Going West: True Crime - Larry Gene Bell // 122

Episode Date: May 26, 2021

In the early summer of 1986, two young blonde girls went missing in the state of South Carolina without a trace. Until a series of cryptic phone calls led investigators to their bodies. A serial killer was on the loose and a letter written by one of the victims to her own family held the key to his capture. This is the story of Shari Faye Smith and Debra May Helmick, and the crimes of Larry Gene Bell. *BONUS EPISODES* patreon.com/goingwestpodcast *CASE SOURCES* https://murderpedia.org/male.B/b1/bell-larry-gene.htm https://apnews.com/article/04ff253e076acd1275b48da94d6bb418 https://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/andrew-dys/article12194075.html https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-4th-circuit/1307072.html Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Howdy folks, hope everyone's doing well today. We have a serial killer case for you today, which we try to do every once in a while. I personally prefer the unsolved cases just because, you know, want to get the word out, but sometimes we gotta cover a serial killer. Yeah, this one was just too interesting to not cover.

I'm sure a lot of you guys have heard of it, and a lot of you guys have not heard of it. I didn't until you told me last week, so this is a new story for me. Hopefully a new story for a lot of you guys have not heard of it. I didn't until you told me last week. So this is a new story for me, hopefully a new story for a lot of you. But before we get into today's episode, we have to let you guys know about Patreon. We just released another bonus episode, our second one of May, and it's on Suzy Lamplu,

who disappeared in London, England. So over there on our Patreon, we cover a lot of international cases. So I know a lot of you guys will, as a just and say, oh, I have a Canadian case or a French case or whatever, but we only do US based cases essentially on going west. So if you want international cases, head over to Patreon.

Yeah, we try to kind of mix it up for you guys on Patreon. And the way you spell that is P-A-T-r-e-o-n dot com slash going west podcast. So make sure you subscribe if you want some bonus episodes. Alright, I think it's time to go to South Carolina, what you think? Yeah, let's do it. Alright guys, this is episode 122 of going west. So let's get into it. [♪ music playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing In early summer of 1986, two young blonde girls went missing in the state of South Carolina without a trace. And tell a series of cryptic phone calls led investigators to their bodies. A serial killer was on the loose, and a letter written by one of the victims to her own

family held the key to his capture. This is the story of Sherry Face Smith and Debra May Helmick and the crimes of Larry Jean Bell. Sharon Faye Smith, who went by Sherry, was born on June 25, 1967, to parents Hilda and Bob Smith in Columbia, South Carolina. Sherry grew up in a close and loving family alongside her older sister Dawn and her younger brother Robert Jr. And she was described as a positive young girl who was intelligent, outgoing, and she absolutely loved to sing. The Smith family was active in their church community and Sherry and her sister Dawn

were known by many as the Smith sisters who would kind of show off their beautiful voices in church and nursing homes as well as prisons on a few occasions. Sherry was a curly-haired blonde with bright blue eyes and fair skin who often sported rosy red cheeks and an infectious smile. She also loved collecting stuffed koala bears and riding horses when her family moved to the country in Lexington, South Carolina, which was just 20 minutes east of Columbia where she grew up. Sherry attended Lexington High School where she was voted wittiest in her class, and she was also the vice president of the choir for her school's jazz band.

She was really well liked by her classmates, but also made sure to invite the outcasts that her school to sit with her at lunch. That's just who she was. She just didn't have a bad bone in her body. Dawn described her sister as, quote, an extreme extrovert. She was a life loving, vivacious, funny person. She talked and laughed loud, and was the life of the party everywhere she went. It was now late May of 1985 and Sherry, 17, was set to graduate high school in just a few days on

June 2nd. She was excited because she would be singing the National Anthem at her class's graduation, and a day later would be joining her classmates on a cruise before starting the next chapter of her life. The next few days were going to be pretty busy with family gatherings, photos and celebrations, but Sherry found time to take it easy and hang with her friends like most seniors would do before graduating. Friday, May 31, 1985 started out like any other day. The sun was shining bright and Sherry had plans to attend a pool party with her

boyfriend and high school sweetheart, Richard. She spent the day swimming and having fun with a group of friends, but at some point needed to get home, so she left the pool just before 3 pm. At 3.38 pm, so about 38 minutes later, Sherry's father Bob looked out the window of his home office to see Sherry's car stopped at the bottom of the 200m, or 750 foot long dirt driveway, that led to the Smith House on Platts Springs Road. Bob realized that Sherry was probably just checking the mail, which was located at the end of the driveway close to the road and that she would be walking through the door

at any moment to greet him with a hug. So with that, Bob went back to work. But 10 minutes later, when Bob hadn't heard Sherry walk through the door, he became kinda curious. So he looked out the window once again to notice that Sherry's car was still sitting at the end of the driveway. Bob wondered what was taking Sherry so long and for some reason had a gut feeling that something may be wrong. So he jumped into his own car and drove down the driveway to investigate.

When Bob reached the end of the driveway where Sherry's car was parked, his gut feeling was confirmed. Sherry's car was still running, and the driver's side door was wide open, but Sherry was nowhere in sight. There appeared to be footprints from bare feet headed towards the family's mailbox, but there were none leading back to Sherry's car. Furthermore, there were pieces of miscellaneous mail scattered on the ground next to the mailbox. Bob knew right away that he needed to call the police because Sherry would never disappear leaving her car running like that. And on top of that, Sherry was diabetic and she needed her medication. I mean, what a weird place to disappear, you know? I mean, your car door is literally open, your car is at the bottom of your driveway,

next to your mailbox, like, it's so unusual. And Bob had actually mentioned in an interview that he thought it was possible that Sherry was going pee. Because of the fact that she was diabetic, she had to use the restroom quite often. So he thought maybe she ran across the street and into the woods to use the bathroom, but when he didn't see her over there,

he was like, this is bad. So 45 minutes later, Columbia police officers sat in the Smith's living room, writing a report for their missing teenage daughter. At first, the police brought up the scenario that Sherry had run away from home, but the Smiths knew their daughter and felt like that was just kind of a cop out to a very serious situation. Leading Sherry's mother Hilda to become very upset and shout at the officers, quote, I'm her mama, I know my child. And I'm just going to say it, if you're throwing out that scenario that she ran away when her car is literally at the bottom of the driveway still running in

the door is wide open, you're stupid. Yeah, I mean, that's like the most clear abduction, like sign of abduction I've ever heard. So Sherry Sister Dawn was away at college because she was a few years older than Sherry, and when she heard the news that her sister had gone missing, she immediately came home to be with her family and help in any way she could. When Sherry was last seen, she was wearing white-colored shorts and a yellow tank top over her bikini. Hundreds of volunteers, as well as state and local police, took to the streets to try to find Sherry Smith,

but no leads were coming in. Three days of fear and heartache went by with no information or evidence, despite the fact that law enforcement had been working tirelessly to find cherry. So, you know, luckily they did really begin to take this seriously, and they knew that something had happened to her. Exactly. But, you know, even though they were taking it seriously, they weren't getting any hits on anything.

Until the early morning hours of Monday, June 3, when the Smith family received a phone call at their home at approximately 2.30 a.m. Sherry's mother Hilda answered the phone and could hear what sounded like a man's voice, but it sounded muffled and disguised. In order to convince Hilda that he wasn't pulling a prank, he described the black and yellow polka dot bikini that Sherry had been wearing the afternoon she disappeared.

The unknown caller then told the Smith that they should expect a letter in the mail from Sherry at 2pm and at the top of the letter would be the date and time in which the letter was written. He told Hilda that Sherry was doing well and that they were watching TV together. He also said that the police were searching in the wrong area for Sherry and that police should call off the search. Then the caller hung up. I just can't even imagine. Like it's the middle of the night, this man is saying that your daughter's fine. We're watching TV, but here's what she was wearing and I have her. Yeah, I mean, I honestly can't even imagine.

But the really shitty thing here is that the day before or two days before that, sorry. Somebody had actually called the Smiths house on Saturday Which was the day after Sherry went missing saying that they knew where Sherry was and it actually ended up being a prank Oh, so they don't know what to think. They're like is this real or not? Exactly so they're worried that this person who called on Saturday could be the same person that is calling on Monday But they're not really sure. They're not sure if it's a prank or a hoax. Like, what do you do in this situation?

And unfortunately, that call wasn't being recorded, even though a trailer was set up outside the Smith family home to monitor the property. The caller also didn't ask for any ransom money, but the Smiths knew that the unknown man was telling the truth. Hildoo was able to write down the entire conversation and law enforcement was able to trace the call to a payphone located five miles outside of Lexington, but there would be no way for

them to track the caller, so by the time they arrived, he was gone. That Monday afternoon, law enforcement set up a stake around the local post office and helped sort through mail wearing gloves, thank God, in order to preserve any evidence from the letter that the caller promised would show up that day. And sure enough, at 7 a.m., the letter arrived at the post office, so Sherry's father Bob went down there to retrieve it. Because legally, he was the only one that could actually open that piece of mail. Inside the envelope were two pages from a yellow legal pad and at the top of the first page

was the heading, last will and testament and above that the letter was dated 6185 and time stamped 310 AM and this is what the letter read. I love you, Mommy, Daddy, Robert, Dawn, and Richard and everyone else and all other friends and relatives. I'll be with my father now, so please, please don't worry. Just remember my witty personality and great special times we all shared together. Please don't even let this ruin your lives. Just keep living one day at a time for Jesus. Some good will come out of this.

My thoughts will always be with you and in you. I love you so damn much. Sorry dad, I had to cuss for once. Jesus forgave me. Richard sweetie, I really did and always will love you and treasure our special moments. I ask one thing though, except Jesus as your personal savior. My family has been the greatest influence on my life. Sorry about the cruise money. Somebody please go in my place. I'm sorry if I ever disappointed you in any way. I only wanted to make you proud of me because I have always been proud of my family.

Mom, dad, Robert, and Don, there's so much I want to say I should have said before now. I love y'all. I know y'all love me and will miss me very much. But if y'all stick together like we always did, y'all can do it. Please do not become hard or upset. Everything works out for the good for those that love the Lord. Romans 8.28. All my love always. Sharon, Sherry, F. Smith. I love y'all with all my heart.

felt like your favorite, you were mine, I love you a lot. Before that quick break, Daphne read the letter that Sherry Smith had sent to her parents. The Smiths could tell that the curse of handwriting was definitely Sherry's, but at the bottom of the letter in print instead of cursive, the words, casket closed was written. There were also smiley faces and hearts lining the letter, as well as the statement, I love y'all, underlined many times, and the words, God is love. It had been two days since the letter was written, so the Smith family was holding out hope that Sherry was still alive and being held captive.

A recording device was immediately set up in the Smith's home phone line, and the police, as well as everyone else involved in the case, prayed that Sherry's sister, answered the phone, but the man wanted to speak with Hilda. The man asked Hilda if she had received the letter from Sherry and then taunted her by saying things like, do you believe me now to prove that he was the monster responsible? Hilda told him that she wasn't sure because she still hadn't heard Sherry's voice, and this was her effort to have the man prove that Sherry was still alive. The response from the caller was, you should know in two or three days. While police worked on tracing the call, they were also busy having the letter and envelope

the letter came in, examined by a forensic team, hoping that fibers, fingerprints, or distinct handwriting patterns would show up. It appeared that anything not written in cursive on the letter would have been the writing of the abductor. And you have to remember, this is the 80s, so they don't have very good technology, but they are trying. Yeah, they're doing everything they can at this point, and I do think it's really smart to have that letter examined. I think so too, and I think it's, I mean, it's really time-sensitive

because he's saying you should know in two to three days. So that's saying, maybe she's alive, but won't be in a few days from now. So we have to act now. Then, later that Monday evening, the Smiths received yet another call at 8pm this time. The man asked again if Hilda had received Sherry's letter, which again she confirmed. Hilda then asked the man if he was taking care of Sherry, and explained that she was diabetic. The man told Hilda that Sherry had been drinking about two gallons of water every few hours, and was using the bathroom frequently.

Then the conversation took a turn. The man said, this is gone too far, please forgive me, and have an ambulance waiting at your house at all times. He then told Hilda to tell investigators to stop looking in Lexington County, because they wouldn't find Sherry there, but to look in Saluda County. Then just before hanging up the phone, the unknown caller said, quote, Sherry is a part of me, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Our souls are now one.

It was clear to investigators that the caller enjoyed taunting his victims' family, and most likely used this as a way to kind of control some aspect of his life because he was clearly out of control. The next day which was Tuesday, June 4th at 9.45 pm, the Smith family received another phone call, but this time when Don picked up the phone, the caller wanted to speak to her instead of Hilda. He told Don that Sherry wrote the letter at 3.10am. Then at 4.58am, he and Sherry became one soul.

Don then asked the man what he meant by this statement, and the man told her not to ask questions. He then told Don to tell Sheriff James Metz, who was leading the investigation, to call off the search for Sherry. Then he informed the family that Sherry loved and missed them and to get a good night's rest, because remember it was almost 10 pm. Just like the first call, this one had been traced to a local phone booth just eight miles away. But when the police arrived again, the caller was gone and no prints were found on the pay phone.

The next day on June 5th at noon, the man made another call, but this time, he decided to give Hill to Smith directions to a specific location. The directions were 18 miles west of the Smith family home near a Masonic lodge in Saluda County. He told Smith to bring an ambulance and that he didn't want to circus, which I'm assuming meant he didn't want to swarm of cops. Then, just before hanging up, the man said, we're waiting. God chose us."

Detectives sprung into action, loading up in vehicles and rushing to the scene. Hilda Smith begged to go with the investigators, but they told her that it was too dangerous and finally convinced her to stay home. When investigators arrived at the scene, they scoured the area around the white painted wood lodge, and their worst fears were finally confirmed. Lying on the ground behind the building was the body of 17-year-old Sherry Phase Smith. She was lying face-up with her shorts on, but her bikini top was missing. Due to the humidity and heat in the south that time of year, decomposition had already

set in, and it was clear that Sherry had been dead for at least a few days. In fact, an autopsy confirmed that Sherry was likely killed within 12 hours of her abduction. There appeared to be small pieces of duct tape stuck to her face, and chunks of her hair had been cut, most likely because it had gotten tangled in the duct tape stuck to her face, and chunks of her hair had been cut, most likely because it had gotten tangled in the duct tape. No forensic evidence was able to be obtained, and due to the advanced decomposition, it could not be determined whether or not the collar had raped Sherry. It was speculated that Sherry was suffocated to death by her head being wrapped in duct

tape. So, the FBI had now become involved and they worked hard to put together a profile of Sherry's killer. I mean, this guy was awful, like this unknown caller had instilled false hope in the Smith family, telling them that Sherry had been alive and well,

all while sadistically tolling with them. The FBI determined that the killer was an organized killer and had probably committed similar crimes in the past. It was likely that the killer was a young white man in his 20s or 30s most likely overweight and had an above average intelligence. And he was very meticulous in his crimes as well. He didn't take any chances that would get him caught.

When the FBI played back the recorded tapes from the Smith phone calls, they determined that the caller was reading his lines from a script. They realized this because sometimes the caller would mess up mid-sentence and have to go back and reread the sentence over again. Police were extremely worried that this man would let the power of killing his first victim kind of go to his head and that there would be many, many more. So super time sensitive to find this guy. Yeah, and I think it's really interesting that he was reading lines. He had this whole thing scripted.

He planned it out. I don't know if that's an OCD thing or if this was pre-planned or what have you. I mean, it seems like it was since he wrote a script for it. Yeah, but that's just so weird like why write a script. Yeah, really interesting. Even though Sherry's body had been found, the killer wasn't done yet with the Smith family. He called them the day after Sherry was found, on Thursday June 6th at 9 p.m. And he told Don that he was either going to kill himself or that he was going to turn himself into the police.

Oh my god, this guy is awful. I know, he just won't leave this family alone. So the killer then asked for forgiveness from the Smiths. When he would speak to Don, he would mix up her name with sherrys and then correct himself as well. Oh god. For example, one time he said that things had gotten out of hand, and that he only wanted to make love to Dawn.

And when she corrected him, he would say, oh yeah, sorry, I meant Sherry. Oh my god, that's scary because he's still not caught, so she's like, what if he's going to come for me next? It's the exact thought that I had. So this made the Smith's really uneasy, and they wondered if the caller was now targeting Dawn. The caller then told Dawn that he would be sending yet another letter to the Smiths, and inside would be photos of Sherry and a timeline of the events that occurred between Sherry's

abduction and her murder. Dawn told the man not to kill himself because she wanted to help him, she needed to know who killed her sister. He then told Dawn that he allowed Sherry to choose how she wanted to die, and she chose suffocation, going on to provide details of Sherry's death. He said, quote,

God was ready to accept her as an angel. And after that, the phone calls stopped. Sherry's funeral was held a few days later and would be a closed casket memorial, just like in the letter. She was then laid to rest in a Lexington cemetery, and the inscription on her headstone read, she blossomed on Earth to bloom in heaven. And you know what's really interesting about this as well is that he gave Sherry options of how she wanted to die. He said you could either be shot with a gun,

you can get a drug overdose, or you can be suffocated, and apparently, from what the killer said, she chose suffocation. I wonder if he actually gave her that choice, which is so morbid, and just like terrifying to think about, but I just, that's angering that he, that he tells them this, like, oh, that's how she wanted to die, like, fuck you, dude. Yeah, such a piece of shit. And on top of this, thinking about the strength of Sherry, the fact that she knew she was gonna die, and that she really had to be strong for not only herself, but her family.

And you can, I mean, you can hear that in the letter that she wrote. So it had been days since the Smiths had received a call from Sherry's killer. Eight days to be exact, when police got devastating news. On Friday, June 14th, a nine-year-old blonde girl named Deborah May Halmick was playing in her front yard about 24 miles away from the Smiths home in the neighboring county called Richland

when she was abducted in broad daylight. Deborah lived with her family in a mobile home park and she had been playing with her siblings who is three-year-old Woody and six-year-old Becky that day in a small patch of grass about 10 feet from the road. At exactly 407 pm, a neighbor who lived next door to Deborah saw a man driving a silver Monte Carlo, drive up to the Helmic Residence, stop, get out, and abduct Deborah. Sadly by the time the neighbor got outside, the vehicle had sped off, so they ran next

door and notified Deborah's father Sherwood that his daughter was just taken. Sherwood had heard one of his children screaming outside but simply thought it was just like the kids playing around and sadly it was not. The witness who saw the abduction said that the suspect was a white male in his 30s, 5'9' to 6', and weighing about 200 pounds. He had a trimmed beard and light-colored hair. The suspect was also wearing short white pants and a shirt that was cut off at the sleeves.

Sherwood was devastated and panicked by the news, and he then jumped into his vehicle speeding off down the road to try and catch Debra's abductor. And so he stopped in the middle of an intersection and flagged down a sheriff's deputy to inform them that a little girl had been snatched. If you lived in the area at this time, you definitely knew about the Sherry Smith case. And although police weren't sure whether or not Debra and Sherry's cases were connected, they sprung into action because this would be the second girl taken in just a few weeks.

After Debra's abduction, the police questioned Debra's three-year-old brother Woody, and he was visibly upset, stating that when Debra was taken, the bad man told him that he was coming back for him next. No other leads developed in Debra's abduction case in the following days, and once again, a massive search was conducted with hundreds of volunteers and police units scouring the area, but neither the silver car nor the suspect could be located. Then, on June 23, 1985, the Smith family's nightmare would continue. Shortly after midnight, the family received yet another call from the person they feared and despised the most. Sherry's killer.

Police had hoped that the killer would attend Sherry's funeral service in order to kind of remain close to the case, and that they could potentially spot him there. But like we mentioned earlier, he wasn't known to take chances, so because he didn't attend the service, this was his way of satisfying his need for attention and control. Don would be the one to take the call, and even though she never wanted to hear his voice again, she knew that she needed to keep him on the line if they were ever going to stop Sherry's murderer. The killer said,

You know this isn't a hoax, right? Did you find your sister's ring? Which was a class ring of Sherry's that the caller had mentioned briefly in a previous call. Don replied, no, we didn't. Then the caller said, God wants you to join Sherry Faye. It's only a matter of time. She couldn't be protected forever, and neither can you.

Then he got to the real purpose of his call. He asked Don if she had heard about a little girl named Debra May Helmick. Don wasn't familiar with the name, but then had remembered that a young girl had been abducted a county over. The caller continued, listen carefully. Go one mile north to Bill's Grill, go three and a half miles through Gilbert, and before you come to the stop sign at two-notch road, go through the no-tress passing signs.

50 yards into the left, go 10 yards, Debra May is waiting, God forgive us all, and then the caller hung up. So detectives were now back in the same horrifying scenario that they had been in when Sherry Smith went missing, and the most disturbing reality to them was that the killer showed no mercy with Sherry Fay, so they had a terrible feeling that Deborah May most likely suffered the same fate. Again, police traced the killer's call to a payphone, but the killer slipped away undetected for the third time. Other officers raced to the location in which the killer provided to Don Smith,

and when they got there, they discovered the body of nine-year-old Deborah May Helmick lying among sticks and leaves. Just like Sherry's body, the high temperatures caused an accelerated rate of decomposition. Deborah had to be identified by her footprints on her birth certificate because she didn't have any dental records. And this upcoming detail is awful, but the killer had forced her to wear grown woman's lingerie over her children's underwear, which was under Deborah's white shorts and purple t-shirt. So this guy is so sick. Very, very sick. Days later, Deborah May's funeral was held and the Smith family actually attended, even though they had never met the Helmix before, but they shared the same grief of losing a child and a sister. Yeah, and it was determined that Debra Mae, the cause of death, was just like Sherry Faye,

it was suffocation. Police continued to search for Sherry and Debra's killer, but they were having trouble because the killer didn't leave any evidence at the dumping sites or the call sites, and he couldn't be traced, but then police would get the break they were looking for. We briefly touched on the fact that Sherry's letter, titled Last Will and Testimond, was being examined for evidence. Well, there was no evidence on the papers, but due to the fact that the letter was written on a legal pad and not just loose paper, a forensic document examiner realized that it was

likely that the killer had used that pad before, and that it was possible indentations from previous writings would show up. The examiner used an electrostatic detection apparatus to check for indentations, and sure enough, some were found. The machine was able to pick up names and even phone numbers. Wow! Yeah, really cool, right? So one of the phone numbers was incomplete, but police had enough to go on. The first numbers were 205, which indicated that the number had an Alabama area code. The next was 837, which was the exchange for Huntsville, Alabama, then three more numbers were discovered,

but the last digit was undetectable. Well, that's crazy because now there's only nine or sorry ten things it could be. Yeah, you only have ten other options. Right, so this was huge because all detectives needed to do now was test the number by changing the last digit until they got a match, and finally after a few tries someone answered the phone. It was a young man and detectives asked if the man had any connections to anyone living in South Carolina, and in a stroke of luck, the man did. He said that his parents lived in Saluda County, South Carolina. So detectives immediately got a hold of the young man's father,

Ellis Shepard. Ellis had no idea how he could help police because he had been on vacation with his wife Sharon at the time of Sherry's disappearance, but they did live less than 15 miles from the Smith home. Then detectives played Ellis a portion of a voice recording from one of the killer's calls to the Smith family, and Alice knew right away who it was. In the early calls made to the Smiths, the killer disguised and muffled his voice, but it appears that later on, the killer kind of got sloppy and stopped disguising it. So when Ella Shepard heard the unmask call, he blurted out, that's Larry Jean Bell. And just for reference, the young man that they called, he was actually stationed in Huntsville, because I think he was in the army or the Navy or something like

that. So he was clearly in Alabama during the time of Sherry's disappearance. So Larry Jean Bell was born in Ralph, Alabama on October 30, 1949, and he had three sisters and one brother. Growing up, Larry's family moved around a lot. He had lived in Alabama and South Carolina before his family settled in Mississippi, where Larry would graduate from high school. After graduation, Bell would go on to attend a trade school to become an electrician. Then when his training was over, he decided to move back to Columbia, South Carolina, where he would marry his wife and have a child. In 1970, Bell joined the U.S. Marines, but was quickly discharged after accidentally shooting himself in the knee while cleaning his gun.

And after that, he briefly worked as a correctional officer at the Department of Corrections in Columbia, but that was also short-lived. Then on February 21, 1975, a 19-year-old newly-wed blonde woman named Dale Saul's Howell left her home to walk up the street and purchase laundry detergent. She was headed to the Cherry Road Shopping Center where a super duper grocery store was located when a green Volkswagen pulled up beside her. As she was walking on the sidewalk, a man got out of the car and he approached her. The man said, hey, let's go to Charlotte and party. But Dale refused and that's when the man got mad and attacked her.

He spun her around and placed a knife to her stomach with rage in his eyes. Dale began to scream and people from the nearby shopping center ran to her aid so luckily this was happening where there was people around to help her. Exactly. So at that point, the man got back in his car and sped off down the road, but was quickly apprehended by police at an intersection. And that man was Larry Jean-Bell. Police found a knife in his car and Dale was able to identify her attacker as Larry Jean-Bell.

That very same day that Larry was arrested and unknown woman from Columbia, South Carolina had put up a $5,000 bond and Larry was set free. Months later, Bell pleaded guilty to the charges but instead of serving five years jail time, he was able to get the lesser sentence of five years' probation and he was also ordered to seek counseling for his attack.

Then in June of 1976, Larry's wife left him and took their child. After this, his probation was revoked after he attacked a University of South Carolina student in October of the previous year. He could have faced up to 40 years in prison, but again, the judge let him off with a light sentence. Five years in prison. But only if he went to counseling for attacking women. How do you go to counseling for attacking women and just suddenly stop being like a wannabe killer?

I don't understand this. This is 1976. I just don't understand it. I just feel like this man is obviously trying to hurt women and he's not going to stop doing that just because he goes to counseling. Right, I mean, he attacked a college student, like out of the blue, just a tactor. So Larry would only end up serving less than two years for his probation violation and would be let go in March of 1978. Then, in 1979, Larry was charged with making obscene phone calls in Charlotte, and I don't know what this entails if he was being sexually crude on the phone I don't really know, but

it kind of sounds like that's his thing. He loves to do this whole phone call thing. So years later in 1985, Larry would meet Ellis Shepard and the two ended up working together as electricians. Ellis took a liking to Larry and thought that he could use his expertise around his house. So in Spring of 1985, Ellis asked Larry if he would be willing to house sit for him while he and his wife were on vacation. Next to the Shepard's telephone was a legal pad with yellow pages, just like

the pad that Sherry used to write her last will and testament. The Shepherds were gone from May 13th to June 3rd, which was the same time frame that Sherry Faye was abducted. Alice Shepherd gave the police a good description of Larry Jean Bell, which was almost identical to the description given by Deborah May's neighbor the day she was abducted. When the Shepherds returned from vacation, which again was June 3rd, three days after Sherry's abduction and murder, Larry brought up the subject of Sherry's disappearance, asking the couple if they had heard about it.

And if we know anything about killers, it's that they like to talk about the things they did. Oh yeah, they really like to talk about it. The couple said that they hadn't, but Larry continued to jab on about it as if it was the only thing he wanted to talk about. The shepherds noticed that Larry had lost some weight and had trimmed his usually unkept beard and he looked paranoid. When Sharon Shepard asked about Larry's new appearance, he told her that he was just

preparing for summer and the heat that came with it. But I mean, in honesty, he was probably just trying to change his appearance so that police didn't find him. Yeah, he was trying to mask his identity. On June 27, 1985, 36-year-old Larry Jean Bell was finally arrested for the murders of Sherry Face Smith and Debra May Helmick, 28 days after all the madness had started. Police set up roadblocks early that morning near Larry's parents' house, and at 7am that morning, Larry drove right up into detective's hands.

He knew that he was caught, and he asked officers, is this about those girls? Then he asked to call his mother. Larry was then interrogated about the murders for hours, and seemed to be distracted when investigators showed him pictures of his victims, but he maintained his innocence. Then Larry told police that the bad Larry Jean Bell was responsible for the murders. So evidence was collected from the Shepard's home, which included six long blonde hairs that didn't belong to Ellis or Sharon Shepard, but did match Sherry Smith. And even more evidence was found in Larry's apartment that would incriminate him later.

It's crazy that she was most likely killed in the Shepard's home while they were on vacation. Yeah, like he basically used their home as his, like, killing spot. In February of 1986, Larry Jean Bell would go on trial for the murder of Sherry Faye Smith. During a six hour long testimony, Larry made a scene in the courtroom, making bizarre comments such as, Mona Lisa is a man and silence his golden, my friend. This was very clearly an attempt to convince his jury that maybe he was insane and not fit to stand trial.

But the jury wasn't buying it because after just 47 minutes of deliberating, the verdict came in and Larry Jean Bell was found guilty of kidnapping and first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to death. A year later in 1987, he would be tried for the murder and kidnapping of Debra May Helmock, and the verdict would turn out the same. Larry had left a horrible scar on the community of Columbia and the state of South Carolina forever, as well as the families of the two beautiful young girls he stole from the world. Police also knew that if Larry Jean Bell was capable of killing two young girls in a matter of a few weeks,

it was possible that he had killed women before as well. Well, yeah, especially because we know that he had previously attacked women like this guy more than likely killed other people. Exactly. So they started to look at other cold cases in the area that could possibly be linked to Larry. In July of 1975, a 21-year-old woman named Denise Newsom Porch went missing. She managed an apartment complex in Charlotte, and Larry Bell lived less than 300 yards from her at the time. Then in December of 1980, a 17-year-old girl named Beth Marie Hagen had been strangled to

death and Bell only lived a mile away from Beth at the time of her murder. It's also believed that he was responsible for the disappearance of 26-year-old Sandy Elaine Corte, who was the girlfriend of disappearance of 26-year-old Sandy Elaine Corte, who was the girlfriend of one of Larry's co-workers. It was clear that Bell loved to murder blonde women, so who else could he have killed over the years? Bell claimed to be the son of God up until his execution on October 4, 1996, where he chose to die by electrocution rather than lethal injection. Oh my god.

Yeah, I don't even understand this guy at all. So he had no last words and he was actually the last prisoner to die in the electric chair in the state of South Carolina until murderer James Neal Tucker in 2004. Sherry Smith's father Bob had this to save his daughter's murder. Quote, Sherry's letter has been more closure to me than any kind of closure the courts could do for me. Just the fact that she knew where she was going, and she had that kind of faith. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode,

and next week we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. There's a book written about Larry Jean Bell called Murder in the Midlands, Larry Jean Bell, and the 28 Days of Terror that shook South Carolina by Rita Schuler, who was actually the forensic photographer Lieutenant on Cherian Deborah's cases. So if you're interested in more information

about this case, definitely check out that book. Yeah, I just don't buy that Larry Jean Bell happened to be so close to these other disappearances and murders and didn't have anything to do with them because this man obviously loved to attack young women. Yeah, I mean he was sadistic and you know, I believe that he's responsible for a lot more murders. Well thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode and like Keith said next we will have an all new episode for you guys to dive into. But if that's just not quite enough going west, we do have over 40 bonus episodes over on our

patreon patreon.com slash going west podcast. They're full length, add free, and it really helps support the show. So go check it out. And the library continues to grow every single month. We were always putting out new episodes. So definitely go check that out because it keeps growing. And thank you so much to everybody in the past week who has joined our Patreon. Thank you so much to Erica, Santa, Sherry, Brittany, Brenda, Marie, and Michaela. Big thanks going out to Oli, Similacro Magazine, Jackie, Valeria, Karrissa, Su-Zet, and Crystal. And thank you so much to Kat, Alyssa, Renee, Lisa, Casey, and Jeffrey. And last but not least, thank you so much to Page, Tanya, Jessica, Victoria, and Tara. You guys are amazing. Like we always say thank you so much for joining the Patreon community.

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