Going West: True Crime - Judy Smith // 88

Episode Date: September 30, 2020

In 1997, a Boston woman headed to Philadelphia with her husband for his business trip. But during this trip, she went sight-seeing and never returned. Investigators began looking into those who were c...lose to her to see if they had done anything to do. But meanwhile, they were getting tips regarding multiple possible sightings of her- making it unclear if she was dead or alive. This is the murder Judy Smith. BONUS EPISODES: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES: http://strangeco.blogspot.com/2019/01/judy-smiths-final-destination-bizarre.html https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/162160481/judith-lois-smith https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Judith_Smith https://medium.com/true-crime-by-cat-leigh/missing-woman-found-dead-600-miles-away-7b6d1c2cc455 https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/41q8g7/how_did_judy_smith_go_missing_from_philadelphia/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 What is going on true crime fans, I'm your host Heath and I'm your other host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Thank you guys so much for tuning in today. Our new fall merch line is officially out. We have sweatshirts, we have a beanie, and we have a phone case. We've got some really great items, so if you wanna go check those out,
Starting point is 00:00:33 head over to goingwestpod.com and click the shop tab. Yeah, there's some really great sweatshirts I even included a child's pullover so that your kids can wrap going west because who doesn't want that. And yeah, there's just some great new march, so go check it out because it is officially out. Also, one more quick thing before we get started. The new show, The Dark Parts, is going to be released in a couple days on October 1st. I just want you guys to, uh, I just wanted to give you guys a heads
Starting point is 00:01:03 up because we're really excited about it. We hope that you guys are too. So let's get spooky. Yeah, check that out. The dark part. It's going to be out everywhere that you listen to podcasts. Alright, guys. This is episode 88 of Going West. So let's get into it. In 1997, a Boston woman headed to Philadelphia with her husband for his business trip.
Starting point is 00:01:41 But during this trip, she went sightseeing and never returned. Investigators began looking into those who were close to her to see if they had done anything to her. But meanwhile, they were getting tips regarding multiple possible sightings of her, making it unclear if she was dead or alive, months later, everything changed. This is the murder of Judy Smith. June 8, 2015 Judith, who went by Judy, Eldridge was born on December 15, 1946 to parents Lois and Webster Eldridge in Hyannis, Massachusetts, which is a coastal village in the Cape Cod Peninsula.
Starting point is 00:02:46 Judy grew up with a couple brothers in a working-class family, so she had a very good work ethic from the start. But after she graduated high school, she went straight into marriage, and this didn't last long at all. There were both 18, and he was facing the possibility of being drafted into the Vietnam War, so he actually fled to Sweden to avoid this from happening, thus breaking off their marriage. Soon after this failed relationship in the mid-1960s, Judy Metaman named Charles Bradford who worked at a race track, and they went on to get married and have two children together, one son and one daughter. While the children were still young, Judy and Charles decided that things weren't really working
Starting point is 00:03:31 out between them, so they divorced, and Judy was left to care for the children alone, and she was jobless. But luckily, as I said, she had great work ethic, and not only that, but she had a very caring disposition, so she decided to work towards becoming a nurse. Shout out to all the nurses out there. Thank you. She put herself through nursing school while she was raising her two young kids. After the divorce, she had been put on welfare so the government was giving her money to help raise her kids until she could get a job.
Starting point is 00:04:04 But after nursing school, she was able to get herself out of welfare by working really hard and becoming a nurse for real. She wasn't afraid of the challenge, and she conquered and became a huge success and a great example for her kids. She was even able to take them on vacations once to Europe and once to Thailand, along with other spots around the US. Soon enough, in the mid-1980s, when Judy was around 40 years old, she became an at-home care nurse for a very ill man in Boston, Massachusetts. And funny enough, this is how she actually met her to-be third husband. Since Judy cared for this man almost every single day, she eventually met his son, Jeff
Starting point is 00:04:45 Riesmith, who was a very successful local lawyer, who had one teenager of his own, and he was also divorced. Judy and Jeff became smitten with each other, and Jeff loved how kind and compassionate Judy was, especially to his own father, and then they began dating. Things became serious between them, but they waited a whole 10 years to get married, since Judy already had two failed marriages under her belt. She just wanted to make sure that she and Jeff were a great pair before getting hitched. In November 1996, when Judy was almost 50 years old, she and Jeff got married, and by this
Starting point is 00:05:23 time, their separate kids were in their 20s and living on their own, meaning it was just Jeff and Judy ready to start their lives together as husband and wife in Jeff's Boston home. Five months later, on April 9, 1997, Jeff had a business conference in Philadelphia. One of the organizations that Jeff represented was hosting an event, which was the Northeast Pharmaceutical Conference, and Judy decided to go with him. They had friends in the neighboring state of New Jersey,
Starting point is 00:05:55 so they figured that Jeff would attend the conference while Judy explored the city, and then they'd had over to visit the friends afterwards. But when they arrived at the Logan International Airport in Boston to get on their plane to Philly, Judy realized that she had forgotten her driver's license. The conference began later that afternoon, so he had to get on this flight and, unfortunately, leave Judy behind. It had recently become the law in the US that traveling with identification was mandatory,
Starting point is 00:06:28 so she wouldn't be able to board the plane without her ID. They decided that she would go home without him and get her license and then get a later flight and just meet him in Philly. So Judy hops on a bus and heads back to their home to fetch her ID. She hung out at the house for a little while since her new flight wasn't until 7.30 pm, but as the afternoon passed, she got back on a bus and headed for the Boston Airport for the second time that day. When Judy landed in Philadelphia, she got into a taxi and headed to the Double Tree Hotel at 10 pm, which is where the conference was being held
Starting point is 00:07:05 and also where they were staying. As an apology for forgetting her ID, she greeted Jeff with flowers when she arrived, and then they went back to their room together where they ordered pizza through room service, and they talked about what their plans were for the following day. Since this was Judy's first time in Philly, she wanted to go sightseeing specifically to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell while Jeff would be at the conference. Jeff thought this was a great idea and knew that Judy would do well out there on her own since she had traveled a lot in her day and she was a pretty street smart person.
Starting point is 00:07:40 The following morning on Thursday, April 10, 1997, Jeff went downstairs to get breakfast around 7.30 a.m. in the hotel's restaurant. But Judy didn't accompany him because she was still asleep. But when he got back an hour later, Judy was awake and getting into the shower to start her day. They kind of joked around and laughed and just talked and Jeff recommended that she have breakfast downstairs before going outside seeing because what he had was delicious. With that, Jeff went back downstairs and attended the conference where he would be the rest
Starting point is 00:08:16 of the day. But before he left, Judy had mentioned to him that she planned to take the flash bus, which was perfect for tourists since it's a form of quick transportation around Philly, that stops every 15 minutes and goes to all the best historic sites. They also agreed to meet back at the hotel before 5.30 pm, so they could attend a cocktail party together at 6 pm, and then meet up with their new Jersey friends for dinner. Jeff got back to the room around 5pm and waited for a bit, but Judy never showed. So after 5.30, he decided to go downstairs wondering if Judy got the times mixed up and
Starting point is 00:08:57 was waiting for him at the cocktail party. But when he got there, he looked around for Judy and didn't see her anywhere. At this point, he didn't understand where she would be and tried not to worry. Instead, he just went back and forth from the room to the party a couple times, hoping he would cross paths with her. But after around 45 minutes with Judy absolutely nowhere to be found, he feared that something had happened to her while she was outside seeing. And he asked the hotel's concierge to call all the local hospitals for her and no one by the name Judy Smith had been checked into any of them.
Starting point is 00:09:34 Then Jeff called his daughter as well as Judy's kids to see if anyone had heard from her and no one had. And that's when Jeff got into a taxi and went to the tourist spots that Judy had been interested in seeing that day, hoping that he'd find her and that she had just lost track of time. The sun set that night between 7.30 and 8 pm, so it was almost dark out by the time he was looking for her, so it didn't make any sense to him why she would still be out so late.
Starting point is 00:10:03 After going all around the city with no luck, he finally called police. But the Philadelphia police told him that he had to wait 24 hours to report her missing, so he should call back in the morning. Jeff was feeling really hopeless at this point since he had to wait to report her missing. So he talked about the situation with his fellow colleagues and even the mayor of Philly, who happened to be at this conference. The night went on and Judy never returned to the room, not even by the next morning. None of their new Jersey friends had heard from or seen her, so that was off the table as
Starting point is 00:10:38 well. And that morning, which was Friday, April 11th, Jeff sped over to the police station and reported his wife, Judy missing. And they were suddenly super on top of it. And this is probably because the mayor had actually gotten involved and wanted them to find Judy. Police started by asking hotel employees if they had seen Judy the previous morning before she went sightseeing. One person who worked at the double tree stated that Judy had asked him where she could catch the flash bus, which was in the early afternoon. Judy Smith had even been featured in the local paper in hopes of getting some witness sightings, and someone reached out saying that they had seen her exiting a bus station about 10 minutes
Starting point is 00:11:23 away from the double tree hotel. There wasn't really anything at this particular stop, so police assumed that she had likely gotten off to use the restroom or to ask for directions. But Chinatown was nearby, and that's somewhere that she did have interest in visiting, so that was a possible destination as well. Another person reached out and said they believed to have seen Judy that day near the double tree around 3 p.m., and she was acting disoriented. But when police went to that spot,
Starting point is 00:11:55 they found a homeless woman who looked strangely similar to Judy, and she was acting erratically. So they concluded that this was likely the woman that the witness had seen. And I'd be willing to bet that that's 100% the woman that the witness had saw. Oh definitely. And we posted photos on our social media if you want to go take a look at Judy. She's just kind of like average looking. She doesn't have any really standout features. So it's kind of hard when witnesses are coming forward saying they saw her because she kind of just looks like a normal person. So definitely it
Starting point is 00:12:29 makes this a tougher investigation. Investigators continued searching for clues while Jeff and family passed out missing person flyers around Philadelphia. Dozens of witness sightings came in over the next few days, but it didn't bring police any closer to finding out what happened to her. Jeff even hired a private investigator, so he had all the help that he could get. And this private investigator found that an employee at a new Jersey mall that's only 20 minutes away from Philadelphia had seen a woman that matched Judy's description, acting very strangely in the store. She said that
Starting point is 00:13:06 she was shopping for a dress for her daughter and then tried to get a random young woman to leave with her, thinking she was her daughter. The woman was even wearing a red backpack, just like Judy had been the day she went sightseeing. When the incident was described to Judy's family, they were incredibly confused, but felt this could have been her. And Judy didn't have any kind of mental health history, so she wasn't known to act erratically or disoriented at any times, so this aspect really just didn't make sense. But since the sighting was so close, and both an employee and a customer confirmed that
Starting point is 00:13:43 it was likely Judy after seeing her photo. Her family felt like it kind of had to be her. And the sightings kept pouring in over the next few months, and one woman even reported seeing her at a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Police felt that since she was an adult and there had been supposed sightings of her, she was probably fine and left on her own free will. They especially thought this after they spoke with Judy's friends. Some of them said that they wouldn't have been surprised if Judy had left to have time
Starting point is 00:14:16 alone or figure herself out since she apparently wasn't very happy in her marriage. She loved Jeff and had been with him for over 10 years, but she really didn't like being married. She only got married because Jeff and his mom wanted it to happen. Also, Jeff presented Judy with a prenup before their wedding, and this kind of turned Judy off a little bit because she didn't like the idea of prenups, but she signed it anyway. It seemed that overall she just wasn't super happy with how things were going, and since becoming married, Jeff started working less because he was making his transition
Starting point is 00:14:55 from his private practice law job to start teaching. So this meant that he was home a lot more, and she felt like he had suddenly become very needy, which was also off-putting. But still, I mean, would she really just leave in the middle of a trip because she felt her husband was too needy? And I don't think so. Nah, I don't think so either. There was also another theory that investigators had that they felt could definitely be a
Starting point is 00:15:22 possibility. And that theory involved a Jeff killing Judy and Boston. They believed that it was possible that Judy never even got on the plane to Philadelphia, at all. And the whole story about her for getting her idea at home was just something that Jeff said to give a reason why Judy wouldn't have come along with him. As the exercise this idea and asked the people at the conference if they had seen Judy, everyone said no. They knew what she looked like and who she was, so they would have been able to identify her by sight. But during the evening she checked in, and the day she supposedly left to go sight-seeing, she somehow went by completely unnoticed.
Starting point is 00:16:04 And police felt strongly that it was because she wasn't there to begin with. The next step in this theory that Judy never made it to Philly at all was to check the hotel room for any signs that Judy had been there. Something that stood out to investigators was the lack of feminine products. There was no makeup, no hairbrush, and she didn't have very many clothes packed. Not even any of her underwear had been worn. And this was strange considering she had supposedly taken a shower the morning that she disappeared, so no one really understood this part. But as far as the makeup and hair stuff goes, her daughter said that she often kept that stuff with her in her red backpack, which she did take that day. So that could
Starting point is 00:17:16 kind of help explain why she didn't have that stuff in the hotel. But it still all seemed a bit strange. However, some people did come forward saying that they saw her, like that person at the front desk, who remembered giving Judy a key when she arrived around 10 pm. They can't be sure that it was her, but they do believe that they had helped her that evening. Police also were able to confirm that Judy had a flight for 7.30 pm on April 9th and that the ticket was indeed
Starting point is 00:17:47 used. So ultimately, this theory that Jeff had killed Judy and that she was never in filly, this doesn't really seem possible. Also, we know that Jeff was very adamant about finding Judy. I mean, he was literally out there looking for her and all of their friends and family said that Jeff was just a really great guy who didn't have a mean bone in his body. And he absolutely loved Judy. They could never see him do anything that would hurt her. So, to me, not very likely. And again, Jeff was being super helpful with the entire investigation, even spending a ton of money on a PI to help find his wife.
Starting point is 00:18:26 We definitely don't see this kind of emotion and compassion from other husbands that we discuss on this show, but regardless, they asked Jeff if he would take a polygraph test, which he agreed to, only on the condition that the FBI would be the ones to conduct said test, and that they would help with the case. Unfortunately, there wasn't really much to go on regarding Judy's disappearance, so they couldn't get the FBI involved and they really didn't want to anyway. So in turn, Jeff wouldn't take a polygraph. He said he just really wanted the big boys to handle this because he didn't feel the local police were doing enough, but he didn't get his wish. He still really wanted to help get the word out on Judy so people could help from all over the US.
Starting point is 00:19:11 So he mailed countless missing persons flyers around the country to make sure everyone knew to look out for her, and this ended up paying off. Months went by and there was no real sign of Judy. She didn't even contact her children. So most of the people close to her were really worried and felt like even if she left on her own free will, she would have reached out by now to let everyone know that she was alive and well. Especially since Judy was such a strong and independent person, she really wasn't the type to just run off when something wasn't right. And the fact that she also had a child and independent person, she really wasn't the type to just run off when something wasn't right. And the fact that she also had a child.
Starting point is 00:19:48 I mean, you'd think that that would be a pretty big motivating factor in not just running away and disappearing. Well, exactly. She didn't contact either of her children. And yeah, they were in their 20s. So sometimes when your kids are older, some time passes before you talk, but still, you don't just leave
Starting point is 00:20:06 and not let anyone know you're gone, knowing that people are probably worrying about you. You know, like it just didn't connect. And Judy was definitely the kind of person that stood her ground and was honest about what she wanted in life. But everything changed in September of that same year, something that just confused everyone to no end.
Starting point is 00:20:27 On September 7, 1997, almost exactly five months after Judy went missing, a man and his son were hunting for deer at the Pizga National Forest in North Carolina. While they were making their way past a picnic area, they came across something wrapped in a blue blanket. As they got closer, they noticed that it was a skeleton that was only partially buried, and the skeleton had clothes on. Blue jeans, hiking boots, and insulated underwear. Most of the bones were intact,
Starting point is 00:21:01 but some had been scattered, and this was likely done by animals. The man immediately called the authorities to report it, and when they arrived, they discovered more. There were a couple of holes in the ground near the remains that were filled with various items. In one small hole was a blue backpack, filled with winter clothes, and $80 in cash. And in the other hole, had a shirt with $87 cash and a pair of sunglasses in the pocket. After an autopsy was conducted, the medical
Starting point is 00:21:33 examiner determined that the remains belonged to a white female who was either in their late 40s or their early 50s. Between the punctures on her bra and the possible jabs on her bones, they determined that she had likely died by stabbing. But a certain cause of death could not be determined and due to the state of decomposition, they also couldn't determine when the person actually died. Whoever this woman was also had extensive dental work, which would make it easy to compare dental records with people, and she also had severe arthritis in her left knee. They still didn't know who the woman was, but while they were trying to figure that out, they came across a missing person's flyer for Judy Smith, one that Jeff had mailed out.
Starting point is 00:22:21 Although Philadelphia was a 10-hour drive from the Pizga National Forest, investigators wanted to match Judy's dental records to the body that was found since Judy matched the general description, and once they compared her dental records to the remains, they matched. And let's talk about this for just one second. This is so strange to me, because I just, how did she get to North Carolina? Why was she hiking through the forest? What does this all mean? I totally feel you. We're gonna get into the details here in a second, but it's definitely a weird discovery. And the fact that they did compare the dental records for Judy,
Starting point is 00:23:01 even though she was a whole 10 hours away where she disappeared. Good thing that they did that, but it's really crazy that that this kind of worked out because she could have easily just been a Jane Doe forever. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And we see a lot of cases like that. In those cases are so sad and unfortunate because we never have answers, but at least in this case, I mean her remains are found. I have never read a case like this where the remains are found so far from where they went missing, like this is just so odd. So now that Judy's family knew she had been murdered, they wanted to know how and what the hell happened. So investigators immediately began questioning people in Asheville, North Carolina, which is a town of then 65,000 people right next to where
Starting point is 00:23:46 Pizganational Forest is. They brought her photo around and asked locals if they'd seen her, and multiple people said they had. One person in particular worked as a store clerk and remembered a specific conversation with her a few days after she had been reported missing. Of course the woman didn't know she was a missing person by the way. The woman said that Judy told her she was visiting Asheville while her husband, who was a lawyer, was at a convention in Philadelphia. Others specifically remembered meeting a woman who looked just like the one in the photo they were shown, whose name was Judy and who was visiting from Boston.
Starting point is 00:24:26 Even a hotel clerk believed that Judy had stayed there from April 10th to April 12th, and April 10th was the day that she went sightseeing, but they weren't able to prove this. And unlike what the reports from people in Philadelphia said, everyone in Asheville said that she was a very nice and normal person who was not disoriented or strange at all. And doesn't that make this so much more confusing? Because multiple people, like multiple people who worked in town, again this is not a very big town, saw her.
Starting point is 00:24:58 So this isn't just one person, this is numerous people saying the same thing. Yeah, I just don't understand, I guess, the situation. Did she go sightseeing that day and then she just decided to take off to North Carolina for... But that's the thing, it's 10 hours away. Right. It's not like it's in the same state or it's just a couple hours away. This isn't a day trip.
Starting point is 00:25:23 I just don't understand it at all. The clothes that were found on Judy's remains were different than the clothes that she had been wearing the day that she went missing. The day she disappeared, she was wearing blue jeans, a dark coat, white sneakers, and of course, her red backpack. But as we mentioned, she was found in hiking attire. And none of the items near her appeared to belong to her. So authorities felt they had to have been the killer's items. And these were Boles sunglasses. So they were men's sunglasses.
Starting point is 00:25:55 I'm not sure which style they were, but they were men's sunglasses. So that kind of tells us something. You know, these were not hers. So someone else was there, and I don't know why there would be buried random items that didn't have anything to do with this murder. Like right next to the body, it just doesn't make sense.
Starting point is 00:26:14 At this point, they had absolutely no leads. They knew it couldn't have been Jeff because he had been at the conference. And even if this had happened at some other time, they don't believe Jeff would have been able to make it up he had been at the conference. And even if this had happened at some other time, they don't believe Jeff would have been able to make it up to where Judy was found on top of the mountain because he was morbidly obese. They know Judy had to have been met with foul play, but it still was a big question of where she was met with foul play, and
Starting point is 00:26:40 did she go to North Carolina on her own? Or did someone put her there? Her credit card was never used again, so we can't use this to track her movements either, which makes this a lot harder. Part of me just doesn't know why she would travel 10 hours south to go to North Carolina when she was supposed to come back that night to go get cocktails with her husband and then dinner with their friends. Like, I would understand if there was maybe another nearby town she wanted to explore.
Starting point is 00:27:10 If she wanted to go to her, she'd get some chocolate. That's kind of close by. But a complete other state that's that far away seems like a stretch. I mean, it's only four hours closer to Philly than Boston is. So it's not like she was visiting the West Coast and decided that she wanted to go to California when she was in Oregon.
Starting point is 00:27:29 You know, it's like, this is not much closer from where you live anyway. And to not tell Jeff just seems odd. It's just hard to understand why she was in hiking clothes in North Carolina though. Like, if she had been in her normal clothes, I'd probably just think that someone abducted and attacked her in Philly and then took her to North Carolina to really
Starting point is 00:27:50 hide her body. But then why was she wearing hiking clothes? And how is it that multiple people specifically remember talking to a woman named Judy who was from Boston in April the same month she disappeared? It's just so strange. Yeah, I initially had that thought at first that somebody probably abducted her, took her to a different state and tried to bury her there. I mean, we've seen cases like that, we've seen that happen before, but the fact that people had seen her in Asheville
Starting point is 00:28:18 and had talked to her and said that she was normal, she didn't seem disoriented or distraught or anything like that, just leads me to believe that she was normal, she didn't seem disoriented or distraught or anything like that. Just leaves me to believe that she went to North Carolina by herself, but why? I just don't understand why. Witness sightings are always really iffy with me, because I know we've also covered cases where people disappear, there's witness sightings, and then the bodies are found, and it's determined that they were dead before these witness sightings occurred.
Starting point is 00:28:45 So since she looks so average to me, it's kind of like, these people are probably wrong and it wasn't her. But the fact that this is a smallish town and multiple people specifically remember talking to a Judy from Boston, whose husband was a lawyer at a conference in Philadelphia, it just, that doesn't make sense that they would just say that if it wasn't true. Like, how many duties from Boston are gonna visit Asheville at that very time and tell multiple people? Yeah, the only way I could see that happening is if police had fed these witnesses information beforehand.
Starting point is 00:29:22 But again, I don't know why they would do that. That's a good point because I know that did happen with a couple witness sightings in Philadelphia. I remember it specifically, I read that it happened with her red backpack. How the police said, oh, was she wearing a red backpack? And they were like, yeah, she was. You know, they didn't offer that information willingly on their own. The police were the ones who said it. So then it's kind of easy to say, oh yeah, she was wearing a red backpack and it's like, what's she though? So that definitely could have happened here as well.
Starting point is 00:29:51 Yeah, that's my point exactly. It's like, you could say, oh, did she have short brown hair and they'd be like, oh yeah, yeah, totally. Did she have a tattoo on her face? Oh, I think, yeah, I'm pretty sure she had a tattoo on her face. Like, if somebody's giving you that information, you can like, remember things incorrectly. So, I'm wondering if that's the case in Asheville. And if she really was abducted, somebody put different clothes on her and then just dumped her body. Because if she had like a spare pair of clothes in her backpack within a few days or whatever she could have changed, that's easy to, that's easy to think think. Also all these Asheville witness sightings are coming in
Starting point is 00:30:28 five months after the fact. So that doesn't help with people's memories too. I wish I know exactly what they said to investigators and if there was any information fed to them first, but I have no idea. So I do feel like maybe she wasn't happy and she left to North Carolina thinking she would explain later and then she was met with foul play while on a hike, but I just still don't get why she wouldn't even tell her kids where she was going. And like I said, even though they're in their mid-twenties, she just left randomly while on a trip specifically to Pennsylvania and then just dips out and goes to North Carolina. Like, I just don't understand that. Yeah, I don't know why you would do that. It seems more likely that you would want to disappear
Starting point is 00:31:12 from home rather than like disappear while you're on a trip. But, I mean, what do I know? I mean, this is all just speculation, and this is what we do on this show because there's not a lot of information regarding her disappearance. We like to talk about it and we obviously like to talk to you guys about it and we really want to know what you guys think. Yeah, we have a
Starting point is 00:31:32 Facebook discussion group by the way it's called Going West discussion group. So type that into your Facebook search bar and join and then you guys can let us know what you think about this case. But yeah, this is just so confusing and I know she was apparently really excited about exploring Philadelphia. She had never been before and she had all these places that she wanted to go. So to me, it just does not make sense how she just randomly decided to drive 10 hours away or travel 10 hours by car. And there's no proof of her renting a car, getting getting on a plane getting on a bus. There's no proof
Starting point is 00:32:07 Right exactly. So how did she get there and I don't know it just seems like something like that like an abduction or something like that could have Very well happened. I mean people get abducted all the time. I mean it just happens and We previously did an episode on the National Forest Serial Killer who was in this very area, but he was active from 2005 to 2008, so a whole 10 years later. He was in the neighboring state of Georgia at this time though. He had just gotten out of prison in 1997 and got a job for an insulated wall systems company, so it seems unlikely that he was loitering in the Asheville area at this time that he was supposedly getting his life sorted while he was in Georgia.
Starting point is 00:32:50 And in 1997, the National Forest Serial Killer wasn't a thing yet, and they didn't know who he was until about 2008, which was a man named Gary Hilton. So this theory didn't come into play until much later. But with all this information, they couldn't really make much sense of it or connect what happened to Judy Smith to Gary Hilton. But like we always say, it's a possibility. Since Judy's wedding ring and all that cash was found at the scene, police ruled out that Judy's death was a robbery gone wrong. Judy Smith had ended up 600 miles, or
Starting point is 00:33:27 965 kilometers, away from Philadelphia. And again, there's no evidence of her taking a plane, bus, rental car, or train to North Carolina. Judy had never expressed to anyone in her family or her friends regarding a desire to visit the Pizganational Forest or North Carolina at all. Judy's husband, Jeff Smith, passed away in 2005. So just seven years after Judy was killed. And it's more than likely that he died having no idea what really happened to his wife. If you know anything about what happened to Judy Smith, please contact the Philadelphia
Starting point is 00:34:05 Police Department's anonymous tip line at 215-686-8477. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening and next week we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. These kind of cases are always really tragic because something horrible happened to this poor woman and her kids are just wondering where their mom is. So again, if anyone has any information, please call that tip line. Thank you so much to everybody who gave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts this week.
Starting point is 00:34:46 It really helps us get more noticed and it just really helps us in general and we love reading your reviews. So thank you very much. Again, we got some really awesome reviews but some of you guys didn't leave your name in your location so make sure if you do leave us a review and you want to shout out in the show, leave your name and your location. Thank you so much to Bobby and Brooklyn, New York. Thank you to Michelle in Henderson, Nevada, and Jenna in Silverdale, Washington. Thank you so much to Rachel in Leland, Illinois, Tracy in Philadelphia, and Big Things to Liza
Starting point is 00:35:19 in Tallahassee, Florida. Thank you so much to Amy and Chicago, Noel in Washington, and thank you to my fellow Daphne and Mississippi. Big thanks going out to Alaina in Upland, California, Shawna in Boston, Massachusetts, and Andrea were not sure where you're from, but you left us a really awesome long review, and we thought it was funny, we loved it. Yeah, thank you, Andrea. Or Andrea, not sure. Thank you so much to Monica and Denver, Colorado. Thank you to Terry and Sanders,
Starting point is 00:35:50 Ville, Georgia, and Lash Benotles. Thank you so much to Brooke in Gresham, Oregon. And of course, now we have to give things to the people who have joined our Patreon community. If you guys want some bonus episodes of going west, head over to our Patreon patreon.com slash Going west podcast and just hit the subscribe button. Thank you so much to Kaylee, Nancy, Kate, Malena, Rachel, and thank you to Katarina. Big thanks going out to Emily, Ebbj, I think that's not sure. It's eBj
Starting point is 00:36:23 I don't know, But thank you so much. Connie, Brooke, Lindsay and Zach. Thank you so much to Christy, Jane, Rick, Emily, Janelle, Vanessa and Mackenzie. Big thanks going out to Courtney, Lynn, Shanna, Jackie, Melissa, and Kelly. And last but not least, thank you so much to Katie, Kendra, Catherine, Laura, Caitlin, and Destiny. We really love you guys, thank you so much. Yes, we appreciate you guys joining the Patreon community. We have another bonus episode coming out for you guys,
Starting point is 00:36:59 actually, tomorrow. Stay tuned for that, it's gonna be a crazy one. So if you wanna join and get some bonus episodes, remember again patreon.com slash going west podcast. And remember we have some new merch out for you guys right now, so if you want to check it out, head over to goingwestpod.com and click the shop tab. And last but not least, the last thing I want to say is also make sure you check out the dark parts, support us over there. If you're into spooky things in Halloween it's gonna be so much fucking fun we're loving it we're loving creating that show so check it out
Starting point is 00:37:32 and leave us a review all right guys so for everybody out there in the world cheer you and don't be a stranger you

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