Unraveling the Mystery: The Disappearance of Fran Smith and the Controversial Legal Deal

 

The terrible truths of Fran Smith’s spouse started to come to light after she disappeared in 1991.

Thirty years later, John Smith, seventy-three, was found guilty of killing his first wife in Ohio some years prior—a homicide that the police were unaware of until they started looking into Fran’s disappearance.

Although Fran’s corpse has never been located, her husband was accused five years ago with her death by New Jersey prosecutors. The case then took an odd turn when Smith’s murder charge was dismissed by the same prosecutors in return for information that Smith’s family and the FBI agent who spent years looking into the case claimed was erroneous and probably inaccurate.Retired FBI special agent Robert Hilland criticized prosecutors for the agreement in this initial interview on it.

“The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office failed in this endeavor,” Hilland said on “Dateline.”

Sister of Fran Davis, Sherrie Davis, stated, “They hung our family out to dry.”

A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office justified the decision to drop the charge, claiming that the material that was left over would have allowed them to “paint Smith as a bad husband but not a murderer” since the court had barred prosecutors from introducing crucial evidence.

The representative went on to say that before the charge was dismissed on July 6, 2023, Fran’s family was notified of the probable dismissal and agreement.

The spokeswoman stated, “They expressed disappointment in the outcome, but they also acknowledged that they understood how we were proceeding.”

An official from the public defender’s office, which mediated Smith’s deal, declined to comment.
“Yes, I did lie.”

Fran, at 49, vanished on September 28, 1991. According to her daughter Deanna Childers, who spoke to “Dateline,” the paralegal had recently relocated from Florida to a condo in West Windsor, New Jersey, with her new husband, John Smith. She was also recuperating from a broken hip.Engineer Smith reported to authorities that his wife had unexpectedly departed to visit family, said Mike Dansbury, a West Windsor investigator who looked into the issue. Fran’s family was unaware of anything a detective discovered, though, since Smith had previously been married, despite her family’s claims that they had not heard from her.

According to Dave Mansue, another detective, he had eloped with Janice Elaine Hartman after high school decades prior. But after just a few years together, the couple broke up in 1974.

The family discovered an even more shocking information after locating a relative of Hartman’s: Hartman vanished a few days after their divorce and was never heard from again. According to Mansue, Ohio authorities didn’t investigate the situation as a potential homicide because they thought the woman was a runaway.

The investigators discovered that Smith provided oddly identical data and explanations regarding the disappearances of both spouses. Dansbury added that Smith stated in a missing person’s report that he thought Hartman had traveled to Florida with a red luggage. He stated that he thought Fran had gone to Florida to see family when she vanished.

Authorities learned that Smith had a long-term girlfriend, an HR manager he met while looking for work, who lived at a beach property he owned in Connecticut when Fran vanished. According to Frank Barre, a detective with the Milford Police Department who started helping with the inquiry, Smith’s girlfriend was unaware of his double marriage. She was also unaware that the two women had vanished.

“Her entire universe was inverted,” Barre stated to “Dateline.”The girlfriend consented to phone Smith and let the detectives record and listen in on their talk.

The call recording shows that she questioned him whether Fran was dead and challenged him about their connection.