Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Fiance opening dog grooming biz vanishes from posh mall before wedding. Where's Rhonda Smith?

Episode Date: June 13, 2019

Mystery: Gorgeous 21-year-old Rhonda Smith supposedly disappears from a busy upscale shopping center in Georgis. Thirty-five years later, Nancy Grace tries to put the pieces together, as her family still searches for answers.Rhonda's father, Jack Smith, and mother, Ilean Cornell, break down the case for Nancy. Rhonda's cousin, Nancy Cunningham, also joins the show along with local news editor, Winston Skinner.Can their new details help break this cold case?Experts Sheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research Institute, and former detective, Steven Lampley, also weigh in on the case. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A dancer vanishes from Lenox Square and is never seen again. Now, 35 years later, Rhonda Smith's family is hoping a fresh plea will help shed some new light on this cold case. At six feet tall, the 21-year-old was known for her smile and by her nickname, Legs. Where is Rhonda Smith? Joining me, her parents, Jack and Eileen, along with cousin Nancy, who have never given up. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.

Rhonda Smith, absolutely gorgeous. Ready for an exciting and happy future. In love, set to be married, when suddenly everything goes sideways. Rhonda disappears. Joining me right now, Jack Smith, Eileen Cornell, and Nancy Cunningham from Rhonda's family. Also with me, Winston Skinner, the news editor at the Noonan Times-Herald, Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research Institute, and Stephen Lampley, detective at StephenLampley.com. I want to go first to Eileen Cornell.

This is Rhonda's mom. Tell me about the moment you realized that Rhonda is gone. Oh, my. I think probably the next day I realized Rhonda had not run away. That was for sure. You know, it was a cold night. You know, we were looking for her when Tom you know, and we were looking for her when Tom had called, and we started looking for her, and then they found the truck. But I think even the

next day, my thoughts, unfortunately, was that something bad had happened to Rhonda, and we just needed to try to find out where. Of course, at that time, we had still a lot of hope that, you know, she was someplace. To Jack Smith, Rhonda's dad, Jack, do you recall the moment that you realized that it hit you, Rhonda's gone? Yes. Of course, it was devastating news. But I just left a big hole in our lives. And, you know, I'm sitting here looking at a picture now of my beautiful daughter. All I can do is think of how much we loved her and just what happened to her. We were living in Tennessee at the time and got the call.

Of course, drove down immediately. And, you know, we're involved in the searches and looking for her. And I just, we were just looking for answers. To Nancy Cunningham, a relative of Rhonda Smith, you have devoted so much of your life gathering information about Rhonda's disappearance. How did it all start? Nancy, I married into the Cunningham family. And when my husband told me about his cousin that was missing, I was just devastated. Although I never knew her personally, I couldn't understand how somebody could just disappear off the face of the earth. You know, it just doesn't happen.

It just shouldn't happen. And to hear Jack and Eileen talk about it, their voice cracks, and to see them cry and upset, it just pulled at my heartstrings. And I just felt like there was an answer somewhere. And if God would give me the strength, I would get out there and knock on every door I could until we could get an answer. You know, Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research Institute. Cheryl, this case starts in a place where so many cases go. And again, Cheryl, you know, I've been working so hard, well over a year now, on a book,

Don't Be a Victim, Fighting Back Against America's crime waves. And a whole chapter, and a very intense chapter as well, is devoted to shopping malls, strip malls, and how so many people go missing under those circumstances. Let's start at the beginning, Cheryl. What do we know happened the day Rhonda Smith, just 21 years old, just seemingly vanishes off the face of the earth. Well, Nancy, she apparently leaves her home around 6.30 in the morning to go shop in Atlantic. You're right, Cheryl. Rhonda leaves home at about 6.30 a.m. Now, possibly she stopped at a workout club in Noonan. Noonan is a bedroom, a sleeper community outside the city of Atlanta, I would say maybe an hour away. It's rural. It's beautiful.

It has a very quaint, lovely, and vibrant downtown area. And a lot of people live in Noonan and then commute back and forth to Atlanta for their work. We have reason to believe she stopped at a Noonan workout club, a fitness center, heading into Atlanta. It was in February, February 27. It was cold. It had snowed, and she was wearing a light tan, like a caramel-colored rabbit coat. We know she had on a silver blouse, earrings, and a gold necklace. We know she had that on. Now, Cheryl McCollum, you rattled off that she went shopping, we think, at Lenox Mall. Why do so many things go wrong at Lenox Mall? Why is that? Do you remember, Cheryl? Do you remember the case of the woman who goes missing at Lenox and she's never been found? Was Little her last name? Mary Shotwell

Little. Yes, 1965. And then across the street from Lenox, you have the Hilton Garden Inn stabbing just before a wedding. Remember, never been solved. So what do we know about Linux? For people tuning in right now, what is Linux Mall, Cheryl McCollum? Linux is a posh, upscale mall in Atlanta. It's got, you know, at the time it had Davidson, which subsequently became Macy's later. It had Rich's Department Store. It had about 198 different stores on four levels. It's just the major mall for the city of Atlanta. Well, wait a minute, Cheryl. This is not my stomping grounds, okay? Because you can find me at Target and Walmart and the grocery store and the Dollar Tree,

okay? Until I get my children through grad school, I'm not putting a toe in Lenox because I mean, when you said posh, that's a great word for it. It has been and continues to be one of the most elite, fancy, exclusive malls in the entire state of Georgia. That and Phipps, which is right across the street. So tell me about the parking lots there, Cheryl, because it's my understanding, is this right, Winston Skinner? Winston Skinner, joining me, news editor at the Noonan Times Herald, her vehicle was found in the parking lot, Winston? That's right. That's right. I haven't been there, but from what I remember from reporting, it was found

in the parking deck near Davison's. That's my recollection. Which is now a Macy's. What do you know, Cheryl? Is Winston Skinner correct on that? She is correct. And I'll tell you a little known fact about me, Nancy. When I was a freshman in college, I was a store detective at Rich's.

So I know Lennox very, very well. Hello. I knew that. I knew that, Ms. Hoppins. I'm not you. Because I happen to know you had that outfit. Hello I knew that I knew that Miss Hoppins because I happen to know you had that out didn't you have an outfit you had to wear? No I wore plain clothes. Oh well then you just taught me something new. So you were undercover at Rich's department. Okay now what did you learn? The parking lot is massive so a lot of times like you, at that time in 1984, there was a Davison's and a Rich's. So what would happen a lot of times is people would come in and go to Rich's.

They would leave through Davison's and couldn't find their car. So a lot of times we would take people around so they could locate their vehicle because they would lose it because the parking lot is huge. And in 1984 is when MARTA came in. So there's a lot of construction. Well, hold on. Hold on when MARTA came in. So there's a lot of construction. Whoa, hold on, hold on. MARTA, Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit. Okay, now wait a minute, wait a minute. Was MARTA in existence at the time Rhonda went missing?

Not until December, but the construction was going on. Okay, hold on. Cheryl, okay, I'm taking notes. Just wait a minute, because my mind is going berserk on what you're telling me. OK, so what you're saying is very significant. Cheryl, number one, MARTA, Rapid Transit, which now has a huge Linux stop, was not working yet. That's important because we don't have people not from the neighborhood flying through. On the other hand, it's a shopping mecca.

You actually have people coming and parking in their cars from the entire southeastern area, the region. People would drive up from Florida to go shopping at Lenox and still do. So while they can't get away rapidly on a MARTA train or bus, it's hard to filter who she's coming in contact. It's not like she's taking it from her home and the only people there are the fiance, the pizza boy, the milk delivery, blah, blah, the mailman. She is in a milieu of thousands of people that we can't connect to her. That's a problem. So Marta's not working yet, but construction. And that's what I always say about the Jennifer Kessy case.

Her condo, she's gone missing near Orlando, never been seen again. There were a lot of construction undocumented working there. And I think that's the connection. So you're telling me, Cheryl, Marta's under construction. It's literally at the edge of the parking lot, Cheryl. It could be anybody. Absolutely. And they have people coming and going, electricians, plumbers, painters, people putting down tile.

There were literally thousands of people constructing that station for Mars. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. With me, Jack Smith, Eileen Cornell, Nancy Cunningham, Winston Skinner, Stephen Lampley, and Cheryl McComb are trying to put the pieces back together in the disappearance of a gorgeous girl, 21-year-old Rhonda Smith. And when I look at her picture, her eyes are just like looking right at me, like, help me, help me. So about her movements, Winston Skinner joining me, news editor at the Noonan Times Herald. What do we know about her movements that morning? Okay, from my story, which I wrote in 1984, exactly what we've heard before. She left the home she shared with Tom Shoemaker on Spring Drive at 630. And from what we could tell, stayed in New England until around noon. And it's supposed to have gone to the Nautilus Fitness Center before she left to go to Atlanta. Now, can I ask you a question?

Sure. How do we know? I mean, I know nothing about the fiance. I wouldn't know him if he bit me on the neck right now. But how do I know she really ever even left that day? How do I know he didn't just drive her car and go, oh, she went shopping. She's gone. How do I know that? How do I know she was ever at the workout club? Right. That's interesting. I don't know. I do not know the answer to that. What my story says that Mr. Shoemaker's sister said that Rhonda went to the Nautilus Club.

The Nautilus was a popular fitness club. We didn't have a lot of those things here at that time. So that's that's logical that she would have been a member there. But you're right. We don't. I mean, we don't have any. There's no visual. I've never had anybody tell me, oh, yeah, I know she was there. I saw her. Let's back it up. Let's back it up. Nancy Cunningham, what do you know?

How can we place her at Nautilus? Honestly, I don't know anything. But something that strikes me as being odd is why would she be dressed in street clothes to go to the workout center? Well, I know that she had on the coat, and I know she had earrings and a necklace, but I don't know if the coat was over a workout outfit or if she brought clothes with her, but you're absolutely right. Cheryl, help me out. Can you help me place her at Nautilus?

I cannot, Nancy. And I have also heard that she was wearing dress clothes, and I will tell you, in 1984, people did not wear workout clothes to Lenox Mall. They dressed up still. Well, what did you just say about dressing up to go to a mall? What? You know, now, it's not unusual if people leave tennis and go shopping or, you know, have, you know, sweatpants on and a shirt.

But in 1984, people still dressed up to go to Lenox. I mean, they've got valet parking. It was a place to be seen. You didn't go there sweaty after working out. I'm in trouble. Okay, so we don't have any visual placing her at Nautilus, but I've got reason to believe Stephen Lampley, detective, StephenLampley.com, that at the time, I believe cops verified that she had gone to Nautilus first. She gets up at 6.30 in the morning, all right? The mall doesn't open until 10. She's an hour away from the mall. That's two

and a half hours. I think she worked out early in the morning, took a shower, and put on dress clothes to go to the mall. Stephen Lampley, verifying her at Nautilus workout would be an easy thing for a cop to do. Explain. Well, it should be, Nancy. And again, I wasn't there, but it should have been. There should have been more at that time of the morning. There should have been more than enough people that would be able to verify. I don't know if they had access, card entry. I don't know.

At that time, they probably did not. But that should be an easy verification process on that. Well, let me tell you about my old workout club. And as a matter of fact, I actually had an almost a fistfight with two guys at the workout club because every Sunday night I would watch Murder, She Wrote with Jessica Fletcher, Angela Lansbury. And they actually tried to watch a sporting event while I was on the treadmill. So I remember distinctly, yeah, I know. You signed in, Stephen. It was old school. You signed your name and showed your ID to get into the workout club. That's how that worked, all right?

So I've got a very strong feeling, Cheryl McCollum, that cops did verify she worked out that morning in Noonan at Nautilus. I would think that would be an easy, easy thing to determine. No doubt about it. So what do we know about her movements from there? Winston Skinner with the Noonan Times-Herald joining us. I would say we don't really know because the next sighting, if you want to call it that, is that there are reports that a person who worked at Wix and Stix at Lenox said, oh, yes, I saw her.

She was very upbeat. I was having a bad day. She made me feel good. But my understanding is from everything that I've been able to see that that's yeah, there's. Did he see Rhonda or did he see someone who looked like Rhonda? You know, I don't know. And it really did nothing. Obviously, her vehicle is there. So somehow her vehicle got there. And I think the question is, did she actually go to Lenox? Okay, hold on. Hold on. To Jack Smith, dad, Eileen Cornell, mom, Nancy Cunningham, cousin. Jack Smith, what do you know? Can you help me out on this?

This is very, very critical. Did anybody spot her at the mall? Did anybody spot her at the Nautilus Workout Club? No, no. As far as this fellow at the Wix's Sticks says he saw her, I just don't believe that. I just think it was a story that was part of an alibi. You don't think she ever went to Lenox? And why would she park the truck as far away from the entrance as she did?

Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute, Jack Smith. I did not know that she was parked far away from the entrance. At that time of the morning, you're exactly correct. I would park as close to the door as I could. Why would she do that? Uh-uh. And Cheryl McCollum, that's a very significant fact. Very often you hear when people dump cars or other nefarious crimes, cars are parked in a big parking lot where they may get lost in the sauce, like at a mall, at an airport, and then they're not found for days and days and days. Explain why this is so significant, what Jack Smith just told us. Well, it's so significant for two reasons, Nancy. One, she's already worked out. There wouldn't be

another soul there. She could get crime parking right by the door. And the second thing is, and this is significant to me, it ain't her car. It's a truck that she borrowed. So it's not like a brand new car she wanted to park far away so nobody would ding the door. This is just a work truck that a dude let her borrow because her car was in the shop. Her car in the shop. she was borrowing this truck. Jack Smith, Rhonda's dad, has just really opened my eyes on something. He says that all along he has felt she did not go shopping at Lenox. Do you have any idea? Stephen Lampley, explain how the wrong location and the wrong start of a timeline can destroy

an investigation. Well, Nancy, if everything doesn't fit together, I mean, if you have an incident and it's skewed, you know, obviously your timeline is just thrown out. Now, this gentleman who says he saw her, you know, did they do a lineup? Did they do a photo lineup and did he pick her out? I don't know. But whenever you have something on a timeline that doesn't fit, it throws your theory right out the window. Okay. At that point, what did you learn, Eileen Cornell, when that truck was found at Lenox? Who called and told you? Rhonda's boyfriend, Tom Shoemaker, called and

said that the truck had been found by the security guard at Lenox Square. And they had called the police and I left immediately to come up. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A dancer vanishes from Lenox Square and is never seen again. Now, 35 years later, Rhonda Smith's family is hoping a fresh plea will help shed some new light on this cold case. At six feet tall, the 21-year-old was known for her smile and by her nickname, Legs. Her fiancé says they plan to get married and start a dog grooming business, a breeding business as well.

Where is Rhonda Smith? Joining me, Jack Smith, Eileen Cornell, and Nancy Cunningham from Rhonda's family. Also with me, Winston Skinner, the news editor at the Noonan Times-Herald, Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research Institute, and Stephen Lampley, detective at StephenLampley.com.

To Nancy Cunningham, where do you stand on Jack Smith's feeling his daughter was never at Lenox Mall? I agree completely. Something that we've missed, if we can back up just a little bit, Nancy, she had been supposedly so sick over the weekend that she couldn't speak to her mother on the telephone. Whoa, wait, wait, wait. That's major. That's major. It is major. Eileen Cornell, I knew she had been ill the previous weekend and wasn't going to go to work one day, but I didn't know she couldn't speak to you on the phone. I've never been so sick I couldn't talk to my mom on the phone. So who told you she couldn't talk on the phone?

Her boyfriend, Tom, said that she was laying down back in the back, that she was still sick from having too many drinks on Friday night. And so I went ahead and talked to him, and I was inviting them over for the next weekend, you know, to come over and eat with us and he just said that he'd have Rhonda call later and I said okay you know so when he called you know the next night I was real surprised it was him and not Rhonda because Rhonda called Rhonda called us a lot how often did you talk to her from her her phone, Bill, even. We went back and looked, I think.

I mean, normally, did you talk to her every day? No, probably once a week at least, though. So he tells you she doesn't feel well and she is lying down. Did she call you back that weekend? It was Sunday that I called to talk with Rhonda, and she was still sick from that. And then it was Monday evening that he called me because Rhonda had not come home. So it was actually Sunday night that she was still sick.

What night did he first tell you that she was ill? That was Sunday night. Okay. Jack Smith, what do you recall? Well, her mother just knows all about that. There's just things that I... Eileen can tell you about a shower curtain that she made for Rhonda. I know nothing about the shower curtain.

Tell me about it, Eileen. Oh, I had just made her a shower curtain for her bathroom, and she was redoing. i think they were taking wallpaper down in the bathroom and the shower curtain was down and at the time that we finally came the police and i and his parents i think were there to the house and went through some of ronda's stuff business cards and things like that that had been left probably when she was working at the club and um he we were sitting on the edge of the bed and looking into the bathroom actually talking and he said that they had taken a bath together i think sunday morning or that morning i don't remember exactly which one and And in my notes, I said that for the first time.

I wondered if the police could have been right about Tom because there was no shower curtain then. Why would you take a shower with no curtain when there was another bathroom just across the hall with a shower curtain? But I did not say anything to him about that, though. So let me understand, Nancy Cunningham, have police been going on the theory all this time that she disappeared from Lenox? Yes. And we have done everything we can to get Coweta County

involved. Coweta County says it's not their case. They won't do anything. And we all feel like Rhonda disappeared from Coweta County, not, you know, the truck was put at Lenox Square just as a diversion. We all believe that. To Cheryl McCollum, director of the Coal Case Research Institute, okay, I accept it. This is a huge blow to finding out what happened to Rhonda Smith. But what can we do now? Well, I think it goes, I've got a few questions first. Here's the first question I need to know the answer to, to her mom. Did the boyfriend ever in their entire relationship ever one time call you when she came home or what, wasn't home on time? No. That's what I thought. So for him to call her mom at seven o'clock at night, honey, that ain't even late yet. I mean, the mall's not even closed. And I know, alibi to say, oh, I was worried. I knew

something was wrong, you know, quickly. In other words, he's alerting people, but he's not alerting the right people. He didn't call the police. He didn't go out looking for her. He didn't drive to win it. He didn't drive up 85, seeing if she was wrecked. He her mama so to me that's a flag nancy and i mean i don't know what steven's theory would be but right there i would stop until i got that answer for me and then i would want to know from sunday when is the last time body saw her was it saturday when did they get that truck did he use the truck to dispose of her? Did he use the truck to move her? Who saw her drive that truck? I'm also curious if they had ever had discord in their relationship.

Well, that's the next thing on my list, Nancy, because that's my next question. I've literally wrote down. You know, we do that all the time, Cheryl. You and I write down the next question. The other one just says it's so, so funny. What do we know, Eileen Cornell, about her relationship with the fiancé? Well, I know one time, I mean, Rhonda could get really, she had a little temper, and she could get, you know, really upset about things.

And one night late, she called me. They were having a dispute about something. And so I asked Tom, I said, Tom, do I Tom, do I need to come down there, you know, and get Rhonda because it was probably about 1230 or so. And he said, no, she'll be fine. We'll talk in the morning. And the next day when I talked to Rhonda, she said that Tom told her that she should not be calling me every time they

have a little spat, that that was not right, that he didn't call his parents every time they had a little fight and you know i understood that and um that was all of the fight you know she never said another word about it okay now wait a minute so the boyfriend tells her don't call your parents every time we have an argument yes uh-uh i don't like that at all. What were you saying, Jack Smith? I was going to ask Eileen, didn't Rhonda call and say that she, that Tom had lied about what he did for a living or something like that? Is that something that I, or that I? No, actually, that was not that long, I don't think.

I'd have to look at the notes. She had just said one afternoon that he had lied about the business, and the way she found out was through his sister. And I just let her talk, and that was all her comment was, was that she was a little upset that he had lied about the business. And after we looked into the business a little bit, Tom did not own any of that business. And I think he might have told her that, but that's just an assumption on my part. You know, to Stephen Lampley, detective at StephenLampley.com, that's never good. When you find out someone is lying, a guy is lying about something so fundamental as where they work and what they do. You're right, Nancy.

And everything about this, like Cheryl said a while ago, it seems to me and it seems to her as well, that this whole thing is a lead-in to, quote-unquote, the fiance's innocence. Now, I'm not saying he's guilty by any means, but all of these indicators, like Cheryl said, are there. And then, of course, later on, we find out he loggers up really, really quick. And then, yeah, the polygraph, I think there were some issues with the polygraph, some of the questions that indicated he was not forthcoming with the truth. We have a problem there, Nancy.

You know, and here's the thing. The fiancé has not been named a suspect in this case. We are just following the leads. But I can tell you, to Nancy Cunningham, relative of Rhonda Smith, now missing for years. That doesn't look good. Failing a polygraph, if that is true. Lawyering up when your fiance goes missing. No. What do we know about him now, Nancy? Where is he now? Or do we even know? I don't know. But I can tell you this. The business that his father owned at the time was a smeltering business. Are you familiar with that? Yes.

They took x-rays and melted them down and extracted the silver. Where the plant was at, they had the capability of burning a body beyond recognition. That was never searched. None of that was ever looked into. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Gone cold. The case of a missing dancer disappearing from an upscale mall in Atlanta, never seen again, or did she? This case has haunted her mom and dad, Jack and Eileen, since she disappeared. She's absolutely beautiful. I'm talking about Rhonda Smith, He goes missing from Lenox Square, we think,

in Atlanta. But now we believe she was never even there. And leaving the truck she was driving there was just a ruse to cover up what really happened to Rhonda Smith. What do we know about security cameras at Lenox Mall or at Nautilus, Cheryl McCollum? I know they have them, but I don't know that she was ever spotted on anything. I don't know that anybody ever corroborated her being at Lenox Mall. But I have one more question, Nancy. Sure. Was his whereabouts for that 14 hours ever documented by anybody and checked out?

I don't believe so. I can't get a hold of anything of substance from APD or Coweta County. Okay. Well, I have one more question. Was the business that they owned open on Sundays? Well, I can't answer that, but I can tell you probably so, because they would start the process of burning something, and it would literally take days to complete.

Like, it would have to burn hours and hours. I didn't know if they shut down Friday afternoon and started back up Monday. Yeah, I'm just listening to all of this. And I'm curious, Jack Smith, what do police at Coweta County tell you about her case? I feel like the police on both sides, Atlanta and Coweta County, blew it 35 years ago. It's well known and can be documented that Sergeant Payne, back when something was asked about Rhonda and why something was not done about it, oh, well, she's just a stripper in a nightclub. And I just always felt in my heart that's the way law enforcement at times, I know they worked on it, don't get me wrong, but I just felt in my heart that that's the way they felt about it. And a couple of things, if I can interject also,

about the burn, about the smeltering and so forth. It hasn't been mentioned, but it's known and can be proved. There's a fellow named Duke Blackburn, which is, I understand, pretty well known in the law enforcement community. He had cadaver dogs on that property in 2005. Those dogs struck on the cadaver, on, you know, remains. And Coweta County was told about it, and they didn't even look into it. Another thing that bothers me about Tom, not one time have I even spoke to him.

Not, you know, wouldn't a fiance call a dad and say, hey, we're doing everything we can to find Rhonda and, you know, express my condolences and so forth. I mean, he never even called me, never even reached out to me at one time. Nancy, can I ask the parents one more question? Yeah, and I want to find out about the wine glass and the beer found in the truck if they were taken into evidence. Let me guess, that was your next question, right? Now I'm starting to not believe you.

Well, I have two questions. One, if they've ever had any contact with the person that owned the truck to find out when and where they let them borrow that. And number two, the beer and the wine. What about that to Nancy Cunningham? Who owned the truck? And what about the beer bottle and the wine glass? Beer can.

The truck was actually owned by Tom's father, the business Atlanta Smeltering or something. And I can tell you, I've done some research and that truck is still in Coweta County. But to my knowledge, they didn't fingerprint it. They didn't search it. They didn't do anything. And as far as the wine glass and the beer can, who knows? APD won't tell us. I don't know if they have it, if they took fingerprints. We don't know anything. With me, Jack Smith, Eileen Cornell, Nancy Cunningham, Winston Skinner, Stephen Lampley, and Cheryl McComb are trying to put the pieces back together in the disappearance of a gorgeous girl, 21-year-old Rhonda Smith.

Nancy Cunningham, you've devoted so much time trying to find Rhonda. What have you learned? I learned that you can't always trust what police tell you, that if they think there's a cover up, they're just going to keep covering it up. Something else that wasn't brought up in the conversation earlier, excuse me, Eileen made the visit to Rhonda's house to pick up Rhonda's belongings. And Tom's father was in their yard with a backhoe. Stephen Lampley, none of these signs are good because I really believe if Rhonda, then 21, had lived at some point, she would have let her parents who were so loving and supportive of her, know that she was okay.

You're right, Nancy. None of this adds up. The whole thing, it just, there's a lot to go on at this point. I don't know what evidence is left, if any, but obviously the cadaver dogs is a good start. There's more to this, obviously, than what she's been told, and there's a lot more that needs to be done. This is Jack. May I interject one more interesting thing? Oh, yes. A concrete slab was poured there after Rhonda went missing. It had to do with a dog pen, which was going to be her business that she was going into. I just find it interesting that he would have a concrete slab poured after she went missing.

Well, I can tell you this. We're going to be out there with some cadaver dogs as soon as I can get it arranged, Mr. Smith and Ms. Cornell and Ms. Cunningham. Right on. You can count on that. You can count on that. May I ask you a question? Please go ahead.

The police reports, I mean, we can go and look at the police reports, but we can't make copies. And the Atlanta police reports, there's two files, probably three or four inches thick. I mean, you can't. The detective did come to Jack and Susan's house and let us, you let us thumb through it, but a lot of it is repeat and all.

It would take days to study it, so you can't really do anything in a couple of hours, really get into what they did do. And they say that since it's still active, they can't release the report. You know, we just covered a case where Jennifer Kessie's family sued the police department in Orlando and got the files. Cheryl, can you think of any way around that, any way the cops might give that? Or Stephen Lampley, detective, how can we get those cop files? Well, if they're going to let her sit down and take a look at it, number one, she can look at the evidence sheet. I'm going to go from opening that file right there. She can go to the witness list. There's things she can do very quickly that would answer a ton of questions. If you have information about the disappearance of this beautiful young girl, Rhonda Smith. Please call 404-546-5602. 404-546-5602. Between Lampley, McCollum, Skinner,

Cunningham, Cornell, and Smith, we're not giving up. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.