Episode 184: Michael Smith (Part 1 of 2)

0:14 Hello, and welcome to the Catch My Killer Podcast. Thank you for listening. My name is Mark. For nearly eight years, I've written a weekly newspaper column about true crimes and missing people for the Claremont Sun newspaper in Ohio. With the column and podcast, it has always been my objective to bring attention to those cases that have not received much media attention, if any at all. This week's story involves a thirty eight year old Little Rock, Arkansas man named Michael Smith, who vanished on June seventh, two twenty two. He was last seen visiting his mother, who worked at a local bank.

0:57 He had let her know that his employer had just terminated him. After Michael left his mother's place of employment, she would never see him again. This is the first part of a two part story. Please be sure to listen to the conclusion next week. Michael Smith was a thirty eight year old Little Rock, Arkansas man who was the youngest of three sons. He was also a father of four. Michael's parents are Sherry Smith Riggins in the late Eddie Smith, who died when Michael was a teenager. Michael would last be seen on June seventh, twenty twenty two at ten fifteen am. He had just lost his job at the Whole Hog Cafe on Cantrell Road. After leaving his former job, he had visited with his mother at her banking job on Rebsimon Park Road to tell her. Michael was especially close to his mother and kept in regular contact with her after he left her place of employment. No one has seen Michael since. Sherry described her son as a good son. She did say he did have some problems, as we all do, but she did say that he was a hard working young man who was especially close to his dad when he was a teenager. Michael and his dad, Eddie,

2:28 were both huge NBA fans and shared a mutual love for basketball. When Michael was younger, Eddie had worked with his son so that he could possibly play professional basketball in the future. Michael spent much of his youth playing basketball in high school and junior college. Sadly, Michael playing professional basketball would be a dream that Eddie would not live long enough to see. Eddie was electrocuted while cutting down a tree in nineteen ninety eight. The loss would deeply affect Michael, as he was biggest supporter and his son's biggest fan. Eventually, Michael would give up on his dream of playing professional basketball and leave college without earning a degree. His mother said that he would just end up taking a series of different jobs and focus more on financially supporting his children and looking out for his mother. Michael's case is controversial. According to his mother, law enforcement claims that Michael was last seen riding on a bicycle and then possibly committing suicide by jumping into a river. There were witnesses who saw an unidentified man jumping into a local river. Sherry has been told by law enforcement that Michael may have committed suicide. Sherry disputes this. She has said that she has seen a blown up photo of the man on the bike that was supposedly Michael.

3:53 She said the man on the bike was a darker skinned man and he definitely was not her son, as police claim. She also said there is no confirmation that the man who jumped into the river was her son. Another source of contention between law enforcement and Michael's family is that a witness is said to have seen Michael checking his mail sometime between four twenty and four forty pm on the day that he disappeared. According to Sherry, law enforcement has never spoken to this witness. I had asked Sherry if Michael had any enemies. She did tell me that he was concerned for his life. He had told his mother that if anything ever happened to him, then law enforcement needed to look at someone that he had mentioned. Sherry has given this name to law enforcement and doesn't believe they have considered this person as a suspect and Michael's disappearance.

4:49 Today, Sherry and her son Cedric spend many hours looking in abandoned houses and speaking to people trying to figure out what happened to Michael. Unfortunately, Sherry's motherly instincts have told her that her son is deceased. She is now pleading for the public to help her recover his body so that he can receive a proper burial if she can stop searching for Michael. This is the first half of the two parts story. Be sure to listen to the conclusion next week. And now on with the story of Michael Smith, as told by his mother, Sherry Smith Riggins. Michael was born September twenty six, nineteen eighty three, in Little Rock, Arkansas, and his father's name was If she's deceased, Eddie James Smith and of course I'm Sherry L. Smith Riggins.

5:47 He owns a tree business service and he was elected to cut in the tree down where Michael was fourteen. Eddie died September to seventeenth, nineteen ninety eight, to very day that he was injured. He only lived probably five hours. He died in surgery. Michael was very close to his dad. They had a passion for basketball. My husband played basketball in high school and college and Michael hut the same love. And he studied with Michael when he was probably about five years old, getting him ready to play basketball. And Michael had a love for it and he played high school, he went on to junior college, played in California. He played AAU So that was his passion.

6:34 Who is Michael's favorite NBA team? Well, Michael liked the Chicago Bulls, and his dad before his death took him too. I think they remember. No, my husband was a Larry Bird fan. Okay, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Oh, that was definitely a great rivalry back in the day. Yes, So Michael was basically left handed. My husband toldy, you could not favor one hand, and I could see seeing him with two basketballs and they would dribble. Even my husband put a half of a court in our backyard and May had a poorble concrete, so we could go out there and practice with Michael. So it was a love that they both shared.

7:17 And Michael was lost when his dad died, and that's the truth. And so I had started going to the games and screaming, and after Eddie died, so I had to pick up where my husband left off, and I did. So that is a little bit about Eddie as Michael's love. Like I said, he lost his death when he was fourteen getting ready to turn fifteen. Mikey was turning fifteen to twenty six. And like I said, because my husband was it was an accident the death. They had to take him, of course to the Crown lab and time we got him back and it was a while, but I didn't want to bury him on his son's fifteenth birthday, so I buried him two days for Michaels fifteenth Thursday.

8:01 And so I made a deal with Michael. If you didn't get into any trouble, you didn't get anybody treadman and would go finish Holy and go to college. I would not marry anybody. Well, I'm kild youth for in school. So he kept his from us and I kept mine. And what year did Michael graduate from high school? Come to Central High? Okay? So two thousand and two. So he's been out of high school for over twenty years. And I'm assuming that he went to high school in Arkansas? Is that correct? Correct? Little Rock? Ark? Him South? Did he play basketball all through high school? All through high school? In fact, I'm in his room. I've re married in everything, but I bought his trophies. I'm looking Michael has so many trophies from basketball. He played AAU. I'm just looking at so many trophies that Mikey got while he played basketball. Bat about with the fashions. I can remember back in the day, when I was in my twenties, I was a pretty big basketball fan, and I used to watch a lot of the NBA games. I grew up watching Michael Jordan, Hakim Elijahan, Shaquille O'Neill, big stars like that.

9:16 And what's funny is I can remember people talking about NBA players as if basketball wasn't let's say, as athletic of a sport is say baseball or football, and I've always disagreed with those people that have that opinion because as someone who has played basketball, I mean I just played in school and things like that, but just playing full court. People who've never played have no idea how much endurance that takes to be able to play full court. Running up and down the court takes a lot of energy. And I don't think a lot of people understand just how athletic these guys really are. In my opinion, NBA play ye are probably the most athletic and gifted athletes of all the professional major sports leagues. So now, tummy, I guess at the time, when Michael was young and he had dreams of playing professional basketball, was one of his dreams actually to make it into the NBA one day? Yes, yes, Michel was gonna be a spud web. Mikey was number one about five seven, But like I said, his father was good, and so he ended up doing basketball and poe voting. I think that's what you call it. Anyway, he missed up his career because the pole broken.

10:41 I think he missed up his ligaments and stuff in his leg. Into still had the same love of all spits, but he loved basketball with his dad, and his dad was preparing him for the NBA. But like I said, I know he's being about the sport. But when Eddie God, it shifted because he had no one to lead it. I didn't know what schools to tend him too, of what to do. Central would ask it because he played aau Park View was asking for him. I had all these schools asking for him, and if Eddie had have been here, he would have guided him better than what I did. I sent him this Central. It was chaotic, but it did not deter him from the love of the game.

11:28 He paid three on three tournaments and they would win and anything where it was shooting basketball, Michael did it and Michael loved it. But he didn't go to the NBA. But like I said, if his dad had lived, I think he would have gone. He would have made it because he would have had the right guidance, said his mother. I don't care what a mother does. She can love her son, but she can't teach him how to be a man. And that's where he only had fourteen years of his father's guided But still his d taught him a lot of things because he would have those boys to go up with him and he would pay them to cut trees. They can cut the trees, but he bought them a full willers have made it fun so they could haul it and put it on a full wheeler, and they take time to driving it in and stacking it.

12:20 He tell them how to work. He tell them disponsability and how to work. It. Sounds like Eddie was a great role model for Michael when Michael's growing up, and a lot of young men aren't fortunate enough to have a positive male role model in their life as a teenager, Michael was certainly lucky to have a dad who wanted to help him try to achieve his dreams. Eddie Smith was a positive role model in Michael's life growing up. Unfortunately, Eddie died while Michael was a teenager. The person who inspired Michael to be great was no longer in Michael's life. He would then begin and to lean on his mother more, but she knew that she would be limited in what she could teach him, as she believes that a mother cannot teach a son how to be a man. We will take a short break and listen to Sherry describe how Michael's life would unfold without his father's guidance. Eddie was wonderful.

13:46 He loved his son and he was teaching them how to be a man. Keller did like the Bible did. At the age of twelve, he would tell me, because we had three sons, okay, it's time for me to take a older and to teach him how to be a man, because you can't teach him how to be a man. You can teach him how to be soft, but you can't teach him how to be a man. So at twelve he was so talking about what it takes to become a man, right, because there's a lot of things that a mother can teach your son, but one thing that she cannot teach him is how to be a man. And on Father's Day, I went out with my youngest son and we had a conversation about this, and he told me there were things that he learned from his mother, but there were things that he learned from me that he could not have learned from his mother. Unfortunately, a lot of young men in America grow up without a positive male role model in their life, and that's definitely a huge problem in America, and that's why there were so many young men in prison. During my time in social services, where I spent over eleven years in that field, I had taken a class and the instructor had told me that nearly every man in prison has one thing in common, regardless of their ethnicity. The one thing they had in common is that they all grew up without a positive male role model in their lives.

15:16 And what I really find disheartening about today's society when it comes to men, is that a lot of people have the belief that a man is not needed in the house, or a son doesn't need a positive male role model in his life. Now, I realize that there are a lot of situations where there isn't a male role model in the home for various reasons. But if there is a possibility for a young man to have his father in his life, and this father is a good man who can teach his son how to be a man, that's a good thing. It's always going to be a good thing. Now, going back to Michael's professional basketball aspirations, when did he realize that he wasn't going to play professional basketball? When did that happen in his life? Michael, his coach was terminated for playing with ineligible players. So they got a new coach in the twelfth grade, Michael Swift year. And most coaches have their favorite team. And anyway, Michael ended up going to Columbia in California just been years now. I think he played at a junior college and some I'm mistaken is how he ended up at same college in California, and that coach ended up getting in trouble. And then Michael just lost heart every time he got a coach that he right or whatever.

16:52 I don't know. Maybe I don't know why. He just lost face with playing basketball after three years and he just came home. He just didn't want to do it anymore. And I guess that was it because that coach was also terminated. He did something. I don't fig out what he did at the school. So Michaels went from the high school of losing his twelfth grade coach that he had from the nice to the twelve then he lost his three year coach and so he just came home. And what did Michael do after he came home to earn his degree while he was in college. No, he was like one year of getting his degree, and so he came in and I guess he had enough hours of whatever. He started working at the VA. And this is so many years ago, so brief, forgive me, but I know he had him a nice job at the VA and he was making very good money. What did he do at the VA hospital and had something to do with help? It wasn't like he worked in the kitchen. They had something to do with nutrition. So did you do something like the work of a dietitian something like that at the VA was something like that. Michael had some good jobs through his career. Even that's around and we owned the business and he read that. That's what he did when he first came in. We had a business that my oldest son started and when

18:22 Mikey first came out of college, that's what he did. We had a checkcash and bill payments center. We had two locations and Mikey ran one of them for pot four years or five when he came back. So that's what he did. That tells you send a while I have to see, I'm sixty five, I'm doing good. But he did for I think five years. He did that and he was very good at it. And then he went to the VA after that and worked at the VA. Now tell me about his personal life. Did Michael ever get married? I mean, I know he had kids. Zat Michael had children. Okay, Michael never got married. He got engaged, but they never got married. Michael got involved with a young lady and they had two children, and he had two other children. Okay, Michael, he had the son of seventeen and the daughter that is fifteen, another and there's fourteen and one twelve, a things and something like them. But he ended up a four kids, and he ended up with the young lady that has two children by because she had the first two bylmes. That's who he was with when he disappeared, the one that had his first two children. So that's the person who was with when they disappeared and they came became engaged. The one that had the other one she

19:53 married somebody else, and the other one married someone else. So he ended up with his first two children's mom. Okay, so he had four children buy three different women. Is that correct? Yes? Yes? Now was he on good terms with all the mothers? Yeah, because he was all any time they would come to my house. Those two kids were always together. In fact, they go to school together now, so they're very close they say they are like they twins, just from a different mother. So those kids get along. So there the mothers, all the mothers get along. And didn't paid child support, so it wasn't like he was a dead be dead might paid child support. He took care of all his children.

20:37 Percentages came out. He had percentages coming to each one of those kids up until he disappeared. He I wish paid child support. He never not took care of his children and he would always go even though he had a bad relationship with the one he was with owning off, he always would take care of his children and did what was necessary with his kids. They can never say he was dead to be bad. He loved his kid if he didn't do nothing as he loved his children, and he was there because he knew what it took when he lost his father, you didn't know how to fail. So Michael was always in his kid's life. In fact, I text each one of them for Father's Day, and so I have found out to my pastors, if you were taught something, it's not hard to give it.

21:30 It's harder to give something you were not given too. So his dad and him had a good relationship. So it was not hard to give back what you received. That makes sense. I definitely agree with that. So Michael sounds like a pretty good guy. Now, did he ever have any legal issues or any type of trouble with a law anything like that. Now, I'm not gonna paint a martyr out of my stuf. I have to tell the truth about my stuff. Like I said, my sign and his significant others, he had troubles. It all started made the age of twenty one. They had one car. Now they had a house. They both stayed in this house and raised their children. Was raising their kids. He took the car, and he took the car. He didn't come back, and she missed a poor plummer. She called the police and said he was driving the car, was the our permission. When Michael came in, she called the police and said he's in the driveway. The police shows up, She's looking at him through the plumb on her door door. Then, so when the police come up, they asked him what is he doing. He says, I'm trying to get in the house. But she had locked the doors and he couldn't get an ounced. So they asked him, was this his car? He said, yeah, this is me and my girl's car.

22:45 I live here, and it just kept going and kept going. So they're going to step out, and he asked them what did he do? It's out there YouTube. So from there, one of the cops ended up pulling the gun on him, ended up shooting him twice in the legs. Out of the German hit him up. He got shot. He was shot in the artery. The car took off. The police said that he was fleeing. He hit a pole because he was like out. He was in the hospital. They charged him. Was playing we had to get a lawyer. A lot of it was dropped that he went from a million dollar bell to a twenty thousand dollars bear and then she she bails him out. The person that call up early bails him out. So yeah, and that was pending. That's a lot. Yeah, that was pending. And the prosecutor was saying that discussed. Since he been missing, they've been talking that she was playing two in the middle. She would tell the lawyer we hired one thing, and the prosecutor another thing. She tell his lawyer that this is her fiance, She's not gonna do anything to hurt him. But yet she killed a prosecutor. I'm afraid to say anything. So the prosecutor said they could the trust. So they were just going to offer him a plea deal of probation for a while and if you get into normal trouble, get wiped off your case and all that kind of stuff. But we never got to that because he came up missing. I had asked Sherry if Michael had any enemies or if he was in fear of anyone before he disappeared. His mother

24:18 told me that there was one individual who Michael had an issue with, and if anything were to happen to him, then the police would need to look at this individual. We'll take a final break and listen to Sherry discussed the moments leading up to when she last saw her son alive. Okay, so did Michael have any enemies that you knew about? Was there anyone that was mad at him or possibly someone might have wanted to harm Michael? Was there anything like that going on in his life that you knew about. Mikey takes me probably seven days before he left, and said, if anything happened to me, Mama, this is the person they did it, and that is what he might from. Takes me okay, and Michael gave you a name.

25:22 He gave a name, but for some reason they won't they won't him. Don't you find that kind of odd? I mean, he tells you that he's worried about someone doing something to him, and he gives you a name, and then he disappears. That's very concerning. I'm sure you were probably concerned when he first told you this. I find this to be a very odd situation. Would you agree, Yes, I'd be and a very odd. But I wanted my son about the individual. And my son said to me, I know, Mom, I know. And that was on the money, he says, I know. We talked about He came to my office and mind him, he spoke about it, and he says, yes, I know. And he told him about what he played when Alis was over and behind him, what he wanted to do with his life.

26:17 And that was when he disappeared. Right now, take me up until the day that he disappeared. From what I've read online, he worked at a restaurant, he got terminated, and then he came and spoke to you at your job. And this was on June the seventh or something like that of last year, and a little after ten am. Does that sound correct? Correct? Okay, Tuesday, June the seventh, Yes, that was Tuesday, and then you never saw him again. That's what I've read based on media sources. Now did they get it right or is there anything missing from their reporting that is correct? My son left me at ten. We looked at the video cameras wherever, and we saw him. We act bore at ten fifteen and we could bite him until the parting in seventeen. A lot of servilis cameras said around the company. I would for and now the post said he was on a bicycle. We never seen a bicycle. They sent me a picture. They emailed me last night see and she saw a young man on a bicycle and she said, he's such a darker and he doesn't look like person. And I said, we had to pitch a bone up and because at one time Providi vestigator was looking into this, and I said the picture was blown up and it was not Michael, but the police said he And so evidently they don't got to know where my son the bud and

27:47 it was different closed and left with the young man on the bicycle was a dark intellection. He had different clothes on. He didn't have a shirt own, but they said that was Michael. And you're absolutely positive that man reported on that bicycle was not your son. Oh, I'm never possible. Even the lady didn't even know last height from a ding person or something. Emailed me and said, do you have a better photo because this person is much darker than the individuals they do have about it, because I haven't from pictures of Michael live there. And she said it just it doesn't look like the same person. Well it wasn't. And that's when I tried to tell police, this is not Michael on this bicycle. What he wanted to say it is though, Okay, now let me go back to the day that he visited you, the last time that she saw him. Was there something specific that he had to tell you, I mean, other than just telling you that he got terminated from his job. Was there something else that he wanted to tell you or was it that he had just come by just to say hello to you. Michael always come back, Like I said, he came back to see me money. He came by, choose to tell me he had been let gold at his job. But they were being very treacherous with some things they would do, and this not the first time. Michael had been started before. But he all wouldn't go get a best job. There's a job he had before the end. So he just came by to tell

29:19 me that he had got terminated. He said, well and customed our work. I know a lot of people that I got that one. And so he just a mom I got let gold and I said, well, okay, but you know, I don't know where. The thing for me is that they will say Michael left that bank and committed society. It's what the police want to say. But if he committed suicide, where is his body? That's what the judge says. We fight every three months is a court system, and that's what judge says. I will not use his death of society because that was her court that all this was not there. And she said, that's not the mister Smith. I know he never mister cut a parents. He would always presentle. He didn't look like a thug. And she said, I would not rule he had death for suicide because they're trying to say that mighty left. My babe got on a bicycle which we pulled.

30:18 Was not his bodicycle. Rode to the Broadway Bridge and jump. We have a witness that said she saw him at four o'clock back at his house. The police weren't an end of the fifth person. Yes, I saw that he was getting his mail. Correct, Yes he was getting the mail, and the witness saw him. But the thing of it is, well, we'll have a problems with is all that We've had private investigator listen to all of this, and the ever dis that we have with the then it the police still will not listen to it. They would not spay anything about it, to keep saying he kills himself. They will not interview the wit is the sheriff department called me because okay, I opened their account, so they were nice and they were going to look into it. They tell the sheriff department they interviewed the witness and she had her day's wrong. The witness says, I never spoke to the police about the introdut So it's so much.

31:19 I don't know why. If it's he's created suicide by the live why a person that's not my son or a bid shield to try to convince me mother, But this is her turn. So all the going out my son that this Houston works six days of the teas of winder Shriet in Houston. He gets on Friday, he drives him for seven hours to leave the couple and him and I go out in any abandoned house, any wood that we think that you try a body. We have been. I have been in weeds up to my base looking for my son. I have not gotten me any cooperation from the police. The only thing I had was operation for a while from a private investigator and he told me I'm going ahead and find my son. After a month, I say months or two, he found out a lot of information. He disappeared. He don't even speak to me anymore.

32:19 So I don't know what he found out. But he closed his account. He didn't even tell me. Another branch called to tell me he closed as account and he left and he will have any more contact with me. So every time I get somebody to investigate, my son disappeared. The only thing I asked people, I just want to find his body. I just want to find my son's body. They were looking through it and whenever they found out, they were not huntack me anymore or take my fought house. And I mean the police demparted the sheriff Department. I've spoken to the US Marshall. I have called wherever they Man's alway on the news Cross the Cross, I have emailed him, I have emailed CNS anything. I ask people help me to locate my son because the police clams up anybody and everybody that looks into Michael's disappearance. And so that's where I am with it. My son and I will do it. We investigate, we talk to people, We go through houses, and like I said, I work all week.

33:29 I'm six fives now and I'm crawling in abandoned houses, but I'm looking at my son. So I even had an ex publishman came and said, I'm paying for your seal weapon license because it's one of my customers, so you can go out there and be armed. So I do everything that I can to defend Michael and bring home. Now, going back to the guy that Michael was concerned about. Have you ever spoken to this individual? Have you ever asked, hey, did you do something on my son? Yes? We have, Yes we have, and what did this person tell you? Yes, we do know some of the information about that individual, and we think that inviduals at all did but for some reason, the police were not even questioned any individual. Now we did have the p I didn't look and speak to the individual, and they was doing a hostile They made a comment that the only problem they just upset. I think that they came on his body. So basically they feel like, because you could found the body, you can't charge anybody within me. But for US police know we haven't helped it at all. And what is Michael's official status? So just to confirm he's considered missing? Is that correct? Yes? Oh, my god, on my birthday he came in June of US our filed to during the temp on my turn sixty four. A law enforcement did accept your missing person's report.

35:02 I know in some cases they don't always accept them. Oh they accepted that, yes, yes, But if you go out there on the missing profile, because in the US database, David n givement address, they make it seem like he was homeless day, say he was on a bicycle. It's so vague of Michael. They just put something out there, That's what they did. Because I wouldn't even alone, so they just put they wouldn't even say his last known address, They left that blank. It does a lot of the type and they had all the information. They had all of the information. So for now it's basically just you and your son, Cedric, who's a former marine, that are actually outlooking for your son. Yes, yes, I definitely do the same if something happened to one of my brothers. And so just to clarify, Michael is the youngest, correct, Cedric is one of his older brothers. Yes, he's the baby. He's the baby. Each one of my kids are three and a half years apart, so I have him forty five, the forty three, and Michael will be forty this year. So he comes home and like I said, I have his back. If he's in the houses, I'm standing outside watching it.

36:25 Because we've been in some very bad areas well, I definitely would not advise you to go out alone looking for Michael. It could be dangerous for you. No, No, I go with my gime because my son he's going and I have relatives they want to come. But I have five hundred nieces and nephews. It's five generations, it's five hundred of them. But right now, I don't want a lot of commotions. I don't want the focus to come off of what we're trying to do so right now, it's just my self and Cedric. We go out and we looked, and we will continue to look until we signed him. I definitely don't blame me for your efforts. Now, tell me when was the moment that you realized that there was something wrong with Michael. What made you come to the conclusion that he's missing or something bad has happened to him Michael, Like we said, it's a person that communicate. And so when Michael left my office AD Tuesday, I hadn't heard from him. Then then thirsty I called his significant other and asked us. She said, oh, he hasn't been home as like casually she said, oh, I haven't seen him. And I'm like, you haven't seen him, and she's like no. So I called her that Friday, and then I tried to call his phone and he kept going straight to voicemail or straight to something, and that wasn't like him to either text me or say something. And so by Friday, I still hadn't hear from

37:55 Michael, and that was not like Michael. So I knew then it had been three days. Something wasn't late, something was not right. And so I went and fold a missing person because, like I said, Michael, no matter what, he would communicate, and I hadn't heard from him in three days, so I knew something was wrong, something had to be wrong. And that concludes the first half of Michael Smith's story. Please listen to the conclusion next week. Have you seen Michael. He has described as being five foot ten and weighing around one hundred and thirty pounds. His family is desperately searching for him, and they do believe that he is deceased, but they want to locate him so that they can give him a proper burial and they can stop searching for him. If you know anything about Michael's disappearance, please contact the Little Rock Police Department at five zero one three seven one four six zero five. There is also a reward for any information leading to Michael's whereabouts. I will also provide this information in the case story notes. And if you are a parent, law enforcement official, friend, or relative see Injustice for an unsolved thomicide case, please visit my website and complete the contact form. You can also contact me through Facebook. Thank you for listening.