Judy Smith

[lilmissd]

Judy Smith was the lady from Boston who accompanied her husband to a work conference in Philadelphia in 1997 and vanished. She was found dead in North Carolina 5 months after she vanished from Philadelphia. This is such a strange case, and I hope one day that it can be solved. Apparently Judy had forgotten her drivers license so she took a later flight to Philly; her husband reluctantly agreed and they met up later that night. The next day Judy went sightseeing in the morning while Jeff attended the conference. According to Jeff, Judy was to meet him at their hotel at 5:00 that evening, but she never showed up. Jeff became worried and contacted the hospitals and police, but when nothing turned up he searched Philadelphia by taxi. He traced the path of the tour bus, Judy had planned to ride that day. Months went by but there was no trace of Judy, it was like she vanished into thin air. The police were just as stumped as her husband, as their was no evidence that Judy had been abducted or murdered. But Judy's daughter was convinced that something happened to her mother such as an accident or amnesia. After Jeff returned home to Boston he faxed and mailed out thousands of flyers about Judy up and down the east coast, he also hired three private investigators but they turned up no significant clues as to what happened to Judy. Then, 5 months after Judy vanished a father and son noticed something strange while hiking near Asheville, North Carolina. According to the authorities they found a partially buried skeleton which animals had strewn over a 100 yard area. When the skeleton was examined cut marks were found which let them to suggest that she was stabbed to death. Judy's dental records were requested after seeing Jeff's missing persons flyers, and forensics confirmed that they were indeed the remains of Judy Smith! What everyone doesn't understand in this case is how Judy ended up so far away from Philadelphia? Authorities found Judy's diamond wedding ring and $167 in cash at the crime scene, so we have to rule out robbery being the motive. Police also had another clue, eyewitnesses claimed to have seen Judy just days after she vanished; one of them was a store clerk who talked to Judy who said that she wasn't acting strangely or saw anything that would indicate that something wasn't right with her. She told the store clerk that she was from Boston and that she and her husband had been in Philadelphia for a conference and she decided to come down there. One of the big questions in this case is why did Judy go to North Carolina? Especially when the plan was to meet her husband when the conference ended at 5:00 that evening. She knew no one there, and had no reason to be there. A friend of Judy's states that she believes that Judy and her husband got into an argument and Judy decided to spend some time away from him. This could be the case but, why not at least tell SOMEONE where she was, especially since she was alive for a few days after she vanished from Philadelphia. A blue and black backpack was also located at the crime scene, the police believe that this was left by Judy's killer. There was a pair of sunglasses there, which they believe also do not belong to Judy. What scenario resulted in Judy's murder in an isolated area of North Carolina? Who stabbed her and left her in a shallow grave? Was it a stranger, or someone she had planned to meet in Asheville? Unfortunately investigators still have no idea why Judy Smith was killed. This case is so odd and perplexing that I don't think it will ever be solved, just too many loose ends on this one. What does everyone else think?

[bawitter]

This is one of those segments that's always stuck with me. There are so many bizarre peices to the puzzle. The eyewitness account form the store owner in Nc really had me wondering. She claims to ahve met Judy prior to her death and that she seemed to be happy in and not in any type of distress. She even went so far as to share details of her life. If this account is correct then it appears he went to Nc of her own accord. I'm at loss though to explain why she would just take off to NC. Even if she was having problems with her husband you would think she would have at least contacted her daughter to let her know where she was. I'm not sure what to think but I too would like to hear everyone else's theories.

[JenniferS.]

Originally Posted by bawitter

This is one of those segments that's always stuck with me. There are so many bizarre peices to the puzzle. The eyewitness account form the store owner in Nc really had me wondering. She claims to ahve met Judy prior to her death and that she seemed to be happy in and not in any type of distress. She even went so far as to share details of her life. If this account is correct then it appears he went to Nc of her own accord. I'm at loss though to explain why she would just take off to NC. Even if she was having problems with her husband you would think she would have at least contacted her daughter to let her know where she was. I'm not sure what to think but I too would like to hear everyone else's theories.

There are other details like Judy had a love for hiking and had done so many times before including over see's. The only connection to NC was he husband had been to a weight loiss clinic up there. Though thisclinic was not near were she was found , its speculate that when she was NC before she did some hiking and may have liked it enough to return. Horse hair was found on the body and the thinking there was she may have went to a near buy retreat that had horses or least passed buy and petted them. There was also another sighting of her at a camp sight were supposedly she drove up with groceries in a car asking if she could spoend the night in her car there.The camp sight said no. One of my biggest questions is what happened to her red back pack? They didn't find it near or around were her remians were. She was known to carry it around with her. Did the killer take it buy mistake when in a hurry to leave? Did the killer take it for a suvineer? Also a shirt was found near the remains with the big role of money, this was hers wasn't it? Or was it the killers too?