UT UT - Macin Smith, 17, St George, 1 Sept 2015

[CastlesBurning]

Seven years of Dateline's Missing in America: 156 still missing

 

[Quiet Time]

I'm so curious as to what happened to this young man...

 

[PezCandy]

I can’t believe there is still no new info on Macin

 

[Brice]

Just came across this and I haven’t read all the pages yet. I hope he is still alive. I just don’t see how a blonde, blue eyed, 6’ 4” 17 year old with a distinctive speech issue vanishes into thin air with just the clothes on his back.

I get the feeling he was invisible at home. No one bothered to said bye before he left for school.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Welcome to Websleuths, @Brice.
I hope he's alive, too.

 

[BethAnn777]

Just came across this and I haven’t read all the pages yet. I hope he is still alive. I just don’t see how a blonde, blue eyed, 6’ 4” 17 year old with a distinctive speech issue vanishes into thin air with just the clothes on his back.

I get the feeling he was invisible at home. No one bothered to said bye before he left for school.

Not saying goodbye before he left for school, that one gets me too. I have teen boys, ages 17 and 18, both still in high school, I get up with them every morning. Tracey Macin’s mom said they were trying to get him to be more independent. I get that, I do. So have him set his own alarm and pour his own cereal, fine. But not getting out of bed to talk to him, to see him, to tell him you love him and to have a good day at school, man that just gets me! Make me sad. Now my husband probably wouldn’t see any issue with it so maybe it’s just me, but that makes me feel bad for Macin.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I disagree that parents should feel obligated / be judged if they don't wake up to say good-bye to their high school senior in the morning.

 

[BethAnn777]

I disagree that parents should feel obligated / be judged if they don't wake up to say good-bye to their high school senior in the morning.

That’s cool.
It’s not about being obligated, required, judged, wrong or right, it’s just something some people do for the ones they live with and love. Making sure your kid has their homework, has breakfast, lunch, telling them you love them, etc., are not obligations, rather loving, caring gestures.

 

[Brice]

Not judging the parents at all but he also wasn’t a typical senior. This is a very strange story. I think with the culture he was raised in it was going to be incredibly difficult to meet expectations. I would think anime is highly frowned upon in their circles.

Being a black sheep in a large religious family has got to be a tremendous burden. I am not trying to be disrespectful to anyone here who is LDS.

 

[rosesfromangels]

That’s cool.
It’s not about being obligated, required, judged, wrong or right, it’s just something some people do for the ones they live with and love. Making sure your kid has their homework, has breakfast, lunch, telling them you love them, etc., are not obligations, rather loving, caring gestures.

In some regards, they need this even more than the little ones, although they’d never admit to it. But then again I have always been big on this sending off and greeting home ritual. I think it’s powerful.

amateur opinion and speculation

 

[Valiant]

It's the same thing that comes up in many threads, my paraphrasing of it: " I don't do it that way, therefore it is suspicious".

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Anyway my feeling / opinion is that he had much more relevant family issues than whether someone saw him off in the morning.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

he also wasn’t a typical senior.

Quote RSBM.
Could you please elaborate on this opinion?

 

[BethAnn777]

Anyway my feeling / opinion is that he had much more relevant family issues than whether someone saw him off in the morning.

Exactly! A kid with depression, anxiety, being made to drive when he said he wasn’t ready, being told he couldn’t watch anime, being forced off the internet, etc., he needed to be shown love at every possible opportunity.

 

[Brice]

Quote RSBM.
Could you please elaborate on this opinion?

He was a transplant with a history of depression and was socially distant due to a speech issue. He’d already been hospitalized. While that’s common it’s not typical.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Utah teen Macin Smith was last seen on September 1, 2015, leaving his St. George, Utah home for what his parents believed was another day of high school. The 17-year-old never showed up to Desert High School. All of his personal belongings, including his cell phone and wallet, were found at home. In the five years since, family members have desperately searched for the teen. Hundreds continue to post almost daily on the 'Help Find Macin Smith' Facebook page, and the family is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Macin’s return. There have been multiple reports of possible sightings of Macin, but none has proved credible. Police tell Dateline they still follow up on any leads they receive and Macin’s case is an active missing persons investigation. If you have any information regarding Macin’s case, please contact the St. George Police Department at (435) 627-4300.
Seven years of Dateline's Missing in America: 156 still missing

 

[BethAnn777]

Interesting article More than 5 years after his disappearance, is this what Macin Smith would look like now?

Among other things, the Smiths’ family friend who is the administrator for the FB page says, “After five years and much deliberation, we truly believe we are looking for a body and not an ‘age progression’ Macin,” Gailey said.

 

[Catmommy]

If he was alive, and I wish I thought he was, why would he continue to keep his existence a secret?

 

[scriabina]

If he was alive, and I wish I thought he was, why would he continue to keep his existence a secret?

I doubt he is alive, but just speculating here off the cuff --

You'd think if he were alive he'd at least tell the police he's alive but doesn't want contact with his family. Only reason I could think he hasn't done that is maybe he resents or despises his family so much that he wants them to suffer from never knowing what happened to him. Perhaps there is childhood trauma we don't know about and he wouldn't feel safe if certain people knew he was alive? Or he could have suffered from a dissociative disorder and is now living as someone else and he doesn't even remember his childhood & family.

 

[RBC69]

It's the same thing that comes up in many threads, my paraphrasing of it: " I don't do it that way, therefore it is suspicious".

I agree. Look, I'm still new to this site so maybe I'm speaking out of turn but I think people like us, who are on sites like these, become automatically suspicious of anyone's story and assume that whoever last saw the person must have something to do with it. And I think we're usually right! I'm not pointing fingers without pointing a thumb because when I read these stories I also think that way and it leads me to look at someone's story and try to pick holes in it by thinking, "Well, that sounds weird. That's not how a normal person would behave." But in the course of a day I suspect I do a lot of things that if for some reason I were asked to explain I'd come off sounding pretty weird and inconsistent myself.