GUILTY VA - Tina Smith, 41, slain, 12yo daughter abducted, Salem, 2 Dec 2010 - #6

[my_tee_mouse]

No need to explain yourself at all. I did not take it personally. I just read your post and realized I didn't do nearly as good a job as you at explaining myself.

Ya'll are both doing a marvelous job of explaining yourselves.

 

[KR2tonenow]

lovey dove and fake ID's for 12 year old????

:furious:

 

[lisser]

Whew.... I am not even going to get into the discussion about BS because at this point the jury is out IMHO. I want evidence. Going on the video here (I hope it posts):

http://www2.wsls.com/news/2010/dec/...-video-easley-brittany-smith-leavi-ar-712919/

1. JE and the guy in the blue sweatshirt/hoodie clothing are DEFINITELY together. They exit their vehicles (a purple car and the red SUV), and they move towards each other. The film is cut at this point. [WHY??? LE would benefit from letting us see this part of the video IMHO - it would help to form opinions of what was hapening.] How SURE are we that the red SUV was 'sold'??? It doesn't make a lot of sense that the guy in the blue hoodie would purchase it and then abandon it... unless he is another shady character with something else to hide. That just seems to be a huge leap for me. Maybe it was found abandoned??? Maybe they found it at his house? What do we KNOW FOR SURE about this SUV?????

2. When JE enters the building he has an agenda. At 00:27 - 00:29 in the video he comes in the door and has something in his hands, but he kicks the door mat under the door so that it stays open. He then continues walking, fidgeting with whatever is in his hands.

3. At approximately 00:37 - 00:41, he goes back to the door and drops whatever he has in his hand (the key to TS's house???) and kicks it under the door.

4. At 00:54, he has fidgeted with "pretending to close the door" so that he can look to verify that whatever he dropped was kicked behind the door.

I think there was a 4th person in the purple car or the red SUV and that they stayed at the convenience store and retrieved whatever the dropped object was. I believe the guy in the dark blue sweatshirt was in on it because he distracts the clerk by asking for directions while JE hides the object. This just boggles my mind!!! Am I insane for seeing what I see and heading down the path my mind is taking me?? I would almost prefer to be insane. At first, I believed Tina was already dead by the WM video.... now - not so much. Looking forward to the always keen eyes of my fellow sleuths!!!

Could it have been a second set of keys to the Blazer? Then the buyer would have been able to just pick it up from TS's house.

Curious behavior for sure.

 

[KR2tonenow]

Not only pregnancy but there are many other things you have to worry about...STDs, HIV/AIDS. If they think she was sexually assaulted, she would have immediately been processed with a rape kit....which in itself, is like a violation all over. She would he tested and treated if necessary for STDs, given an HIV/AIDs test. She will have to continue the AIDS/HIV test for a certain amount of time. They would also give her morning after pills if the assault was recent. If the abuse had been going on for some time, then I am not sure how they deal with the pregnancy issue.

Very good point, poor Brittany.

 

[Dema]

Could it have been a second set of keys to the Blazer? Then the buyer would have been able to just pick it up from TS's house.

Curious behavior for sure.

Murder weapon to be disposed of?

 

[Patty G]

Not only pregnancy but there are many other things you have to worry about...STDs, HIV/AIDS. If they think she was sexually assaulted, she would have immediately been processed with a rape kit....which in itself, is like a violation all over. She would he tested and treated if necessary for STDs, given an HIV/AIDs test. She will have to continue the AIDS/HIV test for a certain amount of time. They would also give her morning after pills if the assault was recent. If the abuse had been going on for some time, then I am not sure how they deal with the pregnancy issue.

I wonder what they would do IF Brittany tells them he never touched her?

 

[Lysistrata]

I'd like to say a few words about the child protective services offices that the relatives contacted. I'm not defending them, but, having spent 10 yrs working for such an agency in 2 different states, I can tell you that they do not operate as we the public believe that they do or should.

There have been stmts in the press and on Nancy Grace that CPS 'didn't do anything' because they were having a Christmas party. Let me assure you that they would not have done anything anyway...the Christmas party is completely irrelevant.

When someone calls CPS those folks want details. And they are so overwhelmed with serious cases, the fact that a relative described JE petting on BS and "trying to devour her with his eyes" wouldn't have registered on the CPS radar screen at all. In fact, if someone had said JE was molesting BS in their presence, CPS would have likely asked if the child had a parent who was a responsible caretaker and, if told yes, then CPS would have told them to have that parent swear out a warrant or be held complicit. Had the relative said that there was no responsible parent or caregiver, then CPS might have gotten involved. But just this fawning and flirting between BS and JE would NOT have constituted any sort of sexual abuse as far as CPS goes. I'm sure that the caseworker (who finally did speak with the relative) advised her to speak to TS, explain how it looked to the relatives, and keep talking until TS 'got it' that things were way outside the bounds of proper behavior between a 12 yr old and a mother's BF.

Years ago, when I first worked for CPS, we had a bit more flexibility with time and what we chose to follow up on that didn't meet the 'endangering the health and welfare of a child to the point that death may occur.' There's a chance that we would have followed up with a home visit, probably a visit to the school to talk to the child, maybe a background check if we were able to get info as to where the guy had come from. But child abuse rates have skyrocketed while funding has been cut and these days, it's a pretty dire situation that captures the attention of CPS.

I worked for CPS twice...once from the mid-70's - mid 80's and again for 9 months in 2001. I was so shocked by the slovenly attitudes of the case workers, their cavalier attitudes as they tossed reports into the trash without even showing them to supervisors, adversarial relationships with the agencies and school who should have been their allies, I quit in disgust. But as I went through the 'new and improved' training, I was also shocked at how serious reports needed to sound before they would be investigated. In my first 10 yrs, we went out on virtually every report, unless it was just sooo apparent that the caller was a vindictive relative with a pending child support case (it was a fairly small county...we knew lots of people, clients or not). But, when I went back in 2001, reports I would have rushed to get to 20 yrs prior, were tossed aside. The state had some sort of mathematical algorithm that determined whether a call warranted investigation. And in case you're thinking that this state was an anomaly, it wasn't...it was in the process of national certification state-wide.

Knowing now what was likely to have been going on in the Smith household, I have to wonder if there's an old-school caseworker somewhere in VA who now wishes she'd gone to speak with Tina. The more I think about it though, the more I'm convinced there was not. The description of the interaction between JE and BS simply would not have warranted any intervention. I'd like to think, "Maybe next time"...but I doubt that too. CPS limits its intervention to situations where they believe (or the mathematical algorithm believes) that a child is in imminent danger of his/her life. And while BS certainly met this criteria eventually, she did not meet it at the very moment someone called CPS.

Like I said...I'm not defending CPS...I detest this 'new model' that they work under. But I think, to be fair to those workers who do respond to some pretty dreadful situations, it needed to be pointed out that it wasn't a Christmas party that prevented an intervention. The relative's call simply didn't meet the 'investigate' criteria. Sad, huh?

 

[LaLaw2000]

IMO, JE has taken two things from Brittany she will never get back 1.) Her mother, and 2.) her innocence and the rest of her childhood. I do not mean her mother is a 'thing' JE took away from her. She will forever miss her mother and regret that she lost her life at the hands of such a .

I am so glad that Brittany will get to say goodbye to her mother. She would never have gotten another chance to do so at the actual time the rest of Tina's family said their final goodbyes. She will see how much her mother was loved and that she in turn is loved. It will be a horrible ordeal for her, but later on I hope she will realize just who did this to her mother.

*I think JE flexed his wrist in that store as if it were bothering him and was also looking for either cuts or bruising. I want to know how Tina Smith was killed. Then I want to see the perpetrator get the ultimate punishment.

 

[Gizmorose]

I was wondering the same thing as in why did he prop the door open with the rug ? It makes no sense. Right away, I would have thought he was acting suspicious.

Is there be a possibility that JSE hired someone to take care of TS and that's why he hasn't been slapped with a murder charge, even though he's the prime suspect now ?

I think he was trying to get the door to close. When they entered it looks as if the door got hung up on the rug. He appears to be trying to straighten it and then uses his feet to slide the rug back so that the door will close freely. At least that's what it looks like to me. He really looks quite manic as he is doing it though.

 

[kikid]

I wonder what they would do IF Brittany tells them he never touched her?

my guess is regardless of what she said he did or didn't do, they would do a physical exam.

 

[Patty G]

The relative's call simply didn't meet the 'investigate' criteria. Sad, huh?

What is sad is that no one called until Friday, December 3, 2010 when it was noticed on Thursday, November 25, 2010.

Although, when I first heard stroking Brittany's hair and touching her arm, my first thought was not to call DCF, but to talk to the mother right on the spot. Actually, knowing me, I would have confronted him right on the spot.

Cases like these require the police .. call 911. Let them get involved and if need be, they get DCF invovled if the parent isn't protecting her child from her boyfriend etc. ALL IMO!

 

[impatientredhead]

What is sad is that no one called until Friday, December 3, 2010 when it was noticed on Thursday, November 25, 2010.

Although, when I first heard stroking Brittany's hair and touching her arm, my first thought was not to call DCF, but to talk to the mother right on the spot. Actually, knowing me, I would have confronted him right on the spot.

Cases like these require the police .. call 911. Let them get involved and if need be, they get DCF invovled if the parent isn't protecting her child from her boyfriend etc. ALL IMO!

The article I saw said they pretty much compared notes with each other after Tina left, confronted Tina about it in the following days, weren't confident that was enough and started calling child services on Monday. It took them a couple of days of redirects to get to the correct office. They told Tina that they had called CPS and she said he would be gone, she would call when he was packed up, she never called and the rest of the story we have seen.

The neighbors said he was creepy with her, the clerk said he thought they were a couple, someone at the school must have seen something, or other parents. He wasn't hiding the inappropriateness of their relationship. I can see how the family responded since it was their first exposure to it but from Tina, to the neighbors, to the bystanders it seems like many people were aware of it and did nothing.

Her family didn't even know he lived there until the holiday get together brought it out. They responded pretty quickly and followed up from I can see.

 

[Dema]

What is sad is that no one called until Friday, December 3, 2010 when it was noticed on Thursday, November 25, 2010.

Although, when I first heard stroking Brittany's hair and touching her arm, my first thought was not to call DCF, but to talk to the mother right on the spot. Actually, knowing me, I would have confronted him right on the spot.

Cases like these require the police .. call 911. Let them get involved and if need be, they get DCF invovled if the parent isn't protecting her child from her boyfriend etc. ALL IMO!

With that behavior, there would be nothing the police could do. If it's not unwanted behavior, then it's not assault. If the mom says they're just affectionate, what can the police do? They can't arrest someone because a relative doesn't like that he's touching the girl's arm and hair. The police might find it kinda creepy, too, but I can't think of a charge that would fit the situation as it's been explained in the media.

 

[Patty G]

The article I saw said they pretty much compared notes with each other after Tina left, confronted Tina about it in the following days, weren't confident that was enough and started calling child services on Monday. It took them a couple of days of redirects to get to the correct office. They told Tina that they had called CPS and she said he would be gone, she would call when he was packed up, she never called and the rest of the story we have seen.

The neighbors said he was creepy with her, the clerk said he thought they were a couple, someone at the school must have seen something, or other parents. He wasn't hiding the inappropriateness of their relationship. I can see how the family responded since it was their first exposure to it but from Tina, to the neighbors, to the bystanders it seems like many people were aware of it and did nothing.

Her family didn't even know he lived there until the holiday get together brought it out. They responded pretty quickly and followed up from I can see.

I don't recall reading that they told Tina on Monday Nov 29, 2010 that they called CPS. Do you have a link so that I can read that part please?

 

[Ransom]

I don't recall reading that they told Tina on Monday Nov 29, 2010 that they called CPS. Do you have a link so that I can read that part please?

http://articles.wdbj7.com/2010-12-09/christmas-party_25184345

more was on NG tonight. Two jurisdictions called by family. They finally called BACK on Dec. 3rd and it was too late.

 

[salvarenga]

I wonder what they would do IF Brittany tells them he never touched her?

That is a great question Patty. I would imagine that they had trained counselors that deal in these types of situations. That would be able to ascertain if Brittany was truthful or not. Either way, I would imagine she got a physical exam of some sort.

 

[zoomom]

I worked for CPS twice...once from the mid-70's - mid 80's and again for 9 months in 2001. I was so shocked by the slovenly attitudes of the case workers, their cavalier attitudes as they tossed reports into the trash without even showing them to supervisors, adversarial relationships with the agencies and school who should have been their allies, I quit in disgust. But as I went through the 'new and improved' training, I was also shocked at how serious reports needed to sound before they would be investigated. In my first 10 yrs, we went out on virtually every report, unless it was just sooo apparent that the caller was a vindictive relative with a pending child support case (it was a fairly small county...we knew lots of people, clients or not). But, when I went back in 2001, reports I would have rushed to get to 20 yrs prior, were tossed aside. The state had some sort of mathematical algorithm that determined whether a call warranted investigation. And in case you're thinking that this state was an anomaly, it wasn't...it was in the process of national certification state-wide.

(respectfully shortened)

Madam Lysistrata, I applaud you!

 

[Patty G]

http://articles.wdbj7.com/2010-12-09/christmas-party_25184345

more was on NG tonight. Two jurisdictions called by family. They finally called BACK on Dec. 3rd and it was too late.

There are no dates of the phone calls in the article to CPS, all it said was days before Brittany went missing. I heard that CPS called back on Monday, Dec 6, 2010.

What I am also looking for is that the relatives told Tina they called CPS.

I recorded Nancy show as well as Prime News coverage of Brittany and it can be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/Sierra1947

 

[Patty G]

That is a great question Patty. I would imagine that they had trained counselors that deal in these types of situations. That would be able to ascertain if Brittany was truthful or not. Either way, I would imagine she got a physical exam of some sort.

I agree, some sort of physical exam but not so sure a "GYN" exam if she refuses.

 

[impatientredhead]

I don't recall reading that they told Tina on Monday Nov 29, 2010 that they called CPS. Do you have a link so that I can read that part please?

I didn't word that well and I will pull the links, but I was trying to say they didn't wait a week. The rough outline of what I understood it to be was:

they didn't know he lived there
holiday brought that info out
met him first time on thanksgiving
totally geebed out
family compared notes on Friday
called tina on monday
still not comfortable after that call
started calling child services
took a couple of days of redirect
got the right facility number on thursday
told tina then they were calling her local cps office
this freaked tina out
she said he would be gone and would call when he packed up
brittany didn't go to school the next day
tina's posts about dying before she wakes and evil appear
and she is killed