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In May 1985, 17-year old Sharon Faye Smith, who went by the nickname “Shari”, was entering a whole new and exciting chapter in her life. She was about to graduate high school. On May 31st 1985, Sheri was just 2 days shy of graduating from Lexington High School in Lexington County, South Carolina.
Around 3:38 p.m. on May 31st, Shari returned home from a graduation pool party, and was abducted right from her very own driveway, with his father just a few yards away. Shari’s parents, Bob and Hilda Smith immediately contact the Lexington Sheriff’s Department to report their daughter missing. The search for missing Shari Smith began one of the largest searches in Lexington county’s history.
Photo Credit: https://thechrysalischapters.com/2019/05/21/the-summer-of-shari/
Two days after Shari’s kidnapping, the Smith family received a phone call from her abductor. The caller is clearly distorting his voice. The caller claims to be Shari’s kidnapper, and promises the family that Shari is alive and well. He tells the family to expect a letter in the mail the following day with more information about their missing daughter.
The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department began searching through every piece of mail throughout the county in order to find the letter. And they did.
Photo Credit: https://crimeola.com/larry-gene-bell-murdered-shari-smith-and-debra-may-helmick/
The letter was titled “Last Will & Testament” written in Shari’s handwriting. The letter was sent to the local crime lab in hopes of lifting valuable DNA forensic evidence.
Shari’s kidnapping continues to call the family several times over the next few days. Six days after her disappearance, the killer calls the Smith family and provides specific directions to follow. Following the caller’s directions, the police discover the lifeless body of Shari Smith.
Photo Credit: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29343014/sharon-faye-smith/photo#view-photo=12522166
The FBI created a criminal profile for who Sheri’s killer might be: a white male, somewhere in his 20’s and even 30’s, probably divorced and someone who had a history of sex crimes.
Shari’s killer calls the Smith family yet again, after the discovery of her body. But this time, the killer doesn’t want to talk about Shari Smith. He wants to talk about missing 10-year old Debra May Helmick. The body of Debra May was discovered shortly after.
Photo Credit: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/185320554/debra-may-helmick
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division only had 1 piece of hard evidence in Shari’s murder, and that was the last will and testament that she wrote sometime before her death. The letter was sent to Mickey Dawson, a forensic document examiner in South Carolina. Dawson studied the indentations made from a previous page on the notepad that appeared on Shari’s last will and testament.
To get a clearer picture of what the indented writing said, investigators can use a method referred to as Electrostatic Detection Apparatus, or ESDA. ESDA can reveal indentations or impressions in paper that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. This was important because police believed that this type of test could reveal valuable information about who the killer might be based on other writings on the notepad.
Photo Credit: https://www.microtrace.com/technique/electrostatic-detection-apparatus-esda/
The process of ESDA in Sheri’s case involved placing each sheet of the letter into a humidified box, because the humidity helps increase the chances of getting a better result of electrostatic charges. The letter is then placed on a plate where magnetic charges pass through it. The letter is brushed with a powder that is very similar to fingerprint powder and the latent images or writing appears, so you’re able to see anything that has been indented from the previous page of the notepad.
The forensic document examiner was able to make out a telephone number indented on the letter, which led police to a man in Alabama. Police asked the man if he knew anyone in South Carolina and the man informed them about his father, Ellis Shepard.
Police showed Ellis Shepard the letter, and he immediately recognized the handwriting as Larry G. Bell, a man who house sat for the Shepard family while on vacation.
Photo Source: https://murderpedia.org/male.B/b1/bell-larry-gene.htm
Police executed a search warrant on Ellis Shepard’s home, where Larry Bell was house sitting at the time of Shari’s murder. They were able to collect 6 blonde hairs in the carpet that came back as an exact match to Shari Smith. Police also found the same stamp, that had a picture of a duck on it, that was used to mail Shari’s last will and testament.
Larry Bell was arrested on June 27th for the murders of Shari Smith and Debra May Helmick.
Besides the killings of Shari and Debra May, Larry Bell has been suspected in 2 other disappearances including the 1984 disappearance of Sandee Cornett and the earlier 1975 disappearance of Denise Porch. Both girls disappeared in Charlotte, North Carolina and to this day, their bodies have not been found.
Larry Bell was sentenced to death. He was executed on October 4th, 1996.
Episode Sources:
Forensic Files Season 7 Episode #42
Murderpedia Larry G. Bell
Larry G. Bell Wikipedia
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