Joseph Smedley

Warning, This episode contains graphic crime scene detail. Please listen with discretion. All witnesses, suspects, and purses of interest are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together we're going to work on warming up some pol cases. Let's go. Hey, guys, welcome to this week's episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. We are going to get into right now in true crime. A lot has happened in the last week, starting with Joseph Dugger's hearing. He officially bonded out. The judge set his bond amount at six hundred thousand, which means he bonded out for about sixty thousand. His dad, of course paid that to get him out. He pled not guilty to the charges against him, which have to do with the sexual assault of a nine year old girl in Florida, and he faces contact restrictions with minors as a condition of his release. Believe he'll be back in court later in April. I'll be sure to keep you guys updated. Also remember that he and his wife Kendra are facing other charges due to some conditions that were found when investigators went to their home and found that a lot of their doors locked from the outside versus the inside, and that is basically child endangerment because the child has no way of effectively getting out if there was any type of emergency like a fire, so on and so forth. So that's an interesting little tidbit to this as well, and I'll keep you updated on any more. With that, we do have a couple of cold case breaking news happening this past week. So the death of a Spanish fork Utah teen has officially been connected to serial killer Ted Bundy. Laura and Amy was seventeen years old when she went missing on Halloween of nineteen seventy four, and her body was found by hikers about a month later. She was found not clothed, and she was found in an embankment near American Fort Canyon Road. Now, her case has been considered an unsolved homicide. Ted Bundy did confess to her murder the evening before his execution, but there was nothing that could definitively tie him. To her case. They officially have been able to connect him via forensics. They had some bodily fluids that were found on Laura and they were able to officially tie those to that of Ted Bundy, so it is never too late. Ted Bundy has. Been gone for a long time and they are still working to solve some of the cases that they believe might be linked to him, because there is quite a few that they believe might be linked to him. So if there's any more that comes out on this, I will be sure to let you know. But I am sure her family is so grateful for at least knowing who was responsible and that the person that did this is never going to hurt anybody else because he was in fact executed for his crimes. And I don't know what it is, but this has been such a amazing weef. For cold cases. So as we know, the long suspected individual who is one of the people who was involved in the Texas Killing Fields murder, specifically that of Laura Miller, who is Tim Miller, the founder of Texas Equisearch's daughter, he passed away. So this last week they made another arrest. They announced that sixty one year old James dolphins Elmore Junior has been indicted for his role in at least two of the murders connected to the Texas Killing Fields. The allegations will show that Elmore was involved in at least two of the murders, and evidence will show that he tampered with evidence and helped Clyde essentially dispose of the bodies in the Texas Killing Fields. Now, initially, when I heard this news, I thought maybe it had something to do with Clyde Hedrick passing away. But it seems like all of this is coming forth because Tim Miller does not stop. Tim said that James Elmore had reached out to him about four years ago and wanted to speak about the murders. And Tim said that over their conversations they had like over thirty different meetings together. He provided details that no one else could have known. And Tim is the one that pushed for the grand jury to look at the case and look at potentially him being involved. And that is what has happened. So Tim Miller is intricate in getting hopefully down to the bottom of this. But he says their work is not done. He says he is going to keep fighting and keep working until all of the girls are found. Go to insert a clip from the press conference that took place on Wednesday, and we are going to play that now that other. Girls to find, We got other girls to find, we got closer to bring more families, and we're not going to quit people. All these yellow shirts out here are the people that believe in what we do, and it's only because of our girls that were found out there. We made a promise of God and Lord and never leave a family alone. We're not going to break that damn promise. You know. Just because here's an arrest today and everything. Don't think Tim Miller is going to walk away from Texas Equisearch and could have helping families. No, I think we're just getting started again. So you know, again, I don't want to say anything about this investigation after forty one and a half, damnures, I'm not going to jeopardize anything that all of us have worked for out there. We got other girls to find, we got other girls to find, we got closure to bring more families, and we're not going to quit people. All these yellow shirts out here are the people that believe in what we do, and it's only because of our girls that we found out there. We made a promise that God and Lord and never leave a family alone. We're not going to break that damn promise. We got work to do. People. Thanks for you all support over the years, and it's been a long road. It's been a long road. I just want to say, on behalf of my family, how much well you appreciate the district attorney Kate. This is a district attorney Attorney Pool and the tech Corey Wilson. We appreciate everything you guys have been doing for the last two years. And even though we weren't. Of everything, obviously your efforts to come to light and we appreciate you. Tim Miller is just so passionate. And also important to note that the DA was also ready to officially bring charges against Clyde Hedrick when he passed away, so all of this was already in the works when he ended up being hospitalized and then essentially passing away. So James Elmore was also charged with tampering with evidence in the death of Audrey Cook, who was another one of the Texas Killing Field's victims. And there's likely going to be more that's going to be coming out. I think that they are really working so hard on this case. And I did say at one point that I was going to cover it. I am not opposed to covering it. I am not going to be covering it anytime soon because I do want to let the investigation play out as it may, and we have to protect the investigation. Tim said it best. We have to protect the investigation, so that is exactly what we're. Going to be doing. I like I said, I'm not opposed to covering it at some point in time, but I am going to let the cards fall as they may and hopefully we are able to finally get justice for all of these girls and all of these families who have been victims for far, far too long. So that is it for right now in True Crime. If anything else happens to pop up over the next week, I will be sure to bring it to you on my Instagram at Facebook pages. But in the meantime, we're going to go ahead and get into this week's episode. Okay, guys, we are jumping into a brand new case today. In this week's episode, I'm going to be telling you about the death of a twenty year old Indiana University college student named Joseph Smedley. His death was ruled a suicide, but there are things that don't quite add up, and Joseph's family thinks that there's more to the story, and I very much agree. I think there's more here, hence why I'm bringing you this case today. One thing I am going to tell you about Joseph is when I first heard of his case, which is when my friend Holly over at Crime with Holly covered it, I instantly thought that he looked like the nicest guy. He had a. Huge smile, He seemed so kind, and his smile just drew me into his story and it made me want to learn what happened. And now knowing what happened and the fact that his family seeks justice, it makes me even more motivated to help share Joseph's life and where everything stands today with his case. We've seen in the Ellen Greenberg case that there is power in numbers and keeping the case out there, keeping the name out there, applying pressure, so hopefully there will be some movement. And I think that's where us, as a true crime can sumer community come in because we have the ability to follow Joseph's story and his case, support his family in their endeavors, and help keep it in the public spotlight. That is one of the coolest things for me about this community. Is there is power and numbers. The more people that hear about a story, and the more people that think something doesn't seem right, we have a voice and there is power in that voice. So I am honored to be able to bring you Joseph's story today. Let's go ahead and get into it. Joseph William Smedley the Second was born on March twenty seventh of nineteen ninety five to his parents, Joseph Smedley Senior and Lourie Smedley in Indianapolis, Indiana. He grew up with two sisters, Giselle and Vivian Now. Joseph was the middle child between his two sisters, and he was very close with both of his sisters. In high school, Joseph played the trombone and he wrestled as well. Joseph was a great. Student and like I said, he had a great relationship with both of his sisters. Joseph's parents divorced when he was between the ages of nine and ten, and this divorce was really hard on Joseph and his sisters as well. Prior to the divorce, Joseph was really really close with his mom, Laurie. Now. Once the divorce happened, Laurie went and moved to the Virgin Islands, which left Joseph to stay with his dad, and their. Relationship became very much strained. Now eventually Joseph would move for a short time with his mom in the Virgin Islands, but that ended up not panning out and he ended up moving back home to Indianapolis. In all of this, with the divorce of their parents, Joseph's sisters were always his saving grace. Joseph eventually did move. Back in with his dad and his dad's new wife, but that relationship was very strained and it was at this point that Joseph was legally emancipated at the age of sixteen. He had a falling out with his dad and he ended up moving in with another family. At this point in time, and keep in mind, he was only sixteen years old when all of this was happening, and. That has to be so hard. It would be hard on anybody, but I feel like a sixteen year old. It's already hard enough being sixteen, being in school, trying to navigate all of that friends' life, schoolwork, and then all of the other stuff going on with his dad at the time. It had to have been so hard for him, so he was just focusing on trying to get everything back on track and keeping up with his studies and everything. Joseph is described as a guy who sent positive vibes wherever he went, and he did have a number of close friends. He's also described as extremely intelligent and a great friend to have. Joseph was able to successfully finished and graduate high school, and he was accepted to Indiana University. By the time Joseph was twenty years old, he was in college and was a sophomore. He was majoring in biochemistry at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Now, like I said, he was a great student and during his freshman year he had gotten all a's and b's. He also worked for a moving company and was a very hard worker. Joseph had hopes of becoming a pharmacist, and recently, as of his sophomore year, decided to join the Sigma Phi fraternity. Joseph went through a lot during the pledging process, as this process is typically pretty long and grueling, but he was finally accepted in as a fraternity brother. Prior to that, Joseph had been living in an off campus apartment, and once he became a fraternity brother, he decided to move into a house with two of the other fraternity members. So Joseph had moved out of his apartment and into the home located on Mitchell Street in Bloomington, Indiana with his two roommates. Now, this is going to come back to be important later on and we're going to get into more details of it. But Joseph had moved out of the apartment. There was some type of miscommunication essentially, and he still owed eight month's rent on the apartment even though he had already moved out. Now, Vivian, Joseph's sister, had co signed on this apartment, so if it didn't get paid, it could have reflected poorly on her. But this was, like I said, kind of a misunderstanding between Joseph and the apartment complex and the management company. Joseph was an upstanding guy, He was honest, He was willing to make this payment. He just needed to get it completed. And it was something that Vivian had been kind of after him about and just kind of reminding him because again, he's a twenty year old college student. He had a lot on his mind. He had a lot going on. So Vivian on the evening of September twenty seventh, was texting back and forth with Joseph, reminding him that he needed to remember to go and pay the rent at the leasing office, and he. Assured her that he would take care of it. Overall, Joseph just seems like such a kind, good hearted individual and getting into the next morning, we're going. To talk about all of that. Now, what transpires next just absolutely is heartbreaking that whatever ended up happening in the last moments of Joseph's life. Still kind of remain a mystery. And knowing that Joseph was making these plans for his future, he had his whole future ahead of him. He had just joined this fraternity, he was in college, he wanted to be a pharmacist. He basically had everything at. His fingertips, and he was somebody that was actively making plans for the future. So the suicide rule on all of this just doesn't make any sense. So everything starts on September twenty eighth of twenty fifteen. So Vivian had woken. Up and realized that she had a text from Joseph that he had sent around four fifteen am that Monday, September twenty eighth, and the text read as follows, viv I love you. I'm leaving the country by not telling you why. I'm keeping you safe and protected. Please don't try and contact me at this number. It won't work. I'll contact you once I'm set up overseas. Thank you for everything, viv I love you and I'm sorry. Now, obviously, this was a super out of character message for Joseph to send, so much that initially Vivian thought that he was playing a joke on her and once again reminded him to pay the apartment rent. He didn't respond. Back to her text, so she then attempted to call him, only for her calls to go straight to voicemail. So with this she did become worried, but rationalized that maybe he had his phone off because he was in class. But her attempts to call and. Contact him went on throughout the remainder of the morning and early afternoon. When she couldn't get in contact with him, she decided to contact the apartment leasing office to see if Joseph had come by to make the payment, which is something that he promised he would do and take care of that day he had not been there to make a payment, so the outstanding balance still existed. Now, she knew that this was out of character because he said that he would take care of it. He was very responsible and if he said he was going to do something, he would always have followed through on his promise. Vivian was, of course, at this point, very worried about her brother, and she contacted the IU police and asked for a welfare check on her brother. Now, they did get back to her shortly after and reported that Joseph was okay, but he was in custody in the Monroe County jail. Vivian called the jail and they said they didn't have anyone by Joseph's name housed in their jail, and there was a lot of back and forth that went on between the Monroe jail, Vivian, and the Indiana University Police. Basically what ended up happening is there was a mix up and Joseph had not been arrested. It was someone else with a similar name, same last name, first initial. So where was Joseph if he wasn't in this jail. Vivian obviously was so worried at this point and reported him missing. So investigators start where they always start in an investigation, and they started questioning those that were close to Joseph and had been part of his life. They talked to his roommates, who were also Joseph's fraternity brothers. They said that the evening before, they had gone to dinner, and then they had come home and watched a baseball game and watched a movie. They then said that later that evening they all had gone to Griffy Lake along with Joseph to see the blood moon louter eclipse that was going to be happening. The cloud cover ended up being too much and too heavy for them to see anything, so they all went back home to their house. They all went to their separate rooms before midnight and went to bed. Now Griffy Lake was located about three miles from the home that Joseph shared with his two fraternity brothers, and according to the roommates, this was the last time anybody saw Joseph. They said they didn't see him the next morning, which wasn't really that unusual because he did take an early class and he would often be up before the rest of them to head to the university to catch his class, but they did say it was very odd to them that Joseph didn't show up for their later fraternity meeting because he had never missed one of those fraternity meetings before. He was very reliable and always committed to being at those meetings. Vivian made her way to the place that Joseph shared with his two roommates. Investigators had already been there and searched Joseph's room, which revealed that mostly all of Joseph's possessions were still there left behind. His cell phone was missing. However, there was a note left behind two which was quite similar to. The text that he had sent his sister. It said he was leaving the country and that the roommates shouldn't try and reach out or connect with him, and he signed it Smedley with the date of nine twenty eight. Now Smedley obviously is Joseph's last name, and that was a nickname that his fraternity brothers would call him. When Vivian would later see the note, she said she didn't believe that Joseph had written it. Joseph was right handed and the handwriting did not match Joseph. She thought that the note was written by a left handed person. And this whole leaving the country thing also didn't make any sense because Joseph didn't have a passport, so traveling out of the country would be very difficult, especially on a whim. It was also very unlike. Joseph to skip out on school and his other responsibilities. This just wasn't like Joseph. And given the fact that he was so close with his sisters, it wouldn't make sense that he would just get up and decide to skip town and not tell them anything. And in all of this, Joseph only contacted Vivian. He didn't contact Giselle, which again, he was very close with both of his sisters, but he was particularly close with Giselle, so if he was going to be leaving town and leaving the country, he would have contacted. Both of his sisters. Now also very. Important to note that at the time that all of this happened, Joseph's car was not operable. It had some issues and was not driveable, so Joseph traveling any distance would not be possible because he didn't have a working car. So once Vivian got to town and went to his place, she realized that the cops had already been there to search his room, but the only thing that they took was his laptop. Vivian and her husband went there and they realized that all of Joseph's things were left behind. Everything that he could possibly need if he was to leave the country was left behind in his room. He had ordered recently some boxes of checks so he could go and pay the leasing office the outstanding balance. Those checks were left behind on his desk, something that if he were to be skipping town and heading to another country, he would want to bring with him. This next part is so interesting. Joseph had kept a bottle of really nice scotch in his room. It was an unopened bottle, and he vowed to not open or drink it until his wedding night. Now, this is a bottle that. Apparently Joseph was very protective of, and he swore that he of course would not open it until his wedding night. So that bottle was gone, and there was a note in its place that said, Joseph Smedley will return. That bottle of scotch has never been found, so that is very interesting. There's just a lot here that I don't think really adds up to it. Being that Joseph left on his own, so the search for Joseph continued. They were able to ping his cell phone for the message to his sister in downtown Bloomington, and that came in like I said, around four fifteen a m. And they were even able to ping his cell phone around the Griffy Lake area around four forty five the morning of September twenty eighth. The phone then pinged again at six point thirty back in the Bloomington area, then appeared to be powered down or had died due to low battery and not being charged. After that, there were no more pangs that were reported during the search. Investigators use sent tracking dogs with no luck in finding Joseph or even any sign that he had been there in the area. On October second of twenty fifteen, around six thirty pm, two fishermen spotted a body in Griffy Lake and they immediately called police. Investigators came out and the body was found floating face up, about ten feet from the land and in only about three feet of water. According to the Justice for Joseph Facebook page. When Joseph's body was pulled out of the lake, all the evidence was placed in the body bag with him, which I don't know what the protocol is, but that doesn't really seem like true protocol. If you're truly doing an investigation, the body would be placed separately from anything else that was on the body, which we are going to get into in a moment. Joseph was found wearing a backpack. Now, inside of this backpack there were some school papers, a charger which I do believe was a laptop charger, and there was also an external hard drive inside of the backpack, and there was rocks inside of this backpack as well. We're going to get into the rocks in a minute. Inside of Joseph's pocket was also his wallet that was found, and he also had a pair of binoculars around his neck. Again, we're going to get into that in a minute. On October third, a positive identification was made and this person that they found was in fact, Joseph Spedley. The odd part about it, going back to what was found on Joseph, is what he was wearing. He had on a black shirt, a black hoodie, sweatpants, socks, and shoes. That obviously isn't the weird part. But the weird part is the fact that he had on a pair of binoculars which were around his neck along with the backpack that was carrying sixty six pounds of rocks, and the front buckles of the backpack were buckled and this backpack was strapped to Joseph's chest. On the same day, an autopsy was performed and the cause of death was drowning and deemed not suspicious with no foul play involved. A toxicology report showed that Joseph had both teach see an alcohol in his system at the time of his death, not something that is typically unusual for a college student, but I did want to include it in the findings. On October seventh of twenty fifteen, a vigil was Joseph and another student that went to Indiana University who was killed by her boyfriend. Joseph is laid to rest on October tenth at Laurence Central High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. The service was attended by family, friends, and community members who all wanted to come out and celebrate Joseph's life. He was well loved by everybody that knew him. Despite what investigators thought, Joseph's family didn't agree with the fact that Joseph's death wasn't suspicious. Vivian thought it was so odd that Joseph could drown in such a small amount of water because Joseph was a very strong swimmer, and what the heck was up with the backpack. Also, interestingly enough, Joseph's Twitter displayed the description if found dead in police custody, it wasn't suicide. Now that whole thing is truly wild to me. So Joseph had a Twitter. Now it's called expect that it was called Twitter. I still call it Twitter. But he had his description where he talked about his college and what he was majoring in, so on and so forth, and that's how it was previously, and then following. His death it was noted that that portion still existed. But then this other thing about if I die in police custody, it was not a suicide. So that truly, when I found out that that was the case, that truly blew my mind because where did that come from? When was it changed? Who changed it, why did they change it? Was it Joseph? So many questions just linger in my mind. It's unclear when that profile was updated or by who, But if Joseph is the one who posted that, it does make me wonder why did he post it was somebody after him? Was he trying to leave a message for his family to let everybody know that if I'm found dead, this wasn't a suicide. As you guys know, I say it all the time. I don't really believe in coincidences, and I think that there is more here than meets the eye. And I don't know. Are they able to go back in time and look at the IP address that changed the profile when it was edited. I don't know. I assume that that would have already been done, but in this case, I truly don't know, because it seems that they're so cut and dry that there was no foul play. So that's kind of where the investigation ends. By December of twenty fifteen, Vivian was really pushing for more to be done. According to her, the Bloomington Police Department was not being forthcoming and releasing the case information to the family, So in December they shared the findings of the investigation with Joseph's family. Joseph's had officially been ruled a suicide. However, of course, the family was not happy with their findings and their conclusion, and I very much agree, I think for them. For the investigators, it was cut and dry. It was a suicide. But what if there was something more to play here. If there's nothing that is deemed suspicious or worthy of an investigation, the investigation stops. We saw this in Ellen Greenberg's case, and we still are fighting for answers for Ellen. But none of this adds up, especially given the fact that the family. Joseph's family is so adamant that there is more to this. They knew him better than anybody, So instead of doing nothing, the family made moves. In twenty twenty, they started a petition requesting that the Bloomington Police Department reopened Joseph's case. The petition also requested that the Bloomington Police Department cooperate with new forensic experts who were reviewing the case. The petition has approximately one hundred and twenty five thousand signatures as it stands today. The petition is still open and active, and I will link that below. Please take a few minutes to sign it and to share. The family also started a GoFundMe to try and raise funds. Now they were able to raise about ten thousand dollars to hire an attorney and their own private investigator to continue to look into the circumstances surrounding Joseph's death. They were able to get a second autopsy that was performed by a forensic pathologist, and this autopsy showed initial findings of hemorrhaging in Joseph's back. Now, these findings did not seem to be consistent with suicide. However, without the cooperation of the Bloomington Police Department and the forensic pathologist's ability to get more info from the police file, his report cannot be finalized. As of current day, the Bloomington Police Department refuses to cooperate with the family's request for info. Joseph's case is considered closed as we speak today, but his family is not letting up. They run the Justice for Joseph Facebook page, which I'm also going to link below in the show notes. I encourage everyone to go give it a follow and support the family. Vivian struggles to understand how any of this happened, and none of it makes any sense. When you go to the Facebook page and you look at all the things that have been put together on there, none of this makes any sense. Griffy Park was about a forty five minute walk from Joseph's home he shared with his fraternity brothers. He did not have a working car. Uber did not exist, ride shairs did not exist. He would have had to have walked all this way. He then would have had to have collected sixty six rocks to place in his backpack. Vivian had gone to Griffy Park and tried to collect rocks when she went there, and she said that the rocks there were few and far between, So where would he have found sixty six of them? Joseph was also five seven, so he could have stood up in the water that he drowned in. As far as I know, Joseph's cell phone was found, although there is little known about where. Also, the laptop the police took from Joseph's room has never been returned to the family. Why Why wasn't the location of the cell phone revealed? And why hasn't the laptop been returned if the investigation is closed, why all of the secrets? I don't understand that there are so many questions to this one. And I do want to mention the elephant in the room, because I'm sure it's lingering in the back of everyone's mind, Joseph was in a fraternity. Obviously, with the fraternity of it all comes the hazing aspect of fraternities. Now, this is according to the case file on Joseph Smedley on uncovered dot com. This is about the Signa Pi fraternity that Joseph had pledged with. As of twenty twenty one, the IU chapter was suspended until August of twenty twenty three for hazing and endangering others, dishonest conduct, and failure to comply with university and county directives. It's no secret that there is a lot of quote unquote shady things, in my opinion, that go on in the fraternity world. There's a lot of hazing that goes on. And Joseph died in. Twenty fifteen, and then in twenty twenty one, the chapter that Joseph belonged to ended up being suspended until twenty twenty. Take that for what it's worth. Of course, that might not have anything to do with this whatsoever. But I do think it's important to talk about because it's part of who Joseph was. He was in this fraternity. He went through a lot to get into this fraternity, and he was living with his two fraternity brothers, so it was obviously a very important part of his life. There is a. One thousand dollars reward for information about Joseph's case that would help lead it to being reopened and reinvestigated. If you do have any information about Joseph Smedley's case. If you know anything, you are encouraged to submit a tip via the Justice for Joseph Facebook page, which, like I said, I'm going to link below in the show notes, or you can contact the Bloomington Police Department at eight one two three three nine four four seven seven. I do think that there is something more at play here. I don't think that Joseph just decided he was a walk forty five minutes to Griffy Park, load a backpack up with rocks, put on a pair of binoculars, and then drown himself in three feet of water. Saying that out loud sounds super ridiculous. None of it makes any sense to me, and I know Joseph's family are going to keep pursuing the answers that they so desperately want. They want to find out what happened to their brother. It doesn't deserve to be a case closed. It was a suicide. Never think about it again. Don't question anything, because what we have here is a lot of circumstances that just do not make any sense. And like I said, I very much encourage you guys to go to the Justice for Joseph Facebook page and click through the graphics and stuff that I assume Vivian is the one. Who has created these. Whoever created these did a wonderful job. There's some really interesting things in these images, in these graphics that I think you guys will find very very interesting. It kind of outlines everything in all of the inconsistencies and weird circumstances that have transpired in Joseph's case. So, like I said, I'm going to link up below. Please go give it a follow, check it out, sign the petition, and hopefully there will be something that breaks in this case that will actually bring it back to the forefront and reopen the investigation. Because any way you slice it, this just doesn't make any sense. Logistically, it doesn't make any sense. Again, that is just my opinion, but I felt like this was a really important one to share because we need more eyes and ears on it. Simply, the family needs support. And Joseph deserves justice. His life should not have ended like this, and his death shouldn't be just drenched in this suspicion without knowing what actually happened in the last moments of his life. So thank you, guys, as always, so much for tuning in. Thank you for listening to Joseph's story. Be sure to share this one on your social media, especially if you know anyone that lived in that area of Bloomington in twenty fifteen around the time that Joseph's life unfortunately ended. I will see you guys next week for a brand new unsolved case. I hope you have a great weekend and I will see you next week. Bye.