Unseen - Killer Pastor Attended Victims' Funerals | The Case of Andrew Hockensmith | UNSEEN

Episode Date: July 13, 2024

“Come quickly because I’m afraid.”-- On September 20th, 2013 9 yo Andrew Hockensmith frantically calls 911 from the back room of his parents' pawnshop, where an armed gunman has just stormed in. In spite of the danger, the boy only cares about saving his baby sister and urges the dispatcher to hurry and send help. Just 6 minutes later, police enter the pawn shop and are horrified to find 3 bodies. They soon determine that this triple homicide is no simple robbery gone wrong--instead, a shocking narrative is uncovered, involving betrayal, pawn shop gold, and a supposedly beloved pastor. Credits: Directing, writing & editing by Matthew Rice Research & script revision by Manon Lafosse Produced by Alexandra Salois & Salim Sader Voiceover by William Akana Sources: Broken trust: Gold, guns and god - WAM Media Grp - Investigation Discovery See no evil - Come quickly, I’m afraid - Arrow International Media - Investigation Discovery Final Moments - Peacock - Wolf Entertainment - Oxygen WLKY News Louisville WLKY News  Public social media account Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, what happened today? I ran very fast with my baby sister. I just didn't work to be killed. Okay. The boy you see here is 9-year-old Andrew Hawkinsmith. One hour before this footage was recorded, Andrew was living a happy life with a loving and supportive family. His parents were the owners of a local pawn shop in Danville, Kentucky,

and had welcomed a new member of their family, little Naomi. Andrew was so happy to be a big brother. and loved his baby sister more than anything in the world. But on September 20th, 2013, the family's life took a disturbing turn for the worse when the nine-year-old boy heard gunshots and screams. Quickly, because I'm a friend. Okay, they're coming, okay?

The year is 2013, in the quiet town of Danville, Kentucky. Andrew Hawkinsmith lives a happy life with his father, Michael, his mother, Angie, and his 13-month-old sister, Naomi. When Andrew's father first met his wife, Angie, it was love at first sight. Angie was a real nice young lady, and she was really his first love. They was just so happy together. The young couple shared a strong religious faith, and Michael worked as a part-time youth pastor in the area. They were both very active in their church and very well-known in the community.

But Andrew's father did not make enough to support the family as a youth pastor and needed another source of income. That's when a friend in the church community and another religious leader, Pastor Alan Keith, had an interesting proposition for Andrew's father, Michael Hawkinsmith. Mike and Angie both looked up to Alan, and Andrew, he looked up to Mr. Keith as an uncle. He thought he was his uncle there. Pastor Keith, a well-known religious figure in the area, preached in multiple churches about the Word of God, but on the side, Pastor Keith had a unique side business. Running and owning pawn shops.

Usually pastors and pawn shops don't necessarily go together. He was buying precious metals, videos, and CDs and things. Between that and the Bible, that was his life. Pastor Keith loved God and preached every Sunday throughout Pulaski County. Pastor Keith also loved money, and more specifically, gold. Through Pastor Keith's leadership and guidance, Mike joins the business himself and starts to work at ABC Gold Games and More pawn shop. With a new business rolling and the arrival of baby Naomi,

life is good for the Hawkinsmits, who genuinely enjoy spending quality time together. Angie and Mike even make the decision to homeschool young Andrew so that the family can stay close even during the day. Now, each morning, Andrew, his parents, and baby Naomi all hang out in the family's pawn shop. The pawn shop, that was basically my home. We had all the knick-knacks of a pawn shop

From like games to movies to all sorts of junk. It was basically a playground. I absolutely loved it. It was simply amazing. But things take a disturbing turn for the worst on September 20th, 2013. At 917 a.m., a 911 dispatcher in Kentucky takes a call. On the other line, a young boy's quiet voice tells him about an ongoing robbery in Danville. 9-year-old Andrew Hawkinsmith pleads with the operator for some help,

And while the dispatcher tries to get as much information as possible, he hears something even more unsettling, a baby crying. The pair must try to remain silent as any noise will easily alert their location to the robber, still lurking in the shop. Come here quickly because I'm afraid, please hurry. Right away, the 911 operator dispatches the patrol unit. While the terrified 9-year-old stays on the line, officers hurry to the scene, unaware of what they're about to face. Within only six minutes, officers arrive at the scene, aware of the urgency of the situation. Authorities attempt to open the front door of the store, but it's locked, so they break the glass and force their way in. As I made entry, all I was thinking about was, is the shooter still here.

The first thing that I noticed was a huge smear of blood to my right in the lobby area of the store. I don't care how many times you've done it or seen it. There's nothing that truly prepares you for this. Their worst fears are confirmed when they discover three bodies lying on the floor, not knowing if the killer is still inside, they quickly clear the scene, looking for the nine-year-old caller. Guided by the dispatcher, there's a sigh of relief when the officers find the two young children still hiding. Both of them are directly taken to the police station, terrified, but physically unharmed. Back at the pawn shop, cops and detectives fill up the store, while a forensic scientist starts to examine the bodies. It's a difficult scene to analyze since the store is selling guns and ammunition, making it harder to identify what's a clue and what isn't. A first female body is lying near the register.

A second one, a male victim, is on the other side of the counter. A trace of blood leads to the third victim, another male in the back. One of the bodies had been moved to a location where if someone peered into the front door, they wouldn't be able to see that body. The victims had been shot multiple times, possibly after they were down. The only thing at that time that we could determine was that the spent casings appeared to be from a 22-caliber weapon. Andrew's paternal and maternal grandmothers, Charlene and Barbara, rushed to the crime scene, wanting to make sure their family is safe

and also understand what's happening. From a distance, they can see yellow tape behind the cop cars, and as they approach the pawn shop, more and more officers prevent them from going further. And the policemen would not let us up to the shop. They said, you cannot go in. Well, I just broke down at that point. I knew they were gone, and my heart just suck. Just couldn't understand why. What had they done so bad that they deserve to die? I would not comprehend why anyone in their right mind

would want to hurt either one of them. How many discounts does USAA auto insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount, safe driver discount, new vehicle discount, storage discount, legacy. How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usa.com slash auto discounts. Restrictions apply. The first two victims at the front of the,

the store are identified as Michael and Angie Hawkinsmith, owners of the store, and loving parents of Andrew and Naomi. The third victim is 60-year-old Dan Smith, a regular customer of the Hawkinsmith who would routinely buy and sell gold in the area. At first glance, the scene looks like a burglary gone wrong. The Hawkinsmith store is indeed a pawn shop, therefore a target of choice for people wanting to steal valuables. However, a crucial piece of evidence doesn't make sense with this theory. Dan Smith's suitcase is open on the counter and is still full of money, as well as the register. Why wouldn't the robber take some money with him before fleeing? As I continued to process the scene, I discovered that over $1,000 from the cash register was

still there. It hadn't been taken. Both Mike and Dan's wallets hadn't been taken. It made me start to think that the victims had been targeted for a reason other than robber. Detectives are puzzled by the setting of the crime scene. If it wasn't a robbery, then what happened? Were any of them specifically targeted by the killer? We're like, you know, what do we have here? It was a hit. Was it on Dan Smith?

Dan Smith was a gold buyer. He carries a briefcase with him with a large amount of cash. Dan Smith's wife was able to tell us that he would do a certain route on certain days of the week. So he goes to his bank, he gets some money. And then he had a lot of pawn shops that he went to. The investigators go to Lawson's jewelers in Herodzburg, a store on Dan's normal route, just 19 minutes away from the Hawkinsmith's pawn shop. He walks in with that same briefcase and then talks to the lady behind the counter

and just appears very relaxed, laughing. He has no idea, obviously, where he's headed. I don't even think it was a full hour after this. Dan Smith was killed. There was nobody that appeared to be paying any particular attention to him. There was nothing that stood out. We really were kind of baffled at this point. Who was even the target?

The detective's initial strategy of focusing on Dan doesn't pay off. They have no suspects and no leads for any of the victims. The murderer is still on the loose and both families are mourning. News of the murders reaches the town and surrounding cities, and everyone is shocked. Nothing like this ever happened in this small town. Two young children are without their parents tonight after they were murdered inside their Danville-Kentucky pawn shop. That stores located just blocks from Center College. As Matt McCutcheon reports, one of the kids called 911 and shielded his sister from the violence.

The town of Danville demands answers for these tragic murders. Even Pastor Alan Keith, the one who introduced the Hawkinsmith into the pawn business, shares his sorrow on social media and pays tribute to the victims. No sleep at all. I am in shock right now over the loss of three great people. I also knew the third man. He was a business client and a good friend. We're now learning that the suspect in this case,

apparently police say made his way out of this garage door and then took off through the alley, never to be seen from again. If you have any information, call Danville Police at the number now on your screen. There's no time to lose for the police as the killer is still on the loose, but they still have no clear motive or even a specific suspect. At this point, Andrew could still be a target without the cops even knowing why. The young orphans are now being protected by authorities at the police station and will soon

go under the care of their grandparents. Everyone in the quiet town is still baffled by who would want to harm both families and end the lives of these young children's parents. Officers struggled to figure out what their next step will be when a call comes in with a promising lead. Once Kenneth Allen's name was mentioned, we started looking, okay, who is this guy? He was involved in the pawn shop business. He had one in Somerset, Kentucky.

And he was a pastor of a small town church in Pulaski County, Kentucky. He appeared to be loved by his local congregation. That was kind of a common denominator for everybody involved, is they were all heavily into the church, either as pastors, ministers, leaders, just in a church. The caller explains that one of his friends, Pastor Kenneth, Allen, Keith had made suspicious comments about the case. When I called Alan, it kept getting weird and weirder.

Pastor Keith, who lives in Somerset, roughly 50 minutes away, just happened to be in Danville on the day of the murder. On September 20th, he drove 43 miles to get his wife's prescription in a local pharmacy, where he wasn't a regular. I said, you were in Danville? He goes, yeah, he says, I was in Danville to pick up my wife's prescriptions. Alan's given us detailed step-by-step description. step description of where he was that day.

The investigators keep digging into his life and go through Pastor Keith's finances. They soon learned that he had once been a full owner of the pawn shop, but because of debt and poor finances, he was forced to give up ownership to Mike and Angie Hawkinsmith. Kenneth felt cheated. He felt that that pawn shop should have been his, and that Hawkinsmith basically stole it right out underneath his feet. The motive is fine. finally revealing itself.

But there's a problem. Around the time of the crime, Pastor Keith was supposedly buying medicines for his wife. If his alibi was confirmed, and he was seen on the video cameras, he could be ruled out completely from being the murderer. I was in the Anvil, but I was at the pharmacy. I'm standing in the pharmacy while all this happened.

We immediately dispatched investigators to retrieve the video from the pharmacy and where he alleged that he had picked up the prescriptions for his wife. If he was in there during the time of the shooting, that he wouldn't have been a suspect. And then, cops see Pastor Alan Keith on the security cameras of the pharmacy at 924 a.m., which is only eight minutes after the time of the murders. It would be impossible for him to be at two places at the same time.

Therefore, this alibi could completely rule out their prime suspect and potentially derail the whole investigation. However, there's only one person the cops can really trust who can give more insight as to what happened that morning. Nine-year-old Andrew, the young survivor who called 911 the day of the murders. If Andrew can provide any evidence that Pastor Keith was indeed at the pawn shop and not at the pharmacy at the time of the murders, the case could finally be solvable. What happened today earlier before you and I bet?

Um, yes. Anyways, and that reminds me of the dead people. September 20th starts like any other day. The Hawkinsmiths arrive at the shop and open it at 9 a.m., Andrew starts to play a game in a corner. While his parents prepare the business for the day ahead, within a few minutes, a client enters. The goldman, Dan Smith, came in. While Andrew's dad talks to Dan, Angie rocks Naomi in her arms, near the register. Dan, the goldman, is a regular at his parent's shop.

The interaction is normal, mundane, and Andrew's attention goes back to his own activity. In between studying sessions with his mom, the little boy has plenty of time to test out some of the new games sold in the store. Shortly after this guy, he came in as well, and I was like, he's kind of weird looking. He starts to pull out a gun and kind of raises his voice and says, get on the ground. And we all did because we was petrified. Andrew, his mom and sister are huddled up in a corner, hiding, terrified. They secretly watch in horror as the intruder fires his weapon eight times. To the nine-year-old boy, the weird sounds are identified as darts.

In the midst of the chaos, he looks right at what would become his father's last moments. Dad was like, please stop. He started rolling around until he wasn't. He wasn't. He stopped. The gunman then turns to Dan. It's at that moment that Angie understands what will happen to them as the intruder starts to make his way to them.

She and her children are the next targets. In one final act of courage, Angie turns to her two children. There's only one hiding spot left in the shop. My mom, she told me to go in the back with my sister. I crawl all the way back to the office. I sit my sister on the couch. I'm sitting right beside her. Now hidden in the office, Andrew hears four more gunshots.

Then, silence, a few more seconds of silence go by. Andrew and Naomi tried to remain quiet, but the boy knows he has to take a look outside and see if his parents are okay. I remember crawling over to the doorway and seeing that my mom was just laying there was a puddled one. Devastated, Andrew drags himself back to the office area.

He and his sister seemed to be the only ones left alive. Now, Naomi's survival is all that matters. Andrew rushes to the office phone and dials 911, hoping that he'll get some help before the intruder figures out where he and his sister are. Nine-year-old boy called 911, saying his family had been killed. What the little boy did before that is simply heartbreaking. He grabbed his little sister up and he carried her in the office and he covered his body. Okay.

It's just he's still through the interview. He's a hero. He and his 14-month-old sister were not physically hurt. I rang very fast with my baby sister. I just didn't work. Thanks to Andrew's bravery, quick thinking, and recollection of the chain of events, Pastor Keith's alibi starts to crumble, and police can confidently build a case against him. Suddenly, all the clues that were collected right after the crime make perfect sense.

Pastor Keith is the owner of a silver minivan. Right before the shooting and right after, a security camera had caught a similar car driving around the pawn shop. And thanks to Andrew's secret 911 call, this crucial timestamp makes it completely possible. that he could have gone to both places almost at the same time. Without this, Pastor Keith could have gotten away with his pharmacy alibi. From the pawn shop to the pharmacy, that was a doable time. Finally, on October 9, 2013, 19 days after the murders, police finally have enough to arrest him and have three warrants,

one for his home, one for his church, and one for his pawn shop in Somerset. An investigator went in as a potential customer and made contact with Mr. Allen. We discovered a box for a threaded device that can be purchased over the internet that can be fashioned into a makeshift silencer. The discovery confirms detective suspicions that a silencer was used in the killings and explains Andrew's description of a high-pitched sound as his parents were shot. And then also outside of the business, we found, spent 22 shell casings and then a target that had been shot. So we believe that he was practicing prior to the shooting. The 22 casings found in Kenneth Keith's pawn shop matched all the expended shell casings

from the murder scene in Danville, Kentucky. They were shot from the identical weapon. Pastor Keith is arrested in his own pawn shop without incident. The Hawkinsmiths and Dan Smith's families are relieved. the man their loved ones once called a friend is behind bars. He had betrayed everything they stood for, but in the end, justice prevailed. But to be able to commit murders on Friday and then get up on the pulpit Sunday morning and preach, especially in front of two children, you're kind of, you're going, wait a minute, that's not a real pastor.

To spare Andrew, his family, and Dan's relatives, a long and painful trial, prosecution decides to offer Keith a plea deal for him to avoid the death penalty. Meanwhile, as the courts prepare for Keith's sentencing, young Andrew has found another outlet to share his grief. He starts to express himself through drawings and shares his feelings in the pages of a comic book. Andrew just went through unimaginable trauma, but was able to take his sister into safety and call for help. His parents always had his back, and on that day, he proved how much they were really alike. My dad, he made things look so easy. He was truly an amazing person.

Despite the tragic end of Andrew's parents, they succeeded in protecting their children, which is what mattered to them the most. May 26, 2017, it's Andrew's 13th birthday, and also finally the day of Pastor Keith's deal with the DA. He is directly sentenced to life without parole. His greed and jealousy will never hurt anyone again. Today, Andrew is surrounded by his loving family and recently got engaged. No one can ever take away from him the memories of his parents and their love, which will always be there to guide him through anything.

I've been told you're a spitting image of your dad. You look just like him. You act just like him. Naomi, she looks just like my mom. I'm very thankful for what I have. And in a sense, it's like I am living. through my parents' life. My parents will always live on within me.