Every Town - Where Did He Go? The UNSETTLING Story Of Israel Ray Smith Who Vanished Without A Trace

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

Israel Smith disappeared on March 10th of 08 without a trace at all…it was very strange for everyone in the community to say the least. To this day no hard evidence has been discovered to point to where he went or what happened to him…..But of course anyone close to the case has their theory and those vary greatly. No matter which one you pick,  none of them make a whole lot of sense AND at the end of the day they are just theories. 👀 Watch This Episode On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scarymysteries 🎧 Our Other Podcast Scary Mysteries: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZooEZMoZ421WdsOVJhVkT 💀 Exclusive Videos, Podcasts & Perks: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries  👁 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg 👁 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald 👁 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial 🗣 Business Inquiries, questions and comments hit us up at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love true crime, grab your favorite mug and pour yourself a dose of creepy true crime every single morning with a morning cup of murder. This short daily show is the perfect podcast to incorporate into your morning routine because in less than 15 minutes, you'll hear about a true crime that took place on a day's date in history. Each day's dark history lesson will kickstart your morning with intriguing tales of murder, abduction, serial killers, cults, and everything in between. With over 20 million downloads, Morning Cup of Murder has something for every true crime lover. One listener describes the show as a small package with a powerful punch of crime.

Another writes that the show is an absolute delight in the morning. Support yourself a piping hot cup of murder every single morning with Morning Cup of Murder. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Everytown has a dark side. In 2008, Israel Ray Smith was a regular 28-year-old guy living in the town of Whiteville in Virginia, the same place he was born and raised and lived in his entire life. Whiteville is a town with a population hovering around 9,000. It's a quiet place, which is how most of the residents there like it.

Tends to attract a decent amount of retirees for this exact reason. If you had to pick what it was best known for, I guess, you could say it was the fact as the birthplace of Edith Bowling Wilson, who, if you weren't aware, was the second wife of President Woodrow Wilson. The point being, there's not a whole lot of activity going on here, which is why when Smith disappeared on March 10th of 2008

without a trace at all, it was very strange for everyone in the community to say the least. And to this day, no hard evidence has been discovered to point to where he went or what happened to him. But of course, anyone close to the case has their theories, and they vary greatly. No matter which one you pick, none of them make a whole lot of sense. And at the end of the day, they are just theories.

Hey guys, it's Andrew. Thanks so much for tuning into this week's episode of Everytown. The disappearance of Israel Smith is a very strange case. It's when you don't see all that often, because the more you dig into it, the weirder the whole thing becomes. And so, like everyone else who has heard the story of what happened in this young man, you need to draw your own conclusions. So, let's head over to Whitefield down in Virginia and see if we can't piece together

what happened in the mysterious disappearance of Israel Smith. Smith really was just a normal guy living in small town America. His life was straightforward and some might even call it boring, but in a good way. He was devoted to his family and grew up with loving parents, and he had a great relationship with his brother Daniel. The family all lived there in town. They had their own places, but they'd get together often. Smith talked to his mom, Debbie, several times a week, if not daily, just because they were close and were friends. He had a son with an ex-girlfriend, seven-year-old Isaiah, who lived with his mother in a town nearby, and he meant the world to Smith.

He visited his little boy every chance he got and they had a great relationship and there was no ill-will between the exes. Things just sometimes don't work out. Debbie described her son as being caring and fiercely devoted to those he loved and that's who he was. A responsible dad just making his way through the world. About six months prior to his disappearance, he had gotten a full-time job at a local radio shack that he really enjoyed. He liked gaming and electronics, so it was a good place for him to be. It was a solid fit, and his boss, Charles May, really appreciated having him as an employee. Smith was a reliable hard worker and good communicator.

If ever, he was later sick, which wasn't often, he'd call ahead and always let him know. March 10th of 08 was a Monday. Charles and Smith worked the day where nothing strange or eventful occurred. This business as usual. and when the working day was done at around 8 p.m., they locked up shop, and Smith told Charles that he'd see him tomorrow and to have a good night. After work, Smith drove over to his brother's place to hang out for a bit before heading home, and both Charles and Daniel said that that day,

Smith was his normal, happy self. But something happened between then and the following day that has everyone speculating. The following day on Tuesday, March 11th, Smith didn't report, to his shift at Radio Shack. Only this time was different because he never called to tell Charles why he couldn't make it. And ever once had he done this, just no show without an explanation. It was completely out of character and something that Charles thought was strange. Over the course of the day, he tried to reach Smith, but each call just went to voicemail.

At the same time, his mother Debbie also couldn't reach her son. Again, this was a little bit of a red flag. She hadn't heard from him, and so a little later in the day she stopped by his apartment on East Fulton Street. Smith's Greenford Explorer was parked in his usual spot, so she figured he was at home. However, when she knocked on his door, there was no answer. Before she left, she jotted down on a sticky note to give her a call and slapped it on his door. The following day, when Debbie still hadn't heard from him, she went by his place again. His SUV was still there, as was her sticky note on the door.

She tried to open it, but it was locked, and the concern started to grow. But she didn't think to check work. She didn't know his exact schedule and vice versa. Charles didn't think to call Smith's family. Not that he even could if he wanted to. He didn't have their numbers. But both of them had a bad feeling growing inside. Yet it was still too early to reach out to authorities.

There were a lot of possible explanations. Maybe his phone was broke, maybe he was out on a walk, and Debbie was just missing him due to bad timing. At the end of the day, it hadn't even been two days since he was hanging at his brother's place on a Monday night, and Smith was a grown man. But on the third day, there's still no word from him. Still not showing up for work, not reaching out to his mother and not having been heard from by his ex or his son. reality that something bad may have happened started to set in. That March 13th was also a bit different than any regular day,

because this was his brother Daniel's birthday. There was a get-together at his house with the family. Something Smith would never have missed. At the party, Daniel mentioned to his mom that something must be wrong, and so Debbie, him and his girlfriend, headed over to Smith's apartment. They again knocked on his door, but still no answer. and they asked around to a couple of neighbors if they had seen them, but none of them had, at least not for a few days.

By the end of that day, back over at Radio Shack, Charles had Smith's paycheck sitting on his desk. It was something he knew he needed and had always picked up regularly as soon as it was ready. And normally he was there at work to get it, but once again, he never showed up. Charles called the police at that point and let them know the situation, what was happening, The following day, officers were dispatched his apartment to do a welfare check, and there, on the front door, they saw a couple of sticky notes that Debbie had left behind. They also saw that the door was open slightly, something Debbie says she didn't notice on the three occasions she went to check on him. And so, they opened up and went inside. Now, you have to understand something about Smith,

and that is that he had a little case of OCD when it came to keeping things tidy and organized. He'd been like that his whole life. Even as a kid, it was just the way he liked to do things. His books and music were all organized and neatly displayed. Everything in his world had a place had belonged, and he never deviated from that. If he took something out, he put it back when he was done. Smith wasn't the type of person who misplaced things or lost his wallet or keys ever. He did things a certain way to ensure that his life was in order. He always locked his front. He always locked his front door, for example. Weather coming or going.

It didn't matter. It got locked. In the same sense, he locked his car doors, no matter where he was. Even if he was just stopping by his mom's house out in the middle of nowhere for a short visit, he'd lock his SUV. Maybe you can relate to that sort of thing. I know I can, at least with the car doors.

When I get out, I always click the lock button on my key fob multiple times, and I look back to make sure the side mirrors are folded in, indicating that, yes, in fact, the car is locked. I think you're either the type to do that sort of thing, or you don't. There's no real in between. So, when the police went into his place, while the apartment was neat overall, it wasn't like somebody had ransacked it,

there were definitely a few things that stood out as being uncharacteristic of the way Israel lived. For starters, that front door being open wasn't something he'd do, and even if he had left it unlocked, the fact that it was slightly open was on. The police did a sweep of the rooms thinking maybe there was a medical emergency, but there was no sign of Smith anywhere. They noted there were several lights on, which again, if you knew Smith, he shut them all off if he were ever leaving. His television was still on too.

The game controller ran from the console to the couch, and this would have been a big no-no for Smith as well. In a way, he'd leave his TV on, and the controllers were always put away when he was done gaming. Essentially, they thought it looked like someone was home, or at least had just been there moments ago. Outside, they looked in his car where they found the doors not just unlocked, but the car keys sitting right there on the console. Shortly after the police left, Debbie went by his apartment for one more look, and that was the first time it really hit her that Smith's SUV hadn't actually move from its spot. It had just been there for several days. Up until that point, she thought she was just missing, seeing her son during his day-to-day comings and goings, but this realization

made her stomach drop. She called the police who informed her they had actually already been there because Charles had reached out. They shared the info from their search with her, and that's when Debbie knew something bad had definitely happened. She got on the phone with the man who would become the lead detective in the case, Gary Davenport, and emphasized how none of that sounded like the son she knew. The lights, the door, the TV, the keys in the unlocked car. This is not something Smith would have done willingly. Davenport probed her, asking if there was a possibility that maybe he left on his own accord. Maybe there was something in his life he didn't want to deal with or was in trouble in some way, so he decided to disappear. But Debbie explained that,

absolutely not, and in fact it was quite the contrary. He had every reason to stay. His entire family was right there in town, and above all else, so was his son Isaiah. He adored his little boy, so there was no way he'd abandon him. On top of that, Smith had also been looking forward to some upcoming family events, his brother's birthday being one of them, which he missed. He'd also made no indications of being unhappy in his life or wanting to leave his situation. Dabbinport talked around with other friends and family to make sure her outlook wasn't skewed just because she was his mother. It's a tough thing to admit that maybe your son wasn't the happy-go-lucky guy you thought he was, and that maybe things weren't all that great for him.

But all he was told was much of the same thing Debbie said. And so within a week, a full-scale missing persons investigation was underway, headed by the sheriff's office with Davenport leading the way. One of the most perplexing aspects of Smith's case was the complete lack of hard evidence pointing to what may have happened to him. At the apartment, there were no signs of foul play. His personal belongings, including his wallet, with cash and keys, were found undisturbed. His SUV had no disturbances either, and in fact there was a neatly folded stack of laundry in the passenger seat still sitting there. In the days and weeks following Smith's disappearance, the small community of Whitefield,

rallied together, organizing search parties and distributing flyers in the hopes of finding any information that could lead to his whereabouts. The local media covered the story extensively. This was big news and a strange case for a town like that. They appealed to the public to reach out with any tips or sightings. Everyone wanted to help in any way they could, of course. The widespread attention the case received then led to several reported sightings of Smith and tips poured in, which were all followed up on, but would ultimately lead the investigation nowhere. For example, a local gas station cashier called in to say that on the weekend that followed his disappearance, Smith had come into the store, after which they watched him leave in his

green Ford Explorer. But his Ford was never moved from that parking spot, as noted by Debbie. Some more digging into that sighting produced another witness, who also claimed to have seen him at the gas station around the same time, only they said he left accompanied by another man. And neither of those sightings could be verified in any sort of official way. And they were conflicting reports anyway, so they ended up not helping much. I mean, had they actually seen them, or were they following the news and thought they saw them? Two very different things, but the human mind can play tricks on us. There were actually so many sightings, sometimes even in a lot.

other states that agencies, including the FBI and U.S. Marshal's Service, had to be called in to assist in following up on them all. Serious leads had people being brought in an interview. Some would even end up taking polygraph tests. For some time, there was one thing they thought might lead to something, and really, it was the only slightest inkling that maybe Smith's life wasn't as innocent and boring as it may have appeared. At the time, Smith had been seeing a woman for a short while. they were casually dating, and he told his mother he was thinking about breaking things off with her. The reason being is that a man who had recently been released from jail was going to be staying with this girl and her mom at her mom's house, and he didn't like that at all. So the thinking was maybe she was involved, or this ex-conn in some sort of way, but that angle was followed up diligently by the FBI,

and there was nothing there to connect them to Smith's case in any tangible way. As time passed by, every once in a while a John Doe might pop up, bones found in the woods and that sort of thing. Those were always looked into to see if they belonged to Smith, but they never did. And so, McKay slowly sort of died. All the tangible things the authorities could sort through they did. Smith's cell phone was never used again after he vanished, and back then they couldn't exactly pinpoint the location it was last used. His bank accounts went left untouched.

Periodically, they'd check to see if his social security number was being used, like if he had gotten a job somewhere else, but it never was. There's really only three logical explanations as to what could have happened. He either chose to move on to start a new life and did it flawlessly. Or he met some type of accident that somehow had his body not being discovered, or someone took him and killed him. Years after the case first started, Davenport went on to be promoted to deputy chief at his station. He still works there today and keeps this case alive.

I'll look over the evidence from time to time hoping he might catch something he missed or see something new like his Social Security popping up in Mexico, but so far that hasn't happened. He plans to retire soon, but hopes to get some resolution in the case before he's calls it quits for good. In all likelihood, and both Davenport and Debbie believed this to be the sad truth. It appears that Smith is, for one reason or another, dead. But again, if it were an accident, what could it have been and where could it have taken place that his body hasn't been found yet? He didn't have a world traveler in Smith. This guy lived, worked, and visited his family all within a few miles. He didn't crash his car. It didn't happen at his home. He didn't happen at his

home, so, I mean what? He'd just wander out deep into the woods that day? And if he were abducted and murdered, what are the chances of that happening without any evidence or anyone seeing anything? I mean, if that's the case, it appears like Smith made it home that night after he left his brothers, meaning someone would have had to taken him from his apartment. If that's the case, the robbery wasn't the motive, which means they were only looking to kill him. So the murderer approaches, Smith opens the door with a gun or something pointed to his face,

and he walks out, gets into another vehicle never to be seen again. I guess that's possible because anything is, but after covering so many stories on killers, even the most random ones don't usually shake out like that. Davenport has gone through all the scenarios over and over in his head, as have many people who have worked on the case. as he said himself. Then again, he could be down in Miami sipping a cocktail listening to Jimmy Buffett

for all we know. Perhaps he did that or chose to leave this earth entirely. And if he did, he had everyone that knew him really convinced that he was an entirely different person. Regardless of what actually happened, there's no doubt this is a very strange mystery that more than anything leaves a big hole in his family's life.

Debbie remembered when her grandson's eighth birthday was coming up, and she herself was struggling to understand what had happened to Smith, and obviously never got any answers. And she had to face Isaiah, who undoubtedly would be asking where dad was, and she had no way to give him a straight answer. Israel's case still remains open to this day, so if you have any information, anything at all, you're urged to contact the authorities down in Whiteville. hopefully some sort of answer no matter what it is to be found someday soon so that's it for this week's episode of every town i hope you guys enjoyed it and learned a thing or two thanks for tuning in today

remember to come back next week for another episode filled with scary strange and mysterious stories as you never know maybe your town will be next