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We had to say goodbye to Lonestar - my 19 y.o. baby
On Monday I made the hard (but right) decision to take my old-man-baby cat to the vet for his final sleep, and I am just…devastated. I thought that his many health scares over the years and the buckets of tears I have shed over him in the process would have meant that my heart was more prepared for this moment, but unfortunately, that turned out not to be the case. Please allow me to tell you about my spicy orange cat. I got Lonestar as a 8-week old kitten when I was 22, several months before I met and started dating the man who is now my husband. We would always half-joke that Lonestar came first in my life and in my heart. This cat was truly one of a kind and fully wild; among the shenanigans he pulled in his early years included surfing down the stairs in a collapsible cube, jumping down from the window right next to my face on the pillow at night while I slept to wake me up, turning on stove burners and walking away (yep, I’m serious- we had to remove the knobs from the stove when we weren’t using it), mysteriously getting himself on the roof of my apartment, and scaling the top of door frames hanging by just his front paws. He was fierce and feisty and never backed down from a fight regardless of who started it -usually it was twenty-something guys who wanted to play fight with a kitten and walked away bleeding. He grew up to be 15 lbs of muscle and not a cat to be trifled with. Despite all that, when he was scared or in a new home, he would hide under the blankets on the bed. You could easily see him as a lump, but it made him feels safe. As he aged, he mellowed naturally, but his grudge match approach to conflict never wavered. Until the very end, he was very clear that he would not tolerate any other cats in his home, so he was always our one-and-only, although he did have to suffer some dogs in his life, but they were always terrified of him. It was a wonderful surprise, therefore, that when my son was born and shared his home, he tolerated everything this kid brought- including so many attempts to crawl on top of him,scoop him up and carry him around like a doll, and sometimes even attempt to ride our poor kitty. We DID step in when we saw this behavior, I was just always amazed that Lonestar didn’t draw blood, like he would with anyone else who tried anything not nearly so bold as what my son did. One night, after we brought home a new rescue dog, and my son attempted to sneak into our room to crawl into bed with us- the new dog mistook my son for an intruder and chased him through the house, barking, while my son screamed in terror, until Lonestar got between his boy and the dog and repeatedly claw-slapped the dog in the face, putting her in her place and establishing his dominance over a dog three times his size for the rest of their time together. My son took to calling Lonestar “grandpa” and even dressed up as him one year for Halloween. Lonestar used up every one of his nine lives, surviving, among other ailments: urethra obstruction by urine crystals when he was 5; bobcat fever when he was 11 (with a case so bad his vascular system started shutting down, and the tips of his ears and tail got crispy and fell off, almost like he had frostbite🙀); a severe case of necrotic pancreatitis at 15 that required surgery and a three week stay at the clinic- his vet said it was truly a miracle he survived; temporary diabetes triggered by steroids at 16; and temporary blindness caused by an allergic reaction to carrageenan at 18. He despised the vet’s office and one of the indicators of him feeling better was when he started to snarl, snort and growl again when the vet or techs came near him. He was described as “fractious” in his file. He was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer back in August and given days, possibly weeks, but probably not months to live. He held on another six months. Through it all, he was my little satellite, orbiting around me, wanting to be in my lap during dinner, on the couch with us when we watched movies, in my son’s bed while we read bedtime stories and in my bed when the lights went out until I woke in the morning…when he would follow me into to the kitchen for my coffee. The past few weeks he was eating less and less, despite me giving him anything he would want. He’d be interested and start to eat but only get a few bites down before walking away, and he dropped weight quickly. This last weekend, his back legs started to splay out from beneath him at night. I barely slept, wanting to make sure he got to the water bowl, his food and the litter box (though honestly, he had been missing the box half the time these last few months.) One of those times, I decided it would be safer for him to stay on his bed with the electric heating pad on the ground with his food and water nearby. I went back to my bed but couldn’t sleep, I was still so worried about him. I thought I heard the bell on his collar jingle, so I got up and found him in front of my bedroom door. His back legs weren’t working very well, but he was still trying to get back to my bed, back to me. It broke my heart. I will always be grateful that we were able to let him go peacefully before it got any worse than that. I know he is finally free from the pain that kept him from purring on his last day. The lack of his presence now in our home is huge. I never realized how, on a subconscious level, I was always aware of where Lonestar was in relation to me, lest I trip over or step on him. It’s almost instinctual how I find myself constantly looking for him as I move about my day still, and it hurts more than I can describe. He was the anchor in my life that made wherever we lived home. Now that he’s gone, I feel unmoored. submitted by /u/The_way_forward_ to r/SeniorCats [link] [comments]
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reddit.com |
The_way_forward_ |
Mar 6, 2026 |
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Why I sold my Tesla Model 3 Performance & went back to gas
I owned a 2019 Tesla Model 3 Performance for roughly two years and 15,000 miles. I'm going to distill my key learnings and experiences here, in an attempt to educate others on EVs and reach some form of closure. My ownership could best be summed-up as a love/hate relationship, ending with crazy used car values offering me the out I'd been quietly seeking. Clearly, I decided EVs aren't for me - at least, not yet. I'm not a "paid big oil shill" or someone who's trying to short the stock, as I'm sure some of the Tesla nuts will claim. I'm just a car enthusiast (disclaimer: not an engineer) standing at the same crossroads as the rest of you, wondering what sounds future children will make long after (if?) our beloved bureaucrats outlaw the ICE. Everything I'm writing here is based on my own unique tastes and preferences. How the pros and cons balance out at the end is entirely up to you. And that's fine. Choice is great. Note that this post centers on Battery EVs (BEVs) at the time of this writing, which comprise the vast majority of EVs on the road today. And yeah. This got way longer than I anticipated. But it was cathartic for me and I hope it's at least somewhat useful to someone out there. EV performance & its accessibility I'll start with what ultimately sold me on the car - Immense, instant power. The war in the "pure acceleration" category is pretty much over - just take a look at Jason Cammisa's video with the Model S Plaid vs. the BMW M5 CS and Cadillac Crazy. They're not even on the same planet. Not only is the acceleration brutal, but it's consistent (everything else held constant - more on that later). Look up any number of 0 - 60 videos on YouTube, and you'll notice that the times are all remarkably close, especially if there are multiple runs in the same video. And how could they not be? Software and traction control are fundamental to EV operation. Adjustments take mere milliseconds. The amount of "stuff" involved between your right foot and the tires is a joke compared to an ICE car. And it's basically idiot-proof - even with the Track Mode dialed to 100% hoon in my TM3P, it was nearly impossible to make a mistake. You just put your foot down and the car takes care of the rest, with literally zero drama. Electric motors are great And all of this performance comes with no mechanical sympathy. I never felt an ounce of it, flogging my Model 3 - there's really nothing to "break" mechanically in the way of the drivetrain. The entire drive unit consists of the motor, a few gears, the diff, a pump to circulate the oil... and that's really about it. No fried clutches, exploding transmissions, shredded differentials, etc... it's always ready to pounce at any speed, in any situation. Electric motors themselves are relatively inexpensive, quiet, clean, tough, extremely efficient, insanely long-lasting, and have an excellent power/size ratio. When it comes to to the task of turning energy into mechanical force, I'm not sure there's anything better. AND! You don't even have to worry about getting the motors up to operating temperature before you get on it. During the colder months, it easily takes 10+ minutes of highway driving for the oil of an ICE to warm up (you are looking at your oil and not the coolant temp, right?). I quite enjoyed leaving my neighborhood with the ability to give it full "throttle" right out of the gate. It's like teleporting straight into any 3-car gap, no matter where. (But there are limitations to this - more on that later, too.) Convenience & running costs You can also have your cake and eat it, too! There's no need to feel like a moron with a 550 HP ICE engine idling under the hood in daily stop and go traffic. My TM3P was an efficient, calm, quiet, easy, comfortable way of getting from Point A to Point B while being more similar performance-wise to a BMW M3 than a Toyota Corolla - with fewer running costs than either. True, the suspension, brakes, thermal management gubbins, etc., are largely synonymous between an EV and ICE. But when it comes to the actual propulsion, there's basically zero wear and tear. Just a dumb motor that doesn't care about much, and will probably last well past 1 million miles. With a new battery, you're basically looking at a brand-new drivetrain. And yes, running on electricity is cheaper than filling up an ICE car - this is where most of the EV "savings" materialize. In my experience, electricity in the mid-Atlantic region cost roughly 12¢/kWh and 9¢/kWh in the PNW. For my TM3P, that equates to about $10 and $8 in each region, respectively, to travel ~265 miles, assuming: A 75 kWh battery pack, lifetime consumption average of 280 Wh/mile, and a 13% charging loss, IF you can charge at home (which is key to the "get in and go" convenience of an EV - without that, forget it). Subtract oil + filter changes, spark plugs, failing chain tensioners, bad oxygen sensors, burnt out cat converters, and other annoying problems, and the running costs quickly stack up in the EV's favor. You rarely even use the brakes! Even with the initial purchase price of an EV still being notably higher than gasoline, on average, you can make the argument that it still comes out cheaper in the long run. But the wildcard here is "how long is 'long run?'" The cost of battery pack replacement isn't discussed as often as I'd like. Some of the earliest Model S packs are already starting to fail - only about 10 years later. When I sold my E46, it was approaching 20 years old. It still faithfully serves its new owner on a daily basis, today. Maybe I've only heard about the edge cases, and the Model 3's will all last considerably last longer, but I personally never got comfortable being part of a beta test. The batteries in these cars remain a delicate subject, which brings us to the poo-poo part of this post. Let's face it - batteries still suck. Electric motors are one thing; powering them is an entirely different story. Conventional lithium-ion batteries are really the only currently viable way to power EVs en masse. Part of what makes them great is that they're extremely efficient when it comes to storing and dispensing energy - especially compared to fossil fuels and other solutions in the works. You put electricity in, electricity comes back out. The leap from energy generation to use is extremely short. But they do have notable limitations around longevity, performance, and cost, especially when it comes to shuffling a 2+ ton vehicle around. Whether you're willing to accept these limitations is up to you. Degradation is inevitable At this point, the oldest Model Ss on the road at about 10 years old. Although the Model 3 pack is newer and has less cells (thus less to go wrong - 7,920 in the Plaid vs 4,416 in a TM3 LR), we don't yet have enough information to truly know what to expect from these packs from a longevity perspective. Unlikely that Tesla will ever share this info, either. If Elon is to be believed, the Model 3 pack should last 300,000 - 500,000 miles. If Elon is to be believed, fully-autonomous cars would've been shuffling us around long before 2020. We know that with proper care, pretty much any modern ICE car should be able to surpass the 250,000 mile mark without many problems. So anyone who likes to run their cars for as long as possible and buys an EV should know that they're venturing into the unknown. Yes, I'm aware that there are examples out there of Model Ss surpassing several hundred thousand miles - with the caveat being that a not-insignificant number of them of them involved battery and/or drive unit replacements at various points. There are also Hyundai Elantras out there with 1,000,000+ miles on their original powertrains. But note that degradation is only one part of the story. Upon my departure of Tesland, I can't recall hearing of anyone replacing packs due to natural degradation. All the replacement stories I came across were pack failures in one form or another. Yes, the internet is a fantastic place for angry people to vent, and it could be that the population's negatively skewed - like the Finnish guy who recently blew up his Model S on YouTube. But the reality is that if one single cell - not brick, not module, but cell - fails, the pack is done. That cell turns into a parasite. The car will struggle and ultimately fail to balance out the pack, eventually giving up one morning, telling you to GFY, and to take it to Tesla. Last I heard, replacing the battery on a Model S was ~$24,000 and ~$16,000 for a Model 3. This is just one type of sudden pack failure that I've heard about, and what makes it especially concerning is that the root cause seems fairly trivial relative to the catastrophe that ensues. Maybe it's overblown and maybe I'm being paranoid, but the chances of this happening are real, and only increase in with age... ...which is something else that affects battery degradation, as indicated by Tesla's latest shenanigan of selling "new" cars with batteries from 4+ year-old stock, claiming that range "may be reduced by 12%." (At the time of this writing: Model 3 SR drive unit + battery warranty is 8 years/100,000 miles, LR is 8 years/120,000 miles). So yes, the car is literally getting worse every day by the sheer virtue of just sitting there - especially in extreme climates. How pronounced is the impact of age vs. use vs. fast-charging is anybody's guess, but it's a reality that needs to be acknowledged. So if you're comfortable with basically ending up with a 2 - 3 ton paperweight if some electrical fault appears in the pack, and have the means to shovel cash into the Tesla furnace without much concern for what the future may hold, then you're probably less worried about the battery. I envy your fortitude and tolerance for risk - it's something I thought I could swallow, but couldn't. As I learned these realities, I became increasingly less comfortable with the prospect of keeping the car past its warranty period. Yes, an ICE can also fail (a timeworn Tesla fanatic argument), but not many ICE failures end in the car being completely inoperable - especially in modern cars which are ridiculously reliable and serviceable by anyone. Mitigation means sacrifice If you want the battery to last as long as possible, you have to be nice to it. You don't want to leave the battery fully-charged for extended periods of time, or let it drop below 10% - there are arguments that doing either of these is more detrimental to battery longevity than supercharging. But this is why the 90 - 100% block on a Tesla's charge indicator is labeled "Trip." (I don't think any other manufacturers do this... And part of me wonders whether it's a Teslan strategy to maximize rated range.) So right off the batt (ha), you're 20% down if you're concerned for battery health. It's OK to charge to 100% right before a long trip, but the lower, the better, around town. There are people who charge to 90%, 80%, or even lower on a daily basis as a result. Jeff Dahn recommends 70% to maximize life - you can look him up. Now, paying $50K+ for a vehicle like this and running it below its potential for most of its life just... sucks. Especially seeing as the car produces its maximum power output only at about 90%+ state of charge (SoC). That's right. Until they develop a battery that behaves like it's filled with a liquid, this is going to remain a reality. Batteries are only at their best when they're charged to 90 - 100% of their capacity. This becomes especially noticeable at highway speeds at a low SoC, since EVs accelerate far more brutally from a stop than from a roll. The car is still plenty quick on the highway, but this does result in some ass-clenching moments when passing cars on a divided yellow and you're used to driving around in God Mode. You put your foot down at
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DegradingBattery |
Dec 31, 2021 |
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When a body is found 600 miles away... Extensive two part write up on the bizarre case of Judy Smith (1997). Part 1 of 2.
Hello everyone, for the last few months I have been creating long form write-ups on a variety of unsolved cases. If you are interested in other lengthy write ups you can find them on my profile- https://www.reddit.com/user/Quirky-Motor/. Months ago, I was asked to cover the inexplicable case of Judy Smith, a woman who went missing from Philadelphia or perhaps Massachusetts, only for her body to be found in North Carolina months later. The case was famously covered on the show Unsolved Mysteries, and it is strange enough to warrant a long, hard look at the case and a comprehensive timeline. I hope you are able to learn something new about this semi well-known case. Background Judy Smith was born Judith Eldridge in Massachusetts in 1946. Right out of high school Judy married for the first time. Her husband and she had been married very shortly when in an attemot to avoid the draft, he fled to Sweden. Judy went in search of her young husband but soon returned to the states empty handed and filed for divorce. Years later, Judy married Charles Bradford a man who worked in the racehorse industry. They had two children together, Craig and Amy, but unfortunately the marriage did not last and soon Judy found herself jobless and raising two children by herself. Rather than fret, Judy got a job and enrolled in nursing school. Judy was known to study in all of her free time and soon became a successful home health care nurse. In 1986 at age 40, Judy was caring for a man who was recovering from throat surgery when she met her patient’s son, a well to do lawyer named Jeffrey Smith. Jeffrey said he was impressed by how Judy cared for his father and asked her on a date. Judy and Jeff had several things in common, both had been divorced single parents who raised children alone, and Jeffrey worked in healthcare as well, except he was a lawyer. The couple both enjoyed going to plays and Celtics basketball games. After seven years together, Jeff and Judy moved in together and three years later the couple married in Nov., 1996. According to friends and family, Judy was a rather assertive and independent person. She was no stranger to travelling alone. Judy had been to Europe on her own a few times, and when her children were pre-teens, she took them to Europe for a backpacking adventure. Judy also independently traveled to Thailand where she went hiking and visited friends. While Judy wasn’t the epitome of fitness, she was an active person who enjoyed walking, hiking, and sightseeing. She was also known to be a go-getter who once helped an AIDS patient who was having a medical crisis on a plane. So, while Judy was kindhearted and considerate, she wasn’t thought to be naive and was able to take care of herself in a variety of different situations. The disappearance Five months into her new marriage on April 9th 1997, Jeffrey prepared to attend a conference in Philadelphia that was taking place from Wednesday April 9th-Friday April 11th at the Double Tree hotel in downtown Philadelphia. Judy decided to accompany her husband to Philadelphia and planned to do some sightseeing in the area. Afterwards, the Smiths were going to New Jersey to spend the weekend with some friends before flying back home. On April 9th in the morning, Judy accompanied her husband to Logan International Airport to fly to Philadelphia, but discovered at the gate that she could not board as she did not have her photo ID. Judy encouraged Jeffrey to take the 1:30 pm flight and assured him that she would take a flight later that day and meet him in Philadelphia. According to relatives, the Smiths took public transport to the airport and Judy apparently took the bus back home and retrieved her ID. Jeffrey flew to the conference while Judy returned home and booked a flight for later that day. Judy boarded a 7:30 pm flight and arrived at the hotel in Philadelphia at approximately 9:30 pm. Once at the hotel, the couple purchased some snacks and went to bed. The next morning Jeffrey awoke and ate breakfast at the complimentary buffet downstairs while his wife was still asleep. When he returned to the room Judy was in the shower. The two talked about several things, and Judy explained that she planned on taking the PHLASH bus in order to see the famous sights such as the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. The Smiths planned on meeting up at the hotel in the evening to attend the conference’s 6 pm cocktail party together. With that squared away, Jeffrey attended the conference. Sometime in between 9 and 10 am a hotel concierge recalled seeing a woman matching Judy’s description ask how to get to the PHLASH bus stop. The woman was in her 50s, with shortish hair, wearing a dark colored coat, blue jeans, and white tennis shoes, carrying a bright red backpack. (Picture of the Judy wearing the backpack here). At approximately 5:30 pm Jeffrey who was done with the day’s sessions returned to the hotel room expecting to find Judy waiting for him. Judy wasn’t there, so Jeffrey attended the cocktail hour in the hopes his wife was already visiting at the party, but she wasn’t there either. For the next 45 minutes, Jeffrey floated between the room and the party hoping to find Judy. At approximately 6:15 pm Jeffrey told the concierges that his wife had not returned from sightseeing and the hotel staff began calling local hospitals. At 6:30 pm, Jeffrey hopped in a taxi and instructed the driver to take the PHLASH bus route slowly so he could look for his wife. In one interview Jeffrey recalled that he made the driver go so slow it angered those stuck behind him. After a few hours without any sign of Judy, Smith called the police to report his wife missing. Shockingly, the PPD told Jeffrey that he couldn’t file a report until it had been twenty-four hours since the last final sighting of Judy. After lodging some complaints with some high-ranking officials within the city, a missing person’s report was taken for Judy Smith on the morning of April 11th, 1997 (Lewis, 1997). Jeffrey called his step children and asked them to check the house in case Judy had gone home, and he also asked that they would check the answering machine, but there were no messages of note and the house was empty. A check of the hotel room showed that Judy had left with her signature red backpack, her wallet, the jewelry she normally wore including a diamond engagement band and a simple silver wedding ring, and the clothes on her back. Jeffrey estimated that she had approximately $200 dollars with her at the time. --> According to later interviews with Philadelphia investigators, Judy, or someone with her name did in fact buy a USair ticket on the 7:30 pm flight into Philadelphia. Her ticket was used to make the flight and her seat was occupied on the flight into Philadelphia (Justiceforjudy.org). At the time of the Smiths’ trip, regulations that required photo identification to board a plane had only been in effect for 18 months and Judy had flown only one other time during that time frame. Additionally, police have a luggage tag from Judy’s suitcase that showed that she took the 7:30 pm flight, and that her bag did not travel to Philadelphia with Jeffrey earlier in the day (AP, Oct 4th, 1997). Sightings As news of Judy’s disappearance spread, many people called the police station to report various sightings of Judy. One PHLASH driver remembered picking up Judy in the early afternoon at Front and South streets, a stop near the Double Tree. There was also a reported sighting of Judy entering the Greyhound bus station at 11th and Filbert sometime in the early afternoon. This station is a common place for tourists to use the bathroom and is only a 10-minute walk to the DoubleTree hotel. One report claims Judy was seen entering and then exiting the station but most reports mention only entering the station. This area was close to Philadelphia’s Chinatown and Jeffrey speculated that Judy may have gone to Chinatown for lunch as she loved both Chinese and Thai food, but no restaurant owners remembered seeing Judy that day. There was yet another sighting of a woman who looked like Judy at around 3 pm near the hotel; witnesses claimed this woman seemed disoriented. A number of sightings were reported over the next few days in the waterfront area of the city called Penn’s Landing. A variety of people claimed to have seen Judy. Some witnesses said she seemed confused or dazed. Judy’s two children, her son in law Jay, and Jeffrey looked into these sightings and discovered that there was a homeless woman in the area who looked strikingly similar to Judy and it is believed that many witnesses saw this woman rather than Judy Smith. This local resident looked so similar to Judy that at one point Judy’s son Craig crossed the street thinking he had discovered his mother, only for it to be the other woman. Police officers and volunteers stopped this woman a number of times as well. One transient in the area, a man named David, was insistent that he saw Judy, not the other woman, on the night of April 10th in the Penn’s landing area, either resting or sleeping on the bench. He was insistent it was Judy, and not the other woman as he knew the other woman from the neighborhood. Judy’s son believes this story is credible as David was coherent and very willing to be interviewed, even though there was nothing to be gained from his testimony and he was simply happy to help the family. He also identifed Judy from a collection of photos, something many other witnesses were unable to do. On April 11th an employee at a Macy’s department store in Deptford, New Jersey believed that she interacted with Judy Smith in the morning on that day. She described the clothes Judy wore, right down to the old red backpack. This shopper told the employee, that she was buying some dresses for her daughter but laughed because her daughter often disliked the pieces that she purchased for her. Judy’s family confirmed that this was acurate and affirmed that Judy sometimes shopped at Macy’s. The customer appeared to be slightly disoriented as she asked a young woman in the store to leave with her, thinking that the other customer was her daughter or a someone else she knew. One report says that Judy asked another customer in the store about menopause, a very odd subject to talk about, especially with someone you don’t know in a department store. This mall complex was in Deptford, New Jersey, a bus ride away from Philadelphia, across the Delaware River. According to newspaper reports, NJ Transit Buses had routes which traveled from downtown Philly to Deptford hourly, and the stop was very close to the mall the sighting took place at, meaning it was possible for Judy to have boarded the bus and ended up in Deptford quite easily. Unfortunately, the Macy’s didn’t have security footage which showed this customer and the woman paid for her purchases in cash. After a second story ran in the newspaper on April 14th, a variety of other witnesses came forward with stories. The most famous report came from a Society Hill hotel employee who explained that a woman who matched Judy’s description stayed in the hotel from April 13th-15th. The woman appeared to have psychiatric problems and did a variety of strange things during her stay such as touch herself very noticeably in front of the window (it’s unknown if this was in her room or in the lobby), speak in tongues, and finally claimed that “the emperor” would help her pay for her stay at the hotel. This wacky guest was remembered by several employees including the hotel manager, a woman named Abby Gainer, who alerted the police. The strange guest told the employees that she wanted to stay at the hotel for another night but didn’t have the funds to do so. She later said she would get the money via a Western Union wire transfer from “the emperor” (Altman, 1997). The nearby Best Western Hotel had a similar situation with a similar woman. Concierge Tyrone Taylor remembered that on the 15th, a woman matching this description entered the hotel to use the telephone in the late afternoon. The woman was speaking loudly and said that “the emperor of China” was going to pay for her stay as she did not have the cash to pay for a night at the hotel. Taylor reported that the woman was well dressed and did not appear to be a transient. Both hotel employees reported that the woman was a heavyset blonde in her 50s, wearing heavy dark makeup, eye glasses with tape on the side, and nicer clothes. Gainer reported the woman was sporting an expensive looking scarf with camels and roses on it. The woman, who signed in as "H. K. Rich/Collins," did not have any luggage with her and was wearing very different clothes than Judy was last seen in. When Taylor called the police to report his sighting, he gave the strange guest a call (she must have left a telephone number) and told her she could have a free night at the hotel. She arrived at the Best Western but police decided that the woman was not Judy Smith (Altman, 1997). The hotel sightings were nothing more than a red herring. Over the next few months various sightings were reported but none seemed to pan out. Many of the sightings were believed to be other people who looked like Judy. After all history has shown that false eyewitness sightings are incredibly common in cases of missing persons. Philadelphia PD’s investigation Philadelphia PD launched an inquiry into the disappearance of Judy Smith on April 11th, 1997. Jeffrey tried to report Judy as missing in the late evening hours of April 10th, but the police told him to wait 24 hours. Smith, however, was a well-connected man and after a few complaints to both a Pennsylvania state representative and the mayor (both men were attorneys and knew Jeffrey from previous work functions), Jeffrey was able to file a report in the early morning hours of the 11th. The Smith family made and hung flyers in the area. Judy’s children joined the search and followed up on sightings around the tourist areas of Philly. Police interviewed Jeffrey, Judy’s children, and others in order to retrace Judy’s last steps. Judy left behind her passport at her home in Massachusetts meaning she could not have easily left the county. The Smith’s two landline records were checked but nothing out of the ordinary was found. After interviews and searches of the area, Philadelphia PD announced that they believed Judy had never made it to Pennsylvania at all and speculated that Judy went missing from the Boston area. This speculation was based on a couple of things. First, investigators did not believe Jeffrey’s story that Judy couldn’t catch the flight due to a lack of photo ID. Police thought that this story was odd and did not believe a seasoned traveler like Judy would forget her license at home before heading to the airport. --> Later investigation showed that someone named Judith Smith took a 7:30pm flight into Philadelphia and flight manifest showed that the ticket was used to make the flight that evening, however, the entire incident is still odd to many amateur sleuths and professional investigators. Another detective thought it was odd that while Judy had clothes and belongings in the hotel room, she didn’t have any cosmetics with her. Further, detectives noticed that there were few soiled items of clothing in the room meaning that if Judy was in Philadelphia on the 10th, she wore the same jeans and coat that she was wearing the night before. Judy’s children reported that this wasn’t uncommon for their mother as she wasn’t a frilly person. They also said that their mother only wore makeup on occasion and not while traveling so these things didn’t seem out of the ordinary to them. (Personally, I have also wondered if Judy did have some makeup, but it was in her backpack at time. I know plenty of women who don’t wear much makeup, but if you looked in their purse or bag you might find some lip stick or powder.) Investigators went on to say that no one but Jeffrey could place Judy in Philadelphia during this time frame. This announcement resulted in several eyewitnesses who claimed that they had seen Judy at the hotel. One receptionist from the hotel claimed that on April 9th in between 9-10 pm, she saw Judy arrive at the hotel and greet her husband in the lobby. She said that Jeffrey gave Judy flowers and the two appeared to be apologizing to each other. (Jeffrey said this was the case except Judy gave him the flowers). One concierge remembered a woman in her 50s with a coat and old red backpack ask him how to get to the PHLASH bus stop at around 10 am on April 10th. He knew it was after 9 am because that is when his shift started. Finally, a conference goer named Carmen Catazone, who was sitting in the lobby also recalled the flower incident from the night before. The woman did not know Jeffrey personally, but recognized him from the conference. Jeffrey was a moderator for a variety of sessions and was very overweight so he was easily recognizable. These witness’ accounts seem to line up with Jeffrey’s story. As far as I can tell the flower story had not been released to the press at this point. Finally, Philadelphia PD divulged that Jeffrey wasn’t fully cooperative, as he wouldn’t submit to a polygraph. Jeffrey denies this and said that as a lawyer he knew that polygraphs are fallible. Further, he claims that he was willing to take a lie detector if it was given by an outside agency such as the FBI, but Philadelphia police declined this scenario. These are the four reasons investigators used in order to prop up their theory that Judy wasn’t in Philadelphia at all. Despite witness sightings, this theory is a popular on online to this day. Aftermath and Discovery After several weeks Jeffrey returned to the Boston area and tried to resume his normal life. He drastically cut back his hours at the office reporting that he could not focus on his work. Smith attempted to keep his wife’s case in the spotlight doing interviews whenever he could and eventually landing a spot on the show Unsolved Mysteries. On the show, one friend of the couple called the marriage “tenuous” but modern articles on the case mention that the police could find no one who reported concerns like these about the couples’ relationship. In independent interviews Judy’s adult children denied witnessing any warning signs in their mother’s new marriage. Eventually, Jeffrey hired three private investigators to look for Judy. The PIs faxed over 9,000 missing posters to police departments and hospitals all over the country hoping that someone would recognize Judy. Five months after her disappearance in September 1997, a man and his son were hunting in the Pisgah National Forest near Candler, North Carolina, a short drive from the city of Asheville. On a steep incline one-quarter mile from a picnic area, which itself was a mile from hike from the nearest parking area, the duo found what appeared to be a human bone. They alerted the police who responded to the scene. Over an area approximately 300 feet in diameter, investigators found most of a human skeleton which had been wrapped in a blue blanket and buried in a very shallow grave. Scavenging animals had dug up the skeleton and a few bones had been carried away. The skeleton was determined to be female. The woman was dressed in thermal underwear under her jeans, hiking boots, socks, a t-shirt, a bra and a jacket. Nearby in two different holes, a blue vinyl backpack and a men’s shirt had been buried. The backpack contained some winter clothing and 80 dollars. The shirt contained a pair of $110 Bolle brand sunglasses, as well an additional $87. A paperback mystery novel was also found nearby. She carried no ID. The slope where the body was discovered was near some hiking trails, but the hill itself was steep and at an elevation of 4,000 feet, the search was difficult. The incline was so severe that one investigator crushed his sciatic nerve attempting to search the area, an injury which required major surgery. Early coverage of the body’s discovery in the Asheville Citizen Times, initially reported that the police found a body belonging to a woman who they believed to be in her 20s dressed in hiking clothes (Ball, 1997). Several days later, the medical examiner assessed the bones and concluded that the skeleton was that of white woman in her 40s or 50s, who was about 5’3” tall with shortish light brown hair. There were cut marks in the woman’s bra and t-shirt which indicated that she had been stabbed in the chest area, however, no cause of death could be determined. Some reports mention that there was trauma to the woman’s ribs. The decedent also had a severely arthritic right knee (some reports say it was her left knee), extensive fillings and dental work in her molars, and some animal hair on her shirt, which may have been horse hair. The woman did not seem to be a transient due to her nice clothes and dental work. The death was ruled a homicide as the woman had been wrapped in a blanket post mortem and buried. The ME determined that the body had been there for 1-2 years prior. For several weeks the skeleton remained nameless in the ME’s office. On September 9th, a small blurb about the unidentified body ran in an Asheville, North Carolina paper. 65 miles away in Franklin, NC, an ER physician named Parker Davis was looking at missing poster which had been faxed to the hospital he worked at when he noticed that the woman on the poster had a severely arthritic knee. He remembered the story of the skeleton from the paper who had a similar knee problem. On a whim he called the police who were able to get a copy of Judy’s missing poster. After a preliminary check, the ME contacted Jeffrey in order to obtain a copy of Judy’s dental records. The records were a match, and by the end of September 1997, Judy had her name back. Friends and family were also able to identify Judy’s diamond engagement band with a pear-shaped stone and wedding ring which had been found on or near the body. Some early reports say that the woman had no jewelry and that Judy’s wedding ring was missing, but later reports say that it was found near the body. The area of the burial was searched on at least three occasions so it is possible the rings were not found until later. Missing was Judy’s wallet, red backpack, and some jewelry that she typically wore (it’s unclear what jewelry this is referring to). The coat she was last seen wearing was nowhere to be found and the clothes she was dressed in, as well as those in the backpack were unable to be identified by family or friends. The shirt buried nearby was a men’s shirt and was believed to belong to the killer, not Judy. Furthermore, the sunglasses did not appear to be Judy’s as Judy’s kids said she wasn’t the type to spend over $100 on sunglasses. The sunglasses are an athletic style and to me look like men’s or unisex sport sunglasses. Buncombe County Investigation Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department took over the case from the PPD after Judy’s identification. Once it was determined that Judy was the woman in the woods, several residents in and around Asheville reported that they had seen Judy or had interacted with her in the April shortly after she was last seen in Philadelphia. For example, one woman thought Judy had stayed at her hotel from April 10th-12th, one woman who worked at a souvenir shop near the Biltmore house (a tourist attraction near Asheville) thought that she spoke to Judy who said she was from Boston and that her husband was a lawyer. Another woman who worked in a store recalled that Judy with her red backpack. She claims that Judy bought a toy truck and approximately $30 worth of sandwiches. There were two other sightings of a person resembling Judy in the area in a gray sedan. One person claimed to have seen Judy near the Pisgah National Forest in a gray sedan chock full of stuff. This witness said that the woman was looking for a place to camp. Another person saw a woman in a gray sedan in the same area. All sightings occurred in the week or so after Judy was last seen in Philadelphia. Of course, it goes without saying that, eyewitness testimony can be unreliable and the human mind is susceptible to suggestion. North Carolina investigators traveled to Philadelphia to retrace Judy’s steps. They have said that they don’t believe that PPD did a poor job but simply wanted to cover their bases. Two detectives flew to Philadelphia and determined that Judy probably been there at least briefly before traveling to the Pisgah National Forest. They reported that there was no indication that Judy had been abducted or otherwise forced to travel south. It appeared she at least started the journey of her own volition. In all the sightings of Judy in North Carolina, she was alone. Buncombe county deputies were able to rule out Jeffrey as a suspect rather quickly, although they concede that anything is possible and Jeffrey could be involved however unlikely it seems. Jeffrey was ruled out based on his size and health. Jeffrey was a morbidly obese man who investigators noted began huffing and puffing when walking quickly or climbing stairs. Because of this they did not believe Jeffrey could have disposed of his wife’s body especially in such an inaccessible area of the forest. Furthermore, they could find no evidence that Jeffrey rented a car in Philadelphia adding to the logistical problems with Jeffrey being a suspect. On top of his lack of car, Jeffrey had less than 12 hours to dispose of Judy’s body as he was seen in the lobby of the hotel at 9:30 pm, and then was moderating a session of the conference at 9:30 am. Driving to the Pisgah National Forest from Philadelphia takes approximately nine hours one way meaning he did not have time to kill and dispose of his wife. One podcast on the case mentions that police could find no large withdrawals of money from the Smith’s accounts which could have indicated the hiring of a hit man or a paid accomplice. (I could find no other corroboration of this claim so take this with a grain of salt.) Jeffrey also kept his wife’s case in the spotlight and suffered many hardships in the wake of his wife’s disappearance. Besides the one woman who was interviewed on Unsolved Mysteries, no other friends or family reported that there were issues in marriage that they were aware of. Philadelphia police also struggled with Jeffrey’s size as carrying and disposing of a dead body is quite taxing and it is doubtful that Jeffrey could have done this on his own. However, they say that Jeffrey is still as suspect as he could have killed his wife in Boston or had an accomplice. With the most obvious suspect cleared, investigators moved on to other lines of inquiry. They searched the surrounding areas hoping to find people who had seen Judy which is how the discovery of the woman in the gray car was made. Police also searched a nearby horse farm as Judy was known to like horses and had what could have been horse hair on her body, but nothing definitive was found. Other information Philadelphia investigators looked at the Smith’s phone records and determined that there was no unusual activity on either of their phone lines that would indicate that either of the Smiths were having affairs. Neither Jeffrey or Judy had cell phones. If Judy was having an affair at the time, none of her friends could provide any insight or speculate as to who it was. There was a computer in the house which was searched, but it is unknown if the computer was connected to the internet. When Judy went missing Jeffrey believed that she had approximately $200 on her person. About $500 dollars in cash was found among Judy’s things in the hotel room. Judy also disappeared with her ID, her credit card, and her phone card. To this day, there has been no activity on either card. Judy’s description varies from source to source. Some sources report that she was “heavy set” or “top heavy”. Others say she was 130 or 140 lbs., which is more average size for a 5’2” woman. In some pictures Judy looks to be of a larger build, but in some photos, she appears smaller. Whether these weights were a misprint or Judy was someone whose weight fluctuated regularly is unclear. It is not a very important detail but it is a discrepancy I wanted to point out. Judy had been to North Carolina only once and had no connection to the area. She had once been to Raleigh to visit Jeffrey who was at a weight loss clinic. Jeffrey said that he loved the area and thought about moving, but the couple never returned to the state. Family also said that Judy had once traveled to Tennessee or another nearby state with a former patient but that had been years earlier. Judy Smith is also the name of a famous "Crisis Manager." This Judy Smith was the inspiration for the hit show "Scandal" with actress Kerry Washington. This woman is not the same Judy Smith who went missing in 1997. Suspects Gary Michael Hilton, sometimes called the national park killer, is a suspect in Judy's disappearance. In 2008 Hilton was arrested for a murder in a national forest and was later linked to three other murders, all of which took place between 2005 and 2008. Hilton, who was in his 50s and 60s at the time, killed hikers in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina and he is considered a suspect in many other murders in surrounding states such as Arkansas, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Hilton, who loved the outdoors, would often stalk hiking trails, camp sites, and other areas known for outdoor recreation to find victims to terrorize. His crimes were tended to be opportunistic and his motive most often was monetary. Hilton held down a series of jobs from 1997 to 2007 but did not work full time. He was also a drifter who moved from place to place. Hilton usually assaulted and robbed his victims of their wallets, atm cards, cash, and valuables. His victims were male and female, young and old. He seemed to prefer victims who were isolated and alone did not try to find a specific type of person otherwise. One thing that is interesting about Hilton as an offender is that it appears that he did not commit any violent crimes before he was 58 or 59 years old. Hilton has a very long rap sheet but most of his crimes were relatively minor such as possession of marijuana, carrying a pistol without a license, soliciting false donations for charity, carrying a police baton, and DUI. Once arrested several violent incidents that Hilton had been a part of came to light but he had never been convicted of them in the past. Most people agree someone with does not start a life of violent crime in their 60s. Many believe the Gary Michael Hilton has more victims then are currently known. John and Irene Bryant, an eclectic couple in their 80s, were hiking in the Pisgah National Forest in 2007 when they were attacked by Hilton. Hilton killed Irene, and then kidnapped her husband in order to use their ATM cards and withdraw money before killing John as well. Irene's body was left only miles from where Judy's body was found 10 years earlier. This is one of the most convincing pieces of evidence that Hilton may have been involved in Judy's murder as well. However, it is important to note that Judy was not robbed and Hilton did not bury any of his known victims. Judy's murder also took place 10 years before any Hilton's other murders. Some blogs or more unofficial sources on the case mentioned that Hilton was believed to be in Georgia at the time of Judy's disappearance, but this isn't known for sure. If you are interested in learning more about the crimes of Gary Michael Hilton this reddit post is a really good place to start. This post did a good job of putting it all in one place so thank you u/lisagreenhouse. Another offender who was in the Asheville area at the time of Judy's disappearance was a young man named Lewis Kyle Wilson. In the early 2000s Wilson was arrested after assaulting and robbing a sex worker he had brought home to his property. There's not a lot of information on Wilson online, but he was living in Asheville and would have been 19 at the time of Judy's disappearance. I cannot find any evidence that Wilson actually killed anyone but he does have a history of violence towards women and was in the area at the time so he is sometimes mentioned online as a possible suspect. One sex worker Wilson was known to frequent was the victim of an unsolved homicide that happened in 2006; Wilson is the prime suspect in that crime. In 2016, only a couple of miles from Judy's burial site in the Pisgah National Forest, a lone hiker in her 60s was attacked, raped, and left tied to a tree. Thankfully, the woman was found alive and taken to the hospital. Some have wondered if this crime was connected to the Judy Smith homicide but there is no hard evidence of this and the rapist remains unknown. Theories Amnesia is one possible explanation for Judy’s disappearance. The family believes that Judy was injured or otherwise suffered a bout of dissociative amnesia which caused her to become confused or forget her identity. This is supported by the sightings of a confused or disoriented Judy in Philadelphia. The family believes this explains why Judy traveled to the Pisgah National Forest apparently of her own free will. One theory is that Judy and Jeffrey had an argument that spurred an angry Judy to leave the area, whether she left from Boston or Philadelphia. After she left the area and traveled south to North Carolina, she met with foul play. In a similar vein, some believed Judy willingly traveled to North Carolina to meet up with someone, perhaps a friend or a secret boyfriend. The ID incident at the airport was simply a cover so Judy could converse with this person who she wanted to meet. Once in North Carolina she met with foul play perhaps at the hand of the person she went to meet. One theory Jeffrey explored was that Judy was suffering from mental illness and had a psychotic break. Being a lawyer, Jeffrey was able with some legal maneuvering to obtain all of Judy’s medical records from her adult life, including a physical she had had only months before hand. There was no indication that Judy had ever had any mental health concerns. Neither she or her doctors ever mentioned anything that would have pointed to any mental health problems, even minor ones such as anxiety. According to Jeffrey, Judy’s newest physical reported that Judy was in good mental and physical health (Lewis, 1997 and Trace Evidence Podcast). Other sleuths have speculated that Judy traveled to North Carolina because she was questioning her sexuality. Asheville at the time was known for having an LGBT community. This theory is pushed forward by one interview on the Unsolved Mysteries segment as Judy’s friend says, “If you are looking for a mystery man, there wasn’t one.” Some have said that this implied that Judy had met a mystery woman, not a man. However, this theory is full of holes. No friends or family ever had any indication that Judy was questioning her sexuality. Judy had been married to men on three occasions and had other boyfriends as well. This explanation fails to explain why this realization would cause Judy to unexpectedly travel hundreds of miles and cease contact with her children. It also fails to explain who killed Judy. Others have speculated that Judy was tricked into going to North Carolina. Perhaps she met someone while sightseeing who offered her a ride and that person abducted her or drove her to North Carolina for some reason. Personally, I have always wondered if Judy was suffering from early onset dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. This would be a similar theory to the psychotic break theory; however, I believe this explains why Judy was described as both disoriented and acting normal in different sightings. I am by no means an expert, but if I understand correctly, patients with these conditions can get very confused and agitated but can also have times of acting completely lucid. I think this theory can explain why Judy forgot her license at home before flying, and can also explain her disappearance. I think it is possible Judy got on the wrong bus and ended up first at the Deptford mall and then eventually North Carolina, simply getting more and more lost each day. Of course, this hypothesis does not solve Judy’s murder, it simply gives an explanation for her travels. A final theory that is prevalent online is the idea that the doe found in Pisgah National Forest was not Judy at all and was instead misidentified. While this is always possible and something I have entertained from time to time, Judy was matched via dental records, her arthritic knee, and her distinct engagement ring with a pear-shaped stone. If the doe was not Judy, then the mystery becomes even stranger, and now includes the identity and murder of yet another woman. While the odds of a similarly aged woman, with a bad knee, similar dental work, and a plain silver wedding band accompanied with a fancy diamond engagement ring, who was not Judy being murdered in the forest is possible, I believe that it is not very likely. Proponents of this theory point to the ME’s report that the doe had been in the forest for over a year, while Judy had been missing only five months at the time of her discovery. TO BE CONTINUED... Full list of sources are in part two- https://unsolved.com/gallery/judy-smith/ link to part 2 https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/kky2l2/when_a_body_is_found_600_miles_away_extensive_two/ submitted by /u/Quirky-Motor to r/UnresolvedMysteries [link] [comments]
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reddit.com |
Quirky-Motor |
Dec 27, 2020 |
United States
