Naman Shrestha
While suffering from a hip injury, Betty “Fran” Gladden-Smith went missing from her home in 1991, raising many doubts and questions in the minds of her family and friends, as well as the investigators looking into the case. The entire case is covered in detail in the episode titled ‘Chameleon’ of NBC’s ‘Deadline,’ which also includes interviews with some of the victims’ family and close friends, and the experts directly or indirectly involved in the disappearance case.
Betty Fran Gladden-Smith Went Missing in 1991, and Her Remains Have Never Been Found
Born on August 4, 1942, Betty “Fran” Gladden-Smith was raised in a seemingly loving household while getting high-quality education in her school as well as college. As for her family, she had the company, love, and support of her sister, Sherrie Davis, and gave birth to her beloved daughter, Deanna Weiss. Her educational qualifications allowed her to bag a decent job at a software company in Florida. Soon, her professional life collided with her personal life when she met a guy named John David Smith III. Instantaneously, there was undeniable chemistry between the two.
After dating for a while, Fran and John decided to make their relationship official by getting married in March 1990. A year or so later, the Smiths moved to New Jersey. Just a few months after the move, Fran reportedly got herself in an unfortunate accident as she got severely injured while getting out of a hot tub in the Poconos in August 1991. After the incident, the doctor advised her to remain at home and get some rest. The next month, on September 28, Deanna called her mother from her home in Houston, Texas.
During the conversation, Fran did not mention any travel plans to her, and everything seemed to be going fine. After that, whenever Fran’s loved ones tried to contact her, they couldn’t reach her. While recovering from a serious hip injury, she went missing from her West Windsor, New Jersey home in October 1991. When the matter was reported to the police, an extensive search for her began. Considering the given circumstances surrounding her disappearance, the authorities suspected there was foul play involved.
Investigators Immediately Came to Suspect Betty Fran Gladden-Smith’s Husband in Her Case
Despite searching for Betty “Fran” Gladden-Smith for weeks, authorities and her loved ones found no other leads, except her husband, John Smith. He claimed she’d left a note for him that read, “Feed the fish. I’ll be back in a few days.” He even told Fran’s family that he believed she went on a trip to Florida, which seemed highly unlikely to them because of her injured hip. According to his accounts, he even posted missing-flier notices for his wife in and around the neighborhood, but there was no evidence of them.
Upon the insistence of Fran’s daughter, Deanna, John filed a missing persons report for his missing wife on October 4, 1991. At the time, the police did not have enough evidence against John to make the arrest. So, in an attempt to gather evidence against him, Fran’s loved ones began investigating her disappearance themselves. Over the course of the next nine years, they learned that John was previously married to Janice Hartman Smith, a piece of information that John had concealed from Fran and her family. They even found out that he was abusive towards his first wife. By then, John had moved to California and started a new life after getting married for the third time, this time to Diane Beasley.
As for his first wife, Janice, she also disappeared in November 1974 from Ohio’s Wayne County, just three days after her divorce from John was finalized. He reported her missing a couple of days later. What worked as the final nail in the coffin for John was when his brother, Michael Smith, told the FBI about the box that contained Janice’s body in 1999. Coincidentally, the box had already been discovered by the authorities in 1980 in an Indiana roadside ditch, but now they were able to identify the body as Janice’s. Thanks to all these revelations, the investigators managed to get an arrest warrant for John and finally charge him with the murder of Janice in 2000 in Escondido, California, where he had been residing with his third wife.
Betty Fran Gladden-Smith’s Case Remains Unsolved To This Day
In July 2001, John was found guilty of the charges against him and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for his crimes. A year later, he was also found responsible for the murder of his second wife, Betty “Fran” Gladden-Smith. It was reported that he had come up with a plan to get rid of the evidence and hide the body, just like he did with his first wife. Fran’s 36-year-old daughter was awarded $1 million in the wrongful death claim. Regarding the reward, she stated, “We don’t ever expect to collect on it. But it’s still good news for us because maybe it’s all we’ll get to hold him accountable.”
At the time, John was serving his sentence for killing Janice Hartman Smith in Trumbull Correctional Institution. Hoping that John would be punished for his crimes against her mother, Deanne also stated, “Now that the news is out there that he’s locked up and put away, maybe somebody who knows something will come forward and say something.” On November 28, 2019, while he was serving his sentence at Marion Correctional Institution, John found out that he had been charged with the 1991 murder of Betty “Fran” Gladden-Smith. Although the case was dropped in 2023, John has allegedly admitted to Fran’s murder and disposing of his body, so many still believe he was responsible for her disappearance.
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