Criminal logo

Missing Woman Found Dead 600 Miles Away

Judy Smith went missing from Philly, PA; numerous sightings after, her body was found in Asheville, NC.

By Cat LeighPublished 2 years ago 6 min read
Like
Photo by Jacob Culp on Unsplash

Judith Lois Bradford Smith was a 50-year-old nurse from Newton, Massachusetts, with two adult children from her second marriage. She met her third husband, Jeffrey Smith, while caring for his sick father.

Jeff was a single father and had a law firm in Boston. After being in a relationship for ten years, the couple married in 1996.

On April 9, 1997, Judy and Jeff headed to the Logan International Airport in Boston. An organization that Jeff represented was holding an event, the Northeast Pharmaceutical Conference, in Philadelphia. The convention ended on April 11, after which the couple planned to visit some friends in New Jersey.

However, when they arrived at the airport, Judy realized she had forgotten her driver’s license. Because Jeff had a commitment later that afternoon, the couple agreed Judy would go home to get her ID and catch a later flight by herself.

Judy caught the 7:30 PM flight to Philadelphia and took a cab to the DoubleTree Hotel. She surprised Jeff with flowers in the lobby as a way of apologizing.

The couple went to their room and discussed their plans for the next day. Judy had never been to Philadelphia and so she wanted to go sightseeing while Jeff spent the day at his work conference. In particular, Judy planned on visiting the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.

Jeff was not worried about his wife wandering around an unfamiliar place by herself as she was an experienced traveler. She had once taken her children to Europe for several weeks and had traveled to Thailand by herself to visit the family of a former patient.

The next morning, Jeff went downstairs to have breakfast while Judy slept in. Around 9 AM, he returned to the room and Judy was in the shower. They said goodbye to each other and Jeff left for the conference.

Around 5 PM, Jeff returned to the room expecting to find Judy. They had agreed to meet there by 5:30 PM in order to get ready for a cocktail party at 6 PM. When she didn’t show up, Jeff thought there had been a miscommunication and assumed Judy was waiting for him at the party.

But when he went to the room where the party was being held, she was not there. After searching for his wife for about 45 minutes, he asked the concierge to call local hospitals.

With no luck, Jeff hopped in a cab and searched around town, focusing on the places Judy wanted to visit. He called the police and was told that protocol was to wait 24 hours, however, the officer told him he could report his wife missing in the morning.

Early the next morning, Jeff went to the police station and filed a missing persons report.

Both Jeff and the authorities asked several people when the last time they had seen Judy was. A hotel employee remembered Judy asking him where she could catch the PHLASH — a bus that travels throughout various historic attractions. According to the driver, Judy caught the bus that afternoon and exited near the DoubleTree Hotel.

That same afternoon, she was seen entering and exiting the Greyhound bus station about ten minutes away from the hotel. Presumably, she used the bathrooms.

Another witness also believes they saw Judy near the hotel acting “disoriented” around 3 PM.

While Jeff and the couple’s family members searched and distributed flyers all throughout Philadelphia, dozens of people reported seeing Judy.

The day after she went missing, Judy was seen acting strangely in a Macy’s at the Deptford Mall in New Jersey. Both a salesperson and a customer were able to describe her, even mentioning the bright red backpack that she always carried.

The woman was shopping for dresses for her daughter and seemed unstable. As the woman was leaving, she tried to get a younger woman to leave with her. She seemed to think the woman next to her was her daughter.

Judy’s family and their private detective believe this was, in fact, Judy.

Months later in July, a woman reported seeing Judy at the Wild Wild West Casino in Atlantic City.

Meanwhile, several people reported seeing her at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia. Authorities concluded that the woman was not Judy but rather a homeless woman who bore a resemblance. Judy’s son Craig even mistook this woman as his mother.

David, a homeless man who was shown a picture of Judy, insists he saw her twice — and not the look-alike. He claimed Judy had slept on a bench next to his and that he tried to buy her a coffee in the morning. Jeff believes David’s claims are plausible.

On September 7, 1997, a father and son went deer hunting at Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina. Near a picnic area, they stumbled upon a partially buried skeleton wrapped in a blue blanket. Some of the bones had been scattered around the area by animals. The deceased person had been wearing insulated underwear, blue jeans, and hiking boots.

In a small hole near the body was a blue vinyl backpack with winter clothing and $80. In a different hole, a shirt was found with $87 in the pockets. There was also a pair of Bolle’s sunglasses.

A coroner concluded that the remains were that of a white female, in their late forties to mid-fifties. Due to puncture wounds and cuts on her bra, it is believed she was stabbed to death.

While authorities worked on identifying the woman, they came across a missing persons flyer about Judy — Jeff had faxed thousands around the country. They requested Judy’s dental records and compared them to the unidentified remains. They were a match.

Judy’s case was now classified as a homicide.

In the nearby town of Asheville, a clerk recalled having a friendly conversation with Judy a few days after she had been reported missing. According to Joanne Stucker, Judy told her she had decided to visit Asheville while her husband, a lawyer, was at a convention in Philadephia.

Unlike most reported sightings of Judy, Stucker did not think the woman was disoriented or unstable in any way.

Several people in Asheville remembered speaking to a woman named Judy from Boston. Including a hotel clerk who believes she stayed at the hotel from April 10 to 12.

It is unknown why or how Judy ended up in Asheville, North Carolina, 600 miles away from Philadelphia.

Noticeably, Judy was found wearing different clothes than the ones she vanished with. On the day of her disappearance, she had been wearing white sneakers, a dark coat, blue jeans, and her signature red backpack. But when she was found, she was wearing a more appropriate outfit for hiking.

The items found near her body are believed to have belonged to her killer.

Jeff was the only person of interest authorities had, even though they couldn’t provide any evidence. At one point, police doubted that Judy had ever been in Philadelphia. A female detective suggested a woman had not spent the night in the couple’s hotel room.

According to the lead detective, Judy had run away from her marriage and was having a mid-life crisis.

However, when Judy’s body was found, authorities concluded that Jeff was incapable of reaching the mountainside due to being morbidly obese.

Though Judy’s family insists the couple had a healthy relationship, one of Judy’s friends disagrees. Carolyn Dickey claimed the couple’s relationship had been “tenuous” at the time and suggested Judy wanted a break.

It has been theorized that Judy left voluntarily and ran into foul play at some point during her trip. If she did leave on her own accord, she left behind $500 in the hotel room. Moreover, her American Express Gold Card has never been used again.

Authorities briefly looked into the possibility of Judy having been one of Gary Michael Hilton’s victims but could not find any link. The serial killer had been active in the Asheville area at the time and one of his victims had been found tied to a tree near Judy’s remains.

Judy’s family believes she was suffering from a dissociative disorder, such as amnesia. This could explain why so many witnesses described her as “disoriented”.

Judy’s remains were cremated and Jeff passed away in 2005.

Judy Smith’s bizarre vanishing and murder remains unsolved 22 years later.

investigation
Like

About the Creator

Cat Leigh

Visit my publication on Medium for more true crime cases.

❤️ You can support my work on Ko-fi.

💌 [email protected]

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.