.
5. Why he didn't seek medical help.

And more, he felt shattered! His life would be completely different from that point on, and it must have been unbearable.


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This sounds plausible to me, of course minus the drugs and alcohol (tox screen was negative)...and I am quite certain that someone out there knows something and was involved in some way...we can only hope that eventually this person or persons will talk to someone, and that person will talk, and so on until the truth comes out. We’ve all made bad choices in life; how sad that the decisions B made that day would lead to his demise.
 
I have not read though this entire thread, but I find the photo interesting because it was uploaded to Instagram, but had zero filters applied to it. I know I tend to use similar filters on my photos, that's pretty much the point. I would be curious to know if all the other photos on his Instagram account had a similar look and style to them, whereas this photo is just plain image with no filters.

This would lead be to believe that the photo might have been taken by someone else as a way of toying with investigators of even misleading them.

I also don't know what to make of the block on the gas pedal. Very strange detail.

Also, does anyone know his sexual orientation? There seems to be a trend of college aged men being killed, many have been gay.

----
edit: just caught up on the case. It seems we have another young college student found dead in a body of water under unusual circumstances. I agree with those people who find it odd there is little to no mud anywhere on the car. You would think if it were stuck, and the tires were spinning, mud should be visible, yet it's not.

Strange case.
 
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