184. Looks Like A Bad Meeting At The High School Auditorium - The Very Solvable Murder Of Jay Smith

Sometimes it’s so crystal clear that a crime was committed, who did the crime, why the crime was committed and where to go find the bad guy – it’ll drive you nuts.  And that is pretty much the story of the disappearance of 23 year-old Austin “Jay” Smith exactly 28 years ago on March 23, 1993. when he left his home in the suburbs of Southern California's San Gabriel Valley and never returned.  It’s enough to make a sane person go mad.  Dig it:  We know Jay went to an appointment that evening, meeting a former employer who was renting audio-video equipment at a local high school – despite the fact that said former employer was furious with Jay for reporting him to the school for pocketing rental money for himself.  We know that when he didn’t return at the expected time, Jay’s girlfriend drove to the auditorium where she saw Jay’s truck and the former employer’s camper parked, and that when she banged on the auditorium door, the disheveled former employer opened briefly, only to slam the door in the girlfriend’s face.  We know that shortly thereafter, when the girlfriend drove back around to the auditorium, Jay’s truck was gone but the former employer’s camper was still there – and that Jay’s truck was found the next day just a few blocks from the auditorium – and that a witness states he gave the former employer a ride back to the auditorium late on the night of the 23rd when he saw him walking near where Jay’s truck was found – and that a barrel large enough to hold someone of Jay’s size was found to be missing the day after Jay’s disappearance…  …oh – and then there’s the fact that after initially being interviewed by the police, the former employer left town for TWO WEEKS without letting anyone know where he went.  In his camper.  Which had plenty of room to carry a barrel.  And 28 years later, the former employer has never been arrested.  See – Jay’s body has never been found.  And until recently, the Los Angeles County DA’s office simply didn’t prosecute “no body” cases.  That has changed – and for the past 8 years a dedicated detective named Richard Lopez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau has been doggedly pursuing answers – looking for that one shred of evidence or witness to put Jay Smith’s case over the top so he can make the arrest so many have been expecting for so long.  Listen in as Melissa relates this agonizingly simple-yet-impossibly-difficult story – and urges anyone who knows anything about what happened to Jay to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.