VA VA - Dashad "Sage" Smith, 19, Charlottesville, 20 Nov 2012

[dotr]

Could there be a connection?
http://www.nbc12.com/story/31361406/20-years-ago-alicia-showalter-reynolds-disappears-on-route-29
[h=3]20 years ago: Alicia Showalter Reynolds disappears on Route 29[/h] March 11th 2016,

Alicia Showalter Reynolds was just 25 years old back on March 2, 1996, when she was headed to meet her mom and go shopping. Witnesses say her white Mercury was seen parked on the side of Route 29 south and that she wasn't alone.

Witnesses say a white man in his mid-30s to mid-40s was stopped outside her car. The man, standing 5' 10" to 5' tall with a medium build and light to medium brown hair was driving a dark-colored pickup truck, maybe a Nissan.

Other cases have also been reported along Route 29. Some, like that of Morgan Harrington, have since been closed. Others, like that of Samantha Clarke and Dashad "Sage" Smith, have not.

In September 2010, Clarke vanished. The 17-year-old was last seen leaving her apartment in the town of Orange and never returned home. She has never been found.
Also still missing is Smith, a 20-year-old transgender woman last seen near the Charlottesville Amtrak Station in November 2012.

Virginia State Police released this sketch of a possible suspect and a picture of a possible suspect vehicle in the Showalter Reynolds case.

rbbm.

 

[dotr]

http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/11/264462.htm
Transgender Day of Remembrance

Press Statement John Kerry
Secretary of State

Washington, DC

November 20, 2016

---

On Transgender Day of Remembrance, the United States solemnly honors the memory of the many transgender individuals who lost their lives to senseless acts of violence.

Transgender persons around the world are targeted by rising levels of violence fueled by hatred and bigotry. This is a global challenge and we all must do more to protect transgender persons on the basis of equality and dignity.

 

[dotr]

Bumping for Dashad.
Just noticed a glaring coincidence- Dashad went missing on November 20th and Transgender Day of Remembrance is on Nov 20th, fwiw.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Transgender_Day_of_Visibility

International Transgender Day of Visibility is an annual holiday occurring on March 31

[1][SUP][2][/SUP] dedicated to celebrating

transgender people and raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide. The holiday was founded by US-based transgender activist[SUP][3][/SUP] Rachel Crandall of Michigan in 2009[SUP][4][/SUP] as a reaction to the lack of LGBT holidays celebrating transgender people, citing the frustration that the only well-known transgender-centered holiday was the Transgender Day of Remembrance which mourned the murders of transgender people, but did not acknowledge and celebrate living members of the transgender community

 

[Susan59]

Search for Sage Smith now a homicide investigation
The Daily Progress
March 27, 2017

"More than four years ago, Sage Smith took a walk near West Main Street in Charlottesville on her way to meet an acquaintance and was never seen again.

On Wednesday, Charlottesville police said they are now investigating the case as a homicide.

<snip>

Charlottesville police reclassified the case in December but waited to release the information publicly out of consideration for Smith&#8217;s family, Lt. Steve Upman said. After a shuffle in positions and roles at the police department, detectives also wanted time to take a fresh look at the case. There are no new searches planned, he said.

<snip>

Police said Wednesday that the reclassification means the case is now a criminal investigation, which opens up resources outside the department &#8212; such as the United States Marshals Service &#8212; and could add weight to investigative tools such as search warrants.

'A missing person is not a criminal case, so we do not have the same investigative leeway,' Upman said. 'By moving it to a criminal matter, it affords us not only additional resources outside the agency, but [also] provides more opportunities to search phone records and computers, that kind of thing.'

'That was not the reason to change it, but those are opened up,' he added."

http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/local/search-for-sage-smith-now-a-homicide-investigation/article_aba758a4-148f-11e7-b30e-7b717025e7c6.html

 

[ktgirl]

Search for Sage Smith now a homicide investigation
The Daily Progress
March 27, 2017

"More than four years ago, Sage Smith took a walk near West Main Street in Charlottesville on her way to meet an acquaintance and was never seen again.

On Wednesday, Charlottesville police said they are now investigating the case as a homicide.

<snip>

Charlottesville police reclassified the case in December but waited to release the information publicly out of consideration for Smith&#8217;s family, Lt. Steve Upman said. After a shuffle in positions and roles at the police department, detectives also wanted time to take a fresh look at the case. There are no new searches planned, he said.

<snip>.
Police said Wednesday that the reclassification means the case is now a criminal investigation, which opens up resources outside the department &#8212; such as the United States Marshals Service &#8212; and could add weight to investigative tools such as search warrants.

'A missing person is not a criminal case, so we do not have the same investigative leeway,' Upman said. 'By moving it to a criminal matter, it affords us not only additional resources outside the agency, but [also] provides more opportunities to search phone records and computers, that kind of thing.'

'That was not the reason to change it, but those are opened up,' he added."

http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/local/search-for-sage-smith-now-a-homicide-investigation/article_aba758a4-148f-11e7-b30e-7b717025e7c6.html

May this lead to finding Sage and justice

 

[RubyJuno]

A very long and moving story on Sage and her disappearance is here:

http://splinternews.com/i-am-a-girl-now-sage-smith-wrote-then-she-went-missin-1797178002

 

[dotr]

A very long and moving story on Sage and her disappearance is here:

http://splinternews.com/i-am-a-girl-now-sage-smith-wrote-then-she-went-missin-1797178002

Fantastic article, thanks for posting it!!

By Emma Eisenberg

Collage by Elena Scotti, photos courtesy of Sage Smith’s family

'I Am a Girl Now,' Sage Smith Wrote. Then She Went Missing.

Sage was memorable, and stories about her abound. Like how she ended up doing a Vogue-style shoot with a UVA student on the Route 7 bus.Like how she once helped carry an old man’s groceries to his car while wearing a mini-skirt and three-inch heels.Like how every clubgoer leaned closer when Sage spoke, as if they were campers pulled to a fire, according to Jason Elliott, Mr. Pride of America.

Although she often struggled in school, Sage became the first in her family to graduate high school. She took cosmetology classes, braided out of her home, and swept hair at a salon

On Saturday, November 24, after conducting a search of Sage’s neighborhood, the Charlottesville Police Department got another call about a missing person. This time, it was a young woman named Esther Ayeni. She said she had not heard from her boyfriend, Erik McFadden, who had been staying in her apartment while she was out of town for Thanksgiving. CPD detectives told Ayeni that they were actually already looking for McFadden to question him about his role in Sage’s disappearance. McFadden’s job confirmed he had not shown up to work in several days with no explanation and no warning.

That December, police made two more efforts to find Sage. On the first, Charlottesville police, in conjunction with officers from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and cadaver-sniffing dogs from the Virginia Search and Rescue Dog Association again searched the areas around Main Street and McFadden’s house as well as nearby railroad tracks and near adeep sediment pond. A dog made a “slight indication” that they picked up Smith’s scent.

A dive team was called in to search the pond but nothing turned up

 

[cvaldez1975]

This is so heartbreaking [emoji22]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JaimeSommers]

Sage's story is on "Disappeared" tonight.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Vail]

I've just finished watching the Disappeared episode on Sage. They ended on the note that Erik McFadden is considered a POI and has not surfaced in 5 years. Is he considered a missing person?

 

[dotr]

I've just finished watching the Disappeared episode on Sage. They ended on the note that Erik McFadden is considered a POI and has not surfaced in 5 years. Is he considered a missing person?

He is/was a person of interest, but he is still missing too. Wondering if he may have also been a victim, imo, speculation.
http://www.nbc29.com/story/36889512/sage-smith-5-years-11-20-2017
2017

Authorities are still trying to track down Erik McFadden, a man they believe who was supposed to meet Smith the night of the disappearance.

McFadden is a black male, 5&#8217;10&#8221; tall and weighed approximately 150 pounds at the time. He left Charlottesville shortly after Smith was reported missing and would now be 26 years old. McFadden&#8217;s family has not heard from or seen him since he left Charlottesville.

A $20,000 reward is available for information that leads to an arrest.
The Charlottesville Police Department believes Erik McFadden has key information related to the disappearance of Smith and considers him a person of interest that investigators would like to speak with.

Erik McFadden

 

[neverletgo]

“Disappeared”: Virginia Trans Teen Sage Smith Vanished Without A Trace
April 30, 2018 by Catherine Townsend

Snipped:

On November 20, 2012, Dashad “Sage” Smith, 19, left home in Charlottesville and walked down Main Street to meet a friend. But Smith never came home — and seemed to vanish into this air from the busy street.

The case is documented in a new episode of the Investigation Discovery series “Disappeared” entitled “Born This Way.“

Shortly before disappearing, Smith changed gender on Facebook, selecting “female,” and wrote: “I am a girl now #Respect it.”

http://crimefeed.com/2018/04/35728/

 

[dotr]

&#8220;Disappeared&#8221;: Virginia Trans Teen Sage Smith Vanished Without A Trace
April 30, 2018 by Catherine Townsend

Snipped:



http://crimefeed.com/2018/04/35728/

Thanks for the fresh information! Posting this extra pretty pic of Dashad..

Sage Smith [Investigation Discovery]
Police said that they considered McFadden a person of interest &#8212; but authorities were unsure whether he fled because he felt he had been &#8220;outed&#8221; online, or because he was involved in Smith&#8217;s disappearance.

On November 27, McFadden contacted police to say that he was in New York, and that his trip had no connection with Smith&#8217;s disappearance. When asked why he&#8217;d fled to the Big Apple, McFadden replied, &#8220;Because I&#8217;ve never been to New York before.&#8221;

McFadden did admit to a sexual relationship with Sage. But he insisted that Smith never showed up on the night in question. McFadden also told police that he would return to Charlottesville to talk to them, but he never showed up as planned.

Police encountered another twist in the case when they got a hit that Smith&#8217;s credit card had been used on December 12. But when they checked surveillance footage, they were shocked to see that it was Aubrey Carson, not Smith, using the card. But Carson claimed that they often shared each other&#8217;s cards to buy food.

Investigators stated in November 2015 that, partly due to their investigation into McFadden&#8217;s digital footprint, they no longer believed McFadden was involved.

In January of 2016, a third roommate who lived with Aubrey Carson and Smith said that Carson began to borrow Smith&#8217;s belongings. Another witness claimed to have seen Aubrey, Smith, and McFadden together in a club just a few nights before Smith went missing.

 

[hayaletcatcher]

Ep has only just started and I wanna cry. Sages nan <3

 

[dotr]

This good article from 2016 concerning convicted killer Jesse Matthew, references Dashad.
Wondering if Matthews has ever been questioned about her?
imo, speculation. colour highlighted bm.
The disturbing timeline of Jesse Matthew’s sexual violence and murders
"Incidents Jesse Matthew Jr. has been connected to:
Oct. 17, 2002 – Alleged sexual assault at Liberty UniversitySept. 7, 2003 – Reported CNU assault

• Sept. 24, 2005 – Northern Virginia rape (forensic evidence linked to Morgan Harrington case)
• Oct. 17, 2009 – Morgan Harrington disappearance
• Sept. 13, 2014 – Hannah Graham disappearance

Cases investigated by law enforcement for possible connection to Matthew:

• July 24, 2003 -- Autumn Day in Newport News
• Sept. 7, 2003 – Sophia Rivera in Newport News
• August 26, 2009 – Heidi Childs and David Metzler, in Blacksburg
• Oct. 10, 2009 – Cassandra Morton, not far from Lynchburg
• Sept. 13, 2010 – Samantha Clarke, in Orange County

Cases still unsolved in the area near Charlottesville

• Jan. 24, 2010 – Joan Cook, Roanoke County
• Nov. 21, 2011 -- Lauren Smith, Madison County
• Nov. 20, 2012 -- Dashad Sage Smith, Charlottesville
• August 3, 2013 – Alexis Murphy, Shipman (Randy Taylor jailed for this, body never found.)"

 

[sallye818]

Yea, I think the consensus is that Erik McFadden prob did not end up meeting with Sage the night she disappeared, because he was on his computer/not in the same area as Sage. But I don't think LE has made it clear whether McFadden is considered a missing person as well, or they've located him, when clearing him of involvement in Sage's disappearance.

 

[Jbrown324320]

Did you watch the episode of "Disappeared?" At the end of the show, one of Sage's roommates said the third roommate (the one who used Sage's credit card) and McFadden were with Sage at a club the night of the disappearance. He is again a suspect. I wish the roommate would confess everything they know. They are hiding a lot of info. Blessings for Sage's family.

 

[cvaldez1975]

how have they not found McFadden?

 

[dotr]

Dashad Laquinn Smith – The Charley Project

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Last updated May 20, 2018; picture added, distinguishing characteristics, clothing/jewelry description and details of disappearance updated.

"Smith is a 2011 graduate of Charlottesville High School, and took cosmetology classes. She was raised by her grandmother for much of her childhood, then returned to her mother's care, then spent time in foster care after her mother was deemed unfit. She had recently moved in with roommates in an apartment on Harris Street.

Smith's disappearance is now being investigated as a homicide. McFadden isn't the only person of interest; one of Smith's roommates was caught using her food stamp card after her disappearance, and another friend was seen wearing a locket belonging to Smith, although the woman claimed her boyfriend gave it to her. Smith's case remains unsolved."

 

[carbuff]

how have they not found McFadden?

I wonder if they were both murdered together.