GA GA – Rhonda Ilean Smith, 21, Atlanta, Fulton Co., 27 Feb 1984

[Justiceforrhonda]

I believe this is the dad's obituary
Thomas Arthur Shoemaker, Jr. - View Obituary & Service Information

Yes, this is Tom's fathers obit.

 

[Justiceforrhonda]

I believe this is the dad's obituary
Thomas Arthur Shoemaker, Jr. - View Obituary & Service Information

Yes, this is Tom's fathers obit.

What Cowetta County town was Rhonda living in? Lennox Square Mall (if same Lennox Mall she went to in 1984?) is NE of downtown ATL. Cowetta County is SW. Without traffic congestion, the drive from the most SW corner of the county to Lennox would be about 64 miles. Today that distance in 6:30 a.m. ATL traffic would take 2+ hours. Today that mall opens at 10 a.m. What time did it open in 1984? Why go then, why that day?

I’m wondering if the whole mall/ truck/ beer bottle/ wine glass collection is a red herring. Just SW of Cowetta County is the massive West Point Lake area. Lots of possibilities for body disposal. It would be an easy decoy to get people looking in the totally wrong opposite direction.

What was wrong with Rhonda’s car? Was it really at a shop to be fixed? What shop? Was the mechanic interviewed? Who arranged for RS to borrow her BFs dad’s truck? Was BF’s dad interviewed by LE? Is he still alive today to be interviewed (again?)?

I’m not saying I think BF is responsible, but all angles of his story should have been verified. Especially since he was the last to see her alive. Did LE verify every piece of that story? Or any pieces?
Are there ANY pieces we know for sure to be true?

 

[Justiceforrhonda]

Hey guys. I just found this site. I am Nancy Cunningham, I am Rhonda's cousin by marriage. I will try to answer some of your questions. The 1981 S-10 Rhonda was driving was owned by her BF company Atlantic Mine Co. Yes. She had had an accident in her car, so it was in the body shop being repaired. Tom was the last person to see Rhonda in their Newnan home they shared at the time. Guess who found the truck she was driving at the time? BF...Guess who found THE ONLY WITNESS that was to have seen her in Wix and Sticks? Yep! BF.....How lucky can one person be? The truck was parked away from the mall entrance. There are MANY, MANY discrepancies in Toms stories. Too many. We do not believe that Rhonda was ever at the mall. That truck was placed there to muddy the waters.

 

[JudgeJoe]

Hey guys. I just found this site. I am Nancy Cunningham, I am Rhonda's cousin by marriage. I will try to answer some of your questions. The 1981 S-10 Rhonda was driving was owned by her BF company Atlantic Mine Co. Yes. She had had an accident in her car, so it was in the body shop being repaired. Tom was the last person to see Rhonda in their Newnan home they shared at the time. Guess who found the truck she was driving at the time? BF...Guess who found THE ONLY WITNESS that was to have seen her in Wix and Sticks? Yep! BF.....How lucky can one person be? The truck was parked away from the mall entrance. There are MANY, MANY discrepancies in Toms stories. Too many. We do not believe that Rhonda was ever at the mall. That truck was placed there to muddy the waters.

Wow! Thank you for joining us & welcome to WS, @Justiceforrhonda! I wish it were for other purposes, but I am very interested in Rhonda’s case. It is one of 3 here on WS that has truly haunted me. I really would love to see an arrest & conviction here.

There is a process here on WS to become a VI, “verified insider” so that you could provide information without citing a source from LE or MSM. Without that, all info has to be linked to a source, per terms of service. Sometimes it’s a pain- but the citations prevent gossip & misinformation rampant on other crime sites. Becoming a VI is completely up to you, but there are some really smart people with a smorgasbord of professional backgrounds here who have a passion for justice- maybe we can help.

Here is the link:
Verification Process for Professional or Insider Posters

And WS lingo, comes in handy:
Websleuths Lingo

 

[Bit of hope]

Hey guys. I just found this site. I am Nancy Cunningham, I am Rhonda's cousin by marriage. I will try to answer some of your questions. The 1981 S-10 Rhonda was driving was owned by her BF company Atlantic Mine Co. Yes. She had had an accident in her car, so it was in the body shop being repaired. Tom was the last person to see Rhonda in their Newnan home they shared at the time. Guess who found the truck she was driving at the time? BF...Guess who found THE ONLY WITNESS that was to have seen her in Wix and Sticks? Yep! BF.....How lucky can one person be? The truck was parked away from the mall entrance. There are MANY, MANY discrepancies in Toms stories. Too many. We do not believe that Rhonda was ever at the mall. That truck was placed there to muddy the waters.

Thank you very much for your answers and welcome @Justiceforrhonda. A few contradicting story's about the owner of the Chevrolet came along.

From upthread:

"Who actually used/owned the car, the Chevrolet Truck? From the interview "Security meets me on the other side of Davison’s and I followed him back around. He said truck was registered under <name>. said he worked for T". Up in the this thread WS-member Hamish says. "The car was released back to the fiancé's dad". (don't know his/her source) I would think dad has the same surname as the fiancé, so it's not the same person."

You say that the 1981 S-10 Rhonda was driving was owned by her BF company Atlantic Mine Co. I have no reason to believe you aren't telling the truth, but I wonder where the other reports are coming from.

I couldn't find anything about the company (or corporation?) under this name. According to this link mining in Georgia ended in the late 70's. Minerals Yearbook

There were steel scrap processing companies with melters....could it have been something like that?

Also checked listings of claims hoping I could find BF's name on there. The Shoemaker pops up a couple of times but not his particular name. Mining Claim Owner Search For Shoemaker

There was an Atlantic Mining Co in the old days, situated in Michigan and imo not related. Atlantic Mine, Atlantic Mine, Houghton Co., Michigan, USA

Do you know more about this company and the history of it? What was it about? Was there actually a mine involved? Not to hurt you but it would be a "good" place to hide a body.

 

[JudgeJoe]

Thank you very much for your answers and welcome @Justiceforrhonda. A few contradicting story's about the owner of the Chevrolet came along.

From upthread:

"Who actually used/owned the car, the Chevrolet Truck? From the interview "Security meets me on the other side of Davison’s and I followed him back around. He said truck was registered under <name>. said he worked for T". Up in the this thread WS-member Hamish says. "The car was released back to the fiancé's dad". (don't know his/her source) I would think dad has the same surname as the fiancé, so it's not the same person."

You say that the 1981 S-10 Rhonda was driving was owned by her BF company Atlantic Mine Co. I have no reason to believe you aren't telling the truth, but I wonder where the other reports are coming from.

I couldn't find anything about the company (or corporation?) under this name. According to this link mining in Georgia ended in the late 70's. Minerals Yearbook

There were steel scrap processing companies with melters....could it have been something like that?

Also checked listings of claims hoping I could find BF's name on there. The Shoemaker pops up a couple of times but not his particular name. Mining Claim Owner Search For Shoemaker

There was an Atlantic Mining Co in the old days, situated in Michigan and imo not related. Atlantic Mine, Atlantic Mine, Houghton Co., Michigan, USA

Do you know more about this company and the history of it? What was it about? Was there actually a mine involved? Not to hurt you but it would be a "good" place to hide a body.

Excellent questions- sorry I missed this post back in May. I’m back “bumping” for Rhonda. I’d really love to see justice here. Does LE have any DNA at all they could run through forensic genealogy? Seems like a boatload of cold cases are getting solved decades later with this process. This case would be ideal for that!

 

[Bit of hope]

Excellent questions- sorry I missed this post back in May. I’m back “bumping” for Rhonda. I’d really love to see justice here. Does LE have any DNA at all they could run through forensic genealogy? Seems like a boatload of cold cases are getting solved decades later with this process. This case would be ideal for that!

As public, we can't see the present identifiers (fingerprints, dentals, DNA) for missing persons in Namus anymore, so I don't know if they have them for Rhonda. I hope Rhonda's parents gave DNA already (or provided possible other identifiers) through LE. The thing is there must be an unidentified person or remains to run DNA against or to compare other identifiers with. Maybe her remains are already found but if not that first has to happen and the remains have to be entered into Namus by LE to make matching possible. Let's stay positive and say they manage to subtract DNA from the remains (or find other identifiers) if she is found. Then they can compare it with the parent's DNA. I advise you to read about it on the Namus site.
https://www.namus.gov/content/downloads/publications/NamUsOverviewBooklet.pdf

I'm not up to the minute about Georgia's policy on using forensic genealogy in solving (unidentified persons) cases. If they do I'm quit sure they don't use it for every unidentified person/remains they have in the counties or state. The process is most likely to costly for their budget(s).

I purposely didn't go into all the details. Maybe other members know more. Please add or correct if needed.

 

[JudgeJoe]

As public, we can't see the present identifiers (fingerprints, dentals, DNA) for missing persons in Namus anymore, so I don't know if they have them for Rhonda. I hope Rhonda's parents gave DNA already (or provided possible other identifiers) through LE. The thing is there must be an unidentified person or remains to run DNA against or to compare other identifiers with. Maybe her remains are already found but if not that first has to happen and the remains have to be entered into Namus by LE to make matching possible. Let's stay positive and say they manage to subtract DNA from the remains (or find other identifiers) if she is found. Then they can compare it with the parent's DNA. I advise you to read about it on the Namus site.
https://www.namus.gov/content/downloads/publications/NamUsOverviewBooklet.pdf

I'm not up to the minute about Georgia's policy on using forensic genealogy in solving (unidentified persons) cases. If they do I'm quit sure they don't use it for every unidentified person/remains they have in the counties or state. The process is most likely to costly for their budget(s).

I purposely didn't go into all the details. Maybe other members know more. Please add or correct if needed.

All good points. I wasn’t thinking so much of forensic DNA to ID Rhonda, but to ID her killer. LE found 2 used wine glasses and other items in her truck. Her mom noted a shower curtain missing shortly after she went missing & a fresh concrete patio around the same time. So many details in the Nancy Grace podcast. It just seems like a lot of dropped balls with this case- and hoping someone will pick them back up. Without her remains, much could be construed as circumstantial, but with enough of it, perhaps an arrest & conviction anyway.

 

[marsyao]

The 2 used wine glasses at most could only confirm someone had a drink with her, not an evidence to prove that person committed murder

 

[JudgeJoe]

The 2 used wine glasses at most could only confirm someone had a drink with her, not an evidence to prove that person committed murder

Yes true. But that’s just 1 example of odd things reportedly found in the vehicle. My point is that there’ve been no reports of recent testing & it is way past time. Mo

 

[marsyao]

Yes true. But that’s just 1 example of odd things reportedly found in the vehicle. My point is that there’ve been no reports of recent testing & it is way past time. Mo

And we don't know whether she met foul play inside her car

 

[JudgeJoe]

And we don't know whether she met foul play inside her car

Yep. All that. And all should still be retested, reexamined, reinterviewed, etc. Good grief it’s been decades. Time to bring justice to this family.

 

[Bit of hope]

I thought they didn't open the closed car, processed the car or took evidence out of it at the time. Now it's far to late for that. I strongly believe it's a murder case and all of it should be re-investigated before everybody has passed. Maybe now somebody is willing to talk. The wine glass and beer can might be placed there as a decoy. I wonder if they asked Tom's father and the guy on who's name the car was registered if they know if the items were in there when Rhonda borrowed the car.

Shoemaker failed his polygraph test, specifically on the questions:
“Did you cause harm or disappearance to her?”
“Did you restrain or cause her disappearance?”
“Do you know where she is?”

I know the family searched the lake but if you ask me I would start to dredge the lake/pond near their former house and use k-9's who can smell human remains in water. Depending on what material the shower curtain was made of (PVC?) there could still be traces of it, if they don't find Rhonda.

Also it would be very interesting to dig deeper in the fiancee's line of work at the time. Up thread you find a summery of what I found about his company (couldn't find any trace of it's existence) and mining/scrap melting related info. It doesn't sit right and he lied about his job. From the podcast (I believe her mother is telling this):

Her fiancee wasn't straight...she was upset about things...he was lying about his job and was trying to keep her away from her mom. "Don't call your momma when we have an argument" and according to him she couldn't come to the phone when she was ill when her mother called.

I'm not sure in what stage the building of an extra room on the house was as reports differ. It wouldn't be the first time a body was concealed in a wall.

 

[JudgeJoe]

I thought they didn't open the closed car, processed the car or took evidence out of it at the time. Now it's far to late for that. I strongly believe it's a murder case and all of it should be re-investigated before everybody has passed. Maybe now somebody is willing to talk. The wine glass and beer can might be placed there as a decoy. I wonder if they asked Tom's father and the guy on who's name the car was registered if they know if the items were in there when Rhonda borrowed the car.

Shoemaker failed his polygraph test, specifically on the questions:
“Did you cause harm or disappearance to her?”
“Did you restrain or cause her disappearance?”
“Do you know where she is?”

I know the family searched the lake but if you ask me I would start to dredge the lake/pond near their former house and use k-9's who can smell human remains in water. Depending on what material the shower curtain was made of (PVC?) there could still be traced of it, if they don't find Rhonda.

Also it would be very interesting to dig deeper in the fiancee's line of work at the time. Up thread you find a summery of what I found about his company (couldn't find any trace of it's existence) and mining/scrap melting related info. It doesn't sit right and he lied about his job. From the podcast (I believe her mother is telling this):

Her fiancee wasn't straight...she was upset about things...he was lying about his job and was trying to keep her away from her mom. "Don't call your momma when we have an argument" and according to him she couldn't come to the phone when she was ill when her mother called.

I'm not sure in what stage the building of an extra room on the house was as reports differ. It wouldn't be the first time a body was concealed in a wall.

ITA. Or under a slab. I just wish they’d turn the case over to a new, devoted cold case team & arrest him just in time to ruin his plans for his golden years retirement. IMO her fiance killed her over an argument & his dad (now dead) helped cover it up. JMO

 

[madamx]

Bumping for Rhonda

 

[chaddylex]

The Unfound Podcast just released an episode about Rhonda's Disappearance.

Rhonda Ilean Smith: A Tale Of Two Stories

Mary Shotwell Little’s car also found at the Lenox Square Mall but in 1965. =a57b5

theunfoundpodcast.com

Ed is interviewing Rhonda's cousin's wife who I believe is @Justiceforrhonda

 

[John/Jane Doe]

Rhonda Ilean Smith – The Charley Project

 

[emfield]

Hi everyone!
My dad is Rhondas cousin and my stepmother is @Justiceforrhonda
I am hoping to get this conversation going again. Rhondas dad passed during covid and did not get the answers he desperately needed.

My dad and stepmother have a lot of info/documents so maybe we can answer questions and get answers.

I saw someone previously asked about DNA. Both of Rhondas parents have given DNA but there is nothing to test against yet.

Someone asked about Tom's occupation I am going to try to get the name of the company.

Cadaver dogs were taken to the home Rhonda and Tom lived in and they did hit on something but nothing was found.

I am new to this sight and I am not sure how to prove this information. This was all shared with me from my dad. If someone can guide me in the right direction on what to do about that I would appreciate it.

 

[emfield]

Does anyone know if her family is still around and pursing the case at all?

Yes! We are trying to!

 

[bettyboop]

Hello, @emfield, Welcome to Websleuths. I am so sorry about the circumstances that have brought you here. I suggest you become a VERIFIED INSIDER, which will help in proving the information you provide is true. Go to the top of this page and click the HOME link. Once on the HOME page scroll down to the very bottom of the page where you will see ABOUT WEBSLEUTHS. Scroll down to VERIFIED PROFESSIONAL AND INSIDER MEMBERS and click that link. Finally, click the link VERIFICATION PROCESS FOR PROFESSIONAL OR INSIDER POSTERS. In this way you will not have to include links to MSM(main stream media) to prove what you say is true, and is helpful to all of us other members . It proves that you are indeed, who you say you are. If you have any questions, you can hit the REPORT link in any post and leave a message for a Moderator. Also, any one here , including myself, will be happy to help with any questions you might have.
JMO(just my opinion) MOO(my own opinion)

sorry this is so long-winded