Dateline Originals - Deadly Engagement - Ep. 1: The Telltale SUV

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

When Denita Smith, a talented North Carolina graduate student, is gunned down outside her home, investigators hunt for witnesses and clues. This episode originally published on September 16, 2025. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It was early, too early for most college students, especially during Christmas break. Then again, Danita Smith was not one for sleeping in. At 25, Danita was as disciplined as a Marine, maybe because she had a lot on her plate. As a grad student at North Carolina Central University in Durham, Danita was just months away from finishing her master's degree in English, schoolwork, volunteer work, a magazine internship, and a wedding to plan. Anyway, it was the internship that had her up at that hour. The bosses liked her to be at her desk by 8.15 a.m.

It was eight minutes after eight when Danita opened her door on the third floor and started down the stairs. Did Danita see someone waiting on the second floor landing? We'll never know. We do know that as she turned to take the last set of 16 steps down to the parking lot, a bullet pierced the back of Danita's head and sent her tumbling down the stairs. For nearly two hours, Danita Smith lay in motion. repose on the sidewalk in front of her apartment building, building 1100, completely unnoticed,

until another student stepped out of his apartment and saw the contents of Danita's pocketbook scattered on the stairs. He dialed 911. Telling 911, where's your emergency? I think this girl is straight down the stairs. I just walked down my apartment. She's at the bottom of the stairs, head busted open blood everywhere. Okay, and is she breathing? I can't tell. I don't want to touch it. Do you want me to talk?

If you can look at her or if you can just observe. If they deserve. Hello? Okay, she responded to you at all? She's not even moving. Okay. All right. Just so you know, the ambulance is already on the way. Do you want me to get her idea?

If you can, if you feel comfortable doing that. And then you're deneater, Monique Smith. This is the This is the story of what happened to Danita Smith and the hunt for a killer. It's about love and hate, trust and betrayal. It's about truth and lies and the deadliest of sins, lust, pride, envy, and wrath. shows you that, man, our actions have consequences. And it may seem as though as, hey, you know, we're all grown-ups here, but stuff happens. And in this situation, some pretty bad stuff

happened. Oh, yes, this is a story about bad stuff all right. It's about revenge and the reckoning that eventually comes for anyone with a conscience. One selfish act destroyed two families. I want her remember for her intelligence. for her beauty, for her class, someone who just entered your life and made it even more spectacular than before. Just a bright light in this world. I'm Josh Mancoitz, and this is Deadly Engagement, a podcast from Dateline. Episode 1, the Telltale SUV. When the EMTES arrived, they did you.

rolled Danita Smith's body onto her back and methodically set out to confirm the obvious. Lips blue, no pulse, her pupils fixed and dilated. Danita Smith was gone. At first glance, it looked as if her death could have been caused by a slip and fall, maybe even had tumbled down the stairs during a snatch-and-grab robbery attempt. Robbery, however, seemed an unlikely motive. Her cash and credit cards were still in her wallet. And Danita was still wearing a gold necklace, earrings, and a diamond engagement ring.

No, this felt like murder. Those suspicions were confirmed when the forensic team located a small hole, about the size of a pencil eraser, in the back of Danita's head. It was around 1145 when a detective in his mid-30s ducked under the yellow crime scene tape and walked up to the sheet-covered body on the sidewalk. He looked as if he just stepped onto the set of a TV crime drama, salt and pepper hair, black leather coat,

black shoes and pants, white shirt, gray tie, and a badge. So by the time we get there, the scene is pretty well established and we're immediately briefed as far as what injuries and what witnesses, who the caller is, the whole nine yards. That's the voice of lead detective Sean Pate. Though Pate had been with the department for 13 years, he was still new to being murder police. This one would be his first homicide case.

I wasn't really nervous because it was the first murder I investigated, but it wasn't the first crime. Before that, I came from special victims units, and the only difference is in special victims, usually your victim can talk. His first step running the investigation was to look for witnesses. The campus crossings apartment complex is about two miles from the NCCU campus. Although a lot of college students live there during the school year, most had not yet returned from their Christmas break. Those who said they'd heard. heard a loud bang that morning, had actually seen nothing and had little of value to tell the detective. One person told me that they remember hearing one shot. A couple people said that it was more

than one. It was probably the echo on bouncing off the buildings. Because Danita was killed with one bullet. One bullet. And you didn't find any other slugs anywhere? No, that's it. By early afternoon, the campus crossing's apartment building where Danita Smith had died, was crawling with cops and investigators. Agents from the State Bureau of Investigation helped canvas the complex and the campus, looking for witnesses, and also anyone who could tell them

something about the murder victim. After we started asking around, we realized that Danita was getting ready to graduate in a couple of months. She was actually looking to go to possibly Ohio State to get her Ph.D. We learned that she was actually one of the more popular people on North Carolina Central's campus.

And a lot of people in the apartment complex and at North Carolina Central University were really devastated. So this wasn't somebody who was going through life unnoticed. Oh, no. This was a rising star. A talented photographer for the campus newspaper. Danita had done a summer fellowship

with the New York Times. A gifted writer. She'd volunteered at the campus writing lab, mentoring underclassmen. She was an editorial intern at QRS, a fast food industry magazine based in Durham. And on top of that, she'd recently gotten engaged to a man who'd been a couple of years ahead of her at NCCU. They'd been dating since her freshman days. They were like the it couple.

Those first minutes of police work revealed to Detective Pate one clear truth. Denita Smith had a lot of friends in Durham. Everybody kind of was jealous of her and her relationship that she had a well-educated boyfriend that was fairly successful at his job, and she seemed to be going places, and I guess that's why she had so many people that she mentored because they wanted to go in that same direction.

One woman who heard the commotion that morning stepped outside her apartment and spoke with an officer who happened to be standing nearby. And she said, that's my roommate. And then the reporting officer said, well, how did you know that's your roommate? And she said, well, one, I'm looking at her. Secondly, that's the purse she carries.

She recognized her key ring and all the stuff that were strewn down the steps. Danita's roommate told investigators she was in bed when Danita left the apartment that morning. She said she remembered hearing the apartment door close, and right after that, a loud bang. The sound was so loud, she said, she rolled over and looked out the window beside her bed.

She saw a man in a black truck pulled to a stop, alongside someone in a burgundy SUV. She doesn't see anything else out of place, and she lays back down after that, and she did glance at the clock. I can see that it was, I think, 818, 819. And that's all she knew until she woke up later on and all the commotion was out

because Danita was not actually found until after 10 a.m. As the roommate told her story, the investigator started to get a sense that the roommate's relationship with Danita was off. She didn't seem as emotionally connected as others who'd known Danita well. She just didn't speak of her recently murdered roommate with the same tone of admiration. Oh, she talked about herself freely enough, her family, at her hometown.

No problem there. It was when the detective asked the roommate, how Danita had gotten on with the roommate's boyfriend. Well, that seemed to be a sensitive subject. And the roommate clammed up. And something just didn't feel right there. I mean, you're telling me about yourself. You're telling me about your mother,

but you won't talk to me about your boyfriend. So that kind of drew my attention that day. Eventually, the roommate did tell the detective her boyfriend and Danita had recently had words over what? She didn't remember. So you start looking to the boyfriend? Looking at the boyfriend and looking in her also.

What'd you do to do that? First thing it is, we put a tracker on her car. She wouldn't tell us where her boyfriend was. So during one point in the investigation, we put a tracker on her car. It was just a hunch. The kind detectives get when they've got nothing else. No evidence, no witnesses, no suspects. Sometimes it comes on them like an unscratchable itch between the shoulder blades. The detective wondered if, perhaps, Danita Smith was not as universally loved as he first thought.

Danita's mom Sharon Smith was at work that Thursday morning when her phone rang. My son called me and said, Mom, Danita fell down the steps at her apartment. You need to call. He gave me the guy's name. So I did. And he told me, he said, Ms. Smith, Denita fell. She's unconscious, but they're trying to revive her. This was somebody who worked at the college.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so he said, oh, you're coming to Durham. And I'm still trying to wrap my head around. You fail, unconscious, revived. survive. And I said, yes, I'm coming. How far away is that? Two hours.

So you're in the car? Mm-hmm. So I went to school, my youngest, she was a senior in high school, picked her up, went home, got my son, and we hit the road going north on 85. It's possible the person Sharon spoke with didn't know DeNita was already in the next life. It's also possible that person didn't want to be the one to break that kind of news to a mother who was about to get behind the wheel. And Sharon Smith had a lot of people she needed to reach out to. One of the first was Danita's fiancée, Jermere Stroud, who was a police officer in Greensboro.

And I said, Jamir, I need you to get to Durham. Now, Danita has failed. She's unconsciously trying to revive him. Because I knew from Greensboro to Durham, he would be there before I would. He said, well, I'm getting ready to go to work. No, you get me to go to Durham. I need you to go to Durham. I'm on my way.

I'm on the highway. I need you to get there. He said, okay. He said, well, let me call and see what I can find out. And so he did. There was a lot for Sharon and her two younger children to think about between phone calls on that long ride. to Durham. Each, no doubt, said silent prayers while they watched the gray highway roll by, each desperately hoping for Danita's full recovery. She was a happy person. Everybody loved her.

She loved everybody. Danita was Sharon's firstborn, and to her mind, the girl had been blessed at birth with both beauty and brains, the drive to excel, and the talent to succeed. As a child, De Nita either wanted to take the picture or she wanted to be in the picture. She's always loved the camera. The camera was her friend. The camera was her way of expressing herself. And she would see things that probably the average person wouldn't see. Whatever it is that makes a good photographer, Danita had it.

She had a way of anticipating the telling moment and capturing its essence. It didn't matter if that was a news conference, a sporting event, or a birthday party. Sharon recalled conversations, particularly after Danita's summer fellowship with the New York Times, in which her daughter spoke about having an exciting career in journalism. Now she was within months of getting her master's in English. And lately, Danita seemed to be thinking about extending her education. She was talking about getting a Ph.D. Sharon was about halfway to Durham when her phone rang again.

This time it was the NCCU campus police. He said, Ms. Smith, where are you at? At that time, we were just on this side of Greensboro. And he said, okay. He said, well, when you get here, come to the clubhouse, not the apartment. He said, no, come to the clubhouse. That's when Sharon Smith pressed the gas pedal a little harder. As her car sped toward Durham, she half expected another call from someone

telling her to go directly to the hospital where her daughter was being treated. That call never came. It was about 10.15 that morning when Danita's best friend, Edith Kearns, got her first hint of trouble over at the campus crossings apartments. It came in a phone call from someone who lived in the apartment directly below Danita Smith. And it was like, by any chance, have you spoken to the day this morning? I said, well, no, I said, but it'll probably be in a little while. You know, she'll call or something on my break. and we'll talk like we normally do.

And they were saying it's like something going on out here, like somebody heard some strange noises early in the morning. Edith and Danita had been close since their undergrad days at NCCU. They had shared an apartment Dana's senior year. And the night before, they'd talked on the phone,

laughing and joking about money, movies, and wedding plans. And she was like, well, yeah, we're going to make an appointment soon to start looking at, like, bridesmaid dresses or you know, figure out how we're going to do this. As soon as Edith got word, there was police activity outside Danita's apartment building that morning. Edith dialed Danita's number. I want to make sure she's safe, so I was calling her phone, and she wasn't answering,

which was, you know, after I call your phone several times as a best friend, you know, somebody's going to call you back. So I was like, that's strange. So my instinct just said, call Jamir really quick, just to touch bases with him. Denina and Jermere were already the it couple on campus when Edith met Danita. And over the years, Edith had come to think of Jermere as a big brother. And so I spoke to Jemir and I'm like, have you made contact with her? But I felt like I didn't get a definite answer.

What do you mean? When I said, did you speak with her? And he didn't really give me a yes or no. He was kind of asking me, are you trying to get in contact with her? I'm like, yes. I heard there may be some concerns at the complex. So, you know, I just want to check, make sure things okay. And what Jermere say?

He was like, well, sit tight and give me a little while, and I'll try to call you back if I hear anything. What Jermere did not say was that he'd already heard from Sharon Smith, Danita's mom. And he also did not mention that at that very moment, he was on the highway headed for Durham. He just sounded a little rush like, Eda, sit tight, stay calm.

I'm sure, you know, we'll get to her. So just let me talk to her first. you go back to your work morning and we'll go from there. Well, Edith was not about to sit tight and wait, not when the well-being of her best friend was in question. So pretty much my family gets off work and they come get me and they escort me to Campus Crossings. Like Danita's mom Sharon,

Edith was directed to the Campus Crossing's clubhouse, about 100 yards from Danita's apartment. It was there that some of the most important people in Danita's life would learn the brutal, undeniable truth. When Edith Kearns entered the large, high-ceilinged clubhouse at the Campus Crossing's apartments, She saw several people standing around in conversational clusters. Most had grim faces, and a few looked as if they'd been crying. I saw my professors from my program when I graduated, and he's like, Edith, what are you doing here?

And I'm like, I'm here to kind of see what's going on. I'm like, I'm here to check on my friend, Anita, actually. Like, I've been calling her. I was like, what are you all doing here? They were like, unfortunately, she's not alive. and everything in me, you know, just went into shock, of course. I was like, are you sure? I'm like, maybe it's mistaken identity.

This can't be. And they were like, sweetheart, you know, the ID and, you know, just things to identify her. By we're there and nearby, and they said, we're sure. For a few minutes, the world stopped turning. All Edith could do was sob and gasp her breath. And then across the room, she caught sight of the one person she thought,

might need a comforting hug even more than she did. The family had not arrived there yet. Jamir was there already. How'd Jamir look? Like a blank expression. He was calm. I think he was a little concerned about me because I was just in full-blown tears by then.

And I walked over to him, and I'm just like, oh, my God, I'm so sorry. And he was just kind of quiet, and he was like, you know, it's going to be okay. calm down and I'm like, what happened? Where did this come from? I just spoke to her last night and everything sounded fine, seemed fine, and I'm just so sorry. I was like my heart is breaking right now and it's breaking for you too because this is your future wife and that was pretty much how that conversation went. Right around then is when Sharon Smith and the rest of her family

walked through the glass doors to the clubhouse and into the worst news of their lives. So they took us in a room and I told him, I said, well, it's Jemir here. And they said, yes, he's here. They said, well, do you want him in here? I said, yeah. Because I didn't know what they was getting ready to say. And so, because I'm thinking, okay, you need to say this

so I can get to the hospital. And so Jemir, they went and got him. And so that's when they explained that Danita was found and she was dead. And at that point, point, my life just changed completely. Everybody lost it, including Jemir. Jemir already knew once he got there because he's an officer.

Do you remember what Jemir said? Jemir didn't say anything. Jemir cried. We all cried, but he cried. He didn't really say a whole lot. Investigators weren't saying much either. Even though a bullet hole had been found in the back of Danita's skull earlier in the day.

Police did not tell the family they suspected homicide. As far as family and friends gathered at the clubhouse were concerned, Danita Smith's death had been the result of a bad fall. Detective Pate was still thinking about Danita's uncooperative roommate when a veteran sergeant in plainclothes walked up and told him there was someone he needed to interview. Sergeant Cates told me that Michael Hedgepeth was the maintenance supervisor, and he had a description of a person that left the area that day and was near the sound.

So obviously, I'm going to speak to that person. The detective found Michael Hedgepeth at the apartment complex office. He told the detective that sometime between 8 and 8.30 that morning, he'd been outside smoking a cigarette, when he heard a loud bang coming from the direction of Building 600. When he heard the sound, he looked to the left. And he saw a black female, about 5'10, so, I mean, almost six feet grabs her eyes.

A thin building, she was walking very quickly away from the direction of the sound. Hedgbeth said he got into his black pickup and headed in that direction. And as he's driving, he encounters a female in a burgundy SUV. He stops her, and he weighs her down, and as soon as she rolls down the window, he looks and can tell. She looks distraught. So he asks her, did you hear what sounded like a gunshot? She has her hands over her mouth, and she's shaking her head, up and down, indicating yes. This woman looked frightened, or...

I think he said like she was distraught. The SUV's rear windows were tinted, so Hedgepeth said he couldn't tell if the young woman was in the vehicle alone. He did notice she was wearing some kind of greenish-colored uniform shirt with a patch on the sleeve that had some red in it. He says, wait right here. So he drives around the building to see if, you know, if there's anyone down or anything.

But he goes in the direction of building 600. Building 600 and 1100 aren't as far as part as the numbers would indicate. Hedgebeth told the detective that as he was circling around, the complex in the area where he thought the loud bang had come from, he again encountered the woman driving the Burgundy SUV. She's still sitting there with her hands over her face, and he says, you know what, just stay right here. I'm going to call to police. Time 911, where is your emergency team? This is that call to 911. This is that call to 911. It was placed at 818, nearly two

hours before Danita Smith's body was found. We're a gunshot coming from somewhere around here. You know. I don't know back was that, but you can hear it. How many shots did you hear? About like two. Do you know if anybody's injured or? No, I could do it.

You're all the same, though, if she heard too, and she's, like, upset and shaking and stuff like that, so. We'll have something out as soon as possible. All right. Thank you. Within minutes of that call, a Durham Police Department squad car had arrived at the campus crossings apartments. Although the patrol car cruised around the buildings where the maintenance man said he thought the loud bang had come from, they never drove past building 1100.

If they had, they would have seen Danita's body on the sidewalk. As for that woman in the Burgundy SUV, well, she had evaporated, like the morning do. What do you make of that? That's kind of like me there in the back of our neck stand-up. It was a tantalizing tidbit, to be sure. Unfortunately, it was nothing the detective could really follow up. After all, there had to be thousands of burgundy SUVs in the Raleigh-Durham area,

and the maintenance man had failed to get the license plate of the only one that mattered. We didn't even have a brand. It could have been anything, any year. year? Early the next morning, Jermere Stroud checked out of his hotel room and headed home to Greensboro. He hadn't been on the road long when curiosity got the better of him. Jermere called the Durham Police Department to ask if they knew the cause of Danita's death. It wasn't long before a supervisor from homicide came on the phone. Hours earlier, the coroner had made it official. Danita Smith had been cured.

killed by a bullet to the brain. The slug was too mangled to determine the kind of gun used. The coroner said it likely came from a 38-caliber handgun, fired from at least two feet away from the back of Danita's head. When that supervisor came on the line, Jermere quickly discovered. The cop had more questions than he did. Beginning with this one.

Do you know anyone that drives a Burgundy SUV? And he said, oh my God, those were his exact words. He said, oh, my God, I'm turning around now. Later in this series, the shame in his eyes was, it was there for everyone to see, everyone to see. I heard a shot. Not even a minute later, he was running down the stairs, and he was putting the gun down in his waistband. You are the suspect in this case. And so I am not sharing information with you. I will get information from you if you want to give it. But I'm not going to give you any

information. The hardest thing for me is that knowing my child and knowing that no one believes her. This podcast is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Tim Beecham is the producer. Marshall Housefeld, Brian Drew, Deb Brown, John Costor, and Billy Ray are audio editors. Kimberly Flores Gainer is associate producer. Adam Gorman is co-executive producer. Paul Ryan is executive producer. And Liz Cole is senior executive producer.

From NBC News Audio, sound mixing by Rich Cutler. Bryson Barnes is head of audio production. Thank you.